SteveShannon

It’s not a matter of trust. You haven’t explained what functionality isn’t working. An overly generalized statement of “it’s not working” doesn’t really describe the problem. Is your radio actually transmitting? If you get rid of all receive tones, do you hear other people? Seeing other people’s configuration files might not do much for you because they are operating in different locations with different repeaters, but you could provide details about the repeater you’re attempting to activate and post your file.

Third! He was completely wrong. No such notification is needed or even possible.

Make sure your compander is turned off. It’s menu 36.

Is the other person using vox? Vox acts upon hearing a sound and as with everything the time it takes to key up can result in the very first sound being lost. If it’s truly a measurable delay from the time a sound is transmitted until the time it’s received, any humanly discernible delay would not be in RF reception, but delay could easily occur if any digital processing occurs, either at the transmitter or the receiver, or both. The other thing is that it’s always best to wait half a second after push PTT before speaking.

Thanks! Another resource is HamStudy.org. That’s what I used when I started. They are free, but you’re welcome to donate if you want and they do have an app they sell for a low price for your phone or tablet.

Program the Dayton tones into channel 23 and the Tipp DTCS code into channel 26 and see if it works.

Your premium membership hasn’t registered for your forum membership yet. I reported it to Rich. He’ll fix it.

Here’s a recommendation from the FCC: ”The FCC said: "We are reaching out to recommend that you emphasize to new examinees that under the Commission’s rules, address information submitted by an applicant is considered public information in the Universal Licensing System (ULS) and may be accessible online through ULS and internet searches. If an applicant would prefer not to disclose their home address then they may provide an alternate address, such as a P.O. Box or a business address. This ensures privacy while still allowing for compliance to FCC rules."

Tensile strength.

Nice. If it works there’s really no reason to do anything else.

Figure out how to propose that as a reduction or simplification of regulations and go for it.

Sorry, Rich.

I’m always surprised when people pass on getting their ham licenses because of DXing and contesting. One of my other hobbies is rocketry. A lot of people in rocketry get their Technician licenses so they can use 2 meters and 70 centimeters. They’re able to talk on handhelds and put APRS transmitters in rockets. They never go any further because they don’t have to. They don’t participate in contests or DXing. There’s almost no contesting or DXing on either 2 meters or 70 cm. The main advantage of a technician licenses over GMRS is the vast number of frequencies available compared to the 30 channels within two shared one MegaHertz wide bands. Nobody should be pressed into becoming a ham if they don’t want that for themselves, but I have known people who didn’t believe they were smart enough or that they couldn’t do the math. But the fact is there’s not enough math on any of the tests to prevent a person from becoming a ham or advancing through the levels and the tests are really not aimed at separating folks by intelligence. Basically, the Technician test is about learning the rules and a few very basic concepts. Memorizing is actually encouraged because that’s how the basics of anything are learned. If anyone is interested in becoming a ham but has self doubt I hope they will reconsider. They are smart enough and they can get past the math requirements.

Yes

Call up your friends who use GMRS radios and say “Let’s start a club!” Then just get together every so often and talk about GMRS radios. If you want to have a repeater, chip in some money (quite a bit) and put one up. If you want to solicit donations you’ll want to incorporate as a tax exempt corporation. There’s a fee for that. Then file a 1023 form with the government to get off to become a 501(c)3. The short form costs $275.

I agree completely.

I’m not certain why the FCC would allow any outside labs to certify equipment without some kind of validation of the lab’s ability and trustworthiness. And if equipment that has been “certified” by that lab fails, both the equipment manufacturer and the certification lab should have to answer why. That has nothing to do with racism.

A glass mount doesn’t sacrifice much either, but there are nice looking kits that replace the factory shark fin with a gps antenna and NMO mount which do not require additional drilling.

Just to be fair, @Socalgmrs has said good things about Midland antennas; it’s the radios that he disparages.

I made the change to “unusual”.

I don’t know about the RT97L, but not all radios display changing channels when scanning. That was one of the original main complaints about the Yaesu FT5DR. It showed the new channel when it paused, but not until then. A firmware update has partially fixed the problem. But it could be that scanning only works when you’re in base station mode; a scanning repeater would be kind of unusual.

I think it would be fairly easy to show that a person is profiting, if it’s true. Because a GMRS repeater is not allowed to be operated commercially, placing your own repeater on your own land would not include an assumption that rent is entitled. The IRS would eagerly participate if a person were not declaring income and if the person were declaring income the FCC would have a case. The owner of the repeater would be expected to have records showing that every dollar of income went to a reasonable expense. But, it can cost a lot to own a repeater and folks who provide them for the rest of us should not have to bear the full burden; they just can’t profit.

I think you’re probably kidding, but just in case someone takes you seriously intentionally submitting an incorrect address is something the FCC does actually pursue legally. They don’t care if a person uses a mail forwarding service or a PO Box; in fact they even encourage it for people concerned about privacy or physical security. But you must submit an address where you can be legally served. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-122A1.pdf

At a rocket launch on the Black Rock desert I picked up enough leaded solder to last my lifetime. Some very fine stuff and some that’s about two times as big that’s multicore with rosin flux. And it’s all smaller than the old “Radio TV” solder that I still have. The smallest stuff is perfect for fine pitch SMT.

Ha! Except they’re using GMRS radios.