SteveShannon

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.

Merry Christmas!

Using an antenna my db20g puts out about 19 watts on high power, 6-7 watts on medium, and 3-4 watts on low power.

If you run something that infects your VM with malware you just blow it away and create a new one.

What frequency shows on transmit?

Is the frequency shown when transmitting the correct one?

Pardon the intrusion, Question 0: does the screen indicate the radio is transmitting when the PTT is pressed.

From the Chirp page: Warnings from AntiVirus and AntiMalware software about CHIRP Users of CHIRP may experience false positives from their anti-virus/malware software, their browser, etc. Unfortunately, there are not easy solutions to this problem as CHIRP is a volunteer effort without the financial and legal resources to secure agreements with these companies. Further, CHIRP releases fixes and features very often, so that users get the latest stuff as soon as possible. That means the "reputation" for a given version of CHIRP may be lower, the newer it is. For more information about false positives and AntiVirus in general, see some if these articles: What are antivirus false positives? How to tell if a virus is actually a false positive Still paying for antivirus? Experts say you probably don't need it Below are some common examples of what you may see, and how to handle them. Recommendation: Tell your antivirus provider that the file is not a virus! They won't know if you don't tell them and especially if you're paying for their services, make them get it right. If you can report the file as safe, it helps the other users of CHIRP because it decreases the likelihood of them seeing a warning and improves the general "reputation" of the CHIRP project. (The webpage goes on, but due to advertising I didn’t copy it all. If you want to know more go to https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/AntiVirusWarnings

Wrong on both counts. I have several seats of RT Software and there are some very serious bugs in those seats which manipulate linked tables of DMR zones and groups that can completely corrupt a codeplug. Having said that I will continue using RT Systems software, avoiding those features which corrupt memory. As far as Chirp goes although it is free, it is no sketchier than any other software I’ve used and the developer is very responsive. I’ll continue using it as well. As far as triggering malware detection software I’ve seen false positives on several different CPS programs by various antivirus programs. The reason is heuristic detection. It works by watching for snippets of software that resemble malware. Programs intended to program radios match that pattern, even though they don’t have actual malware embedded. That has been discussed before; it’s not new.

I’ve not found a mic gain setting but there is an xmit inhibit setting. Which channel is it? Post your configuration file and let us look at it. There is a per channel checkbox for Compander, which just sounds bad on the db20. I recommend unchecking it. And Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Lauren and welcome. I’ve reported your post to Rich (the administrator/owner). He’s very helpful.

Export the channels from both and compare them.

It’s not a digital radio.

I don’t think that it’s as simple as that. According to this document PVC is more polarizable in the presence of RF and has a higher dielectric constant than other plastics and composite materials, especially at higher frequencies. This document discusses the materials which are more suitable for use as radioed: https://www.curbellplastics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Plastics-for-High-Performance-Radomes-White-Paper.pdf

Here’s a quote from a post on RadioReference: I once did an experiment with a simple dipole on VHF. The dipole was made with #8 solid wire, and it's resonant frequency was measured. It was then encased in PVC and the resonant frequency was remeasured, and found to have moved over a MHz. That was at VHF. I expect the effect at 2.4 GHz would be worse. https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/protecting-yagi-with-pvc-or-other-material.298291/#:~:text=The issue is nopt necessarily,it'll work just fine.

No, I don’t think there’s any way to tell if you’re not reaching the repeater, but there are signs that you’re reaching it, such as an ID or even a response. But if you hear Morse code in response to saying “test,” I believe you’re hitting the repeater. Many repeaters are set to ID themselves using Morse code and if it has been a while since the repeater has been used it will immediately ID itself in response to receiving your transmission. Instead of saying “test”, give your call sign and ask for a radio check: “This is wxyz123. Can I get a radio check?” No, you don’t need to have the receive tone set. In fact if you’re in a low traffic area it’s probably best not to set it.

Exactly this^^^^

Sorry, I don’t have first hand knowledge, but here’s a post on radio reference where the settings are discussed as having problems: https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/xpr-8400-cwid-problem.382441/ @Radioguy7268 has experience with these settings. Maybe he’s around.

I would clean up the language. Anything more can still be done later if necessary.

Yeah, I hadn’t read that before I responded here. I still hope Keith sticks around.

The day is young.

The scrambling is extremely easy for anyone to unscramble. It’s just phase inversion. Many cheap handhelds have that. All you have to do is turn it on and play with the level. As far as the frequency hopping, it depends on how it’s synchronized, but the statement the nobody will be able to decipher you is certainly not true and it doesn’t take one of the alphabet agencies, just someone with deep enough pockets to buy an AR5RM.

You’re required to ID every 15 minutes when transmitting.