tweiss3

This is one of the reasons that GMRS and Business/Public Safety radios are required to meet technical specifications for spurious emissions (Part 90 & 95). GMRS is pretty far away from the 70cm ham band. In fact, 70cm ham is co-located with plenty of other users (US military, radar, unlicensed transmitters like weather stations), that ham just has to deal with. There are plenty of public safety/business users between the top of the ham band (450) and GMRS, that GMRS is one the least likely to cause issues.

My TK-8150 radios were the 450-500 split. It did work down to 440.00 while complaining. I never checked power output that far out.

I use a pipe flow slide rule that I use quite often, its a handy tool. Anyways, the more I re-read Part 95, the more I find missing definitions, and what seems to be the intention to prevent phone patches (which don't really exist anymore). The intent of the ruling is to keep Part 95 completely within Part 95, avoiding telecom rules, microwave linking rules, etc., which now the moving target is ISP/IP based connections for linking. The problem is the rules (which seem even outdated for 2017) don't actually convey the intent as a rule. I still maintain that short distance linking via purely RF staying within GMRS frequencies is likely permitted.

Putting it in conduit also helps protect it from weed eaters, rodents, neighbors, etc.

Yes, I tuned my duplexer with the PC app, and turned the resolution up as high as it goes (refresh rate takes a hit, but its not an issue). I then took it to a friend that had the shop equipment, and it left his bench untouched. You are likely looking at very small changes to be made. You can move the screw less than half a turn until it pops out one side, then move it till it pops out the other, and end up in the middle of those two locations. It may be as little as 1/8 turn or less. You do, however, get the concept and did a decent job for a first go around. Will it work as tuned? Yep.

The level of isolation is pretty good. It looks on the top side that you could align the the cavities a bit better, they should show only 1 combined dip. Similarly for the bottom, it appears only 1 of the cavities needs aligned with the other.

Correct, meaning the addition of "other networks" was to include VOIP phones, and not limit the definition to copper pairs.

Funny, right in the definitions: § 95.303 Definitions. The following terms and definitions apply only to the rules in this part. Network connection. Connection of a Personal Radio Services station to the public switched network, so that operators of other stations in that service are able to make (and optionally to receive) telephone calls through the connected station.

In this interpretation (if correct), only linking via IP is prohibited. It is still possible to link repeaters via RF using GMRS frequencies, and remain completely legal. Thus, the "opinion" that linking is illegal is not a true statement. If there is any enforcement action taken, it would have to be based on the eCFR, not the "summary" posted by the FCC. I'm still not certain the "linking is illegal" crowd has any leg to stand on. I'm not a lawyer though, and I have no intention on getting into that fight.

Not that I agree or dissagree with linking, but I'm not finding the changes you speak of. Based on the current eCFR copy: § 95.1749 GMRS network connection. Operation of a GMRS station with a telephone connection is prohibited, as in § 95.349. GMRS repeater, base and fixed stations, however, may be connected to the public switched network or other networks for the sole purpose of operation by remote control pursuant to § 95.1745. § 95.349 Network connection. Operation of Personal Radio Services stations connected with the public switched network is prohibited, unless otherwise allowed for a particular Personal Radio Service by rules in the subpart governing that specific service. See e.g., §§ 95.949 and 95.2749. § 95.1745 GMRS remote control. Notwithstanding the prohibition in § 95.345, GMRS repeater, base and fixed stations may be operated by remote control. § 95.303 Definitions. The following terms and definitions apply only to the rules in this part. Remote control. Operation of a Personal Radio Services station from a location that is not in the immediate vicinity of the transmitter. Operation of a Personal Radio Services station from any location on the premises, vehicle or craft where the transmitter is located is not considered to be remote control.

