PastorGary
-
Posts
1049 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
180
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Classifieds
Posts posted by PastorGary
-
-
On behalf of Rich and the staff, you are welcome... but that's what we're here for... and thanks again to everyone who is actively involved in the main website and forum for your participation.
-
Amateur radio operators and to an extent, GMRS radio operators, have assisted in disaster communications for many years. I have maintained an IG class license specifically for first responder activities. In my many years of commercial operations, I have yet to find a situation where it was absolutely necessary to DIRECTLY communicate with anyone outside of my own license parameters. If communications are needed to suppliment Public Safety comm in a disaster, I get permission to place one of my trained volunteer team members in the local Comm Center with a portable and charger and RELAY info through our volunteer to their dispatcher. This is the ONLY way that we operate in a disaster scenario so as not to disrupt normal Public Safety communications with any type of "who is that on my radio system?" issue.
There may be instances in regional situations that might require direct comm, but that would be a last resort in most scenarios.
-
Thanks, John... it will be interesting to get new signal reports....
-
Dan - I know that you are correct in your assumption that Rich doesn't have much forum or website time because of his work schedule.
I'll try again myself to get him in contact with you -
-
Dean - Thanks for registering and for joining us at the Forum. Welcome !!
-
Off Topic a bit - forgotten fact about WEAK signals...
The aircraft control network worldwide uses AM equipment almost exclusively for a very good reason... HETERODYNE EFFECT. If aircraft used FM equipment, and two planes keyed up at the same time from different distances, the tower or FAA controller would only hear the closest transmitter in most cases due to the receiver's 'capture effect'. However, using AM equipment, if two planes transmit at the same time, there is a BEAT whistle (heterodyne) that the operator hears from the plane farther away, so he knows that another aircraft has a message and can address the second plane's transmission.
-
Logan - in very basic real-world terms, put yourself in a water park where they have a wave generating system in a pool. As that first wave is generated and travels the length of the pool, there isn't much of anything in it's way to modify it or slow it down. When that wave hits the vertical wall at the far end of the pool, most of it spashes all over the place into the air, but a small portion of it heads back the way that it came - running into any fresh waves. This creates a nulling of part of the fresh waves.
Now think of a transmission system and antenna, duplexer or in-line fittings that has some type of imbalance within. The first frequency wave from the transmitter gets to the first imbalance point and part of that wave runs into the imbalance and starts heading back the way that it came, nulling parts of the fresh waves. The FORWARD SWR is the amount of power being sent down the feedline which includes the losses or nulls from wave portions heading back up the line from imbalances. The REVERSE or REFLECTED SWR is the amount of power in a ratio that is being wasted by those imbalances. If a duplexer is set up correctly, it will not throw much power back up the line at all. But we have to also remember that there are LOSSES that sometimes do not affect SWR. Each connector has losses even though they are designed to have the same impedance as the feed line.
Again, this is really basic data and there is much more to it than this in some cases.
-
Dan - going off topic for a moment---
No Federal agency/frequency data has been available officially since the late 1970's... however, there is data out there concerning where the Federal systems are and the type of emissions. That being said, do you happen to know if the Interdepartmental Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) is STILL doing the Federal radio system licensing and coordination? IF IRAC is still the coordinating agency, do they assign "call signs" and further, if they DO issue call signs, do these fall within the international treaty protocols for first call sign prefix of K, W or N ?
Thanks...
-
Logan - With all variables the same, except for the duplexers, this means that the newest duplexer is operating more efficiently than the previous one and that whomever set up the second one knew exactly what they were doing. That's an excellent setup now, whereas the first one was outputting much less RF to the antenna than the new one.
-
Getting back to John's original info - If anyone else has heard of cases like this locally, please advise.
I have heard that SOME ICOM radios can be manipulated by putting a factory supplied 'plug' in a different location, or holding down two panel buttons as the radio is turned on, which enables over 450 IG and PS simplex frequencies, but some ICOM's can also be front panel programmed by savvy bootleggers to operate on repeater offsets and tone/digital codes. Can anyone confirm this - I just heard about it from a communications tech a month ago.
Thanks.
-
Jeff - Thanks for registering and stopping by the Forum to introduce yourself. Thanks for posting and Welcome !!
Our other Moderator, William - SPD641, lives very close to you - perhaps you know him...???
-
I can just about guaranty that the 'kids' knew exactly what they were doing... they aren't dumb - and got off easy. Once again, it comes down to parental responsibility, lifestyle committments and lack of CARING as to what their children do. Some parents can't be bothered to BE parents and they just buy the kids some things to occupy their time so "mom and dad" don't have to spend time being proper role models for their children. Too many times the parents are irresponsible and are out living it up or too busy with their own individual lives for anything else... including proper parenting. Unfortunately, the destruction of the traditional family and family values from within, is all too common these days.
