Lscott

Unless you need to change the channel parameter(s) because of frequent traveling out of the area then FPP would be an advantage. However if you you the radio in the same general area mostly, if not, all the time then FPP is of very limited value. My Kenwood LMR radios I haven't really found a need to change the programming once it's done except for adding in a new repeater that comes on-line in the area. The only items I seem to have the need to change are tones (almost never), channels scanned (add or delete), power level, zone and squelch level. All of these I have programmed a function key on the front or side panel to do. Most of my radios don't even have a DTMF keypad and I don't miss it.

What is the goal? You want one antenna for Ham and GMRS or just one of the two?

Those are interstitial channels that sit between the main high power repeater output channels. That has the potential to cause interference to them. The low power is intended to minimize it. For example channel 1, 462.5625 MHz, sits between channel 15, 462.5500 MHz, and channel 16, 462.5750 MHz. If you check the remaining channels 2-7 you'll see a similar situation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mobile_Radio_Service

Yes, there is that pesky Line-A, and a Line-C too. There are people who have no experience with two way radios of any kind and likely have no idea what channel 19 is and what service. Using the same channel on GMRS as on CB only makes sense if you have knowledge of CB radio. That's likely why people are coming to this forum asking what is the GMRS road channel, they have little to no prior experience. Some have even suggested using channel 16, 4 x 4 = 16 because you're driving a 4-wheel drive, as a logical reason. By the way 16 is the VHF marine emergency call channel too. I'm sure others can cook up other "logical" reasons to pick a different channel.

Since the radio spectrum is controlled by the FCC, through an act of Congress, that would be under Federal Control. So how would a local PD think they can get away with enforcing a law, FCC regulation, they don't have any statuary power to be involved enforcing? It would be like the local PD demanding to see your Ham and or GMRS license. As far as I know they only person you must show it to is a official of the FCC with proper identification being shown.

That would be a good idea for the IRS to try, pay your income tax once. Likely won't happen. The government is addicted to tax money or fees, never seems to get enough of it, always wants more.

I have the original FT-817 version. It's modifier for expanded frequency coverage. I carried it around for a while out on the road for company business many years back. I would ask for a hotel room on the top floor if possible. At the time all I had was a Tech Class license so my contacts were sort of local but made some decent ones on 2 meter sideband out from 50 to 80 miles at times. I used a small Ho_loop mounted on a camera tripod, short length of RG-58 coax using BNC connectors. https://www.m2inc.com/FG2MHOLOOP For 6 meters I had a telescoping whip, like on the old TV rabbit ear antennas, mounted on a plate with wire radials for a ground plane. The photo shows a Comet UHV-4 quad band antenna installed on the plate. I have several different length wires for the ground radials depending on the band being used. https://cometantenna.com/amateur-radio/mobile-antennas/ma-multi-band-hfvhfuhf/ The main negative point with the FT-817 and 818 is the tuning range. It won't go above 154 MHz so no NOAA weather RX.

Have you looked at the FT818? https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-ft-818

Marc, all opinions are welcomed. I think the main point about your experience is VHF radio is great, BUT it’s line-of-sight so if you’re out of range you’re basically screwed. UHF radio is no different. At 20 miles that’s a lot of distance to cover. Thinking about it I’m surprised that nobody came looking for you after a day not reporting back in. At least you didn’t mention it. In an emergency people should try to keep track of each other in their group. At least checkin with others and if you don’t hear anything a plan to find out why.

TETRA is a 4 slot TDMA so it can do 4 effective 6.25KHz channels on a 25KHz wide one.

NXDN and P25 both use the AMBE+2 codec so If you like how NXDN sounds it should be the same audio quality on P25.

I believe P25 Phase 2 is TDMA for trunking systems only. I don't believe it is used for any simplex communications. That is fine with me since the two radios I have are Phase 1 only and my use would be on Ham radio. With luck the public safety agencies will all switch to Phase 2 and dump their Phase 1 radios. The old Phase 1 radios may show up more frequently on the used market for reasonable prices. I've also seen a few references on RadioReference.com where NXDN was used by a few schools. For DMR, sooner or later I think we'll see it as a legal mode on GMRS. A close relative to DMR is TETRA. I don't think that's used anyplace in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Trunked_Radio

As a general procedure I don't use RX tones, including with repeaters, except in VERY rare cases. If you're open to hearing all traffic on the frequency mysterious interference may turn out to be simply other activity on the frequency you didn't hear due to the tone being used.

