LeoG

The originals are stainless steel. Always stinks to have delays. But... do it right, do it once.

Interstellar dust Asteroid fields Kuiper belt The heliosphere

I made a clock bit by bit using machine language. That was fun. Saved as a .com file.

Depends if that frequency and tone are connected to a repeater that the owner doesn't want others to use.

https://www.everythingrf.com/rf-calculators/line-of-sight-calculator

I don't have to worry about that too much around here. The GMRS airwaves are mostly silent and sometimes you can hear the FRS HTs when you are driving around in the mobile. None of them follow any etiquette. Likely unlicensed. We have 2 major repeaters and a minor repeater in the area. One major is much more active than the other and the minor and less active major are on the same frequency but different tones. My repeater is on the same frequency as another inactive repeater. I accidentally found their tone because it was one above mine and sometimes when I keyed up my base that repeater would activate. I chose that frequency because of it's inactivity and noise level. Lots of DMR crap in the area on all the frequenies. It's a plague to analog.

I guess my car metaphor really resonated with ya'all.

Maybe you have the newly discovered charging problem. I charge mine in the cradle at home and the one I keep in my shop by USB. I don't usually remove the battery from the HT unless I'm putting a fresh battery in the HT.

He owns the repeater. You can use the frequency all you want. Simplex, Duplex just don't access his repeater. There are a whole bunch of different tones you can use besides the one single one he's currently using.

It's funny how he thinks he can give the govt $35.00 and he has free reign on anyone's equipment whether they want you to use it or not. Doesn't understand that all I'm doing is using the frequency and I don't think I own it. And the repeater isn't active unless I'm using it which is minutes a day, which doesn't impact anyone. And the license means he can purchase his own equipment to use on the "free airwaves". If he's cheap he can buy a couple HTs. Or maybe he can buy a mobile and a base setup and use the "free airwaves" to talk to all his friends and family. Or better yet, spend a lot of money and setup a repeater and then open it up to the public so everyone has access to it. And all of these are his own choice because all that $35.00 does is give you permission to press the PTT button on the transmitter. And that's it.

You pay for 1/2 and you can use it too. A repeater is for public use if the owner decides it is, not you. Not like the phone company gives their service away from the goodness of their hearts. They make you pay for it and have a contract with them for the most part. And it's not like I'm interfering with the airways with my 5-10 minutes of communication with my wife per day. It's essentially invisible for the most part. And if someone decides to use it without permission I can change tones, it's simple enough. You don't get that it's other peoples property. The airwaves are free, but the equipment is privately owned.

Ya, that's pretty sad for QC. Must have had a whole run of them that came off the line non functional transmit. My record is much better but I've had 2 replaced out of 14 bought.

Just run open tones and you can listen to everything.

Still doesn't account for the radios received DOA. Batteries only come half charged so no chance for the voltage to get that high.

I have one of those "useless" repeaters that I don't want every Tom, Dick and Harry to use. I use it for communicating with my family and don't have any plans on opening it up. And on top of it most of these small repeaters have a small footprint to go along with them. Only a few lucky people get to be able to have that prime spot a 1000' or more up in the air that allows 20+ miles of communication. Mine is at one of the higher spots in town and will eventually be +80' above that. I don't expect to get more than 10 miles out. It's only a useless repeater to you. To me it's my alternate communications platform.

I just recently purchase the KG-1000G+ and today we had our repeater net. After it was over I tasked the net master with some questions about performance of the radio. I did a 5, 20, 50 watt check into the repeater 21 miles out. He said R9 on all three. I assume that because I swapped from a 7.2dBi to a 9.8dBi antenna and swapped out some M&P hyperflex13 to 1/2" Heliax hardline. I always had a hard time getting into the repeater using 5 watts on the old setup. And then I asked about the microphone. I did a check basically kissing the mic, 6-8" away and 12-14" away. He said when I was at a foot he noticed the modulation tapering off. That 6-8" seemed best. With the KG XS20G+ I have to kiss the mic to get a good modulation out of it. My TD H3 has a far better modulation profile than the 20G. It also has an adjustable mic gain.

I had the TRS 80 along with the huge 40 MB hard drive. I had to format it by hand by swapping out two 5 1/4" floppies. Took forever and I didn't think it would ever end. Also played with a computer in school that we programmed with punch cards. And after that played with the 8080 computer chip.

I used RS as a place to by electronic components for the most part. Hung out there for a few years as the manager like the company. We were practically employees at one point. Don't actually remember where I got my 1st base station antenna and coax.

The one I got came with CFD200, a little better than what everything else comes with.

Put the SWR meter at the end of the run of cable and before the antenna if possible and you will get a more true reading of the antenna SWR. Coax can introduce as SWR as well so it'll still be higher than what the near antenna reading is.

The BTech uses DCS and my Tidradio uses CTCSS and DCS

And the typical lightning strike is 30,000 amps. And the recommended wire gauge is #8. That should last a few milliseconds.

If I can catch the storm I disconnect the coax from the radio and put a shot glass over the connector. Plus it's lightning. It jumped from the cloud to the ground. It's going to do what it wants. A good grounded system will definitely help guide it to the ground but there is never a guarantee. It might find another path it likes better no matter how short the ground is through the wire. It's just as unpredictable as most of nature is.

If you get a direct hit your radio is fried. Doesn't matter if it's a polyphasor or cheapy cheap. Close calls is where they do their work.

The radios are sensitive enough to hear the local oscillator or using the wire to the antenna as an antenna. I'm betting all these units showing up like this have a wire not connected to the center pin of the antenna. I have a couple and eventually I will take one apart to see if it's as simple as a bad solder joint. Which is what I expect.