Lscott
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Posts posted by Lscott
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4 hours ago, Sshannon said:
An antenna with radials mounted to the top of a hard hat really seals the deal!
Well this got a lot of comments from people and photos taken at the Hamvention last May. The match was about 1.1:1 or so at our group frequency of 448.5MHz. It’s a 1/4 wave design. Ran DMR at 1 watt so the average power was about 0.5 watts.
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2 hours ago, WRXE944 said:
Does your 878 do GMRS/MURS too?
It’s a dual band radio. Using the right passcode in the programming software allows changing the band limit configuration to cover the required frequency range.
The important question is it legal to use the radio to transmit on those services. Without qualification the answer is no. Anybody who does should understand this fact. After that it’s up to them what they choose to do. It’s not my job to play the part of a radio cop.
About dPMR you can find info on the Internet. As far as I know there is nothing that prohibits its use here. When digging around for information on it I haven’t found a definitive reason why it’s not used in the US at least. My guess it’s just a marketing issue and more importantly which CODEC is used.
The dPMR standard has THREE different and incompatible CODECS specified with an optional vendor specific one allowed. Whereas DMR, NXDN and P25 all use a specific one, AMBE+2, regardless of manufacturer. This ensures radios using the same protocol can inter communicate between manufacturers using compliant radios. That wouldn’t be true for dPMR radios.
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5 hours ago, WRXE944 said:
Also, I believe they are the only HT option for DMR (on 2 meters and 70 cms) that also have capability for GMRS and MURS (analog, of course).
My D878 doesn’t have a problem with it either.
Myself I’ve been looking for a couple of radios that can do dPMR, which is used mainly in the EU. I haven’t seen it in North America so far. It’s very similar to NXDN but the protocol is different.
Anyway at least you didn’t get stuck with one of those crapy old Baofeng DMR radios.
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40 minutes ago, WRXE944 said:
Baofeng DM-5R
You might want to check yours.
https://radiosification.blogspot.com/2016/12/dmr-radios-to-avoid.html
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14 hours ago, Washam84 said:
I'm looking at an 12v 6ah lithium battery with a 40w panel.
You'll need the right charge controller for that battery type. You can look at these.
https://sunforgellc.com/product/gv-5/
Look under the GV-5-Li spec's tab. I think the one you want is the GV-5-Li-14.2V model for the Lithium Iron Phosphate type battery packs.
The solar panels from these guys seem to be reasonably priced. The 30 watt panel is likely the largest you would want to carry around.
https://www.renogy.com/30-watt-12-volt-monocrystalline-solar-panel-new-edition/
If you're looking at the folding semi-flexible solar panels, the ones that fold up and can fit in a backpack, those are nice, AND expensive!
https://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products
These guys are good for the battery packs. I got the 4.5 ah and the 40 ah packs.
https://www.bioennopower.com/collections/12v-series-lifepo4-batteries
I've purchased the items above myself, except the folding panels, so I do know they will work.
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33 minutes ago, kidphc said:
Covid. Combination of people stuck at home and lowering of gmrs license cost. Are big factors.
Some migrated from cb, which really is a shit storm 80-90% of the time now adays. I know of 6-7 people whom left cb and went gmrs.
Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
I'm going to guess the size of the radio with antenna has a lot to do it with it. A radio that fits in a shirt pocket with an antenna that's about 6 inches long is far more convent than a bulky 11M CB with a huge wipe stuck on top. Then you have the advantage of taking it and using it just about anywhere.
Then there is the mobile option. If one sticks to the simple 1/4 wave antenna you can still park your ride in the garage, go through the drive through window pickups etc. without having the antenna ripped off the vehicle.
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1 hour ago, WRQI583 said:
If the digital was kept to those channels, then yes, that would be the least impact, provided you don't sit in a busy area where every business and school is using all the channels. I'm not sure how other areas are. Some places are more busy with the bubble pack radios than others. NXDN looks like it would be a likely candidate with the low bandwidth.
I just hate to see anyone get negatively impacted, that's all. I happen to live in an area where they add one repeater after another, and no matter how many repeaters they add, none of them work for me when it comes to base/mobile comms. Either the base can hit the repeater and the mobile cant, or the mobile can hit the repeater and the base cant, or neither of them can, so I am limited to using simplex on one of the 8 channels, but I have to pick one that will have the least impact on all of the other GMRS users who are lucky enough to be able to float all over the state and have their base and mobile both be able to get into most or at least some of the repeaters. I just happen to be that guy who only has analog equipment and has to use simplex and that is how I invested because GMRS is analog.
But that PDF is very informative. Thanks for posting that.I had thought about the impact on FRS by using those channels. IMHO as GMRS users we pay a licensing fee to use the spectrum. In my view that should give GMRS users priority over FRS users who get to use the spectrum for free.
If FRS users also want the perk, well they can pay the fee and buy the appropriate radio.
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20 hours ago, WRQI583 said:
The point is that it will happen. My question is why Ham operators and others who want Ham radio without taking a test cant just stay on their own bands and stop trying to turn GMRS into another Ham band that they can destroy.
