-
Posts
1672 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
28
Reputation Activity
-
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from Jones in Features for Midland Micro-Mobile Radios
i was browsing midland's site last night, and stumbled across the fact that the mxt275 control head accepts the same headset plug as their handhelds. while that's not such a thing in a car/truck (though, an interesting idea), it would be rather cool installed on a motorcycle with their in-helmet speakers and mic, and have a lot better range than most of the other motorcycle options on the market.
-
wayoverthere reacted to BoxCar in Remote testing for Ham ticket?
https://www.fcc.gov/document/wtb-confirms-amateur-radio-license-exams-may-be-held-remotely
The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau released a notice today that Amater Radio License exams may be conducted remotely. This is great news for those who are stuck at home but wanting to get their Technician or General ticket.
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from SeldomSeen in If GMRS, Then Why VHF/UHF Amateur?
Minor disagreement on base rigs. While I think a lot DO use mobile units for a base, there ARE still a few dedicated ham base units out there.
https://waycooldigital.com/best-ham-radio-base-stations/
On topic, it depends what you want out of radio. There's a lot more people and options in ham, so more potential variety to converse. You might look into regular nets in your area, or you could take an interest in counting your contacts, distances and such.
-
wayoverthere reacted to marcspaz in New 2022 GMRS/FRS Band Plan
That is a huge step in the wrong direction, IMHO. We need FRS & GMRS to stop sharing frequencies. Let FRS be low power narrow band and give GMRS operators more wideband frequencies. I'm tired of sharing the channels with 4 and 5 year old kids screaming at their cousin who is only 30 feet away, about how much they love play dough.
-
wayoverthere reacted to kidphc in Critique please!
Happy camper now. Got my vanity approval at 2:49 A.M. via e-mail. Odd time in my opinion but end result makes me happy!
-
wayoverthere reacted to sifert in What I Wish I Knew When I First Started With GMRS
The more I learn about the FCC's General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), the more I am fascinated by RF in general. It touches everyone's lives every second of every day, yet few people pay much attention. How cool is it that after 42 years and 14 billion miles away, the 22-Watt radio on Voyager 1 is still sending data back to earth every day (how important is that antenna?). So why aren't more people interested in GMRS or RF in general? There's no test to get a license like amateur (ham) radio. It's $70 for a 10-year license, and is really easy to get started. So here are some theories.
People don't know:
GMRS exists Why GMRS exists Why they'd want to use GMRS How to envision themselves participating in GMRS What it takes to get started with GMRS What it takes to continue and improve with GMRS Technical information they should know about GMRS Etiquette when transmitting (TX) on GMRS What a GMRS "Net" is and why Most people within the GMRS community are helpful once you're in, but the community is very inviting in a go-figure-it-out-yourself way, and no one has assembled everything you need to know about GMRS all in one place.
We GMRS people are putting the onus on outsiders to sift through thousands of painfully esoteric webpages with a winnowing fork, separating useful info from useless, poorly written, or incomplete info.
When I first heard about GMRS on a 4x4 trip, I arrived home and Googled around and settled on a Midland MXT-275 because it seemed perfect for mounting on my truck dashboard. At the time, I had no idea that Midland doesn't manufacture a GMRS radio capable of operating on split-tone repeaters (Dear Midland, I know you're reading this: why do you squander so much potential?). Edit 6/28/2021: Midland heard our cry! They just updated the MXT-275 to include split-tone programming on repeater channels. So for example, now this radio is able to reach a repeater that receives (RX) incoming transmissions on 467.550 with a PL tone of 103.5 and repeats the transmission (TX) at 462.550 with a PL tone of 88.5.
I didn't even know what "split tone" was or even what "tone" meant, or carrier or squelch or hundreds of other little things you all take for granted. Since then, I realized that if the big, bad manufacturers like Midland, Kenwood, Motorola, and iCom can't even invite the public to learn more and provide useful content for each stage of the customer journey—Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, and Loyalty—the 2-way radio industry has much deeper problems and aren't there to help guys like me.
As we get involved deeper into GMRS, there's little-to-no hand-holding going on at each level of knowledge. I ending up relying on the Ham community here and there and a guy who is basically a saint at a little radio shop in Phoenix, Arizona (hope Tim over at Procomm and the others at the nonprofit AZGMRS.org don't mind me giving them a shout-out).
