wayoverthere
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Posts posted by wayoverthere
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1 hour ago, WRWR489 said:
As a certified master technician, I would go with alternator whine, diodes failing. Most ignition systems are coil on plug now a days, the high voltage is sent through a big Faraday cage called the cylinder head. Lose one out of six rectifier diodes in the alternator, you can see the frequency change on a analyzer, lose 3 you can hear the whine with your ears.
On this line of thinking, wouldn't alternator whine show up as varying with engine speed?
On my cheap LED issue, I have some copper mesh en route that I'm going to see if it helps my RFI issue.
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I'd also be curious about antenna location, and what might be close by.
I get a ton of RFI from some Amazon special LED headlight bulbs, to the point of 2m being near unusable. It wasn't an issue previously, with the antenna on the roof, but once I moved the antenna to the front fender, major RFI.
I've read of using copper scouring pads to shield noisy LED/HID ballasts, but keep forgetting to track some down to test with.
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11 hours ago, WRQC527 said:
Mayhaps their microphone suppliers aren't very consistent and some microphones have it, some don't.
On 4/17/2023 at 5:21 PM, WRQC527 said:I'm going to take a guess here that the microphone for this radio is a clone of a for-reals Kenwood microphone, since it looks identical..(snip) Or some manufacturer is just cloning that microphone with zero regard to what that extra wire even does.
I think you're probably pretty close to the mark. I dug out the mic for my 50x1 and opened it up, and while it does have the little tang inside, it's not connected to anything.
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1 hour ago, WRWL705 said:
Thanks everyone for all the info! I wonder why other people who have bought this radio, (BTECH GMRS-5050V2) haven't said anything about this problem? I'm sure I'm not the first to notice ? Any thoughts on this?
Perhaps something changed in the wiring with the move to the V2? I had the metal mic clip mounted on the side of the radio/mount and didn't see any issues with my x1.
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So...this (and one of the other zello threads) cued me to go ahead and clean out my channel list, since I had a few I previously had access to but don't any longer (a couple went to requiring passwords to log in, which I apparently wasnt in the list to get, and a couple booted me out of the 'trusted' group), along with one I'd been sitting stuck in untrusted for months.
I think I'm down to one, maybe two now, with repeater access, and a couple groups with no RF link.
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1 hour ago, WRWL705 said:
Thank you for your reply. Greatly appreciate!
Yes I took the microphone apart, and it does have a ground lead. I Disconnected it, and everything works great, just like it should.
The lead has 2.3 volts on it. I don't know what it's for, and I wonder why the microphone would be wired this way? After all it came from the factory like this. If you come across anything or hear anything about this please let me know. It would be greatly appreciate.
Glad it helped! I haven't seen anything in the settings on my x1 that indicated a need for the mic button to be grounded; the only setting I've seen on anything that used it was the Vertex LMR radios, which stop scanning when you take the mic out of the holder.
(Its kind of nice have it scan, and ever stop on the current channel or back you what you set as "primary" when you pick up the mic)
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22 hours ago, WRWE456 said:
I have not tried but I'm just using an HT so not likely. Farthest simplex I have managed so far is about 20 miles and it was getting scratchy.
Height and obstructions (or lack of) can be big factors.
I can reach one in central CA from 60ish miles out, both from home (the base radio) and from the 3rd floor hotel room on a HT. Ive also managed 75 miles to a 70cm ham repeater in the same area on the west side of the valley, with a 5 watt HT from high ground on the east side of the valley.
There's another gmrs repeater east of town near the national park set up by one of the ham clubs that Incan regularly reach at 60ish miles out from various places around town on 10 watts from the mobile....their testing indicated it usable pretty much across the valley till you clear the hills headed into the coast range.
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20 minutes ago, WRWL705 said:
II bought a BTECH GMRS 50V2 about a month ago. I checked it out in the house first, every thing was good. So then, I installed it in my 1998 Jeep Wrangler TJ.
