Lscott

It usually is there. With a turnout over the event weekend of 25K plus it gets sort of crazy. It typically takes me the full first day just to walk through the flea market area. Second day the indoor vendors. Then on the last half day looking around to see who is still in the flea market area and wants to make deals so they don't have to pack the stuff up and take back with them.

Don’t miss place your checkbook.

You can frame it anyway you like. You’re still rolling the dice that nothing is going to happen. You might get away with it, until you don’t. And yes the FCC issues $10k fines. They have done it before, in the following case for simple unlicensed operation on GMRS. https://transition.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2011/DA-11-157A1.html Note that nothing else was mentioned as the cause for the fine, no interference etc., just unlicensed operation. They were even using purpose built GMRS radios, from Midland no less, not even modified Ham gear as you suggest. Further on the FCC said that simple ignorance of the necessity of getting a license does warrant any reduction in the fine. They aren’t screwing around. You should also read this too. The FCC might have mercy on the unlucky, but then again maybe not. The government is running a big deficit, I guessing they won’t be in a charitable mood. Small staff in the enforcement section, they need to set some examples. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/95.313

Show me a PDF scanned correspondence on FCC letter head stating they won’t.

Yeah, same crappy logic the 11M crowd used to explain away their actions running excessive power and running out of band. A few them don’t think it’s so funny or an academic issue when the FCC was finished with them. When they get annoyed enough they will make an example out someone. You’re betting it won’t be you. If you want to play the game of twisting the dragons tail don’t start crying when it gets annoyed enough to turn around and flame you.

Check the FCC enforcement logs to see what kind of fines they issue. And if you still don’t believe it then all you have to do is ask them.

That gain figure I’ll bet is 2.15dbi, or the gain over an isotopic antenna, which is a theoretical antenna that physically doesn’t exist. A simple dipole or 1/4 wave magnet mount has the same gain, 2.15dbi. Manufacturers like to quote gain figures in dbi, verses dbd - gain over a dipole, because it inflates the numbers making the specifications look more impressive. External antennas can, and many do, have high gains over a simple dipole or 1/4 wave type. There are a number to choose from. One thing seems to be true, the higher the gain the bigger (longer) it gets. I have a dual band high gain antenna on my Jeep. It’s nearly 5 feet tall as an example.

As others pointed out it depends on what is between the two radios AND how high the antennas are. Assuming no obstructions you can estimate the range by taking the square root of the antenna height above ground in feet and multiply it by 1.4 for the range in miles. For example a repeater antenna at 150 feet would be about sqrt(150)*1.4 = 17.1 miles. Then you do the same for the mobile radio. Lets say it's a hand held at 5 feet. So we get sqrt(5)*1.4 = 3.1 miles. The total would be 17.1+3.1 = 20.2 miles. There are a lot of other factors that could extend that range a bit, and most likely reduce it.

I periodically look for various radios on the Internet. Recently I've been looking at some for dPMR and stumbled across some manufactures I'm not familiar with. It's not really used in North America, yet, but might be cool to play with on the Ham Bands. These companies make analog/dPMR/dPMR446/DMR446 radios. Yeah, it's sort of confusing, in Europe they have Two digital modes for their license free service, dPMR446 and DMR446. One is the FDMA dPMR and the other is TDMA based, the usual DMR mode. If that isn't confusing enough the dPMR standard allows the use of two different vocoders with the option to use a third one that is manufacture specific. There are three class of equipment depending on the vocoder. https://dpmrassociation.org/downloads/2019-docs/Certified-Interoperability-Guidance-Paper-2019.pdf https://dpmrassociation.org/downloads/2019-docs/dPMR-MoU-tech-lib-Voc-Bits-V1-2019.pdf For analog and DMR/DMR446 I stumbled this company and their radios. I've never heard of them before. They sell analog/DMR radios. https://dts.solutions/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Entel-DTEx-Land-Series-Brochure-from-DTS-Solutions-UK-Ltd.pdf https://www.dmrassociation.org/entel/Entel-DX400-SERIES.pdf Anybody used their equipment or have any experience with them? At least they give away for free the programming software unlike the recent moves by Kenwood to look more like the Motorola where they nickel and dime you to death for every tiny option and license entitlement key hell.

Business may not give a crap about it since they usually go through a dealer for programming and support. They don’t have to deal with the hassle. Now the dealers on the other hand may not like it much. When the dealers start bad mouthing the products the manufacturer is screwed. However if the end user thinks the radios will have a residual value on the used market when they want to upgrade, are they going to be surprised.? I’m seeing some on eBay now. I have ZERO interest in owning one. Just give me one of the older models, install the software, I can program all the radios I want.

