Blackmar401
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Posts posted by Blackmar401
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Exactly. I think these guys all understood it that way as well they are just trying to be difficult. My main chanel that my family uses has next to no traffic on it. Maybe once every few days I will hear a short call but thats it. But like you said if you are being respectful and not tying the chanel up or interupting other people then I doubt the fcc is sitting their with a timer ready to hunt you down when you miss your 15 min ID. Now when the business downtown has 80 people all speaking Spanish and talking over each other and yelling (possibly being vulgar) and making everyone's radio sounds like a telenovela being interupted by an auctioneer all day then yes they probably will look into it to keep the paying members happy. Me telling my wife im stopping at the store on the way home after 30 hours of dead air.... not so much.I think the OP understands the rules same as the rest of us. The practical everyday usage of callsigns on the frequencies was his question, and I don't think too many people strictly abide by that rule. I don't. I do use them on an initial call or when signing off though. Just depends on if I'm on somebody's repeater or not and if I know the person I'm calling is sitting there waiting for me to talk. I really think the rules are there so the FCC can have something to enforce when people abuse the frequency, not to guide our everyday use. Again, this is GMRS, not ham. Good behavior and courteous use of the frequencies are what matter IMHO.
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not all gmrs radios have the same channels? That's new to me. I know repeater chanel 17 on my midland is the same frequency as the one in my btech. Considering they use the same frequency you would think the repeater channel using the simplex 17 frequency would be called repeater 17? Or does your radio have channels that mine doesnt?What is repeater 17? I didn’t know that they are numbered. Or, do you mean “channel” 17, which is pointless because not all radios follow the same pattern. What frequency are you talking about?!
- Blackmar401 and WQBI410
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Does anyone actually use them. I have been using gmrs for a few months now and the only callsigns I have heard used are on one of the repeaters I pick up. It's a group of guys who are truck drivers/dispatch but also hams. Other than that every other repeater and 15-22 I am yet to hear one. I was using mine but honestly now I just use it to clear the chanel at the end
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if usingAre cb radios illegal? Hard to talk law without being political and I can get very political. Bottom line, don't use a radio if it infringes on another's freedom. All laws are created after the abuse of freedom occurs, cause an accident while being distracted using the radio and you are part of the reason government grows and we all lose freedoms we once enjoyed. Love your neighbor on the road and you have little to fear, do it not killing someone and there are many laws you are in violation of the least of which is radio usage.
"From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded"
Self government is great power, with great power comes great responsibility. You literally hold the lives of others in your hands, abuse it and you lose the gift of self government to another government, they lose everything.
A radio while driving is going to distract you to the point of causing or not avoiding accidents then you have no business operating a vehicle to begin with because you just don't posses the mental faculties to safely do so. A radio is less distracting then having a conversation with a passenger.
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repeater 17What’s 17? Route 17? I don’t know of any Route 17 in R.I..
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i literally asked about doing this a couple weeks ago and upset alot of people. I think it was on reddit thoughWhat i did is use a repeater channel as simplex...467.550 with a dcs code(DN023) for my setup...just make sure you don't key into a repeater using that code.
I got tired of all the kids using their bubble packs interfering...I needed more frequencies...i added all repeater channels as simplex in my Wouxun KG-1000g and my Wouxun KG-805G.
If you don't add a ctcss or dcs you will hear someone keying into some repeater...Now the bubble packs can't hear me or transmit ever...LOL
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Oh I don't know if he owns it,just sounds like he is out of work and is on alot talking to a few truckdrivers every morning
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Is that Stan? I think that's his name I hear him on 17 in the am starting in providence until I get to Attleboro then sometimes at night if I have the base scanning at home.
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Why not just set up a decent antenna on the house with a base inside. I get not wanting to drill holes but you would only need one hole for your coax. I just build a wooden shelf inside my kitchen cabinet. The power supply sits on the bottom then my base is on the top portion with a 2.5" hole directly under the speaker. I actually installed an electrical box and just made a hole in a blank faceplate but thats really not necessarily, you could just make a line size hole straight through and use silicone around it. If you own the house why not customize it to your liking. My antenna is attached to the side of the house and sits at around 30', this allowed me to use a 30' run of lmr400 to minimize signal loss.
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You bought a 40w base radio. It has repeater channels on it so if you are near a repeater and have permission and the privacy codes you can use it. That is all.
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What radio? And how far away?
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Anyone in Rhodeisland get access to any of the repeaters that we pick up? Sounds like 17 is out in MA. There is possibly an active one in warwick on 15. 16 is in Rehoboth but seems like the guy only wants Motorolas and other higher tech radios on.
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It would also be a moot point if an asteroid blew the planet to smithereens, however power goes out 99.999% of the time for reasons other than emp's and extinction level asteroids.All is moot with EMP.
