marcspaz

@nokones i have said many times that there is a huge advantage with CB over FRS or GMRS, because HF has LOS propagation, like GMRS, but also has the advantage of Ground Wave and Sky Wave propagation as well. However, very few people I have met in my entire life, have a properly installed CB. Even fewer have SSB to take advantage of the extra power and sideband performance characteristics. I only know one person (personally) that has an FM CB. Bad performance of poorly installed factory stock AM radios that only put out 1 or 2 watts and 75%-80% modulation on a good day, and the lack of operators with compatible gear for SSB led me to recommend the much more powerful and installation forgiving GMRS. I have an AM / FM CB. Ive done a test similar to what you mentioned, comparing AM CB to FM VHF and UHF. While I didn't compare CB AM to CB FM, my results showed a dramatic range improvement with a 50w GMRS radio compared to my well performing AM CB. Living here in VA, I should try to find some time to duplicate your test, to see how terrain and woods impact performance. I'll have to see if I can get the one person I know with an FM CB to run some tests with me.

Did you drop a video on YT? I saw a few get released in the past few days/week.

They're not outlaws... rule breakers at best, but no laws broken.

Gee... I wonder. LOL

There are two different conversations when we talk about what the FCC might do verse what the rules say. Don't twist the two. We are talking about what the rules say; not what people have been getting away with. § 95.1705(b) states the holder of an individual license to operate GMRS stations is responsible at all times for the proper operation of the stations in compliance with all applicable rules. Also, § 95.1705 (d)(1) says the holder of an individual license shall determine specifically which individuals, including family members, are allowed to operate (i.e., exercise operational control over) its GMRS station(s). You can't accomplish any of that while the radio(s) or the person(s) using your call sign is 400 miles away. The operator must be at the 'control point'. The 'control point' is any location where the operator of a Personal Radio Services station may reliably operate that station. Now, techniques such as 'automatic control' and 'remote control' make it so the control operator does not have to be located at the transceiver and monitoring communications in order to avoid interference and rule violations. However, the licensee is still in constant control as they are considered 'at the control point'.

No one is born knowing anything. We all have to learn somehow. I'm glad you're here an asking questions. You are absolutely on the right track and asking the right questions. There are a bunch of ground plan kits for sale that are tripod mounted for portable and base station use, which sounds like what you really need. As someone mentioned earlier, you could also use a magnetic mount and a large (for stability) pie/cookie sheet as well. Have fun! Experimenting and finding what works best is a big part of the fun for me.

It varies based in antenna design and frequency. If you have a wire/rod antenna that is a quarter wave length of the desired frequency, ideally a disc that is about 1/8th wave radius (1/4 wave diameter) at a 45⁰ downward angle (like a cone) would be good. The closer to perpendicular or parallel, the longer/wider the ground plane would need to be. If you are using wire/rods for a ground plan, the length rules are the same, but the more elements you have, the better performance will be.

An RF ground plane is a conductive surface that serves as a ground reference point for radio frequency signals in antennas. It provides an electromagnetic reflection of energy to complete a portion of a radiated signal.. and is often an electrical ground, as well.

We have a group of radio dorks around DC and Northern Virginia that are on the GMRS repeaters just about every day. I call it "the going to work show" in the morning and the "going home show" in the evening. Great group of people. That said, it's a little burst. Everyone knows one another. The rest of the time, it's pretty quiet. And we have close to 4 million people in the coverage area. I would assume the total number of licensed operators around a group of 200,000 total citizens is pretty small. So I'm not surprised it's quiet for your area.

I have made several new friends due to my involvement with GMRS as well, but it truly is a "bring you own contacts" type of service. With roots in business and family purposes, it never really was for socializing with strangers or making new friends. While that is an anomaly among us radio dorks, it doesn't account for much activity, nor much of the growth in user base.

Do you have a single technical point supported by repeatable recorded data that disproves the fundamentals of physics as we understand them today, which were largely established in the 17th century and agreed upon by physicists worldwide for 300+ years? Or do you "just know" the earth is flat and we should take your word for it?

@LeeBo I found some genuine humor in that last line. It definitely had me chuckling. You are experiencing an odd situation with that mountain, for sure.

I know you are new, and I want to cut you some slack, but your post is so incredibly wrong that I can't let it go. We are talking about physics, not opinions. Radio waves generally do not travel far through the ground. A few meters at best, and it doesn't matter how much power you throw at it. Soil, rock, and other dense materials will either reflect (most common) or absorb radio waves. The distance the waves travel through ground depends on several factors, including the frequency of the waves, the conductivity and composition of the ground, and the moisture content. Absolute best case, low-frequency radio waves (e.g., Very Low Frequency, or VLF, 3–30 kHz) can penetrate several meters into the ground through materials like dry sand or soil. As the moisture level increases, the distance decreases. High-frequency waves (e.g., Medium to High Frequency, MF to HF, 300 kHz–30 MHz) penetrate the ground poorly and are mostly reflected at the surface or absorbed with penetration being 3 meters or less. Going to VHF or higher, we start measuring the penetration in fractions of a meter. Now, when it comes to radio waves flowing around objects (for lack of a better expression), there is a little bit of truth to that. Think of it like a shadow. When the sun is blocked by and object, there is not absolute darkness in the shadow. There are photons scattering all through the atmosphere, illuminating the blind side of an obstacle. However, there are no radios that have the power of the sun behind them. The energy that scatters around objects like buildings or hills is extremely minimal, and the closer to the blind side of the object, the less the saturation is. Kind of like a shadow being the darkest at the base crease of the object blocking the light.