The radios look nice, but I really hate the licensing model they use, it SUCKS. Maybe for business it might make sense but for private use, IMHO, no. I have a large collection of radios. All I need to do is start the CPS for the specific model series and program the radio. I don't have to screw around and worry if the particular radio is licensed. If I get another one, just plug it and program it, no hassle, done. It's also the same sort of thing with Motorola. I think Kenwood just copied their business model for their new radio series.

I thought that P25 was popular in California? I know NXDN has a big following on the west side of Florida. They have a linked repeater system there. https://ni4ce.org/nxdn-digital-communications/ Here in Michigan it's D-Star, DMR and YSF. The are a few P25 repeaters around https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/feature_search.php?state_id=26&type=P25 and one NXDN enabled repeater. https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/details.php?state_id=26&ID=390 Popularity of NXDN might be picking up in some areas. It's also used by the railroads. I'm also surprised by how many schools use it. I guess it's cheaper that P25. As a side note I monitor the local shopping mall and FRS/GMRS frequencies while I'm at work in the office. I use one of those triband CCR's for that. Anyway again I was picking up intermittently somebody running DMR on channel 18, that very characteristic pulsing noise on FM. The signal isn't strong, with the building being a bit of a Faraday cage, it's not close by. I guess we're likely to be seeing more of this as people end up buying the cheap analog/DMR radios and program them up for FRS/GMRS. A good site for looking for digital frequencies is here if it's registered with the FCC: https://digitalfrequencysearch.com/index.php

Yeah, that would be interesting. Since the GMRS rules were changed back in 2017, were businesses can no longer apply for new GMRS licenses, there is no reason for the usual manufactures to apply for any Part 95 certifications for their expensive commercial line of radios. Businesses won't be buying GMRS commercial grade radios. That just leaves the cheap consumer grade stuff, most originating from the Chinese companies. Yup, he's the one I was think about.

I'm inclined to agree with you on that point. I also have two other examples. I looked at my TK-5320's. Its the same thing. The FCC ID's are exactly the same. I guess the guts are are similar enough to not require a different ID, but the firmware is different. The NX-300's do NXDN while the TK-5320's do P25. Unless you pop off the battery pack and look at the model numbers on the back of the radio's case you can't tell them apart. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/TK-5220_5320_Specsheet.pdf I think I ran across a post somewhere that claimed one could convert the hardware from one digital protocol to the other. I can't find it now. One of the other posters here worked for JVCKenwood and had some info on the topic.

That seems to be the case. I have several UHF radios in my collection. Some are certified Part 95A, the old rules, NX-300's. Those have a stated official frequency range of 450 to 520 with the FCC ID ALH378500. Those are Part 95A. The exact same model with a stated official frequency range of 406.1 to 470, FCC ID ALH378501 are NOT Part 95A certified. The frequency ranges above are what appears on the FCC grants. Note both cover the GMRS frequencies. The difference is the second one also covers the US Ham 70cm band too. I can't say if the lack of Part 95A certification is due to the manufacture not applying for it or if the FCC wouldn't give the certification. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/02_NX-200G&300GBrochure.pdf Also note the radio can do digital voice mode even with the Part 95A certification. Of course that in noway implies using digital voice on GMRS is currently legal.

That's a bit fuzzy. The rules state if the radio is equipped with frequencies not listed in the table, approved for GMRS, then it doesn't meet certification. I guess that depends on how one defines "equipped", is the radio designed that way or just programmed with frequencies in both services? I have my radios setup for both since I'm licensed for both services.

This page has a nice listing of the various FCC designators. https://digitalfrequencysearch.com/Search/Codes.php

You really have that all screwed up. I would HIGHLY suggest you go and read in detail Part 97 for the Armature Radio Service and Part 95E for GMRS. If it doesn't make sense the first time through then read it again, and again ... Most, if not all, of the answers are there. It might take awhile for it to sink in. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/part-97 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/part-95/subpart-E If you have specific questions about any of the rules parts members here are glad to help in that area.

Seeing how Baofengs are disparaged here I wonder just how well they hold up in the field. I guess any radio is better than none. As cheap as they are a truck load isn't that expensive. As a point of comparison the old WWII man-pack radios only did 0.3 watts on low band VHF. The range was about 3 miles with the long antenna. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCR-300 https://olive-drab.com/od_electronics_scr300.php