marcspaz

Wow, someone voted down my comment? Sheesh... so much for trying to help. Guess someone missed the "don't get but-hurt' part. As far as your comments, Steve, I agree. Unfortunately true communism as you mentioned would be perfect, but human beings are inherently selfish and lazy. I guess that's why it has never worked. And yes, ignoring it or a PM would be better, for sure.

I wanted to stay out of this, but it's bugging me too much. LOL @Wrvq441 not attacking you... just my opinion... I interpret this as this whole thing 'originally' had nothing to do with politics (per se) and more about @Sab02r tried to make a political statement with his signature (which in and of it self was not so much the problem) and was obviously confusing Socialism with Communism. Socialism aims for gradual transition to a socialist society through democratic means, whereas Communism aims for a revolution to instantly establish a communist society. Socialism is a form of democracy, verses Communism is usually born out of war, driven by extreme Socialists desire to leverage Socialism to lift themselves (or their group) into a tyrannical positional of power, of which the only way liberation is found is either by war or total collapse of the nation-state. And THAT was the point. Not my forum, but I say have all the political conversation you want, if you can be civil. Politics does play into this radio service, just like everything else in our lives. understanding people's opinions and where they stand on certain ideologies can help guide a conversation. Just be sure you have an accurate understanding of what you are talking about and don't get but-hurt when someone corrects you for it if you don't. It's part of being an adult. JMHO And the answer is still "No."

@Extreme my flexible antenna is a Comet SSB antenna. There is an SSB1 and an SS2. The 1 is a bit shorter than the 2. They are both available in NMO or UHF mount options. As for NotARubicon and the 1/4 wave antennas, while I haven't seen the video you mentioned, the general statement is not wrong. Generally speaking, a 1/4 wave antenna will be the lowest performing antenna with regard to overall gain. There are other benefits to a 1/4 wave, such as better coverage in high eleven variations, for example. Now, I wasn't at Randy's house or Chris's house while they were performing the test in the the video that's linked above. However understanding that the quarter wave antenna is better for elevation differences versus the Nagoya and the Midland high gain antennas are design for longer distances, I'm not surprised to see Randy's results. Randy is up on the side of a high hill or mountain while Chris is down in a valley. I would assume that the results between the 2 high gain antennas compared to the ghost antenna would be dramatically different as the two radios became more level with each other elevation wise, as well as when the distance increases, or a combination of both. The ghost antenna would not perform as well distance wise, if the comparison had been done with both in the same elevation plain. However, there is nothing wrong with that. The antennas fundamentally are designed for different purposes. Randy did a great job demonstrating that the ghost antenna isn't trash, as some imply. I am pretty sure that was the whole point of the video. Just my opinion, but basically the reason the ghost antenna did as well as it did at a lower gain level than the other two is because the radiation pattern was simply more well suited for the elevation differences. The reality is, I am very surprised the 2 higher gain antennas worked as well as they did, comparatively speaking.

No, it a UHF mount. I can't remember is it's by Diamond or Comet. I'm going out in about 30 minute. I'll grab the make and model number. Works great out in the woods truck to truck, but I wouldn't try to get much distance out if it, even though it has a good match. It's not bad, it's just not great.

I absolutely hate these style antennas. Just person opinion. A 1/4 wave antenna is about the smallest pure mechanical antenna you can have and have it be reliable. Antennas like the one you linked are 1/8th wave antennas and have a capacitance hat to kind of 'fake it' for the other 1/8 wave required. My problem is, in my personal experience the design is way more susceptible to failure due to damage and aging due to weather, and even over-driving the antenna with too much power. Me and friends of mine have own many of them over the years and there has been a 100% failure rate among us. Sometimes they broke within weeks. The longest anyone I know personal who had one that worked was about 2 years. I also think they are ugly. For whatever that is worth. LOL A 1/4 wave is literally just a 6 to 7 inch piece of stainless spring steel. Unless you use tools to damage it, the 1/4 wave will last several lifetimes. One of my 1/4 wave antennas is older than I am, and I have 3 grandchildren. Still looks great and works perfectly. I have a 5/8 wave rubber ducky antenna fir when I'm wheeling and I don't want to risk breaking the mount or stripping the antenna off the mount.

Nah... my family is from Italy. Those Spetznaz boys are crazy AF.

No.

