WRYZ926

Yes it is worth discussing. Though some will be against it. Most newer repeaters should be capable of narrow band. I know the Bridgecom repeaters will work with either 12.5kHz or 25kHz channel spacing. I bet most of the repurposed Motorola repeaters can be set to narrow band also. And you are right, it isn't worth arguing or getting trolled by keyboard commandos (some people).

Basically the only difference between the Midland SPK-100 and SPK-200 is the SPK-200 has noise cancellation and an amplifier that requires a power source. If the SPK-100 works fine in my SxS, it will work in a Jeep. One won't go wrong with either speaker.

Where would the extra frequencies/channels come from without forcing us to use narrow band for all channels? The 70cm amateur band is right below GMRS. Some business band UHF frequencies are actually in the same range as GMRS plus public safety frequencies are right above GMRS. I won't get into the narrow band vs wide band arguments here.

I can vouch for the Midland SPK-100 being a good speaker and plenty loud enough to hear in a noisy environment. I have one attached to the top roll bar on my Honda Pioneer 500 and I can hear my rain just fine while running 35 mph down a gravel road. And the Pioneer 500 is pretty noisy going down the road/trail. Yes the SPK-100 cost more at around $65 -$70 but it is IP rated for water and dust. The IP rating and being 20 watts is why I went with the SPK-100 for my SxS. The SPK-100 works well with my Wouxun KG-XS20G and my TYT TH-8600 radios.

That is the way it works. you need to have the radio off when plugging the USB cable in while the programming software is open. This goes for pretty much every hand held radio I have programmed and no matter what programming software I use. Glad that you figured things out.

Yes I have my General amateur radio license. And I was just curious about testing the different license free bands with a hand held. I really have no need to test other than curiosity. And I already know that FRS/GMRS and 70cm is affected the most by foliage, especially cedar and pine tree. I hit dead zones all of the time even with our repeater antennas at 900 feet above ground on 70cm and GMRS running a 50 watt mobile with a good antenna in my vehicle. This same spots have no issues with 2m. My inverted v 10m dipole is also resonant on the CB band. And there is definitely a difference between what I hear on each band when listening with my 20 watt Xiegu G90. I here way more traffic on 10m and I live 15 miles from a major interstate and 3 blocks from a major state highway. I mentioned testing with a CB capable of FM since @marcspaz did his tests for a customer but was using a CB on AM. Again this is all out of curiosity on my part.

I am well aware of that. I don't have any HT's that work on 10m though. My Wouxun quad band is 1.25m, 2m, 70cm, and 6m. A hand held CB radio capable of FM and a hand held MURS radio would be best for real world comparisons. Especially since neither requires a license.

While VHF does do better than UHF in forested areas, both will be affected. I know all of the Eastern red cedar trees really mess with the 70cm and GMRS bands. There are plenty of spots where red cedar trees were allowed to grow up in the fence lines at the edges of most rural roads. I'm still curious how a CB transmitting on FM compares to MURS. I might ask around to see if anyone has HT's for MURS and FM capable CB.

While we have not activated a SkyWarn net on our GMRS repeater, we do activate it every time there is sever weather on our 2m repeater. And participating in regular nets allows everyone to know if they can reach the repeater or reach others on simplex incase of an actual emergency or SkyWarn net.

The preamble for our 2m and GMRS Nets always starts with " this net is to test our equipment incase of an actual emergency. We decided to cut the GMRS net back to once a month but have the 2m net every week. We are also going to link our 3 70cm repeaters together since they are spread out across our area. Another plan is to have a simplex net once a month on our 2m repeater output frequency. We have had a couple of guys use our emergency coms trailer to run the weekly net from so that we know everything is working in the trailer.

I found a few videos that should help with the FTM-500D. The Youtube videos are from N4HNH Radio. He makes pretty good videos on other radios. I watch most of his videos on the Yaesu FTDX10 and found them easy to understand and very helpful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm0V68QtSkU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee6ErAsRBmc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf0LDrmaoAk

Shutting down the actual links is different than shutting down the repeaters themselves. Repeaters are not getting shut down because of this. It is only the links that are getting shut down. I'm not trying to offend people. But it feels like I am stuck watching the Disney Chicken Little movie on constant repeat. The FCC is actually doing something right for a change and trying to clarify the rules making them easier to understand.

