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tweiss3

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Posts posted by tweiss3

  2. DMR

    in Amateur Radio (Ham)

    Posted

    I hear you. Looks like Anytone will be selling a lot more DMR radios until Kenwood, Icom and Yeasu get the big picture.

     

    While Motorola makes nice radios for DMR they are aimed at commercial users where they can get away with raping them for the programming software. For Ham radio that won't fly. Hams are cheap S.O.B's most of the time. I admit I am. If I can't find some place to download the software I'm not interested in the radio. I'm not spending $100's on software. I have 9 different software packages installed just for the commercial Kenwood radios in my collection. More if you count the Ham versions. Some are different versions of the same basic package because a few radios are European, or non North American, types that have slightly different hardware. Using a different install key doesn't work on those.

     

    For the life of me I can't see why people want to buy a Yeasu radio using their "System Fusion" digital format. Its only works with other Yeasu radios. At least with DMR there are a verity of radios and manufactures to choose from. And with D-Star at least you have Kenwood and Icom.

     

    While NXDN is interesting and several manufactures sell radios it seems more of a small market targeted to business users, like P25 is to public safety, and seems popular with the railroads too.

    Icom and Yaesu will never make a DMR radio, because they have their own digital mode. Icom developed DStar and Yaesu developed C4M (Yaesu System Fusion). Personally, I think Kenwoods decision to go DStar was the right one, and it's hardware and programming is much better for it. The only reason I bought my D74 is to join 220, but the hardware is far superior to Anytone, and it's wide range receive is only a pipe dream for the cheap DMR radios.

     

    I'm going to do some traveling this summer, and the one place I am going, there is a Motorola based DMR linked system for 5 hours of my drive. That is the real benefit of DMR, where TG2 is the full time link to the system, TG1 is dynamic, and can be used for local only, a call channel, an echo channel or 1 of 3 tac channels.

  3. DMR

    in Amateur Radio (Ham)

    Posted

    I'd also like to add that scanning on digital is a waste of efforts. DMR put on the radio in promiscuous mode. D-Star, you are stuck with the current reflector, u mess you change it, no scanning required. No point in jumping around repeaters, they all are on the same base TG, or the one you key up (for 10 minutes).

  6. Difficulty of test?

    in Amateur Radio (Ham)

    Posted

    So I just got into gmrs like a couple months ago. Today I got curious and looked up the Ham test. I started going through the practice questions? Or testing pool I guess, and basically knew all of the first 20ish. Seemed to be just basic electrical stuff and common sense. Obviously I would imagine there is ham specific stuff like frequency and specs. Should it be easily passable with a little studying one of the test prep books?

    The Tech license is really simple, and based on your comment, it won't take much to get you to pass it.

  7. Full band pulsing interference in my town

    in Technical Discussion

    Posted

    I was just about to post about a similar problem and found your topic. Not trying to hijack the post by any mean, the problem I have seems similar but only it's only in one channel.

     

    I 'm using a new Midland MXT275, which if I'm not talking I run on scan. It's weird but there is never anyone on channel 21 (462.700), with one glaring exception. It started as best as I can describe it, a loud machine gun like tone lasting about 3-seconds. At first I thought OK, a repeater tone and left it at that. Now it has become really annoying. I can hear it everywhere in two counties, distances up to 40 miles. And now it's very frequent, sometimes two or three bursts in a row spanning a couple three minutes. It is very loud!

     

    Then I thought well I never hear anyone on that channel so it might be the radio, or some other inside the vehicle interference (that could still be the case). I tested the radio on that channel talking to my wife on her HT and it all works perfect both ways.

     

    I'm at a loss and would appreciate suggestions.

     

    Best,

     

    JAS

    If you are close to Canada, north of line A (I happen to be 1000' north of line A) you cannot use frequencies 462.650, 467.650, 462.700 and 467.700 MHz as printed on your license. Those are channels 19 and 21, both simplex and repeaters.

     

    Your interference may be from Canada's commercial/governmental license pool and may be telemetry data. You must just accept it.

