Lscott

The first time I dropped my BTECH tri-band, a Boafeng derivative, on a cement floor it killed the audio. I had to get the radio replaced under warranty. I'm not impressed with their durability.

See attached file for a guy who tested one. Chinese Mobile Duplexer Measurements.pdf

So, for analog use I tend to reach for my trusty Kenwood TK-3170. Lately for digital, DMR, I'm using my Kenwood NX-1300DUK5. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/263-tk-3170jpg/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/?context=new Normally when I'm out I carry one or the other. Currently I'm using the NX-1300 since the mall, somerset Collection in Troy, I'm going to walk around for exorcise uses DMR for the security and house keeping. Both I typically monitor. Where I use to go, Lakeside mall which used analog only, is now permanently closed. From what I've seen the mall security uses Hytera radios. They look like the PD602I models. https://www.hytera.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/PD6i-Series_11062018_Web-1.pdf

Very true. As things stand now there is little to be gained by passing the Extra exam, other than an extra TINY sliver of spectrum on various HF bands reserved exclusively for those so licensed. Many Hams get their General now and stop there. I don’t think about mine much. I hang out on VHF and UHF so HF access isn’t a big deal. The digital voice modes are fun, and most of that activity is on UHF anyway.

When I took the General and Extra exams, that was very shortly after the FCC dropped the CW requirement. I can tell you a LOT of Hams, particularly Extra Class, were upset because the CW test wasn't easy at that level. That was about the only real skill you couldn't sit down and memorize, like the question pool, but really had to demonstrate. Once that was gone so was the prestige that went with being an Extra. It didn't take long before those who passed the Extra exam without CW were being called "Extra Lite" by those who did. After all these years you still hear it on the air at times by those still sour over the issue. That's OK, still lots of other people to talk to on the air who don't care.

Oh well, there are A-Holes in any hobby. Some show up here, unfortunately, from time to time. Hams don't don't have a monopoly on poor attitudes.

I first got my Tech Class license to begin with. Then some years later when the FCC dropped the CW requirement I sat for the General exam for a nominal fee. All I had to do was pass it first then I was allowed to take the Extra exam at the same test setting. No extra fee was charged, for the Extra exam, for that at the time. The 80 year old VE dude had a really sour look on his face since I walked in as a Tech and walked out as an Extra. Oh well.

That's sort of how they do it in Canada. https://www.rac.ca/requirements/ Our new guy in my department is Canadian, commutes between Windsor and the Detroit area everyday. He wants to get his Ham license, but it has to be through Canada. Both counties have a reciprocal operating agreement making it VERY easy and simple for Hams to operate in the other country. I think even as a Canadian he would be qualified to get a GMRS license for the US from my quick reading of the requirements. They don't have GMRS licenses in Canada. There it's more like our license free FRS service.

Yes, some are small area coverage. I didn't include those in the list. I was impressed with the machine in Mount Clemens. I was able to get full quieting running just 4 watts with an HT connected to a portable antenna at 25 feet. At the time I was in Oxford Mi for several months recovering from knee surgery.

I believe these are all linked and within about 25 miles of each other. Detroit600 https://mygmrs.com/repeater/7242 Detroit625 https://mygmrs.com/repeater/6815 Macomb675 https://mygmrs.com/repeater/6646 Then there is a wide area repeater not linked. Troy575 https://mygmrs.com/repeater/4676 With 2 channels gone due to Line-A that only leaves 2 open for the little guy to use. Pickings are getting a bit slim.

The RG-316 coax is higher loss, but you have to trade that off against the ease of installation. In a mobile setting the extra loss might not be that significant. One can do the numbers to see the trade off using different coax types and lengths. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/483-cx-5-antenna-system-analysisjpg/ https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/471-mobile-mount-with-antenna-rear-view/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/473-close-up-of-mobile-mount/ https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/474-mobile-mount-coax-routing/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/476-mobile-mount-drip-loop/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/475-mobile-mount-coax-extention-cable/?context=new

That's the kind of attitude that gets people in trouble. Particularly on Ham frequencies. Running unlicensed is a sure way to attract the wrong kind of attention. Hams are very protective of their bands and make a sport of tracking down unlicensed operators, and usually very successfully. I've seen a number of these Doppler DF systems on Ham's vehicles. http://www.kn2c.us/ You see the same sort of setup on police cars. Those are easy to spot. They are the ones with the strange 4 vertical antennas mount in a square pattern on the trunk or roof. You might get away with no license on GMRS due to all of the FRS traffic. However operating through a repeater requires a GMRS certified radio and the license to use it. That will, again, also attract the wrong kind of attention. Please keep in mind a significant number of GMRS users in the last few years are licensed Hams who may make a sport of tracking down unlicensed GMRS users on repeaters at the owners request. Some ding-dong was jamming a local GMRS repeater in my area the other day, and that was on a linked system. Bad idea. That didn't last long.

