DominoDog

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.

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. 

I get "can't read radio" error in Chirp when my programming cord isn't plugged in all the way. The connector and radio don't mate exactly well, and have to push it snug.
 
EDIT: Are you sure you even need the repeater? If you didn't, that would cut out some complexity.

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.

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.

That is interesting. I never realized it was based on MURS. I have a Garmin Xumo XT for my bike, it's been great. I looked at the group ride radio but honestly, I just never ride in groups. Now that I know it is based on MURS, it opens up the ability to talk with others using that system. Good to know it isn't some closed "Garmin" system, but based on a free to use, unlicensed public frequency.
It sure is expensive, though. But, I would feel awfully cool if I had a MURS and a GMRS mobile rig on my motorcycle. I bet all the pretty girls would think I was all right at that point.

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.

Conversely, the gas station at the top of the hill has been broadcasting about 1600w of wide band energy in the 400-700nm range onto oncoming road traffic for the past decade. Can the FCC look in to that?

There is no quick, easy, simple fix for everything. GMRS is almost universally-agreed upon to be a mess with the FRS interaction. If we want to clean up GMRS then FRS will suffer. Personally, I say we remove FRS completely out of GMRS frequencies. GMRS then loses one of its voice channels to strictly APRS-like digital position reporting, etc but gains all of the FRS shared channels for its own use.
What do we do with FRS, then? If I were in charge, it would be merged with MURS. All the little blister-packs of FRS radios are hereby banned from manufacture. Those on store shelves can be sold and those out in the wild can be used, but no more can ever be made and none can be repaired. Once they're gone they're gone. We will just need to bite that bullet and deal with thirty years of FRS blister pack radios till they all naturally break or get lost, etc.
My suggestion is basically that we delete FRS. Anyone that doesn't want a license and doesn't want to fool with one can go buy MURS. The only issue was that we "already have so many FRS blister packs" to that I say we just need to rip the bandaid off and ban their manufacture and hope people just lose them or break them quickly.
I agree, there is nothing wrong with discussion.
There won't be a clear path. One will have to be forged and any direction anyone chooses will have others naysaying the whole decision. Look at Amateur radio, they can't even figure out their digital modes. There's Fusion, DStar, DMR, several others and apparently none of them play together well. Interoperability is not something humans do well. They don't do it at all without careful planning and only then if compelled by government to do so.

Well it seems like the interoperability is more useful than I may have realized at first glance. That makes sense.

I have a little Bluetti EB3A and contrary to popular opinion, it has done pretty well for me. If you can work it within its limitations, it does really well. I haven't checked it for noisy output. That might be my go to unit for radios, if it ends up being quiet and clean. I can't say anything bad about Bluetti. I wouldn't even have an Ecoflow unit if I didn't fry my own Bluetti by accidentally giving it too much voltage when experimenting with panels. Dumb mistake. But they chose to repair it for free and ship it both ways on their dime. I can't complain at all.
I have definitely watched a couple of Hobotech's videos. I like the personality he puts into the videos.

My daily solar rig is a "just do your best" approach. It's very simple but there isn't much that can go wrong. My maximum input is 220w and I have three 100w panels. But their max voltage never goes above the max input volts so I am good. But my panels are just laid flat to the ground, so I don't get any benefit of tracking the sun. It's fine, though. If I get a perfectly bright moment I can see the inputs maxed out at 220w which is perfect for me. Most of the time it hovers down around 160 which is also just fine.
It's a rainy Sunday here and is good to see others' good ideas with their solar setups.
 

My daily solar rig is a "just do your best" approach. It's very simple but there isn't much that can go wrong. My maximum input is 220w and I have three 100w panels. But their max voltage never goes above the max input volts so I am good. But my panels are just laid flat to the ground, so I don't get any benefit of tracking the sun. It's fine, though. If I get a perfectly bright moment I can see the inputs maxed out at 220w which is perfect for me. Most of the time it hovers down around 160 which is also just fine.
It's a rainy Sunday here and is good to see others' good ideas with their solar setups.
 