Turned it on and every thing was working great. It would transmit, receive, change channels; everything was great until I hung up the microphone onto the dash clip. In which, is screwed onto my dash thru the plastic into the metal that is grounded. Then, the LCD display went blank. The radio was still working just fine, just a blank LCD.
So I bought another radio and it had the same issue.
Does anyone know anything about this issue? Looking for suggestions, help, or advice as to this issue. I really like the radio otherwise, so I am trying to get to the reason as to why this happens.
I have contacted BTECH with this issue with no results. They just want to send me a new radio, in which I have already done with purchasing the 2nd radio.
Thank you in advance!
Were you able to check with a multimeter as @KAF6045suggested in the other thread? If it's something acting up when the mic button is grounded, I'd be tempted to disassemble the mic and disconnect any wires connected to the hanger button.
(I know my vertex mics have a ground wire to the mic button it uses to detect "on hook" for scanning...when one wouldn't scan, I traced it down to that ground wire being broken)
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3 minutes ago, WRWR489 said:
OK, will have to try the Android phone. I installed the PC one and it never asked me for a sign up, but more annoying is it starts asking me to log in everytime I turn the PC on with no way to do it. I will kill the app in task manager until I figure it out.
One other nice feature in the older version; it has the option on the login screen to have it load on startup (or disable that). Maybe the new version has it hidden in options somewhere?
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1 hour ago, wayoverthere said:
If I get a chance, I'll dig out the laptop a bit later and see if the copy I have offers a "sign up" link.
I've seen some discussions that indicated the latest version of the software was aimed more toward the paying users rather than the free users, and removing the option to sign up may be part of that.
so...i have version 2.6 for PC installed (dug around and i still even had the installer file for it), and it DOES offer the option to "Create new Zello account" on the login screen. That said, they seem to have removed this version of the software from the website, and appear to only list the business focused version (with associated subscription fee).
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24 minutes ago, KAF6045 said:
I've not found any images showing back of microphone nor the dash clip.
My 50x1 has a metal button and metal hanger. This screenshot from the vid in the Amazon listing for the 50v2 shows the metal button and looks to be the same mic as mine.
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If I get a chance, I'll dig out the laptop a bit later and see if the copy I have offers a "sign up" link.
I've seen some discussions that indicated the latest version of the software was aimed more toward the paying users rather than the free users, and removing the option to sign up may be part of that.
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On 4/3/2023 at 2:29 PM, WRFP399 said:
Tram 1181?
Ahh...so I typed something up before, but deleted it because I was trying not to be TOO negative. I'll say yes, what i saw the 1181 had decent SWR numbers everywhere I tested in ham and GMRS (swr meter, not vna); ran it on the truck for a bit, since it cleared most of the height restricted locations, and didn't hit too much when it did hit.
That said, a couple anecdotal experience notes; both were on 70cm, since my area doesn't have the community on GMRS, and the family has less than zero interest in anything radio.
- When had it on the beater, mag mount on the trunk; was talking into a local repeater on mid power (10 watts) and had to bump to high (20 watts) because I wasn't holding the repeater. I can get into the same repeater from my backyard on a 5 watt handheld, and have gotten into it from a couple blocks closer from inside the car with a handheld, no problem; I have the 2x4sr in its place now, which is working well.
- It's been up on the bookcase in my 'shack' for GMRS, mag mounted on a piece of sheet metal. This is the same location i had the midland 3db whip on before, which was good for using a GMRS repeater 60ish miles away on mid power, though high was better. more recently, I've been testing out a ftm400xdr through the tram till i can get it in the truck, and poking at APRS...noticed I'd only receive 3 or 4 hits a day on APRS, leaving it on most of the day. now that I'm shuffling my office/shack, i cleared most of the radios off the desk as i rearrange; the Vertex twins and the Btech got boxed up, which freed up the comet GP1 (which is on a tripod in the closet) for the Yaesu. Had the radio on for a bit yesterday, and even with it overwriting duplicates (and that not-ideal mounting location), I had 50+ hits inside a couple hours with it hooked up to the Comet (where before I was thinking there was just no activity on APRS).
for what it's worth
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22 minutes ago, Lscott said:
Bad idea. Those bulkhead connectors are not a constant 50 ohm impedance. Those can cause a nasty SWR problem at UHF.
