sifert

Simple solution: raise the price of advertising to cover whatever costs you incur. The Grateful Dead didn't get rich by nickel-and-diming people with tapes/records/CDs—they sold concert tickets exceeding $300 apiece because their free music became infinitely more ubiquitous than if they restricted it to just record buyers. The lower the barrier to grow your GMRS community, the higher price you command for advertisers who want a piece of your community. If you make it indispensably valuable to us, we become indispensably valuable to you.

Touché

Well it's now official and the rules take effect Oct. 28, 2021 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/09/28/2021-19399/review-of-the-commissions-personal-radio-services-rules

I see what you guys mean, sorry to sound like a troll. @berkinet, I just discovered what Q-codes are, and there's a reason why nobody knows the definition of QRP... because there isn't one. I had to go find on the Wikipedia page this info: "Q" has no official meaning, but it is sometimes assigned with a word with mnemonic value, such as "Queen's" (e.g. QFE = Queen's Field Elevation), "Query", "Question", or "reQuest". I now realize that this topic is beyond the scope of this forum, but for the record the definition of QRP is: "Q-code: Reduce Power" Lastly, @marcspaz what do you mean by a snooty entitlement attitude?

(Regarding above post Lots of answers available if you google "qrp radios") This is exactly my point when I said that "the community is very inviting in a go-figure-it-out-yourself way." I first Googled the exact text Marcspaz mentioned: 7 MHz (40 meter) HF QRP radio. Lots of results, but no definition of QRP that spells out the acronym. Then I Googled "qrp radios" like you say. Lots of results, but no definition of QRP that spells out the acronym. I went to the first ARRL result, this page. This page talks all about QRP, but never actually says what QRP actually is. The entire article assumes the reader knows what "QRP" stands for. Not only is this really bad for newbies... but it's also bad for the entire myGMRS.com domain. Why, you ask? Because guess who else is a total newbie? ...Googlebot! Thus, if myGMRS.com wants to be useful, helpful, and the go-to source for all things GMRS and all of its subtopics such as discussions about "QRP," then it behooves the entire myGMRS.com community to stop assuming. While Google is listening, understand that Googlebot is a search robot with an unprecedented memory, but less intelligence than a kindergartener. It only knows what we tell it. And it looks like no one ever told it what "QRP" stands for... and I bet if someone here on myGMRS.com took the time to spell it out and define what QRP stands for and what it means, then within a few days that post on myGMRS.com will rank #1 for most users in the world who are searching for "qrp radios" or even "what does qrp stand for."

This is awesome. I had no idea this was possible! Since this is the first time I've heard about this, I have some questions: What does QRP mean? (When I talk to newbies in my profession, I s-p-e-l-l o-u-t all acronyms when talking or writing so we don't waste time with the back-and-forth questions). What are some examples of these radios? I mentioned n9taxlabs.com's roll-up slim jim antenna, but is that an example of the toss-in-a-tree antenna you speak of if I get one for the 7 Megahertz (Mhz) frequency? What is an example of a small 35 amp-hour (AH) battery?Like I alluded in original post, you speak as if we already know all the esoteric details you take for granted. No one is requiring you to respond and this is just a forum. But at the end of the day, I bet I'm not the only person who will take action based on this information, and I bet this information here will save someone's life someday. That in itself potentially puts you in the position of the reluctant hero. :-)

Marc, what part of the antenna is fiberglass and why does paracord reduce lightning risk? I thought antennas must be metal?

@berkinet @marcspaz @boxcar this is all very good info. Thank you for your responses. It helps clarify to me that the answer isn't necessarily to lead or follow as I posited, but to become a better facilitator of structuring information in a way that benefits each person in their own journey who may not even know what to ask or are too timid to ask.

See my post here because I had the same issue not knowing which antenna is best. I have no hard data on the results, but I got a 5/8 wave and a 1/4 wave antenna (I don't even know what that really means) from SmileyAntenna and they put every other antenna I've tried to shame in every terrain I've used them in.

