SteveShannon

Go to your account at the FCC and download a current version of your license. When I did that a few months ago the Line A restriction no longer appeared.

I really think that the FCC screwed the pooch on this. They should have made some sort of announcement, or better yet sent an email to affected licensees.

Download an official copy of your license from the FCC. If th Line A prohibitions still affect you they will appear on your license. Th consensus of those of us who did this is that our current licenses no longer include the Line A restrictions.

None of us should question why someone else has the budgetary limits they do.

Make sure they do a good job of waterproofing the connections.

I believe Leo was recommending enclosing the driver/power supply for the LED lights, not replacing the wooden mount for the radio that you made.

Yes

If those were the only two choices and money were no object, I would go with Times-Microwave, every time. The Times-Microwave LMR-400 is the original which created the standard. All other companies that make a 0.400 inch diameter cable called something like it (such as BR-400) are insinuating that their coax is equivalent. Some actually make cables that test as good while selling for less. They will be sold by companies that are not Amazon. Nothing wrong with Amazon, but the buyer has to bring some expertise. However, there are some concerns about LMR-400: First, the original has a single solid center conductor that makes it stiff. Times-Microwave solved that by manufacturing a cable that has a stranded center conductor called LMR-400 UF (for Ultra Flexible). Second, some people have concerns about the mixture of metals in the shielding, especially for repeater use. They claim the contact points of the different metals in the different layers of shielding create thousands of tiny semiconductor junctions. I have never seen proof of that, but other companies make coax that use pure copper for every layer of shielding. One of the best known is an Italian company named Messi & Poloni. They make a cable (M&P Hyperflex 10) that tests every bit as well as LMR-400, and sells for about the same price as LMR-400. But there are others as well. ABR400, DX400, etc. The list of high quality 0.400 cables that are reasonable alternatives to the original LMR-400 is long. I have never heard that BR400 listed as one of them. I also would stay away from KMR400 as sold on Amazon. Personally, I have several lengths of M&P and a few of ABR-400. I bought my M&P from Gigaparts, but one of the online vendors that sells mostly Chinese radios also sells it for a decent price, maybe Buytwowayradios.com? Or you can order it direct from Italy. They’ll put it together to your specs and ship it very quickly directly to you. I’m sure this probably adds even more to your uncertainty. Asking which is the best cable is like taking a philosophy course in college. Here’s a link to the Gigaparts web page for Hyperflex 10: https://www.gigaparts.com/messi-and-paoloni-hyperflex-10-coax-cable.html#close

Can’t you download the CPS even though you don’t have the radio so you can see what you think?

It might be true but none of it really means much. I wouldn’t use it. Edited: I searched for 50-3 cable and found one on Amazon that appears to be the same cable. The part you neglected to copy and paste is the cable designation: RG-58. 15 meters of that on GMRS is worse than worthless. It basically converts your RF into heat. As Leo said, buy good quality cable from a place that sells radios. Order the necessary length fully made from DX Engineering or some other radio dealer and don’t buy cheap.

23-30 transmit on 467 and receive on 462 to allow full duplex operation by the repeater.

I agree that we don’t get to tell people what they may discuss. I like Nets though because sometimes they’re a great way for people who are just starting out to learn how to use their radio.

Welcome!

Sounds great!

Won’t it transmit on RP15-RP22 (aka 23-30), the repeater channels?

I think his statement was directed towards Randy, not you.

That’s a better choice. When you mentioned HF I figured you meant 10 meters. 6 meters is actually VHF (VHF is 30 MHz to 300 MHz). The Yaesu vx-7 is the radio I would suggest. It’s no longer manufactured but they’re out there. 6 meters, 2 meters, 1.25 meters, and 70 cm.

Amateur radio is all about playing with radios to see what you enjoy. The RT-880 might be a gas, but honestly, don’t expect much froman inexpensive handheld that does HF, even without a $100 limit. The only HF band you could barely do with a handheld with an attached antenna would be 10 meters and even then you’ll be limited. The simple laws of physics require a certain antenna length based on frequency in order to be effective. A quarter wave ten meter antenna is going to be two and a half meters long. Now there are some all band all mode portable radios with built in batteries that I would love to have. One is the Icom IC-705 and another is the Yaesu FTx-1. There’s also the Lab599 TX500, but it doesn’t do 2m or 70cm. All three of these are self contained hi end portable radios. All three require an external antenna of some kind. All three go over your budget by more than $1000. The battery for the TX500 is $400 all by itself. As long as I’m dreaming there are a lot of other QRP radios to play with such as Elecraft. And although I haven’t seen it available in the USA yet, there’s a handheld version of the Lab599 radio. There are good deals on older mobile and radios that show up at ham fests. I picked up an Icom IC-706MKIIG for a low price last year. That’s a mostly full power mobile radio that does HF, VHF, and 70 cm. I’ll put it in a go box with a battery and carry a separate antenna of some kind, maybe an EFHW or my BB7V vertical and tripod. Anyway, don’t get discouraged by the high price of HF radios. Deals come along. A guy in my area said he’d like to sell his FT-991 (not the 991A but the older model) for $300 just the other day. I don’t know what the difference is between the 991 and 991A, but that’s probably not a bad deal.

Are you using the simplex channel that you hear the repeater on or are you on a repeater channel? Power is seldom the problem or solution.

Try it on different channels. See what the SWR is on the channels you transmit on the most. Don’t forget the 467 MHz main channels. To answer your other question, you can tune the antenna by lengthening or shortening it. Changing the location of the mount can also affect the SWR. Antennas have a dip at a single frequency where they’re tuned best. An antenna analyzer helps you know whether the antenna is too long or too short. There’s nothing wrong with 1.75:1.

One for a go box and one for the car or one for the house, etc. You can never have too many radios.

Good job getting that all configured! And congratulations on your new call sign KM7BVY.

He only just submitted it 12 hours ago. The electrons haven’t cooled down yet.

You’re right. 1.25 meter is 1.600 MHz. It can get really confusing. Here’s a link to a chart that makes it even more confusing: https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Offset

We know, but you told us that you didn’t need to be told about the FCC rules.