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SUPERG900

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Posts posted by SUPERG900

  1. The Chinese do make some great stuff, but they just don't have the brand visibility that western companies do. Also, they're not going to invest much in operating western based import divisions due to the politicization of market access by those countries. Many have heard of the difficulties that Western companies have in operating in China - this is because western nations use commerce as a cudgel to force other countries to follow their policies. The Chinese know this. However, they aren't adverse to selling to local importers based in the countries they are exporting to. This maintains an arms-length distance between Chinese companies and western political jurisdiction. Who can blame them? We read in the news about Chinese companies under sanction for doing the exact same thing western nations have done for decades - but the irony of it seems to be lost on many.

    As to the quality of imported Chinese goods - that's simply producing products at the price points western importers are willing to pay. After all, in countries like the US, the average working stiff has been losing his purchasing power since the 70's and he really can't afford the good stuff, and the importer likes his over the top markups. And that's another story.....

     

  2. 10 hours ago, MacJack said:

    DMR is using a radio BM is VOIP.  I was not on 27500 via BM.  Plus our DMR regional repeaters are only tied to 4 repeaters and ops have to flip the switch to connect on the NPR network.  

    DMR-MARC and BrandMeister are two completely separate DMR networks.  DMR-MARC is the older of the two and is generally based on MOTOTRBO equipment. BrandMeister is a newer and a bit more open network.

    In general, DMR-MARC repeaters are more locked down and don't permit private calls. BrandMeister repeaters don't usually restrict private calls, they allow SMS messages and also support digital APRS.

    Their are only a few talkgroups that are shared between these networks. Most folks program their codeplugs for one network or the other - BrandMeister being the most popular. 

    TGIF is an interesting network. There's not a lot of repeaters on that network - but many program TGIF into their personal hotspots.

  3. Hmm - just ran across this thread.

    I wouldn't say that bulkhead connectors won't work with 70cm..... especially considering that the majority of mobile amateur radios doing UHF and used in the home are dual UHF/VHF with an internal diplexer and a SO-239 antenna connector....  If using a bulkhead has any major effect on vswr at all, it's either defective or there's something funny going on in your wall...

    I'm basically using two 6" so-239 bulkhead connectors attached to two stainless steel outlet covers as a through-the-wall bulkhead. You can buy these covers at any hardware store.

    One connection is is for a dual-band VHF/UHF antenna, and the other is for an HF antenna.  Properly made these bulkhead should be grounded at exterior of the house to a grounding rod. Also, lightening surge suppressors should be installed for the coax and grounded to the rods as well.

    This is a VSWR scan of a Diamond X50A over the amateur 70cm band through the 10" SO-239 bulkhead I've installed. . It's pretty typical, nothing to write home about, but note it is covering a 30Mhz bandwidth (huge) and certainly not 5:1 VSWR at the edges!

    A 70cm antenna for GMRS is only going to need to cover a little more than 5Mhz and should have very a very low vswr profile.

    scan.thumb.png.a2fd5940d56e34ee46873f0fe408c869.png

     

     

     

     

     

  4. Quote

    A few years ago, I moved to the inner city of my hometown after many years of farm life in the country. I saw these gigantic antennae with spiral bases on these cars and vans around the hood. Naive me got excited and asked if they were amateur operators, innocently hoping to strike up a conversation about their rigs. They got downright mean, vulgar, and in some cases threatening for simply asking that one question. After a while, I realized these were chowder-heads running high wattage on CB. Mornings and sometimes in the evenings, their ear raping interference comes through my computer speakers and my headset when playing video games. It is super annoying.
     
    ETA: These guys know they are causing massive interference. They simply don't care for anyone but themselves.

    "In the old days, we used to..." <insert your cb revenge story here>.

  5. The Anytone's have always had the capability to change the talk group of a digital channel on the fly - and I use that functionality occasionally. Mostly though, I like to create individual digital channels for each of the talkgroups I commonly use on a particular repeater. This way, I can simply simply use the channel knob of the radio for selecting my most-used talkgroups on the current repeater - and I use 'zones' button to select different digital repeaters. I usually reserve one channel on each digital repeater as a scratch-pad for on-the fly talkgroups that I'm not worried about maintaining.

     

    For analog repeaters - I create a zone for each analog network, and a channel in that zone for each individual repeater.

  6. Hmm... my NanoVNA died after about two weeks of use. The build quality on my particular example left something to be desired.

     

    I've replaced it with a Mini1300, which is larger and somewhat easier to use. It'll work as a simple SWR meter, swept SWR, VNA, and will display resistive and reactive components. Very nice.

     

    Since the micro flash card it came with was dead, I had to buy a replacement card, and then perform a HW cal, which required opening the unit up and soldering a jumper. Other than that, it's worked fine. More expensive than a NanoVNA, cheaper than a rigexpert.

  7. SWR versus return loss or reflected power.

     

    People get obsessed with 1.2:1 or very low SWR but it's not that big of a deal.

    A  1.9:1  SWR is a 10dB return loss meaning that 10% of your power is reflected back to the radio.

    This is not that bad.... and not that rare.

    In my book anything 2:1 or better is pretty decent.

