marcspaz

I mean, I didn't see anything that said it has to be your legal name. I use an alias on most of my federal forms because they are public records.

For the record, you can have a PO Box. You just list it at the time of application. If you already have a license, you can change it to a PO Box.

First and foremost, it's not just Hams that do that. GMRS based CERT and REACT team's (who are often not Hams) handle nets and emergencies the same way ARES/RACES does. The reason for this is because emergency communications has been standardized in the US and anyone who want to help is going to do it the formal way. Secondly, I think you are misunderstanding the concept of calling for emergency or priority traffic. If it was EmComm traffic, operators move from local, up to regional/national nets, and then back down to a local net. In a traditional communications blackout, that is how emergency and priority messages get handled. So, that is how they practice. The whole procedure is not for the guy stuck on the side of a mountain... though if no one has been returning your call for help and you know a net is on a specific frequency and day,, you can bet your bottom dollar you will be thrilled they're on the air and they will take your emergency call. Also, it's a good habit to get into in case there is a real emergency. Especially before a net or a bunch of long-winded people getting ready to ha e a BS session. It's a good idea to remind everyone that regardless of what they are talking about, all conversation should stop if someone with an emergency gets in the air. If you don't want to listen to or participate in a net, no big deal. Just turn the radio off.. Don't trash people for caring enough to make sure there is no real emergency and practicing for the day one happens.

Actually, this happens in my area all the time on the repeaters. Not so much on simplex, though. There is a 650 repeater I use all the time on Bull Run Mountain and another 650 repeater in Ellicott City (52 miles away). On the near daily basis, even with different tones, we end up having massive issues. My buddy may bring up the BRM repeater with the proper tone, but even though he is closer to the repeater than the other station, the other station using the Ellicott City repeater will either come over the top of him of they both end up wiping each other out. Not a good time.

There is a lot more to commercial towers than just getting it in the air. If you have working capital, it could be a good thing. Just remember there is risk. Two recommendations I would offer is this... if you're going to a bank or venture capitalist, you need a solid business plan that looks like its going to work, and a backout plan to still make money if it doesn't. The other is, talk to potential customers. Tell them what you're planning and ask them what their needs are in order for them to consider doing business with you in the future. By doing this, the County emergency services office was able to help my friend get through obstacles that stopped the process, because the County said it served the greater public good. He had no idea they would be an ally until he talked to the Emergency Coordinator. Good luck! I hope you succeed!

He made his money back in just a few years. He is letting the county use it for free, but the other companies are paying over $30k a month, collectively.

You can't go by what you "hear". There is a repeater near me that has 15-20 people monitoring the machine from around 0730 in the morning until 2100 at night, but may never say a word. Sometimes none of us talk to each other for days. Then there are people like me. My base station is always on and monitoring all if the GMRS frequencies. Even if I'm not home, my wife, son or mother in-law could all answer an emergency call.

You know, there is no ERP limit with mobile radios. It would be fun to build a crazy stacked beam array and see how range improves with 50w and 14 or 15 dB of directional gain.

Last climber I hired was $200 and hour from the second he got out of his truck until he pulled out of the driveway. It doesn't seem too expensive until you get to the point where he is just standing there waiting for you to finish your work between climbs. A friend of mine has a 300' commercial tower that hosts several cellular carriers, the county police and all of his amateur and GMRS gear. Cost him well over $1M to get it installed. He was charged $60K just to have the land certified that it's not historically significant nor has any specially spiritual/ritual significance for Native Americans.

Sucks to hear you didn't have any luck. Not only does that suck, it's one of the many reasons why I have every type of personal radio service radio in my offroad vehicles. Are you sure you had repeaters programmed correctly? I have to say, on UHF with 5 watts I have talked direct to people from about 4,400 feet to the shoreline about 160 miles away. That said, you need to be sure that there are no other mountains/hills/etc. In the way. And also remember that the earth has a pretty sharp curve to it and UHF/GMRS is a line of sight service. If you have a poor performing radio, antenna, or if the current conditions don't support scatter or ducting, even at 4,500 feet, you will be limited to about 90 miles, even if everything is 100% perfect and zero obstruction to the horizon.

