marcspaz

I'm posting to subscribe to the thread and to share info about the DC metro area. I'm curious to read updates after the rally in SC. It's kind of strange here. When big events happen in Richmond, DC or Virginia/Maryland DC Metro area, the repeaters usually go quiet. It would be interesting to see how the community responds in other areas.

Welcome! Yes, indeed. Come on out. Everyone is welcome.

I don't use it on my GMRS radio, but if GMRS was my only radio, I would. We are prone to get tornadoes here, so I have my amateur radio set to give me alerts when we have bad weather inbound. Otherwise I leave it off. Man, I love the SARnet. Being in my Jeep in St. Pete talking to people in Panama City Beach and Miami without needing DMR, Wires-x, etc., is pretty awesome. And yes, the abbreviated notifications that a weather alerts exist is a pretty nice feature. Thankfully most of the standalone amateur repeaters in VA also provide that service, too.

Yes, Sir. 100%. Even on the hard trail, you would be good to go. The trail we are going up is a shade rougher than a poorly maintained dirt road. I mentioned high clearance vehicles because there are a few spots that are rutted and a "car" will almost certainly get stuck. Anything with about 4.5"-5" of clearance or more and you will be fine.

Hey folks, I am scheduling a radio expedition up to Flagpole Knob. Lets bring handhelds, mobiles, whatever you have. This is going to be a chance to set a personal-best for range of a contact and soak in some nice fresh air. If you have any non-GMRS gear you want to bring, this is a "let play radio" event. Bring it out. Additionally, I will be setting up my HF radio. Anyone who is interested in trying out the amateur bands and possibly talking to someone in another country from radio to radio, everyone will be welcome to operate my equipment. No need to worry about licensing, as you can operate under my station ID up to the limits of my privileges. No amateur license needed. As a side note, while will we be taking the easiest entrance to the top of the mountain, a high-clearance vehicle such as a stock SUV or pickup truck is recommended. If you don't have one, post up here and we can see if you can ride up with someone who does. This is a "weather providing" event. It will be rescheduled if there are chances of rain and lightning. SATURDAY, JULY 15, 2023 AT 9 AM We will meet at 9:00 AM at the Sheetz gas station in Harrisonburg VA on route 33, just west of route 81, and head up from there. Anyone who plans to arrive at the mountain top later (or earlier), we will be monitoring channel 20 (462.675) while we are there.

Hey folks, I figured I would put this on the books. Lets meet at 3:00 PM at Longhorn Steakhouse in Falls Church / Bailey's Crossroads on July 1st. This is going to be a causal get-together for the group to shake hands, showoff any new toys and gadgets, and chat about radio stuff (or whatever). Hope you all can make it!

@Sshannon I tried that method too. No luck. It doesn't mute or unmute when the tone is present. Mine defaulted to 300, but i tried several times and none of the selected tones worked.

I am totally bewildered by a radio feature and can't find an answer anywhere. I found one single page that says it reduces background noise when there is no audio is present, but that absolutely isn't happening on any of my radios. Hopefully some of the smart people here know what this stuff is. I have several Yaesu radios that have a squelch type called "PR" in the radio menu, and "No-Communication Squelch" in the manual. There is nothing in any of the manuals I have that explain what No-Communication Squelch / PR is. The only thing in any of the manuals is how to turn it on and how to set the "PR Frequency". That's it. Normally, I wouldn't even care, as long as the squelch works. However, no matter what I do, it doesn't seem to squelch anything. Like nothing. It doesn't act as a regular squelch, a reverse squelch, really has no impact whatsoever on how the radio seems to work. It exacts like nothing has been enabled. Does anyone know what the heck PR / No-Communication Squelch is and actually does?

I know that 47 C.F.R. §97.15 applies to Amateur Radio, and section 207 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 covers almost everything else. If the HOA bust chops about a CB or GMRS antenna, I would just get my Amateur license and then the antennas would be protected.

This is why so many auto race tracks go away.

For what it's worth, there are some federal statutes (I'm out and don't remember at the moment) that state HOAs 'must' make reasonable accommodations for 2-way radio equipment. My friend actually went to court over and the HOA lost. He replaced his small antennas that could only be seen off property through about 2 degrees of opening in the trees, with a giant mast that is 20 feet higher than the house and has several monster antennas for HF, VHF and UHF.

It's been a bit since our last get-together. I was thinking about another meet-up mid-afternoon at Longhorn Steakhouse in Falls Church / Bailey's Crossroads on July 1st. But, I was thinking there may be a bunch of people traveling for the holiday. If I set it up, who can make it? If enough people can make it, I'll get it going.

It would fun to try, for sure. My FT-891 sounds like trash on CB once i get about 1/4 mile away, but when it's close to transmit stations, it blows out my front-end to the point that I can't make out what they are saying. Even if I turn the RF gain to the lowest setting and turn on stuff like the IPO, NB, DNR, etc. I've been thinking about buying a Galaxy or a President, but they are steep given it would be occasional use.