     

    Even a 3:1 SWR is a 6dB return loss meaning that 25% of your power is reflected back to the radio.

    It does not mean that this power is completely dissipated in the finals of the radio either.

    Radio outputs are not often that close to a 50 ohm Z. So some of that gets re-reflected.

    Transmitters are designed to work into a 50 Ohm load.  That does not mean they look like 50 Ohms.

     

    Of course for a 10KW radio station it's a different matter.

    These numbers get kind of big.

     

    Vince

     

    I agree. If you're under 2:1 - you're in the right neighborhood. If you can get it down to 1.5:1 without much work - you're good.  You can go lower than 1.5:1 with VSWR, but it's only worth the effort if it's really no effort at all as it's not worth investing a lot of time into.

  8. Folks,

     

    There's a new talkgroup on the TGIF DMR (digital mobile radio) network that represents the Tucson GMRS Association for dual GMRS/Ham licensees - it's on talkgroup 527. Anyone with a amateur license is welcome to tune in and pipe up - you're welcome! If you're itching to get into digital mobile radio - we can help.

     

    This talkgroup is only being carried on the prime.tgif.network (beta) and not the older (soon to be disabled) tgif.network. You need a DMR id of course, and you'll need to sign up at https://prime.tgif.network. TGIF is a newer DMR network, smaller, and runs very clean - no packet loss or congestion like the bigger DMR networks. We're quite impressed.

     

    There are instructions at https://prime.tgif.network on how to sign up for TGIF and how to configure a pi-star hotspot for DMR on the prime.tgif.network.

     

    If you need help, or have questions on how to setup a pi-star hotspot for the Prime TGIF network, you can catch me on this thread or you can email: SuperG@arrl.net

  9. The FCC has the right as part of your license grant to inspect your station but they don't have the right to seize the equipment. That's what the court order was for, to seize the equipment.

     

    They do have a right to inspect your station - but the "castle" doctrine of law means that they need your permission to enter your premises. Now a court order - well that's an imperative legal directive no matter what agency applies for it. What ever the court order says you let happen, lest you run afoul of the courts.

  10. Well, if the FCC has that authority, I can't find an example of them using it.  Here's a quote from a story about recent action against a pirate station on the broadcast FM band:

     

    "The seizure of transmitter equipment from the St. Nicholas Avenue building occurred April 10 but was only made public by the FCC on Tuesday. The name of the alleged operator of “Rumba FM” and other details of the radio station have not yet been released. But the FCC said it had in the past sent “multiple warnings” to the station’s operators. After those letters failed to convince the pirate to power down, the FCC worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to secure a federal court order allowing them to seize the station’s equipment."

     

    So, I think it's reasonable to assume, right or wrong, that the FCC is not going to waste their time with the typical violations found on low power FRS or GMRS transmissions.  Like I said earlier, there are amateur kilowatt power stations on the ham band, cursing, broadcasting music, and purposefully interfering...Nightly...For years...with no action.

     

    They don't. They can only ask, and you can tell them to get bent.

     

    Of course, they'd probably summarily terminate any licenses you have for non-cooperation in an FCC investigation, maybe fine you as well. Plus, if they thought criminal activity was involved they could refer the matter to law enforcement.

     

    Best to let them in - they are probably only looking to identify interference issues.  (If it's *intentional* interference - well that's on you and you deserve whatever comes your way.)

  11. So, I again downloaded the setup file, used my baofeng programming cable, attempted to write to radio, does not come up with a password, but it does say to "please link radio". The baofeng cable should work for the RT76P, correct? Or should I order a cable from Retevis? Thanks in advance...Clint

     

    Normally, I would think that A Baofeng "Kenwood- type" smart cable, would work. It's possible the driver for that cable your PC isn't quite behaving in a manner acceptable to the RT76P. It wouldn't hurt to pick up a Retevis cable.

  12. I'm not saying I encourage people to use GMRS without a license. Far from it. I rarely hear anybody else at all though except maybe a few people on FRS, licensed or maybe not. While always encouraging people to follow the rules, I don't want to scare anybody off from a potentially fun hobby or useful tool. I think there's a balance. I'm not saying you guys are, but just in general, I think anybody who wants to play radio police should stick to ham. Now people playing DJ on the repeater? Screw them. Other than blatant abuse though, I lean towards a more welcoming approach, especially on simplex. I'll still keep trying to set an example though by using the callsign.

     

    It could be a regional/cultural differences thing...

     

    Out here in the southwest - we're *super* friendly (everybody's a friend when you're in the desert...) , and we make it a point to personally welcome folks to GMRS and let them know that it's ok - we all have "mic fright" at first, and it'll wear off soon enough, and people will get to know your callsign in time. It's how we roll in these parts. Callsigns are basically treated as calling cards - you can announce your callsign followed by "monitoring"  - if your friends are out there, they'll respond.

  13. Nobody uses them here in VA, even on repeaters. I do, but I feel like I'm scaring people away from wanting to reply when I do.

     

    That's the idea!

     

    Making unlicensed folks w/o a callsign people think twice before transmitting on a repeater channel is what we want. Keeps the riffraff out.

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