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SteveShannon

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Everything posted by SteveShannon

  1. I hope things work out well for you.
  2. I’m relieved to hear that. My brother-in-law lives in San Clemente. I’m hopeful the storm leaves him and his wife alone.
  3. Unfortunately these two sentences pass along bad information. I’ll take them separately: Yes, it’s generally best to use feedline that matches the impedance of the radio, but swapping a minor impedance mismatch has fewer disadvantages than using RG-58 or 58x which has incredibly high attenuation at GMRS frequencies. Using 75 ohm feedline with a 50 ohm radio simply means that you start with a theoretical SWR of 1.5. That’s not terrible and PL-259 connectors are available for both of the common 75 ohm cables. So are adapters. RG-11 attenuates RF in the 400 MHz range at the rate of 3.5 dB per 100 feet. That’s a little more than half of your power lost in the cable. RG-58 attenuates RF in the 400 MHz range at the rate of 11.2 dB. That’s more than 90% of your power lost. I wouldn’t use RG-58 for GMRS feedline for anything longer than 10 feet. https://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html
  4. Probably a dozen. Nearly everyone I know who gets radios for their kids or themselves (but are not hams) goes to the nearest sporting goods store or Walmart and buys a pair of Midland or Motorola (or no-name) radios in the heat sealed blister pegboard packs. There are four of us who graduated to Garmin for the GPS, which we buy at Cabelas. I probably have four of the bubble pack radios in my rocket trailer now that people have donated. I have yet to see someone show up with a Wouxun, but I do see a few UV5R radios that folks order from Amazon. I also see people buying blister packs at truck stops. I would guess that those are the ones that end up on construction sites. What is it you think we would be less than honest about?
  5. The PL tones only reduce the probability of interruption. They were never designed to protect your transmissions. But the use of the word Privacy was misleading.
  6. Actually there’s nothing wrong with you transmitting to the repeater and listening on your UV5R. It’s totally within the rules and if anyone tells you otherwise they’re full of it. But transmitting on one radio and listening on another right next to it doesn’t always work because the receiving radio “desenses”, which means it is swamped by the stronger signal and fails to reproduce it. That’s especially true for inexpensive radios.
  7. @JamesBrox The fact that you are hearing a transmission doesn’t mean it’s in the open. It may simply mean that you have no receive tone set on your radio. If that’s the case you will hear everything, whether it is sent using PL tones or not.
  8. Some repeaters ID without tones, even though they require tones to access them. That doesn’t mean they’re open. Some repeaters have tones on the input but not the output. That doesn’t make them open. Some repeaters use input tones and output tones. That doesn’t mean they’re open. It’s more likely that a repeater that doesn’t require tones to access it is open, but it’s not a rule.
  9. The channels from 15-22 receive on the exact same frequencies as repeaters transmit on for channels 23-30 (sometimes referred to as channels 15RP - 22RP). Nobody owns the channels but it’s also prohibited to intentionally cause interference for others.
  10. First time ever for a tropical storm warning there, so yeah.
  11. Who would own and operate the repeater? New GMRS licenses are only issued to individuals. There are no new government or commercial licenses. Each of the park personnel would be required to be privately licensed in order to transmit. It’s just really not the way GMRS is currently intended to be used.
  12. Rather than deleting it, why not tell us how you solved it so others benefit also?
  13. The software is free and the cable comes with the radio at no extra charge.
  14. That’s the correct screen. Now just change the mode. I think it’s the up and down arrows but I don’t remember for sure.
  15. Take it apart and see what popped loose. Is it worth fixing? If opening it and reseating the connections to the LCD doesn’t work then get a quote from the manufacturer. Then determine whether the cost is worth it to you. Nobody else can answer that question.
  16. Does this help? http://www.aeroelectric.com/Installation_Data/Softcomm/ATC-2PSchematic.gif
  17. Just so you know, the MXTA26 antenna does not include a mount. You’ll still need to get some kind of NMO mount to attach to your jeep and accept the antenna. Many mounts include the coax cable as well.
  18. First, you must select a repeater channel. Repeater channels and simplex channels will both receive the repeater transmissions, but only repeater channels transmit on the correct frequencies for the repeater. Second, you must transmit on the repeater channel using either the CTCSS or DCS tone that the repeater requires as its “Input” tone. Transmissions received by the repeater that don’t include the correct tone are ignored. For instructions on how to set your CTCSS or DCS tones, your instruction manual is your best reference. I don’t have an MXT400. Maybe someone who has one can answer more specific questions.
  19. Exactly! You beat me to it. It’s not like there’s a barrier of any kind.
  20. Try this: https://duvalaresjax.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/nvisBook.pdf Also, here’s the attachment: nvisBook.pdf
  21. Try this: https://duvalaresjax.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/nvisBook.pdf Also, because I’m working with a tablet, it’s not easy for me to save the file here. It might be easier for you.
  22. Had he saved it as a file instead of linking to it, it might still be available. Or you can use the “way back machine”…
  23. It probably wasn’t four years ago when he posted it.
  24. When you’re transmitting to the repeater you’re transmitting on 467.xxx MHz. When you’re transmitting simplex you’re transmitting on 462.xxx MHz. The SWR when transmitting at 462 MHz could be vastly different at 467 MHz.
  25. SWR is measured when transmitting. For repeaters that’s 5 MHz higher 467.xxx MHz.
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