DominoDog
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Posts posted by DominoDog
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I dunno. I don't understand the rules and my nature is to have a difficult time following them if that is the case. It doesn't make sense to me so I choose radios that behave the way I want.
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I gotta say, you know someone is really into radio when they give up drive-thrus and convenience to have an antenna.
My setup is too high to pull into the Sonic drive-in stalls. I can do it but the antenna touches the gutters and I have to look out and up and pull just close enough that I can push the red button + barely touch the antenna. The things we put up with just to chat with other people about radios
- wayoverthere, Lscott, AdmiralCochrane and 2 others
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It's on a Chevy Express van and I need a ladder to get up there. It's a Comet CA-2X4SR, about 40 inches length, thru-hole mounted NMO. That is a good option, but I'm not climbing up and down to change antennas and I like the 2X4SR it is great for everything I do. Ham 70cm/2m, actually shows a 1.2 on GMRS. I'll just avoid drive thrus as best I can, and try to hurry up and buy the "spring" kit that replaces the lower rod. At least then it would have some give.
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The TD-H3 is weird in GMRS mode. The channels are basically hard coded into the first channel memories and I don't know if it will let you change them. You could try to edit the channel name field in CHIRP, but be warned it might freak out. It's picky about those channels. If you add another channel (in GMRS mode) below the built-in channels it won't transmit on the newly added channel.
But in unlocked mode you can add more channels and edit to your heart's content.
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I plastered my dashboard with "NO DRIVE THRU's" and "CLEARANCE 10 FEET" with my label maker because knowing me I WILL FORGET. I actually have forgotten TWICE...with the labels everywhere.
Maybe I need more labels.
- Lscott and TrikeRadio
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On 10/26/2023 at 10:31 PM, Tiercel said:
I am interested in your input.
Since it seems that no one mobile transceiver will cover both HF and UHFWell there is the Icom IC-705 and the hot new not-yet-released Yaesu FTX-1F that does HF/50/VHF and UHF.
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11 hours ago, amaff said:
lol wtf? They're an avionics company...
Not sure why this has any bearing on anything, whether they design radars or swimming suits.
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Now is the time to be concerned about meshtastic. Apparently some jerk company named nexnav wants 900mhz spectrum for its own nefarious uses.
FCC is taking comments on the thing.
Not my video but has fcc link in description
https://youtu.be/cTkWu7GgTQs?si=_dDi9xdPQxOHkgbS
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Yeah well no surprise my opinion is unpopular. I just get that amateur radio has a lot of its traditions based on telegraph and while I get that and can even respect it, I don't think I am wrong for not needing it on gmrs. Gmrs isn't amateur radio. We all have amateur radio for amateur radio traditions and customs. I'll keep wishing people would leave the 73s and Q codes off of it. But when have I gotten what I wanted
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No it is too many amateur radio operators taking gmrs and equating it to being an extra band to play on. I’m honestly tired of hearing QTH and 73 on gmrs. It’s just as easy to say LOCATION as it is to say QTH.
That and the stupid additional callsigns people like to use like the “tac” numbers on certain repeaters in Georgia. I already have a unique identifier it is my fcc given callsign. Won’t be saying my city name and random numbers along with it.
Thanks for reading my stuff that sucks about gmrs rant.
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28 minutes ago, UncleYoda said:
I do not like your implication that I haven't looked at the regs.
I think that was meant "let's take a look at them regs" more than "Since you haven't bothered to read these yet"
- WRUU653 and SteveShannon
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I like it when regulations are written to give users leeway to make the service work the way they need it to work.
There are large pay-to-play GMRS repeater networks near me. Some standalone, some linked. I don't personally want to pay a monthly fee but I do not mind at all sharing in the expenses if it is a shared resource. Not everyone has a hill in their backyard and a tall tree to toss a wire over. Some want to pay big $$$ for premium locations or whatever. Leasing stuff is expensive, whether it is a spot on a tower or a spot in a transmitter shack or whatever.
So while I do not want to pay monthly/recurring for access to a repeater, I will pay as I go for a week or a month or a flat $50 here-ya-go-thanks for the weekend or whatever. If I have to; I'd rather everything be free lol. But I'm just saying what I'd be willing to pay.
However...