Edit 4/14/2020: By the way, AZGMRS made this awesome list of FCC-approved GMRS radios that they recommend. If you live anywhere near Arizona and are reading this, now would be a great time to become a member. Their repeater network covers some 100 miles around Phoenix with more and more repeaters joining the network (check out their sweet coverage map).
But it's still frustrating.
I wish a GMRS expert—presumably a manufacturer—would just come out and say exactly what a total newbie needs at each stage of their involvement or level of need. Two-way radio manufacturers should stop wasting time trying to sell, and start marketing and branding, which means educating the public about the 5 W's (Who, What, Where, When, Why [+how, +how much]) without trying to sell to them.
Most new users don't know what they need because they don't know what's possible. For example, I wish I knew that manufacturers don't typically include the best antenna on their radios right out of the box. It took me over a year to realize that the best bang for the buck for a portable base antenna to include in my go bag is N9TAX's Slimjim and that Smiley Antenna makes the best bang for the buck antennas for hand-held radios (which by the way, everyone just assumes newbies are supposed to know that hand-held walkie-talkie radios are called "HT" for "Handy-talkie" and what a "QSO" is).
How would a newbie know that the cheap Nagoya 771 "upgrade" antenna for Baofengs that everyone talks about actually isn't the best bang for the buck for the GMRS frequency band of 462–467? How would a newbie know that antennas work best when tuned exactly to what they call a "center" frequency that accommodates 5 Megahertz in each direction (+5 and -5 Megahertz) at the expense of hearing other frequencies?
I learned the hard way that in order to properly install an NMO antenna mount on the roof of my truck, I would need a drill bit specifically made for drilling NMO antenna mount holes, and that yes, it is worth the money to do it right the first time.
I'm still in the middle of learning how a "quarter-wave" or "5/8 wave" antenna works, the difference between dB gain vs. dBi gain, mic gain, antenna gain, because again, everyone seems to just assume I already know what all this means. I still don't understand what antenna "tuning" means and why you have to "cut" an antenna to "tune" it. Can I make my own antenna right now in a pinch with a copper wire in my garage? Ok, show me! How do I measure it or test it? What is SWR? Can I measure it myself? What do I need in order to measure it? Is one SWR meter better than another for my level as a newbie? Is there something I should learn to make it worth buying the better meter that opens up a whole new world of capability? Is it worth learning all that?
This graphic did a great job beginning to explain what dBd gain means for those of us who know next to nothing about it, but now I need to go find out on my own and sift through a thousand webpages to find out if dBd is something new I need to know. Speaking of dB, I know that "dB" is a decibel, but is it the same as my stereo volume? Why do I see manufacturers saying that the microphone and cable have a dB rating? What is going on here? This is madness! We can Google things all day, but which info is true and correct and the most helpful?
I think that the entire industry is sitting on a Gold Mine of consumers sitting at home for weeks on end who would love to buy GMRS equipment and communicate via GMRS to friends, family, neighbors, and other GMRS users. Whoever provides the most useful, relevant, and engaging content that stops making assumptions about what people know or don't know will win.
STOP ASSUMING. START EDUCATING.
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from Logan5 in Can I get a nudge?
The family aspect of the licensing (vs individual) is a definite plus, as is the fact that you can find some decent plug and play equipment off the shelf.
Similar situation here, was eyeing ham, but the family aspect made gmrs a better fit for an immediate need; finding how much is really out there looks like a great complement alongside ham, which i still plan to pursue
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from Mikeam in Remote testing for Ham ticket?
https://qrznow.com/usa-conducts-first-all-online-ham-radio-exam/
Stumbled across this in the Google news feed. Appears to be in the works toward some form of online testing offering, especially important in this current situation. Been dragging my feet getting licensed, and my local options were already shrinking before the whole coronavirus thing hit the scene, so this is a very intriguing idea to me.
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from Extreme in Remote testing for Ham ticket?
https://qrznow.com/usa-conducts-first-all-online-ham-radio-exam/
Stumbled across this in the Google news feed. Appears to be in the works toward some form of online testing offering, especially important in this current situation. Been dragging my feet getting licensed, and my local options were already shrinking before the whole coronavirus thing hit the scene, so this is a very intriguing idea to me.
-
wayoverthere reacted to RCM in Retevis RT76?
Marc, I don't necessarily agree with everything you said here. But you have obviously put a lot of thought and study into it, and I respect that.
