SteveShannon

This points to one real serious advantage of ham vs. GMRS: auto patch. It’s prohibited in GMRS and widely used on 2 meter repeaters.

I’ve also had great experiences with the FCC Helpline, and I’m able to find my way through ULS, but it’s certainly not intuitive. I’ve also had great experiences dealing with ATF (both as a 40 year former FFL and in meetings with leaders because of rocketry), BLM, IRS, and FAA. I know it’s popular to bash government agencies, but the vast majority of employees I’ve dealt with have been extremely conscientious and sincere in wanting to help.

DCS isn’t a tone; it’s a digital pattern. All the bits are inverted for the I version compared to the N (normal) version but that doesn’t necessarily mean there are twice as many patterns because a digital pattern that is inverted is equal to a normal pattern. For example if you invert the hexadecimal value for “A” it’s “5”. So why is that done? Good question.

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Interesting. All the ham radios I’ve seen run about the same. 14-15 amps for 50 watts and 23 amps for 100 watts. 43 amps at 13.8 volts is 593.4 watts input. At 100 watts RF output that’s 493.4 watts of heat and light that’s not going out the antenna. That’s really inefficient.

So can the small group of people not simply use one of the eight existing repeaters?

We all have done that.

Read the description on the website:

As wryz926 said, power supplies are rated according to the current they can source. Many of the cheap power supplies are rated according to the peak, but not the continuous current they are able to provide. It’s important, especially with GMRS where the radios are limited to 50 watts output, to understand that these power supplies are voltage sources. They will provide 13.8 volts, DC, holding that voltage while varying the current to match the requirements of the radios you have connected. A 50 watt radio should never even come close to drawing 20 amps, much less 30 amps. My 100 watt base ham radios requires 23 amps at its greatest draw. Also, the quality of a power supply is important. A power supply that suddenly provides higher than acceptable voltage will coax the magic smoke out of your radio. A power supply that generates a lot of electrical noise may affect other devices in your house, even if your radio works just fine. The comments above about linear versus switch mode are especially important. There are good quality switch mode power supplies. I have a 35 amp switching Samlex that is quiet except when the fan kicks on. A friend has a 50 amp linear Astron that could be used to anchor a small frigate, but it’s quiet all the time. Most of us change radios from time to time, but we tend to use the same power supply until it breaks. Get a good one.

Good job! A commercial license might have been another alternative to GMRS for this, though.

And digital modes, and no hand wringing over whether repeaters may be linked, and up to 1500 watts of power (not that anyone would) and many times as many users.

I would leave it alone.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent!

The Icom IC-7100 is available. It’s HF, VHF, and UHF, a mobile transceiver, and probably can be unlocked for GMRS. Of course there’s the IC-705 which is a portable radio that does HF, VHF, and UHF. If you don’t mind used there are a few really nice older radios like IC-706MkIIG and the Yaesu FT-857D that are mobile and do HF, VHF, and UHF. All the radios I listed above except the ic-705 are 100 watts on HF, and about half that on VHF, a little less on UHF. Plus you can do SSB on them. A little bigger radio is the FT-991A, which still isn’t huge, but does all modes and all bands.

If they’re on the map or in the repeater database associated with this site, just click “request permission“ and fill in the form.

It's not that simple. Regulatory agencies still have the ability to write, edit, and amend regulations. They just have less leeway in interpreting statutes.

My fiance took me to her home to meet her parents' friends. She invited these two very prim and proper spinster sisters. When they were walking out after a very nice lunch I said "I really enjoyed you ladies; you're just as full of shit as the rest of us." I still remember the look on everyone's face. My fiancée was absolutely mortified. Apparently these ladies were not the kind of people to talk to like that. We've been married for 45 years now and I still don't bring it up very often.

Leave the power on Medium instead of High. I led a Net last night with me talking at least 50-60% of the time and it was just warm.

As long as it shows different Rx and Tx frequencies, it doesn't need to show an offset.

That would probably work but many people have had great success with the Comet Ca-712EFC antenna. DXEngineering has it for $140. Be sure you get the CA-712EFC which is tuned for GMRS. If you’re trying to save money, don’t get it at Amazon. It will be more expensive at Amazon!!!

No, I really did miss his joke. But I agree that a lot of people don’t get my humor. I don’t blame them. I often end up wondering why I thought that what I said was funny.

That’s the second time this week someone made a joke and I didn’t get it. Either my sense of humor has been desensed or the humor falls too close to what “some people” would say and I don’t know you well enough to understand that it is humor. Sorry about that.

There have been a few different attempts to explain the beginnings of the word “ham” as associated with amateur radio operators. The most believable one in my opinion is that professional telegraph operators disdained the poor Morse Code sending skills of early amateur radio operators and referred to them as “ham fisted” which became “hams”. I believe the use of “H.A.M.” happened because Randy noticed how hams get wound up when people unknowingly capitalize all three characters of the word ham as if it’s an acronym and he couldn’t resist twisting the waistband on their panties a little tighter. I think it’s funny that so many take the bait.

I disagree. Hams can already do much more in the amateur bands than they can do in the 22/30 GMRS channels. I think the people treating GMRS like ham radio are people who want to do ham radio things without having to pass a test. I understand wanting to maximize the usefulness of GMRS, but for hobbying around, I prefer the ham bands and ham equipment.