Logan5

575 is now at full power. if you haven't heard it before you should now. will be testing all week.
I have not addressed the morse problem yet. I took a couple of hrs to rearrange the rack it is in to accomadate the new supply and amp. I have decided to to put a backup on this as it will only cost me for the batteries and some time to do the work.

Thanks for asking this Jeff, I had wondered the same thing.
 

Lets not be too quick to condemn the parents in this case. I am hearing from some people in Lakewood - where this happened - that the parents are good people and the kids are good kids - but are just kids.  The frequencies for that volunteer ambulance squad were already programed into the radios when the parents bought the set of walkie- talkies for their 12 year old son at a local flea market.That's the reason there were no charges filed.  In my humble opinion the kids knew they were messing around with someone - just didn't know how serious it could be.  How many kids in the 50's and 60's called people on the telephone and asked if their refrigerator was running and when the person said yes told them they better go catch it before it gets away ? Sometimes kids are just kids - does not make them bad people or criminals.
 
That having been said - and as I said in a different post - I've spent 36 years with a city police department - several as the direct commander of the communications section and several more as the commander of the parent Bureau for the communications section. We had only 2 instances where unauthorized persons came onto our frequencies - both were to request emergency aid - and no enforcement action was taken against those 2 people. Bothe instances were before cell phones.
 
Times are changing - I have learned recently that illegal transmissions on government frequencies has become such a problem that  NYC PD now has personnel trained and equipped to track and identify the source of unauthorized transmissions on duty 24/7  365.  Apparently there have been some issues or concerns about this but they do not publicize it for fear of attracting attention and thereby encouraging additional people to try it just for fun.    

I do not use MURS. but I found my self needy to read this due to lack of activity here on this site. We need new members and more active members. is there anyway to get device wholesalers or merchants to include resource information with their new radios. a notation if you plan to use this for GMRS check out these sites, ie: myGMRS.com or if you plan to use it for HAM, check out these links. My guess is that more than 90% of the people that buy and use these radios don't get licensed to begin with. I am getting my nephew into radio`and I hope he passes his exam for his HAM. I like GMRS for contacting family and friends who do not have or won't get their HAM license. in any event, let's reach out in some way to welcome new GMRS users and members on this site. I am also on RR and I notice other members from here there. but myGMRS.com has a place as it serves a particular need. 

I believe he and I spoke on the radio this morning, as well as having some email comms. Wanted to make sure I could reach him from the area the repeater is going in. Like I said, I'm new to this whole thing and the more I research the more confusing it becomes, esepcailly when you start reading all the FCC rules and regs. I always do things "by the book" so it's taken me some time to dive into the repeater but well on my way now. As soon as I get it up and working I will post it here on the site.
 
Much thanks for the welcome!

looks good

Now, why would anyone have a fear of "acrobats"....  OH, OOPS - I guess that's not the correct phobia, now, is it? 
 
I have Coulrophobia - a fear of clowns... like the one's in D.C.at the moment.

what a week. stuff just failing in high places all over the place, another one today.
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heard 2 gentlemen talking on a machine unknown to me around 08:30. sounded like they were checking the range of it. I don't know if this was the Brick machine or not but last I heard the mobile unit was near Camden on 70, base operator said that was almost clear across the state.  any one have a clue. sounded like ham's by the way they were talking.

worked on this Monday. forgot to take the camera up w/me. I forgot how tiring it can be working on these types of towers. 2 hrs to go up fix and come down and I was only about half way up, maybe a little more. if it goes bad again we'll change the cable.
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e341/rftekk/misc/radio008.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e341/rftekk/misc/radio009.jpg
 

Tired of constantly being broke & stuck in an  unhappy marriage, a young
husband decided to solve both problems by  taking out a large insurance  policy
on his wife with himself as the  beneficiary, and then arranging  to have her
killed.
 
A  'friend of a friend' put him in touch with a nefarious dark-side  underworld
figure who went by the name of 'Artie.' Artie explained to the  husband that his
going  price for  snuffing out a spouse was  $5,000.

The husband said he was willing to pay that amount, but  that he wouldn't have
any cash on hand until he could collect his   wife's insurance money. Artie
insisted on being paid at least something up  front, so the man opened his
wallet, displaying the single dollar bill  that rested inside. Artie sighed,
rolled his eyes, & reluctantly  agreed to accept the dollar as down payment for
the dirty  deed.
 
A few days later, Artie followed the man's wife to the  local Walmart
Super Store. There, he surprised her in the produce  department &
proceeded to strangle her with his gloved hands. As the  poor unsuspecting woman
drew her last breath & slumped to the floor,  the manager of the produce
department stumbled unexpectedly onto the  murder scene. Unwilling to leave any
living witnesses behind, ol' Artie  had no choice but to strangle the produce
manager as  well.
 
However, unknown to Artie, the entire proceedings were  captured by the hidden
security cameras & observed by the store's  security guard, who immediately
called the police. Artie was caught and  arrested before he could even leave the
store.
 
Under intense  questioning at the police station, Artie revealed the whole
sordid plan,  including his unusual financial arrangements with the hapless
husband who  was also quickly arrested. The next day in the
Newspaper, the headline  declared...    

 
'ARTIE  CHOKES 2 for $1.00 at WALMART'


[ Hey I didn't write this, I'm just passing it on...     ]
 

anybody have or know of a place a cant get some parts for a icom f21?
 

Adam,
I think you will enjoy the F-21,it has several options where you can set it to receive two tone paging like I use where it keeps the radio silent if you wish until someone pages you from another compatible radio.Let me know if you need help finding any programming accessories...William

I have been using GMRS for my personel  busness for a long time It is only myself and the wife, Most of the comm between us is passing info from the house to the workshop.

