SteveShannon

And judges don’t put a lot of weight into the “sovereign citizen” argument.

Once again, Stun and Kill have absolutely nothing to do with reducing your transmission power. Stun disables transmission entirely. Kill disables transmission and reception.

The powers provided in Article 1, Section 8 laid the foundation for creation of various government agencies, bureaus, and commissions, including the FCC. Without regulation, telecommunications, which of course hadn’t been conceived at the time the constitution was written, could affect defense, commerce, and general welfare. The following paragraphs are those which are most clearly related, allowing for the natural evolution of context. Invisible waves traveling through the air can be understood to be a logical successor to the concept of commerce on the high seas: 1. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 3. To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; 10. To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations; and 18. To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. Commissions, Bureaus, and other regulatory agencies are created in order to provide for the general welfare of the United States.

I have not but my son-in-law is a backcountry skiing outfitter and teaches avalanche safety. I went to him all excited thinking one of the tiny gps transponders we fly in rockets might be a step forward. He quickly explained the situation. Anyway, I would try it to see if it receives GPS signals when buried, if it has any range transmitting when buried, and how much it interferes with your beacon when transmitting.

Except that UHF is terribly attenuated by moisture, including snow in the air, which is far less dense than the drifts that result from an avalanche. That’s one reason the avalanche transponders are only 457 kHz. Also, for the same reasons, GPS receivers may fail when beneath snow. And finally, a quick Google search reveals that having other RF devices nearby can interfere with beacons: Avalanche beacons are specialized radio transceivers operating on the frequency 457 kHz. Because they use radio frequencies, they are subject to problems caused by interference. Interference can be caused by many factors, some of which are under your control, others are not. Your radio, cell phone, GPS device, smartwatch, and even the foil-lined energy bar wrapper in the buried party’s pocket can interfere with a beacon search. https://nspserves.org/avalanche-beacon-precautions/

There’s no reason a ham call sign should take more or less time than GMRS.

Menus 23 and 24 (in the Parent manual I referenced a few days ago) set the Caller ID and control when your Caller ID is sent, which I suspect is the same as your ANI. The pages (49-51) on remote control that I screenshot and posted back then describe the process of Stunning and Killing, but they refer to a value that I don’t find elsewhere in the manual. They refer to “Controlled Code”. Maybe it’s the ID of the unit that is sending the Stun, Kill, Monitor, or Inspection code. I really don’t know. And on this unit it doesn’t appear there’s a disable function so you’ll definitely want to change the ID.

Welcome!!

Just imagine if all the radio spectrum were unregulated. It would be like CB!

That’s amazing! How do they know when to stop?

But perhaps with so-239 connectors. N connectors are definitely better for GMRS frequencies but I think the KG1000 probably has an SO-239. Or get that polyphaser and install N connectors on the coax cables that attach to it.

30 meters wavelength is 10 MHz frequency.

Agreed. Polyphasor and Alpha-Delta both have high reputations.

These analog radios can be configured to transmit their ANI at the beginning or end of a transmission. Most are not set that way. But the stun and kill functions are specifically described in the manual. It’s true that digital modes require an ID with each transmission, and it’s true that digital modes have enhanced abilities with respect to being ejected from talk groups, but that’s different from what is being discussed.

It’s always a good idea to go through your passwords from time to time, but that’s not what is needed to prevent someone from stunning or killing your radio. Your radio has an ANI. By default, all radios of that model are programmed with a factory default ANI. In order to stun or kill your radio two things must be true: 1. The stun or kill function must be enabled in your radio. 2. The person sending the stun or kill command must send it along with the ANI that is programmed into your radio. That’s especially easy if you never changed the ANI from the factory default. All someone would have to do is send out the stun or kill command with the factory default ANI. So, you should use Chirp or the factory CPS to change the ANI to be different from the factory default. Also, unless you have a reason, disable the ability of your radio to be stunned or killed.

I wouldn’t add Loctite unless the directions call for it. But I doubt it’d cause continuity issues. The aluminum oxide layer that forms almost immediately on aluminum surfaces is already a pretty good insulator but we’re dealing with alternating current in the UHF which waltzes through very thin layers of dielectrics.

The only way to do digital is to make a complete switchover. After some date stop certifying new products for 95B and 95E. People who have them can continue to use them but there will be no analog replacements available. There ought also to be a complete overhaul that does away with the convoluted mess of channels we now have. Get rid of FRS and GMRS completely and replace both services with a single unlicensed digital service. There might even be a very simple digital mode that is selected for this that is represented by a simple channel. I.e. no color code, no time slot, no encryption, etc, just a way to carve more very narrow channels out of the existing section of the spectrum.

It’s probably automated anyway. I’m a Volunteer Examiner. Our coordinator electronically turns in test results for ham radio candidates after 10 pm MST Thursday, which is after midnight in DC, and people get their licenses that day (Friday).

Sounds like the perfect reason for a business license.

There’s no need. That’s part of being a ham, getting to try different things.

DPL is just another name for DCS or even DTCSS. PL is just another name for CTCSS. Not all radios use the same numeric designation for either DCS or CTCSS, so you’ll have to look at the manual for your specific radio. For some radios you choose a numeric designation; for others you actually choose the code. Same for CTCSS; for some you choose a numeric designation and for others you select the actual frequency from a list. Yes, in the list you included 32 denotes DCS 205N. (There’s also inverted codes which would be like 205i). I don’t know how either of your radios require them to be entered, but the menu probably only allows one way or the other. Just try it.

Yes, they can fail. They can also have components that fail resulting in lots of electrical noise. That’s true of either the power supply or the radio. You could also have a speaker that starts sounding terrible. Plugging in headphones can rule that out. Or something in your house may be creating noise. LED Christmas lights are a prime example. Something hams will do is run the radio from a battery to eliminate external noise sources. We even go so far as to turn off the circuit breakers to the house one by one to determine what circuit is causing noise. The radio is probably least likely to generate the noise. Figure out a logical order to eliminate potential problems until you find the actual problem. Don’t just randomly check stuff. I would check the power supply first, then the house circuits.

The kind of contacts you’ve described are typically done using an HF radio on the ham bands. VHF and UHF (like GMRS) are really not great at making long distance contacts and for the most part the GMRS service is really not intended to make long distance contacts, although there are a few people who get on some of the networked repeaters on GMRS. If you just want to make quick contacts without actually talking to someone you might enjoy one of the digital modes, like FT8, where your computer decodes a list of incoming calls and you attempt to connect, just long enough for your two computers to exchange signal reports. If you actually wish to talk to someone HF phone or a digital handheld and a hotspot might be more interesting. There are a lot of us old men (I’m not offended at all, I’ve heard some conversations that really do nothing to attract others to the hobby) but not everyone is an old man, and with a little persistence you can find others who share your interests.

I have used simplex DMR on 70 cm amateur radio. It works well and gives me a fairly wide segment on radio spectrum to operate uninterrupted. Like RadioGuy, I don’t understand the desire to make GMRS something different when ham radio offers so much variety. The only thing it doesn’t allow is operating under the familial license.

Because GMRS is for common folks to buy off the Walmart shelf and use fairly informally. Part 90 radios and location specific rules make sense when commercial radio shops are in charge of configuration and sales.