PastorGary

` ` ` My Daughter just reminded me of something in poem form and this is especially true today with 8 to 12 inches of new snow on the ground at our Rectory location in Wisconsin: It's Winter in Wisconsin And the gentle breezes blow at seventy miles per hour and it's thirty five below... Oh how I love Wisconsin with the snow up to my butt and I take a breath of winter air and my nostrils both freeze shut The winter here is wonderful so I guess I'll hang around I could never leave Wisconsin 'cause I'm frozen to the ground... For our members here who celebrate Christmas... Have a great day with family and Merry Christmas.

Glad that you got it sorted out, Bill... Thanks for your postings and Welcome to the Forum.

Please keep us posted on that situation. It is not at all difficult to locate the violator these days. Thanks.

Hello, Jake and Welcome to the MyGMRS Forum... nice to have you join us here. Actually, you and I (this time of the year ) are "neighbors" - I'm in Green Bay at the moment at our northern states Chapel Rectory. Hope that the Green Bay Packers loss Sunday and the nearly 8 inches of new snow didn't put a damper on your day. Your info for Jeremy is appreciated and I'm sure that he will be back here in the Forum real soon. Thank you.

Frank - Welcome to the Forum... Any chance that it was intermod? If a paging transmitter on 158.090 is on at the same time as a 462.700 transmitter, one of the intermod products is 146.52. I know that this is a remote possibility, but I'm just checking. I'd hate to think that an amateur operator would patch a GMRS service transmission to a ham frequency. That would be grounds for revocation and fines.

All members here who use the main website may wish to go over the info that Rich has provided above /\ This thread will be pinned at the top of this posting area for easy reference.

I know, John... when you don't have very much modulation component to start with after being used to a 20K0F3E emission for 70 years, it's a slap in the face type of reality check. This mandated manipulation of bandspace has political ties and lobbying from 'certain' companies as well as the new narrowband systems - especially P-25 - putting public safety personnel in harms way. You won't read about radio failures costing lives, but it is happening. But that's a discussion for another time. By the way - IF your local fire department is using a 700 or 800 mhz trunked system as a FIREGROUND link, perhaps they should realize that a working fire puts out a wall of carbon particulate 'plasma' that some digital portable radios just can not transmit through. If a firefighter is on the opposite side of a blaze from where the closest trunking tower is located, he or she may not have reliable comm... a disaster waiting to happen when fall back orders can not be heard or a request for additional personnel at a hot spot battle is requested.

John, we had our IG equipment reprogrammed WAY before the Jan. 01, 2013 mandate, so we left the existing wideband programming in all of our UHF and VHF radios, which is legal as long as it is only used in an emergency as stipulated in 47CFR90.407. We tested each setup on three random days over a two week period in September 2012, so atmospheric condition changes could be averaged. Our test was simple... Using VHF high band SIMPLEX with CTCSS and a base station for MONITORING ONLY to a single mobile traveling on a US highway away from the base station and reporting in every 1/2 mile out past 25 miles. We logged the mile post that the WIDEBAND signal was lost from the mobile - in this case it was 42.0 miles. We then had the same vehicle come back to the starting point and do it all over again, this time with the base station and mobile on the same test frequency and CTCSS but in narrowband. The signal was lost at 38.5 miles, or just a little over 10 percent degrading of narrowband vs. wideband. We then had the moble go back to the starting point and use UHF SIMPLEX with CTCSS in wideband. The signal was lost at 34.5 miles. Again, we started over and went to narrowband on both radios with the base MONITORING ONLY and the signal was lost at 29.5 miles. Again, just over 10 percent signal degrading in narrowband. We did this same testing at the same time of the day on two additional days that month and the results were the same. *Equipment used for VHF test: Kenwood TK780G (H) radios, base and mobile with base radio MONITORING ONLY. Mobile antenna was producing an ERP of 80 watts. *Equipment used for UHF test: Kenwood TK863G radios, base and moble with base radio MONITORING ONLY. Mobile antenna was producing an ERP of 35 watts.