I have to say, I haven't been to my Florida home for almost a year, so I cant speak to any weather issues happening now and my experiences. However about 10 miles base to mobile is normal for me when i am there. This is when I am in Hollywood, Altamonte Springs, and St. Pete. Also, depending on geomagnetic activity, troposphere activity, etc. I have gotten hundreds of miles during Spring and Fall months. That said, there may be something going on that is boosting distance right now. I'm in Virginia right now and yesterday I made a simplex contact at 32 miles and another simplex contact minutes later, but even louder, at 48 miles. It's always fun when odd stuff like that happens.

It is technically possible, but I sure wouldn't do it. There is so much loss running duplexer that the idea of adding a diplexer to share the antenna sounds painful. Like, depending on the quality of parts, your talking about reducing your transmitter and receive signals by 24dB to 30dB. Real world, one of my duplexers has 10dB of loss and one of my diplexers has 14dB of loss to provide 60dB of separation. With a station that only has about 20w to start would give you 0.3w... one third of a watt is nothing.

With GMRS generally being a "bring your own contacts" type of service, I doubt there is anything geared directly towards it. However, I would assume you can simply use a traditional logbook or use an application from the amateur service, such as N3JFP, and just log it as any band you want. 70cm/UHF would be the closest option.

Neither... you talking something lime amateur radio with a MARS/CAP mod?

Yes, Sir... I had a few 50x1 and a couple of 50x2. They were all trash. The one that lasted the longest only had a few hours on it... died in less than 14 calendar days. The one that broke the quickest only ran for exactly 1 transmission and then smoked on the second key-up. Basically DOA. The crazy part is, their handhelds are pretty awesome. Especially their amateur radios, like the UV5 and the F8HP. I know many people have good luck with the mobiles, but there would have to be a massive improvement before I ever consider buying another one. My personal opinion, the two best new over the counter radios are the Wouxun KG-1000g the Midland MXT500. I have owned both and they are both rock stars. Very durable and plenty of power. Audio is fantastic on both, too. It comes down to if you are a 'bells and whistles' kind of person and you are technical, Go with the KG-1000g. If you just want simple and works out of the box with minimal knowledge/work, the MXT500 is the way to go. Also, the MXT500 is dust and water proof. Buy once, cry one... don't let the price scare you. Having to buy 2 or 3 radios due to buying junk is way more expensive and time consuming.

That sucks.

Around here, that seems to be what I hear the most. Well, Wires-X / C4FM and DMR. There are three 70cm repeaters near me with America Link on 24/7. Not much analog voice traffic unless a club 2m repeater goes down and they slide to 440 as a backup. Me personally, 99% of my 70cm use is for cross-band repeat from my HT through my mobile. Makes life way easier when I hop out of the Jeep.

Because they were written by bureaucrat lawyers, not 'normal' people. LOL

Some of what you mention as far as amateur licenses was already tried and it failed epically, leading to the licensing scheme we have now. Also, I may be so bold as to say that Ham radio operators use GMRS for the same reason anyone without an amateur license would use GMRS. There is no mysterious or hidden agenda. We want to talk to people we know, while using a radio, or have some form of communications when traditional communications is not an option. For what its worth, the core of the definition of the purpose for GMRS is "a mobile two-way voice communication service... for facilitating activities of individual licensees and their family members". Nothing says it must be used to talk to anyone about anything in particular, for some specific purpose. I think while the dialog is healthy and I like the conversation, I wouldn't support running anyone off because their usage of the service doesn't fit some preconceived notion of what I think they should use the service for. If anything, I would encourage more people to take advantage of the fact that services are available. Everyone should be familiar with GMRS, FRS, MURS, CB and Amateur Radio. There is no such thing as 'not enough room' to accommodate everyone. Again, just a thought.

Hey! I reassemble that remark! LOL

Truth mixed with sarcasm... I read that as "get off my lawn". LoL

Good grief... 75m and 80m is just atrocious. Fantastic from a radio prospective, but the people are mostly horrible human beings.

That's actually pretty impressive. I'm curious if the person on the other end ever told you what they were running, since they were able to make it back to you? +40 at 60 miles is no joke. LOL... that would be fun. There is no shortage of material, that's for sure.

There are a few retired folks and a couple who work from home, that kind of hover around 18, 19 and 20 during the day. A couple of them are members here. You will be more likely to get a response in 18 (127.3) while north of DC on the east side of the Bmore and DC beltway. The 20 pair (675) is good for the same group of folks, plus a bit more as you get into DC and NOVA. And the 19 pair (650) is good from Leesburg to Warrenton. It's a bit splashy along 95 from the Pentagon and points south, as it's on Bull Run mountain. At night and on the weekends you will hear us mostly on 19. My call is WRBY328. Give me a call an 19 or 20 (20 is better) when you're around. I'm usually on my way to work around 10 to 11 AM and on my way back to the home office after 5ish.

