marcspaz

Event by Marc Spaziano and NOVA GMRS American Legion Riders Post 176 Springfield, VA Group · Members of NOVA GMRS Hey folks... a little last minute and long overdue, lets meet up for Brunch at the American Legion Post 176 in Springfield. They have a large lot and the cafeteria is open to the public. Our friend Walter is a member at another post and has invited us to join for a group get-together. I apologize for the last-minute invite. Hope you all can make it! American Legion Post 176 6520 Amherst Ave, Springfield, VA 22150 11:00 AM

That'd typically what I use mine for. They are available from Ham Radio Outlet, DX Engineering, and companies like them. Common brands are Yaesu, iCom, Anytone, etc.

The problem is, an advantage or disadvantage is a matter of perception based on what you want to accomplish. I can point out differences that push me in one direction or another. This is just really high view... and just the stuff I use. I am very sure there is more. In Ham bands: Max power is 1,500 Watts. There is a frequency space equivalent of 1,200 channels. Any mode of digital voice. Any mode of digital data (no encryption). Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) global positioning, messaging and more. 50w portable/mobile repeaters for under $300. Crossband repeat support. One radio will cover some of MF, all of HF, 6 meter VHF, 2 meter VHF, 70 cm UHF, all modes, at 100w for $1,000. Much more repeater coverage, including on HF and state-wide networks in many states. A much wider selection of hardware, including the option to build your own gear. Experimentation is encouraged. In GMRS: Much quieter / less users. Repeaters are available. Ease of licensing. Shared Licensing. Extremely affordable radios (as little as $9 each) Not at all. I have several handheld radios for redundancy (EmComm), but all of them cover everything from air traffic, MURS, VHF Business band, Marine, Amater 2m VHF, Amateur 70cm UHF, Business band UHF, GMRS/FRS and more. As I mentioned, in populated areas, with the option of the equivalent 1,200 channels compared to GMRS' only having 22 channels, you can always find a clear frequency to talk, send data, or whatever you plan on doing. And did I mention 1,500 watts on Ham for the opportunity to talk way further than you ever could with GMRS? HF gives you the option of communicating from 0 to 12,450 miles with just a few watts. If people go in the habit of it, there would be almost no practical reason to use anything but HF, beyond the data speed advantages of VHF and UHF on digital applications. You can do CW on GMRS. It is an authorized mode. I don't know anyone who does it because its considered a weak signal application. I did list a few more advantages above. I'm not sure what you consider a large antenna, but I have a 4 foot tunable HF antenna and I have talked to people in every state in the US as well as 102 other countries. Granted, a 7 inch antenna is definitely shorter than 4 feet, but 4 feet is hardly a hateful size. All of my radio friends are on GMRS, but that doesn't mean anything. An overwhelming majority of my radio friends are also into amateur radio because GMRS just can't offer everything that we want to do. We all do a lot of digital data and voice (such as email and computer networking over RF), EmComm support requiring much more power and portable repeaters, as well as the ability to talk long distance (like outside of the area if affected by natural disaster) without relying on anything but someone else with a radio on the other end... and much more. Honestly, I have a nice HF base station, massive amp and antenna. Same for UHF and VHF. I hardly ever turn them on. Most of my HF, VHF and UHF use is from the mobile. However, having the base station is nice if I do need to do EmComm or just don't feel like sitting in my truck to run a radio. I guess, the bottom line is, don't feel like you are missing something if you don't have a base station. You're not. One of the biggest things I love about Ham radio is, I can make my handheld seem like its a lot stronger that 5 or 8 watts. I have a mobile repeater installed in my Jeep. I don't need to have a ton of power in my handheld, because my portable/mobile repeater will transmit my handheld signal at whatever power I want, up to 1,500 watts. So, my HT never has to talk any further than wherever I parked my Jeep. As far as mobile power goes, 50w is kind of the standard, but it's not the limit. I have a collection of radios with all different output levels... 35w, 50w, 65w, 85w, 120w. I also have 200w and 300w amps... and 1,500w amps are available. There is no limit to digital. You can do voice, data like emails, video, file transfer, GPS, messaging, even things like chat consoles... you are limited by nothing but your imagination. The big draw about digital in general is, many digital services are called "weak signal services". Basically, what this means is, if you are on a frequency that zero voice can be heard... the digital connection can still be made on the exact same frequency and power level. So, in an emergency or extreme boredom, you are going to get you communications accomplished. I hope this help provide some insight.

