SteveShannon

I went back and edited it to say why.

2, because in #1 your antenna is blocked and adding 10 feet of LMR400 will only cost you about 0.3 dB.

I don’t know which radio you have or what software you’re using so I’ll give you a generic answer: Some software has a field called Squelch Mode. The usual three choices are: 1. TSQL, for Tone Squelch. In this mode the radio sends a tone and requires one to open squelch. 2. TONE, which sends the tone or DCS code, but doesn’t check for one on receive. or 3. NONE which neither sends nor expects a tone. Sometimes repeaters use split tones which can be either two different CTCSS tones or two different DCS codes. Once in a very long while a repeater owner will even use DCS for either transmit or receive and CTCSS for the other.

According to the manual: https://www.ameradio.com/doc/Maxon-TM-2000-TM-8000-user-manual.pdf There are alert tones that sound when the programmed emergency button is pressed or when the TOT expires. It sounds as though that’s what the symbol represents. There’s also a horn alert that can be wired to a vehicle horn for notifications of particular calls.

Does it beep as an acknowledgement tone? My guess would be that’s the “alert”

CTCSS is a sub audible tone (it’s really not sub-audible; it’s removed by filtering in the receiver) that causes squelch to open. It’s also referred to by some as PL, Which stands for Private Line. Don’t be fooled; there’s nothing private about it. Anyone with no tones set can hear everything transmitted on that frequency. DPL is a digital code that serves the same purpose. It’s also called DCS or DTCSS. Same warning, expect no privacy.

One of the menus on the top of the page is called “Repeaters”. If you go there and find the repeater you’re interested in and select it, there’s a place to click to request permission to use it.

Terry, I don’t have a clue about the RA87, but eventually you’ll get an answer. Don’t mind @OffroaderX. Welcome to the forum!!

As an example, a friend of mine has two Baofeng radios. One was supposed to transmit at 5 watts and the other at 8 watts. When we put my wattmeter on them both the five watt model put out 6.5 watts and the eight watt model put out 6 watts.

Try reaching out to the owner in a private message. You cannot fix a 500 error. Only they can or the folks who administer the website.

Have you tested UHF radios buried under 3 feet of snow? What kind of range do you get?

It’s easy to get started with a cheap Baofeng (many of us did) or you can get something better like the KG-UV9gx that already has SHTF receive frequencies programmed to monitor public agencies in case the worst happens. https://bettersaferadio.com/wouxun-kg-uv9gx-gmrs-two-way-radio-shtf-scanner/ The single most important thing is to have a communications plan prepared in advance.

As someone who had an FFL for over 40 years, I have to say that sounds very painful. I would also encourage you to do the ham test. I found HamStudy.org to be a great way to study that made it fun for me to learn the principles rather than simply memorizing the answers. It truly was easy. I chose to pay $5 to buy the app for my phone, but the website use costs nothing.

First, everything Boxcar said is correct, but to directly answer your question, if you used a mag-mount antenna on a cookie sheet on your roof it would not drain the power. The coax cables used for those antennas do attenuate the signal somewhat, but they are short, so the effect is limited AND not as negative as the positive effect of using an elevated higher gain antenna. In other words the net benefit should be positive.

I have neither of those radios. I don’t recall hearing good reviews about the A36 Talkpod, but maybe I’ve missed some. The Wouxun KG-805G is a superhet radio that has received good reviews, supports split tones, has been reported programmable with Chirp, and sells for right at $100.

There’s a bug (in my opinion) with the site software that allows anyone to claim ownership of a repeater by registering it as “My Repeater.” This has happened numerous times, presumably by accident when people try to designate a repeater as one they favor.

It’s not at all unusual for the RF output to deviate from the advertised value. Some may be more and some may be less and it really makes almost no difference in communications whether a radio puts out 4 watts or 5. It’s a classic case of diminishing returns. Plus there’s absolutely nothing that says your wattmeter is correct. As an exercise, jot down the power output for every channel. You’ll see that they differ, possibly greatly.

Back to seriousness, @gortex2 is right. You don’t specify what kind of cable you have, but unless it’s pretty good cable 50 feet will cost you half of your power on transmit and half of your received signal in attenuation. The RT97 is built in such a way that it could be mounted on the tower right below your antenna. To your original question, better antenna placement is almost always more effective than simply adding power. That’s not to say that power is meaningless, but doubling the height of an antenna will almost always do more than doubling your power and usually for less money.

Without knowing which pinned post you are referring to I don’t know the context of the post. If it’s purporting to be “the regs” it should just be a link to the regs: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E

Thank you. So I guess I don’t understand what @CyborgAlienWRYG738 is getting at. I can’t find where Midland says the power. It looked like it’s probably not much, in spite of the marketing bs.

It’s still a handheld portable. The fact that the name is “Base Camp” is just marketing. But, anyway, does it do digital texting? It doesn’t appear to have a GPS.

It’s not a problem. We just didn’t know the context.

Apparently you feel that my suggestions were somehow insulting. They weren’t intended to be and I’m unsure why you would take them that way. Best wishes and welcome to the forum!

And the db20g is on sale with a mag mount (no whip) for $85.

No, only handheld portables are allowed to have digital.