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AdmiralCochrane reacted to n4gix in Morse Code Identifiers
Speaking of morse code, when my late father went to take his General Class ham exam, he utterly failed 13 word per minute (WPM) required. This by the way after having informed the FCC examiner that he'd spent his naval enlistment prior to and during WWII as a radio operator.
The examiner asked him "How the hell did you fail to get clear copy?" My dad replied, "your machine is sending far too slow for me to copy. I don't hear letters, I hear words. Can you turn up the speed?" The examiner replied that their machine could only send a maximum of about 40 WPM. "I'm not really supposed to do this, but since you had to drive from Ft. Myers down here to the Miami Field Office to take the test, I am going to make an exception.
My dad smiled and replied "Thank you very much. That's still only about half my usual speed, but I can probably copy that well enough to pass. Fortunately for my dad's already bruised ego, he passed with 100% clear copy.
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AdmiralCochrane got a reaction from Savage in Radio programming - zones
Talkaround is repeater offset defeat. Uses a preset channel normally used with a repeater (and different transmit and receive frequencies) but directly using the normal receive frequency for both transmit and receive (also known as 'simplex')
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to nzw99 in Morse Code Identifiers
I have also had some trouble catching the Morse code identifiers that are used. i did find a couple Morse code decoders that i got from the app store on my phone. They are not exactly accurate but tend to catch better then me trying to wright it down. there is a official standard for Morse code speed but i have found that its often sent out much faster or maybe it does not apply for this use. the real trick is to have your phone open and ready to catch the broadcast.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to tweiss3 in Power Supply and Antenna Suggestion
Recommendation was based on cost. His DBJ-UHF is $10 more and is still 4' in length. The dual band could also be reused for other things later. I retired mine from attic operation to field operation for field day or any other quick trip.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to mbrun in Wouxun KG-805G GMRS Radio
The above cable I bought from “Rick” at BTWR. I use it on a Win10 machine. It works fine with the KG-805G units I have purchased.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to tweiss3 in Power Supply and Antenna Suggestion
You are correct, a GMRS only would be about 19 inches, but the EdFong is a dual band, and is about 5' long when placed in PVC pipe, including the 12 lead area for clamping. Even at 5' it's very manageable inside and reasonable at $34+ shipping. You can always use fishing line to hang it in a window and it should work well.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to kidphc in Radio wave propagation question
Intesting read... would of thought there would have been more picket fencing from multi pathing. But it seams you basically are going to get crystal clear or nada due to phasing.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to berkinet in Radio wave propagation question
Also, Fresnel zone effect: http://radiomobile.pe1mew.nl/?Calculations:Propagation_calculation:Fresnel_zones
BTW, At UHF frequencies, once you have LOS, power makes little additional difference. The higher you go in frequency, the more true that becomes.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to kidphc in Woot woot... Random Wire is up. F you HOA.
Suppose to be good for 160-6m. With a wide band tuner. I have an ltg 100 pro ii. We shall see. Since it is really for listening so should work well for that. Really wanted something permanent for NVIS and ground wave on 10/6.
The photo was from a walk my wife took behind the house with the kids. She said IRL it looks just like a birdhird feeder and the wires are unnoticeable.
Working on a fan dipole for 40/20/15/10/6. Just need to set it up to tune.. That will be stop gap till I get the general ticket. Then the next step will be either the Dx commander or nebula for DX work.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to marcspaz in Midland GMRS Product updates
Like I mentioned, I have not found any new certifications in the database. Pending, approved or otherwise.
I guess someone is going to have to call them.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to jec6613 in Midland MXT-400 Transmit Question
Have fun everybody ... https://www.timesmicrowave.com/calculator/
Also, there's insertion loss on each connector, which you can find in the spec sheet, not to mention any losses with poor assembly.
Oh, and if you're using UHF connectors like virtually all of the radios are, try re-seating the connector, because SO239/PL259 can't mate with enough consistency once you get to even VHF. They're called UHF connectors because when they were invented, UHF was 3-30 MHz.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to WRAK968 in Programming Kenwood Tk890 need codeplugs GMRS channels
What exactly is the problem with your 890? The 890 should use KPG-44D software, and the KPG-43U cable if I recall. Connect the cable to your PC, open up the 49D software, click "Setup>Com Port" this will open a little window. Select the comport the programming cable is using (Usually it will be the only com port available) and click OK.
Now, with the radio turned on and the cable connected to the radios mic port, do a read from the radio.
If you get an error, please share it here.
There is a reason for having you do these steps. First, some radio's require matching S/N's in the programing dat file. Having a mismatched file wont allow you to upload to the radio. Second, by uploading a random dat file you may not fix whatever issue you are having. And third, if your new to the software, this is a great chance to learn about the software and features that others may not include in the system.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to berkinet in Midland MXT-400 Transmit Question
If the cable or connectors between the radio and the meter are defective, that might account for the problem. How does the radio work on receive?