I have a little Bluetti EB3A and contrary to popular opinion, it has done pretty well for me. If you can work it within its limitations, it does really well. I haven't checked it for noisy output. That might be my go to unit for radios, if it ends up being quiet and clean. I can't say anything bad about Bluetti. I wouldn't even have an Ecoflow unit if I didn't fry my own Bluetti by accidentally giving it too much voltage when experimenting with panels. Dumb mistake. But they chose to repair it for free and ship it both ways on their dime. I can't complain at all.
I have definitely watched a couple of Hobotech's videos. I like the personality he puts into the videos.

The only problem I have with power stations like this is the amount of noise they put out. They are so buzzy. I have two Ecoflow River2 Pro's that I swap out for my camping setup. Use one while the other charges, etc. They put a loud buzz into the 12v power output that I can hear thru the audio on handhelds that are powered on while charging, and they put a loud AC inverter buzz on audio equipment if it has an amplifier. I'm not even going to test how noisy they'd be on a radio transmitter. For general use, they have been a game changer for camping and for keeping my tool batteries charged for work. But noisy for sensitive electronics. Far noisier than I expected them to be; the River 2 Pro is one of Ecoflow's flagship models. It's their biggest small one. Well, I'll say they are noiser than I *wanted* them to be. But it has to be very difficult to make something like that quiet.
The best thing I've found for backup power is just a battery. You can use the solar power station to charge a good backup battery, but I don't know if I would use the power station to run the transmitter directly, unless I just had to.

My daily solar rig is a "just do your best" approach. It's very simple but there isn't much that can go wrong. My maximum input is 220w and I have three 100w panels. But their max voltage never goes above the max input volts so I am good. But my panels are just laid flat to the ground, so I don't get any benefit of tracking the sun. It's fine, though. If I get a perfectly bright moment I can see the inputs maxed out at 220w which is perfect for me. Most of the time it hovers down around 160 which is also just fine.
It's a rainy Sunday here and is good to see others' good ideas with their solar setups.
 

The only problem I have with power stations like this is the amount of noise they put out. They are so buzzy. I have two Ecoflow River2 Pro's that I swap out for my camping setup. Use one while the other charges, etc. They put a loud buzz into the 12v power output that I can hear thru the audio on handhelds that are powered on while charging, and they put a loud AC inverter buzz on audio equipment if it has an amplifier. I'm not even going to test how noisy they'd be on a radio transmitter. For general use, they have been a game changer for camping and for keeping my tool batteries charged for work. But noisy for sensitive electronics. Far noisier than I expected them to be; the River 2 Pro is one of Ecoflow's flagship models. It's their biggest small one. Well, I'll say they are noiser than I *wanted* them to be. But it has to be very difficult to make something like that quiet.
The best thing I've found for backup power is just a battery. You can use the solar power station to charge a good backup battery, but I don't know if I would use the power station to run the transmitter directly, unless I just had to.

The LiFePo4 batteries are my current favorite. Everything a lead acid does, these can do better. Lighter in weight and smaller in size for the same capacity as lead batteries. You can't overcharge or over-discharge them because they have their own built-in cutoff circuitry. They last longer, too. They hold more usable capacity than a lead acid battery. They last many more charge/discharge cycles as well. The only area I think they fall short of lead acid technology is that they have extremely poor performance in freezing temperatures. But, they also make self-heating types that will keep themselves above freezing.

The only problem I have with power stations like this is the amount of noise they put out. They are so buzzy. I have two Ecoflow River2 Pro's that I swap out for my camping setup. Use one while the other charges, etc. They put a loud buzz into the 12v power output that I can hear thru the audio on handhelds that are powered on while charging, and they put a loud AC inverter buzz on audio equipment if it has an amplifier. I'm not even going to test how noisy they'd be on a radio transmitter. For general use, they have been a game changer for camping and for keeping my tool batteries charged for work. But noisy for sensitive electronics. Far noisier than I expected them to be; the River 2 Pro is one of Ecoflow's flagship models. It's their biggest small one. Well, I'll say they are noiser than I *wanted* them to be. But it has to be very difficult to make something like that quiet.
The best thing I've found for backup power is just a battery. You can use the solar power station to charge a good backup battery, but I don't know if I would use the power station to run the transmitter directly, unless I just had to.

