marcspaz

I agree. I use expressions like "I'm Oscar Mike" and "my other radio is Tango Uniform". It's not really perceived as code. I'm just using nuanced words to convey the meaning of a thought. Or, when I am going to meet friends somewhere, I'll say "I'm 10 minutes from the spot." if I want to give someone an update. It's no one else's business where "the spot" is. No one could even remotely argue that you are being deceptive. If I am talking to my wife and say, "okay, I'll meet you at your mom's house.", someone can't seriously accuse us of using code, false or deceptive language because I didn't provide 123 Main St. Smallville, US as the destination. Mom's house is good enough and it's no one else's business. That said, if you're talking on the radio to a 'friend' and you say you are about to deliver 22 kilos of white bananas to the warehouse and you're expecting the customer to have 9 million gallons of green paint ready for pickup, I think that will raise some eyebrows of anyone listening. LOL

I 100% understand that. I am pretty sure you and I have discussed that I use a Comet SBB-1 when I am going offroad or in a known limited clearance area. A slight performance tradeoff for survivability is definitely a smart choice. A high performance antenna that is broken because of a tree or i-beam doesn't help at all.

An SA is a spectrum analyzer, used to test electronic equipment of all types. While folks like me typically use them for two-way radio work, they are also used in the automotive world, computer manufacturing and testing, and many others you may not even suspect, like robotics. As far as a business radio license goes, keep in mind that your privileges will be regional. Meaning, you will only be legal to use the frequencies in specific areas. This is to reduce interference around the country, due to the limited spectrum. I am a Computer Systems Engineer and Systems Architect, with some background in Electronics Engineering. However, I am not a P.E., which as a very different thing. The National Society of Professional Engineers and Professional Engineer Licensure College of Engineering have more or less hijacked the phrase 'professional engineer'. They have sued people who have said they are professional engineers, taking the two words (used together) out of context and twisted statement to appear people were claiming to be College of Engineering accredited Professional Engineer (PE). So, again, not a PE nor do I do what PE's do. I don't have a LinkedIn profile, intentionally, for many reasons and won't be adding one anytime soon. While I can do some volunteer work with some organizations not related to my career and help friends/acquaintances with small tasks, etc., I am on a very strict limitation with regard to providing any commercial services. That said, notionally, I may be able to offer help/advise for things as they pop-up. Just PM me here.

Yep, GMRS has been around for at least 60 years. @kirk5056, the original service was formed in the '60s, called Class A Citizens Radio Service. It was renamed (and some rule changes occurred) in '87, to General Mobile Radio Service. The last round of rule changes occurred in 2017, including a lot of definition updates. On September 30, 2019, US legislature passed a law making it illegal in the USA to import, manufacture, sell, or offer to sell radio equipment capable of operating under both GMRS rules and FRS rules. This lead to the most recent round of 'new radio builds' we are seeing.

AND... in most of the nation, all of the services are grossly underutilized.

It sounds like a step back, if I am reading it right. Do you feel it's close, or are you not happy?

This was a fun convo. This guy is trying to get a new channel going, and I figured I'd share. If you get a chance, check him out and see if its something you may like. I think it would be fun to call him up and help with content. K5KAB Ham Radio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Yj7gP19Xg&t=1s I love that I was able to just come in right over the top of everyone else. +5 - +10 dB on his end makes me happy. LOL

Man, I have to be honest, I feel like the internet and my cellphone/smartphone has made me dumber. Like so much so, that I'm not sure I even spelled 'dumber' correctly, but I don't want to look it up because that perpetuates the problem. LoL

I believe you are correct in that my phase noise comes from unwanted digital oscillations in the VCO circuit of the Exciter or between the VCO and neighboring circuits. SA manufacturers have a feature to remove this from the results, referring to it as a "mirror spur". I don't like suppressing them, because I want to know if there is a quality issue. I haven't built a transmitter in a long time, but knowing if my gear is any good is a plus.

It's working again!

I am going to be north-bound in about 40 minutes. If you send me a text with some repeater info, I can help with signal reports. When I get to my office, depending on what you're running, we may be able to do simplex testing to. Let me know if you don't find anyone local to you.

LOL No doubt! For others who are not technically inclined, in the PDF, the smallest spur is -90 dBm. To translate that to something easily understood... if you set a typical radio squelch to a 4, you only need less than half of that power to open the squelch and start hearing the signal.

@Lscott Great find on the PDF! and... Wow... that makes both my head and my heart hurt to look at.

Ah! Cool. I'm looking on my phone and my near vision isn't great, even with glasses. New picture looks great! I can't like anything else today. Such an odd limitation.

Where is it?

I didn't mention the radios because the images of spurs are not radio specific, they are symptom specific. Meaning any radio can have those spur types. Also, none of the test were conducted with coax or antennas connected. For the one that was damaged, it was a QUANTAR repeater. As mentioned in the original post, the VCO in the exciter had gone bad. It was repaired with a card swap, placing a new exciter in the radio. After 26 or 27 years in use... I'm sure some silicon-based part went Tango Uniform. The other images, from the TinySA, are from my BaoFeng BF-F8HP handheld and my Yaesu FT3DR.

