tcp2525

That never stopped eBay from allowing this crap on their site. When it comes to CCTV equipment Hikvision was FCC banned and eBay was flooded with that garbage. I don't see any of this significantly changing for the better on eBay or Amazon.

When I use my HT for GMRS, I make sure I have an aluminum beer can in my other hand for counterpoise. Obviously, you have to empty it till you find that perfect resonance sweet spot. Sometimes it takes multiple tries to get it right.

For optimal performance I highly suggest using Bosch Platinum spark plugs with the gap at 0.038" for the HF bands. Spark gap transmitters can be fun. Brings back the good old days of radio.

I wasn't going to brag, but I have a ghost antenna that will handle 1kW.

Nice ducting this morning on GMRS. Had a Long Island repeater getting into the Baltimore/Annapolis area. I had a momentary "WOW" factor that I would never get with VOIP.

Baloney! My amp idles at 1,300 watts.

Don't laugh, I had one back in the 80s. Definitely a pretty cool animal.

Agree, to me. The point being is if you are talking to someone on the other side of the world over VOIP there's absolutely no reason to get yourself excited as you really accomplished nothing radio related. Do it over the air and see how challenging it can be. Then you will have real excitement.

If you mean "international QSOs" I am assuming you are talking about VOIP using a hotspot? Another boring aspect of digital amateur radio

Oh, I know that there are an extremely high amount of users on DMR as I routinely update the user databases on my 878s. The amount of users is irrelevant as most aren't active even though they are in the database. Only a few talk groups get high use The bulk of DMR conversations are radio checks and kerchunking. As for C4FM, I think that is by far the clearest and best sounding digital mode. I noticed in our area that a few of the C4FM repeaters went back to analog only. The owners finally got tired of broadcasting in an empty room.

And if they finally cracked it using all that wasted effort, they will ask themselves was it really worth it. The fun part would be cracking it. Beyond that, another exercise in futility.

I just don't see GMRS a good match for digital. You are most likely right, it will eventually be here. As for FM on 11m, do people still use it? I gave up on it almost 40 years ago.

With analog fading is fine as you can still hear the transmission, albeit with a little more noise but it's readable.

Why would anyone assume their conversions are "private" when they key mic? Sure, most conversations aren't worth the effort of even listening to, let alone wasting the time to crack it.

Sadly, DMR and pretty much all digital modes are a passing fad. Way to many radio checks and people kerchunking. Plus, the audio quality isn't as natural and pleasing as anal-log. All this in an effort to save bandwidth. Thank goodness the FCC did something right and not allow digital on GMRS.