Lscott

I guessed as much after watching it. It's still funny. I can believe the dim wits at CNN however would have reported the story if it was "leaked" to them with out "Fact Checking" it first.

More like CNN’s credibility just exploded. I can see them being this stupid and air something like this.

That’s a reasonable price compared to the DB-420.

A buddy at my Thursday night coffee group was looking at prices for a high gain commercial grade repeater antenna for his Ham setup at a school. Not cheap. https://www.commscope.com/globalassets/digizuite/262263-p360-db420-b-external.pdf

Could be that somebody found a stash of NOS, new old stock, radios and sold them cheap. So it could still be the real product. Stuff like this shows up frequently on the Internet for sale. The two dPMR Icom radios I just purchased were exactly that, NOS. https://www.ebay.com/itm/176042045136?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D273572%26meid%3Dfe82695556ef49c49ba4de76ff1ad7d7%26pid%3D101949%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D176042045136%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2WithMLRV6RankerPricelessTop30Features%26brand%3DIcom&_trksid=p4375194.c101949.m162918&_trkparms=parentrq%3A0b1caf4e1920aab15d09d582ffffdf46|pageci%3A2410f570-76a4-11ef-a163-4a97914dfa9b|iid%3A1|vlpname%3Avlp_homepage So if these are really clone rip-offs of Icom's design, as was suggested, have these shown up anywhere else in the world? Last possibility is the Israelis had a stock of these in a warehouse they were never going to use and heard that Hezbollah was in the market for buying cheap two-way radios. So, they doctored them up a bit and sold them through a middle man to hide the source.

PETN - Its Discovery and Properties The high explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate was first synthesized in 1894 at the Rheinish-Westfälische Sprengstoff Company in Germany by a chemist researching the nitration process of pentaerythritol in a high concentrationof nitric acid. The resulting explosive was collected, tested, and found to have a very fast rate of detonation, high density, and good chemical stability, making it an ideal substance for military use. Unfortunately, at that time there was no means available to mass-produce the raw ingredient pentaerythritol. PETN thus remained a laboratory interest until World War II, when it was used in ammunition, bombs, and other fragmention devices. During this time, Germany produced as much as 1,440 tons of PETN per month, with the USA and the USSR following suit. Still manufactured on a large scale, PETN remains one of the most powerful conventional explosives ever developed, rivaled only by HMX and RDX. The military, as might be expected, is the largest user of PETN, with annual purchasing well over 2,000 tons. Nonmilitary use is primarily limited to demolition work and as a booster material for secondary explosives such as ANFO, dynamite, etc.

They're nice but finding the software for them is a bit harder than I've experienced for Kenwood. Maybe I'm biased since I have a pile of Kenwood radios and a huge collection of the programming software. I have picked up a few Icom radios. Reason why I did is they were available and dPMR digital enabled, which is a mode I was looking for. I just ordered a second UHF model from the same seller last night so I'll have at least two identical radios on UHF and one for VHF. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/500-ic-f3162dt-front-and-back-sidepng/?context=new

Oops. I just purchased a second Icom from a seller in the Middle East. Now at least I have two identical radios. The digital mode is almost unheard of here. It’s widely used in Europe. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/500-ic-f3162dt-front-and-back-sidepng/

Good id!

Here are links to the manuals. https://ia801600.us.archive.org/34/items/icom-1f70f2/IC-V82_U82.pdf https://manualmachine.com/icom/icv82/7762010-service-manual/

However in one photo the front doesn’t match the brochure. Of course there is nothing saying they are all using the same model. I did find a source where some image processing was done on the label to get a better view of the model number.

From some news reports it’s claimed the radios are Icom IC-V82’s. Or a fake clone of that model. http://www.icombj.com/download/brochure/IC-V82_U82.pdf

To get those good deals on the more desirable models one has to be a real picky and very patient shopper. For example I spotted an ad on eBay for 3 new-in-box Kenwood NX-300 FM/Digital radios for $100 each. I got one. A few minutes later someone else grabbed the other two. The ad was up for less than an hour! https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/251-nx-300jpg/?context=new The mobile in that series is an NX-800. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/09_NX-700-800Brochure.pdf

Some of the Kenwood gear spans a range from HT’s through mobile models in one series. That facilitates sharing programing between models in the same series. You also need just one radio programming software too.

