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THANKS!! I do cursory inspections of our extinguishers every few months or so. Mostly consisting of checking for any cylinder corrosion or damage / checking the gauge / ensuring "safety" pin is still in place to prevent accidental discharge / and that the "pin" is ONLY secured with a BREAK-FREE style plastic "wire tie" and nothing difficult to remove in the event it is needed expediently ("someone" had replaced a missing pin w/a BOLT & NUT on an extinguisher in my family's retail business years back for some unknown reason. discovered prior to any emergency, but taught me not to overlook anything) Most of our devices are "commercial" (off-topic: but I still hang onto a few "environmentally evil" large Halon units, banished from for a few decades now.. that i keep immaculate & securely mounted near electronics that I treasure- LOL - but actually had the contents transferred to new extinguisher "bodies" a few years after they should been hydrostatically tested for structural integrity. however, that was at least a decade ago, so I keep a dry-chem ABC extinguisher next to each one of these "just in case") So I was pretty surprised to discover the following-- I just checked and found that 14 out of 40+ we have in the house / vehicles / folks homes were on "the list". Bottom line: NOTHING material is worth your life. If you are unable to knock down a fire in a few seconds, LEAVE ASAP! Good wake up call & thanks again for the "heads up"..

If you ARE using MDC or GE-Star, check out this guy's software. www.responderapps.com He's written an incredibly powerful/easy to use / stable / CHEAP - LOL application that is well suited to fireground or MCI status monitoring or control. BUT... it's also a great windows based (low resources req'd) application that has a display showing each transmission with full detail - AND - logs it all to either a db or txt file and records the audio to mp3 audio files stored on the local machine.. It permits the entry of user name and other details for each mdc id and displays all of it as the user transmits. (pre-ptt / post-ptt / indiv. call / "mayday" / etc..) It also decodes "Emergency/Mayday" transmissions and will flash the screen red / play a pre-defined .wav audio "alert" file, and can even activate an external relay. I believe that that particular feature is located in the "Fireground Mode" portion of the application. It allows 2 channel ("input source") monitoring/recording/display of ID / etc.. via a stereo audio input on the pc (Left channel - 1 / Right channel - 2) + if the machine has internet access, you can add additional sources of audio to monitor/record via the broadcastify site. (broadcastify.com is related to radio reference site). I rarely recommend or like most of the software out there. This is an amazing piece of coding craft -- and allows you to take an older laptop/netbook/pc (even runs under XP) and place it back in service for something useful. Even if just use it to record/log your repeater audio/usage, it's well worth the VERY EXPENSIVE PRICING of... wait for it.... $20 bucks for the single user version !! Definitely worth it. !! (give the trial version a shot... I guarantee you'll buy the lic. key by the end of the first day of the trial) This must sound like a highly paid advertisement, but I actually bought it myself to record a few of my own repeaters and will recommend it.

Using both the Windows CPS and DOS RSS programming applications ---> The frequencies entered for RX & TX cannot be "out of band". I even tried changing the model to a "U2" and some other "tweaks" during experimentation. Even took R2 RF components out of one of my R2's & swapping prior to trying the above. No luck (The Q's are awesome + rugged TANKS! - just have too many "ranges" - They really do make terrific GMRS repeaters. Linking via v.24 is possible over IP / it can do 12.5khz or 25khz spacing / has great built-in monitoring functionality & even lowers power output + generates an audible alert tone over RF output freq. upon detecting antenna system <swr> failure. Has a bunch of i/o functions and with the advanced wireline card option, can do E&M or multiple variants of tone remote control <2-wire/4-wire/ full duplex/etc>. The list of features & functions runs on forever. But a few caveats: Stick w/ the "gold" colored chassis models over the older "silver" colored backplane chassis models and make sure to bring 5-6 strong guys w/ you to lift it LOL. - The FRU Modules that comprise the "RF" section: (so to switch to "GMRS Range" -- 450-470mhz, these would have to be "swapped" for R2 versions vs. the R3 you currently have.) - Receiver module (there are 2 "slots" for RX units) - Exciter - PA (The power amp for the low power unit is different than the 110w "high power") - same w/ power supply, though that doesn't change w/ freq range... I do recall that a bunch of the older /\/\ gear (MT1000's and GM300's etc..) COULD be programmed out of their "normal" range by holding down the <SHIFT> key and using the numeric keypad on the keyboard to enter the freq's. I wonder if there's not a way to do the same to a Quantar..?? (then tune/align as best you can). I have a similar predicament and have several new R3's that I thought were R2's when I purchased them. If anyone has a any ideas, it'd be great.! I have a few folk in the "T-Band" markets that are willing to swap out the RF components in my R3's for their R2's (instead of sending the whole heavy chassis and power supply and other modules etc.) There's apparently a large market out there for replacement hardware for existing/installed Quantars operating in the "T-Band" (470-520mhz) as they aren't being mfg'd anymore. I'm guessing most mfg's are afraid to continue development & tooling etc to manufacture anything in this range due to the potential for the pending "T-Band Spectrum Snatch Back" (part of 2012 O'Bummer Stimulus Act/Law). Just based on the volume of "T-Band" Spectrum use for public safety in NYC alone, it seems incomprehensible that they will really follow through. But it's really all guesswork and only affects the 11 or so markets that use that portion of the spectrum. (of course, those areas are the most dense in the nation and have literally no spectrum left to utilize -- other than jumping up to 700mhz etc. With the current economic situation out there, I can't believe they will really do it... + NYC could potentially garner quite a bit of public relations support.. But -- you just never know. (+ there must be a financial profiteering aspect that is unknown to the public at large that could definitely keep the project going, though i doubt any "auction proceeds" to assist the migration to other freq's -- such as 700mhz "D-Block" etc.-- will ever occur) Good Luck ! & if you ever get one on the air, post info here. Maybe we can try one of the "cheap/easy" v.24 to IP linking projects currently being developed by some of the amateur radio folk.

JohnE is a tech master guru. and +1 on the Quantar. I'm gonna take a guess that the Commander Tech antenna is the "new" mfg of the Super Station Master line? If so, have heard nothing but great things... BUT-- something to consider: For shipping purposes -- the telewave uhf dipole antennas come in a small box and YOU supply the mast locally. (minimum: 1-1/2" -- galvanized steel pipe schedule 40 -- OR -- for lighter weight installs, but about double cost: 1-1/2" sched 80 aluminum tubing.

Anyone have a good way to link 2 Quantars together for GMRS use? I don't really know if they are true "line of site", but with a spotting scope at location #1, (Building Mounted on roof of commercial building on a mountaintop) I CAN see Repeater Location #2 (500+' tower w/ our gear at 420') -- approximately 26 miles as the crow flies... I've done a few Cisco Aironet point-to-point 2.4ghz installations in the past (5-6 yrs ago) that spanned 6 miles or so at 2mbps. (only needed 512kbps anyway) But have no further experience w/ wireless anything... I do have wireline controllers w/ v.24 daughtercards installed in the Quantars. Was initially thinking of ROIP using UDS or similar 4-wire type modems, (the wireline cards were intended for use w/ microwave link / 4-wire leased line / etc.. and the Batboard gurus have been working on a linking project for some time now) but don't think I can get internet access at location #2. (I can get FIOS at #1 and can also get a frac or full T1 via copper) (supposedly the Quantars only need 64kbps of bandwidth -- though have heard the 128k figure floated about)