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have you gained access to any local repeaters? I am in E.P. and was granted access to one in Rehoboth but it has like a full page of requirements some of which my radios can't even perform.I dunno, maybe I am just being crotchedy, but I usually have mine on 462.675 (Ch.20), as there's a repeater out on Long Island I can hear from my location in S.W. Rhode Island. I seldom if ever hear anyone on the FRS frequencies, my GMRS doesn't get them (Midland MXT90), so those are programmed into my scanner. I used to use an Anytone AT778UV for ALL those frequencies until I learned it wasn't Part 95 compliant, so back in the box it went until such time as I can obtain my Technician Ticket, which with any luck will be soon. The coverage on that Anytone is remarkable, to say the least. And despite what people say about range, with a converted Mobile Antenna and Ground Plane kit up on a repurposed flagpole I can hear a repeater in Madison Ct. (2 meter) from my location, and the distance as the crow flies has got to be around 70-75 miles away, and to my knowledge it's not linked with any repeaters that are closer, and the GMRS repeater out on L.I. is probably 40 miles away A.T.C.F. in Islip I believe. I am situated in a pretty good spot for East/West propagation, but North/South is a challenge, but despite that some days I'll get +10db on that Madison Ct. rig, a little less on Islip. According to the Directory here there's a GMRS Repeater pretty close to me in New London Ct. that I requested access to, have yet to hear back from the owner though. So when I decide on either a Btech, Wouxun (sp?) or the bigger Midland, I'll be able to access at least two GMRS repeaters close by...we shall see...
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yes but you are definitely going to know they are there when you spend an hour trying to get one transmission back and forth. Wether your radio let's you know that it can't transmit or if you just don't get a response and keep trying over and over againIf you can fit 120-150 conversations on the same freq at the same time and 98% of the time they don't know the others are there then they ARE extra channels. That is the beauty of GMRS over CB.
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union pipefitter. I read there are like 500 questions in thr pool and I didn't feel like going through them all. If the test is available online I will probably order the book and go for it but the closest in person test is like an hour minimum away. Could be up to 3, im just going by the state its in.If your background is in natural sciences or crafts, the test preparation will be easy. On the other hand, if you are more into philology, literature (especially english romantics of 18th century), art in general - the preparation could take like maybe the whole 4 hours!
There are helping resources on the internet. hamexam.org is one, there are plenty of others.
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So I just got into gmrs like a couple months ago. Today I got curious and looked up the Ham test. I started going through the practice questions? Or testing pool I guess, and basically knew all of the first 20ish. Seemed to be just basic electrical stuff and common sense. Obviously I would imagine there is ham specific stuff like frequency and specs. Should it be easily passable with a little studying one of the test prep books?
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There is a tremendous amount of benefits with Amateur Radio vs. GMRS. First, lets just talk about voice.
On GMRS simplex, the absolute very best you can expect from a perfect setup, is going to be about 70 miles. Likely less. That would be mobile or base.
With Amateur Radio VHF and UHF, the power limits are 1500 watts with no radiated power restrictions. That means with a little elevation, you are talking coast to coast on the higher portions of VHF and the lower portions of UHF. On the lower portions of VHF, you can talk to Europe, Mediterranean, Northern Africa, etc. Even in my mobile, I can talk to NY from Virginia on VHF simplex.
With things other than voice... there is no limit to what you can do beyond no encryption. If you can dream it, you can do it on amateur radio. There is APRS, which provides transceiver location services. There FLDigi which is used for texting and simple messaging. There is WinLink which is a 100% radio-based email service that allows you to email other operators as well as people on the public internet. And much, much more.
The benefit of HF and MF is, the ease of global comms as you drop in frequency. I was driving around in my Jeep today on an HF frequency that Tech license holders have access to. I talked to people in 3 different countries on 2 different continents with a simple 100 watt mobile radio and a whip antenna. It's really a lot of fun.
As far as a base station goes, I don't use mobile radios for base a station. I have base station radios that I use for VHF, and a VHF/UHF repeater. I talk on VHF on the base for several hours a week, sitting in my executive desk chair.
As far as the quality of conversation... I can't really say much about that. I would assume there are plenty of people to talk to without getting into religion, politics, etc. I avoid them like the plague.
With regard to if it's worth it... that is a personal choice that each person needs to decide for themselves. I think it is. I held my Tech license for 17+ years before I got my General and had a great time. I also think the GMRS and FRS are great radio service and fill a nice niche.
I thought all rf was line of sight? So vhf can curve around the earth and go over/through mountains and stuff?
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if you angle the panels right the snow doesn't last long. I'm looking at mine now and they are clear after getting snow for 2 days straightSolar is great until it snows and then it’s not. My neighbor across the street has an extensive whole-house solar array on his roof. Right now it’s buried under a foot of snow and ice rendering it inoperable. It’s no one’s fault. It’s just a drawback. But folks who install solar educate themselves about this and have multiple power sources available at all times.
I would suggest comprehensive research and planning be first and foremost when considering any robust system.
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if you angle the panels right the snow doesn't last long. I'm looking at mine now and they are clear after getting snow for 2 days straightSolar is great until it snows and then it’s not. My neighbor across the street has an extensive whole-house solar array on his roof. Right now it’s buried under a foot of snow and ice rendering it inoperable. It’s no one’s fault. It’s just a drawback. But folks who install solar educate themselves about this and have multiple power sources available at all times.
I would suggest comprehensive research and planning be first and foremost when considering any robust system.
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depends on how many batteries. I have 3 hooked up to 2×100w panels and can run a bunch of stuff off it. The controller actually just died last month after 3 yearsThat would work if your duty cycle is very limited
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If I set up a repeater it would be ran off a solar charged battery not have a short term battery back up.
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Aren't all the channels no license required under 2w or .5w? I thought I read they changed it recently
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