MichaelLAX

WELCOME to Amateur Radio, GMRS and this Forum! Interesting dilemma: Try programming 88.5 into Transmit ONLY and leave Receive open to anything and try again. UPDATE: Oh, I see one problem now: if you program Transmit as 462.550 you are transmitting on SIMPLEX only. REPT15 is the correct channel and maybe they have it "opened" up right now to not need a tone, but program the tone into Transmit for now anyway and leave it off Receive. Is there any Morse Code ID? if so record it and post it here, too. PS: Is your wife: Mississippi?!? ?

Wait, someone decided to delete their post and you are rehashing it now?!? Wouldn't the best person to describe their intentions be the poster of that message and perhaps she did by PM after she deleted it? Does she need your clarification? Or are you just using this occasion to attack the "YouTube personalit(y)" at @WROZ250's expense???

This is the first I have heard that they are even partial A-Holes! Thank you for giving me that confirmation. ?

I have noticed very few on this Forum who suggest modifications who claim that its "ok" - most make a disclosure about Part 95e and then its up to the reader/user to make the decision about continued use on GMRS. The "debate" has been hit over the head time and time again here. I am Pro-Choice! As has been pointed out by others, especially @OffRoaderX, there cannot be found even one instance on the FCC violations database of a FCC issued violation for using a non-certified radio on GMRS within the frequency and power specifications of Part 95. The FCC apparently has other fish to fry. The bigger problem for licensed GMRS users, as has been pointed out on this Forum many times, is not the one of licensed GMRS users of radios modified to work on GMRS, but of FRS users who are lawfully unlicensed and have sanctioned use of 22 of our channels/frequences!

Typo perhaps; we all make them here!

"Some" try to discourage... It's really a radio by radio discussion. As you know I am a big fan of the Radioddity DB20-G, which comes Part 95e certified. But with an easy modification, it can transmit on Ham Bands 2 meters and 70 cms, and with another easy modification can be locked back down for GMRS exclusively.

There are also Web-SDRs just waiting for you to listen to them online.

I always like to turn on two options in Maps, because you never know: 1) Offline; and 2) Stale

That is an interesting link: thank you for that document. Try to record the morse code ID and attach the file to a message and we can look it up for you. It might be FRS on the repeater output, but they would not likely have a morse code ID. I looked up the map here on myGMRS and I see some repeaters west of Omaha, but I can't figure out the mileage scale on these maps. Are you close enough to Lake 725?

The CPS software is not required if you use it strictly as a GMRS radio; clunky or otherwise. Someone needs to donate one of these radios to CHIRP, so they can reverse engineer it.

A few internet sources: Heartland REACT Nebraska REACT GMRS Omaha Facebook Group

Which list? So you hear communications on it. What do you mean by "I... occasionally hear traffic from amateur users*?" On a GMRS frequency? Waiting for written permission is challenging even on those repeaters listed here on myGMRS. But here you do not even know how to ask for permission. Ignoring the issue of abandonment: If you can get into the machine, of course you can ask others about rules, membership, permission, etc. If unanswered the issue of abandonment comes to the forefront. If truly abandoned, the issue of personal property abandonment is determined by Nebraska law. But you do not need to take actual ownership of abandoned property just to use it. I say: just use it until such time as someone objects and even at that time, their objection would require more analysis! *You can go to QRZ.com, join and enter the amateur radio callsigns you hear so that you can contact them to inquire what they know about the repeater; by snail mail or email if listed. Maybe it was set up by the Strategic Air Command?!? ?

It is not required at all for Part 95e GMRS use.

I do not read that Wiki article the same way you do. It is well established that Steve Jobs introduced Bill Gates to the prototype for their first Macintosh in an effort to get Microsoft to develop programming for this system. And such an effort was successful in that Microsoft did have programs available even at the launch: During the first Macintosh’s development and early years of production, Microsoft was a critical Apple ally. The software pioneer created important programs for Apple’s PC in the early ’80s. “We had more people working on the Mac than [Jobs] did,” Gates said of the early years, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography, Steve Jobs; At an Apple event in 1983, Gates told attendees Microsoft expected to earn half of its revenues selling Macintosh software the following year. And when Jobs asked Gates if he thought Mac would become another standard in personal computing, Gates praised the platform: “To create a new standard it takes something that’s not just a little bit different, it takes something that’s really new and really captures people’s attention. And the Macintosh, of all the machines I’ve seen, is the only one that meets that standard.” This article, among others, including Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson, details how Gates came up with his Windows GUI concept from his early workings for the original Macintosh.

