marcspaz

No idea about local shops, but as mentioned above, local amateur radio clubs should have someone with the right tools and experience. Just my opinion based on experience, using the cheap Nano VNA's that you get off of Amazon are not good enough to tune a duplexer well. You don't have to spend a fortune. I only paid about $130 for the one I use for 2m/VHF Pass/Reject duplexers with 0.600 MHz splits. I am getting -100dB notches that are only 25KHz wide. I would also recommend asking whoever tunes it for you, if they would be willing to teach you how to do it. A good portion of amateurs I know actually like helping people learn.

The level of effort required to clone the ID of an authorized radio far outweighs the knowledge and stamina of the average jammer. LoL

I have talked to 2 people on the ISS and used the ISS repeater several times. It was surprisingly easy and only required a few watts. I didn't use any fancy hardware or software, just a zero-gain dual-band vertical antenna and a dual-band radio. I adjusted the frequency for Doppler manually, fairly easily, too. It's a lot of fun, but I got bored waiting for comms windows, and gave up on it after awhile.

FRS radios on channels 8 through 14 are limited to 0.5 Watts, and all other channels are limited to 2.0 Watts. There are some higher powered GMRS handheld radios, but even GMRS radios are restricted to 0.5w on 8 through 14.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You need to understand the history of GMRS to answer this question. The original 'distress' frequency was 462.675, aka channel 20. While there is no longer a formal calling/distress channel, there are plenty of sites that have old articles about common distress frequencies in different bands, and the history of GMRS. Then there are guys like me who have been using GMRS since the '80s, who just remember. Also, the legacy distress/calling channel gets conflated with ORI. There were two groups, Popular Wireless and Personal Radio Association, that came up with the idea of an Open Repeater Initiative (ORI). It was designed to get repeater owners to open up and share resources instead of locking down systems. The idea was to make it easier for GMRS users to find and access repeaters. The group established the 141.3 CTCSS/PL as a “travel tone”. Originally, the repeater pair 462/467.675 was the ORI frequency (675 known today as the travel channel) due to 675 historically being the distress/emergency channel. However, ORI eventually morphed into any repeater pair using 141.3 for PL access and did not require prior permission. ORI and the founding groups are long gone, but many repeater owners still honor the spirit of ORI on their repeaters. In the absence of ORI, there has been debate in the community over what should be put into place, if anything. If we stick to the historic components of the FCC and groups like ORI, the calling frequency would continue to be 462.675, and the open repeaters would be on 467.675/462.675 with tone 141.3. However, the radio services is so small, the number of users has dramatically increased over the past few years, and with modern technology, just about any channel can fit the bill for "calling". A vast majority of us are scanning all the channels if we're not actively in a conversation.

I really don't want to see you leave. I think you're a nice guy and you contribute a lot here. I think you're just taking my comments and the comments of others entirely too serious. Steve and I disagreed on something. We had a conversation about it. Nobody got offended because the other guy had a different opinion. That's just normally how adults do it.

I don't understand why you're taking it so seriously. Some shares an opinion you don't like, so you melt down and hide instead of saying "thanks, but I disagree". That is something I expect from my 6 yo granddaughter. Not an adult.

If that was the case, we wouldn't be on page 4 of the 30th time this was discussed... I think, anyway. I mean, I am open to other opinions, but it would help if the rules weren't written by lawyers and kept up with modern technology.

Mostly for the sake of conversation and boredom. I thought I was pretty clear on that. There are a ton of things we discuss here that haven't come to consensus in a decade... I doubt it will change; especially with the overwhelming lack of enforcement and lack of 'official' guidance or clarification from the FCC (with the exception of recent Linking debates). The entire internet is a giant black hole. Has been since about 1994. I do enjoy the technical stuff, learning and helping others. So there is that.

I'll tell you want i think. In the end, no one gives a damn what the rules say, they do what they want or think they can get away with. Even the people who don't publicly admit it due to work, or position in the community, etc., fall into this category. I think the entire conversation is theater, boredom or both. Carry on.

Okay @SteveShannon ... I'm tracking. That makes sense.

So, I assume it's not one-way transmission because I am expecting and receiving a response on another frequency. As you are aware, that is the whole concept of a repeater, but also, on HF, we do split operations. I have spoken with many Hams in other countries who are not allowed to transmit in the space that US general class can operate. They transmit on a frequency they legally can and listen on a frequency we can legally transmit on. Sometimes, depending on conditions and the time of day, we won't even be transmitting and receiving on the same band. I've done 40m/20m splitting before myself. Those types of communicating are not considered two different one-way transmissions and those are not even both managed by the FCC. Again, just my interpretation. You could very well be correct.

I have always understood the rules (including the ones above) to indicate you can talk in one service and receive in another Amateur and GMRS are both FCC regulated services in the US and while not transmitting and receiving in the same service, you are definitely not broadcasting nor having a one-way transmission. It is absolutely two-way voice traffic. That said, I'm an idiot. So, don't take my opinion as gospel.

That's a winning answer, @SteveShannon!