And especially, thank you for the work you are doing in support of the Second Amendment!
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from Riktar in Repeater settings question
Another alternative that came to mind, not a solution, but perhaps clarifying things a little, if the Kenwood dealer isn't able to help at the moment.
I remembered some radios offer the option to scan for the CTCSS/DCS tones (Miklor has some info on doing with a uv5r). If i had time to kill, i'd be tempted to get my hands on a radio that can do it, and see if i could nail down what the kenwoods are actually transmitting.
-
wayoverthere reacted to Jones in Confused
He has tagged the article as BTECH V1. I think he means see above tag. ...right at the top of the page, under the title.
-
wayoverthere reacted to berkinet in 4-5w GMRS Certified Radio?
Technically, the GMRS-V1 is not a Baofeng. Although manufactured by Baofeng, it has customized firmware and is sold under the BTECH brand name and it Is BTECH who have certified the radio with the FCC. AFAIK, no Baofeng branded radios are GMRS certified.
The sole requirement for legal use on GMRS is FCC Part95-E Certification (Previously Part95-A).
47 CFR § 95.1761 - GMRS transmitter certification.
(a) Each GMRS transmitter (a transmitter that operates or is intended to operate in the GMRS) must be certified in accordance with this subpart and part 2 of this chapter.
(b A grant of equipment certification for the GMRS will not be issued for any GMRS transmitter type that fails to comply with the applicable rules in this subpart.
[... ...]
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from kipandlee in 4-5w GMRS Certified Radio?
as far as i know: (others, feel free to correct me if/where i'm wrong)
it depends which handhelds you mean. the GMRS-V1, yes, since it's certified for GMRS use.
most others (uv5r, bf-f8/f9-hp, uv82, etc), no, primarily due to lack of certification required for legal gmrs use.
-
wayoverthere reacted to Extreme in TK-880 Displays 'yyyyyyy' New Post
Update FWIW.
I sent my TK-880 back to www.used-radios.com to verify firmware and install the correct V2. Turnaround was 7 days total. I got a call from the service manager and he got the tech to work it over and correct it. Fired it up this afternoon and all seems well, buttons are correct for me, groups and channel programming are right, and there's no 'yyyyyyy' across the display. Hopefully, it won't revert (it didn't do it the first time until power had been cycled multiple times). They suspected corruption in the software/firmware or such.
I would likely mention here if I'd received poor or sub-par service from a vendor, so it's only fitting that I complement one with great service. Some might say I paid a premium for a used radio but part of my rationale was the 90-day warranty they provide, and that it came complete with mic, power cable, and mounting bracket.
Now I can add good service to that. And thanks to all of you who helped diagnose the issue.
-
wayoverthere reacted to rodro123 in Repeater Giveaway
https://www.bridgecomsystems.com/pages/bridgecom-systems-spring-repeater-system-giveaway?gsr=Ls2KI-8ahVWZ8spi
-
wayoverthere reacted to rdunajewski in CQ on GMRS
It's like being angry at the guards for catching your kids playing around on Area 51's land. "How dare you scare my kids that were breaking the rules?! I want to speak to your manager!"
-
wayoverthere reacted to berkinet in What's missing from myGMRS.com?
I would suggest an addition to the repeater listings that would allow some degree of crowd sourcing of current status. In other words, let users add something like a QSL card or signal report. It could be simply binary as did or did not work. Or, it could be more detailed. Location at the time of the report, signal strength, etc.
Then, "last verified access" could be added to the repeater report page and, possibly, people could search on, reported active in the last: 30, 60, 90 days, etc.
In the signal report it might also be possible to report if anything differed from the listing, like Frequency, PL, or location. The specific information would not be given, except in the case of a fully-open repeater. But, at least other users would know there had been a change.
And, finally. The owner could receive an, optional, email each time a signal report was received.
In any case, the basic point is even if the owners do not update their listings, other users could help a bit.
-
wayoverthere reacted to marcspaz in New Portable Repeater Antenna Setup Is Done
Today, I put together a new portable repeater antenna setup together. I do a lot of work with Amateur Radio Emergency Service. Often, we need a repeater setup so our people can run around with HT's and still be able to communicate direct with everyone.
The antenna is setup for 2m, 70cm and GMRS. In all services, the SWR is 1.2:1 or better. It's sitting on top of a fiberglass mast.
