[Question re: grounding for lightning protection]

13 minutes ago, LeoG said:

Lighting is just like tornadoes.  Destroying one while barely touching the one next door.  Could have been grounding, or just dumb luck.  People struck by lighting can survive or become crispy kritter piles of dust.

It was all about EMF and loops that absorbed it.  Any luck involved was whether the loop was tuned/angled to the wave that passed thru it.

[Question re: grounding for lightning protection]

8 hours ago, WRXB215 said:

Very good explanations in this thread.

Ground because lightning.

Bond because potential.

Disconnect/open loops because EMF.

 

 

Lightning strike between my house and neighbor's house took out 2 window AC's and 3 TV's at the neighbor's house, but just a light ballast and the power filter board on my HF rig.  If I had had the HF rig disconnected from the power supply it would have just been the light ballast.  Power poles are your friend.

[Question re: grounding for lightning protection]

So, a home antenna tower shouldn't have it's own ground? Just bond to house ground?

[GMRS Radios For Rescue And Recovery In Iran]

Very true, but they are very friendly with China.

[Where to spend budget?]

2 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

I agree, but I think it buys more than it used to.
On our road home to Butte from Phoenix this past week quite a few places were advertising for help. At convenience stores the starting wage appears to be $21.00/hour.

So $100 worth of stuff is now equivalent to about five hours of work. When I was a sophomore in college (1974), I worked on a farm for $15/day and they were long days. Within a couple years I got a job at an appliance store for $1.25/hour. 
Compared to what my wages would have purchased then, five hours will buy a much better radio, antenna, and cable than it would have then. 

Yes in many ways it buys much more than it used to.  The abilities of a modern cell phone as a computer held in your hand are amazing compared to computers in 1974.  That computer power of a cell phone was only available to governments and BIG research facilities back then.  What a Boafeng HT can do now for less than $50 was easily $300 or more not that long ago.

[Where to spend budget?]

12 hours ago, LeoG said:

Wait and save up some more money.  $100 isn't going to get you a quality setup.  It'll be more satisfying if you start off with a nice setup instead of replacing it a few time and buying the same thing more than once.

I would start with an antenna with a 7.2dBi gain and some LMR400.  Find out what it costs and save up for it.  You'll also need a chimney mount or roof mount which is going to add to the price tag.  Along with minor things like cable clips, water proofing, tools for installation etc.

 

If you are insistent on getting something up now then go with some sort of a mobile antenna.  Even something small mounted up high is going to be better than something inside the house on a lower floor.

I agree.  It's not so much that you need special stuff as much as $100 doesn't buy $100 worth of stuff any more.

[LMR400 vs RG8X]

20 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

This!  Absolutely nothing unusual about the results. 

Agreed.  Results exactly as expected.

[GMRS for LA Riots.]

Well thought out

[GMRS for LA Riots.]

I have a metal box with overlap and metal taped edges that my vehicle still detects the fob thru.  The chip signal amplifiers are pretty strong.  For improved security I took the battery out of the fob and now the chip has to be within a half inch of the start button.

[What would generate a Morse code ident on channel 6?]

24 minutes ago, Jaay said:

Continuous Wave, but I'm sure you knew that lol!

If you use sort by date, you can usually figure out whether you are about to repeat something someone else posted a week earlier.  Sort by votes can hide this from you.

[GMRS for LA Riots.]

I would be stunned if the rioters were not using HT's.  Also stunned if three letter people weren't nearby using scanners and recorders and I don't mean Uncle Charlie.

[Air Raid]

1 hour ago, OffRoaderX said:

I met her in in 1971 and she gave me a dehydrated lizard.

I'm going to remember that one

[Repeater Tone Clarification]

OK, OK, SUPERSTAR

[GMRS in a Box]

They are to a price point and are bringing in a lot of new interest because they are accessible.  All good things

[Air Raid]

OK, I am hiding until the admin sees this and deletes.  You probably forgot that's a prohibited subject here. A bunch of us did and the admin came in and "cleaned things up"

[Repeater Tone Clarification]

2 hours ago, WSIK532 said:

@OffRoaderX  WOW!  I'm a big fan of the channel! 

On YouTube he's a star . Around here, he's just another GMRS user.

[Base Station 50w recommendations with USB-C charge]

I do it all the time.

[Long, Long Ago]

18 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

I can’t speak for the Admiral, but to me choosing “Scan for Tones” from the menu seems automatic.  I don’t know how much more automatic it could be. 

You're a ringer - you already know what it means and how to use it.

[Long, Long Ago]

12 hours ago, RoadApple said:

Sounds like that may just bring the unlicensed, non-radio folk, one step closer to getting onto local repeaters... welcome or not.  Modern GMRS radios in the hands of "FRS type" users will no doubt continue to blur the lines between the two services.    

I wouldn't be too afraid of that.  Pretty sure you would have to read and understand the manual or find the right YouTube video.  Probably as likely as randomly hitting the tone by guessing.

[Long, Long Ago]

A lot of new radios have automatic tone ID.  If both tones are the same, they only need to be within receiving range of the repeater.  If the tones are different (or only input), they would have to be within range of someone transmitting to the repeater, but it is automated these days.  No longer necessary to just quess.

[New to GMRS Loving It So Far, Looking for Advice on Mobile Setup]

Will you notice a difference in the antennas?  At normal effective GMRS fars, probably not.  Going for super extended mountain top to mountain top with antennas out of polarization angle agreement, yes.

[Passed my technician exam]

10 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

I have an Aoyue SMT hot air rework station.  It works, but it’s big and clunky.  The only reason I got it instead of something else was because it was cheap.  I mean really cheap.

Yes, it's clunky.  Same reason for purchase.

[HT's can get you Poision Oak]

Sorry to hear about the poison oak.  First time I got it was from running a motorcycle off the pavement and ended up under the bike in a ditch full of poison ivy.  I had to clear a LOT of poison ivy last weekend and ended up with a piece inside the work gloves I was wearing.  67 years old and it still only gave me a single small blister were I had a repeated hard contact.   Doesn't mean I won't break out into a bad rash the next time.

[Passed my technician exam]

I found out I could get rebuilt Aouye soldering stations cheap. 

[Immediate family use of gmrs callsign]

Separate pricing for dots.  I ain't stupid.