SteveShannon

You should have received a link in email to download your official copy. Check your spam bin. What’s your FRN? I can’t download your official copy but I can look up your account and let you know if a license has been issued. Usually it’s within one or two business days after payment.

Most repeaters require either CTCSS tone or DCS code before they will accept your transmission. So, either TX CTCSS or TX DCS. As you know, you don’t need either to receive from the repeater.

It works like a small duplexer. Frequencies above a certain frequency pass through one port but are blocked by the other. Frequencies below that go out the other port. Another way to think of it is like a crossover network for a two way speaker.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-cf-360b?seid=dxese1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAhaHMBhD2ARIsAPAU_D5C3JA_o7d31ztb25XmLYRcVfdWMQHB3S_boYaz6gLcRpIicr-fJwMaAvsiEALw_wcB

If you’re asking me, I don’t know. Configuration files I can’t imagine would be a problem. Copyright protected executables might be covered by the rules somehow.

Check the Atlantic Radio website.

A tape measure.

They have two different flexible versions: Ultraflex and hyperflex. They also offer a cable called Airborne which uses aluminum in order to achieve a lighter weight. I have not evaluated it. There’s no reason to avoid aluminum as long as it’s prepared correctly when attaching the connector. M&P will also custom builb cables and ship them to you quickly.

Do it! Yes, it would be easier to use the Retevis 97L, but it wouldn’t be nearly as fun! As long as you keep your coax to a short length one of the ultra flex versions of 10 mm cable, like Messi & Paloni make will be just fine. M&P shields are all copper for both foil and braid. Times Microwave LMR 400 shielding uses two different metals for the foil and braid and people on RepeaterBuilder point to that causing problems only during full duplex operations, which is nearly all of what a repeater does. I haven’t seen data to support those concerns. No matter what you do I would steer clear of cable with a solid center conductor like the plain old Times Microwave LMR400 uses. Get the best quality cable that works well for your use. I agree with you about coax being better for portability than hardline. Do the math to see what your comparative losses will be, but if you truly want this to be portable you’ll want it to be easily coiled and laid out without fear of work hardening or eventual damage. My experience with repeater controllers isn’t helpful in this case; the IDoMatic would probably be the easiest solution and then add something like a Pi to provide additional audio messages. In that way you’d still have the reliability of the ID-o-MATIC for repeater control if the Pi flaked out. Keep us informed as you build it!

As far as the General exam being not much more difficult than the Technician, and then the Amateur Extra being not much more challenging than the General, I think it really comes down to each person’s interests, knowledge, and experience. I have a strong technical background and education and for me I felt that studying for each test was incremental compared to the previous exam.b I studied more for the Technician than I did for either of the other two and I studied less for the Extra than I did for the General or Technician, yet I scored highest on the Extra exam. TL; DR - everyone is different. Work at a pace that’s comfortable and enjoyable for you. Ham radio is a hobby, not indentured servitude.

This!

Yup! Once you’re studying build on it. But you can also go back next time your VEC offers exams and take the general and extra, no additional FCC fees.

Glad it worked.

I don’t see anything wrong with that. You’re transmitting on one radio on channel 26 and listening on the other radio on channel 26. How near to each other physically are the two radios? You might be desensing one while transmitting on the other that’s close to it and that might be why you don’t hear yourself. It sounds like you hear the repeater’s squelch tail. Do you ever hear anyone else on the repeater? Are you asking for anyone to give you a radio check? Try giving one of the radios to a friend who’s a house away and have them listen for you.

So if you shorten the antenna completely and leave the coil off where is the highest frequency dip? Sweep every megahertz between 14 MHz and 30 MHz to find all the dips.

That’s not a repeater; it’s just a duplexer and it’s not tuned correctly for GMRS.

I still have my Pioneer SA8500 and direct drive Pioneer turntable from the seventies.

Contact Retevis customer support.

Perhaps it’s a line level output to feed an actual PA amplifier.

Use your antenna analyzer function and sweep frequencies above, in, and below the 10 meter band to see where the dip is of the fully extended antenna without the coil. Then shorten the antenna until the dip is near the top of the 10 meter band. How low does the dip go (SWR). Is that SWR of 4.0:1 the bottom of the dip? Widen the sweep so you can see the actual dip. If you already did this and I didn’t understand it I apologize.

I have an old Johnson Messenger with tubes and crystals that you might really enjoy!

You’re correct in one regard; new technology does replace old. Spark gap transmitters went the way of the rotary dial phone once vacuum tubes were developed. But in a more important way, you have completely missed the point. Many (perhaps most) of us who adopt analog radios for communication do so because of the desire to be as independent of commercial or government provided infrastructure as possible. History has taught us that such infrastructure, as complex as it is and as reliant as it is on commercial interests, trade agreements, and the peaceful coexistence of nations, is vulnerable to disruption by overload, hacking, space weather, or the overnight whims of one unstable politician or another. The features might change and more and more digital modes may be developed, but the basic physics never will and those physics allow a person to build a very simple radio transmitter and receiver, in spite of how far technology has staggered forward. I just need to stock up on transistors.

Transceivers that do all of the bands you have listed are very rare (non-existent perhaps). You’re more apt to need to buy three different radios. The IC9700 will do 2m, 70 cm, and 33 cm. The IC7300 will add 160-6 meters, but neither of those do 1.25m or 25 cm. You could listen to all of them with an SDR though, fairly inexpensively and then determine whether you want to invest in radios that do those specialized bands.

I have two of the db20g radios. They’re nice for a GMRS radio that can be opened up to work on 2 meters and 70 cm but they’re FM only and they won’t do anything on the lower end of the vhf scale like 6 meters. That’s not the kiss of death as long as you understand the limitations. If all you want to do is talk on VHF and UHF FM, it’s a nice little radio.

If you truly want one radio that will transmit on the greatest number of technician available bands and in all of the technician modes, either the IC7100, the FT991A, the IC705, or the FT1X cover the most bases. None of them are inexpensive, but all of them will do SSB, FM, AM, CW, RTTY, and the various digital modes like FT8, etc. They all support CAT control and all can be used as mobile radios. The IC705 and the FT1X Field are QRP rigs, but the FT1X Optima package includes an amplifier that makes 100 watts on the HF bands. These four radios also do SSB on the VHF and UHF bands, which is pretty uncommon, but nice.