marcspaz

That's a really good question. But do they actually discount stuff at the show? I used to go to gun shows all the time, but found the prices were the same or higher than walking into a local brick and mortar store. So, I gave up on those types of events.

I've spent decades in emergency services. If I worry, then you should worry. Right now, I'm more concerned about the idiots that are causing chaos and panic by over-buying food, water and TP.

I read about that last night. The doom an gloom is getting pretty disappointing. Cancelling events 2 and 3 months out means the masses aren't too optimistic about the current health scare.

Got you... now I'm tracking.

Outstanding! I have a question, though. As of December 2019, there are only 195 independent nations on the planet... if we include non-sovereign nations, it only goes up to 215. Was the 300+ a typo?

Anyone get involved in the ARRL International SSB DX contest this past weekend? How did you do? I find it amazing that people travel out of country to talk DX back to the US. I spoke to several people who live in nearby towns but were in another country for the contest. I was looking for as many countries as possible. Using 100 watts on an 80m dipole, I spoke to 110 people in 47 countries, plus Alaska and Hawaii, on 80m, 40m, 20m, and 15m! It was a good weekend. I had to stop early, though. This is the list of countries I was able to reach... Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Bonaire Bosnia-Herzegovina Brazil Canada Canary Is. Cape Verde Cayman Is. Costa Rica Croatia Curacao Dominican Republic Ecuador England Federal Republic of Germany France French Guiana Honduras Ireland Italy Lithuania Luxembourg Martinique Montserrat New Zealand Panama Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Serbia Sint Maarten Slovenia Spain St. Kitts & Nevis St. Lucia St. Martin Sweden Turkey Turks & Caicos Is. US Virgin Is. Venezuela http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/ARRL_2020_Int_DX_Contest.JPG

Being convicted of a felony doesn't mean you can't get a Amateur or GMRS license. The question is asked because, following a conference with the FCC and the NCVEC, the government and community at large are looking to make the community safer. The character of the applicant is relevant, as licensees represent the US government and the citizens. Some examples that will get you denied are convictions for pedophilia, weapons or drug trafficking, human trafficking, acts of terrorism, etc. If you have a felony 'hit and run' or aggravated battery from 25 years ago, they probably wouldn't flag you. What I find amazing is, they ask on a radio license application, but someone thought it was a good idea to make it illegal to ask if you are a felon on a job application. SMH

I live in a 110 foot hole. I gave some thought to this very issue. If you're going to spend any money, just do it properly, such as using the equipment mentioned above. Otherwise you're going to spend a bunch of extra money and time trying to get the performance you want. I have a 2m repeater and a 70cm repeater at my house. I would put up a GMRS repeater if I thought my wife wouldn't toss me out...

I literally laughed out loud at that. That's awesome... :-)

Its fairly informal around here. I won't call CQ... but I'll give my call and say Listening or Monitoring. If I don't get a reply, I will say it again in a minute or so, but add "for any station." If I'm really bored, staying in a small area and no adults are around, I'll use the lower channels and a lot of little kids love talking. Its actually pretty entertaining.

Sounds like you made a nice little RF trap. I hope its at the right frequency or you can reduce your receive capability, even though the noise level is reduced.

Agreed. Mine is fiberglass and is guyed with some UV and weather resistant paracord to help reduce lightning risk.

Wow! That's terrible. Both simplex and on the repeaters, many of us call each other by name instead of station ID. Especially if we are having an ongoing convo, even if there is a few minute break and we start back up. As mentioned by berkinet, calling by station ID is common. I would assume its because if I wanted to call for you (for example) there is only one KI5GXD, but there may be more than a few people named Lee who are listening. There is nothing stating it has to be that way. There is definitely no need for getting chewed out on the air. Please don't let that spoil your interest in the hobby. There is a tremendous amount of fun to be had. Anecdotally from my 17+ years of experience, that is not even close to the norm. It sounds like you just need to move on from that group. I am positive there are a lot nicer people to associate with and usable repeaters around.

@kb2ztx... wow, that is terrible. It's hard to imagine, though I'm sure its true. Good grief. If I was the county gov EC or AEC, I would have asked them to leave, too.

Fantastic! Good for them. The guy in the white shirt is an amateur radio operator and Emergency Coordinator for Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) in that county. Hopefully they have been training in radio relay and traffic management in the event that the repeater gets taken out. In the same manner that the cell towers are destroyed, the repeater and tower can be, too. Depending where the fire is/goes, that may never be a problem, but they should prepare for it. Overall I think it's an outstanding job. I am very happy to see the community coming together and making it work.