I don't have a better idea, but the IC-V85 looks too short and squat to me. That’s what I thought too. Need a good photo reference collection to look through for potential better matches.

They could try these.

Hummmm..... The radio looks suspiciously like the IC-V85. https://rigreference.com/storage/manuals/icom/IC-V85_ham_brochure.pdf--5baad248bbbf77.42163411.pdf https://icomuk.co.uk/files/icom/PDF/productManual/IC-V85.pdf The tag isn't that readable but it looks like the model number is IC-XXX, a 3 character model number. The antenna port is on the side shown in the photo. Plus it seems to be a BNC type which is only on much older radios. I'm guessing the top part of the antenna is broken off leaving just the base screwed on to the BNC connector. The rubber side port cover looks the same. You can just make out two tiny nubs that fit into the two pin connector on the side. Also the strap holding is the same style. There is a notch in the chassis that likely mates up with the battery pack connections. Seems to be similar too. All I can say is it looks close. Look at the diagrams in the user manual and you'll see other similarity. Anybody have a better guess?

Hey, it adds a new element to the thread and keeps it from getting stale.

Can anyone identify the Icom radio model from the photo? Note the serial number was cut out of the tag on the radio on the left side of the photo. I'm guessing the antenna port is the silver thing on the left. Most of the Icom radios have the antenna port on the other side. Plus it only has one visible knob on the top which should narrow down the model. It could be an air band or a VHF marine band radio, since those seem to be primarily the Icom models that would have the antenna port on that side. https://www.atlanticradiocorp.com/collections/icom-portable-radios?srsltid=AfmBOop8gMs5sD9LSqWHCyBfgpZmtLuaE0mSdNQXEfZYr5fFQ9axPeCm

Reminds me of the story of the interrogator walking in to the cell of a soon to be executed terrorist and gave him a box of condoms. The terrorist thanked the interrogator for thinking of him. The interrogator looked at the terrorist, smiled, and said they weren't for him, but for the 72 virgins where he would soon be going to.

I think that falls under the:

Just an update. I was mistaken. Both use channel codes. However the algorithm used by dPMR doesn’t yield the codes listed in the standard for dPMR446. At least from my reading of the documentation for both. I did some spreadsheets to generate the channel codes based on frequency as shown in the dPMR standard. They don’t match the ones listed in the dPMR446 standard unless I missed something. The standards document for dPMR446 is ETSI TS 102 490 While the one for dPMR is ETSI TS 102 658 ETSI TS 102 658 V2.6.1 (2019-01).pdf ETSI TS 102 490 V1.9.1 (2016-08).pdf

What was the principal reason for the disqualification?

We have a new employee in my department at work. He is a Canadian citizen and commutes daily between Windsor Ontario and Detroit Michigan area but lives in Canada. At some point he wants to get his Canadian Ham license. I suggested for the moment he could get a US GMRS license. The Canadian "GMRS" service is more like our FRS service in the US, with frequencies, power limits and no license requirements. From my reading of the FCC rules so long as he's 18 years old or more, has a social security number and not a representative of a foreign government he can apply for and get a FCC GMRS license. Is my reading correct? If so is anyone here a non US citizen and obtained a GMRS license?

A 5/8 wave needs a really good ground plane for a good match, and to get the claimed gain increase. A 1/2 wave in general are ground independent, i.e. they don’t need a ground plane, thus you can mount them just about anywhere. If all you need is reaching some local repeaters a cheap 1/4 wave would work fine. It does need a small ground plane. The antenna is about 6 to 7 inches tall, which means you might get your vehicle in a garage, drive throughs, not catching tree branches etc. and worry about ripping it off the roof. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/338-cheap-14-wave-gmrs-antenna/?context=new