tweiss3

I don't listen to SW too much, but occasionally I will tune around SW on my IC7300. I have an old 1934 RCA Victor C7-6 (6 tube) "wideband" (540kHz-18.0MHz) receiver that I collected from my grandfathers estate that I need to have someone put on a varriac to see if I need a to recap the whole thing or not. I'd love to have it as a centerpiece in the shack one day.

I'll add, based on your current footprint and what you are trying to accomplish, you need to bring in a professional that can discuss specific sites and coverages. Your scenario and goals exceed "recommendations" available on a forum. You are now in a detailed design stage, and all of your moving parts need identified and you need to realistically look at cost per site to see if you are willing to spend the money to achieve your goal. From a 10,000 foot view, you appear to be at the go/no-go decision point between leave it alone and spend 6 figures to get started in your linked enterprise.

So there is significant overlap in "communities" that have more than 1 repeater. You may have to do some prioritization of which repeater is linked. You will not be able to link all "4" repeaters to the other systems, as they will clash and you won't hear anything. If you have to have each, lets call them cells, cell completely linked, you will need to simulcast that cell. You don't need to simulcast each area, as those without overlap will be able to operate as an independent repeater. You should be able to link all communities together, simulcast or not, without too much of an issue using an asterisk system like MyGMRS uses, just point it to your master "server". But it sounds like you will have issues in quite a few areas that will require a true simulcast operation, which is not inexpensive.

If your radio's manufacturer publishes detailed specifications to include sensitivity, selectivity and spurious response/emissions then you can view exactly how dirty/clean the transmitter is. Here is a hint, if they don't publish that information, you probably don't want that radio.

Reading back through this, I'm not 100% sure you need "simulcast". Do you have significant overlapping coverage of multiple repeaters or do you just have a ton of coverage pockets without overlapping? If the second, you wouldn't need simulcast, just need some version of linking. If you do have overlapping coverage, you would need true simulcast with GPS sync and voting. The RTCM module is only part of the simulcast solution, but it does require IP links. Another option is new hardware. I can't find a definite answer, but the NXR-1800e has simulcast capabilities baked in (its a license feature), and will permit IP or RF backhaul. Just remember, if you are doing RF backhaul, you must remain within GMRS frequencies, you cannot mix/match the RF link with ham or Part 90 frequencies.

Simulcast is not cheap. You can "roll your own", still about $1000+/site with https://allstarsimulcast.com/. Note, you cannot link into Allstar/Echolink. Second option, which is widely commercially available is JPS: https://jps.com/products/snv-12/ I would also suggest you reach out to your Motorola vendor and discuss if there is a Moto solution to simulcast on analog for your chosen hardware.

Yea, I know of one analog smart net system still being used today. Anyways, if you have eligibility 90.35 (a), then it's only time & money at that point.

The coordination thing is pretty big. The same Line A & Line C that cause issues with GMRS cause more issues with business band licensing. This should be discussed with the coordinator. If you have to coordinate with Canada, that can take months to clear, and if there is a conflict, you pay for coordination again. If you want to go down this path, I would recommend reading all of eCFR Part 90 top to bottom, then read it again in 2 days after you had time to process it the first time. The number one thing you will hear from your consultants is to not buy the equipment BEFORE you get licensed, and I agree with that. Lastly, there are fees you pay to the coordinator, then there are fees paid to the FCC. If I remember correctly, initial filing was $205, and a major modification is $105. Also don't be surprised if your license pops up with conditions of approval noted. It's not necessarily hard, but time consuming, and the actual application on the FCC website is not well designed.

With the EFHW, you can pick to either cover the digital/cw portion of 80, or the phone portion. I chose digital. The 7510 is phone portion of 80, and the 8010 is digital portion of 80. I've used it on phone, SWR is something like 5:1, was only used for quick checkins to an 80 meter net.

I have a MyAntennas EFHW for 10 through 80. I have mine between two trees, but the feed side is only 25' up, and the far side is up about 40. It's no where near as tall as recommended, but it's logged nearly 5000 contacts. You don't have to have the far tree right at 160', it could be 200+, just use paracord to finish the bridging.

Voice scramblers (inversion scrambling) won't prevent the tones from being scanned. Audio will just noise, but the tone still gets transmitted in the same place.

No, the RSM cord is not used as a counterpoise. On some it was used as an extension for the antenna to get RF above the user (see @Lscott above), but it's designed to be isolated from the RF. Kenwood actually had to redesign the KMC-45 to the KMC-45D to add additional isolation because the DMR TDMA RF was causing issues with the audio circuit. The reason you are probably getting worse reception is due to its proximity to your computer/monitor/etc. You have to remember, almost everything today that has electricity running through it does and can cause RFI and make "radio" frustrating to use and track down this interference. For example, I live 1.5 miles south of 1350AM (5kW) and 98.1FM (50kW) and 1 mile north of 1150AM (5kW), and boy does their mix cause an issue on some bands.