I'm curious what sparked the verbal abuse? The rules say every 10 minutes and at the end of a session. What actually occurred? I ask because some people seriously over use their ID... doing it every transmission, at the start and finish, every 2 minutes, etc. I wonder if he over uses his ID and thinks that's how it should be done. I would like to think that if you're doing something as simple as missing an ID, one of the seasoned folks would put a reminder out. I do. I say "well, it looks like its ID time fellas." That way no one takes it personally and we all get the reminder. Then I have heard some guys talk for 2 hours and never ID. Which is another pain point. LoL

I went through something like that here in my area. I just got on the repeater a few times a day, at common 'commute' times, and called on the repeater for the owner. After a few days (about a week iirc) he answered. I introduced myself and we spoke for awhile. I asked if it was okay for me and my family to occasionally use the repeater. Not only did he say yes, but he was happy that someone was going to benefit from using his machine. In my experience, most owners are fairly friendly. Just be mindful that its someone else's property and you should do okay.

Obviously I can't speak for every situation, but for the team I'm a part of, the government employees that don't know squat about amateur radio or RF comms in general, went out and bought a bunch of garbage and insisted we used their gear. The problems were that there gear wasn't just poor quality, but didn't cover bands and services needed. So even when it wasn't broken, it still didn't work. After a few years of us bringing our own gear (including portable towers and power) the right people finally asked us what they should buy. So, the gear here is owned by the government and we just maintain and use it. We still end up bringing our own gear 100% of the time, because we just never know what to expect. I would like to think our situation would be worst case. I can't see a club or group like ARES wasting time and money on cheap gear.

I agree. Honestly, all of the features are fantastic! There are lots of bells and whistles that you just don't see with many brands.

Hey Ken, I have owned and tested several amateur and GMRS BTech / BaoFeng handhelds and mobiles. Only 1 of the 4 mobiles I tested worked for more than 2 weeks. One of them broke within minutes. I have purchased and tested several models of handhelds, too. Only 2 of the 5 handhelds still work and survived for more than a month. They are very, very dirty transmitters. One transmitted so much noise that it can be heard by other radios on 15 harmonics in each direction. Some drift. Some are just flat out off frequency. The receivers are noisy. They just overall are poor quality radios. Now, that said, I still own and use 2 BTech / BaoFeng handhelds for when I go offroad, but it's because they are a disposable. The radios only need to 'work' for less than 25 yards most of the time. Also, if I have to drop a radio (by mistake, of course) in mud, water or on rocks, I'd rather have it be a $30-$40 CCR like a BTech / BaoFeng instead of my $250 Yaesu or Icom handheld.

I have a friend that lives not too far from you. Truth is, radio is pretty tough over there. Unless I am on a bridge, range is limited to a couple of miles. I have only been there 4 times for a couple of days... so I never really looked for any repeaters. Not legally. Technically, its possible, but would be way too complex and expensive to make it work, if you somehow got around the legality of it. Most repeaters are very limited in operation. They (can) support a wide range of frequencies, but they are typically configured for a band segment pair, with one input and one output. Height is might... so the saying goes. You will need to do a topo eval of where you want to talk to and from, and then install antenna setups tall enough to get over the terrain. GMRS lives in the 462MHz and 467MHz range of UHF. GMRS (and UHF in general) are what's called a line-of-sight service. The radio waves travel in a straight line to about 15% further than the visible horizon. That is because generally speaking, with rare/limited exception, UHF Radio signals get absorbed by the ground or radiate out into space. An example would be with my mobile radio and mobile antenna mounted on my Jeep, while in my driveway, I can only chat about 1.5 miles with 40 watts. Same radio on 5 watts, with a high gain antenna mounted on a 40 foot mast in my driveway, I am talking 40 miles. What radio do you have? Depending on the radio, you may only be able to legally listen on both and not transmit on either.

For those of you who have heard about the state of California telling Hams that all their equipment must be removed from government vaults and towers... it appears that due to lobbying from the community, that decision has been reversed. This information is per Nathan Zeliff, who was interviewed on K6UDA's YouTube channel, yesterday. Per Nathan Zeliff, the state and county governments are going to be required to integrate amateur radio services into their emergency ops plans, leave all equipment in place and augment/update as needed, and all fees must be waive or rolled into the county/state budgets accordingly. I guess we'll see what the official release from the government will be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnr-ryEi5Q

Agree fully... but I grew up in a time when it was common sense not to video record yourself doing something stupid or illegal. LoL It seems as though people today have lost sight of that. Instead, people seem to think it's a good idea to record it and post it online for the world to see.

You can't legally use a non-90 or 95 radio... and if you mod it for use on amateur radio (assuming its even possible), then it is no longer legal for GMRS.

Congratulations! I think you're going to enjoy it. I held a Tech license for 17 years before I upgraded... there is a ton of stuff to enjoy under your new privileges. I found that being an amateur radio operator doesn't detract from GMRS. I use GMRS weekly. It is a very useful platform.