Radioguy7268

Someone has discovered the joy of using ChatGPT to pose wordy ramblings. Congrats.

That's kind of my point. There's no FCC published official version of what their proposed 10 code shorthand might mean, so it's up to interpretation. Whose interpretation?

The NX-3000 series went MIA shortly after the AKM fire for almost 18 months, and Kenwood was giving dealers a discount on the NX-5000 base series - just to allow them to upsell customers who had wanted to buy an NX-3000 - and move them up to the NX-5000 series at a similar price. Supposedly, the plant that caught fire was the ONLY source they had for the NX3000 chipsets. I'm not sure if they found another source, or just re-designed the chassis to work with another (more available) chipset. I agree that the NX-1300 is a good value, and it seems to be well built. The fact that they still support the KNB-45L battery lineup (which has been in use for probably 15+ years now) and the KSC-35 charger platform means that customers did not have to do a wholesale changeover to move into a Digital capable platform.

Even before Covid hit, Kenwood had an issue because one of their major chip suppliers (AKM in Japan) had a huge fire that destroyed most of their factory. Then, once Covid hit, Southeast Asia went on lockdown, and most of the chip making factories locatd there were stretched pretty thin. Last batch of the NX-1300 series radios I ordered took almost 4 months to get in. They are a nice radio. I like the audio on those, especially compared to the similar priced Motorola CP100d.

I believe simplex users on a base (462.xxx) output are secondary users who operate at their own peril. Yes - I monitor prior to pressing the PTT, but I can't be responsible for operations I can't hear. I'm a bit more concerned for current repeater co-channel operations in a given area on a limited set of frequencies. Linked repeaters tend to act as though their traffic owns the airwaves. I'm not aware of anyone who is remotely monitoring the sites they link to prior to pushing traffic out to that Linked site.

Do you plan to make your linked repeaters monitor the frequency for activity in their local coverage area before actually linking from a distant user? Do you plan to make the repeaters monitor their input or output frequency prior to putting out it's ID every 15 minutes? Automatic linking and Auto ID are rarely implemented with any consideration that someone else may actually be keyed up and active as a co-channel user on the frequency already. Just curious, cause the Rule Police don't often talk about those concepts.

... and, prior Certification under Part 95 = current acceptance. ie: Grandfathered.

Add in the Vertex VX-231 or VX-261 (newer style version) as 4.5 watt (advertising lies when it says 5 watts) options. Either one can be set up with a single channel and are decent compact semi-rugged radios. You can also find the higher end EVX-531 online at prices under $100 complete with charger. Vertex software is available online for free if you look hard enough, or for $35 if you pick the first Google result that pops up.

I guess I believe that un-enforced rules are more like Suggestions. Given the history of the FCC retro-actively re-writing the rules to allow what people were doing anyway (everything from unlicensed CB to unlicensed MURS), I think it's just a matter of time until the FCC catches up to reality.

I just picked up some UHF M1225's and P1225's (Genuine Part 95 Motorola gear!) on a trade-in, so I'll probably be getting one of my kids to start up a small GMRS resale business here on the classifieds. About 40 portables, chargers, 6 mobiles, and a base/control station package.

Meh. You can talk in "code" all day long. If I say I'm 10-365 WTH does that mean? Am I legal because I used a 10 code? Even 10-100 has different meanings to different people. Personally, I think I'm 10-733. A majority of my GMRS voice communication is done in a non-English language, and even when we do speak English, there's enough accents and non-English words thrown in that most folks would still not understand what we are talking about. I happen to like it that way. Now, get off my Lawn & quit using my repeater to speak dat for-ain language.

More Power does not necessarily = Better. Frequency stability, hum, distortion, audio fidelity, deviation envelope - those things matter too. To paraphrase an old timer - if you sound like an angry Donald Duck trapped inside a tin outhouse - does it really matter how many watts you're pumping out?

For less than the cost of 1 Wouxun radio, you could strap 2 CDM750 (or 1250) mobiles back-to-back and get 3 times better results.