This is a conversation group. It's just a subject to talk about. Not a big deal, I think.

I can tell you why I am on GMRS often. Availability, coverage and the people using it. Though, that changes depending on where I am in the country. I cannot tell you how many @$$h0l3s I run into on ham radio every day. They think they are smarter than everyone else, and then use that very wrong opinion to assert their 'authority' (bad opinion stated as if it was a fact) over others. Then there are the jammers, tuner-uppers, and people just plain-ole' showing their butt. It makes me want to toss my gear in the trash some days. I don't have that problem on GMRS. On the GMRS side, we have local person here who used their personal time and money to put up repeaters on every pair and spread them around the DC metro area, just to make it so the community has something to use in an emergency (he's actually the opposite of what the jerks are in Ham radio). Thanks to this person, there are 90+ miles of continuous coverage edge to edge; more than 6300 square miles. You can double that coverage if you tolerate a 60%-70% reliability rate. There isn't a single amateur radio repeater or club network that can match his coverage. As far as who I talk to, my son is the only person in my family that has a Ham license and he doesn't even own any amateur radios. My wife let hers expire more than a decade ago. There are a small handful of friends that have their Ham license, but are rarely on the air. Now, on the GMRS side, I literally have several dozen family and friends that are on GMRS or use FRS while we are out doing things together. The lack of testing, the affordable gear and the fact that people like me are in their life to help with technical stuff, so they don't have to actually learn anything to simply use the radio, is a huge draw to them. Many of them refuse to get their amateur radio license. Side note on why I hate Ham Radio: Before you read this... it may be long and boring, which is why I put it after the more relevant part of the post. It is still relevant, because its a great example of why I as a Ham, prefer GMRS. As you read this, keep in mind that on the amateur frequencies from 144 MHz to 148 MHz, FM signals are just a little more that 16 KHz wide on a properly running radio. Also, based on the 16 KHz wide signal, the proper technical spacing between occupied frequencies is 20 KHz. However, for some reason the community in about half the country opted to use 15 KHz channel spacing instead, which leads to overlap and interference. Jerks in Ham radio never cease to amaze me. I have an example from just a few days ago, while I was talking to a traveler on 146.520. For our non-Ham friends, this is a calling frequency. Meaning if you are looking for someone to talk to, you go to that frequency to call for other operators, and many operators listen here to chat, too. Once you make contact, its customary to move the conversation to another frequency, but not required. Often it is used continuously for hours at a time for contests and special events, or just for a couple of people to just chat. I was talking on 146.520 to a person who was on the highway, traveling through the area on his way from PA to FL. Total conversation was 6 minutes. I figured it would be best to stay on that frequency, rather than to distract the driver by having him figure out how to adjust his radio while driving on the highway. Especially since at 65-70 mph, it wouldn't be long before I couldn't hear him. I had a guy come to 146.520 and yell at me because we were tying up "the calling frequency" instead of moving to another frequency. He was also very mad because I was using about 200 watts and was splashing him and his friends on 146.535. He was calling me names and generally being very rude. Well, I am not surprised he could hear me on 146.535, because (as mentioned earlier) a proper signal is a little more that 16 KHz and he was only 15 KHz away from 146.520. Him and his friends should have picked the better channel spacing of 20 KHz (146.540) or more, so there was no overlap. The power I was using was not an issue, because I could hear him splashing me... and I am assuming it was the overlap, not his power levels. Among other things I can't type in a family friendly forum, he said my gear was crap and I am a bad operator who shouldn't even be on the radio because I was splashing him so bad that he couldn't talk to his friends. He said that he hates new operators, can't believe they don't teach new people better manners and to follow the rules. When I told him he didn't know what he was talking about and I was an operator for 20+ years, his answer was that he was a Ham for more than 60 years and knows more then new guys like me. LOL The funny part of the whole situation is, in his eyes I'm the jerk who doesn't know anything and shouldn't be on the radio, but he was the one attacking me and insulting me while HE was using bad practices of not using proper channel spacing, being at least 20 KHz away from the most popular coordinated VHF frequency in amateur radio. This stuff NEVER happens to me on GMRS.

My primary home is in the DC metro area. FRS, GMRS and MURS are slammed on every channel for at least some part of every day. Though, the repeaters are not heavily utilized. We have about 30 to 50 people whom are regular users on all of the repeaters around me.

Percent? What is being measured in percent?