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AdmiralCochrane got a reaction from gman1971 in Impressed with CCR's
CCR's are the free samples of crack of the radio world. I bought a 70cm Baofeng Mini when they were on sale for about $10 shipped not realizing to get it programmed the way I wanted it would cost more for the programming cable than I paid for the radio. Then the programming software wouldn't run on my Mac and I had to program it from the Dell laptop I use at work. I have several of the local 70cm repeaters programmed into it but have never had the opertunity to try it close enough to hit any of them. It does receive if you are line of sight to the towers at least 5 miles away, I have done that with it; its almost worth the $10 for that alone.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to jec6613 in Whats with repeater users needing permission on GMRS?
This is *exactly* why I have GMRS. There's no way my XYL will get her ham ticket, so I needed something in between to communicate with her.
In fact, I have an HT programmed for her to have with her during inclement weather. Three times this year, we've lost cell service at either home or her work (I WFH), and we've had major road closures and other problems - it starts listening to a small section of the upper 440 band, with a few, "Channels", and transmits on GMRS. Why? Because as a ham, I can put up a much more larger antenna and use a lot more than 50W of power to reach her and receive her signal.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to JB007Rules in Whats with repeater users needing permission on GMRS?
Okay,
I’ll bite here. I own a repeater (Rugged 575) in Naperville, IL at 300' receive / 250’ transmit. It’s on a commercial site with other UHF and VHF radio systems as well. Not only have I spent nearly 5 figures setting this up correctly but I monitor it as if it was my baby, cuz, you know, it *IS* my baby. I built it with no financial help from anyone else. Of course there was other help I received by LOTS of other commercial repeater owners (Those of you that are reading know who you are) as I’ve come a long way in the last year and some change here. I have my repeater system set up for several different private family usage cases and I also have a tone for public which I closely monitor as well and others that are out there do use it.
As a repeater owner I’m super happy to turn my radio on and hear other people using it. As a matter of fact just yesterday some other licensed GMRS users were using my repeater and I needed to use it with my wife as I was at the grocery store and I broke in and said, “hang tight guys, I need to talk to my wife for a minute. I’ll let you know when I’m done”. Anyways, I flipped to our tone, talked with her about the particulars, then went back to the public side and said “Carry on guys! Glad to hear you out there using the machine”.
That being said, mine is set to “Ask permission” as well because as others have mentioned, I want to know who is using it to verify their license and location because it’s my system and it’s my responsibility to make sure it’s up to par on the commercial shared site. I have sent an email back to EVERY! SINGLE! PERSON! As well welcoming them with the tones to use it! I haven’t had the need (yet) to ever reject anyone from using my repeater but I still keep a tab on who has access to it as in my opinion, it’s my responsibility to do so.
Not only that, but I have my custom verbiage I send back with every request as well stating that this is a family repeater as well and to aid to traffic on the other PL tone. Heck, I’ll paste what I send you can see where we are coming from with this:
“The tone for my repeater is XXXX (left blank) (N – normal, not inverted).
When you key up for the first time please identify yourself using your call sign and call for ROB. I am regulating who is using my repeater as it is being used for my family as well.
I have received an exceeding amount of requests to use my repeater. Originally this was set up for family only use but seeing as the range is far better than expected, I have opened it up on an as-requested basis to any licensed GMRS operator. PLEASE NOTE: ALL TRAFFIC MUST YIELD TO MY FAMILY. The tone for public use is different than family so if you see your radio lighting up receiving on 462.575 but no audio is coming through on your radio it's because my family is talking so please do not key up until that traffic has cleared.
Thanks and I hope to hear you on the air!”
That being said, sometimes users don’t understand what a multi-table is either so I will say this too: When you first use a new repeater you should ALWAYS call out for a radio check IMO because you don’t know how that repeater is set up and should NEVER assume anything! I was in Iowa once and I made contact to the owner on the traveler tone (I was travelling) and he told me that it’s linked to another repeater in California! NONE of this information was posted on mygmrs.com and upon googling I couldn’t even find it either!!! It was good to know that I was keying multiple machines too and me and the owner had a nice long 30 minute conversation and he was glad I keyed up and shouted out!
To sum up further as a repeater owner: *MOST*, but not *ALL* repeater owners don’t mind you using their machine I’ve found. Now I’m in the Midwest mind you, so again, no assumptions would be made for other machines that I’ve never used, but around here most repeater owners are very happy to have you on their machine and it brings a great smile to their face to know that they are serving the public with a reliable communication system and growing the hobby as well!