First, depending on how much real estate you have in your vehicle or home, I always recommend having it all.l I have HF, Ham VHF/UHF, and GMRS in my home and in my Jeep. Don't think of it as better or worse. Just different. What differences serve a purpose for you at any given moment is the right answer.

The ducting is happening in the morning and in the evening as temperatures swing greatly in a short period of time. 10m is on fire basically from around 9am to around 6pm

Definitely GMRS... I have been hearing stations/repeaters from PA, DE, even NC, all in Northern Virginia. That said, 10m has been fire this week, too.

@WRYZ926 yeah, I usually work central and south America extremely well, but I seem to be able to work Australia, New Zealand and South Africa better than Asia. I work western Europe like I'm making a phone call. I only need 5w in the mobile or in the house.

Well, I was fortunate enough to have someone able to answer the question for me. Huge Thank You to Shitao "Ken" Zhou for helping me (and others, I'm sure) understand what this function is for. This is why I love the radio community. Link to original post from Ken... Content from his thread... Hi, BA7NFW here. Background infomation When I searched for "No-communication squelch" function, which you can find on most yaesu radios, I came across this post ('cause it shows up on google). Basically we can't make this function work, not even have an idea why this function exists when TONE Reversed mode already works fine. I had the same confusion, and the question wasl unresolved. (btw, can someone post under that question just to tell Marc I have an answer now? I'm not living in FCC regulated territory and don't have a GMRS call sign, hence not able to register here) tl;dr PR Frequency function is used for the Japanese railway radio repeaters. From the FT5DR/FT5DE Advance Manual, PR FREQ is a frequency of 300-3000Hz used for Reverse CTCSS Decoder: User Programmed Reverse CTCSS Decoder The tone signal frequency can be set at 100 Hz intervals between 300 Hz and 3000 Hz to mute the audio when receiving a signal containing a CTCSS tone matching the programmed tone. So it's natural to think, PR FREQ = user Programmed Reverse ctcss decoder FREQuency. And that's the tricky part. Took me about half-day researching until I checked the Japanese version of the manual. So, PR here actually means Private Railway(私鉄). The Japanese Railway (JR) and other railway companies (PR) use a system of radio repeaters. When the repeater is standby and no one is using it, it keeps sending a monotone of 2280Hz (for JR, PR may use other tone between 300-3000Hz) to represent that status. If not specially handled, this may keeps your squelch opened. And that makes sense, this function will cancel a certain tone carried in FM mode, and it's not a standard CTCSS tone signal, therefore a separate function was implemented. I highly suspect if this function is actually useful outside Japan. And the terrible translated manual just makes everything more confusing. That's all. Ken (BA7NFW)

Ken, this is awesome! Great find! I would have never though to do that. I very much appreciate the information. It makes a lot of sense. I will add this to the solution for the original post. 73, Marc / N1BED

It was on the 650 pair with a tone of 91.5. I was hearing China and Japan on 10m the other day, like they were sitting next to me. It's been pretty wild.

There has been a lot of ducting lately. This morning I was able the hear a couple guys on a repeater 130 statute miles from me, in Claymont Delaware to Woodbridge Virginia. Not the longest I've had, but it's been every day for a couple weeks. How's tropo working for you? Anyone else taking advantage?

I believe you are correct. The certification is pre-2017 revisions.

Beats me dude. I just read the stuff. It's very obvious that there is something being missed by most of us, since the XTS is certified in several, including GMRS and Amateur Radio.

