SteveShannon

Unless you can be certain that someone else’s virgin dat files came from the same revision of firmware you’re better off not using a file from another radio. If you do need to go back to the original just do a full factory reset.

Make sure you don’t have any CTCSS or DCS codes set for that channel.

Where more power really helps is in signal to noise ratio.

Exactly! I’m sorry, I didn’t get your call sign, can you repeat again? And you’re a 59 into Butte!

Does that Laird have phased collinear elements to cause it to propagate more powerfully below horizontal? HF operators frequently have an issue when they mount an antenna too near to the ground (the recommended height is greater than or equal to one half wavelength) and as a result their propagation pattern is deformed to mostly skyward. That’s especially common with longer wavelengths; it’s difficult to mount a 160 meter wire antenna 266 feet above the ground.

Unfortunately a lot of people spend their money on RF output power at the radio and then waste it by using lossy coax and cheap antennas.

It’s best always to start by reading the regulations. Here’s where they are: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-90

Although I don’t have one, I would offer this advice. Waterproof the connection and have extra cable. The antenna appears to have a weirdly short UHF connector, rather than an N connector, and it’s not recessed as it would be in many professional designs. Thus, all water that runs down the body of the antenna will eventually end up at the UHF connector. Unless sealed it will eventually permeate the end of cable. Once moisture gets into the dielectric between the center conductor and the shield, you’ll need to replace the last several feet of coax and re-terminate it and then seal it. Other than that I know nothing about the antenna and the specs reveal nothing. It’s a piece of wire in a fiberglass radome (tube). The only things that matter are does it work for your particular situation and how long will it last? The answer to the first appears to be yes. You seem satisfied. As long as the fiberglass holds up against UV and the metal doesn’t corrode and the cable doesn’t fail due to moisture permeation, you might get years of satisfaction.

Have you looked on the map on this site?

The cells in the battery pack are probably just AA size if you want to rebuild the battery pack.

Are you sure you’re reading it right? We had one person try for months with a call sign that ended in l776. He was sure ended in 1776, when actually it was L776. All GMRS calls being issued now are 4 letters followed by 3 numerals. Like WROM258. Or perhaps you just got a new call sign and it doesn’t appear in the extract used by this site. That’s very common.

He actually has a relatively small number of screen minutes, I hear. Maybe I’ll have to watch it.

Yeah, I don’t blame you. That’s the only negative aspect of my db20g radios. No Chirp and the factory software doesn’t allow imports.

What comm port number is it? The Radioddity/Anytone software for my db20g would not find my radio until I unplugged from one usb port and plugged into another. The difference I figured out later was that when I plugged into the first port it saw comm port #11. When I moved it it saw #3.

Great job!

Look at the comm ports in device manager to see which comm port gets created when you plug in the cable and radio. You should also be able to see that same comm port is deleted when the cable is unplugged. Unfortunately the software for some radios doesn’t recognize ports with numbers greater than 9, so you might need to assign a lower port number.

KA7OSM administers the ham radio repeater at Cooper Mtn. I would contact him to see what he knows.

Try extending the squelch hang time, menu #9, on the receiving radio in the repeater pair. See if that helps. I don’t have these radios but it seems like that should help.

Filmed in Hawaii, Morocco, and Australia, so no. And the three studios involved were American, American, and Australian.

Use one of the eight channels that don’t add “the automatic +5”. Channels 15-22 are the exact same receive channels as RP15-RP22 except they don’t add the +5 when transmitting. Also, channels 1-14 have no +5 offset. The only channels that have the offset are repeater channels where the offset is necessary.

Good rhythm but almost leaves me empathetically breathless.

Your repeater: your rules. My point was not that all repeaters should ban political speech, but that people who use a repeater with rules banning political speech should obey them, rather that declaring “I will speak on any subject I want - politics included”

Well, as a volunteer director on a couple small corporations I would hope that you could suggest changes to the directors who sit on the board. They can certainly disregard them but if they don’t at least listen to you there’s usually a way for members to remove a director.

I think the fairly common rule prohibiting political speech on a privately owned repeater is a good one that makes repeater use more enjoyable for most users. That has nothing to do with being “big headed” or forgetting which country a person lives in. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution never has guaranteed that anybody can say anything anywhere at any time. When we use someone else’s repeater we need to be considerate of the rules.

Could still be coax, antenna, incorrect frequency or tone. Once @OldJunk2 has finished troubleshooting it’s certainly possible that it’s a bad unit, but giving up now would be premature.