I don't know the exact distance, but I do know that RJ45 cable can effectively pass signals/information approximately 150ft without a repeater. Whether or not the radio pushes enough power to go that far and the head unit can pick it up are two different stories.
 
I wish I could have stayed longer as well.
 
Without the ground on that extension cord and your antenna/radio not being grounded, that could have been causing the SWR we saw. I would check all connections, remove moisture, make sure you don't have any shorts in the ground on your LMR400 (not grounded to the shielding by accident), and try hooking the baofeng to the antenna line through the SWR meter bypassing the duplexer. If the issue goes away then your duplexer is not tuned right, if the issue remains then you have an issue with your cabling/antenna. Easy way to rule out the duplexer.

Definitely agree. I helped Logan perform some tests over the weekend and earlier this week. I had experienced the difference elevation made to transmissions in the past, but I think Logan had less first hand experience with the results of elevating the antenna.
 
I have to admit, the results of our tests even surprised me. The elevation of the transmission/receiving locations made a DRASTIC difference even in flat terrain.

Yes PastorG, I agree,I have a good quality speaker mic on my main HT, Makes for a much more pleasant HT operating experience. easier to set the radio up high and still use it. As I have found Height is much more important than Watt's, Power. 

Logan,
 The cable may work but the software should be different,each model of ICOM seems to have a different software for example the F-21s which is a 4 channel has a different software than a regular F-21.I wish it all was combined into on software but it isn't,while it would make better since to have all F-21 radios with a different selection in one software.I imagine it is all about money but the good thing is I did not have to pay for the software or the cable since I bought over $3,000 worth of radios I requested it for free and they agreed to it...William

de-sense issues are caused by putting on connectors improperly, poor tuning of duplexers and poor weatherproofing of antennas. make sure you read the paper work that comes w/antenna, most have drain holes on the bottom. if you cover them up guess what happens.unless you get a bad piece of cable(it happens) or your running too long for for its abilities there should be no problem running 400 cable 50'. at 50 ' your line loss will be ~1.25dB or roughly 20%. the 820 is rated at 25W w/duplexer loss of 1.5 db and a line loss of ~1.25 to the cable your looking at ~13W into the antenna. these are just #'s off the top of my head you mileage may vary.
JE

Howdy Kris and welcome to the MyGMRS forums, As PastorG stated LMR400 is pretty good stuff and for a price point, well below 1/2" hardline cost. and only a fraction of db. difference in loss at 40feet.. I consider LMR400 use a minimum. No point spending all that money on top of the line equipment only to skimp on feedline. Also a properly tuned duplexer unless you plan to use two properly spaced, separate antennas. I also live in Florida and the flat topography is awesome, I run an Old Uniden 25watt repeater with 60' of LMR400 on a 50' pole currently only raised to 40' with a comet antenna factory tuned to 465. I use an RFS duplexer and I cover a 20 mile radius. I expect 25 miles when raised to 50'. Good luck and keep us posted.  Jim...

Oh yes, I do not ground my antenna, as I do not want to attract lightning. I know others will disagree, however in 20 some odd years I have yet to be hit. Although I have had lightning come in on the telco and did thousands of dollars of damage to my "10baseT" network, to give you an idea of how long ago that was.

thank you
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since I am the repeater operator, I have a channel programmed in my radio that is reverse set. If for some reason the repeater goes down, I switch my radio to reverse and listen to 467 and transmit on 462.  at that point you could inform the other users that a simplex mode will be optimal until the repeater is back, My radio with dual VFO and dual watch, gives me the ability to run simplex and reverse at the same time. 

When it comes to mobile units keep in mind that nearly all mobile units need a 50ohm feed line between the unit and the antenna. Connecting an antenna directly to the mobile unit is never advisable due to the power output. As spd mentioned earlier, you are dealing with RF and EMF. This is and produces radiation. There are RF exposure limits and it is very important to adhere to those limits. Not doing so can result in immediate damage such as an RF burn, or cell damage which is not noticeable immediate but turns into cancer later down the road.
 
Best to read up on those limits so you know what they are and can prevent future health issues. 

With many commercial and business operators going to 700 to 900 MHZ last year, there are many radio shops that have "trade in" antennas in warehouses just collecting dust.
 
An excellent way to fabricate a permanent or movable base station antenna is to buy a used NMO mount and attach that mount to the center of a piece of 20 or 22 gauge galvanized steel cut in a circle 12 inches in diameter as a ground plane plate.  Get a used gain type, center loaded mobile antenna and secure it to the NMO mount.  Use a couple 6 inch per side "L" brackets (for putting up shelves on a wall) attached to the underside of the ground plane plate so that the legs of the "L" brackets are as far apart as the diameter of a mast pipe. Secure the "L" brackets to the mast with two spiral radiator hose clamps and bingo - a base station antenna with around 3.7 to 5.4 db gain (depending upon your antenna element choice) that can be placed just about anywhere.
 
Varied NMO mounts:  http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/mobile-antenna-mounts-264/
 
The ATV situation may pose problems because most bodies are fiberglass or carbon fiber. But we can use the same type of NMO mount and steel and use a compact 6 inch 1/4 wave mobile antenna tucked out of the way wherever it would be convenient to mount. 
 
Whip imaging: http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/laird-tech-qwft120-763.html
 
I personally have no experience building directional, vertically polarized yagi's, so I'll defer to others for suggestions there. 
 
This is an example of one: http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/tram-browning-br-6355-3581.html
 
If you do contact a radio shop for used components, just check with them to see if they might have a trade in UHF base station antenna resonant to around 460 to 464 MHZ.  I recently picked up a used Tram antenna for $18.00 - it is like the one in this link:  http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/tram-1486-1575.html
 
 
Good luck with the projects.