Remember that GMRS isn’t HAM and HAM isn’t GMRS. A *LOT* of people out there want GMRS for family use under one license and that’s what I’m doing but I’ve decided to open it up to the public as well as the coverage is fairly decent. I looked at getting a business license and could have easily done it too but I like the idea of being able to chat with my family *AND* other GMRS users so here we are!
Thanks!
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to n1das in Intentional repeater jamming and how to deal with it
No special or "right equipment" is needed. If a radio has DPL capability, it already has inverted DPL capability. With one exception (D172N), every code in the table of 104 standard DCS codes has its inverse somewhere in the table. For example, codes 125 and 365 are inverses of each other. D125I is the same as D365N and vice versa. I've been using 411 (normal) (D411N) and its inverse is 226 (normal). D411I corresponds to D226N and vice versa. Normal and Inverted simply refers to the polarity of the DCS waveform. By convention, a logic 1 is represented by a positive carrier shift and a logic 0 is represented by a negative carrier shift. This is considered Normal polarity for a DCS waveform.
A DPL word is a 23-bit cyclic Golay pattern with a 12 bit codeword (23,12). The 12 bit codeword is formed from the 12 least significant bits of the 23 bit DPL word. The 12 bit codeword consists of a fixed octal 4 (100 binary) followed by the 3 octal digits that you can program. Notice that the available DPL codes are octal (base 8) numbers. The 11 most significant bits are error correcting code bits generated by the Golay algorithm from the 12 codeword bits. The 23 bit DPL word is transmitted repeatedly over the air at 134.4 bits/second. The least significant bit is transmitted first, resulting in the DPL word being played out backwards over the air.
Here is the best technical description of DCS/DPL operation that I've been able to find:
http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/dcs.html
Also check out:
https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/DCS
In my case of dealing with a repeater jammer who didn't have DPL capability and didn't have a clue and thought he knew all there is to know about radio, DPL also stands for "Definitely Prevents Losers" LOL.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to marcspaz in Radio/distance help
There is ZERO chance that it will work on simplex, ground level with GMRS. You have a huge ridge line that runs almost parallel, just a degree of two off, but one town is on one side of the ridge while the other is on the blind side of the ridge.
You need HF NVIS for reliable comms (probable between 1.9MHz to 3.8MHz) or there needs to be a repeater on the high point of the ridge line about half way between the two towns or two, 200'+ towers on each side of the ridge, in each town.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to mbrun in Using a mobile radio as a base station
Yes. Ground wires used for lighting protection and antenna grounding outdoors are typically without insulation. Less expensive and one less thing to catch fire if you hit.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to berkinet in Intentional repeater jamming and how to deal with it
They deserve to lose their license for simply violating the regulations for simply interfering with another communication.
§ 95.333 Prohibited uses.
No person shall use a Personal Radio Service station:
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(d) To intentionally interfere with the communications of another station;
(e) To transmit obscene, profane or indecent words, language or meaning; or
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§ 95.1733 Prohibited GMRS uses.
(a) In addition to the prohibited uses outlined in § 95.333 of this chapter, GMRS stations must not communicate:
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(4) Music, whistling, sound effects or material to amuse or entertain;
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(10) Continuous or uninterrupted transmissions, except for communications involving the immediate safety of life or property; and
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to wqss651 in Use of Travel Tone
I am simply asking an open question here for anyone, not an argument.
So everyone licensed for GMRS have an understanding that 141.3Hz PL tone is an open travel PL Tone.
So why do people use that tone on a repeater they list here and ask for an email contact prior to use of repeater, if I am traveling, I cant possibly expect a response back within minutes right? If you want it selectively used wouldn't you then use a tone OTHER THAN the well known travel tone 141.3Hz? So... Just asking. I do have a repeater, no longer on air as I live in a very low spot and it didn't even cover my small town from my home.
I guess what I am saying is if you don't want your repeater to be an open access repeater for ALL then wouldn't you select a PL tone other than the common travel tone?
Just asking...
r/
Glenn
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to kidphc in 2 Meter PL Tone?
Yup, tons of out of state checking into W3VPR's Holly net. Though I heard an Ohio call sign as well.
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AdmiralCochrane got a reaction from kidphc in 2 Meter PL Tone?
We had ducting in MD last week ahead of the weather front and got full signals from upstate NY and central MA. A guy in MA looked up our local repeater PL and joined our morning net; sounded better than some of the locals.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to BoxCar in IC-F621-2
It compresses and expands the audio allowing a wider frequency range to be sent/received. Think of it as something as Dolby for radio.
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AdmiralCochrane reacted to rdunajewski in Retevis RT76 and RT76P
I sell them on the store but I don't have any in-hand. I'm testing the waters and shipping them from Retevis directly but was just about to place an order for some stock.
Sounds like I should play around with one and provide feedback to them before placing the order!