Lscott

Don't even think about talking religion. ?

This topic came up a while back on the wide area GMRS repeater I used during a net chat. Most people didn't mind so long as any discussion remained "civil". That sort of surprised the net control operator/repeater owner.

I know people have a collection of radios, some digital enabled. I'm curious what digital voice modes do you have radios to operate? I want to specifically exclude hot spots, so it would be just base, mobile and HT's. Also what are the models and manufacture? It seems there are pockets of activity for different voice modes across the country including repeaters. Is the operation primary simplex, duplex through repeaters or both?

As I stated before the license requirement is there for contact purposes, not just simply used as a club by the FCC to wield their power over the masses. Of course If somebody is really messing up without the call sign who do you tell the FCC is causing a problem? It's the same logic why you're required to have a Ham call sign, license plate on your vehicle, registration number on boats and aircraft and so on.

If that's the case, just ignore the license requirement, then why would anybody bother? Lets all just say screw the FCC we don't need to get a license. No license there is no accountability.

It would be great if they said so specifically in plain language. It would open up a lot of otherwise used very serviceable equipment.

Maybe I did.

When you're using a of watts maybe not but GMRS can run up to 50 watts. That can cause a lot of problems. I don't know how many times I read the same comment. People don't understand the reason why a license is required and the use of call signs. When you're using a couple of watts maybe not The license is for getting a unique FCC assigned call sign that's in a public database that anybody can search. It has contact information in it whether it's a home address, or for the more privacy orientated people, a PO box. In either case for any issue that a radio operation causes there is a way to contact the responsible person to notify them of the problem. That's assuming the operator isn't deliberately being an A-hole. Transmitters can fail and generate garbage on the air, frequency drift, signal cutting out etc. The call sign at least provide some measure of knowing exactly who is the source of the issue and can fix it. The operator may not even be aware there is a problem.

Put up a 33cm one. Almost nobody has equipment for that band. I got a very clean looking used Motorola XPR6580 that does about 2.5 watts on that band. Good for FM and Mototurbo (DMR). There are instruction on the Internet on how to do an in-memory edit on CPS 16 to enter frequencies between 902 MHz and 928 MHz. No radio hardware modifications required! Only pitfall is you can't read out the radio contents without the CPS setting them back to default values. You always have to use the computer saved copy of the code plug, no big deal. Oh, I have a couple of TK-5320's so I could use that P25 repeater.?

Just like everything else they do. Have to keep the starving lawyers employed.

I have no idea. It's a free download and simple to install. You can get it and check.

You're likely to do well going with a commercial grade radio. They are designed to withstand hard use and function in harsh RF environments. There are a lot of quality used ones on the market. The programming can be a bit more involved but you also gain flexibility that many of the cheaper Chinese radios lack. Some of them have Part 95 certification, required for GMRS, in addition to Part 90 so there is no issue with questions about the legality of using them on GMRS.

Use the attached file as a guide. https://www.polyphaser.com/search?Category=RF+Surge+Protectors&Rfpssp99app=Amateur+Radio&sort=y&view_type=grid https://www.polyphaser.com/search?Category=Grounding&sort=y&view_type=grid Antenna System Bonding and Grounding Requirements in the USA.pdf

Just so people have an idea what these antennas look like and the performance I attached a datasheet for the DB408. For repeaters there is one spec that often gets overlooked, that's the "down tilt" angle if it has one. That's important at high gains and you need close in coverage to the site. https://www.kpperformance.com/Antenna-Downtilt-A-Practical-Overview.html https://www.telecomhall.net/t/what-is-antenna-electrical-and-mechanical-tilt-and-how-to-use-it/6388 DB408-B Product specifications.pdf

Some have recommended carrying a SAT phone.

As a side note if you have to deal with industrial equipment water, even water vapor, has corroded electronic components. This was particularly true of leaded types, not SMD. The leads are cheap steel wire which are copper plated. Crack or otherwise break the copper plating then the steel wire underneath starts corroding. I've seen enough PCB's where the parts have fallen off due to this.

http://www.wouxun.us/category.php?category_id=94

https://groups.io/g/AT-D578UV/topics

Well if it gets crowded enough maybe the FCC will expand the number of frequencies allowed. They eventually did that with CB, went from 23 channels to the now 40. In Australia, and some other areas, have a UHF FM CB service with 80 channels. It seems to work for them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHF_CB Example radio. https://www.ohmelectronics.com.au/products/ic-450

Well at least on GMRS you don't have to deal with the idiots on the "Super Bowl", CH6, on 11M running multi KW stations with their echo mics trying to own the airwaves.

That's always an excellent practice! Due to the large number of models of HT's I own, or just wanted to mess with the programming software, I have to be VERY organized in the way I save and track the code plug files. I use a separate folder for each model type. In each folder if there is more than one sub type or band split I have a folder for it. I also save any original code plugs from the used radios I buy as well. I've attached some screen shots of how I do it. Note the code plugs are all tagged with a date code: xxxxyyzz, xxxx - year, yy - month, zz - day. Saving old code plugs sometimes helps if I'm making a major editing change and screw something up. At least I have the older version to fall back to.

Reminds me of the old “Liberty Net” that got lots of attention.

Maybe the batteries were dead and he didn't notice.?

Around the Detroit area 2M and 70cm are dead most of the time. Many of the repeaters see little use. On 70cm with 20MHz of spectrum it’s easy to get lost in it if you’re looking to talk to somebody. On GMRS you only have a handful of frequencies to use so it doesn’t take much to find activity. On the Ham 70cm band yeah you have some grumpy people. With GMRS it’s geared for “family” use and the range of permissible uses is far greater than the Ham band allows. On GMRS everyone has the same type of license call, none of the 1x2, 1x3 etc. calls depending your license class. Some Hams won’t talk to somebody with a tech class call for example. On GMRS nobody cares how much DX you’ve worked, how fast you can send and receive CW, you run 1500 watts into an antenna on a 200 foot tower in your yard etc., it levels the field.

That's the interesting thing I noticed too with the FCC grants. Part of the documentation for each radio model I own is get the FCC grant info, which shows the frequency, power, modulation type and rules part the radio is certified under. Where some of the UHF radios that have multiple ranges and have both Part 90 and 95 certifications are the models that DON'T cover the ham bands. For example the NX-300 models I have in my collection. See attached files and look at the FCC ID's in the brochure for the different band splits. NX-300 FCC Grant - 1.pdf NX-300 FCC Grant - 2.pdf NX-200_300.pdf