WSEZ864

When I was an electrician in 1980, I bought a new Fluke hand held digital multimeter. It worked perfectly until about 2 years ago, when it was inundated with saltwater in a flood. I found it several days after, soaked/rinsed with fresh water, then 90% alcohol, but when it dried out, all the control buttons were fused with corrosion. Total loss. I bought a bench model Fluke DMM among some other used test equipment about 20 years ago. It was at least 10 years old when I got it. It too worked perfectly until about six months ago. I turned it on and the display was crazy and it would not respond to the controls. Have not yet decided what to do with it, I may send it back to Fluke because a direct replacement is over $1k. Meantime, I bought another new Fluke hand held DMM. As with the other Fluke instruments, it was pretty expensive, but if it provides the same level of service my other two Flukes did, it will outlive me by a decade or two.

None, all are located within and service the central Maryland area.

I'd have to wonder if the OP's battery is deteriorating and causing the high voltage as the regulator is trying to charget. No matter, the whole system should be checked. Here, we have a "Battery Warehouse" battery store that provides free testing of both the battery and charging system - takes 10 minutes while you wait.

Sounds like the violator had better be VERY careful in his response letter to the FCC. Should probably send them a pic of the radio with a bullet hole through it, LOL.

No, not GMRS, ham. Sorry for the crossover.

Our club owns several repeaters, which operate under the club call sign. A "trustree" carries the club license (and responsibility) for their operation. ETA: Clarification - referring to amateur radio repeaters.

True, the small ones definitely do have their limitations when used alone. I've standardized my 12VDC items with Anderson PowerPoles and made up a bunch of PowerPole 'Y' pigtail connectors along with several 'extension cords' so that I can parallel several of the smaller capacity batteries if need be. Also handy when topping off multiple batteries

Gotta be careful with Google AI with these technical/administrative questions. I've been trying to help a blind Canadian immigrant get his US ham license. Due to the difficulty in studying, he is having great difficulty with the Tech exam and after unsuccessful several tries, he was looking for an easier way. Google AI told him his existing Canada license can be 'converted' to an equivalent grade US amateur radio license, which, after much legwork and investigation, we determined is NOT true. The actual situation is that one must pass the US exam to get the US license. Period. The corollary is that he CAN operate under a reciprocal agreement using his Canadian ticket while in the US until a) his Canada license expires, or b) until he becomes a US citizen. I think this is the point Google AI misunderstood and misrepresented - reciprocation vs conversion. Bottom line: Google AI rendered incorrect information that gave the guy false hope and took us a couple weeks to clear up.

I've been lucky to have a friend in IT that services corporate computer systems. They are always having UPS units dying off, most of the time due to one 12v9ah battery in a bank of four going bad. Most mid-size UPS units have a two (12ah) to four (9ah) battery pack that is replaceable, but often costs almost as much as a new UPS. The corporations typically just want to replace the entire dysfunctional UPS rather than making internal repairs, so my buddy just swaps them out and saves the bad ones for me. I check them out and once in a while can make a repair, but usually just strip the batteries out, test them and dump the bad battery. As a result, I have couple working UPSs laying around, plus about 175ah capacity in small 12v batteries, mostly 9ah I've scavenged, but also a few 18-22ah batteries I've bought. About once a month I'll rotate the individual batteries through a quick charge and top them off by plugging them into my bench power supply as I run radios. Most stay near 12.8v between charges, but as soon as I see one go below 12v, I know it's on it's way out.

Your contact was looking for a serial number that YOU assign to your contacts during a contest. In your case above, you could have given him any number, but 001 would suffice. If I am responding to CQ calls on any given day, I number my contacts starting with 001 and if anyone should ask, I tell them what number I have assigned their QSO. Typical QSO verification involves: Call signs Band/Frequency Time Signal reports Serial numbers

I'd agree with the advice to use a radio with a detachable faceplate/control head. Lido makes a bunch of radio mounts. I had a 2012 F-140 4-door and used the seat bolt mount mentioned by WRYZ926. Worked great with a Yaesu Ft8900 remote head. Maybe poke around at the Lido site, click on "Radio Mounts" and see if something grabs you: https://www.lidoradio.com/ I've hung the radio body ("brick") under the driver's seat on all three of my F-150 installations ('07, '12, '20). Lido makes a mount that inserts into the CD slot, which I used in my newer truck with a home made block with a slot cut in it that sits in an unused console compartment.

Maybe so, but it didn't look like it on mine. Mine has the retractable cover inside, side-curtain air bags, plus the regular glass window and by the time I avoided all of those items, I decided it wasn't worth trying to squeeze in there. The truck body is also aluminum and rather soft, so I was already on the edge of not using an NMO on the roof. https://www.ar15.com/forums/outdoors/Installing-Antennas-and-Radio-on-2020-F-150-Crew-w-Sunroof-Now-with-Moar-BackRack-/22-705121/

I considered buy one of those mounts for my 2020 F-150. It too had a sunroof that precluded installing a regular NMO mount. I installed a "Back Rack", which I use to haul canoes, ladders and lumber anyway, and mounted two antennas on the vertical bars at the sides. VHF on one side, UHF on the other. The Back Rack is bonded to the truck bed and the bed is bonded to the cab. I brought the cables in under the rear seat, under the carpet to the front seats, where my radios are hung. Works 'OK', but not quite a well as the NMO in the center of the roof on my last truck.

Draw schematics, answer unanticipated questions AND send/receive Morse code AND travel to the nearest FCC office to take the exam. I could have never done it. It is taken for granted that the exams these days, especially the first one, are essentially a "license to learn" and one really doesn't start really getting into it until they start working with it. I agree that memorizing the answers is really the most expedient way to get licensed. It's a large pool of questions and they are not the same on every exam. We have a least 4 exam versions for every license level, might be more. Studying the test questions actually does provide a bit of education. There are several online study sites with practice exams and flash cards, so studying now is easier than ever. To pass the Tech and General exams, one has to answer 26 our of 35 questions correctly.

Sorry, dupe.