Kudos to @OffRoaderXfor his efforts on behalf of the Salton Sea! Salton Sea to get Federal Drought Funds - LA Times Watch Randy's efforts documented here Salton Sea to get federal drought funds Government will spend $250 million on cleanup, restoration at the drying lake. TIM LYONS, left, a professor at UC Riverside; doctoral student Caroline Hung; and Charlie Diamond, a postdoctoral fellow at the school, use a corer to collect sediment samples from the Salton Sea lake bottom last year. (Irfan Khan Los Angeles Times) By Kathleen Ronayne SACRAMENTO — The federal government said Monday it will spend $250 million over four years on environmental cleanup and restoration work around a drying Southern California lake that’s fed by the depleted Colorado River. The future of the Salton Sea — and who is financially responsible for it — has been a key issue in discussions over how to stave off a crisis in the Colorado River. The lake was formed in 1905 when the river overflowed, creating a resort destination that slowly morphed into an environmental disaster as water levels receded, exposing residents to harmful dust and reducing wildlife habitat. The lake is largely fed by runoff from farms in California’s Imperial Valley, who use Colorado River water to grow many of the nation’s winter vegetables as well as feed crops such as alfalfa. As the farmers reduce their water use, less flows into the lake. California said it would reduce its reliance on the over-tapped river only if the federal government put up money to mitigate the effects of less water flowing into the sea. “It’s kind of a linchpin for the action we need to see on the Colorado River,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s natural resources secretary. “Finally we are all in agreement that we can’t leave the Salton Sea on the cutting room floor; we can’t take these conservation actions — these extraordinary measures — at the expense of these residents.” The deal announced Monday needs approval from the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of Colorado River water. The water entity’s board will take it up Tuesday. Both the district’s general manager and board member JB Hamby applauded the deal Monday. “The collaboration happening at the Salton Sea between water agencies and state, federal, and tribal governments is a blueprint for effective cooperation that the Colorado River Basin sorely needs,” Hamby said in a statement. The $250 million will come out of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, which set aside $4 billion to stave off the worst effects of drought across the U.S. West. Most of the money is contingent on the Imperial Irrigation District and the Coachella Valley Water District making good on their commitments to reduce their own use of river water. Both submitted proposals to cut back their use for payment as part of a new federal program. The quarter-billion dollars will largely go to bolster and speed up existing state projects designed to lower the negative environmental impact of the drying lake bed. The state has committed nearly $583 million to projects at the sea, including dust suppression and habitat restoration. One project aims to create wetlands and ponds that will limit dust from blowing into the air while creating safe spaces for fish and birds, according to the state. The deal comes as the U.S. Interior Department and the seven states that rely on the river — California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming — scramble to stave off the worst effects of the ongoing drought and historic overuse of the river. Lakes Powell and Mead, the key reservoirs that store river water and provide hydropower across the West, are only about a quarter full. After months of failed negotiations over a deal to drastically cut water use, the federal government in October said it would pay farmers and cities to cut back through activities such as leaving fields unplanted or lining canals to prevent water from seeping into the ground. Proposals were due this month. Meanwhile, the Interior Department has taken steps to unilaterally revise guidelines that govern when water shortages are declared, a move that could force states to further cut back. The Salton Sea, meanwhile, became its own political flash point in October when Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, then up for reelection, urged the federal government to withhold any environmental cleanup money unless California agreed to give up more water. That prompted criticism he was using communities that already suffer from poor air quality as a bargaining chip. The agreement marks a good step forward, but key details still need to be fleshed out, said Frank Ruiz, Salton Sea program director for Audubon California. He worries that $250 million is not enough to mitigate all of the damage already done at the sea. “This is a great step, but I think we need a lot more,” he said. “We need to continue discussing water sustainability in the region.” Broadly, he wants to see a more equitable distribution of the region’s water supplies and hopes the Salton Sea gets a guaranteed minimum amount of water even as overall use declines. Ronayne writes for the Associated Press.

Bakersfield, home to the hoped-for next Speaker of the House of Representatives, has crime statistics that go far beyond "most major cities."

One of the greatest attributes of this Forum is that new GMRS licensees can come here and easily obtain a fount of valuable information on all sorts of useful GMRS subtopics. Now to them, this is the first time such a question is being asked and it is a feature not a bug, that these questions are answered over and over again and updated, if necessary, each time. Using the "Search" function does not always work well and is it sure not as easy as just asking the question. If you find it disconcerting to answer the same question over and over again, here is any easy trick: Don't reply and move on to the next topic! Let those of us who want to help cut through the crap and answer the question.

One of the favorites here on this Forum that will meet your specifications is the Radioddity DB20-G a/k/a Anytone AT-779UV. For $99-109 (and recently discounted for Black Friday) it is: A mini-mobile that can fit in the palm of your hand and there are cup-mount holders for easy moves back and forth to another vehicle 12V Cigarette Lighter plug for easy power 18 Watts UHF and 20 Watts VHF Out of the box it is a fully certified Part 95E GMRS device that receives and scans on VHF and UHF and transmits on only GMRS channels, with the first 30 channels preprogrammed and then 9 more DIY channels for more repeaters with different Tones. Using the push buttons (or the included CPS software) you can "open" this unit to transmit on all 500 channels GMRS and/or on Ham 2 meters and 70 cms as well. Using the push buttons and/or software, you can at anytime restore the original codeplug and "lock" it back down to GMRS for compliance with Part 95E.

Full circle!!!!

