Lscott

At a press conference on August 12th, 1986, US President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

The only thing I see that has any chance of changing is allowing the use of Part 90 radios on GMRS. And that's still a VERY BIG if. Allowing the use of Part 90 radios would acknowledge what's been going on for years, and would make the practice legitimate. All those used wide-band only LMR radios would find a new home on GMRS. They would be a better and higher quality alternative to the CCR's out there. The fly on the butter are the radios need programming. Since GMRS was aimed for non technical users how one would placate the FCC's concerns over missed programmed Part 90 radios causing interference to other services has to be addressed. That won't be easy to do.

Have you considered using a VM, virtual machine, to run an older version of Windows? You can try VirtualBox. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads Then for a Windows install try here. https://winworldpc.com/library/operating-systems Win 2000 might be a good pick. If you need something more recent you'll have to poke around and look for a pirate copy. Then an "activator" might be required. VirtualBox works well. I've tried several versions of Linux, which I'm using now to post to the forum, and various versions of Windows, Win 98 up through Win 10 Pro for example. The Linux VM's are used when I'm getting software from questionable sites. The Window VM I use for testing the software. If it come with a "free" virus I just dump the VM and restore my saved clean copy. No big deal. Some software likes to grab the network card MAC address, hard drive serial number etc. as a form of copy protection. If that software is installed on a VM you can copy the VM to a different physical computer and it doesn't know the difference. I have a friend who does that with some expensive programmable logic controller software. He's moved it to several different laptops and it still works just fine.

I think that was very common on 40M. Now I think the band has more or less been "harmonized" to eliminate that mess.

I have a buddy who deliberately setup a cross band repeater, 2M/70cm, since he had the radios and a dual band antenna. Nice thing about it is you don't need an expensive set of tuned cavity filters, just a decent duplexer you can buy for $50-$75. Switching frequency is as simple as changing the channels on the radios, no filters to re-tune. Yup. After a while the mics all start looking the same.

This topic and post isn't as silly as it sounds. Being near the Canadian border it's entirely possible to contact a "foreign" station on GMRS from the US side. So, this is of interest. One can research the topic by going to the Canadian site, their FCC equivalent, and look over the rules. https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/spectrum-management-telecommunications/en The point about contacting an amateur station using a GMRS radio is very possible, and cross communication can be done without modified equipment on either end. And yes this topic does pop up on this forum occasionally. Most Ham radios can be programmed to operate in split band mode, i.e. transmit on one frequency and receive on another. This would be similar to using a repeater shift. Some can actually do cross band operation, say between 2M and 70cm. The better GMRS radios have the ability to "monitor" a priority frequency while sitting on a valid GMRS channel. Others have a dual watch function, effectively dual receive. The scheme works by programming the radio to transmit on a legal frequency for the licensed service while receiving on the other one. This way neither operator is transmitting out of band, nor using modified equipment. The rules are written such that this kind of operation is prohibited, i.e. cross service communications or what could be considered "one way" transmissions since no reply is expected on the licensed band, the transmission originated from, from the other station.

Sort of like those gang bangers you see in movies holding the pistol sides-ways. A character remarked to the gang banger how stupid it was since the ejected hot shell casing would hit them in the face.

That's a real problem. I've monitored security people at various malls where I go. I have to crank up the volume to hear anything, then the other party comes on the air and blows out my eardrums. People who are required to use radios for communications on the job should get trained on proper communication technique. I see ding-dongs with the radio on the belt and speaker-mic hanging over the shoulder. Then they look to the side opposite of where the speaker-mic is and press the PTT button and can't figure out why they get constant requests to repeat their last transmission because you can't hear them. Dah!

Three. When one is lazy and holds the microphone 3 feet away from their mouth.

People talk about equipment choices, but that's not the only thing. Some new Hams are interested in using their new found ability to communicate in a volunteer capacity. A few guys I know like to work at various parades, marathons, take part in emergency training drills etc. In fact one buddy just took part in an "active shooter" training drill conducted at the major regional airport a couple of days ago. Others are involved with "SkyWarn", "Races" and "CERT" groups. https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/ https://www.usraces.org/ https://community.fema.gov/PreparednessConnect/s/article/Keeping-Lines-of-Communication-Open-CERT-Ham-Radio He's also a volunteer "first responder", plus uses his skills to build communication command vehicles used by local Ham clubs and some cities. I've seen a few of his projects he's worked on. Top notch work and VERY professionally done too.

