SteveShannon

If you’re unable to contact nearby stations, it’s NOT because you have too much power. Instead, it’s because of the propagation pattern of your antenna.

My “understanding” of the compander was that the audio compression was before the RF stage and audio expansion happens after the RF stage. My understanding must be either incorrect or incomplete, which are both very possible. I’m sorry that didn’t work. If it truly is the hospital pager system or ambulance two way radio system they should want to know about it. Maybe they would even point you to the communications consultant they contract with (I doubt they do it all in-house, but it’s not impossible I guess.) If you can’t get help from either a communications consultant or local ham radio club I would involve the FCC. Even if the source of the interference is a high priority service they don’t get a pass on RFI. The FCC would only write them a letter asking them to explain how they intend to avoid creating RFI in the future anyway. I wouldn’t worry video the steps needed to detect the interference for each frequency, how prevalent it is, and document the times that it’s heard. Let me recap for my own personal understanding: You hear the interference on an FT-60, which is a direct conversion receiver and on an FT-65 which is superheterodyne, but only when each has had its compander feature enabled. Without compander, neither of those radios pick up the interference… You receive the signal with adequate strength on about 154 MHz, 462.6125 MHz, and possibly faintly at about 309 MHz. What other RF devices have you been able to receive it on? I think I understand that you cannot receive it on any device with the compander off. Have you tried changing modes, such as AM, SSB, or even CW if you have an all band, all mode radio? Does changing the FM bandwidth affect the reception?

Yeah, I’m hearing one guy from California on 7.137. He’s pretty clear but I bet he’s amplified. I hear none of the people he’s talking to. Noise floor is between s2 and s3 and his audio is about s5. But his audio quality is good, I’d say about a 4, so he’s 4x5. According to QRZ he’s 658.4 miles away from me.

Thanks, I do understand them; I just don’t always separate them in my mind.

For some reason I (mistakenly) conflate mic gain and compression. They are linked, of course. If you have mic gain turned up, your audio level from the microphone goes up and compression affects your audio differently than if your gain is turned down.

I don’t have a G90 (although I wish I did, just to play with) and I know that each radio model has different scales, but 30% compression on my FT-DX10 is quite a bit; clipping as a result of over compression can be difficult to hear well. When you’re not working POTA someday, try just rag chewing with someone and have them listen while you adjust that. Also, as I’m sure you know, the volume of your voice and how directly you speak into the mic can result in good or bad audio effects. If you speak more directly into the mic you probably need to turn compression down. I think I have it set to about 20% on my radio. My friend Jack runs with his set closer to 30 and I end up turning my volume down when he joins the 40 meter net.

Well, in Celsius it’s -8° here right now and Canada usually reports in Celsius. When multiple stations all tell you the same thing about your microphone, please don’t feel targeted. They are trying to help you solve a problem with your station that you can’t possibly hear yourself unless you set your computer at home to record you on the webSDR. Personally, I would operate from battery alone with the solar system put away, at least until you have ruled out everything else. As far as RF in the mic, I don’t know much about it, but I could see it changing as your body position changes, or as you move around. Are you between your antenna and the mic sometimes and not others? How close is your antenna? Another person mentioned mic compression. You said you’re at 8. What’s the scale? Is that 8 out of 100 or 8 out of 10 or what?

Different types of antennas, different heights of antennas, and different directions of antennas are all factors in noise. When I lifted the peak of my diagonally inverted vee EFHW from 30 feet to nearly 40 feet I heard a substantial reduction in noise. But there are also tricks to listening to communications in spite of background noise. Modern receivers have several built-in tools for combating noise. Turning down RF gain works very well on my HF receiver, even though it at first seemed counterintuitive. Turning on contour and notch filters removes the higher frequency noise, making lower frequency voices easier to hear. For some people DNR and noise blanking help. On my FT-DX10 I am not a huge fan of the results of DNR, regardless of the algorithm; they sound hollow or submerged to my ears. However, the DNR on my friends FT-991A and the DNR on my FT-891 both sound better to me than the FT-DX10. I suspect that’s very subjective however and what works for you might work against me and conversely.

It is possible to get poor quality components in almost any country, regardless of nationality, but you only need to look at your smartphone to see that it’s also possible get very high quality components if a manufacturer is willing to pay for them. I suspect that the radios you classify as more expensive use many Chinese made components. Stereotyping like this is wrong and typically results in underestimating our adversaries.

