AdmiralCochrane

Why does a J-Pole need ferrites? And why more than one?

I just had a thought about the VFD's I see at work ... they are always completely shielded, they are not standing alone on rooftop equipment the way they are in mechanical rooms. In fact, some Carrier brand equipment has some of the electricals inside 3 layers of RF shielding. Really annoying to take the panels off for testing. Either something inside is very noisey or very prone to receiving noise. Manufactures don't put in an extra screw, much less an additional stamped panel if they don't have to. Now you guys have me wanting to take an SDR receiver into a mechanical room with stand alone VFD's

Since I use my HT's (GMRS and dual band ham) on commercial roofs while I am on break from work and I work on a LOT of equipment with VFD's, I read the article. I have NEVER heard a VFD making noise on VHF or UHF. If I read the article correctly the VFD in question was Chinese JUNK AND incorrectly installed. All of the ones I see at work are Korean, Japanese or European. I have never come across any equipment using the Chinese JUNK in question. Despite this solid example, I think you are much more likely to find solar panel controllers making spurious RF than a VFD. There are numerous examples of solar panel controller manufacturers getting caught distributing crap.

Used handheld scanner

Yes, too far

No, you are simply hearing signals in the fringe of your reception area.

I hear a local hotel staff as well. There are 4 hotels less than a mile as the crow flies, I haven't figured out which one it is yet.

I'm not far away, our area has a lot of repeaters. There might be one on every available frequency within 40 miles of me. Lots of simplex use, some regulars on some of the better located repeaters.

One of my TH-F6's is modified. Hard to find one for less than $300 these days.

I just checked my 805G and it has not run the battery down after sitting for several months (at least 3 months)

I have only made car to car simplex transmissions in the 10 mile range on one occaision.

There is a TYT TH-9800D in my shack. There is also a junker in storage in my basement. I bought the junker first at a bargain price on eBay because the seller admitted one side of it didn't work. I liked the way the half radio worked well enough that I bought a new one with the eBay extended electronics warranty. If you watch on eBay, you see more than a few with problems selling as used junk. My new 9800 came with FCC compliant programming, but with paper instructions on how to unlock (it works ok on 11m too ?). The Anytone 578 can be unlocked as well, but you have to do a search engine scavenger hunt to find the process and codes. The 578 is actually a triband radio but on 1.25m it's limited to 6 watts which works for me because there are at least 3 1.25m repeaters in range of my location. It also does GPS and APRS, so it's a lot more than just a dual band DMR.

Some of the stuff I hear on CB these days makes me wonder how the guys figure out how to put the keys in the ignition switch. Maybe they have keyless fobs and push button starting on their trucks.

In my area 520 is quiet, but far from dead. I hear a few calls a month of people passing thru and a couple of regulars in one certain area about once a month. Not sure why those regular guys use 520 for their ongoing rag chews. If it were me, I'd bump over to some other simplex frequency. Maybe they don't know how.

Only GMRS or ham repeaters too?

Their best feature is their advertizing

Been a dead issue since June 17 2021

Because all rentals are operated within range of cell towers

The point of the restrictions on MURS, FRS and GMRS was to limit the range so they could be generally practical for families to use on their block. Allowing repeaters was letting a genie out of the bottle that made a lot of people consider uses beyond the original limiting method/device. My worthless opinion is if you want something more, just get it. "It" being a business or ham license. All the great imaginings of what might be possible with changes already exist in the ham world. Stop trying to make GMRS into amateur radio. Sorry for the musings of a "sad ham"

More frequencies for my scanner ?

I'm afraid it will be a long wait

WABC in NYC can be received as far south as Maryland and Virginia many nights, but not at all during the day.

Exactly. I have seen some that had current limiting ability, that is what I would buy and I would not expect them to be inexpensive.

I found the performance of the tiger tail was improved by running it perpendicular to the antenna and facing to or away from the other antenna. Straight down (inline with the antenna) or outside of the angle directly to the other station, I could not see any performance increase.

Does a good charge controller mitigate some of this concern?