I want to, desperately. The price of an FM CB was a complete turn-off. Especially since I don't know a single person who has one.

This is why I love this group. LOL

I appreciate the kudos! The CB Bar was a great addition. It's hollow square stock with some pre-drilled hole, but it's also easy to use self-tapping sheet metal screws for custom installations. The tubing helped me hide most of the wiring up there.

The problem with this is, when everyone else is using the same bandwidth and deviation, then my speakers rattle and my ears hurt from the volume blasting. Spending several minutes playing 'chase the volume level' is usually not a good time, prompting me to tell the operator what's happening or me just turning my radio off.

I don't know if you mentioned that before, but I didn't know. That's actually pretty cool. Folks who do that work save the community a ton of aggravation and arguing.

I'm sure this will spark an argument... but I want to make a few corrections. I'm not trying to pick on you... just want to put a tad more accurate info out there. Like you... my post is not very technical... more of a general concept. You are mistaken about wider signal having more range. The opposite is true... narrow band has better range. Wide has better audio fidelity. Wide receivers have less usable sensitivity than narrow bandwidth receivers because the wider the receiver, the more it fills with the broad spectrum noise. It then takes more desired received signal to pull the data out of the noise, reducing range per watt. This is why major manufactures collectively agreed, many decades ago, that 2.5 kHz bandwidth for SSB voice transmissions would be considered "normal" bandwidth. Also, the "bandwidth" and "channel spacing" are not the same. It looks like you may have mixed them up. In real-world application, GMRS WFM (aka wide band) "channel spacing" is 25 kHz and the typical occupied bandwidth is 20 kHz. The NFM (aka narrow band) channels are spaced 12.5 kHz and are typically 11 kHz occupied bandwidth. I measured one of my radios moments before posting this. My radio on wide band is 19.3 KHz with 4.4KHz deviation and narrow band is 10.3 KHz with 3.5 KHz deviation (a little hot). In laymen terms, the more bandwidth you use, the more data you can send. The more data you send, the better the fidelity can be. In GMRS voice, that data is your voice. Therefore, on wide band, you can have better audio fidelity due to more information transmitted and received. The reason audio from a narrow band transmission has low audio on a wide band receiver is because the receiver is tuned in such a way that it is listening to a wider spectrum of radio than the transmitted signal, and it is expecting more deviation than provided for the voice. The empty RF space is filled with random noise (same noise that reduces sensitivity / range) and the lack of deviation leads to lower audio levels. You combine the two and it can sound like less than half the expected/normal audio levels. The inverse is true when a narrow receiver hears a wide signal. The receiver is only hearing about half the signal (making it sound lower in tone) and the over-deviation causes a loud audio level... sometimes sounding a little distorted.

You got some good advice by kidphc. Get that antenna up higher. You have an 8' tall antenna with only 2' in clear view. Shadowing from the home is likely making a noticeable impact. I would recommend the base of the antenna be at least 3' above the highest point on the roof. If you could make it higher than that, more height equals more range.

Its been a long time since I checked... like 3 years. I remember it's not horrible. Like, 4.2 dB net transmission loss... so about 37% match efficiency. EDIT: I guess the right answer is, 800w out, 290w-300w reflected.

My HF 228 foot OCF dipole is resonant on 1.9 MHz (and a few others / MIMO), but the antenna network has a 9.1: SWR at that frequency. I literally work the world on that OCF dipole on 5 bands. The principles in that book are the main reason I tell people not to cut pre-tuned antennas to adjust the SWR. My radio performance at home is proof positive that its true.

Looking for a low price point stopped me from recommending that style of antenna. My personal vehicle has a Diamond NR770HB, with that design spec.

Man... that is a really tough thing to accomplish... maybe impossible. The Comet SBB-1NMO or SBB-2NMO.... maybe. Still almost $50 each, though. I have a SBB-1 (UHF, not NMO) and they are a compromise on 2m for sure.

I have zero experience with Tidradio, but 0.5 to 0.8 miles in the suburbs sounds pretty normal and my exact experience in most places I visit. In a flat area with zero obstructions, your range is going to max out around 3.5 miles. I think the fact that we can use repeaters makes the service desirable for many people, since range gets extended anywhere from 8 miles for a causal home setup to 100+ miles for a mountain top repeater. As far as handheld radios go, I am a huge fan of Wouxun. I would recommend either the KG-905G or the KG-S88G. Larson, Comet, Diamond, Laird and several others make great 3.5" to 5" mag mounts. Any major brand should be fine. My favorite 2 antennas for GMRS are the Midland MXTA26 gain antenna for flat areas and the Tram 1126-B for hilly / mountainous areas. If you don't find your SWR meter, the Surecom SW-102 is surprisingly accurate.