WSEZ864

^^ THIS ^^ in a nutshell... Linking would completely occupy any given frequency pair, making it unavailable to most other users in the coverage area. It would not take many linked repeater owners to monopolize all of the repeater channels in any area. Even ham radio, with it's many more available repeater frequencies, seldom links distant repeaters for longer than it takes to run a net. Some clubs run repeaters in two locations on different frequencies and permanently link their own, but it is still very local and only two transmitters. W3VPR does this with their 2m system, almost doubling their footprint. Others link between 2m and 70cm, but again, it's local and limited. I am seeing this desire to link with many new GMRS users here and I think that some of the appeal is to increase capability on an intentionally limited service due to the lax licensing requirements. "Limited service" and "lax requirements" go hand in hand. Anyone wishing to have longer range capability than GMRS currently offers should investigate Amateur Radio, which allows greater power, much more flexibility in frequencies and equipment. The FCC dropped the Morse Code requirement and the entry-level 'Technician' license exam is relatively easy.

Any progress or further interest in this?

LMR-400 is an excellent VHF/UHF cable, but has a solid center conductor and is very stiff. LMR-400 should not be unrolled/rerolled/bent/unbent very much due to damaging the dielectric. A better choice for portable with similar loss figures is LMR-400 Ultra-Flex, which has a stranded center conductor which tolerates handling much better. I use LMR-400 for my base/home installations (even HF) and LMR-400 UF for temporary/portable/mobile use like Field Day setups, etc..

Agreed. There is a LOT of overlap in material between the General exam and the Technician exam and General is relatively easy if you've just wrapped up Tech. I'm a VE (we actually have a monthly exam session tonight) and I very often see the same Tech candidate pass then come in the following month for their General and pass that too.

** IF ** we wanted to use a park pavilion, it looks like HoCo parks do offer pavilion reservations: https://www.howardcountymd.gov/recreation-parks/rentals The smallest one (Waterloo Park) is for 25 people and is $145 to rent/reserve. Centennial Park is pretty decent and only a few dollars more ($165) for a pavilion there. I've fished Centennial Lake quite a bit and it's not far off I-95 x MD-100 or I-70 for those that might come that way. For inside venues, our ham radio club has about one "club breakfast" a month at the local (Arundel Mills) Golden Corral buffet. They don't do anything special for us, but do let us grab a couple tables in back for our group (15-20 people). Food is regular price and no one ever gets very sick. I'm sure there are other spots like this around. As mentioned by WRJY601, we could reserve a table in a restaurant. I'm not that familiar with what's in HoCo, but I'm sure there are plenty spots around with a "banquet room" or similar that we could reserve. I guess it's really going to depend on how many attend, right now we could all hit a drive-thru in my truck... If we're going to do this outside, it's probably best to wait until September for the temperatures to get reasonable again. If inside, any time. I have business deadlines that come and go, but should be available if we don't have a compressed bid in progress. Thoughts?

Should work for me, I'm in AA near BWI.

I'd likely go. What area?

You're likely right. I just put an RTSystems package for a newer Yeasu radio on my W7 machine and it did exactly the same thing as the OP's setup. All their other software has run fine under 7. After RTFM/system requirements, I realized I had to put it on a W10 machine to locate/load the driver and program the radio.

I just came back from our club's Field Day exercise. I spent about an hour as a control operator with an unlicensed operator, showing him how to make contacts and a little bit on how to operate the radio (tuning, notch filtering, RF gain vs AF volume). He had 22 contacts on 40 meter phone (7.2-7.3 mHz) when I turned him over to another licensed operator, most across the country and a couple in Canada. He was very excited and was having a great time.

Purportedly.

Good rule for Poison Oak & Ivy, but not sumac. Poison Sumac is not three-leaved and is entirely different looking. Sumac leaves are "pinnate" (resembles walnut leaves), with 7-13 paired leaves on a stalk. Sumac is also usually found as a small tree with a woody trunk. [url]https://www.healthline.com/health/outdoor-health/poison-sumac#identify[/url]

Probably more money to be made on capitals.

Please keep asking your questions and ignore the noise. There is not one among us that knew it all starting out, and probably not one among us that knows it all now.

Exactly. When I lived in VA near Lake Anna/Louisa, I was on a hilltop surrounded with tall trees. I hung a 2m ground plane up in the top of one of the trees, 70' AGL. I normally used this with my 50 watt house-bound mobile and had great range in all directions. The Bluemont 2m repeater is on Mt Weather, VA and about 75 miles from my former residence. They often commented on the nets that I was their furthest check-in. Hitting the repeater with the 50 watt unit was a given, and I once hooked my 5 watt VX7r HT to that antenna and was able to talk to Bluemont with it.

I see I was wrong about this. Thank you both for the corrections!

I don't know, I will look further into this. Your situation seems unique, with no prior call sign shown before your upgrade. Did you go from unlicensed to AE in one session?

Sometimes the existing vents are designed to direct airflow over certain components. Seems like the fan has to be pulling air from somewhere.... If you pull the speaker, you may provide additional ventilation throughout, but you may lose an important airstream over components like the processor or amplifier. IMO, if the existing vents are clean and clear, not blocked by anything externally, that's likely the best you can do for it.

Since this is the technical forum, what you are really interested in is the impedance of the speaker, expressed in ohms (unit of measure for resistance and impedance). An impedance match (amplifier:speaker) is important to both power transfer efficiency, audio fidelity and component longevity. "What is the pound of that pack of hot dogs?" vs "What is the weight of that pack of hot dogs?" (expressed in pounds). I would agree with @WRUE951that it is usually more important to match impedance than max power, since most applications never need max power. Answer to OP: Yes, using a 5 watt speaker in place of a 2 watt speaker is fine, although, depending on the speaker, you may require slightly more power to achieve the same sound level.

This is 100% correct. EVERY new licensee is issued the next sequential call sign for that zone. If you want a vanity call, you have to first get your license, then apply to change. What you were told is not fully correct. Yes, they stopped sequentially issuing call signs according to license grade years ago, but there have not been dedicated call signs "per license level" for many years. This means there is no such thing as an 'Advanced' or 'Novice' call sign format anymore. The current format for a new licensee, regardless of grade, is xxXxxx. There are certain call sign formats you need to be AE to apply for, but none of those are new calls and are recycled from dead people and people who failed to renew for 2 years, thus giving up their right to retain their call. Even at that, xXx, xXxx and xxXxx calls are very hard to find, in the sense that anything decent (easy to key, easy to say, cool, unique, etc.) is snapped up if/when it ever becomes available. There is also a preference system, in which you would get first dibs on your deceased father's call sign for example.

If one passes their AE exam, they keep their original call sign unless they can find a vanity call they like that's available and apply for the change. You won't get issued anything automatically just because you passed the exam. Getting AE only qualifies one to apply for any available call and one will not automatically get reassigned a new or shorter call.

If one is already licensed, changing to a PO box will not completely wipe your old addy. It will be another layer or two back, but your old addy is still there.

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.