SteveShannon

A lot of people use painters’ poles. It depends on how you attach your antenna to the mast, but it doesn’t really have to cause problems.

And sign up for notifications from rpilocator.

Raspberry Pi are becoming available. I recently bought a Pi Zero W for $15 and a Pi 3A+ for $27. You just have to sign up to be notified at the various approved sellers.

That sounds like the perfect application for the RT97 or 97s. There are also those antenna bases that you roll one of your tires over. That might be nice if you don’t want to unhitch a trailer.

What does the other end (the PL-259) look like, since that's the end the reviews said could be removed? Some do not rely on crimping or soldering and can be disassembled. More frequently the center conductor is either crimped or soldered into the pin.

Best is not an Ed Fong. Of the three you listed it would be at the bottom. I would probably pick a Midland MXTA26 on a pie plate over the Ed Fong. Nor can I believe that either Axorlov or Gortex2 said Ed Fong was best and that you “literally copied” from them. Many use the DB404. I don’t have a repeater and I don’t have experience with the DB404, but the spec sheet makes it appear to be a good commercial quality antenna. The Ed Fong is an end of the world, what can I come up with if I have a piece of flat antenna wire and a chunk of pvc pipe design. It is useful for teaching antenna theory and it’s interesting as a waypoint towards antenna zen.

Just as too much is made of power output, sometimes we overstate how little it matters. Obviously power matters or we could all get by with 100 milliwatts. Higher power, especially a factor of ten does make some difference, but where it’s really noticeable is in signal to noise. You’ll typically receive better slightly audio with less background noise when receiving a signal from a higher power transmitter. A better and/or higher antenna will do the same thing but helps on reception also. The real takeaway is that there are other things you can do that truly will increase range much more than transmitter power output, such as a better and/or higher antenna, or a better receiver.

But where does it get its Node number?

It would depend on whose network you're trying to join. They would assign it. If you're trying to join the MyGMRS network, go to this site: https://network.mygmrs.com/ and register and see if you can get the attention of @rdunajewski. I suspect he's the guy who assigns node numbers.

RFI coming from the vehicle electronics or charging system.

Get rid of tone squelch. By setting tone squelch you’re forcing your radio to ignore anything that it receives unless the correct tone is received. By clearing out the receive tone and/or leaving squelch mode set to tone, you hear everything.

That's still exactly right in only one specific instance (as defined in 47 CFR 95.1751(c) and simplified below) Both conditions must be true: 1. The only people using the repeater are those operating under the authority of the individual repeater operator (which is strictly limited to family or an emergency user by 47 CFR 95.1705(c)), AND 2. They ID correctly.

New Simplex or Scanner Channels:
 • Switch to the FREQ-VFO Display Mode (see above). • Use the Channel Knob, ▲▼ or 1∼9 keys to select/enter desired frequency. • Set any other desired parameters in the Function Menu. • Write the frequency to a channel using [MENU 30_MEM-CH | 001∼999]. New/unused channels will display in alternate color.
 (See Basic Operation – Function Menu instructions.) https://bettersaferadio.com/wp-content/uploads/BSR-Wouxun-KG-UV9GX-GMRS-Two-Way-Radio-SHTF-Scanner-Quick-Start-User-Manual-v1.15.pdf

I wish I could be there (and someday I will), but I just got back from Alabama for rocketry and I’m going to Wisconsin in July for more rocketry.

If restarting the Zella app on the phone allows it to work again it could be a memory leak or a buffer filling up.

I think we’ve heard of this problem before. I don’t know what the resolution was, if there was one.

First, it is possible with Chirp. The squelch types are typically: None - This means that you don't send a tone and you don't expect a tone. Tone - This means you send a so called privacy tone which (CTCSS which is also called PL, or DCS, which is also called DPL), but you do not filter based on what you receive. TSQL - This means that you send a privacy tone and that your radio will only break squelch to allow messages to be audibly reproduced when the privacy tone sent by someone else matches what your receiver expects. If you want to use privacy tones on simplex you and your partner would arrange in advance for which tone each of you would send. It's usually easiest if you both have the same tone, but you can split the tones also, so you transmit one (TX_CTCSS) and your partner sets the RX_CTCSS to match and going the other way your parner transmits a different tone (TX_CTCSS on his/her radio) and you set your RX_CTCSS to match that tone. But, you must understand something: Anyone who leaves their RX_CTCSS empty (or sets their squelch type to TONE) will hear everything transmitted on that channel. The only thing a privacy code does is help keep you from being interrupted by everyone transmitting without the same tone your receiver listens for.

Why not point the person towards them?

It’s really going to depend on what your local repeater requires. Which version of Chirp are you using and what does your repeater expect? Also, Chirp may have the ability to program itself based on Repeaterbook.

As the others said, that’s definitely adequate for most uses.

Shevo, what you’re proposing would require something like an AllStar device connected between the repeater and your internet router. It’s like a PiStar hotspot. It does all the heavy lifting. I don’t know enough about how to set them up to get into details, but it would be very easy in ham radio to set it up using a pair of pi*star hotspots.

So, maybe I missed something. Why are we down on this person for asking this question? Shevo, A linear amplifier is the type of device that increases the power output of a transmitter. There are a few that work with GMRS radios and are compliant with the regulations, but generally speaking just buying a 50 watt rated radio will be much simpler.

You’re sure welcome! Thanks for the shoutout. The learning curve is very shallow and short. You’ll enjoy it. It’s nothing fancy, but it appears to work. We just got home from our trip yesterday and I forgot that I promised someone that I would scan the specs in the instructions (assuming I can find them - I’ve had them longer than 20 minutes which is how long it takes me to lose shit).

I guess I should have been more specific. I was intending to refer to a DC/DC step up converter from Samlex. Samlex has one that accepts 9-18 vDC and outputs an isolated 12.5 vDC: https://samlexamerica.com/products/fully-isolated-converter-idc-100a-12/

Use a high quality inverter. Look at what’s available through a place like DXEngineering. Samlex is a decent brand with many different types and options. https://samlexamerica.com/product-category/dc-dc-voltage-converters/