SteveShannon

Whether that’s true or not, the purpose of this post was not to discuss the cost/benefit ratio of Ed Fong antennas, but to invite folks to attend a zoom presentation by Dr. Fong. Although I’m not the OP, I think we should respect the original poster’s hospitality.

The vast majority of patents are based on new applications of existing knowledge.

Well, no, he didn’t patent the J-pole. He has two patents that cover specific collinear combined j-poles for use on multiple bands. https://patents.justia.com/inventor/edison-fong He has 11 patents so far, with two of them being for his designs featuring collinear j-pole designs.

Tesla is. If my short term memory serves me, the ten most American made cars are Teslas, one Lincoln, one Jeep, and Hondas. There are no Toyotas or GM cars in the top ten.

Yes, you should be fine. Depending on the fuse type and tolerances, one would blow before the other.

Price

I’m guessing that is an empty set.

Does Ubuntu use the full speed of the USB 3 port or fall back to USB 2?

Here’s an ampacity table for automotive applications: https://jascoautomotive.com/automotive-wire-amperage-capacity-chart/

Those currents result in raised temperatures in the wire and insulation. For house wiring, which is admittedly conservative, 12 ga. is rated at 20 amps.

I resemble that remark, myself. ?

Not only is the license easier to get, but that one license covers your entire extended family. No other licensed service has such licensing.

Up to 2 watts since 2017.

That’s what I assume, but we both know how that can go.

I don’t think Randy was arguing that other languages were a breach of etiquette (although a literal reading of his statement would be taken that way) so much as saying not to use ham radio Q codes, military/police/CBer 10- codes, etc.

Not necessarily. Some of us actually use it for the purpose intended. At rocket launches that I host I leave my radio on my work or LCO table. I may be placing a rocket on the launch pad or arming sensitive recovery electronics. We don’t like having radios too close while doing that. A friend who is out recovering a rocket can call me and I can hear his call signal even though I am well away from my table, better than his voice. The call signal is more of an attention grabber. i could also imagine that the call signal might get my attention better than a voice if I’m running my tractor or chainsaw. Yes, it’s annoying when abused, but it doesn’t have to be abused.

No. Lately you’ve been doing a great job of making your points without the vitriol. I’m very impressed.

BIOS listed comm ports are hardware comm ports. Comm ports created by USB drivers are software comm ports that would usually show up in Device Manager, rather than BIOS. Look in Device Manager for them if you haven’t already.

She’s not in your family, so technically she can’t use it. If you marry or adopt her she could. ? I doubt that there’s a way to transfer the license to her anyway. If there were it would probably cost the same $35 as just paying for a new license.

I truly didn’t understand some of what you wrote, but I’m amazed that when something made you amazed, repulsed, light headed, and nauseated, you hung around for half an hour to take it all in. So you based your opinion of amateur radio and hams in general on a very juvenile conversation on the 70cm band where they didn’t even identify as hams?

Perfect! I knew I subscribed for a reason. ?

I’m not interested in arguing, but I’m interested in knowing where you heard that conversation. What band(s)? HF (and if HF, which band), VHF, UHF? Listening to a group on a repeater or listening to two or three people ragchew? Many nights I sit down for a while and traverse the different HF bands. I’ve never heard anything like that. I hear some people (but not most) yammering on about their most or least favorite political parties. I just change the frequency. It’s a big knob and easy to turn. Life is too short to allow myself to become angry listening to idiots and there are some idiots in everything. I would almost expect such behavior though in some talk groups or rooms where the rooms and groups have descriptive names (“Married first cousin patriots”) and with a bunch of repeaters or hotspots connected via the internet. That’s still ham radio, but not representative of all ham radio. And by the way, I never ever have a problem with politics when I’m using FT8. ??

One thing I have found is that it’s extremely easy to find groups on Facebook (I assume the same about Reddit) that support a particular point of view. They exist solely to support and reinforce that point of view and they can’t be corrected. Anyone who tries becomes a target. A guy I know compares Facebook to the lead pipes of the Romans. It’s better to just avoid them. i am a member of a couple of antenna building groups and one for the HF rig I own. We don’t talk about GMRS and so far I haven’t seen any politics or negativity. Of course there’s always the guy who feels obliged to respond to every question with “RTFM”, usually without having read the actual question. Some people (sorry to steal your phrase @OffRoaderX) are just miserable and want to spread their misery. Every group has them. Anyway, as I’m sure you already know, GMRS can be a very fun hobby. It certainly can be used for much more than talking to friends and family if that’s what you want. And obviously there are GMRS groups to join. If not, start one. Choosing to take the ham exams is a personal decision that has nothing to do with GMRS. In my case I was interested in ham radio long before GMRS existed but never made the time to study or take the test. I got into GMRS because I wanted a two way handheld to talk to others on the rocket range and GMRS was what they were using. I signed up for an FRN a long long time ago, intending to get “legal” but didn’t like the price and kept hearing rumors (at that time) that the fcc was going to get rid of the license fee for GMRS. I never got around to it until last November . But I was far more interested in the radios and the technology behind them than just communicating on the range. Notarubicon videos fed that interest, which then led me back to ham radio because it covers an even wider range of subjects that interest me. For me, it all works together. I use and enjoy GMRS and learn something on this forum nearly every day. At the same time I continue to expand my technical knowledge and operating experience using ham radio. I don’t see it as needing to choose between them. Each has its enjoyable aspects. TL;DR @OffRoaderXis responsible for me becoming a ham. ?

Welcome to the forum. I hope you get everything you want here. There’s a lot to learn and different people learn differently. I greatly enjoyed studying and taking the ham tests but I also enjoy being able to communicate with my family without all of them having to study and take a test. GMRS and Ham Radio can be complementary to each other without requiring a person to choose a side. Thanks for your service.

Someone has to WTFM before we can RTFM. ?