True. The thread is getting away from the original goal. I think what is valuable is what people really did during an emergency that worked or didn't work. I specifically mentioned GMRS but it doesn't have to be strictly about it. I put it in the header since this is primary a GMRS forum so I figured it's more likely people will have experiences to share and recommendations on what if anything they would do different next time around. Cell service may not always be available so using a two-way radio is the next best option. However I don't want to give people the idea if cell service is working to ignore it in preference to using their radio. We have to be practical. For example Marc's story about be stranded 20 miles out at sea on a sand bar with a dead boat. It's fortunate he made a contact on his marine radio and got help. But lets say he had a sat-phone. He could have had help likely in a few hours.

Interesting. I was totally unaware that such a thing existed, radio silence periods. Thanks.

Yeah, I'm also VERY skeptical running adjacent channels at 6.25KHz bandwidth. Even the wider 12.5KHz I wouldn't believe either. Even Ham HT's with two pair of stations close to each other at a 25KHz channel separation doesn't work out too well either.

As long as the cell network is up and functional that would likely be your first bet to try. You likely have all your important numbers stored in your smart phone and just about everyone has one. After that it could be a number of different radio services. Ham. FRS. GMRS. MURS. CB radio. If your going to depend on radio to stay in-touch with friends and family I would recommend you have a plan worked out on what channels/frequency to use and when to use them, like a specific time. The time element would be important for handheld radios. The battery packs don't last forever. So if everyone agrees to monitor the prearranged frequency/channel at, lets say a quarter past the hour every hour, within a period of 10 minutes before and after the scheduled time it save battery capacity. You're not calling at times when nobody is likely to be monitoring.

I’m not familiar with that one. It sounds like it looked similar to an old CB radio. At least the radio didn’t die on you when you needed it the most. I guess that’s one main point about the experience.

What was the marine radio you had on the boat? And what was the antenna setup like?

Wow!! You sure were lucky to get back!! I can't image if some foul weather blew in while you were out there what the end result would have been.

Yup. Considering the crazy weather in the southeast right now for some it's more than a "theoretical exorcise" at the moment.

Even that experience would be welcomed. I'll bet there is a carry over between different services that would be a lesson for all to learn from.

I see posts where people buy a radio(s) to use in an "emergency". How many people have REALLY used their radio in an emergency, not some simulated drill? What was the experience like? Were the preparations made before hand sufficient? What would you have done differently after the experience and lessons learned? I think the above are the only real relevant questions. Simply buying a radio and keeping it in the draw with some battery packs until the SHTF doesn't really cut it I suspect. I'll take real experience over some hypothetical situation or simulated condition.

All of the radios I have I try to get the service manuals for them along with the operators manuals. Being an engineer I look through the schematics at times to see what makes a specific radio "tick" so to speak. What I've found is just about, if not all, the commercial LMR radios I have use some kind of turntable front end filtering. Those filters are typically before the first IF stage and acts as a pre-filter to improve the image response and the possible desense of the IF amplifier chain after the filters. One of two techniques I've seen used are varactor diodes or variable inductance chokes. Both are "biased" by an output from the micro running the radio. As the frequency is changed the front end filter is electrically tuned to match the programed RX frequency. The reason why CCR's are so cheap as you pointed out the front end filtering is minimal. This isn't just a problem with CCR's however. Many Ham HT's, from name brand manufactures, suffer from the same problem. As Hams we like the idea of a wide RX range for scanning etc. however that comes at a price, a wide open front end. To add in the fancy tuneable front end filters adds cost and complexity to the radio. To show you what is in some of the CCR's I found a schematic, reportedly, for the commonly mentioned UV-5R. I'm going to guess that derivatives of this radio the schematic won't look too much different. After all what did you expect to see in a radio that sells for about the same price as a kid's FRS bubble pack toy radio? Oh, the harmonics on TX suck too. If you'll notice some of the harmonic tests were done at a load impedance of 25 ohms, not the expected nominal 50 ohms. At 25 ohms that would correspond to an SWR of 2:1 so the party doing the testing wanted to see if the harmonic content was SWR dependent. SCHEMATIC Baofeng UV-5R.pdf UV-5R VHF Harmonics Test.pdf

These GMRS forums is NOT the place to discuss your politics. If you want to do that take it elsewhere.