@Raybestos integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. I try to have integrity, but we all have moments of weakness. I didn't write the rules. Like many others, I just interpret them the best I can and honor them with all the integrity I can muster.

Yeah... refraction and scatter are why the RF horizon is further than the visual horizon. Once the photons overcome refraction and start to leave the atmosphere, a very small percentage of the signal is scattered, while most keeps traveling in a straight line. The more power you put out, the more the parts per million the scatter is and the more easily the signal can be pulled out of the atmosphere beyond the line of sight. Using troposcatter with a stacked beam antenna array and 1,500w, I have been able to talk to people in Texas from VA on 146.520 during contests and Field Day. UHF performs the same way. It's been awhile... so I don't remember the max distance we got on 446.000, but it was more than 300 miles.

Yeah, I was thinking about knife edge refraction as well as troposcatter.

I think you are on the right track, when it come to pointing out the conflicting rules. However, The courts wouldn't look at this from a Constitutional Rights violation. If someone ends up in court over it, there is a good possibility that the argument will be over what the definition of "is" is... if you get my meaning.

Kirk may have broken a Forum record for being on the most ignore lists since its inception.

I mean, the definitions are so confusing that it could inadvertently be the case, if the receiver and transmitter are two separate devices connected by any cable. LoL. The only saving grace would be in the PRS rules stating that wirelinking at the same physical location is exempt.

I'm sure someone is going to point out that none of this is in the FCC PRS and/or GMRS rules... and I am aware. That said. it looks like you need to be a lawyer to decipher this stuff. It doesn't help when the FCC doesn't define things like "wireline control link". The only place I can find that the FCC specifically mention a "control link" is in 47 CFR § 97.213 - Telecommand of an amateur station. It says "A control link using a fiber optic cable or another telecommunication service is considered wireline." This is the definition the FCC provides for "telecommunication". Telecommunication Any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. Common Carrier In the telecommunications arena, the term used to describe a telephone company. Network Any connection of two or more computers that enables them to communicate. Networks may include transmission devices, servers, cables, routers and satellites. The phone network is the total infrastructure for transmitting phone messages. Telecommand The use of telecommunication for the transmission of signals to initiate, modify or terminate functions of equipment at a distance. Citations: https://www.fcc.gov/general/glossary-telecommunications-terms https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/2.1 https://www.fcc.gov/wireline-competition https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/97.213

Dickey Bell, as a Trail, went through the rehab and is in fantastic condition. However, Little Daniel is really washed out a lot compared to my trip in 2021. A lot of those out-croppings are extremely more difficult. I would say more difficult than any part of the topside of 390/Daniel. People with 3.5" of lift and 37" tires were taking 7 to 10 minutes to make it to the top. With my Jeep being on 4.5" long-arm with 40's, it was a walk in the park. less than 2 minutes.

Unfortunately. On the first pass, I was wedged in the notch I stead of the passenger front being on top of it, and the tire slipped off the wall. I'll have a video that includes the slip and fall posted in a week or so. I'll share it if you're interested.

First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and ...

@TrikeRadio Great question, BTW. Even if we have no intent on doing it, it's always fun to try to think through stuff like that. Sometimes, the 'what if' is very entertaining.

As Steve mentioned, there are some regulations preventing repeaters from transmitting on the 8 input channels. All repeaters can only transmit on the frequencies associated with channels 15 through 22. With that said, there are no restrictions on with input frequencies can be used... there is no law or rule requiring a specif frequency pairing. The only way I am aware to RF link GMRS repeaters while staying in the GMRS service is to use any GMRS frequency other than the 8 traditional repeater inputs as an input for each relay point. Now, here is where you may run into issues. Anything not explicitly denied is allowed. Since there are no laws or rule prohibiting the methods I mentioned, you can do it legally and within scope of the rules... BUT, depending on the User population in those repeater areas, you will P!$$0ff a ton of people. I would expect complaints to be filed. I say this because, instead of tying up one channel for one repeater, you are going to be using 2, 3, or possibly even 4 or more channels for a GMRS service based RF linked system. Now, if the FCC really wanted to be hard on someone, they could call it an RF network and try to prohibit the action under the "any other network" clause, even though its not a routed network. That's where having deep pockets for a lawyer would come in handy. Edit: I forgot to mention, due to the type of duplexers and filtering needed, this would be extremely expensive to build.