Nicely done, Mark!!! You are probably familiar with the story about how Bill Gates quit Harvard and got MicroSoft started after the publication of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics cover story about the first home mini-computer, the MITS Altair 8800 and his development of a form of BASIC that would run on that computer's limited RAM. But you may not be aware that they (Gates and Bill Allen) used a Telex input device and punched paper tape so that they could feed Basic into it more easily on startup. Gates and Allen were showing off the setup at a Computer Faire and someone stole the punched tapes and distributed copies freely. Gates wrote a "letter to the editor" of a popular Computer Hobbiest Newsletter of the time complaining about how much time he had put into the project and was being denied his "due" remuneration for his efforts because of the widespread bootlegging of his program! How prescient! Let's Go Brandon! ?

I try to avoid lithium in my pancake batter as well (unless my guests are bi-polar!) ?

What year was that? What an innovation VisiCalc was: it was initially only available to run on the Apple ][ series and is generally acknowledged to be the "killer app" that spun the sales of Apple ][s into the stratosphere! It was a shame that the co-authors of VisiCalc (Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston) did not patent it, as of course every major software publisher came out with their own version, with Lotus 1-2-3 being the initial killer app for the IBM PC! I saw an interview with the co-authors many years later and they said they did not regret not patenting it (sorry for the double-negative): they acknowledged that they were part of the 60s generation that wanted to improve the world and they felt that their "invention" of the spreadsheet did just that!

I never referred to it as a "Trash-80" in those days, but many derided them with that tag! I never realized how much they "modernized" them. I started my days in personal computing first with a home built kit of the Sinclair Zenith ZX-81 and one year later I got my first Apple; the ][+ and later the //c, which I still have and use with a Floppy EMU to this day. The //c was my "go to portable computer" when I worked the Cannes Film Festival in 1988 with a 1200 baud "pocket" modem (or was it already 2400 baud at that time?) to send documents back and forth from our production office back home in Hollywood. It even contained an Applied Engineering Z-RAM card for extra RAM and the ability to run CP/M software on its Z-80 card. The photo below shows it with a modern day Floppy EMU device that adds a pseudo hard-drive to it, using a micro-SD card; as well as the 12v rechargeable lead-acid battery pack and the third party C-VUE LCD screen (which was much more affordable than the Apple LCD screen):

Certainly in the Ham Radio world: "breaking" into an existing conversation (that is waiting for the gap between one's transmission and the others and saying the word "break") is a commonly accepted practice, especially if you (1) want to enter into that conversation; or (2) given the ongoing duration of their conversation, you have a need to use the repeater, such as checking in with your spouse at a certain time. Some repeaters may have rules that suggest a different word, such as "comment" to say instead of break. GMRS, at least in my experience here in SoCal is that for some reason they do not like the word "break." Perhaps is too Hammy for their tastes, so I say "comment." No apologies necessary: remember there is no such thing as a "stupid question." Only stupid answers! ?

Since I pledged to @Sshannonthat I would back up any factual statement of mine cited to me as wrong, let me continue to support my claim that, at least initially, D*Star was proprietary. Initially let's look at your "source" for this information: You have posted an undated (although it says modified 3 years ago) online video slide-series, authored by Suparman Salim, entitled "What is D-Star" It contains the statement: "2001 Open Specification Published - anyone can implement" and gives a cite to a pdf linked at ARRL's website. That link is broken, but through my research, I believe the proper link is: D-Star System: Technical Requirements for the Wireless System Again, this ARRL linked document is an undated document and further it is an unsigned document, and nowhere in this document is there any mention of placing this information into the public domain or otherwise "open standard" for others to use license free. It is my contention that the statement quoted is grammatically incorrect, in that it is mixing two separate concepts: One, that the Standard was developed in 2001 and that it is now an "open specification" having been transformed to such status, if at all, at some date later than 2001. So let's look deeper: I believe you and I both agree that D-Star was developed by the Japanese Amateur Radio League. On the website of the JARL, there is published the document D-STAR (Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio). This document has modification dates listed from 2003 through 2019 and is authored to: The Japan Amateur Radio League, Inc. On Page 9, under: Chapter 1 - General Information, there are listed two Japanese patents, with the following Note: While there are online claims that these patents have expired, whether true or not, this information, contained on the JARL website, continues to support my claim that D*Star was initially proprietary. Again, my belief of the proof of the pudding is the lack of any CCR versions of D*Star; and this is not because of the AMBE Codec. Anyone can freely purchase the proper D*Star AMBE chip from Digital Voice Systems, Inc. and such purchase includes the necessary license to use that AMBE Codec in the purchaser's hardware implementation of D*Star hardware. When Baofeng goes to its legal counsel for an opinion on their ability to manufacture a D*Star Ham Radio transceiver, their lawyer does not rest his opinion on some claim in a slide presentation or other claims made on the internet. To avoid litigation, these lawyers will tell Baofeng to get a license from the proprietors who control this technology. Where is the Baofeng D*Star unit? Either the license was too expensive, or more probably not offered at all on any basis that Baofeng could satisfy, conditions that Kenwood could satisfy and build into their higher cost business plan for selling D*Star units. No proper business is going to attempt to manufacture and distribute a D*Star Ham Radio for which they are legally prohibited from selling in Japan; it is much too large a Ham Radio market.