I have never read anything about giving an existing GMRS repeater "priority" for the channel. I have read that you should monitor prior to transmission and definitely avoid creating willful or destructive interference, and I'd agree that is good practice. I would also agree that it's a good idea to do some due diligence and avoid putting two repeaters in the same area on the same frequency pair - especially if there are other un-used channels available. I've got a nephew over in Owens County. From my time spent there, there was very little in the way of GMRS repeater traffic. There was a fair amount of simplex going on with farmers, and it did seem that some of it was higher powered mobiles on the repeater inputs. I'd be wary of relying on just monitoring the 462.xxx side of the pair for repeater outputs. Better to put an antenna up high were you might plan to put your repeater, and spend some time listening to the 467.xxx inputs before you make any equipment purchasing decisions.

Count me as one of the guys who uses LMR-400 (the actual Times Microwave stuff) on a regular basis. I'll use it all day long for rooftop sites with a coax cable run under 50 ft. I'll use it for both UHF and VHF. I won't even blink at using it when price (bidding) is a consideration. If money doesn't matter, and the folks are willing to pay for Heliax (CommScope LDF-x50A) then buckle up & let's build something that's going to last 40 years. Otherwise, I'm going with a likely 10-15 year job and paying attention to waterproofing the connections. If you're running 100 foot of cable, or going up on an actual Tower site, then the math starts to work in favor of springing for the good stuff. Oh, and for all the hammy's out there that scream about using LMR-400 - it's probably those UHF PL-259 connectors that you keep soldering on that ruins the job, not the cable. I can easily count the number of jobs I've ever had to go back to due to a high noise floor from failed LMR-400. The answer is Zero. I've been doing this for close to 30 years now. People let theories of perfection get in the way too often. Crap like tin plated connectors and poor workmanship are more likely the cause of cable problems. You can look for value - just quit buying junk connectors that are 25 cents less than the next lowest price you can find online.

It's funny that you're using the wording to create a rule that applies to "family" when the rule in question does not use the word "family". Perhaps you think that is what the rule should say? It also does not say "individual's license". If it did have that apostrophe, then it might actually mean a License that belongs to a particular individual. I still read it as saying that if the individual operator(s) of the repeater use their FCC Station License Call Sign, the repeater itself does not need to identify. You may disagree - and that's OK. What anyone here thinks doesn't matter. What the FCC thinks is what matters, but I think they don't really care.

Don't let science get in the way of advertising. More watts is always more better! Who needs a receiver? I got 45 watts out, a cigarette lighter plug and a mag mount!

I admire the thought of chasing down electrons and actually fixing the device. Somewhere, there's a manual and schematic for those radios. It's probably written in Chinese. I can't imagine that anyone's going to go to the trouble to translate it and produce some copies that would probably end up costing more than the radio it's written for. Practicality is the reason you don't see repair manuals for radios that cost less than $100. Do a little searching on theory & find some schematics online for a portable with similar finals. If you can identify the components, you're probably looking at something like a failed solder joint. At least, that's what I'm thinking when I hear that it will still push out at least 1 watt.

... and you will also find out that every normal DPL code has (at least 1) matching invert, which is really just another number on the DPL chart. So folks who (over)think it and decide that they're getting some type of super special "secure access" on their repeater by choosing some odd-ball Inverted code end up baffled when someone sniffs out their code over the air within 30 seconds. Inverted code/matching std code 023 047 025 244 026 464 031 627 032 051 036 172 When you're dealing with digital ones and zero's in a streaming bit code, the patterns end up repeating themselves, even if your bitstream originally started with a 0 instead of a 1. Someone with more patience and knowledge explained it better than me, but if you want to go for a deep dive - here it is: DPL demystified

Definitely - the CCR's (Inexpensive radios using Direct Conversion single chip design) have sensitive but not selective receivers (ie: Wide open to any and all other nearby transmitters). Those types of inexpensive radios have receivers that are easily overpowered due to their lack of filtering. You would be MUCH better off to buy a used LMR radio that has a really good specs for selectivity and sensitivity. Decent used LMR stuff is available at less than $100 per radio - especially when you don't care about the transmit power. At 20 ft of vertical separation, you would still need some type of a bandpass cavity for the receiver. Get more than 30 ft. and your difference between the transmit and receive coverage begins to get out of hand, not to mention the cost of getting a real sturdy mast that can stay up at over 50 ft. - just so your lowest antenna is still 20 ft. off the ground. There's a chart out there on the internet that's been posted here before, showing the differences in vertical vs. horizontal separation needed to achieve certain levels of isolation. As I remember it, 15 ft. of vertical isolation was equivalent to about 1000 ft. of horizontal. In other words, horizontal is not practical at all.