CAT control is a must when running digital modes like FT8 or Whisper. I went with the Yaesu SCU-17 external sound card since the FTDX USB port is bad. The SCU-17 has little dials to adjust RX and TX. I'm just running a USB cable straight to the IC-7300 and it is working fine with WSJT-X.

You aren't kidding. And yes Yaesu seems to be the worst. I just got an Icom IC-7300 and put it in line instead of the Yaesu FTDX10. The Icom menu is definitely easier to use. I'm printing out the IC-730 manual now so I have it handy. I bought it from one of the old timers in my club but he couldn't find the manual. The FTDX was given to me but the USB port is bad so I have to use an external sound card for FT8. Otherwise it has worked fine for me. The other reason for switching is that I can use the same Heil headset for my Xiegu G90, Icom IC-2730 and Icom IC-7300. That simplifies things so I don't have to worry about using the wrong headset with the wrong radio.

While the only Yaesu radio I have is my FTDX-10. I can say that having the RT Systems software and programing cable sure makes things easier compared to using the Icom programming software. One of the nice things about RT Systems is they have versions of their software for both Windows and Mac. Don't be afraid of the radio or afraid to ask questions. There are enough forum members here that will be glad to help you.

We look forward to your results. It can be very rewarding or very frustrating when making your own antennas.

We do a net on our GMRS repeater. We use to do it every Tuesday night right after our 2m net but have since cut the GMRS net back to once a month. We decided right away not to link our GMRS repeater at all. We do have an Allstar node on our 2m repeater that gets used occasionally. The rule clarifications on linking GMRS repeaters shouldn't have much of an impact on actual nets in my opinion. I participate in several 2m nets every week. It is nice to know which repeaters I can reach and to know how far I can get out on the simplex nets. It's a good way to test your equipment. And for those that don't care for nets, they can always change the channel/frequency. As others have said, there is enough different things one can do with GMRS and amateur radio that there is something for everyone.

Are those guys even on the same level as Mo, Larry and Curly? Just kidding guys.

I have to agree that just sticking with the basics is best when starting out. I still have not gotten into DMR, Yaesu Fusion, Icom D-Star, etc. due to the added complexity and steeper learning curve. And none of those digital modes are compatible. Yaesu uses Fusion while Icom uses D-Star. Most others use DMR. I wanted something simple when I replaced my TYT TH7800 in the shack. I was looking at the Icom IC-2730 and ID-5100. I went with the IC-2730 since I didn't want to mess with D-Star at all. In hind sight I should have started out with the Icom IC-2730 instead of the TYT TH7800. The Yaesu FTM-500 will serve @PuddlePirate quite well even if he never dips his toes into digital. He has already dipped his toes into radio by having his GMRS license.

That was the exact advice that the head VE gave me when I went to my first meeting. There is nothing wrong with wanting a nice radio. I usually suggest a cheap hand held for new people just getting started. Sometimes they realize that amateur radio is not for them. And one can never have too many hand held radios.

That happens a lot on many of the forums I am on. SteveShannon did a good job and all any of us can do is point people in the right direction. Like the old saying goes, You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink the water.

I'm glad I added that person to my ignore list.

Sorry about that. I would hate to ruin your reputation And I try not to assume anything because we all know what assume means.

WOW, I spent most of the day at my local VA hospital to come home to all of this. I'll keep my inter-service rivalry comments to myself (for now). And it looks like I can add another to my ignore list too. @OffRoaderX, @marcspaz, @SteveShannon and others are very intelligent and do their research. I might not always agree with them but I do always take into account what they have to say.

I will make a suggestion that once you pass the Tech practice tests with at least a 92% score every time then you are ready for the real test. Another suggestion is once you start getting a 92% or higher each time on the Tech test, go ahead and start studying for the General test too. There isn't much difference in the two. General does go into more technical details but it is pretty easy. Tech is limited to a small portion of the 10m band only. General opens up all of the HF bands. Like @kidphc said, there are bad apples in every bunch. Just ignore those type of people and you will be fine. Most guys will be helpful when they find out you are new to amateur radio. Don't hesitate to find an Elmer (long time amateur radio operator) in your are that will be more than happy to help you study and answer questions. There are some curmudgeons even on GMRS in my area. I ignore the curmudgeons no matter what band or frequency they are on.