It really boils down to the user/operator/programmer of the radio. If a non certified radio is carefully programmed to meet the exact frequency, bandwidth and power limits of the service it would be very unlikely to be distinguishable from an officially certified radio. However the services are primarily aimed for the general public that has little to no technical knowledge of radio theory. Thus the certification rules are designed to physically limit the radio's operation to avoid interference to other services due to accidental miss adjustment of the radio if access was allowed to arbitrary, freely, adjustable frequency, power and bandwidth settings. So, in general the rules are such that a lay person could simply buy a certified radio, turn it on, and immediately use it without the possibility of disrupting other services. Do people use opened up Ham gear, non certified commercial gear etc. on the various Part 95 services, yes, but the smart ones won't admit to it in a public forum, and they are very careful how they program their radios to avoid interference and disruptive operations. They usually have the necessary technical expertise to do so.

I would suspect most, if not all, GMRS radios have a power setting function. I know on my commercial grade radios I can switch between 4/5 watts to a low of 1 watt when I don't need the higher power. Note FRS is limited to a max of 2 watts on most of the channels and as low as 0.5 watts on a selected number of them per FCC rules.

While the TH-8600 is smaller than a TK-8180 you might try a similar idea. I used one of the weighted bases for a GPS unit as the base. The weight kept it in the swallow recess on the dash of my Jeep at the time to keep it from sliding off. The weighted base also had a rubber mat on the back to keep it from slipping much as well. Also maybe using some Velcro strips on the dash might work too. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/414-th-8600-on-mountjpg/?context=new

In the above case you might want to look at the this antenna. It will handle both Ham and GMRS. Also if you have a VHF MURS enabled radio it will work with that too. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/268-ca-2x4sr/?context=new The antenna is available in UHF and NMO type mounts. There is an optional spring loaded bottom element which will save you some possible roof and or antenna damage if it hits something like low tree branches. A number of people on the forum have had good results using it. Note it is a BIG antenna and does require a good ground plane to get the claimed gain and SWR match range.

I wish I did. I only have a couple of Motorola XPR-6580's for 900MHz and just got a used Kenwood NX-411. Both are hand held radios that do maybe 2.5 to 3 watts on the band. Neither one takes direct programming of frequencies in the Ham 33cm band without doing some hex editing of the programming software for the Motorola or the code plug for the Kenwood. I published a manual how-to for the NX-411 on another group. A fellow Ham there is writing a custom utility to automate the code plug hex editing based on what I discovered how Kenwood encrypts the code plug contents. https://groups.io/g/AR902MHz/topic/hex_editing_kenwood_dat_files/108936914 The main issue with a 900MHz mobile radio is the significantly higher losses in the coax cable. You think it's bad on GMRS/Ham 70cm, wait till you see the numbers at 902/927 MHz. For example if I used the typical 17 feet of RG-58, usual for mobile antenna installs, I would see a 41 percent power loss at 902 MHz. My 2.5 watt HT would get 1.46 watts to the antenna.

Do you see getting an amateur radio license in the future too? That will change the antenna recommendations a bit. Those that do usually ask if there is one antenna that will work for both services. Some other important info would be the usual application, like just around the town use, off roading etc. Also do you need to park in a garage, need to pass through drive-through windows etc.? Some of the nice mobile antennas are rather tall and don't like low over head hanging obstructions.

With money being tight you can try visiting the local dollar store and see what they have. You won’t be spending much. You might find something you can use with some modifications to allow quick mounting to a window still, hand rail etc. and take down quick when done. I’ve used a number of things when I had to live in an apartment for some years. Even tried a magnet mount on the air conditioner mounted in the wall. Put the antenna on the outside and routed the cable through the case to inside of the unit.

If it was so simple we wouldn't get any business here.

Looks like you might need guy ropes on the car instead of the mast when the wind picks up.

Oops. I have an older Comet antenna, CA-2x4MB, no longer manufactured unfortunately, that was really wide banded. I think it was better than the 4SR. No ground plane too. Looks like a higher gain version of the 4SR but taller. Even on my Mazda SUV I have to look out for low tree limbs while driving around. The one in the photo is over 20+ years old. I have a spare still in the green Comet bag they come in that's never seen the outside world. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/471-mobile-mount-with-antenna-rear-view/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/469-antenna-collectionjpg/?context=new

It's a 5/8 wave design thus a bit fussy with the ground plane. Used one with a home made ground radial setup. I bent the radials at about a 45 degree angle. An SWR sweep showed a decent match. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/268-ca-2x4sr/?context=new

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/265-never-enough-antennas-on-mobilejpg/?context=new

Did it look something like this? https://imgur.com/eUWMHhA