Lscott

Yes. That was similar to the remark by the VE I had talked to. He said it was a technical rule violation, BUT the FCC would simply ignore it and no action taken. I guess I should have explained it better. There is what the rules say, then there is what really happens in practice.

Most people would point out emergency communications. However there there are some specific requirements that must hold. In the end it's still up to the FCC if they think the transmission was a rule violation or not. So, the safe answer is no. I had a short discussion about this with a VE once. He said it was a question people frequency got wrong. I even thought it was OK. The sections in the Part 97 rules I found makes no mention about unlicensed operators using an amateur stations in an emergency. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/97.403 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/97.405

They do if there is enough money exchanging hands.

If you and all of your buddies don't have Amateur licenses then NO you can't use the Ham repeaters under any condition. If you and all of your buddies don't have a GMRS license, or operating under the license of a qualifying family member, then NO you can't use any GMRS repeaters either. Messing around on the Ham repeaters will likely get you nailed fairly quickly. Why? Because Hams have a sport they call "Fox Hunting." Some are VERY VERY good at it and have some expensive equipment specifically for direction finding use. It's a popular sport. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmitter_hunting https://www.arrl.org/direction-finding The guys with the Doppler direction finders can get a directional fix in seconds with a decent signal. It's very similar to the old "LoJack" system used by police. https://radiodirectionfinding.wordpress.com/wat-is-een-amplitude-rdf/

As an example. One would think in a modern country like the UK monitoring like we do here, basically everything, is legal. Nope. https://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mtlaws_may04.html

You would be shocked to see how many people don't know this fact. I can imagine US tourists using their FRS radios while the ship is docked in a foreign port and those frequencies are used by the local fire and police.

Not all Kenwood radios you can program out of the official band split. One notable example is the NX-411. That radio can be used on the Ham 33cm band. The programming software simply won't accept the out of band entry like most of the other KPG radio programming packages for Kenwood. This particular radio required hex editing the code plug. I wrote up the procedure and posted it on another forum. A fellow Ham, a computer professional, used that to write a custom utility to automate the process. Oh, hex editing is your only option if you're stuck with any of the Kenwood "ProTalk" radios. Those allow ONLY a limited selection of discreet frequencies to be selected in the programming software. The hex editing process is similar to the one used on the NX-411 I mentioned. That's why I stay away from the "ProTalk" models no matter how good the deal, price, looks. Not worth the trouble, unless you plan to program it once and never touch it again. How to Hex edit Kenwood code plugs - 20241011.pdf

I thought I read somewhere the audio popping was due to the DSP core on the radio chip switching digital gain control settings. Apparently some manufactures have figured out how to mitigate the problem. The attached files are for the ROC, radio on a chip, used in the UV-5R radios for reference. Note other well known radios use a similar radio on a chip design, but with much better front end filtering etc. Examples are the Motorola XPR7550's which some won't use anything else, and the newer Kenwood NX-1K series. RDA1846 - Edited.pdf RDA1846 Programming Manual.pdf SCHEMATIC Baofeng UV-5R.pdf

Oh well. Don't feel bad some of us are engineers, and have an excuse for poor spelling, but we can do Math OK: 1 + 1 = too.

I can't say with any degree of certainty that mounting the antenna over the solar panels will result in any negative effects. My point was to mention there could be some. The sure test is try out a temporary installation. That could be as simple as a magnet mount sitting on the cross bar while parked. If there is any issue with the charge controller it should show up as soon as you key up the radio at high power. You would monitor the output of the charge controller for any anomalous behavior. I have a couple of these to monitor the output of some panels I have and the charge going into the battery bank, or discharge out of it. If you don't have one I highly recommend you get it for testing and monitoring. I got the version with the Anderson Power poles. They also have them with the MC4 PV panel connectors too. https://powerwerx.com/watt-meter-analyzer-inline-dc-bare-wire https://powerwerx.com/watt-meter-analyzer-inline-dc-powerpole https://powerwerx.com/watt-meter-analyzer-inline-dc-mc4

That could be a rather interesting install. The solar cells are basically diodes so I'm not really sure how that would affect any RF that would reflect off them, if at all. Then there is the issue about any RF getting into the charge controller, oops. The cells might tend to rectify the RF. The rectified waveform would be rich in harmonics so there is a remote chance the installation would be a rolling RF interference generator. I know some have tracked down very strange RF noise issues which were later found out to be caused by rusted metal junctions, again acting like a diode, on a tower generating the harmonics. Yes this can happen. In WWII GI's made "Fox Hole" crystal radios using a razor blade for the diode detector. The metal "cat whisker" on the blue coating, which is really an oxide of iron, formed the PN junction.

I’ve also tried it on various Kenwood HT’s. Some you can “push” to operate way out of band, others not so much. For example I have a NX-320 450-520 band spilt radio. The PLL won’t lock below 443 when I tried out a sequence of test frequencies. It does seem, from my experience, the narrower the band spilt the better luck you have running farther outside the official range. If a radio is available, some come in various band spilts so be VERY careful, with the 400-470 band spilt that’s perfect for Ham and GMRS. This seems to be more frequently found with the FM/Digital mode radios. Those are the ones I watch out for on my favorite auction site. Of course you can’t use digital voice on GMRS, at least not yet so you’re stuck with FM, but perfectly legal on the Ham bands.

Or keep it and use it for spare parts that are common with the 880-1 version. Sometimes finding spare parts for old radios is nearly impossible. That's why a few guys keep junk chassis's around to pick over.

This is the kind of detailed real world data that's useful.

These antennas are sensitive to the mount type and location. I ran an SWR scan on mine when on a roof rack type mount. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/615-ca-2x4srjpg/?context=new There is also a Diamond antenna very similar in design. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/613-nr240ca-roof-rack-mount-swr-and-photojpg/