LeoG

2 hours at best for battery. Some have smaller generators but fuel is the limiting factor. Maybe get a day.

I would consider a 25% loss of towers in a hurricane pretty reliable. Definitely depends if you are in that cell area that went down or not though. I have a pole type tower near me and they were adding more antennas during a very windy period. I've never seen it sway so much. Felt bad for the guy up there working. It was probably 20ish winds with bigger gusts. I was surprised it was moving that much. I thought that movement would be at about 40mph.

Kinda surprised one needs a multiband transceiver on a bicycle in the first place. I was thinking an HT on a backpack with a handheld mic or vox setup.

https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/2A4FBTD831 1ST Line shows BQIBL80NZ7zIyx9L0Xv7hw== 350.0-470.0MHz 2023-12-05 Approved

Well, if you are afraid the eff sea sea is going to come pounding on your door because you have a non compliant radio that you are operating properly then by all means go ahead. Myself I'm not worrying about it at all. Not sure if their IDs are different between the radios. The one on the left is the GMRS version and the one on the right is the Ham version. They don't differentiate between the two.

Yes. All of mine but 2 are Ham versions switched to GMRS. The main difference between the 2 is the antenna they send you. While in GMRS mode you can only transmit on true GMRS channels

It's there somewhere. I believe it has 4 modes. I think they call it THEME

Since we've heard nothing about someone getting fined for using a base station when a fixed station should have been used or vice versa I doubt anyone at the eff sea sea is going to be coming knocking on any of our doors to check compliance. It's probably something of a holdover that they copied in for some sort of larger station. I'm not worrying about it.

Well, it's absolutely water, because when it freezes the issue goes away. I would figure if the part was damaged by water expansion the problem would occur during the freeze when it pushed things apart. I'm leaning towards water in a connector that has some minerals or something in it that is conductive enough to short out enough to bring signal levels down enough to hamper incoming and outgoing signals. Once I get above that 2.0 SWR reception gets bad and transmission won't reach my farthest repeater. I know for a 100% fact that I have a problem at the house. I'm not sure if I have an issue at my repeater. But that was a wham bam thank you ma'am install without any connector wrapping. It's only the one antenna connection as there is no lighting arrester inline, the feed goes straight from the antenna to the repeater. There is a 90º connector at the back of the repeater but since I take my measurements after that connector and power levels seem fine I think it's OK.

Looks like it went into one of the several screen modes. Maybe you changed it.

Well I finally saw it. I thought the lowering temperature sublimed the SWR but it was just a rapid decrease. I only saw one reading in between but that was enough to tell me it decreases not switches. Came home to find the SWR at 2.04 and the temp was just under freezing. At about 24.5º I checked and it was at 1.83, half hour later it was at its low of 1.15 again. At 1.83 most of the function of the radio returns. At 2.04 I couldn't hit the Holyoke repeater. I did a long key and some signal must have reached because I was able to hit it. No response from anyone so I assume no audio was transmitted from the repeater. Plus the received signal was very weak. At 1.83 I have access to the repeater and a good received signal. Same with my own repeater. Gotta find some time to heat up that lightning arrester to see if it kills my signal.

What I've seen of it the lawyers went nutz in their regulation description. Calling the same transmitter several different names depending on what they are communicating with.

OK, so what's the difference between a "fixed" station and a "base" station?

Last four 100w panels I bought new were 60¢ per watt.

It's far from free.

Well, they made them, I bought them and I'll use them when necessary. I have a bit over 5KW of batteries so I'll be set for a while. I am lacking on enough solar to keep that charged well though. Currently only have about 600 watts of panels. Worse than that is I don't have a charge controller that can handle the power from those panels.

Sounds like govt. And after they cash the check then maybe they'll complain about your intent.

There's a review out. If I remember it was a pretty good review. JDS BMS so it's a pretty well known BMS. You can use Overkill Solar app to access it by bluetooth which is cool. And you can program it through the app too. I think the only complaint was not thick enough wires to the posts. Lots of batteries end up with that complaint. But with the short wire you can really push some current through a wire that's not necessarily designed for that current. Usually it's 1 gauge shy.

I have 4 of these and 2 of them are fantastic and 2 are very good. Picked them all up for $149ea https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQG8DZ71?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

That's nice of you. I can't always keep up.

I play. I enjoy it. Ya, I'm one of those. I have 200 watts of panels on my work truck and a charge controller with an AGM battery connected to a 3KW sine inverter. I use my tools off the back of the gate or I can power my house during short outages. I picked up 4 LiFePO4 100Ah batteries and have 400 watts of solar but only a 10 amp charge controller so I haven't don't much with it. I just keep picking up parts and pcs so it I need them at some point I can assemble a power system in an hour or so.

Well yes and no. I use it to keep in contact with my wife. Sometimes I'll give a HT to one of my adult children when we are traveling in separate cars or getting stuff at a big box store when we'll be at opposite ends. And I'll chat with friends that are definitely not family on the local repeater just for the conversation and to find out how everyone is doing in general or their jobs.

Waiting for the temps to be low and no snow on the roof. Not happening this weekend it seems. 6-10" of that white stuff coming.

Ok I actually saw something. So far I've only seen it at 1.15 and 2.08, nothing in between. The other day as the temperature kept rising I saw my SWR at 1.43, 28º and then later at 1.52, 30º. Later when the temp got to 36 it was at 2.08 once again. When it's getting colder there doesn't seem to be a fall, just a sudden change over.

Maybe just ground conduction and propagation of the waveform.