Sshannon

Most hams I know use GMRS and are licensed for it, but most people I know who have GMRS radios are unlicensed and are not hams. I see them as complementary services. Because I have a GMRS license my entire family can talk legally when we go on an outing. My ham activities are for me to learn and explore much more than simply talking on the air. In fact, other than weekly net check ins I do very little actual talking on the air in ham radio.

Recently I’ve been enjoying 40, 20, and 17, but I’d have to pick 20. I got an FT8 qso from Scotland there the other day which was kind of fun for a noob like me.

That sounds very orderly, and it sounds like that’s what your Association needed. May I ask how you restrict access to an analog system? Obviously, if you have the ability to block access to someone who has had it, it must be something more than CTCSS or DCS. Edit: It appears you’re using MDC. Does that simply work with any radio that uses PTT ID or ANI or are your users limited to specific radios?

Here’s the instructions for that Workman 104:

Here’s that thread:

There are also inductively coupled glass mounts that don’t require cutting. There was a guy with a Ferrari a month or so ago. I’ll try to post a link to his thread.

No, unfortunately not. Here’s what the description says: Requires a non-ground-plane (NGP) antenna such as the Rugged Radios VHF-1/2W-SPR and Rugged Radios NMO-MT-U, our most popular NMO Cable Mount option with 13' of cable.

How about a suction mount like this: Rugged Radios NMO-SC Suction Cup Antenna Mount with Swivel Base by Scosche https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08177PQPH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_EY7P0RD2WGH3PPQ4NFE9

If you’re trying for perfection, you’re fighting a losing battle. Raising the antenna might affect impedance and thus SWR. Lowering the antenna might affect impedance and thus SWR. The size of your ground plane will affect SWR. The length of your feedline can affect SWR. The length of the element isn’t the only variable. You can even have near perfect SWR and still have an antenna that nobody can hear. SWR is important. High SWR is to be avoided because of the power that’s reflected back into your transmitter, but 1.75 isn’t high SWR.

Everything affects everything with antennas. I have no idea if the top can be trimmed. I would stop at 1.75:1 and live with it for a while to see how well it works.

That may just be the best you can achieve with that combination of antenna, mount, and feed line. Did you check to see what the SWR was at the original designed frequency?

See if this helps. This appears to be a popular question. Someone else answered it earlier today in this thread:

Sorry, I thought that would be it for sure. I got the ft65 and it definitely allows different dcs tones for transmit and receive.

Edited to correct: You can set one to DCS and another to CTCSS, but the ft60 cannot have different tones for xmit and rcv. See pages 22-25 in the manual.

It’s absolutely his right to shut it down, but it might have been a little less “scorched earth” if he had simply found a way to block the complaints from the repeater user who was whining about outside traffic. There’s no point in owning and operating a repeater if ownership causes such misery. At this point his repeater users might not consider the repeater reliable. If he has gotten to the point of shutting it down completely (for his own peace of mind or any other reason) he might as well sell it to someone else or convert it to a 70cm DMR ham repeater so he can control access.

I think your post did help, Marc. If nothing else it took the edge off. ?

No, but a GMRS callsign is. The ham call sign is optional for those who have one.

I don’t mind OffroaderX proposing this (In fact I enjoy his videos), and I don’t mind having it discussed again for people who have recently joined the forum. I just happen to disagree with it because of Line A. However, it really won’t ever affect me to be honest, because I live near Line A and because I don’t expect to drive around with my GMRS radio on anyway. If I ever do it will be with a group of people and we’ll select something else so we don’t interfere with the Road Channel.

Sounds bad. I would call customer support right away. You’re almost certainly not the first person that has done this. Hopefully they can save you some stress. Let us know what you learn. Hopefully it’ll be something easy, like an electrolytic capacitor that sacrificed itself. They put out a bunch of smoke when reversed.

And what about the emergency channel? As I recall channel 9 used to be actively monitored for emergencies.

Hi Bob, I see from another thread that you’re still unable to find someone to chat with on the GMRS bands. I really like the idea posted above by bobthetj03: Then, if you hear traffic on the ham bands, you may decide you want to become a ham. There are lots of ham clubs all over that have study sessions, including one day ham-crams where you study and take the test on the same day, I believe. In my area there’s no formal GMRS activity but the hams get together weekly for three different net check ins, breakfast on Saturday morning, and a monthly meeting.

My 100 watt Yaesu radio draws an honest 23 amps when transmitting digital (which is a worst case mode) at 100 watts. I have a Samlex 1235PM power supply. If you don’t need the illuminated voltage and current meters you can find this 35 amp power supply for about $140 or so, I think. It’s nicely built but you do hear the fan when it turns on. It doesn’t bother me, but it might bother you.

A reverse polarity diode is usually used in series with a fuse. The diode and fuse combination provide an easier path for current to flow than the radio circuitry. If you connect the radio in reverse, the diode allows full current to flow in a short circuit, bypassing the radio circuits in order to avoid damaging them. A fuse is placed in one lead to power and the short circuit blows the fuse, preventing any current from flowing through the radio. Once you replace the fuse and connect the power in the right polarity you should be good to go. That’s why I asked if there was a fuse in the power line that could be changed. However, there are other reverse polarity protection schemes as well. If there’s no fuse accessible from outside the radiothen you may have to open the radio and find one. Before doing that I would strongly recommend contacting the dealer to ask about customer service. They have a far better knowledge of the circuitry of the radio than I do.

Is there a fuse in the power cable that might be blown? The manual makes it appear like there is.

It’s usually within a day or so. The FCC system had a problem with amateur radio licenses but that has supposedly been fixed. I recommend you log into you account and look to see. It’s possible your email was bounced somewhere along the way.