Thank you! This is a huge step. You're actually outlining the whole shell of what's possible, defining the segments, and getting us started on the basics all in one place.

I'd rather have your expertise and there's no need for bickering. If someone knows what is best for each application, stand up and say it. The rest of us need to know when to lead, and know when to follow.

Aaaaaand speak of the devil... Sunday's Wall Street Journal article, which affirms everything I'm saying! ‘Ready for Lunch? Over.’ Walkie-Talkies Make Comeback With Folks Stuck at Home. Coronavirus lockdowns give the World War II-era device new life

I re-read what I wrote, and I agree with you; it sounds really rude! I'm sorry @jonny, et al. Here's what I meant so I should have said this: I'm new to RF and trying to learn, and you guys clearly have vast knowledge on all this. Would you mind educating me without using esoteric terms as to what this is, what it is for, why one would need it, and what it looks like? In holding my feet to the fire, this prompted me to put my money where my mouth is.

The more I learn about the FCC's General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), the more I am fascinated by RF in general. It touches everyone's lives every second of every day, yet few people pay much attention. How cool is it that after 42 years and 14 billion miles away, the 22-Watt radio on Voyager 1 is still sending data back to earth every day (how important is that antenna?). So why aren't more people interested in GMRS or RF in general? There's no test to get a license like amateur (ham) radio. It's $70 for a 10-year license, and is really easy to get started. So here are some theories. People don't know: GMRS exists Why GMRS exists Why they'd want to use GMRS How to envision themselves participating in GMRS What it takes to get started with GMRS What it takes to continue and improve with GMRS Technical information they should know about GMRS Etiquette when transmitting (TX) on GMRS What a GMRS "Net" is and why Most people within the GMRS community are helpful once you're in, but the community is very inviting in a go-figure-it-out-yourself way, and no one has assembled everything you need to know about GMRS all in one place. We GMRS people are putting the onus on outsiders to sift through thousands of painfully esoteric webpages with a winnowing fork, separating useful info from useless, poorly written, or incomplete info. When I first heard about GMRS on a 4x4 trip, I arrived home and Googled around and settled on a Midland MXT-275 because it seemed perfect for mounting on my truck dashboard. At the time, I had no idea that Midland doesn't manufacture a GMRS radio capable of operating on split-tone repeaters (Dear Midland, I know you're reading this: why do you squander so much potential?). Edit 6/28/2021: Midland heard our cry! They just updated the MXT-275 to include split-tone programming on repeater channels. So for example, now this radio is able to reach a repeater that receives (RX) incoming transmissions on 467.550 with a PL tone of 103.5 and repeats the transmission (TX) at 462.550 with a PL tone of 88.5. I didn't even know what "split tone" was or even what "tone" meant, or carrier or squelch or hundreds of other little things you all take for granted. Since then, I realized that if the big, bad manufacturers like Midland, Kenwood, Motorola, and iCom can't even invite the public to learn more and provide useful content for each stage of the customer journey—Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, and Loyalty—the 2-way radio industry has much deeper problems and aren't there to help guys like me. As we get involved deeper into GMRS, there's little-to-no hand-holding going on at each level of knowledge. I ending up relying on the Ham community here and there and a guy who is basically a saint at a little radio shop in Phoenix, Arizona (hope Tim over at Procomm and the others at the nonprofit AZGMRS.org don't mind me giving them a shout-out). Edit 4/14/2020: By the way, AZGMRS made this awesome list of FCC-approved GMRS radios that they recommend. If you live anywhere near Arizona and are reading this, now would be a great time to become a member. Their repeater network covers some 100 miles around Phoenix with more and more repeaters joining the network (check out their sweet coverage map). But it's still frustrating. I wish a GMRS expert—presumably a manufacturer—would just come out and say exactly what a total newbie needs at each stage of their involvement or level of need. Two-way radio manufacturers should