Downs
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Posts posted by Downs
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Its nothing against first net but i would prefer my radios to be on their own dedicated system seperate from the cell network. Or at least have a way to easily and quickly and easily switch off to a dedicated system.They're literally the reason I got into GMRS, too.
Any particular reason? From what I heard, they're building out a boatload of "excess" capacity for that network.
My department just switched last year from analog to digital. Its been a rocky switch and some of the old timers have had a hard time changing their radio habits to better suit the digital system and radios.
Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
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I just switched over to FirstNet on my smartphone yesterday. Not sure id want my radios on itHonestly, if they thought of GMRS as a subset of amateur, where someone else (a ham, or a company) had to set your stuff up for you, and you were limited to "novice" bands, that wouldn't be so bad.
If GMRS were bolted to business bands still, that wouldn't be so bad.
The problem is that fragmentation of the bandplan - and moreso the market - means network effects can't take off.
Even Motorola is pitching LTE as the new answer to trunked radio deployments. "Pay us a per-unit monthly fee, and we'll handle all the infrastructure for you". I can't help but wonder if this is aimed mostly at "FirstNet" users who don't need a smartphone, or who need something that can be operated without looking at it.
The problem with that is, ultimately, that it's rent-seeking. I want to pay $40 per radio, not $40 per month per radio.
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GMRS is for families. No test, covers your whole family. No tinkering, grab a pre programmed radio and go.
The downside is that the FCC limits the equipment that can be used to prevent people from plugging numbers into a radio and causing interference.
There would be a lot more confusing regulations to follow if the FCC started putting all kinds of equipment exceptions for various other services, which then creates more problems than it was trying to solve for a family jist grabbing a set of radios and going.
My wife and kids are not interested in Amateur radio. This allows us all to communicate with few issues.
And nothing that the OP suggested would change any of that. Adding an exception for already licensed HAMs to use their already existing and perfectly capable gear wouldn't change anything that's happening in GMRS currently for non HAM types using it. Just means that we would have to spend less money on redundant equipment to stay within the letter of the law.
Though I'm sure there's already plenty of combo HAM/GMRS guys running around with Amateur gear programmed for GMRS use.........
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Welcome aboard from east of Dallas, Tx.
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Ive been really happy with my UV50X2. Its been solid in my Jeep so far.
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I have a uv 5r v2+, have had a few people saying audio is very poor, trying to figure if its the radio or what
Try telling them it's a Yeasu next time. I've found that to clear up "bad audio" reports in some instances.
I've had a few "bad audio" reports reports when revealing I was using a UV5R or UV82 or insert name of Chinese radio here. When I "switched" to my "FT60R" (I.E. I didn't actually switch to anything) the new audio reports were magically better. Go figure. You can also try drilling out the mic hole a little bit and see if that helps many have had luck with that. Or you can just use it with a handmic all the time and bypass the in radio microphone.
I've got a small pile of dual band chinese radios out in the garage along with another smaller pile of BF888 UHF radios. The Dual Band pile consists of UV5Rs, UV82HP, BFF8HP, BFF8+, KGUV8D, and something else I can't remeber off the top of my head.
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I made the mistake in hoping that the radio could be programmed with the repeaters and their tones. It was a mistake on my part, realizing now that yes you can program the repeaters but can't have presets on the other memory slots. Bit hard to program while driving, nor would I want to. Kinda a moot point.
With the power levels, I was hoping that the information was actually listed in the manuals that came with the radios. However, My manual (radio is less then a week old) didn't mention anything about the ability to change the power levels. Not that makes much difference since I will be messing with it.
Will CHIRP not program the GMRSV1?
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I watched your video and gave it a thumbs up.
Just for the sake of information though, Bao Feng is actually pronounced as "Po Fung..." Chinese pronunciation is weird don't ya know!
:dunno:
Pretty much all the Baofeng models have come as "pofung" labeled radios as well. But im certainly no language expert im sure they changed the labeling based on our pronunciation of their word. I dunno.
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Without the questions I have no idea. The FCC's website is a bit weird compared to others for sure.
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Good luck finding anyone who has actually been charged for that. You have to be a pretty flippant repeat violator to get the attention of the FCC especially using some low power HTs, and if history shows us anything you would get a pile of cease and desist letters first before any real action was taken. If they aren't going to jail multiple well known offenders on the HF bands that were sent letters for 9 years before being fined and having their equipment confiscated I doubt Joe Blow with a HT is going to even show up on their radar unless they start stepping on the wrong toes.