First, assuming I got your location correctly, TN now is all on 700/800 P25PhII statewide. With one single exception, you aren't going to be able to monitor that with a radio, and it won't be certified for GMRS. Next, in dash mounts, you can look at Troy, Havis or Gamble Johnson for face plates for your chosen radio, but it may involve some work. That being said, Troy makes overhead consoles for all current pickup trucks: https://troyproducts.com/public-safety/consoles/?swoof=1&product_cat=overhead-console. A floor console is also an option, but beware, consoles are not inexpensive. Thirdly, for "OEM" location antennas, try Stico: Fender Mount Roof Mount Lastly, if you want to listen to what is available from public safety (that isn't encrypted), you should look at adding a scanner to your car. I have a SDS200 with GPS in one car, and my truck is a SDS100 with GPS on a cupholder mount. All of these would be able to scan the state systems and listen to what isn't encrypted.

There is a thread on this on RR, and there is a lot more to the story.

You likely aren't going to find a store or shop that will do any repair in person. What model radio? Kenwood has a few places you can send you radio to, Yaesu has the main repair shop in California, you get the idea. You are going to have to send it out, but if its something cheap, most places won't even look at it.

I like all the Alinco radios I have or have messed with. They already made commercial radios, so this is a logical step for them. Nice to have another not CCR in the game.

No, he wasn't talking about using GMRS to advertise items for sale, but more for business operations ie, Walmart store operations, road flagging crews, survey/construction crews on a work site, provided each user is licensed. Its permitted, but there is a quick return loss between each user and just licensing a business frequency. One way it would make financial/common sense is a family farm, all workers are in the "family" list if Part 95, then it would be easy (and cheap), and not require coordination, to put up a GMRS repeater and run GMRS for all farm operations.

It's simply a requirement of getting the license. Technically, its also required on Business & Public Safety licenses as well.

What is available is dwindling. TS-890/990 is not available new. IC-7300 is probably the best 100W bang for the buck out there, but the step above (7610) is quite a big step. Yaesu does have a handful of options as well. Funny, I went skiing Saturday, and the lift operators have brand new NX-1200/1300 radios. I was surprised how small they were.

You knew DMR wasn't going to happen. You know better, if you want DMR, the price point on the NX1200/1300 is better than the D75. Looking at my D74 again, the batteries are 1800mAh at the best, 1100 at the worst, which is insane. I have 3800 and 4200 for all my carry radios, so it's not really a surprise when I think about it that the battery life sucks.

If you need to take it with you, SDS series is about the standard as it has GPS options to adjust your lists as you move, plus it handles the simulcast most trunking systems have. If you don't need digital trunking, there are some less expensive unidens that could work. If you are just listening at home, I use an AirspyR2 on a computer with SDR Trunk software.

Those are ConnectPlus. You may have issues removing trunking firmware and going to a standard firmware. I have not personally made that change, so I cannot walk you through it.

I get what you are looking for, but GMRS was intended as a business/personal radio service, and as such, the field programming isn't supposed to be a thing (so the typical blockhead can't change to an unlicensed frequency). Beyond that, with a little bit of planning, it's not hard to program things the way you need, even for a cross country trip. Toss in OST and you shouldn't have an issue using any repeater you have access to.

This is exactly true. Unless your intended recipient is exactly matched to your setup, there is no need to worry over power. In fact, most repeaters are turned down for reliability, so a 100W rated repeater puts out something like 50W after the duplexer, often many are 50W rated repeaters putting out 20W after the duplexer, and have ears way beyond their transmit range. It's one reason I don't fret over having 45W UHF decks vs 50W. Now, in my communication plan, obviously, mobile radios in every car are preferred over HTs, but in that case its to get 3 miles simplex.

Inventory spreadsheet says an embarrassing number, over 50

Marine does have HF, looks like an older version of the current Icom tranceiver: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-M803/

NX-5K allows you to program a single button to turn on OST (operator selectable tone), then holding that button brings up the OST list, scroll down and that's it. Now, that's not Part95, and it's a $980 option per deck, but many of the commercial manufacturers have it figure out, just not by using bluetooth.