SvenMarbles
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Posts posted by SvenMarbles
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1 hour ago, DrBob said:
I think you are correct Sshannon. What I really wanted to know however was if my radio was acting incorrectly by allowing these frequencies to cross each other like that. I've been told that because one has DCS and one has CTCSS that that should not happen. What do you think? By the way, I do believe at least one or two pairs are open near here.
The CTCSS and DCS only serve the purpose of "breaking things open". Both the repeaters and your radio. Once they have, traffic flows. Nothing is wrong with anything, aside from the poor coordination of the parties running those repeaters. We have a couple of repeaters doing that to eachother in my area as well.
I think that the root of the problem is that when the FCC laid out the band plan for GMRS with the 8 repeater pairs, they didn't expect people to go "full ham radio club" and put things on towers that get out forever. So in some regions it's getting to be problematic.
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On 4/16/2024 at 6:59 PM, Sshannon said:
That’s too bad. There should have been and it should have been just as public as the insults.
I had every intention of offering the mia culpa. More information came to light and I've decided to sit tight.
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59 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:
if you want to hear a complete zoo,, scan the GMRS channels driving between Las Angels and San Berdino. I don't even bother anymore..
What sort of traffic is it?
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On 4/13/2024 at 1:58 PM, kirk5056 said:
Look up the definition of "discrete". It does not mean private, just separate and distinct.
Others can still hear you but you are unlikely to hear them. Thr chances of someone being heard by you randomly is less that 0.5%. Of course, they could find your PL filter, enter it into their radio, then call you, and it would be legal in a d**khead kind of way. Lets hope THEY are few on our GMRS.
I re-read your post and i think you're actually calling the tone searcher and bother-er the DH. Yes. You're correct and on my team..
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On 4/13/2024 at 1:58 PM, kirk5056 said:
Look up the definition of "discrete". It does not mean private, just separate and distinct.
Others can still hear you but you are unlikely to hear them. Thr chances of someone being heard by you randomly is less that 0.5%. Of course, they could find your PL filter, enter it into their radio, then call you, and it would be legal in a d**khead kind of way. Lets hope THEY are few on our GMRS.
It's not a d***head thing to be on a tone simplex.. People forget that the purpose of GMRS isn't the big social club thing. It's for parties to use, sometimes for practical things.. It's what most of GMRS SHOULD be..
it's. not. ham. radio.
That reminder is needed more than it should be..
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Radios are engineered to exist in uncomfortable heat. Regardless of the season and ambient temperature, they make their own heat.. It's why their bodies are heat sinks, and they have fans inside. Heat was a part of the plan. So ambient heat in your car isn't likely to hurt your radio. Before operating it, maybe be sure you've allowed the AC to cool the cabin for a few minutes though.. 140 degree interior car bake air being circulated amongst it's own heat generation isn't likely to help..
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Baofengs are very commonly in use, even among some nation-state millitaries. You might think i'm being silly, but that's 100% real. Russian Federation units were pictured with them in the early days of the invasion as well. It's why they lost so many generals on the battlefield. Ukraine (U.S.) sigint was just listening along the whole way..
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7 hours ago, WRUW493 said:
This looks good WSAK961. Yeah, in hilly terrain the lower angle of radiation can work against you. I'd say it's due to not radiating upwards to the hill top where the scatterer is to get over the hill.
The shorter than 1/4 helical has a near horizon radiation pattern but also is very broad in the Z plane. As the helical gets shorter they eventually turn into nearly spherical in pattern (not polarization that's different).
Agree that QC is an issue but I can also say a near 1/4 wave is rather broadband do is tolerant of dimensions. But build QC is a different thing.
Nice that you got the wife to tolerate any antenna.
I think there is a sort of broad misunderstanding of what you can do on UHF, with watts and DB antennas. People want the 50 watters and the 9db gain antennas thinking that's the best way to operate. For your home setup, and with an antenna up high, sure... But it's more to do with the height/LOS. You could probably be achieving the same result with 10 watts if you're doing nice in that configuration.
For the mobile side, you're a low plane level antenna. No matter what,... You can't punch through that dirt grade with watts. 50 or 5,000. The only thing that you can have control of is your take-off angles. The higher DB antennas are shallow. Give up on the watts or ERP. Just radiate more omni.. I've found that that it's been the solution. 5 watts can sound like 50 if it's clear to radiate. On UHF, you're due to lose the contact by terrain long before petering out on power. People CW on 5 watts across the planet.
Power isn't the thing folks.. HF does it by ricocheting off of the ionosphere.
Power only matters if you care to step over a guy. Do we do that in polite society?
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On 4/8/2024 at 9:53 PM, Ian said:
Think you just sold me an antenna! I want one of the red ones to match the car's paint… Looks like it'll do the job.
I really hope it works out well for you. My only concern with these antennas are if the QC is such that no 2 of them are the same tune.
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10 hours ago, WRUW493 said:
How tall is it? 1/4 wave at GMRS is 6 inches. It would be rather easy to make a 3 inch tall one turn helical antenna that is only a dB or so worse than a straight 1/4 wave which would be impossible for us to observe with just real world testing. Nice review!
The NMO base is probably about 3/8ths, so the antenna itself is right at about 3 1/2”.
Here’s how it sits on my wife’s car. Very subtle. It’s her antenna now because it’s the first time she would allow an antenna be put on her car, due to its small form factor.
As for gain, I am sure it’s not more than a couple db. I’m actually in the process of re-thinking my strategy with mobile antenna gain though. I’m likely to replace my own with an intentionally lower gain antenna. I suspect that the shallow radiation lobes of the higher gain mobile antennas create dead spots around terrain height variations, whereas a 3db or lower, more Omni-directional in the X axis, performs better.