stop wasting time trying to sell, and start marketing and branding, which means educating the public about the 5 W's (Who, What, Where, When, Why [+how, +how much]) without trying to sell to them. Most new users don't know what they need because they don't know what's possible. For example, I wish I knew that manufacturers don't typically include the best antenna on their radios right out of the box. It took me over a year to realize that the best bang for the buck for a portable base antenna to include in my go bag is N9TAX's Slimjim and that Smiley Antenna makes the best bang for the buck antennas for hand-held radios (which by the way, everyone just assumes newbies are supposed to know that hand-held walkie-talkie radios are called "HT" for "Handy-talkie" and what a "QSO" is). How would a newbie know that the cheap Nagoya 771 "upgrade" antenna for Baofengs that everyone talks about actually isn't the best bang for the buck for the GMRS frequency band of 462–467? How would a newbie know that antennas work best when tuned exactly to what they call a "center" frequency that accommodates 5 Megahertz in each direction (+5 and -5 Megahertz) at the expense of hearing other frequencies? I learned the hard way that in order to properly install an NMO antenna mount on the roof of my truck, I would need a drill bit specifically made for drilling NMO antenna mount holes, and that yes, it is worth the money to do it right the first time. I'm still in the middle of learning how a "quarter-wave" or "5/8 wave" antenna works, the difference between dB gain vs. dBi gain, mic gain, antenna gain, because again, everyone seems to just assume I already know what all this means. I still don't understand what antenna "tuning" means and why you have to "cut" an antenna to "tune" it. Can I make my own antenna right now in a pinch with a copper wire in my garage? Ok, show me! How do I measure it or test it? What is SWR? Can I measure it myself? What do I need in order to measure it? Is one SWR meter better than another for my level as a newbie? Is there something I should learn to make it worth buying the better meter that opens up a whole new world of capability? Is it worth learning all that? This graphic did a great job beginning to explain what dBd gain means for those of us who know next to nothing about it, but now I need to go find out on my own and sift through a thousand webpages to find out if dBd is something new I need to know. Speaking of dB, I know that "dB" is a decibel, but is it the same as my stereo volume? Why do I see manufacturers saying that the microphone and cable have a dB rating? What is going on here? This is madness! We can Google things all day, but which info is true and correct and the most helpful? I think that the entire industry is sitting on a Gold Mine of consumers sitting at home for weeks on end who would love to buy GMRS equipment and communicate via GMRS to friends, family, neighbors, and other GMRS users. Whoever provides the most useful, relevant, and engaging content that stops making assumptions about what people know or don't know will win. STOP ASSUMING. START EDUCATING.

For those of us who have absolutely no idea of what you're talking about, would you mind explaining in English what that means and maybe some photos?

I just got this Slim Jim antenna for my go bag, and the clarity it delivers even to a Btech UV-82C is so astonishing, that it could easily be used as a permanent for a decent base radio. I ordered it with the 16' cable so I could tie paracord to it and throw it over a high tree branch. If someone else has a better idea for an on-the-fly antenna, I'm all ears!

Did the research and settled on a Maxon 8402A with help from a friend. I really wish the controls were in the mic like the MXT-275. Being an SEO guy and social sentiment monitor in my profession, I know both Maxon and Midland will be reading this. And to them both, I say: Don't ignore the 1-9-90 rule! Whoever manufactures a 15-, 25-, 40-, or 50-watt GMRS radio with controls in the mic that can run split tones as @mcallahan says, will mow down the rest of the industry.

Maybe I don't know any better, but I have the MXT275 as well and have to put it in monitor mode every I time I want to hear someone respond to me via the repeater. The offset or whatever it's called is not automatic. I'm so annoyed with Midland. If anyone else starts manufacturing a truly repeater-capable mobile GMRS radio with the controls in the mic like the MXT275, it will beat everyone else since there's no reason to put controls anywhere else for vehicle applications.