Lscott

Instead of wasting so much time buying cheap junk Chinese radios on eBay just get a pair of commercial rated HT’s and be done with it. I’ve purchased several of the below radios on eBay. Yeah, bit more expensive, if you shop you can score a good deal, and they “just work”.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/J-pole_antenna

That’s a real shame. This is one case where a special class of GMRS license could be issued by the FCC. It would be strictly for a repeater to be used by park guests. All individuals would still be required to have their own GMRS license however. An alternative solution is to license a business class license for a repeater. Park guests would sign an agreement requesting permission to use that frequency and program it into their radio, likely for a fee, if their radio supports it. Those that don’t have the ability can rent a cheap radio already setup.

Those little radios can get addictive. Trust me on that point.

You have a ground floor unit or a multilevel unit building? If you have a top floor unit up several levels all you need do is clear the roof line. That’s effectively a small tower, better than what a lot of other people have.

At least any you know about. Doesn’t imply there are none.

https://manuals.repeater-builder.com/Kenwood/tk/TK-8180/TK-8180-8189(E)_B51-8714-00.pdf https://manuals.repeater-builder.com/Kenwood/tk/TK-8180/TK-8180_sup.pdf

The FCC got burned on the FRS/GMRS mess. They’re not eager to repeat that mistake.

And that is the issue. You keep reading the forums here and you quickly realize there’s enough people who know the rules but simply ignore them by using uncertified equipment, modified radios etc. just because they can and it’s “convenient” to do so. As long as that attitude persists the FCC will never go along with the idea of a multi service radio. Why? Because once they have it it still won’t be enough so they will push envelope further. There’s no end to it.

When I looked at the FCC certification grants they were for Parts 95E, GMRS, and Part 15, which is usually all you see for Ham gear.

If you can find a radio that works and cheap that’s great. Usually the cost cutting is in the receiving section. The really cheap radios suffer from poor selectivity and desense from strong nearby sources. You get what you pay for, and sometimes not even that.

Most people might volunteer their time and some effort. When it comes to their wallet that’s a different issue. That’s where handing out FRS radios may work better. The volunteers don’t have spend money, the radios are relatively cheap. Tell someone they have to spend $100 on a real GMRS radio, plus another $35 for the license, they might use a few times a month, or until they get bored and quit, isn’t going to fly. Those who are really serious will get their own radio and license.

Perhaps later firmware revisions will make a significant change in the radio’s function addressing the possible use of the radio on both services at the same time.

The FCC is cracking down on radios that are certified Part 90 but have front panel programming enabled. I believe the Part 90 rules prohibit users to have access to any frequency programming controls. So they CYA themselves by locking out the feature. You then need to specifically enable it through a menu setting or the programming software.

That’s not a problem. The GMRS users have to ID. The FRS guys don’t. Main difference is FRS has no access to the repeater input frequencies.

I would be very surprised if it’s really a fully functioning Ham and GMRS radio. That would lead to the exact same mess the FCC created with the combo FRS/GMRS radios before the 2017 rule changes. Almost nobody got the required GMRS license to use the GMRS exclusive channels. Now with this radio someone pays their $35 for the GMRS license and now they’re all over the Ham bands just because the radio is enabled to work there.

Is there an FCC ID on the radio? If so could look up the grant and see what services it’s certified to operate. I can’t see it doing both Ham and GMRS with out some “magic” done with secret button presses or programming software hacks.

1. Tell them not to waste their money buying CCR’s off Amazon for $25. Get a good quality radio. 2. When multiple people are on the same channel/repeater participating in a group discussion to use a simple round table operating format to keep things organized. Everyone gets a turn to talk. 3. In a round table, or just two, delay a few seconds before keying up. Give a breaking station time to jump in, ID, and joint the conversation.

The principal is based on generating a high frequency AC current in a copper “coil”, for lack of a better term, in close proximity to the surface that’s to be heated. The high frequency magnetic field induces a current flow in the surface of the metal. The depth the current penetrates depends on the frequency. The higher the frequency the closer the current remains to the surface, skin effect. Since the metal has resistance heat is generated from P=R*I^2 effect. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/pdf/doi/10.1201/9781315117485-3 https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT22A6083.pdf

And you still have people questioning the relevance of Ham radio in an emergency.

Schematic http://static2.rigreference.com/manuals/kenwood/kenwood-th-75-schematic-diagram.pdf Service Manual http://static2.rigreference.com/manuals/kenwood/kenwood-th-75-service-manual.pdf User Manual http://static2.rigreference.com/manuals/kenwood/kenwood-th-75-user-manual.pdf The manuals have the Kenwood part numbers you need. Then try searching on places like ebay for them.

Very unlikely. Two different services and the frequencies are hugely different. You should read the past threads on this forum about the possibility of buying a multi-service radio. The probability of the FCC allowing that is zero.

That didn’t stop the idiot. He complained about a high frequency current transformer that we custom designed and build internally. He said it was unnecessary what we did. I explained carefully why it was done that way. Nope. Talked to the head of our standard products group to let him show us how it’s done just to prove his point. Spent a week on it. Installed it. Just like I told him it didn’t work for the exact reason I told him before why it won’t.

That attitude isn’t just confined to forums. Years ago our company had a service engineer who thought he knew more about the high power inverters we use on the heat treat systems the company sells. Got into an argument with me more than once. Didn’t matter I was the main R and D engineer that designed it.

Apparently they, IBM, didn’t. They screwed up in multiple ways with the development and marketing of OS/2. Then, M$ had their own agenda, which didn’t align with IBM’s, and were responsible for part of the joint development effort. I haven’t seen that one, the documentary.