It's not like the FCC has the time or manpower to go around the country monitoring every transmission and then trying to find out if the radio isn't certified. It's not like the radio transmits a "hey I'm not type certified" at the start of every transmission.
Stay out of spectrum you aren't supposed to be on and don't go advertising what you are doing to everyone and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone that's going to be able to figure out you aren't on a type certified radio.
But do so at your own risk
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I did a short Youtube video on this. Got a lot of flak from RR defenders. They are sponsoring a bunch of off road channels on YouTube now so their re-badged overpriced stuff is getting more and more out there and gaining more supporters who IMO either dont' know any better or are getting free stuff from them anyway.
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I don't know of anybody that champions the use, of Part 97 radios on GMRS. I have however championed the use, of Part 90 radios on GMRS as that service has as strong or stronger specs. Recent changes to the FCC wording state an operator my operate equipment that is certified in another service, part 97 equipment is not certified. Furthermore the FCC has commented about the use of HAM radios on GMRS and will enforce action if one is caught. You can read more below, I am sure others on this site will agree that non certified equipment has no place on GMRS.
They actually have to put in effort to "catch" someone. They don't have the manpower or resources to perform such actions on a wide scale and would have to wait until someone caused some issues large enough to get reported.
The problem with that is you're never going to find anyone who is going to be able to tell someone is using a Baofeng on GMRS anyway, at least not with any certainty. So what's there for the FCC to track down?
If it takes them the better part of a decade to make a "Move" against well known identified offenders on the HF bands, billy bob and his kids talking on GMRS/MUR/FRS on uncertified equipment. wont' even be a blip on their radar.
I don't have the UV50X3, but do have a UV50X2 that I use in my Jeep for a mobile radio. The only gripe I have with it, is IMO it needs a lower power setting. All it has is low an high with Low being 20 to 25 watts and high being between 65 and 75 watts depending on where you are at on the spectrum, it's marketed as a 50 watt unit by the way.
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Do you have a balcony? I’m in an apartment, but have a balcony. I just ran LMR400 (several) and put my antennas out there, lol. I figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than pernission.
Landlord did ask what they were and I explained amateur radio and GMRS. (I used angle telling her it’d still work if power and all else lost, which would as I have backup power.) She thought it was neat and even asked if I could setup some wireless bridges on rooftop (two buildings here) for their IP cameras. Easy peasy! Hoping to get brownie points and maybe sweet talk her into letting me set my antennas up there, lol. I’d put them in center roof, where can’t be seen from ground, so nobody could see, else might be seen as “tenant favoritism”.
Even though, my landlord loves me, anyway. Mainly because I’m a veteran and she loves all veterans.
I’m not complaining. :-)
When I lived in California one of my buddies lived in an Apartment but had access to a balcony on the top floor. He rigged up some EMT (electrical conduit) tubing which he attached to the railing using large hose clamps and attached a Roll up J-pole to it with some zipties. Worked pretty well we could communicate easily and lived around 20 miles apart. The rules in his apartment complex forbade such things but he figured it was cheap and easy to take down if needed. No one ever noticed it though the whole time he lived there.
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Many of the Amazon listings for the BF-888S and rebrands of such state they work out of the box, legally, without a license; someone in the after-school program probably took the bait and bought a six-pack for less than the cost of a PL-capable FRS radio.
I've got a stack of 888s on the table in my garage. For 12 dollars why not? Anywho they are perfectly capable of doing both CTCSS and DCS tones. Just gotta program them via computer since it's just a simple radio with a volume and channel knob. Same cable that does all the other Kenwood port radios will do it as well.
Using UV-82C for Part 95E
in FCC Rules Discussion
Posted
Ignore the Baofeng hate. Instead of trying to get the 82C to do what you want legally you can always get the BTECH GMRSV1 (a UV82 certified for GMRS use) and do what you are seeking.
[offtopic]Some folks have large amounts of money to dump into their hobbies others do not. I have to balance a limited income across multiple things I like to do including Jeeps, Shooting competitively, radios, motorcycles, ect and without the Baofengs on the market I probably wouldn't even be in the radio hobby because there's no way I was going to dump 150 dollars into a handheld radio to come to find out it didn't do what I wanted to do with radio spectrum, or be something I would enjoy to mess with. My initial UV-5R got my foot in the door to take the test and that one radio turned into a pile of radios including some Japanese radios that I don't even use regularly anymore and now live on my workbench[/offtopic]