SteveShannon

Just say the letters and numbers as if you were spelling in a spelling bee. There’s no “official” protocol. If you decide to speak phonetically my opinion (worth nothing) is that you should use the NATO phonetics. They are designed not to be easily confused. For instance, in your example you use the words sour and double, both of which can be easily confused with other words flower and bubble on a poor connection. The NATO words would be Delta and Sierra and there are no other words in the NATO alphabet that sound similar enough to be confused. But it’s entirely up to you.

That’s true, and unfortunately no, it’s not me. It’s possible it was a relative, but I don’t really know. The effect @pl4tinum was talking about applies to layering mixed metals in the shielding of coaxial cables. True LMR400 has a copper braid over an aluminum foil layer which some people claim forms tiny semiconductor elements at the points where the two “incompatible” metals touch. That’s different from the copper cladding over aluminum on the center conductor, which genuine LMR400 also has, but which nobody I know warns against. Are the deleterious effects of these spontaneous semiconductors real or myth? I don’t know. The warnings also say that these effects only cause an issue when full duplex transmissions are occurring, not the half duplex we do with our base and mobile stations.

As long as it’s only for receive neither the radio nor the FCC will mind. Try it and see.

You’re right and I’m wrong, but there are a lot of pretty good radios that can be programmed using Chirp: https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Supported_Radios

Most users can’t delete your own posts. Maybe premium users can or maybe only those who have risen to a certain level. I can delete my own posts, but I don’t know why.

I bet you already do! Part of what makes Chirp useful, but also sometimes difficult to understand, is that it has to store information for hundreds of different radios in a kind of least-common denominator database. Once you understand that you can program all of those radios.

Adam, We all make mistakes. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Under § 95.1787 GMRS additional requirements. It’s requirement a(4): (a) Digital data transmissions. GMRS hand-held portable units that have the capability to transmit digital data must be designed to meet the following requirements. (1) Digital data transmissions may contain location information, or requesting location information from one or more other GMRS or FRS units, or containing a brief text message to another specific GMRS or FRS unit. Digital data transmissions may be initiated by a manual action of the operator or on an automatic or periodic basis, and a GMRS unit receiving an interrogation request may automatically respond with its location. (2) Digital data transmissions must not exceed one second in duration. (3) Digital data transmissions must not be sent more frequently than one digital data transmission within a thirty-second period, except that a GMRS unit may automatically respond to more than one interrogation request received within a thirty-second period. (4) The antenna must be a non-removable integral part of the GMRS unit. (5) GMRS units must not be capable of transmitting digital data on the 467 MHz main channels.

You mentioned menu 19, but do you also have menu 18 set to 2-Tone? Does 2T appear at the top of both radio’s screens, signifying that your radio is using 2-Tone signaling? Fiinally, are both radios set to the same 2 tone pattern? It appears this can only be done with a computer. I don’t have one to test these settings, I’m sorry.

Great job!!!

Yet another on the ignore list.

When you say you hope to network with others, do you mean people or network linked repeaters? I took your statement “network with others“ to mean you would like to meet other people who have an interest in GMRS.

Welcome to GMRS. Billings is one of the few places in Montana with multiple GMRS repeaters.

Who said anything about networking repeaters?

If it’s a solder type connector then it must be heated until the solder flows where needed. The flux alone won’t do anything. I use a Weller temperature controlled solder station, but any good soldering iron will work if you have enough heat to flow the solder quickly without damaging the insulation. If you’re not sure you might want to use preterminated cables. I wouldn’t use anything less than LMR400 for UHF except for very short runs. I don’t know what kind of connector you have. This video shows the most common solder connector:

Well, I’ve got a few cans of that too for plumbing, but it’s bad flux for electronics. For electronics you want to use rosin core solder and rosin flux. Acid core solder will eventually destroy your electronics. But it might take a while so in the meantime you might repeat the same mistake over and over, creating even more problems for yourself down the line. It’s really not unmanly to read the instructions first. What did you use to heat the connector while soldering it? I like to use M&P evolution connectors. The shield doesn’t require soldering and the center connector takes less solder and less heat than some others. M&P has some good videos on YouTube also.

UHF will happily bounce off rocks.

Yeah, soldering connectors can be tricky. What kind of flux did you use?

I would agree that it’s probably a bad connection, possibly a solder joint or possibly as simple as a loose set screw that clamps the radiator to the antenna base.

The antenna is probably a fiberglass tube surrounding a metal element. Without knowing what you have it’s difficult to say how to tune it or even if it can be tuned. But it’s much more difficult to tune an antenna without an antenna analyzer anyway.

Have you rebooted?

I suspect his bumper sticker says “Born to be ignored”

You’re right; it’s absolutely wrong and probably written by someone who has never visited one of the more rural states. One of the civic duties our ham radio club volunteers to do each year is provide communications for a 127 mile bicycle race. We can hit our repeater fine for almost all of the course, but cell service is only available for a small portion. The cell companies have little or no motivation to build cell towers where the density of humans is single digits per square mile, even though roads pass through.

Works for me:

Same here.