What I do not like, and will not comply with, is the additional callsign junk. I already have a government issued callsign, a unique identifier for using on the air. I do not want this separate group ID like "CHAT 99" or whatever. There is a pay-to-play group down near Chattanooga TN and they make their users identify with "Chat XX" with a unique number assigned. No thanks. No, really. No thank you. I'll use my already unique identifier, and that will be all I use. Or I'll not use the system I have the choice to make.
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On 7/4/2024 at 1:42 AM, amaff said:
The issue at I understand it isn't that it won't transmit out of band. It's that it only allows a very limited number of transmit capable GMRS channels in memory.
It's not FCC regs doing it, it's lazy software.
If I put GMRS 22 in memory slot 22, or 122, the radio should enforce the rules. Instead here it has the first 50-some-odd channels for GMRS (and it's pretty picky about what you put where), and the rest are receive only.
It's why I have mine in "Normal".
My KG-905s aren't like this. Put a GMRS channel in whatever memory slot you want and it'll enforce the rules for that frequency / pair.
But, $100 radio vs $40 radio, so, you know...
Well I mean there are things my $40 radio does that I wish my $140 radio did.
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Well on the plus side, I can state that the radio works just fine again when I reboot it into "unlocked" mode and only load it up with GMRS information.
So as far as I care, the GMRS only version of this radio is garbage.
edit:
\/\/\/ LeoG that is not what I'm talking about. I had the radio in GMRS mode. It then should transmit on a GMRS channel if it is properly set up. Nope. Why? Because their software is dumb, on purpose, for stupid reasons.
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I can't stand it. It's got to be the stupid FCC trying to make the radios as convoluted and ridiculous as their own website. They need to take a big step back and let people self police. If we need their help we'll ask.
Back to Normal mode with this little radio. I'm done buying "GMRS" radios. I'll buy radios that can be made to work on the frequencies.
EDIT: Apologies for making another H3 post I should have done more searching but I was busy pulling my hair out.
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I have a Tidradio TD-H3 and have had it since they first came out, actually before all the cool kids started making videos about the newest best new radio that is new and sold em out everywhere.
But I had it originaly in Unlocked mode. I had amateur radio frequencies and gmrs frequencies all happily programmed into the radio.
But then I got a wild hair and said, you know what? I want this radio just for GMRS. So I rebooted it into GMRS mode.
Now when I go to program the radio, I can't transmit from my channels. I can only transmit from the main channels. If I enter another repeater on another frequency and try to use that channel, it won't let me transmit?
What garbage malarky is going on with this radio? Is it seriously trying to tell me I can only have one channel programmed per frequency per radio?
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On 2/19/2024 at 11:33 AM, RayP said:
Sorry, but I must disagree. Given the original intent of Class A Citizens Band/GMRS radio, of facilitating reliable local area communications between family and friends, linking is neither normal nor expected in this radio service. In areas with cellular dead spots, or where people may wish to have backup comms for the possibility of a cellular outage, a well-engineered and fortuitously located stand-alone repeater can be a real blessing to the community, county, or larger area that it provides coverage to. A cellular outage lasting a few hours could create a minor panic if a family member were not heard from in some time when they normally call or "check in" by a given time each day. Likewise, emergencies such as severe weather, missing persons where a community fields volunteers to search an area, etc, could be well served by such a repeater. Linking to other repeaters outside of your area, especially across the state or across the nation provides no practical or necessary comms for your local area. Instead, more often than not, they jam up one or more of the only eight repeater/50W simplex channels with inane and pointless chatter from other areas which have little or no bearing or interest to your local area. Frequently, chatter on only one or maybe two of the linked repeaters, ties up multiple repeaters and frequency pairs unnecessarily, hampering efforts to use the remaining repeaters in their local area, or just someone wanting to use 50W simplex to communicate locally, only to be washed out by the linked repeaters. The only real purpose I have seen in linking to distant repeaters and networks is to give the repeater owner doing the linking a level of Freudian "compensation", as they imagine the masses gathering to admire how far theirs can reach. In reality, most who are not newbies are not impressed.
The technology used in linking is the same technology that allows most cell phones to make long distance calls. If you really get your jollies talking long distance over a commonplace network, call a friend or relative in another state. If you have no friends or relatives in another state, call a motel desk clerk elsewhere and ask them questions about their rates. You have just achieved the same exact thing as you do talking to or listening to a bunch of ratchetjaws many states away on a GMRS linked system, but without jamming scarce spectrum. If you really want to do VOIP DX, talk with the nice man or woman in India who calls to help you get a better rate on your credit card, next time they call. YEEEE HAW!