I am a Ham, but had my GMRS license long before my amateur radio license, going back to 1988. It was an individual license back then and gear was primitive at best, but that is part of what made it easy. Me and my Ham friends (whom actually do appreciate GMRS) very rarely use VHF/UHF ham frequencies anymore and are almost completely GMRS. Many of us got sick of the club politics. We just use GMRS to chat while we are heading to meet up, stay in touch on the road, and in touch while offroad. Be it in 4X4's, on foot, small boats, etc. Anyway, I wouldn't let it discourage you. While some clubs have linked GMRS repeaters and have Nets, there are way more causal users and families with handhelds, mobiles, as well as base stations or repeaters in their garage so they can talk to family and friends.

Correct, Sharp Corp is a Japanese company. However, starting in 1962, they had a division called Sharp Manufacturing Company of America in Tennessee. While Sharp Corp was located in Japan, they decided to leverage a Nationalism wave that was happening in the US at the time and founded their first overseas (for them) manufacturing and distribution subsidiary here in the US. Production and sales were 100% color TVs and microwave ovens. They had Made in America stamped on every product. For all intents and purposes, it was an American TV (with Mitsubishi guts, sense Sharp had a longstanding relationship with Mitsubishi Electric).

As everyone else pointed out... it comes down to price. A great example in the amateur world is the Ten-Tec 588 that starts at $2,700 vs the Yaesu FTDX-10 that does the same things for $1,400. Or the FT-991A which has most of the same features (less power/portable platform) plus VHF and UHF AND is not a ROC, but rather a much, much better triple-conversion superheterodyne receiver with excellent filtering for $1,200. I really like Mike and I am thrilled he kept a Tennessee based company alive, but I can buy 3 Japanese radios for 1 of his.

This reminds me of when I was a kid and did sales and repairs of TV's. I used to have so many people bitch about my Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Sony inventory levels and model options being so much more than "American" TV's like RCA, Phillips, Magnavox and Sharp. One day, I setup a display with every 19" TV I sold, with the back's of every TV open so all could see. I had post-it notes pointing out that every single TV, regardless of the brand, domestic or otherwise, all had the identical Mitsubishi or Toshiba main board. People refused to believe that it was just packaging. Even after seeing it with their own eyes. I had some people accuse me of staging the boards to look like they were the same. I guess, what I am saying is, stupid should hurt.

Your reply was very pleasant and I appreciate that. I try not to think of it as "correcting" someone... because occasionally there is a negative connotation with the expression. I hope my reply didn't come across coarsely. I prefer to think of it more as... we have different experiences and we are just sharing our experiences to help each other.

@kidphc that's good to know that you had luck with moving your mount. I haven't moved mine yet, but when I get back to Virginia, if the dealer is done with some unrelated work, I'll pick it up and try sliding it forward. Worse case, I can swap the front and rear functions, using the back for UHF and the front antenna for VHF. And yes, both Jeep and Dodger/Ram vehicles cause a massive amount of RFI with most of the computers and controllers being in plastic cases instead of metal. I also can't run an HF Amp in my Jeep because anything over 100w below 50 MHz causes absolute chaos. LoL

It is definitely not just FRS radios. Every GMRS radio I have owned or used from Midland, has the call feature and a bunch of call tones. That includes the new MXT500 and MXT575. Come to think of it, every Motorola GMRS handle I have ever own had a call feature too.

I have to admit, when there are 5 kids in the neighborhood wracking that button nonstop for 3 hours, it gets old fast. Especially when you find out the kids are all in the same room.