A critical part is emergency power. Forget about gasoline generators. If the power goes out even gas stations won't have power to run the pumps. When your gasoline generator runs dry it's back to square one. Back in 2003 great blackout only ONE gas station had emergency power. That one was only pumping gas for emergency vehicles and police. No exceptions. I had no power for about 3 days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003 Your options then are a natural gas powered generator. A propane powered one, at least you might fine bottled gas someplace. Or solar power with battery backup. Ideally you have a combination of the above. You can have all the radios in the world, but if the battery packs are dead, well you have a lot of paper weights.

Unless you go off the official FCC reservations above. I guess this could be another whole topic itself.

I still have one, a Kenwood TK-3701D, on my saved search lists. So far the ones I’ve seen have to be imported. I already have the software. Now I just have to find one where the seller isn’t asking $200 plus for one. It would be like paying $200 for a CCR FRS radio. Oh, another very interesting radio forum site for UK, mainly, is: https://transmission1.net That’s one I’ve been trolling through for info.

Try driving around with this monster on the roof. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/471-mobile-mount-with-antenna-rear-view/ I had this on my old Jeep. The tip would scrap the glass on the roll up door, and you know how big those are, at the oil change shop when I pulled in.

The main hangups are: 1. dPMR446 encodes a "channel ID" code in one of the super frames transmitted, where as dPMR does not. Those channel codes are listed in the standards documentation, which I've been reading, for dPMR446 for each official frequency. https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?q=etsi++ts+102+490+pdf&cat=web&language=english 2. As seen above dPMR446 uses the concept of "Common ID". In dPMR there is a range from 0 to 9999999 split, user programmable, between radio ID's and talkgroup ID's. Trying to figure out how to map radio and talkgroup ID's to "Common ID" isn't clear, or even possible. 3. Then there is the use of a wildcard character, "*", which causes dPMR446 to treat the "Common ID" differently. For number 1 above I'm not sure what the two would do with respect to the channel ID codes. The radios might just fail to work or choke with the unexpected information in one case, or missing information in the other. For number 2 above the example is for an Icom radio. However I have the software, no radio, for a Kenwood TK-3701D dPMR446 radio and it's the same way. The way it might work is setting the split range at 1 in a dPMR radio so every ID is treated as a talkgroup. I think that would reproduce the same functionality as the "Common ID" performs in a dPMR446 radio. If I can't figure out how to get this to work my second quest is finding out what the typical talkgroups, and radio, ID's used on the Ham bands are in the EU. I might as well use something that is established even if it isn't US centric. dPMR repeaters have some limited linking ability so using the same talkgroup and radio ID's would keep the confusion to a minimum. I'm sure there are some other Hams like me experimenting with these radios. After all I did purchase one from a US seller. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/500-ic-f3162dt-front-and-back-sidepng/?context=new

Maybe you need a shorter antenna. Use a short 1/4 wave around town. When out on the highway you can swap it out for the original one.

Anyone messed around with some dPMR digital radios? Note this is NOT DMR. Specifically I'm looking at what it takes to program one to intra-operate with the EU's license free dPMR446 service running 0.5 watt radios. Of course it uses our Ham 70cm band here so one would require a US Ham license to test it out. https://www.kenwood.eu/files/file/comms/uk/brochures/TK-3701D_20191030_LR.pdf https://kenwoodcommunications.co.uk/files/file/comms/uk/pmr446/PMR446-White-Paper-V6_18AUG2016_JT_KB.pdf I have just received a IC-F3162DT VHF radio, however I'm waiting on delivery of the UHF version, IC-F4162DT. The later is the one I'm interested in setting up a zone for dPMR446. The VHF radio I would just setup for general digital communications on 2M, using any established talk groups etc for the mode. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/500-ic-f3162dt-front-and-back-sidepng/?context=new The dPMR446 radios seem to use a simplified radio ID and talk group ID scheme, referred to as a "Common ID". There are a few other difference. See the standards document for the gory details: https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/102400_102499/102490/01.09.01_60/ts_102490v010901p.pdf Also has anyone stumbled another Ham using a dPMR radio on VHF or UHF? I'm interested in what talk groups are being used. Also any repeaters in the US?

AKA -> RTFM.

That's too bad. They need somebody new on the band as they pour out their frustrations with the world.

I used the below in few posts back then. A few Hams couldn't see the humor in it and got rather pissed. "You ask what Morse Code is good for? I'll tell you. Morse Code is used exclusively by Electronics Based Life Forms to communicate amongst themselves using advanced Organic Digital Signal Processors, running state of the art Artificial Intelligence Software, to perform the highly complex transmit encryption, receive decryption and error correction functions."

Sounds like a line from this movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_America I think the minor character’s name was “Fat Moe”.

This raging debate reminds me of the one over the FCC dropping the CW testing requirements for Ham licenses.

Michigan https://mygmrs.com/repeater/7242 https://mygmrs.com/repeater/6815 https://mygmrs.com/repeater/8451 Part of the Mi8 linked system. We're past "Line A", so 2 of the 8 repeater pairs are not available. With 3 being used by high power wide area linked repeaters doesn't leave much left for the little guy.