IF that still leaves you dissatisfied, do the minimal studying required to get your Technician Class ham license and put up or utilize one of the many VHF/UHF networks there. While the linking there is annoying too, they at least have a lot more pairs (than our GMRS eight) to do these networks on.
Well, I won't say that every repeater needs to be linked, or that they should. In fact there are some linked repeaters that I wish were not linked for the reasons you mentioned. But I do not think we should have laws that say it can't be done. If people want to do that and think they need it, then who am I and who are you to say they can't?
I really just want to give your comment a dislike because I didn't really see much benefit from it. You compared repeaters to phone lines and tried to be funny. Not really impressed.
The bottom line is it needs to be up to the repeater owner, not Bill or Joe on the Internet that likes to make jokes and pointed comments. If people have a community that could be better served with a linked GMRS repeater, then they should have that option and not have their hands tied by unclear rules.
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From what I can gather as a layperson, the rule needs clarification. People want/need to link their repeaters. That is a normal, expected use of repeaters. "Hey lets get together and talk over a broader area." That is a clear cut normal use of radio and falls within the expected use of GMRS. The rule shown very strongly leans towards "We don't want you putting autopatch on GMRS" more than "no you can't link repeaters"
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I have the 230911 firmware and am having no problems. Kind of wanting to hold off on updating to 230923 now, perhaps there are issues.
I will agree on CHIRP / ODMaster software not wanting to play along. CHIRP doesn't like the settings menu, doesn't seem to be able to align completely to the radio. Something doesn't line up right. But if all you are doing in CHIRP is managing channels, it should be fine. Just understand the CHIRP radio settings tab doesn't line up with the radio's actual options. Probably will be fixed in a later version of CHIRP.
But overall I do like the radios, and so far I like Tidradio.
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I would love to have one, but jumping from a $50 Tidradio H8 to $750 Kenwood D75 doesn't seem wise just yet.
Maybe I'll find a bucket of hundred dollar bills, though.
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My main thing is, I'm the radio enthusiast. I'm the holder of amateur and gmrs licenses. I know (or to be more precise, I am learning) the rules, they are just here to hike or ride bicycles. I want them to have fun, not worry about identifying on the air because they made no agreement to do so. I'm the agreement holder with the FCC. And I don't even mind identifying on the air. If I ask my family, who rarely even uses the radios, to identify, it would go something like me identifying, then them trying, then them forgetting halfway through what the callsign was, then them asking me what it is, then me replying that it is on a little label on the bottom of their radio, then they will say it poorly, and several minutes and much more unnecessary radio chatter later, we are all happily identified. Or I could just say it once.
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Well my license reads as "radio station license" so the grant holder, the radio station licensee themself should only need to identify once every fifteen minutes, not every one of us adding up to four or three or two or twenty times every fifteen minutes. I think we assign more rules to ourselves than is even required. No where did I read that this was expected. I'm not even about to ask my family, who does not even know or care about the rules, to come on the air and try to remember my callsign every fifteen minutes right after I do it. Just so we can keep in touch while hiking. I do not think that is the purpose or intention of GMRS. I'll identify every time as required, as we use the radios.
EDIT: What I have been doing is when I first start using the radios, I'll find a channel that is suitable and seems clear. I'll then identify "WRZS227 and family operating on GMRS channel (whatever)" and will basically just yield to any other traffic, and then we just talk as we need to and as conversation dies off and comes back up I'll give the call sign "and family" again. So far the FCC hasn't rained down hellfire or sent any kill commands to our walkie talkies.
- WSAN780, Adamdaj, kapoijerj334 and 1 other
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My setup is too high to pull into the Sonic drive-in stalls. I can do it but the antenna touches the gutters and I have to look out and up and pull just close enough that I can push the red button + barely touch the antenna. The things we put up with just to chat with other people about radios
KB9VBR Slim Jim GMRS Antenna versus Ed Fong DBJ-UHF GMRS Antenna
in Equipment Reviews
Posted
I picked up one of the N9TAX single band slim jims for GMRS, it seems to do really well. I would say it probably performs at a similar level to the ones reviewed here.