The location that causes me trouble when everything is off is a lip mount 1/4 wave on the driver's side rear of the hood. It is only on channel 19 and only when I am stripped down and moving (unless someone with bad filtering on the wipers or alternator stops next to me). When I move the radio to one of the antenna mounts in the bed of the truck, I have no issues. But if I want to run amateur VHF/UHF and HF along with my GMRS radio, its not an option, so I stay off of channel 19 when possible. Otherwise, if I am on the repeater on 19, I just user my TSQL instead of running splits and leaving the receive side open. I am not sure where on the cowl your antennas are mounted, but almost anywhere on the cowl is a bad idea for multiple reasons. First it's way to close to the occupants of the vehicle. There should be at least 2.6 feet between people and the antenna so no one gets sick from RF radiation exposure. It cooks you just like a microwave oven cooks food. Second, my cowl and corner caps are plastic. So if you want to use a 1/4 wave antenna or another antenna style that requires a reflective ground, the SWR will be high and the performance will be very poor. A friend of mine with a Gladiator had installed his antenna in the same place (on the corner cap) and couldn't understand why hes receive was so poor with regard to audio quality and his range was terrible. While we were on a wheeling trip, I moved his antenna to the lip of the hood instead and his performance greatly improved. He went from only having about 1/2 mile of usable range to being able to talk to me simplex while 2 towns over. If you want to mount the antenna on the top of the rack, I strongly recommend making sure the rack is grounded to the bed and the frame with 3/8" or 1/2" braided grounding strap. Make sure the antenna mount is touching metal (preferably unpainted by using puncture screws). Also, because the roof is either plastic or fabric and the significant loss of reflective surface area, I would use a 1/2 wave antenna so it doesn't require a ground plane to work. A good NGP antenna will be about 13" tall plus about 1"-2" for the mount... so maybe 15" tall about the rack. This would be the shortest, BTW. Many are as tall as 32".

It's funny... I like Randy and I think he has a good sense of humor, but I was about 50/50 on if he was being sincere or not. This one was a hard read. LOL I figured for people who truly are new to radio and have zero clue about Ham radio (most of the world) it would help them as they read through.

Ham jargon for conversation or "contact". Stems from Morse Code / CW abbreviations that were carried over to voice communications.

I think I would just put a repeater in at my house and walk around with my HT before I spent money on a combiner. Then it won't matter what room I am in, if I'm in any room at all.

So, I never provided an update on my situation. I did some serious testing and I discovered that the noise issues I am having are directly related to my Jeep. I have been driving with my roof and doors off all season. The noise issues I have been experiencing are 100% due to some obscure airflow while the Gladiator is stripped down, causing static electromagnetic interference, and just with one antenna location. If I switch to my secondary antenna mount in the rear of the pickup bed or if the roof and doors are on, I have zero issues. That said and after experiencing a tad bit of frustration due to no fault of the gear, I will still contend that the top two over the counter mobile GMRS radios are the KG-1000G and the Midland MXT500. The MXT575 seems decent, too, but I have only experienced it from using one installed in another persons Jeep. Though, the MXT575 doesn't have a Compander feature (I don't see it in the manual or menus), which isn't a must, but it is a nice feature for Midland to Midland communications when both have the feature.

My primary GMRS antenna is a Tram 1126B mounted with a Comet mount on the side of the hood. Works fantastic. In hilly/mountain terrain, I get between 2.5 to 8 miles (VA) mobile to mobile and in flatter, more open areas I can talk 25-30 miles radio to radio. I have no trouble reaching well built, well placed repeaters 35-40 miles away with 5 watts. I also have the Comet 2x4SR antenna. I am not impressed with the SWR on the 467 MHz frequencies. It's acceptable (note great) on the 462 MHz frequencies and all of the covered amateur bands, but he antenna was designed for a cross platform user with FRS/GMRS channels 01 through 7 and 15 through 22. The antenna isn't meant/designed for good SWR on channels 8 through 14 or the repeater inputs. I have always had Jeeps with either plastic or fabric roofs, so mounting it high has never been an option for me.

As far as I know, you can't listen on two radios at the same time AND be able to transmit on either of them, one at a time or otherwise. Even a switch won't make that possible unless you are using two switches to completely cut out the other listening radio before transmitting. Duplexers are frequency split and directional. So, that is off the table. Diplexers are also frequency split, but support two-way communications on the same frequency. However, each side of the split typically has a vast enough frequency split that two radios can't transmit and receive on the same frequency on both sides of the split. Most of the time, they are band splitters. One side being VHF and the other UHF or one side is VHF/UHF and the other is HF/MF. Some T splitters (which are very affordable), but not all, would allow you to receive on both radios at the same time. However, you can't transmit without destroying the other listening radio. So, that really only leaves a T connector and two auto-sensing or manual switches. Keep in mind that there will be a small amount insertion losses, but you are facing potentially high expense. Frankly, even using 2 high-end auto-sensing switches is risky... I wouldn't do it. Keep in mind, I don't know everything and I am not aware of every device or method out there. This is just from my experience and training. Someone else may have a better answer.