  10. DMR

    in Amateur Radio (Ham)

    Posted

    I have CS800D's in both cars, but I don't use DMR that much. Mostly I connect to the local multi-mode reflector (combines YSF, DMR & DStar), as well as the Ohio TGs (3139, 31391, 31390) and occasionally I will grab 3100 if its super late and I just need someone to talk to on the radio (like a month ago when I had to run to the pharmacy at 2AM to pick up a perscription).

  12. Musing on equipment choices...

    in Amateur Radio (Ham)

    Posted

    Thanks for the food for thought, and the reminder that i need to give the antenna side of the equation a little more thought as well. The part 90 route may end up being the winner (gmrs is mostly pretty dead here too, but nice to have the option), and the RF exposure aspect was something i hadn't thought about, but definitely need to...that aspect also makes the dual band mobile/single bands at base sound better, though getting the antenna OUTSIDE will be a necessity.

    Yea, the most overlooked thing GMRS and HAM operators forget is power levels and RF exposure. Even if you are NOT required to maintain a RF exposure calculations, you must still maintain safe distances and power levels.

     

    IMO, stay away from Anytone, I have their 878 and it has some serious desensitize issues, even after being replaced under warranty. They claim part 90, but I'd avoid them.

  15. FCC ULS down?

    in FCC Rules Discussion

    Posted

    It is finding my call signs, but it won't pull up the data when you click on it. I wonder if it's under maintenance.

     

    I just saw an active alert for the system: "The FCC is currently experiencing an issue with downloading authorizations using Google Chrome........ use Firefox at this time"

  16. Kenwood 8180 receiver sensitivity concern

    in Technical Discussion

    Posted

    Are you having issues when scanning only? Or is it a problem parked on a channel as well?

     

    The Kenwoods are superior radios, but are not designed for scanning at all. He's, it does have a scan feature, but it's is slow, and not the primary use of the radio. Remember, they are professional LMR radios, and as such, the average patrol officer or EMS driver would remain parked on dispatch frequency, and likely not even have access to the scan feature.

     

    I bet the scan is just not fast enough to catch the little bit of traffic. I would still keep the Kenwood, it's a far superior radio with much better specs, including selectivity and sensitivity.

  17. Musing on equipment choices...

    in Amateur Radio (Ham)

    Posted

    For antenna I have a Larsen NMO150/450/758 that does well on the ham bands and excellent on GMRS. It's a commerical antenna, so it is designed for commercial frequencies, but it is acceptable for HAM use. It also has a spring on it and survives parking deck hits and car washes.

     

    As for radios, keep in mind, by law you have to have a RF exposure evaluation if you exceed 50w in VHF. For reference, at 50W you need 3.5' distance for a controlled environment (ok as long as you aren't talking more than 50%) and 7.5' in uncontrolled.

     

    The two radios would work if you tossed in a diplexer. Part 90/95 UHF and a separate VHF. You will have problems with frying each other if you use two UHF radios, you can't get enough seperation to make it work unless you use an expensive high/low pass filter or commercial diplexer, even then it's not ideal.

     

    You could also look at Kenwood commerical stuff, you can run two RF decks on one head, but it's not cheap.

     

    There are also some quality Part 90 dual band radios that will work well, though they don't follow the letter of the law. I have a CS800D in my car, though I don't use GMRS in my truck, it's dead here.

  18. Odd ball radio services?

    in Miscellaneous Topics

    Posted

    There are other interesting oddball radio services out there that people are not aware of. For example there are license free 900MHz radios. Some of those radios are not cheap either. Might be fun to play with a few but not at $300+ per unit.

     

    https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-DTR700-900MHZ-Licence-Digital/dp/B07PM684WN

     

    https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_us/products/two-way-radios/commercial-business-two-way-radio-systems/on-site-business-radios/dtr-series/dtr700.html#tabproductinfo

    The Moto DTR radios work pretty well and are license free. Great site radios, they use frequency hopping to stay private and interference free I. The 900MHz band.

  19. The FCC issues letter of violation to Rugged Radios

    in FCC Rules Discussion

    Posted

    It'll be interesting to see the breakdown of the penalty. The Part 90 being on Part 95 will be telling.