The total height is 47 feet from the ground to the top of the antenna. The bottom of the antenna is 40' from the ground. My son Nick is next to it to use as a reference.
I tested it out on 2m. Full quiet to another station 40 miles away, with only 5 watts. I'm pretty happy with that. On 70cm and GMRS, I was full quiet to a repeater 22 miles away with just 2 watts.
I am pretty happy with this setup. I am going to be doing a training drill on March 28. We'll see how it goes.
http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/Pot_2m-440_Repeater_Antenna_2.jpg
http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/Pot_2m-440_Repeater_Antenna_3.jpg
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from Felixdacat in What's missing from myGMRS.com?
not to rain on this idea, as i think it's a good one.
i WILL give midland a little credit, though, as they DO actually have an article on the licensing topic (and include "license required" in the product descriptions, at least for the micromobiles, though you have to "read more" to see it), and reasons to get licensed. as you said, though, their primary focus is selling product, so it isn't particularly easy for the average person to find. i did a lot of digging and reading before i pulled the trigger on radios, and stumbled across it.
https://midlandusa.com/why-do-i-need-a-gmrs-license-how-do-i-get-it/
i definitely think there's still room to expand on the topic, and make the information a lot more accessible than they have (get it more up-front), also know it's a balance being careful not to "borrow" or end up too similar to theirs. this site (and forum) are one of the places i did a lot of reading before jumping in.
on the main thread topic, though, one small idea that comes to mind...maybe i missed it, but i didn't see an actual designated spot for "(New) Member Intros", just a few scattered in the general discussion and the private discussion areas.
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from rdunajewski in What's missing from myGMRS.com?
not to rain on this idea, as i think it's a good one.
i WILL give midland a little credit, though, as they DO actually have an article on the licensing topic (and include "license required" in the product descriptions, at least for the micromobiles, though you have to "read more" to see it), and reasons to get licensed. as you said, though, their primary focus is selling product, so it isn't particularly easy for the average person to find. i did a lot of digging and reading before i pulled the trigger on radios, and stumbled across it.
https://midlandusa.com/why-do-i-need-a-gmrs-license-how-do-i-get-it/
i definitely think there's still room to expand on the topic, and make the information a lot more accessible than they have (get it more up-front), also know it's a balance being careful not to "borrow" or end up too similar to theirs. this site (and forum) are one of the places i did a lot of reading before jumping in.
on the main thread topic, though, one small idea that comes to mind...maybe i missed it, but i didn't see an actual designated spot for "(New) Member Intros", just a few scattered in the general discussion and the private discussion areas.
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from gortex2 in What's missing from myGMRS.com?
not to rain on this idea, as i think it's a good one.
i WILL give midland a little credit, though, as they DO actually have an article on the licensing topic (and include "license required" in the product descriptions, at least for the micromobiles, though you have to "read more" to see it), and reasons to get licensed. as you said, though, their primary focus is selling product, so it isn't particularly easy for the average person to find. i did a lot of digging and reading before i pulled the trigger on radios, and stumbled across it.
https://midlandusa.com/why-do-i-need-a-gmrs-license-how-do-i-get-it/
i definitely think there's still room to expand on the topic, and make the information a lot more accessible than they have (get it more up-front), also know it's a balance being careful not to "borrow" or end up too similar to theirs. this site (and forum) are one of the places i did a lot of reading before jumping in.
on the main thread topic, though, one small idea that comes to mind...maybe i missed it, but i didn't see an actual designated spot for "(New) Member Intros", just a few scattered in the general discussion and the private discussion areas.
-
wayoverthere got a reaction from SteveC7010 in Antenna on truck box?
if you're really against drilling the hole, midland DOES sell a better mag mount (with better cable than what the radio came with); it's a NMO mount, and they currently have a unity gain (6.5") antenna to go with it on clearance for 7.99, or you can do the new 3db gain (3.5" tall, apparently) one for a bit more.
https://midlandusa.com/product/mxta9-unity-gain-antenna/
https://midlandusa.com/product/micromobile-mxta25-3db-gain-ghost-antenna/
https://midlandusa.com/product/mxta12-antenna-mag-mount/
photo is the unity gain next to a 12 oz nyquil bottle (if it loaded); it's very close in length to the stock one, but fatter at the base. (i also have the 3db version that's the same design, but a little longer)