SteveShannon

There are literally thousands of hams who attach antennas to trees, but most of them are wire antennas. How you attach the antenna to the tree will determine whether it damages the tree. There are straps to minimize damage to the tree. Here's a link to a forum thread in another forum talking about this. One person said that TV reception suffered, but it's important to understand that TV signals are much wider band and more susceptible to problems than our analog voice signals. https://www.arboristsite.com/threads/antenna-mast-in-tree.198967/ I wouldn't hesitate to do it. If it doesn't work, then you look at your second choice.

They're inexpensive, but they seem to work to introduce folks to radio use. I would expect all of the negative characteristics you listed, but sometimes they work surprisingly well. I have no problem with folks who buy and use them and I have a couple UV5Rs myself that I bought to see what all the ruckus was. I also have some Yaesu handheld amateur radios and a Garmin GMRS radio that are better radios, but for the price difference they should be. The Baofengs desense when placed next to a transmitting radio. The Yaesus do not. I haven't tested power output on any of them.

I agree. I don’t want to be geocoded for any of my hobbies. However, a map showing GMRS clubs might be helpful.

Welcome to MyGMRS! Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to your question. Have you looked at the repeater directory here: https://www.mygmrs.com/repeaters I had to look up Spencerport to find out where it is. So then I searched for Rochester. There are two repeaters near Rochester. This one is in Ogden: https://www.mygmrs.com/repeater/6218

Welcome to MyGMRS! Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to your question. Have you looked at the repeater directory here: https://www.mygmrs.com/repeaters

Probably. Similarly, I have a good GMRS specific mobile antenna (Midland MXTA26) that is completely deaf on the 2 meter band. With it I cannot hear my friend down the street on 2 meter, even though he can hear me transmit, and even though my handheld, with a dual band antenna, can hear him. Edit: 3/24/23 - At 2meters the SWR for the MXTA26 is around 7:1 No wonder it doesn’t work ? That’s certainly not a knock against the Midland antenna. I bought it for GMRS.

Going back to your original question, the range of frequencies the Crane Skywave covers are those which allow you to listen to transmissions from around the world, given a good antenna system. They are the frequencies used by shortwave radio stations and ham radio operators which are best at long distances. They propagate worldwide, bouncing or skipping off layers within the atmosphere and the earth itself and when conditions are just right you should be able to listen to radio stations from around the world without any networking or repeaters. That specific range of frequencies is also called HF which stands for High Frequency. In the Amateur Radio world HF extends from 3 MHz to 30 MHz (3000 kHz to 30,000 kHz). VHF is 30 MHz to 300 MHz and UHF is 300 MHz to 3000 MHz (3 GHz). As frequencies get higher, they no longer bounce as well. They travel more in a straight line. This makes radios in the VHF and UHF ranges better for local communications, such as fire, police, and utility services. It also makes them better for communicating via satellites. If you wish to listen to those services, a true scanner, with the capability of listening to trunked and digital transmissions would be appropriate.

Thanks ? Both MURS and FRS prohibit store and forward. That might be what you remembered.

I do something very similar on ham 70 cm, using DMR. You can either transmit to a talkgroup called "Parrot" and then listen for your transmission repeated back or you can look at a dashboard and see the actual S value as you hit the repeater.

Nothing in the regulations establishes priority for simplex users or repeater users. We're all equal in the eyes of the FCC. ?

Which rule prohibits store-and-forward for GMRS? 95.587(d) prohibits it for FRS, but I don't find something similar in part E. I could easily be overlooking it.

By definition an open repeater is one that doesn't require permission, so no. Welcome to GMRS!!!

So I left my radio on listening on the analog side and I just heard the 70 cm DMR repeater ID itself. It did so in analog mode using Morse Code after the first DMR transmission in a long time.

Some repeaters do their ID without a tone. People who have a tone set for receive won’t hear it. Here’s where I first learned about it:

During our weekly nets the repeaters always break in and auto-ID. We just pause until it’s done. We understand that it’s required and I’ve never heard anyone complain about it. But that is for a repeater that’s not networked. On our DMR (ham) network, which is linked to the Brandmeister network, I don’t recall every hearing a repeater ID. I’ll have to listen on the analog side to see if it’s IDing itself there.

A person who has a repeater can link it to a network of other repeaters. Once it’s linked it’s a node on the network.

A better place to ask (or even read) is in the forum dedicated to GMRS networks. I haven’t done the process, so I can’t honestly answer your question but people who have have described.

Pi Shop also got some in today. “Hello! We have restocked a product you asked to be notified about. Please check it out before it goes out of stock again! Product Back In Stock: 1063: Raspberry Pi 3 – Model A+ (PLUS) - 512MB RAM Thank you! PiShop.us Support Team”

Tim, You're right. Someone will always be unhappy, no matter what you do. The problem is that if repeater owners are allowed to remove negative comments, every repeater will only have positive comments. Reviews will no longer have any value. You may be better leaving them in place. Many of us are capable of weeding out BS reviews from honest reviews. Steve

Being able to transmit on frequencies isn't strictly prohibited - the radio just has to be certified for the service which uses those other frequencies and for which certification is required. Also, it must not be FRS or Amateur Radio Service. Here's the portion of the regulations that addresses that: § 95.1761 GMRS transmitter certification. (C) No GMRS transmitter will be certified for use in the GMRS if it is equipped with a frequency capability not listed in § 95.1763, unless such transmitter is also certified for use in another radio service for which the frequency is authorized and for which certification is also required. No GMRS transmitter will be certified for use in the GMRS if it is equipped with the capabilities to operate in services that do not require equipment certification, such as the Amateur Radio Service. All frequency determining circuitry (including crystals) and programming controls in each GMRS transmitter must be internal to the transmitter and must not be accessible from the exterior of the transmitter operating panel or from the exterior of the transmitter enclosure.

No problem at all. Hopefully you will hear from @rdunajewski.

Almost every day this week Adafruit has released 100 Raspberry Pi model 3A+ for $25. Customers are limited to one only and you must have an Adafruit account with two factor authentication in order to buy. They appear in inventory at about 9:15 am Mountain each day. They sell out quickly and the 2 factor authentication isn’t explained well until you try to login after creating an account.

I don't know. I held off saying that yesterday. I didn't know then, but I was hoping someone who did know might answer. You deserve some kind of response.

With your permission, I can report this part of your post. That gets Rich's attention (it's not a strike against you!) and in the past he has helped others fix their usernames.

Also, consider the use case. If you’re mostly just hitting a repeater you might not need much.