     

    From the pdf, its pretty hefty:

     

    V. FUTURE VIOLATIONS 31. If, after receipt of this Citation, Rugged Radios again violates section 302 of the Act and/or sections 2.803(B), 2.925(a)(1), 80.203(a), 90.203(a), 90.203(e), 95.361(a), and/or 95.391 of the Commission’s rules by engaging in conduct of the type described herein, the Commission may impose sanctions for each such violation. For example, the Commission may impose monetary forfeitures not to exceed $20,489 for each such violation or each day of a continuing violation, and up to $153,669 for any single act or failure to act.60 The Commission may further adjust the forfeiture reflecting enumerated statutory factors, which include the nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violation, and with respect to the violator, the degree of culpability, any history of prior offenses, ability to pay, and other such matters as justice may require.61 Further, as discussed above, the Commission may assess forfeitures on both the conduct that led to this Citation and the conduct following it.6

  23. HT antenna SWR

    in Technical Discussion

    Posted

    Short version at the end.

     

    Background, I recently got a mag-mount 1/4 wave antenna for my vehicle and a "slim jim" antenna to use at home or camping. Performance of both is great and I'm enjoying the increased range and improved audio.

     

    However, as I was researching antennas I kept seeing people refer to tuning antennas for best SWR, which led me down the path to get a SWR/power meter so I could check my antennas. Not wanting to break the bank I went with this relatively inexpensive one that was recommended (Youtube, Reddit, blogs, etc):

     

    Surecom SW-33 Mark II VHF/UHF SWR/Power Meter

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075H8FDDR

     

    I used it to check SWR at 462/467MHz on the slim jim (1.1/1.2) and 1/4 wave (1.4/1.5) which seemed to be reasonable. I was curious to see if any of my HTs had one of the notoriously bad rubber duck antennas, so I checked all 4 and got SWRs from 3.0 to 8.9 depending on the frequency. I would say it's a bad meter except for the reasonable readings on the 1/4 wave and slim jim, so if it's not a bad meter why would the SWR be so high on my HT antennas?

     

    The main difference is that my HT antennas are all SMA-F while both externals are BNC-M, so I had to use a different adapter. Is it a bad connection on the SMA adapter? If so any tips to get an accurate reading on my HT antennas?

     

     

    Short version: I checked the SWR on my HT antennas and got incredibly high (3.0 to 8.9) readings compared to mobile and base antennas. Wondering if those readings could be accurate or not, and if not what the most likely issue is.

    You have to use the metal plate provided because inserting the meter between the antenna and HT breaks half the antenna. On an HT, the body acts as half the antenna system (ground plane).

  24. GMRS Repeater

    in Technical Discussion

    Posted

    Makes sense. If I get this duplexer tuned to 462.550/467.550 then I should see no power loss and the signal quality will improve?

     

    Thanks for your help!

    You can tune it with a nanovna. It should be tuned in it's operational location, as simple road vibrations can cause it to fall out of calibration.

  25. DMR on GMRS

    in FCC Rules Discussion

    Posted

    That is exactly my need. Sending short bursts of text messages. My question wasn't about "finding equipment". It was about what is legal and what is not.

     

    You and the FCC seems to have said it's legal. Just limited. Finding part 95 equipment is an entirely different subject. But I have found that eventually the FCC comes around to what people use. It used to be illegal to have GMRS handhelds with removable antenna, not now. It used to be illegal to transmit 2W on FRS. Not now. It used to be illegal to transmit high power on CB. Not now. What changed? People used it and the FCC came around. So it's not about finding equipment. It's what's legal and what's not. That was the question. And the reason I asked is because I like to stay on the right side of the line. So knowing exactly where the line is, helps.

     

    Thanks for the comments.

    While the emission type is permitted (equipment aside) I honestly don't know if DMR text messages exceed the 1s transmission time limit.

     

    If you really want to do GMRS DMR, apply for a variance with the FCC. I know they have granted a few in CA for experimental purposes. I don't know the circumstances, but worth a shot.

     

    It does beg a different question, why? You could do a private DMR repeater in amateur radio extremely easily.

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