SteveShannon

Yup, legally the repeater is operated by the individual who holds the license. I doubt that club ownership matters.

Very thorough! Nice job.

Happy Easter, Gil!

On any given day there may be many posts. I’ve seen as many as ten pages of online users (including a bunch of guests) at any one time. Easter weekend might not be typical. If you are only seeing older posts you are doing something wrong. If you spent $50 to “unlock your computer from windows” you are doing something wrong. This site pays for itself by including advertising, but you can purchase levels of membership that completely block all advertising. It’s not unheard of for people to do something wrong, but it’s fairly stupid to blame everyone but yourself. There are some very smart people on this site who would be willing to help you but you kind of burned that bridge before you crossed it. Yes, you appear to be lost.

This is exactly right. Increasing the power results in more ERP, you never completely make up for the losses. And increasing the power does nothing for reception.

It appeared on mine from 2021, but as of a few months ago if you redownload it, it wasn’t appearing on people’s licenses. There was a thread about it a few months ago. Merely reprinting a license that you downloaded a couple years ago would not reflect the change. Here’s the thread:

Some time ago it appears that these prohibitions no longer exist. Folks reprinted the official copy of their licences and the language about the Line A prohibition no longer appeared. Try logging into your license manager at fcc and see.

This really isn’t ambiguous: Plain language voice communications. Voice communications without codes or coded messages intended to provide a hidden meaning. Foreign languages and commonly known radio operating words and phrases, such as “ten four” and “roger,” not intended to provide a hidden meaning, are not considered codes or coded messages.

I know you were documenting the changes in SWR as freezing temperatures happened. Were you able to determine where the water damage occurred? Of course water infiltration is possible with any coax if the connectors are exposed to the elements. You might be able to salvage some of that by cutting the last few feet off.

Some people have concerns about the mixed metals in the shield of LMR 400 for actual full duplex use. They claim that the contact points between the two different metals become a semiconductor material that causes problems. I don’t know whether that’s true or not but one simple solution is to use M&P Broadcom 10 or some other cable that doesn’t use mixed metals in its shield. The size and performance is almost identical to LMR400 in terms of attenuation but all of the shielding and the center conductor is copper. They also have even larger cables, such as their 13 mm cable.

I’m not certain that surplus ground plane in one direction more than another affects directionality, much if any. I absolutely agree that some antennas require a minimum radius ground plane and I suspect that having that at least the minimum radius ground plane in all directions contributes to more even 360° coverage, but for GMRS that radius is relatively small. I’m old enough to remember how CB signals were pictured as very off center when an antenna was mounted at one edge of a vehicle, but the ground plane minimum radius is much larger for CB than for GMRS.

Sure, you can give up your current license and buy another, but it’ll cost you another $35. We had a member here that regularly irritated people then got a new license with different call sign. But there’s no selection of call signs. You might get something you dislike more. They’re assigned in order.

After 90 days you can’t renew an GMRS license but you can get a new one. According to google’s AI refunds can be given, but it’s probably easier to apply the credit towards a new license. Call their support number. I’ve gotten excellent and friendly service the one time I called.

If it’s just a USB cable, there’s nothing to recognize in the cable itself. That doesn’t mean something isn’t working. If the radio is plugged into a regular USB cable and the USB cable is plugged into the computer Windows will attempt to recognize the chip that’s in the radio itself. That can only happen if a driver has already been installed that is appropriate for the radio. Windows has some drivers pre-installed but not always the right ones. If the radio manufacturer recommends a driver, the driver must be installed before plugging in the radio. The cables that work with the K1 connector have a chip built in, called a UART, that converts USB level signal to audio signals that are connected via the earphone and microphone connection. It is that UART chip which requires a driver on the Windows computer.

Thanks!

Nobody said a constitutional change is necessary. I said that a change would need to be made to the rules we have now in order to require that only English be used to communicate. I also said that legislation could do it (override the rules) assuming that said legislation withstood a constitutional challenge (meaning that legislation requiring all communications to be made in the English language might be challenged in court as being unconstitutional).

Where did you find that on the ARRL website? I used their search function and found nothing other than mentions. Thanks!

That’s how I read it also.

Here it is, from ARRL: Good morning, The serial number is a sequential number, starting with 1 for your first contact, 2 for your second contact, and so on. In the case of the 10 Meter contest, stations located in the US, Canada, and Mexico send their state or province abbreviation, not a serial number. In the ARRL International DX contest, as a US station, you'd be sending a signal report and your state abbreviation. It's customary to just give a 59 (or 599 if CW) as a signal report and then your state. The DX stations will send a signal report and their serial number, when then goes in your log for cross checking (we check to see if you receive the number they sent you correctly by comparing the logs.) I can add that term to the glossary which is located at the end of the contest rules PDF files on the ARRL website. 73, Paul Bourque, N1SFE Contest Program Manager

Yes. I think @WSEZ864 probably nailed it but it should still be defined somewhere easy to find.

Welcome to the forums! I hope you enjoy it.

Hopefully people won’t get too wrapped up in recreational use of radio, but with the official language decree I could see court orders going out against any business who discriminates against someone who is using English.

This is especially true if the license that the OP seeks to renew is one of the grandfathered licenses. FCC has made it very clear that those licenses, which carry with them privileges that newer licensees may not exercise, must be kept up. Once expired they will not be renewed.

Here are the rules for the 10 meter DX contest. https://contests.arrl.org/ContestRules/10M-Rules.pdf Yes, a serial number is required and apparently serial numbers are required for some DX contests, but unfortunately I couldn’t find where the term is defined. It might be as simple as the serial number corresponding to your logbook or to a log of contacts for that particular contest, in which case, since he was your first contact it would have been simply ‘1’. But I don’t really know. There are FAQs, glossaries, and “Getting Started” articles and none of them (that I could find) define “Serial Numbers” even though they use the term. I think that’s a stupid oversight. I have written to the contest director at the ARRL asking for such terms that they take for granted to be added to a glossary that the rules reference.

For GMRS, the FCC allows plain language voice communications: 95.1731 Permissible GMRS uses. The operator of a GMRS station may use that station for two-way plain language voice communications with other GMRS stations and with FRS units concerning personal or business activities. Earlier, in the overarching Personal Radio Services definitions (which apply to all of the personal radio services) the FCC tells us what is meant by plain language voice communications: 95.303 Plain language voice communications. Voice communications without codes or coded messages intended to provide a hidden meaning. Foreign languages and commonly known radio operating words and phrases, such as “ten four” and “roger,” not intended to provide a hidden meaning, are not considered codes or coded messages. Even with an executive order to establish English as our official language changes to the above rules would need to be made if the government determined that radio communication must be done in English. Of course legislation could do it, assuming it withstood a constitutional challenge.