GreggInFL

You're in the right place. I'm new to this as well and have found this group to be very helpful and extremely knowledgeable. Come back any time.

https://san.com/cc/exclusive-evidence-of-cell-phone-surveillance-detected-at-anti-ice-protest/

Yes. My bad. Fixed. Thank you.

With hurricane season underway, our HOA just announced that the board and staff will be monitoring 462.550. Now everyone knows someone will be listening. Including FRS means folks will at least be able to hear updates, even if they can't TX very farz with their $10 HTs. At the next board meeting I'm tempted throw out the idea of a portable, off-grid repeater. This place is too flat with too much vegetation for reliable HT simplex, but a decent antenna on the property high point would make a world of difference.

A friend with a doctorate in industrial psychology once told me that aptitudes for math correspond with aptitudes for music.

Is this true in general?

Fixed. (Apologies to non-sad HAMS, but that was some low-hanging comedic fruit right there.)

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.

I have that antenna and it comes with an adapter, so for $34.89 he's all-in.

There are also those that are offline or stale. One needs to click the settings gear in the upper-left corner of the map to turn on the switches. That doesn't change the "type", just drops the filter.

Reminds me of shooting at the range. There are some long-range rifle shooters who consider clays (trap/skeet/sporting clays) to be beneath them. "I shoot at 1,000 yards. What's a long clay shot, 50 yards? Pfft. Too easy." I'd love to get him on the skeet range with a ringer, a 14 year-old girl who recently hit 197 out of 200 at a national tournament.

Yeah, this. I once hit a repeater that was ~30 miles away by standing on top of a parking garage -- with an $18 handheld.

You mean this one?

We are attempting to do something like this in our neighborhood, starting with using a base station to make announcements. 1,500+ acres though the woods may require a serious repeater eventually, but the idea of getting emergency information out to anyone holding a $10 radio is very appealing. We are 24 days into official hurricane season. Tick, tick, tick...

I guess this means I didn't win it. Well, poop.

If you're that close, try putting this on a pizza pan on a closet shelf. If it doesn't work you'll at least have a mobile antenna.

(Asking for a friend) So, what would the Queen-of-all-that-oscillates recommend in the way of an unlocked HT, hmm?

^ This. Just have your friend use something other than 8-14.

What would be a good source?

Thanks everyone for the battery education. I was concerned because the power supply I purchased (above) has a warranty dependent on the buyer cycling the unit every quarter from 0% - 60%, while storing at 30%. I have done this once so far with no issues going to 0%, so the BMS must be kicking in at some point. The app offers complete control over the charging SOC, so I may set the lower limit to something other than zero, just to be safe.

That's the one I bought on Amazon for ~$159 in February. Presently it's $239 there. Nice product. I believe it's being replaced by the "3" model, which is fast enough in a power outage to act as a UPS.

Does this apply to all batteries containing lithium, lithium ion and LiFePo4?

Sweet.

I have the DB25-G (25 watts). When I plug the cigarette lighter into this the control tells me it is drawing ~35 watts. This cable can connect to a solar panel, so I have a full off-grid set up without fear of burning down the house. Dialing back from 50 watts makes things much simpler.

Better value. Thanks for that!