Lscott

There is a class of hams, old and young, who feel the need to feel superior in some way because they had to pass a test. Since the exams are all multiple choice now, with all the possible questions published with the correct answers, it’s no big deal. Spend some time memorizing the questions and answers is not impressive, which is what many end up doing. In years past one had to draw schematics etc. and answer questions with no published answer guide. Im not diminishing what people who have passed the various ham exams accomplished. I’m encouraged by those who want to go beyond simply memorizing the questions and answers, but want to know the underlying theory. We get those people here on this forum. We should do everything we can to make them feel welcomed and politely answers the questions they have. Snarky attitudes should have no place here.

I though I looked and didn't see them. I guess I F'd up and missed it.

You mean the one that says "Warranty Void If Removed"?

The stock market is on fire right now.

Yeah, the manufacture says the same thing when your radio thing breaks.

Think about the warranty issues.

No, but you would be surprised by how many old computers I've picked up in past years sitting by dumpsters in the apartment complex I used to live in. Grabbed a few parts out of one and stick in another, a cheap hard disk from the computer store down the street and I was all set. Loaded up a Linux system and put them on my network. Ran them for years until the power supplies died. Then took out the drives and dumped the dead carcasses in the trash bin.

On a side note been checking the vendor lists for the Hamvention in Xenia Ohio next month. https://www.make-it.ca/hamvention/ The inside booths are all sold out, or reserved. The notable thing is several of the big names are not going to be there. Alinco and Yeasu for two examples. Kenwood will be there but has a small foot print. So will Icom, and they look like they will have their usual huge display. The flea market looks like it's also mostly sold out too. This should be interesting given the crazy crap going on with traiffs right now. Hams buy a lot of imported gear of all types. Have to look and see what is going on price wise, and what kind of deals are being offered.

Reminds me of an eBay ad once. The guy was selling a used Kenwood TK-2170 VHF radio for about $10. Normally they go for $50 to over a $100. The ad copy said the radio beeps, shuts off, the boots back up when trying to transmit. Seller thought it was defective. I had a few an knew exactly what the issue was. So I purchased it. Yup, it was a nearly dead battery pack. Radio worked perfect with a fully charged one. That was a supper good deal I just couldn't pass up.

Gives me something else to look for when out at night trash picking.

I've never used it on any of my radios. As mentioned previously on a repeater you can experience hearing the tone when the transmitting party's carrier drops, but the repeater's hang time keeps the repeater in transmit mode, thus blocking you when the BCL is active. Then you get another station jumps in and you still can't get on the repeater. If someone times out the repeater, you'll know quick enough. They get cut off in mid transmission. The other parties will let the guy that got cut off know soon enough. Experienced repeater users, randomly between themselves, will occasionally let the repeater's carrier drop, thus resetting the timer. I have even heard a user specifically mention they will wait for the repeater's carrier to drop for that purpose. I rarely hear a repeater getting timed out. On simplex, yeah one might use it. But if the simplex channel is busy the other stations likely will just switch to a currently unused channel anyway. Any interference would be temporary.

That's also why I typically see P25 radios selling for ridiculously high prices. The seller seems to think everyone is going to get a piece of the government money pie to offset the higher cost. Even used P25 radios seem to be priced at a premium.

The issue of harmonics isn't as simple as it seems. Harmonics at the wrong frequency can mix with a wanted signal to generate a signal frequency which will appear in the radio's IF stage. This unwanted signal generation can even take place in the radio's front end amplifier stages before the mixer. That's why better radios have tunable front end filters before the RF amplifier stages. They can be adjusted on the fly to limit the bandwidth of the signal to just the range the radio is designed to receive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_response I've attached a section of a schematic for a very basic Kenwood TK-3360 16 channel analog only commercial radio. The signal path from the antenna to the first IF amp is the heavy black line. The electronically tuned band pass filter is in the red box. Many cheaper radios don't have this, particularly the CCR's. This is why many people prefer to use the more expensive commercial radios.

I don’t see why not. The NOAA stations TX 24/7 using wide band FM so any radio that can receive the frequency should work. Also you really don’t need a squelch setting if you’re close enough. Plus you shouldn’t be using any kind of tone either.

So is the tariff levy on the wholesale or retail value? If it’s the wholesale value for sure then the price for just about all imported consumer goods might not go up nowhere near where the fear peddling media wants the public to believe.