[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.

[Immediate family use of gmrs callsign]

I sell punctuation cheap.  Contact me for pricing.

[Passed my technician exam]

Be warned, where to get the best pizza seems to bring out hams on 2m repeaters.  Congrats.   Got for General ASAP, it is no harder to do than Tech and there is overlap in the question pool, you could already accidentally pass it on a lucky day.

[Comet 712EFC -- no ground plane radials]

I carried Noalox on my HVAC service van for decades.

[Antenna question.]

I used my 220 radio twice today

[Marine VHF]

WMPT is cranking a meg these days.  If I recall correctly, they had a temporary experimental licensed increase to 2 for a few months.

 

My father bought a beam/yagi so far back I don't remember not having it. Probably on advice from my godfather who was a navy radio tech in the very early 1960's.

[Amature bands VS. GMRS Range]

17 hours ago, WRTC928 said:

I'm of the opinion that on 2m/70cm, anything more than 50 watts is just wasted, with perhaps a few exceptions under very unusual circumstances.

Don't tell the EME guys that.   Well, maybe they fit "very unusual circumstances"   LOL

[Let's talk antenna masts]

"With ease" is a stretch as well.  I remember reading these in real time.

 

Quote

2023-11-14Issues with onboard computer render it unable to send usable data back to Earth, engineers begin planning and developing a fix.[34][35]

2024-04-22Engineers re-establish communication with the probe by moving code away from a broken memory chip in the FDS.[36]

 

[Interesting comments being filed with the fcc on unused 46Mhz/49Mhz pairs]

I believe I have a set here, but haven't used them in a couple of years

[Let's talk antenna masts]

9 hours ago, marcspaz said:

In my opinion, it really depends on your expectations. 15 feet gets you about 5.5 miles to the RF horizon. 35 feet will get you out to about 8.5 miles. 50 feet gets you about 10 miles.

As I understand it, that is to the physical visible horizon, but RF propagation usually follows the curvature of the Earth some fraction beyond the visible horizon.

[Amature bands VS. GMRS Range]

I believe the original question was in regards to HT operation.  50w 2m SSB is way off from HT operation.

 

Yes, I have hit a repeater on Long Island from southern Bowie when 2m ducting was present.

[Amature bands VS. GMRS Range]

3 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

Real world range will be anywhere from 15 miles to 50 miles depending on what part of the country you lie in and what the local terrain is like.

I have never made a 65cm, 70cm, 1.25m or 2m simplex contact more than 13 miles. All of my 5-13 mile contacts were with 50 watts.

[Well that was a surprise]

My wife tolerates my radios and ham activity because her favorite uncle was a ham.  Computer stuff and tools, any tools, on the other hand, are her favorite things in the world including stuff we aren't allowed to talk about here.  I spend money on that stuff and she is happy.

[KG-1000G Plus 50W or BTECH UV-50X3 Tri Band 50W?]

On 5/9/2025 at 10:15 AM, WRUE951 said:

i would give the AnyTone AT-D578UVIIIPRO a look at..    I gave my grandson one of these as a gift, its a great radio.. And they are unlock able  

That's one of my everyday radios.

[Base station cannot use repeaters]

1 hour ago, LeoG said:

If you are a non mobile station that communicates with another non mobile station that is a fixed station.  As soon as that fixed station communicates with a mobile unit it becomes a base station in definition.  And as soon as that same fixed/base station communicates with a repeater it is by definition a control station.

The only one that seems to have limitations is when you operate a fixed to fixed station where you can't exceed 15 watts.  Sounds like a specialty unit that has an antenna pointed at another antenna to communicate specifically with that station.  Most likely LOS on towers so 15 watts would be more than adequate to maintain good quality communications.

BINGO

[FCC Rules and Regulations for GMRS Radio Users]

6 hours ago, WRUE951 said:

Uhhhhh?????

Regular.  Learn to ignore it or use the forum function.

[At what point do you need an intervention?]

9 hours ago, tcp2525 said:

You sir are slacking. Not enough radios!!! Now that's areal nice setup. Enjoy.

