Lscott

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.

Actually the antennas respond to the "E" field. Look at the sensitivity rating of a radio's receiver. It's specified in microvolts. To get a ruff idea the power density varies as the inverse square of the distance since the same power is spread out over a larger surface area of the sphere around the isotropic source. So if the power density is: PD=(watts)/(sphere's surface area) Expressing sphere's surface area as a function of the radius: sphere's surface area=Pi*radius^2 PD=(watts)/(Pi*radius^2) And watts can be expressed as: watts = (Volts^2)/(Resistance of free space), which is about 120*Pi, or 377 ohms. So your power density becomes: PD=[(Volts^2)/(377 ohms)]/[(Pi*radius^2)] Or after a bit of rearrangement: PD=[(volts/radius)^2/[(Pi*377 ohms)] That will vary as the surface area of the sphere, or the inverse square of the distance. If the radius is in meters then you have the "E" field intensity in Volts/Meter. PD=(E^2)/(Pi*377 ohms) Note that antenna simulation software will specify the antenna's "E" field in volts per meter. Also be careful you want the "Far Field" number. This also leads to another topic about "path loss" and how there is is a difference between VHF verses UHF for signal strength given antennas of equal gain. It turns out you need much more power at UHF to get the same signal strength you would see on VHF for the same power. Part of the gain you get on VHF is ruined due to the short stubby VHF antenna gains on HT's, reportedly around -5 to -6 db, which almost cancels out the reduction in path loss reduction. Just can't win.

Maybe you could start one by you and announce one of those touchy topics as the focus.

If you don't have your Ham license yet, well now might be a good time to consider get it.

Nothing radical was discussed. More along the lines of what kind of food stuffs are good for long term storage, emergency power, go-bags etc. Nothing about guns or crazy government conspiracies.

Given the frequent questions about people wanting to setup their own private repeater maybe now is a good time to go shopping for equipment.

If the net has a specific topic it could be interesting. For a while the original wide area local GMRS repeater held a "Prepper's Net" on a Tuesday night once or twice a month at 7PM. They stopped because a few had an issue with it, and some infrequent jamming I believe. Some of the topics were informative when the net was active.

But you can hold it's head under the water until it's ready to drink.

That about what this attached chart shows. IC-706MKIIG Freqequency Mod Power Output.pdf

We never got that spectrum back either.

A buddy picked up some cheap XTS5000’s at a few swaps. Used some utility to create a fake authentication file for the radio. He says he uses them to monitor his local 700/800 MHz public safety frequencies.

I don't think people in general understand this point. The 10-codes aren't that universal. PLUS when you have a bunch of volunteers I'll bet most have no idea what those codes are, unless they are specifically trained. Its far better to communicate as clearly as possible without obfuscating things with various codes. That's the general recommendations I've read from other groups.

At least people aren't using silly CB lingo, 10-codes and echo-mics yet.