With this antenna and a 4 watt UV5R, I get told on the comeback from radio checks into repeaters that are 10-15 miles away that I’m full quieting and loud.
. Not sure if it’s just some kind of lucky anomaly, but this ultra cheapo setup ($50ish dollars all-in) just talks all over town quite nicely…
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8 hours ago, Sshannon said:
Marc Spaz is one of the nicest guys on these forums. He never beats his own chest or blows his own horn. And he does have some serious technical skills.
So when someone who has been here for months attacks him as posting something that’s “not real” and does it in a way that simply reveals his own ignorance, it’s a chickenshit move.
Then you doubled down on it as if you were somehow an expert.
You owe Marc a sincere apology, not “got a little silly. Sorry folks.”Learn from your mistakes and move on. Perhaps seek counseling. If you make an honest attempt at an apology and don’t act like that again the forum members will get over it quickly.
But, I owe you an apology also. I made fun of your name. That was a cheap shot. It was mean-spirited of me and completely unacceptable. I apologize for that.
SteveHe’ll get a PM from me tonight.
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Yikes… too many pops yesterday and got a little silly.
Sorry folks.
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3 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:
Just to be clear I’m not saying it’s a crap radio. Rather that @WSAK691 doesn’t give rats ass about his initial question as he had already decided it was crap and only came here to argue.
I own that. I had an agenda going in. The title of this thread should have been “I don’t think that Midland GMRS radios are that great”.
In fairness, it’s within the context of rebuttal of criticism of “Chinese radios”, from people that weren’t even here
. So yeah I brought some heat that seemed like it came from nowhere.
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10 minutes ago, WRUW493 said:
As an RF engineer who has designed receivers for over 10 years, I can say that SINAD is not a receiver metric. SINAD (Signal In Noise and Distortion) is a measurement parameter to which receiver performance is measured. dBm (dB-milliwatt) is far and away the most common receiver sensitivity metric in the RF design world. Sure FM broadcast receivers are measured in dBf, (dB FemtoWatt) but that is not typical elsewhere. Actually, in the receiver world, Noise Figure (F) is the best metric as that speaks to the RF front end without impacts from the audio circuitry, see below.
To the person who posted dBm sensitivity measurements: Surely you used some proper RF service monitor to perform this measurement. May I ask what "weighting" you used on the audio? A or C weighted? it does make a subtle difference...
Hope this helps.
Generally speaking, how do you find integrated radio-on-chip receivers vs radios with multiple IF stages to be, relative to eachother?
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2 minutes ago, marcspaz said:
That's because there is nothing left to say. All things are self-evident.
Well not really
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Do you think because I got poked by Randy and his hangers-on that anything pertaining to the topic prior was satisfied?
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4 minutes ago, marcspaz said:
@WSAK691 I have been sitting back reading and I've noticed that I don't have to share any pictures of anything because you have already shown us your ass. You are gravely mistaken in believing anyone here, especially me, has anything to prove to you.
I don't care about your opinion. I'm fairly sure no one else here cares about your opinion. With the exception of providing some mild and waning entertainment as you continue to show us your ass, your incessant posting is doing nothing beyond solidifying your place in purgatory of the internet.
I predicted the play on “showing my ass”.. ::golf clap::
Short of that you haven’t said anything else..
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I set it up perfectly. Post a picture of those 2 radios and a frequency generator, and the aforementioned characters written on something in frame, and my bare ass gets posted.
I know that if I got challenged to that I’d go out of my way to make that happen.
1 stipulation at this point though. It’s gotta happen by tomorrow. Kinda seems like interested parties here might be willing to make sure he gets possession of everything required lol..
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14 minutes ago, Sshannon said:
Two days ago you didn’t know how to waterproof your coax connectors and today you’re lecturing Marc Spaz on receiver sensitivity measurements.
You posted a picture of a radio installation that looks like what Randy discarded last week.
Your last name is Gass; I’m not sure if the G is silent or your last name refers to the the material you’re full of.
In any case you’re just one more wannabe on the ignore list.Personal insults? Weird…
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1 minute ago, OffRoaderX said:
No, thats not why. Missing the entire point and not "getting it", as you just demonstrated is why.
I did miss the point.
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7 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:
Being a sad-H.A.M. is a mental/emotional-defect, not a test score/status. And while there is a very high correlation of sad-H.A.M.s having H.A.M. licenses, this does not prove causation.
I see. Defects. There’s something defective going on with, me..Because I know radio stuff. As an interest.. In my spare time away from being a father, husband, and business owner.
Maybe I should film my ugly face and go off half cocked on a topic that I know just a little bit about like “some people”. Hopefully though, I won’t run out of steam part way in and start making weird “art videos”..
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5 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:
Sorry to have to be the one to break this news to you but bragging about not being a ham BUT how easy it would be to pass the examS "if you wanted to" is a strong indicator of being a latent sad-H.A.M. .. Your other posts already proved you also fall into the "some people" category..
And as the inventor of the term Sad-H.A.M., my declaration is final and cannot be disputed or overturned.
Damn… so,.. you’re saying I passed the sad ham exam, before even taking the ham exam.
That’s a distinction, for sure..
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2 minutes ago, nokones said:
Well, that might be a save from being called a "Sad HAM".
I’m literally the opposite of a sad ham.
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By the way,... not a ham.. Could pass a tech exam, and continue to general tomorrow morning,.. hungover.. Not interested.
I don’t think Midland radios are very good.
in General Discussion
Posted
Let’s just say that Midland’s pockets run deep and some of us here in the “influence sphere” are affected.
Some people here are a part of the “Midland Ambassador Program”. And I made the mistake of pissing that off..