The only problem I have with power stations like this is the amount of noise they put out. They are so buzzy. I have two Ecoflow River2 Pro's that I swap out for my camping setup. Use one while the other charges, etc. They put a loud buzz into the 12v power output that I can hear thru the audio on handhelds that are powered on while charging, and they put a loud AC inverter buzz on audio equipment if it has an amplifier. I'm not even going to test how noisy they'd be on a radio transmitter. For general use, they have been a game changer for camping and for keeping my tool batteries charged for work. But noisy for sensitive electronics. Far noisier than I expected them to be; the River 2 Pro is one of Ecoflow's flagship models. It's their biggest small one. Well, I'll say they are noiser than I *wanted* them to be. But it has to be very difficult to make something like that quiet.
The best thing I've found for backup power is just a battery. You can use the solar power station to charge a good backup battery, but I don't know if I would use the power station to run the transmitter directly, unless I just had to.

I've gone almost completely solar for my little projects. So it has been a shoe-in for getting involved in radio stuff. Just a natural fit. Solar panels are going down in price. I saw a 100w 10 bus bar panel on sale for $55 on black friday. I have 300w of solar on my work van and another 300 watts of portable solar that can go anywhere I need it.
I've also been nerding out on youtube looking at microhydro setups. I was watching one guy's video who has a steady 600 watts of power coming in from the little creek running through his land.
Batteries are still expensive, though not prohibitively so. I was looking at a self-heating 100Ah/12v LiFePo4 battery for $340 plus tax, etc. Self-heating so it could keep itself above freezing temps. I bet I could wire up enough solar to keep it going.

There are already repeaters linked up for emergencies. The system in my state is found at mtears.org
I would be surprised if other states/countries/planets don't have something similar in place.
Someone else suggested it and I agree; ham radio would be the main system used for getting information spread across a region, but it would fall to GMRS and FRS and similar services for last-mile dissemination of info.

I've gone almost completely solar for my little projects. So it has been a shoe-in for getting involved in radio stuff. Just a natural fit. Solar panels are going down in price. I saw a 100w 10 bus bar panel on sale for $55 on black friday. I have 300w of solar on my work van and another 300 watts of portable solar that can go anywhere I need it.
I've also been nerding out on youtube looking at microhydro setups. I was watching one guy's video who has a steady 600 watts of power coming in from the little creek running through his land.
Batteries are still expensive, though not prohibitively so. I was looking at a self-heating 100Ah/12v LiFePo4 battery for $340 plus tax, etc. Self-heating so it could keep itself above freezing temps. I bet I could wire up enough solar to keep it going.

The question was, how to get younger people interested in amateur radio.
I read four pages of what seemed like everything but, and no one has mentioned the obvious.
Hold a field day and advertise that you will be bouncing signals off the moon and let people have a chance to hear their own voice being reflected off the moon. Talk about bouncing signals off of the auroras. Talk about meteor scatter. Talk about satellite work. This is what will excite young people.
Young kids these days are stuck in their apps. They know all about the online world and they were born in a digitally interconnected world where everything is and was always already connected. What is going to interest them is the older tech, things with transistors and weird antennas. Tropospheric ducting and yes, moon bounce.
 

The question was, how to get younger people interested in amateur radio.
I read four pages of what seemed like everything but, and no one has mentioned the obvious.
Hold a field day and advertise that you will be bouncing signals off the moon and let people have a chance to hear their own voice being reflected off the moon. Talk about bouncing signals off of the auroras. Talk about meteor scatter. Talk about satellite work. This is what will excite young people.
Young kids these days are stuck in their apps. They know all about the online world and they were born in a digitally interconnected world where everything is and was always already connected. What is going to interest them is the older tech, things with transistors and weird antennas. Tropospheric ducting and yes, moon bounce.