LeoG

I sure am. She makes me a sandwich every work day and dinner every night.

No BS. I would spend it anyway whether she approved or not. Life is too short to not have a few pleasantries and hobbies. She has surprised me in the fact that she shows interest in the radio - period. I expected when I got the base station installed it would always be "can you turn that thing off/down". But for the most parts no complaints. She even joins in on the nets on one of the repeaters. I consider this electronics which she has no interest in. I guess it's the gossip part of it. You get to listen to other peoples conversations and then talk about them later on. And after 38 years of marriage it's nice to have another topic to talk about.

When I got my first pair of HTs they were the TDH3 but the HAM version. Shortly after I discovered they could be switched over to GMRS. I looked into it and discovered the licensing was just $35 and that covered the family. The process was a pain and by the time I had finished up I had 8 windows open that were required to obtain this license. Not really the surprise. After playing with these radios I was surprised to find out my wife didn't hate them. After a short while I ended up getting a mobile tranceiver that I put in the house as a base station. My wife didn't really care for talking on it but she did like to listen to the active repeater. Eventually I put up a good antenna and I got a mobile unit so I could keep in touch with my wife. She enjoyed being able to contact me. I put up a repeater at my shop and even though communication was difficult because of hills and trees she enjoyed contacting me by the radio over texting or phone unless she couldn't get me through the radio. Eventually I found out my antenna and/or coax was faulty and changed that out and now the connection is much better. My repeater is 50w and the mobile is 20w and the repeater can get to the house better than the house can get to the repeater. So I decided to get a 50w for the house. Ordered the power supply and the radio. The PS came today and my wife was excited. She knew nothing of what I had ordered. She thought I got a new radio. I was a bit shocked. The normal expectation when a husband spend money without the wife knowing about it on his hobby is to be frowned up or worse, being yelled at. She was disappointed that it was a power supply and not a radio. She still doesn't know I ordered the radio. I didn't want to take the surprise away from her when it does arrive. Can a guy be more lucky.

The 712efc is rated at 112mph. I'd be surprised if it could handle that. My SWR is between 1:1 and 1.01:1 across the entire band, including 467mhz repeater channels. I was amazed. Best I got with my other antenna was 1.15:1 at the optimum frequency.

The main reason I operate tones on the RX is noise. There is a lot of DMR and other digital noise in my area that is beyond annoying. It interferes with medium to strong signals by either degrading the voice or overriding it. Tones don't help when the interference is active while someone is talking. But I would be insane by now if I had to listen to all that crap.

I leave mine on all day and only have a 2 mile trip to and from work. The draw for receiving is pretty small and more so if you have your lighting on the radio extinguish after 30 seconds after activity. When it's the dead of winter and temps are way below freezing I'm more mindful of the battery. But in the warm periods I don't think twice about it.

2.15 not 2.5

I have the 712efc and the paperwork that came with it claims 9.8dBi. It's on the bag and in the paperwork so that's what I assume it is. So it's even bigger than 7.2

Socalgmrs lives in a great area for UHF. He really needs to take a trip out to the NE and experience hilly and mountainous regions where sometimes 50 watts won't get you 2 miles.

He asked a valid question. Even if he read the rules it's still a valid question. You don't have to be the way you are when you answer. Such a sad ham.

Totally agree with that.

But you would be a real dickenzian for doing so...

I agree with the RT97S repeater. It's weather tight and low power consumption. A small battery and solar panel along with an antenna make it a mostly permanent solution. You won't have the wait for the simplex repeater to do it's thing, just normal talk. Ya, it's more than $60 but it's also a better solution and in the end you'll likely be happier with it.

The eff sea seas doesn't enforce most of them most of the time so they are essentially non existent.

Dues don't just go to the repeater. Clubhouse rent, electricity, phone and utilities, insurance etc etc etc.

Now why would I want to use the $250 Billion dollar system when I can use the $500 system.....

On Long Island they have the BTG repeater system that sucks up at least 3 of the channels and covers the entire area. Not sure if they have more. So it's hard to escape them.

Man, she must have iron hands.

I played with mercury in my bare hands (twitch). Used leaded gasoline for the first 20 years of my driving experience (twitch twitch). Probably been exposed to asbestos when I removed the 480 sf of vermiculite insulation in my attic (twitch) Nothing wrong with me yet (twitch twitch)

I learned to solder on my own from making kits. And from that skill I was able to sweat a plumbing pipe without even thinking because it's the same exact process. Apply flux, heat the copper and let the solder flow into the heat, never the flame.

Ahhhh.... the administrative state that makes up rules and regulations and enforces by being judge, jury, prosecutor along with fee collector.

I got some solder that really wasn't solder. I am pretty experienced in the work and I couldn't get this crap to flow out. I thought it was me until I got my old roll of Radio Shack solder out and fixed up the joint in seconds. The new solder came with my new soldering iron. 1st time I had one you could set the temp on the iron. And then I had that issue, wasn't sure what was going on until I read more reviews and they said just throw the solder out that comes with it. So I did, and I agreed with them.

I made mine because I was excited to get it and bored at the same time.

We know all about the Chevron Doctrine. Where the regulatory agencies decided they could be judge, jury, court and prosecutor of all decisions. And then make sure all the "fees" are made payable to them.