Hey folks... I have discussed receive and transmit quality with many of you in the past. Especially focused around the quality of the transmit signal with regard to spurious emissions, commonly known as Spurs. I wanted to share this info because with the introduction of the TinySA, some YouTubers are using these in their tech reviews, but really don't understand what they are looking at and end up giving out bad information. Our friend NotARubicon recently reviewed the BTech GMRS 50V2 and did a great job of showing/explaining what is known as a harmonic spur. Harmonics are a subset of Spurious signals found at integer multiples of the fundamental frequency of the signal. If you haven't seen the review, I highly recommend it. BTech GMRS 50V2 - Review & Power Test - Is BTech's New GMRS 50V2 Better Than The GMRS 50X1? I got a couple of pictures I wanted to share, that relate directly to this. These images may help understand the references when you see/hear reviewers discuss this topic. I have a friend of mine who's repeater was not behaving well and upon testing with a tool called a Spectrum Analyzer, he found Spurs every 100 KHz above and below the carrier at 462.675 MHz. In the GMRS world, that translates to the signal being transmitted over and over again, every 4th channel. Below are the images he sent from both prior to the repair, and after it was fixed. Broken... Fixed.... There are many, many types of spurs that can occur. You are looking at the effects of noise generated by the exciter circuits (VCO for those familiar), known both as sideband spurs and Baseband Harmonic Images. If this doesn't make sense, its okay. Just know that if someone is doing a tech review and shows pictures or video like this, the radio is broken... not that it was designed poorly. The next two pictures are of two of my radio's signals on a TinySA. These images are great example of Phase Noise spurs. The first picture, the issues seem pretty obvious to me. The second picture shows one small spur. It's not terrible, but it really shouldn't be there. Warning... Geek Alert! Phase Noise spurs are unwanted signals that occur due to the random fluctuations in the phase of the carrier signal. Phase noise spurs can degrade the quality of the transmitted signal. Think audio and signal quality. This is a symptom of poorly/cheaply designed radios and use of low-quality parts; not something that is malfunctioning. This was by no means meant to be technical. It is just samples to help know whats broken vs. poorly designed, and a conversation starter. Let me know if there are any questions. Either myself or one of the smart people in the room will answer them the best we can.

@WRQC527, the FT-70 chews up batteries. I sold mine within a few weeks of getting it. The FT-3D and FT-5D have much better battery use and standby times. I used my FT-3DR as a remote net control operator (via my xband repeater in the truck) for a Marine Corps Marathon event. I was non-stop slammed for 5 hours, 50% duty cycle, at 5w. It also has about 6 weeks standby, with the battery in the radio, before the voltage drops to 7.2vdc. With the battery disconnected from the radio, I have no idea how long the storage time is, but I know it's more than 6 months, because that is the longest I ever went between charges on my spares. Even then, they were above 7.2vdc, and I just charged them for an event.

100% anecdotal, I personally have had great luck with the handhelds, especially my BF-F8HP. The mobiles, not so much. Though the BTech brand seems to be making moves in the right direction, based on some recent reviews I've seen on newer HTs and mobiles. For the most part, if you are trying to save money, it's hard to be the price for what you're getting.

The 400 has known audio level issues on B and only supports digital on A. While the bigger screen was gone in the 300, I feel like the correction to the audio issues and dual C4FM was an improvement. Also, rejection on the 300 is much better, allowing you to pair two 300s and two antennas as a VHF or UHF repeater. The rejection on the 400 was so bad that we had to have the transmitter and receive antennas more than 100 yards apart, just to use 5w without horrible desense issues. The 300's have no desense issues at 20w and only 100 feet between the antennas. Granted, this use case is an outlier, but it's a good reflection of the overall receiver quality differences.

I have an Icom ic-7000. It was $1,500 new and is still selling used from $800 to $1,200 depending on condition. The stock microphone alone is $150. I would be thrilled to spend $2,000+ for a mobile radio if it was the build quality like what this radio was in 2005. The thought of spending $2k on a radio worth $300 is where the real headache starts. With today's tech, if you get a radio like the FT-891 (which is a bare-bones) for $650 and a FTM-300DR for $460, and you still don't have SSB on 2m or 70cm like the ic-7000 and the radios are trash compared to 20 years ago. The wild part is, go back to the days of Heathkit, Drake, Collins, Swan, Lafayette, Hallicrafters... those radios were (and still are) absolutely amazing. Even compared to 2000-ish time-frame. It seems like the more high-tech they get, the more they become disposable and unreliable.

I wouldn't be shocked. There is a lot more margin in a $5,000+ commercial radio that there is in a $170 amateur radio. If I had limited supply of common parts, I'd do the same thing.

Mostly the 65w Toshiba PA's... but pretty much any of them over 4w-5w are going to big companies. Even big brands of assembled gear is hard to find in stock unless we go north of $4k. ACOM and even the old-timer at TES are not putting out affordable gear right now. I tried to order a TES UHF amp through a local shop and they told me indefinite backorder.

I've had the same results trying to get solid-state amps. Also, one of my favorite knife makers is having trouble getting raw materials for making some of their ultra light weight versions. Specifically borax to make boron.

That's pretty cool. Some of the amateur repeaters around here do that, too. It's a great idea if someone has a truly open repeater.