SteveShannon

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.

Yeah, I have one of the ft4x radios also and I really like it. It’s small enough that I can easily carry it in a pocket. I put a stubby Diamond antenna on it too. That doesn’t improve the reception, but it’s sure convenient.

Almost all of the bands have a portion reserved for phone (voice) and a portion reserved for CW (carrier wave - which is very effective for Morse code). The use of phone or CW is also limited by class of amateur license (Technician - most limited, General, or Amateur Extra - least limited). A generic chart showing which class is allowed and where for each band is called a “band plan.” Some states have slightly different band plans as well. I’ll post the general band plan here: https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band Chart/Band Chart - 11X17 Color.pdf

I have one. It’s a decent handheld radio. Yes, it can be unlocked. No, it’s not superheterodyne, but way more is made of that than makes sense. There are some extremely high end ham radios that are direct conversion. If you pay $125 you’re paying too much. All the ham radio outlets (not Amazon) probably have it for much less. Here’s an example of it for $90 at HRO: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015573

I have no idea.

What is generating the Morse code call sign? Is that integrated with the radio pair you’re using for a repeater or are you using a separate system like an id-o-matic?

So, looking at the protocol specification: https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/102300_102399/10236101/02.04.01_60/ts_10236101v020401p.pdf it only makes sense that the payload is the only portion of the communication that’s encrypted. That means I’m very probably wrong in thinking that encryption would affect repeaters.

I might be misunderstanding. Is the entire data packet (including the Brandmeister ID) encrypted, or just the digital output of the audio codec? For example, the Brandmeister network requires a Brandmeister (BM) ID or it will ignore a transmission (I assume). If that BM ID is encrypted, the Brandmeister network wouldn’t be able to recognize it. Same for the talk group. So if that’s the case, (and maybe it’s not; maybe only the digitized audio is encrypted) then encryption would break the network connections, I would think.

I would think that encrypting a transmission at the transmitter would make it impossible to be received by a repeater in digital mode.

@Amagnono Welcome to the forums! Happy Thanksgiving!

I think all of the DMR repeaters in Montana are 70 cm. Our ham club is planning to replace our analog vhf repeater and we might include DMR.

It’s common for GMRS radios to transmit different power on different channels even. Getting wound up over a watt of variability is an exercise in obsessiveness and frustration.

It has sold out: https://www.radioddity.com/collections/business-radios-mobile-radios/products/radioddity-db20g but they also have this model, the db25g. I don’t have experience with it but others here do: https://www.radioddity.com/collections/business-radios-mobile-radios/products/radioddity-db25g

I bought two mxta26 antennas directly from Midland earlier this year when they had a sale for $39 each. Both have rusty set screws.

No. 1. Lightning arrester goes at the wall of the house at the other end of the coax from where you depict it, where the coax enters the house. You don’t need anything where you show the lightning arrester. I also would be very careful about those right angle coax connectors. Cheap ones can cost you 75% of your signal. 2. The ground wire goes from the lightning arrester to the utility ground, which is usually located below your service entrance. Almost no houses nowadays use a pipe as the ground. Feel free to post a picture of your service entrance and I’ll try to point out what to look for. I have a ground terminal block that I can connect to but if your electrical service hasn’t been worked on in the last 20 years you probably don’t.

You might want to read this relatively short document on grounding. https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf 14 ga. is too light for ground wire. 8 ga. or larger is required. You might not need a ground rod, but if you use one it must be connected to your service ground. I don’t know where you plan to mount a lightning rod, but a lightning arrester where the coax enters the house is a good idea. It needs to be grounded to the same ground as everything else to prevent current from flowing through your antenna shield conductor.

Chain link top rail is relatively inexpensive and you could put two together for 20 feet but I don’t think you would want to use it to go higher. Several radio equipment companies make good masts if you don’t mind spending a little more. The Rohn R50 is good. I have a friend who uses it to elevate his dipole.

It’s 10 feet 5 inches long. https://rwantennastore.com/comet-ca-712efc-vertical-uhf-base-460-470-mhz-200-w-n-type-female-connector-10-50-ft-fiberglass/

Just about any mobile antenna would work for that. If it needs a ground plane then mount it to a steel (if it’s magnetic) cookie sheet.

If I were you I would report it to the fcc.

Thank you, and I hope you have safe travels and a good Thanksgiving.

A good choice for a mobile gmrs radio that’s small and about 20 watts is the Radioddity db20g.

There’s no need to snap. Depending on how the answers are sorted the “previous picture” is completely out of context. A type 500 error is a problem that only the person responsible for the website can diagnose. My friend @WRUU653 is exactly right that you have done everything that was requested. I would suggest that you send a PM to the owner of the repeater and let him know about the type 500 error and let him (or her) know you intend to occasionally use the repeater. Then get on the repeater and if the owner shows up mention the website error to them.