Argh..good to know. Always a hidden trap with the seemingly easy solutions.
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3 hours ago, markskjerve said:
10-4. Right now it's not a problem and the cable feeds way low (through doggy door) and back up into a window so it's not a issue at the moment. However right next to the antenna mast base (see first picture) is a cut and orphaned CATV drop going through the wall. My radio sits directly behind the antenna and that hole. I plan on reusing the hole for the coax, just don't have a masonry bit for a hole large enough to pass a terminated coax through. Hate buying a bit for a one time use, need to bum one from somebody at work. But I will keep the drip loop in mind when I do it.
Alternately....what about going a little smaller on the hole, and put a so239 bulkhead connector through, with a pigtail between wall and radio?
Then you can change out coax, or radios on the other side of the bulkhead pretty much at will.
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50 minutes ago, WRWM850 said:
I just checked out his eBay page
I'm going to buy from him, thanks for the recommendation
Glad to help, on both counts. All of the cables I have from him have worked great (I have 3 or 4 now).
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12 minutes ago, Lscott said:
There are two band splits available, 403-470 or 450-512. Both will work for GMRS. If you plan on getting your Ham license, if you don't have it already, the 403-470 would be a good choice. Almost all off my Kenwood commercial analog/digital radios are the 400-470 split. Do you know which one you got?
To the point of band split: if the model number (on the back of the radio behind the battery) ends in -G7, it's the 450-512 model, and -G6 is the 400-470. There is also a -D0 that is a vhf range (136-174, iirc).
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1 hour ago, WRWM850 said:
Just picked my first digital radio vertex evx-534
does anyone know a good source for the programing software Can I get this from Motorola solutions?
Check Bluemax49ers on ebay or his .com . That's where I got both for my 539's.
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3 hours ago, Lscott said:
Being a 5/8 wave antenna it needs a GOOD ground plane to give acceptable SWR across it's operational range.
Antenna Scan Results (CA-2x4SR VHF TRUNK LIP MOUNT).pdf 287.06 kB · 3 downloads Antenna Scan Results (CA-2x4SR UHF TRUNK LIP MOUNT).pdf 287.12 kB · 4 downloads
That fits pretty well with what I remember from when I tested mine (mag mounted, center of roof of single cab compact truck). i generally aim for 1.5 or less, and i want to say 1.3 was about the worst i saw testing with a swr meter, not vna.
it does seem to give up a little in exchange for that wide bandwidth though...judging on use, the sbb5 seems to do as well on the fender as the 2x4 did on the roof.
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1 hour ago, wrfl677 said:
I have the LTR version of the UHF VX-2200 and you have to use the CE-94 software - it's a trunking radio, but I've heard of people programming them conventional, any ideas or help?
It's been a bit since I programmed one of my p829's (the VHF one), which required a specific software, (ce105-talon) rather than the standard package (I forget the number) that the uhf p824; I don't remember it particularly more difficult than the analog only radios, other than needing to set the channels as analog instead of digital.
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Haven't run into that, but if you received the letter on Saturday and tried contacting them immediately, I suspect the lack of response is they just aren't there... government agencies and weekends and all. The website shows their phone hours as 8-6 eastern mon-fri, and that likely covers the online help desk staff too.
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Started typing A post, but it looks like a few people beat me to mentioning looking at the antenna situation ahead of power increases. Sometimes just a little shift side to side or a little extra height can get you past an obstruction more effectively.
Not only can that help the range to reach out, it also helps receiving as well, which more power does nothing for.
Mobile radio issues
in Technical Discussion
Posted
I forget if the copper mesh idea is something I picked up here or on Reddit, but it's an easy thing to try and I'm sure I can find other uses for the excess mesh too