I agree, not even close to needing intervention.  50 years ago I had a CB and Radio Shack scanner in my car.

[XPR7550e - Cold Solder Joints]

I learned to solder stuff from 0 gage battery cables down to 24 gage bell wire, but SMT stuff puts me in awe.  I have removed some surface mount components, but never replaced or installed anything.  I guess I need to watch some videos.   I did tour a facility that made their own circuit boards and saw some components smaller than a flake of ground pepper.  That stuff is sorcery

[Fixed Station vs Base Station?]

7 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

So why do you come here?  I’ve noticed that a significant portion of your comments are actually about other people’s questions or comments and frequently negative, not actually contributing to the conversation.

Some just like to type and hit enter even when it is irrelevant to the conversation.  It may be due something they need to have fulfilled.

I do agree, the ignore function works to eliminate material that shouldn't be present to begin with.

[wondering]

Ducting most commonly occurs associated with strong temperature inversions, either the strong night to day change around dawn or along storm fronts.  I recall a few years ago consistently hearing a contact in Philadelphia PA for several spring mornings thorough central MD.  Other times as storm fronts approached MD, hearing repeaters on Long Island discussing traffic on the LIE.

If the long range signals persist mid day in stretches of calm weather, linking would be the main suspect.

 

 

[BTech GMRS-50PRO 50W Mobile]

18 hours ago, LeoG said:

CB doesn't require a license.  Ham and GMRS do.  A savvy cop might ask for your license.  Probably not legal for them to ask, but who's going to stop them.

How many people carry a copy of their ham or GMRS license with them in their car?  You may be the ONLY one.

[Just passed my General class test on Saturday!!!!]

Haters gonna hate.  The same guys hate other hams that use or don't use digital modes etc etc.  As I've said before, the majority of active members in our local club are just into 2 way radios and don't care which license, band or transmission mode you are into.

[Using The Correct Tools For The Job Are Always Essential!!]

I have another story about my original 87.  I was doing an install on a 65 ft yacht belonging to a thoracic surgeon.  Doc was on the boat while I was doing the work and saw my meter and picked it up and looked at it.  He asked me where on the quality hierarchy the Fluke digital meters were.  I told him they were top of the line, state of the art. Politely putting it down he cussed. I asked him why and he told me about his college roommate calling him up and asking him if he wanted to invest in his family business that was about to expand and go digital.  He said "No thanks John. Those Simpson 260 analogs we used in physics class years ago will continue to be the industry standard for decades and decades to come." ... his roomy was John Fluke Jr.

[Using The Correct Tools For The Job Are Always Essential!!]

On 4/25/2025 at 10:01 AM, PACNWComms said:

Yes, good test equipment will last a very long time. Still using an old Fluke 87 (no series III or white backlight here). Leaking LCD crystal around its display.....and believe it or not, a metrology tech put the main knob on in the wrong position, had to correct that myself. (My personal fluke ended up in the work pool as it looks like many others.....has happened with a Motorola XPR7550e radio as well). 

 

Black gasket broke, so electrical tape seals the gap in places.....but still accurate and great for use in dark corners of electrical cabinets or floor board of cars. Some co-workers bought the cheaper Kelin Tools multimeters, only to find they lacked a backlight. The old expensive Fluke 87 continues to do the job (suspect mine is 30 years old or so).

 

By once, cry once. Get good gear.

At one point there was a free upgrade to the bigger white display for the original 87.  All you had to do was send them a postcard with the serial number of your 87.  I carried and used mine everyday for over 25 years until just about everything was worn out.  Bought a new series V about 6 years ago. 

I bought the original when I was trying to resolve a harmonic problem that was overheating and blowing fuses on a rooftop HVAC unit. After the fuse there was a coil of excess length feed wire that had suspicious melted insulation in a reoccurring pattern.  I removed that and it didn't help, so I made a slight change to the wire before the fuse and all was resolved. I bought the Fluke because someone told me the Beckman 110+ I was using wasn't enough to measure what was going on.