SteveShannon

Wow

It’s not part of GMRS. It sounds like it is probably just some kind of interference. Since it’s rhythmic I would guess it’s some piece of electrical equipment somewhere.

That’s a different model.

This is just one of several threads describing this same problem. It has been a known problem for the past few months, yet people continue buying them. Some people send them back and get something else. Others download new firmware and fix it theirselves, thus enabling the manufacturer to continue sending out radios that don’t fully work.

Welcome!

Radioddity is not a vendor that I would suspect of that. Turn on the radio and time to see how long it takes before Baofeng lady says that the voltage is low. If you have another battery available in a different capacity do the same with it and compare the times. I think you’re worrying about nothing. It’s a Baofeng; they already put the least expensive available cells into the battery. That’s not meant as a knock. That’s just the reality. Yes, I guess they might have put a metal weight in the box to simulate greater capacity; but they might have one in the actual 3500 Ah battery also. Many manufacturers put a weight in their hand mics to make them “feel better” in the hand.

Another difference in the construction of coax shielding is the material used in each layer of shielding. Some companies use copper braid over aluminum foil. Others use copper braid over copper foil. Both aluminum and copper are good conductors, with copper being better (silver is the best elemental conductor). Both oxidize. Aluminum oxide is a poor conductor (aka good insulator). Copper oxide doesn’t affect conductivity much. Some people who work with repeaters claim that using a cable that has copper over aluminum causes issues when used on repeaters because that aluminum oxide layer forms a semiconductor.

Exactly. No braid appears to be present, just very thin foil.

I got the 50 foot one and I’ll cut it where I need it and put two new ends on. That’s where I put the alpha delta lightning arrester. Then the remaining piece runs up the mast to the feed point. The ends are in stock at Buytwowayradios, but they’re almost twice the price there compared to Gigaparts. As far as I can tell I got the last ones Gigaparts had in December.

I bought 50 feet of Ultraflex 10 just last week from Gigaparts. It’s popular.

Yeah, I’ve got some Radio Shack walkie talkies that are about 45 years old. So I was delighted to see how well GMRS worked 18 years ago when I bought some Motorola Talkabouts.

Perhaps it’s your geographic area. Here I see just as much activity or more on VHF and UHF as I do on HF. We are sparsely populated yet we have 2m, and 70 cm repeaters in most large towns and even some 6m, a large statewide DMR network on 70 cm, and scheduled nets on 2m and DMR. Many of the “old guard” have DMR radios. I’m 68 and I have both DMR and C4FM. I also do HF. So I’m really not sure what disappointed you about ham radio? I just don’t see it in my corner of the world.

I understand the rules. I was asking what WSAG543 wanted to do that was prohibited.

It’s very good cable. I’ve used it and M&P Broadpro 10, which only differs from the Ultraflex by having a solid inner conductor. If you intend to shorten it be sure you can get the Evolution connectors. The very similar XCRD connectors from Amazon have too small of a hole to accept the stranded center conductor of the UltraFlex. Two US dealers carry it: Gigaparts and Buytwwayradios.com. Or you can get it directly from Italy.

Other than encryption I don’t understand what you can not do in ham radio.

Welcome!

If you use a separate antenna for each radio you don’t need a duplexer. The reason for the duplexer is to allow you to simultaneously transmit and receive using a single antenna. Using separate antennas can be done but requires enough separation between the antennas to achieve a level of RF isolation. That’s usually done by separating them vertically. I’m not recommending that you do that, just explaining that it can be done. It is one way to overcome the losses incurred by using a duplexer. But everything Randy (@offroaderx) said is correct. Better quality duplexers result in less loss and chasing those last several watts makes very little difference. As someone else said in a similar thread recently, many repeater owners run their transmitter outputs at reduced output to ensure long life.

It’s easier and less expensive to find a 25-30 amp switching power supply than to find one for 15 amps. I like Samlex but there’s nothing wrong with Astron or any of the manufacturer’s brands.

Between 12 and 15 amps.

Congratulations and welcome!

Are you looking for something that is portable and can fit into a go bag or a desktop meter? Will you be wanting to use it for ham radio HF frequencies also or strictly VHF/UHF? Is the accuracy of the watt meter important? That’s where people on this forum have seen issues with the SW-102. Would an antenna analyzer be more useful to you? Some of the MFJ SWR/wattmeters are relabeled Nissei. That’s actually good because MFJ manufactured devices that I have replaced parts on are disappointing in the way they fail to clean up their PCBs after soldering. My MFJ-884 says Nissei on the PCB and the quality looks good. But for a portable meter, I would prefer a digital one. I would look at a Nissei FS-50.

We had a guy who was trying to transmit to our repeater. We could hear him activate the repeater because his radio was set up with a Roger beep but no voice. In his case his external microphone jack contacts had failed open. With an external mike we hear him but trying to use the internal mike means no audio. We had another guy whom we could barely hear. In his case the single hole in his microphone was plugged with something.

No. A Yagi that is rated at 7 dBi has 7 dBi in its strongest direction. A vertical Omni rated at 7 dBi has 7 dBi in its strongest direction. Your last paragraph is correct: Or,.. is that rating done with the idea that the furthest point of the radiation lobe achieved a (non-symmetrically) distance representative of 7Dbi?

I’ll have to look for that. I’m curious what was so important for him to broadcast that he just keeps (you know it’s not over) throwing himself at the FCC.

I should have added that the real takeaway is that all of these changes contribute towards good signal strength. Doubling the power only moves the S meter by a half unit, but if you double the power and use a high gain antenna you can get one or even two S units. Using better coax can get you another half S unit or more. It’s important to be aware of all of the different places where signal strength can be lost and how they can combine against you: antenna gain, antenna placement, directionality, output power, coax loss, connector loss, even the voltage of the DC power supply.