SteveShannon

My professional career was SCADA for more than two decades. I programmed it, I designed small and large systems, and I sold systems to municipalities and government entities. I eventually ended up supervising 13 SCADA engineers who maintained the Energy Management System (the master) for an electric transmission system carrying 2550 megawatts of power. While @KBSherwood could do what he wishes with SCADA and a license for LMR radios, that would be unnecessarily expensive and complex in my opinion. There are myriad hobby level or even home automation devices, including license free wireless communications, that can be used to accomplish this, as well as by doing what he has expressed an interest in.

That’s found herein: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E § 95.1751 GMRS station identification. Each GMRS station must be identified by transmission of its FCC-assigned call sign at the end of transmissions and at periodic intervals during transmissions except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section. A unit number may be included after the call sign in the identification. (a) The GMRS station call sign must be transmitted: (1) Following a single transmission or a series of transmissions; and, (2) After 15 minutes and at least once every 15 minutes thereafter during a series of transmissions lasting more than 15 minutes. (b) The call sign must be transmitted using voice in the English language or international Morse code telegraphy using an audible tone. (c) Any GMRS repeater station is not required to transmit station identification if: (1) It retransmits only communications from GMRS stations operating under authority of the individual license under which it operates; and, (2) The GMRS stations whose communications are retransmitted are properly identified in accordance with this section.

Hopefully I understand the problem correctly! I apologize if I didn’t. I would get a Digirig and connect it between the USB port on a raspberry pi controller and a “master” radio to send tones, alarm sounds, synthesized speech or whatever under program control. They have cables for many different radios. The cables connect to the microphone and speakers to serve up sounds. The DigiRig is tiny. I would have the master radio send DTMF tones to the “slaves” to control various outputs. That’s where you could use the DTMF output board, but now that I’m thinking of it you probably could do something smarter with a raspberry pi board. Those outputs could be used to turn on or off alarms or other simple devices. You could probably cobble up a way to do multiple bit outputs but very few of them. As far as controlling high current devices you use the low current outputs as interposing relays or pilot relays to control higher current relays. You definitely don’t want to turn off the slave radios because once you do that you have completely severed connections with no way to re-establish them. You might be able to send a specific command to lock or unlock the Sounds like a fun project. I hope I’ve helped.

I would just buy a DTMF board with DO points.

@WRFF835 - although it’s not something very many people do, it’s your radio and your time. If it’s important to you, go for it. I don’t know why you couldn’t just use one of the existing apps, although probably none have been programmed to automatically look up GMRS users.

Good article and I agree that a BMS is necessary for high energy density batteries like Li-ion, LiFePo, or Lipo batteries, but in my admittedly shallow experience (a customer of the utility telecommunications department and for my wife’s electric wheelchair), if the OP is charging lead acid batteries, a BMS is not necessary. For utility telecommunication sites (I was in a different department that depended on them, so again, I’m not an SME) they simply used strings of ten lead acid batteries in glass or plastic trays for a -125 vDC system. Hopefully, by now, the OP has already worked it out.

I’m not an expert on battery charging circuits, but what I do know agrees completely with this.

Welcome, Zack!

Suggest that cousins be added. There are changes almost weekly.

How is this complicated? It’s very specifically defined. Is there any way to misinterpret it? (2) Any individual who holds an individual license may allow his or her immediate family members to operate his or her GMRS station or stations. Immediate family members are the licensee's spouse, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, parents, grandparents, stepparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. I thought the cousin-wife thing was funny.

Both of those are good examples.

Correcting myself to add “or if there’s a strong wide spectrum source of interference, such as some LED lights or a bad connection in a utility panel.”

That would be annoying. You should not be experiencing static when there’s no signal unless you have squelch level turned to 0 and squelch mode set to Tone.

I think the rules are pretty clear. But it’s extremely important to read all of them to put the puzzle pieces together correctly. But some of the rules are poor rules. It makes no sense to prohibit something that cannot be detected.

Wasn’t it @PACNWComms?

If the radio supports it I would program it to automatically stop when it detects a signal and not to resume until you click on scan.

Unfortunately a lot of people drink at the font of ignorance. They got it from a friend who got it from a friend… They feel very superior in their ignorance in fact And there have been some radios that were vulnerable to finals failure; anecdotally the Yaesu ft-817 may have been one, but most modern quality transceivers simply fold back power to limit current in the finals. With the right combination of transmission line length and open (or shorted) termination the current in the final transistors will be twice as high as they would be with an appropriate termination. If the final transistors cannot withstand the current and nothing happens to reduce the current they will overheat. There have been cases where they have been damaged, but unfortunately some people interpret that to mean that the damage always happens immediately.

That is how I interpret the regulations also, but I did see an online copy of a letter from the FCC saying that part 90 certification could be accepted (I don’t remember the exact wording and unfortunately I didn’t save a copy).

CB World has this: https://www.wearecb.com/how-to-tune-cb-antenna.html SWR 3.0+: Performance will be severely affected, and you're likely to damage your radio with extended transmission use. You SHOULD NOT transmit with your CB at SWR levels above 3.0. If your SWR needle swings all the way to the right (off the charts) when getting your 3.0+ readings, you almost certainly have a major installation problem. This is almost always the result of a poor ground or incorrectly assembled stud, but on rare occasions can indicate a faulty coax, antenna, or incorrectly attached SWR meter.

https://midlandusa.com/products/mxta55-radio-bracket-mount-mxt500

That’s offensive.

Just don’t push the call alert button. Put glue on it if you cannot avoid it.

Frankly, unless someone requests your call sign phonetically because they cannot understand it when you ID, I wouldn’t use phonetics. Use your names and ID with your call sign. And, if someone does ask for it phonetically, you’re more assured of them hearing it correctly if you use the NATO phonetics. They were chosen to reduce the chance of misunderstanding by people with accents, and people who natively speak other languages. That’s important to the military and to hams who might be communicating with hams internationally, but has less importance for GMRS, where coverage is limited to within the USA.

So does Whiskey Romeo Tango Golf