25+ Years ago, Motorola offered a low power Systel repeater that was just 2 watts, and was designed to offer repeater service combined with telephone interconnect for small warehouses, retirement homes, and factories. Inside the box, it was just 2 GP300 portables, a controller, and cooling fans. They worked, but they didn't last. Most got replaced within 5 years with a "real" repeater. I'll repeat what was said above. A duplexer saves you time, trouble, and money. If you're going to use a split antenna system, you're still going to need cavity filters to make it work properly. Unless you've already got the 2 antennas, the double lengths of coax, and the cavity filters, you're spending more money just to "save" on a duplexer. A properly tuned duplexer "eats" less than 2dB for a UHF system with a 5 MHz split. If you've been paying attention here, you should know that transmit power out is not the limiting factor in most repeater systems. People chase transmit power because they think it's what makes a repeater better. Balance is what makes a repeater system better. Duplexers provide balance.

You ask good questions. Those tiny little flatpack duplexers are designed to "notch" out a single frequency pair (receiver side notches out the transmit frequency, and the transmit side notches out the receive freq). What you have to get your head around is that when those notch duplexers are measured for isolation, they're only getting 55 or 60 dB of isolation. That means that some of the transmit power is always going to be leaking into the receiver - causing desense. When you've got a low enough power setting, the residual amount leaking into the receiver is small, and doesn't cause much trouble - at least, not enough to make a difference when your low power repeater still covers a mile or two, even with just a little bit of desense. The problems begin when you start trying to crank up the power, or even (gasp) toss on a BTech power amplifier to get 50 watts feeding into that flat notch duplexer. Now your tiny little bit of leakage is suddenly drowning out the receiver and causing you all sorts of trouble. Yeah, now you can transmit out to 7 or 8 miles, but you can't even talk back in with your portable until you are within a 1/2 mile. You're also right on the idea of mixing for nearby transmitters. Close channel spacing creates a nightmare of intermod products. The basic formula for figuring out intermod is 2* A +/- B, A being the first frequency, B being the 2nd frequency. Remember, if you've got a small flatpack notch duplexer, and you were tweaking and tuning it tight just to notch out one specific frequency pair and get 65 dB of isolation, and now you're finding out that you need to notch out an entire range of frequencies. That is is why serious duplexers use bandpass cavities, and cost thousands, not hundreds. They also boast isolation figures of 80 dB or better. Gaining 20dB of isolation is Huge with a capital H. Probably better to head over to repeater-builder.com and read up on their duplexer section. They've got it all written up already. They'll even toss in the math if you want to geek out on it.

It's even simpler. Just start up the software - and in the top level menu items - select "view" choices should be something like basic / expert. Select expert. Now you see all the options for rear accessory connector & CWID. The built in Help files in the CPS are worthwhile - even if they are somewhat cryptic.

Those were Helium crypto miners - aka Helium Hotspots for an IoT LoRaWAN network. It's been talked through all over the web in the past week or two. Helium.com for details. If you missed it, people were making $1500-$3500 per month from off-grid mountaintop sites that overlooked major cities. Those same sites now mine about $25 per month since the crypto crash. If someone was putting up those sites in the past few months, they've lost their butt - especially considering the cost of the equipment they've lost, or the fines they might incur.

Putting a 40 watt amplifier on a low budget radio with suspect spec's is the equivalent of putting a 200 HP Nitrous shot kit on your Pinto. Until your repeater has a decent receiver with good sensitivity and selectivity you haven't done anything to improve the performance of the system. No matter how much horsepower you think you just gained.