Bill, the website is undergoing some tech upgrading as one of Rich's on-going, long term projects. While I can not directly speak for Rich, if you have any concerns or questions about main site features, click on Rich's name at the bottom of the main website page and send him a memo. Your direct contact with Rich would be faster than if one of the Mod's here does the same thing and then gets back to you. Thanks.

Our own testing on UHF and VHF IG frequencies confirms what John E mentioned. Narrowband is a distance loss format.

Dave - Welcome to the forum. No personal dealings with them, but I'm sure as this week progresses and members check in here, someone will have info for you...

William - Welcome to the forum... There is some good information in the following discussion thread below. One of our members had similar questions to yours and the discussion came up with some very good suggestions. Please go over this info below when you have some time... and then we can expand on that discussion here with additional recommendations. http://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/48-new-to-gmrs/page-2?hl=tessco&do=findComment&comment=366

Paul - Welcome to the Forum and thank you for your information.

There is a web link below as to how HAM Radio handles these interconnects... please review the entire page - This may or may not apply in any way to GMRS - >>> http://www.repeater-builder.com/tech-info/weather-radios.html

Fortunate in my two main residential locations that there aren't any users on GMRS or FRS except just after Christmas each year when the diaper patrol gets wired and use the radios until the batteries die. No one on the repeaters in either location except for my family and occasionally one other who has permission and essentially clear channel operations in the 100 mile diameter service area. As far as 'talking' with unlicensed GMRS users, I truely can't say that I ever have. Now, on my licensed business frequency, that's another matter, and a discussion for another day.

Ron - Thanks for the reminder on the Motorola equipment. Anyone else using these?

Thanks, Rich - We'll monitor operations and keep you up to speed on any issues. But, things seem to be OK today. PastorGary =========================

+100 !! Since the current administration in D.C. is not doing it's job in helping Veterans very well through the VA and other programs, please do your best to thank a Vet for his or her service at every chance that you get. We also support "The Wounded Warrior Project" and the very good things that the organization does. Link >>> https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org/

There was a study over 15 years ago about that and the findings were a bit sad. The psychology team doing the study found that the majority of interference was caused by persons who were 'left out' of the main activity because they had emotional issues or were otherwise not 'good enough' for joining the group in the opinion of organizers. That is a sad commentary on the administration of some first responder or 'assist' groups in passing over individuals who are interested in becoming part of a team but for one reason or another, were not asked to join. We are a society of 'differences' and we must all try to get along with everyone the best that we can and to make allowances. If a person is even somewhat qualified to do work for a team, that person should be given a chance to participate and if mistakes are made during exercises, the person should get a fair amount of mentoring to be able to participate and to feel welcomed... before an actual emergency takes place. However, the psychology team also found that there are instances where interference was caused by down right spiteful individuals who don't want to join 'assist' groups and try to make it hard on the group by disrupting things. Those individuals are the ones that the LAW should go after aggressively because they can and do cost lives.

Licensed operators have an unwritten responsibility to be the courteous information source for persons who may not realize what the laws are. The Commission's handling of GMRS originally was less than thoughtful and their oversight in properly separating FRS from GMRS has left the local education up to licensed GMRS operators. We are the Commission's proxy sub-contractors of education and we must deal with unlawful operators in a manner suitable for a good eventual outcome.

Thanks, William... Tactfulness and polite communications with the unknowing public goes much farther than yelling. Good job... !!

Paul - Thanks for the feedback and info. I'm sure that it will be added to the overall scenario by members here for a better understanding of the situation. Welcome to the Forum.

Linus - Thanks for joining our conversations and Welcome to the Forum !!

Sorry, Dan - I'm a little out of position over here in the Midwest... hope you get a handle on things. Perhaps John E. might have some data....??

UPDATE on LAGGROUP October 28, 2013 One of the previous administrators did check in over the weekend and will be taking care of some details in the LAG forum that have been neglected for some time. Once the other administrator is able to get back in as well, the system glitches will be hopefully be resolved. We are also hoping that new members will be accepted again and that the main Members Website will be repaired and updated. These things are in progress - please be patient, and check in at LAGGROUP every couple of weeks to see how things are moving along. Thank you.