Here is the thing, how often do you actually think you will need to use your repeater? Your actual need will be much less than you think. Most things times its used, simplex works just fine.

This x100

Thanks for the input. The 67i looks like a better unit for my use, the 7+ days of battery life is huge, where as the Montana way underperforms in that category. This device is intended to way outlast a cell phone, 18 hours is not acceptable.

My club offers an online course every few months, both for the Tech and General. It's done via Zoom, and allows for questions and discussion.

Which InReach device do you have. I've been meaning to get a handheld GPS for various trips, and was looking GPSMAP 67 with the InReach included.

Yea, plenty of traffic today on a set of ham repeaters that are not normally linked.

Look at hamfests or ebay. I paid $400 for my TKR-850, and I've seen a pile of them at the past 2 hamfests for only $600 (I bet they would haggle). https://www.ebay.com/itm/226048057405?itmmeta=01HSHB2F643BSH9B3Y7YX7EVA1&hash=item34a183a03d:g:UtcAAOSwJCVl9OK5&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwEF%2FByVwUUmCl%2FrSSYnqjIKsJDuuv%2BUF61HYqlhp%2Bl0UQInVAy1%2FCs0ZUmjcqVxV85Jr0xLhK%2FY92GLCMomKzm1FEXDp%2BQpqtdPw3xYprvgtU9643vKqX3HjuqAuWVvSSuFzMnpJNrHZGdVJCrBL1QPYPi%2FqiSuokF66kwG%2F2wwBC9bPWlHY9j6quv8J5soB1N1VzJJC40eIFSrhbzIyDisTk3RfFrG8UaHKSOGsoMrGjCDhJxRaGm8ph0GHewvT9A%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6zziavMYw https://www.ebay.com/itm/386631482370?itmmeta=01HSHB3RKHS3ZKZJ4SYYPMY15T&hash=item5a05083c02:g:mi4AAOSwOg5lozE6&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwD6YdARKhicet%2FJCqsdaQ%2FNO1DooBikEygrcPjnosm5ovx92qKiNDmmQJ6dQVo23GdFlYV7tlSLK6%2B2L0grP84qtgJ3tIDWYGFPEiG2KT6%2F6l3EJNOVdf%2FuRC6v9VeQD808EGQnNlwmzv8eRP8RSKUeqxoxrykFr4Y63N%2BYt0ABrk%2B04%2BbKU0VFkhN3rGpmHs17xTQC0z96ui0QIF3r%2Bb7Zo98aglrB3A8HiF0kvYnuqaNavZeOZKCsOiXZHWBZ8mQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_6Jj6vMYw https://www.ebay.com/itm/186330130294?itmmeta=01HSHB5FGYB0DNN6TCJPT9G53M&hash=item2b62242776:g:lkcAAOSwmjFl55rG&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0GhDq3Q60ViK0xGgPO0ErM%2B5CQjGV2gizzQB%2BTDIOQIOrHPspeu9XSyISNUpb%2FJV9FAQZfX27azoe1KS2YxF8l8M7vFjBQl3oIx%2FANIs9oHlN8tDtucAgFnXy5wwfWYRNrYIb%2BTQpAFAi846ftGP72nDAV491up63tmCBwGDxRENOLY15J7tCoCnHH53Atz5zfAKwfZDD3JImmOS3r6mtVsFlcj70oIGyBBYNBoKZlc9OA9nUkZbYAU6uKH31zWTjc1rjrH1y4soVKvw93H2elM%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8j4lavMYw Three examples................

I would consider his comments constructive. Iirc, he himself tried at one point, and there are about a dozen other people here that tried. It's not worth the effort as it never works out. Besides, as he pointed out, you could have just bought an actual repeater for the costs of the 2 radios you just bought.

Could be input tone changed, could be leaves are growing and your line of site is gone now. You could be hearing simplex users on the same frequency as the output.

If everyone gets their tech license, you can use it anywhere, and may be able to use nearby equipment (repeaters). There are tons of BSA troops that have commercial licenses on business itinerant frequencies. Troop owns a fleet of 20 radios, and they go to any group stepping away from the camp. That is also an option. No matter what, it boils do to your troop needs to have a communication policy in place, make it well known and USE it.

Often called a double. Usually ends up with a mess that is incomprehensible. Sometimes it's unknown and unavoidable, but it's one reason you should pay attention to other traffic around.

I've gotten labels put on the front of my GMRS radios with the call sign, so its visible when they are speaking into the radio. That might be an option. I used this guy: https://sites.google.com/view/kc8gl/anytone-call-sign-sticker He can make custom labels. If you place your radio on a scanner, and send it to him, he can measure and make one for whatever you wanted.

Also, on an HT, you never really get an accurate measurement. Sure, it comes with the ground plane plate to attach, and it helps with the measurement, but you end up using adapters, etc. and it never shows accurately. Rotate or tilt the radio 10 degrees and the readings change. BTW, on an HT, you shouldn't worry about SWR, if the antenna is the correct band split for your frequencies, just go with it.