The quote was specifically about the XPR, APX and XTS. Not all LMR radios. I never checked on the XPR because I never wanted or owned one. However I know with certainty the the APX and XTS were both certified for General Mobile Radio and Broadcast services under 47 CFR Parts 22, 73, 74, 90, 95 and 97. Also, the XTS was granted its certification in 2003. I am not sure what date the APX was certified. It's been awhile since I looked. The only time the APX and XTS would not be usable is IF they are programed to use Part 97 frequencies. Then, only that specific radio no longer has a valid certification for Part 95, until such time that it is returned to a state that would otherwise be compliant, meaning no more amateur frequencies. Again... I am no lawyer and I could be 100% wrong. This is just how I have interpreted the rules after doing some reading and consulting with people way smarter than me who do this stuff for a living.

That is literally what I said... you just worded it differently.

This one is kind of easy, if I understand the rules correctly. Radios like the ones mentioned noted above have been certified for use in the LMR service. As long as it's programed to be in compliance with GMRS rules and not be changed through front panel programming, they are grandfathered in. These are the only 3 requirements I am aware of. Due to the point that amateur radios cannot be certified, regardless if they meet the other 2 requirements, they won't be compliant.

Sure does. It's very common for HF in amateur radio. 300, 450 and others.

There was someone who used to be on this forum who was local to me. He complained about this type of conversation happening on the repeaters, here on this site. So, a few of us who know him would get on the repeater everyday for over a week, at a time we knew he was on, and would talk about nothing but our medical conditions, prescription costs, what we had for lunch and where we were meeting for dinner. LoL

There are some really good books/guides that have been published on station grounding. There are some important specifics, but it involves tying ing the home ground, adding ground stakes and lines, and lightning arrestors. I recommend checking out some of the publications that are out there. Some of the folks who have done it may have some author/title recommendations.

Like anything else in life, in moderation is fine, but in excess you go blind.

In the radio world, height is might. Get that thing in the air as high as you can. 35 feet is a modest improvement. You can get about 8.5 miles to the horizon in most relatively flat areas. Obviously better than that if you're on a hill.

Yes, you can go directly to the battery with nothing in-between... though I do recommend a fuse on the ground and hot leads. I have a circuit breaker on mine so I don't have to replace fuses in the field.

This may actually cause damage... but, how about transmitting on high power too close to another radio will break the other radio's receiver. My radio has the pre-amp enabled. A buddy of mine started talking to me while stopped at a light. Our antennas were less than 2 feet apart. My receiver had an epic melt-down after just a few seconds. Everything i received after that sounded like it was under water and on fire at the same time. After power cycling the radio a few times and leaving it off for a few hours, if seems to have fully recovered. Depending on the radios used... I may be willing to fund this experiment.

With that radio and inverter, you can run full power for 7 hours... though, the battery would be worthless when you're done. At a 50% duty cycle, you would get closer to 14 hours. For intermittent use, sky is the limit when you have solar. I have a 50 Amp hr LiFePo4 battery and 100w of solar. I can (and have) run a 50w radio and a 100w radio, with accessories and lights for overnight, continuously. So, im pretty sure that while the Jackery 300 is about half the rated power as my setup, with that radio, you should be fine.

NOVA GMRS and OCD Offroad are inviting everyone to join us for an "Intro to GMRS" presentation at OCD Offroad's service location in Stafford Virginia on Saturday, November 4, 2023. This presentation is prepared for people who have little or no radio experience, are looking to learn some very basic information to understand radio principles, radio performance and purchasing options. We will cover the following: What is GMRS? Why Select GMRS over CB, FRS or MURS. GMRS Compared To FRS. Range. What is a Repeater? Radio Technology and Programing Overview. Radio Types and Licensing. This session will be video recorded and published for public viewing at a later time. Please be aware that if you attend, your image may be published publicly, electronically (online) and via other means. Seating is limited. You must RSVP below to attend. If RSVP within 24 hours of the event, message MarcSpaz to confirm seating availability. If you can't attend, don't worry. We will be sharing a video of the presentation after the event.