Nothing heard in Montana.

Amaff is a good guy; please don’t judge him by that one quote, after all, he finished it up by talking about what he sees as the true value of GMRS. Sometimes we take turns at being the forum curmudgeon.

It has only been 17 hours since you came here looking for help and most of that time the rest of us were sleeping. If you’re truly giving up, don’t start a new thread to announce it unless you also post it in the thread where you asked for ideas. People here will do everything they can to help but not if you give up.

The FCC regulations limit transmissions on 8-14 to handheld radios and at 1/2 watt. They’re narrow channels that fit in between the 467 main channels which are used by repeaters to receive. 467 MHz interstitial channels. Only hand-held portable units may transmit on these 7 channels. The channel center frequencies are: 467.5625, 467.5875, 467.6125, 467.6375, 467.6625, 467.6875, and 467.7125 MHz

I’ve never used it, but other people here seem to like it. If it’s designed for GMRS then you don’t need an SWR meter. Of course I think everyone could benefit from owning one at some point, but let’s get you into the repeater first.

If you hear the repeater, don’t worry about the decode tone; it must be working. However, what is the correct frequency. For the photo of the radio you had it on .700. In the configuration you show it at .725. You shouldn’t expect to hear yourself when you transmit, but if you’re in range and if the tone or code for your radio is correct, you might hear someone come back to you. So, the big question is whether that’s truly the correct TX code for you to access the repeater. Are you certain that it’s supposed to be D261N?

So now you’re successfully transmitting. I have no idea whether that’s the right frequency for the transmitter you’re trying to reach or whether the repeater requires that DTCSS code (D261N) but if it does, and if you’re in range you should be able to hit the repeater. One thing I would recommend if you’re just starting out, clear out that decode tone (162.2 Hz). If it’s set wrong you’ll hear nothing. If you leave the receive tone empty you’ll hear everything on that channel. You can always go back in and change just the receive tone, but it must exactly match the repeater.

Because the premise “if they don’t like GMRS” is not true for all hams. Based on my experience it’s not even true for most hams.

Nearly $9,000 to buy but I know people who have built their own transmitters. https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/aom-2000a-240

All amateur radio operators are authorized to build their own transmitters and use them without government certification, unlike just about any other radio service. They have an extremely wide selection of radio communications types in which they can engage, including space communications. Technicians are limited to certain frequencies and relatively low RF output power but General and Amateur Extra licensees are authorized for up to 1500 watts. I understand that not everyone is interested in building their own transmitters and maybe they would never want 1500 watts, but with only three license classes it’s just not possible to test each person on the privileges he or she intends to use and issue a license for those privileges.

I understand. But I also understand that the purpose for ham radio is not and never has been simply to provide bandwidth for people to talk to each other. If it were, we wouldn’t be able to hang onto the bands we’ve been allocated. Commercial users would argue that the original purpose of amateur radio was no longer important. Here’s what the FCC regulations say are our basis and purpose: § 97.1 Basis and purpose. The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles: (a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications. (b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art. (c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art. (d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts. (e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill

There are some who still send cards and others who use bureaus to send cards, but by far electronic logging and verification has become the norm.

If you’re on a repeater, clubs sometimes have a “Net” which is a scheduled on-air meeting. That was originally a ham thing also, but many GMRS clubs hold them as well. It’s a way to meet others and practice on-air etiquette, although nets are not necessarily great examples. Also, if there’s a nearby GMRS club they might have other kinds of social events. Our ham club has breakfast every Saturday morning at a restaurant. Again, GMRS clubs often emulate what has worked for ham clubs. In a few cases ham clubs even spread their arms wide to welcome GMRS users in hopes of establishing a bigger tent, possibly doing some conversions.

Once it has been reinverted it’s back to clear voice but in between, between inversions, it’s very difficult to understand, somewhat like listening to an upper sideband signal using lower sideband. You can hear cadence, pauses, even inflections, but it’s all jumbled. But, to anyone listening with the same descrambler, yes, it’s back to clear voice.

Scrambling is audio processing that’s done before modulation, so it should have no effect on either the transmitted emissions type or frequency accuracy. Then at the other end, after demodulation at the receiver, the audio is processed again to invert the audio, which restores something close to the original sound.

One thing the regulations do require, that I agree with, is that the pool of questions is ten times as many questions as the test. A person who memorizes the entire pool of questions is bound to learn something, and hopefully some of it will stick with them.