From my experience, DMR is not a digital voice mode that will cause an influx of users. You should hear the Hams who have a nuclear meltdown because they cant write a code plug. How many of them have floated off to Yaesu Fusion because its as simple as hitting a button and talking digital? DMR came easy to me. First time ever, I wrote a code plug like it was nothing. Not everyone is like that. Most people get confused when it comes to DMR.
The point is, GMRS is just fine the way it is. Either GMRS would need to be all digital or all analog, not a mix. If mixing digital and analog worked, I would have many more repeaters programmed in my radio, but it doesn't.IMHO allowing some form of digital voice on part, or all, of GMRS is about a better quality of service. Digital voice doesn’t really increase range to a large degree but provide a near noiseless audio signal over more of that range whereas analog FM becomes difficult to copy.
While people mention DMR IMHO that isn’t the best mode. In a prior post in this thread I posted an attachment PDF going into some detail on where and how digital voice could be added without a major disruption to existing FM operations. I would encourage you to read it. Particularly the last few paragraphs and links.
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9 hours ago, WRXE944 said:
You say that as if there is something wrong with it?
I doubt they’ll be used to speed up getting your refund check sent out.
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1 hour ago, gortex2 said:
People complain about buying a quality GMRS radio. If tomorrow the FCC says yup you can use digital what are folks going to use. DMR has been huge in for years now and other than the CCR world none of the big three make a DMR ham rig. So this means CCR junk on GMRS. Additionally same as ham if they don't specify a format folks will use whats suites them. For me P25 is the way to go. This just adds to the cluster. We can't get wideband/narrowband figured out on GMRS and folks want to add more complexity.
https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/5720-new-repeater-channels-for-gmrs-in-2024/page/2/#comment-57605
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15 hours ago, Sshannon said:
Actually, the government will always get YOUR moolah!
Yeah, and our congress critters let them hire another 87,000 government employees to collect it from you too.
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1 hour ago, WRXD372 said:
It has to be said:
Newer is not always better!
More advanced technology is not always better suited for the purpose!
It's not just the technology. As usage changes the rules need to evolve too. That's why they were changed in 2017. The FCC was fixing their earlier F'up allowing dual use radios, GMRS/FRS, in one radio to be sold. Almost nobody got the required GMRS license to use the extra channels. So, the FCC changed the rules to make it legal, and now they don't have to screw around with the enforcement issue.
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15 hours ago, WRXE944 said:
I though you wanted Hillary Clinton’s opinion!?
It's another one of the things in her basket.
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17 hours ago, gortex2 said:
I say this over and over. At least once a year folks decide we need to change GMRS to suite their needs and who cares what others do. I have been in GMRS since we rented a repeater PL. Alot has changed but in the end not much really did. analog and simple has been the game. If you want DMR or other stuff go to ham or business.
It's rather unreasonable to expect any service to remain static. Analog TV has gone basically extinct, 11M CB now has analog FM, auto manufactures are trying to eliminate AM radios in cars, the FM PMR446 license free service in the EU now allows two types of digital voice modes and so it goes.
GMRS was limited in the number of channels it could use and the changes in 2017 added more, and a few headaches. It's going to change again. It's not a question of IF but WHEN and what those changes will look like. Some of the proposals here have little to no chance of happening while some do have merit.
If GMRS doesn't evolve it will just be another dinosaur looking for the nearest tar pit.
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7 hours ago, Sshannon said:
There’s the FT70, but his collection is built on higher end hardware, isn’t it?
The radios for the most part I have are considered "mid-tier" models. I have a few high end radios like the TH-D74A
https://www.kenwood.com/usa/com/support/pdf/TH-D74A.pdf
and the D578UVII Plus,
https://powerwerx.com/anytone-atd578uviiiplus-dmr-tri-band-mobile-radio-bluetooth
I have some low end ones too.
For example I have a couple of the NX-1300DUK5's. These radios are great and included front panel programming at no additional cost.
https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/?context=new
The current high end Kenwood HT's are the NX-5000 series. Once you add in all the optional licenses for the good feature set you're likely looking at $2000 plus for an HT. Just to add the P25 option is around $500. The NXDN and DMR are far cheaper at $40 to $50 each. You want the trunking feature for each more money. Want encryption more money etc. Then the cost for the license key to enable the programming software for the radios is about $150 each. I'm not going to that extreme.
https://www.hickeycomms.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/NX5000_portable_EU_02-1016-LR.pdf
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Just now, WRUU653 said: I’m not falling for that p.s. congrats
Seriously I have to quit buying radios. I have two of this model already. This last one gives me three. I also have three of the UHF models too.
The only Ham digital mode I don’t have a radio for yet is System Fusion. I might not be able to resist and get one sooner or later.
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New to GMRS, somewhat disappointed
in General Discussion
Posted
It should be legal to use on the Ham bands here. It’s an open standard that’s published so nothing is secret about it.
I would imagine it’s also legal for Part 90. It’s a FDMA modulation emission, just like NXDN which is already used here, but the frequency shifts are a bit different and the digital protocol is too. The bandwidth is the same as the very narrow NXDN mode and fits into the same 6.25KHz channel allocation. The occupied bandwidth of both is only 4KHz.