LeoG

Yup, 7 segment led displays were fun to play with. My 1st calculator was LED. I made a LED clock using a kit. Had round LEDs to separate the Hours, Minutes and Seconds. I think I still have it up in my attic, but unfortunately I don't believe it works anymore.

LEDs Yup, that's old.

Always wide band.

Put your radio on scan and listen to the repeater channels making sure you have no Rx tone encoded. The stations that seem to have no traffic are probably good. Look at the repeater list here and on a few other websites that list them to see if there are any known site near you (35-70 miles) After you find a channel that seems unused in your area hang on that channel for a week to see if anything comes across. If you can hear one sided conversations it's likely not a repeater and just people on simplex. It also matters what you think your repeater range will be. If you are sticking it on top of a mountain and plan on a 50-200 mile circle then you have more to worry about than if you plan on putting an antenna up 50' which will limit your range considerably.

Ya, that can be annoying when you set the Tx first and the Rx wipes it out. But that's the nature of the radio when programming from the keypad. If you do it from a computer or bluetooth you don't have to deal with it.

Keying the repeater is just "using the repeater" He wants you to ID with your call sign when you first use the repeater and then again when you are done using the repeater. If you are talking with someone a long time, every 15 minutes you need to ID using your call sign. That's just standard FCC protocol. Radios are capable of putting out multiple sets of tones to activate or ID or call another radio. And there's a thing called a Roger Beep that usually goes off when you release the PTT button to let the other party know you are done talking. It takes the place of saying "over" at the end of each conversation. Since you are new to the radio world it's very doubtful you have any of these programmed into your radio other than the PL tone which is used to activate the repeater.

10MHz But after reading the regulations it sounds like no one can use this.

So what's the channel spread? Or is it a free for all within that 150 MHz band?

So when 4 and 5G go down it's dead?

I couldn't remember what channel they were on.

My wife for whatever reason has decided she likes the walkie talkies because they are "fun". Right now she mostly uses the base station and we have communication between my house and my shop. Yes, we have phones, but me being "one of them" I dislike having all of my digital communications stored forever in Utah. I like being able to lift up the talkie and press one button to communicate with my wife. No multi button presses, waiting for a pick up. At times now I have to scroll down quite a ways to find my wifes text thread because for the most part we talk on the radio. I got them because it was something I did as a child. Figured it was fun. And even if my wife didn't enjoy them I still do. We have an active repeater and I talk with some of them characters on it. It's definitely a 2nd communication source that isn't reliant on others. It's getting to the point that I carry the talkie around with me more than I do my phone.

It's been 4 months since I put up my repeater and I just realized there is another repeater 7 miles away on 600. In that 4 months I don't think I've heard them use it once. They also have a repeater on 625 and those antennas are either on the same tower or within 100 yards of one another. That repeater I knew existed because it's also on 625, the same channel as one of the repeaters on a mountain that has a 50 mile range. The mountain top repeater went up after the other 625. Probably because it's not used that often. And the mountaintop 625 isn't used that often either.

Ya... I'm 60ft above sea level and in very hilly areas. Add 40 ft to that for the antenna. The shop where the repeater is, is 160' ASL and another 40' for the antenna. I'm by the river so I'm in a valley with "mountains" on either side of me 5-8 miles out. I air quoted mountains because there is nothing higher than 700ish ft around here but that's enough to have a sharp kill to my signal. I can go north and south for 25 miles each but not with a strong signal because of multiple smaller hills and trees galore.

I put up the wristwatch walkie talkie thread and it seemed to spark some interest in radios you've had. So list'm here. Radio Nostalgia of days past when you were just a youngster or just starting out at whatever age to remember your radios of the past whether they be plain jane simple HTs to CB and ham radios of the past. Myself I had a GE pair of walkie talkies. Pull up antenna, on/off volume and PTT were what you had. When I got a bit older I ended up with a few CB radios and I think the last was a 40 CH SSB Midland. And I think this was the one I had but I'm not positive.

Maybe I was wrong about Radio Shack. Because it was this walkie talkie I owned. A GE. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1566874310/general-electric-walkie-talkie-model-no?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=realistic+walkie+talkie&ref=sr_gallery-1-11&pro=1&content_source=1e7d35687412d382575f6798675b27afaeac1be3%3A1566874310&organic_search_click=1

Or after you use it once it should store your radio parameters locally so you don't have to do it over and over.

Are you logged into the bluetooth programmer? My TDH3 doesn't show up unless I log in and have an active internet connection.

Mine were from Radio Shack. Don't remember if they were Tandy's though. Or just something they found to sell. They were olive, black and tan colored but not in a camo pattern. On/off/volume with no squelch other than built in. They took a 9 volt battery.

Or you could have a 30x20 pixel screen

Bad enough when you have a digital radio on the same frequency intermittently. Can't imagine a video stream

It's an FRS power GMRS on your wrist. I bet kids would love them. I remember walkie talkies in my childhood. They could do 100 feet to 100 yards at the very best. They were big with a huge antenna and the sound quality stunk. This little wristwatch HT would take those old fashion HT to the floor.

I think it said it was rated for 92MPH. That's a pretty stiff breeze. Can't wait to hear what you think of it. Eventually I'll get my 712EFC up in the air.

But is it worth it... 12dB during hurricanes and tornadoes.

That's how all of the low cost cell providers work. My brother was using one of these systems and it rarely shows. But during holidays and such it's dramatic. People sending pictures to their loved ones and having a good time. He sends pictures and they show up hours later, not seconds or minutes. I don't think he ever lost the ability to talk but his data moving portion took a huge hit.