-
That brings up a point -
Does anyone reading this thread have a Home Owner's Association or any local government regulations concerning towers and antennas? I was given some info recently that "The Villages" in Florida is so restrictive on yard based extras that you have to get permission to paint your mailbox.
It would be interesting to see which forum member residential areas have NON-FCC and NON-FAA restrictions.
[if there are significant replies, I'll move everything into a separate discussion.]
Thanks...
-
Just a little off topic, but I am licensed for an IG frequency just up-band from the normal CB frequencies. As everyone here knows, there are bootlegger operators running sideband equipment between CB channel 40 and the bottom end of the 10 meter segment. My assigned frequency is 5 KHZ offset from the bootleg CB frequencies in use and I have a clear channel. I don't hear any of the illegal operations at all... only the occasional LICENSED operators still on that frequency by way of skip from Georgia and Arizona. I have some E F Johnson equipment still on that frequency because we can get over 50 miles simplex with only 25 watts.
Kind of reminds me of the good old days (early 1960's) when the Texas Department of Public Safety was still running low band VHF frequencies. I could hear their 100 watt mobiles in Wisconsin on a couple frequencies between 39.42 and 39.98 MHZ as well as between 42.04 and 42.74 MHZ. Their 45 to 47 MHZ equipment was just coming on line at that same time and those channels were not as clear or as frequent up this way for skip.
-
Kelley - Thanks for stopping in and posting. Welcome to the forum.
-
Jeremy - it looks as if you and I derailed this thread... we'll have to put it "back on track".....
http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/hp51f03905.jpg
-
-
Tired of constantly being broke & stuck in an unhappy marriage, a young
husband decided to solve both problems by taking out a large insurance policy
on his wife with himself as the beneficiary, and then arranging to have her
killed.
A 'friend of a friend' put him in touch with a nefarious dark-side underworld
figure who went by the name of 'Artie.' Artie explained to the husband that his
going price for snuffing out a spouse was $5,000.
The husband said he was willing to pay that amount, but that he wouldn't have
any cash on hand until he could collect his wife's insurance money. Artie
insisted on being paid at least something up front, so the man opened his
wallet, displaying the single dollar bill that rested inside. Artie sighed,
rolled his eyes, & reluctantly agreed to accept the dollar as down payment for
the dirty deed.
A few days later, Artie followed the man's wife to the local Walmart
Super Store. There, he surprised her in the produce department &
proceeded to strangle her with his gloved hands. As the poor unsuspecting woman
drew her last breath & slumped to the floor, the manager of the produce
department stumbled unexpectedly onto the murder scene. Unwilling to leave any
living witnesses behind, ol' Artie had no choice but to strangle the produce
manager as well.
However, unknown to Artie, the entire proceedings were captured by the hidden
security cameras & observed by the store's security guard, who immediately
called the police. Artie was caught and arrested before he could even leave the
store.
Under intense questioning at the police station, Artie revealed the whole
sordid plan, including his unusual financial arrangements with the hapless
husband who was also quickly arrested. The next day in the
Newspaper, the headline declared...
'ARTIE CHOKES 2 for $1.00 at WALMART'
[ Hey I didn't write this, I'm just passing it on...
]
-
Just an FYI - ONLY Rich D. can do any repairs or updates to the forum and it's secondary systems. Since we do not have routine contact with Rich due to his work schedule, it may be best for anyone having tech issues to log in to the main MyGMRS website and use the "Contact" button to attempt to contact Rich yourself. This would be faster than staff members attempting to do this for anyone. Thank You.
-
Dan - If you take a look at the center section of the Repeater Database Advanced Search Area, you will see a note concerning:
Open Repeater Initiative -
Here is the link to an explaination and details... Hope this helps...
-
Just in case someone needs a "temporary Redneck Outrigger" for a tower, you can use one section of an old aluminum ladder u-bolted in 4 places to the tower. It works well... and don't call me no redneck, y'all.
-
John... thanks for the info. Let me just say that this is not a case where you would go over to "Chet's Discount Climbing Harness Shop" to prepare for a job like that.
"I'm not affraid of heights... I'm affraid of widths... "
-
Thanks for the updates, David... Looking forward to your test reports.
-
Thursday morning update:
The massive supprting pier settled approximately 34 inches from around 9 PM Tuesday to 4:50 AM Wednesday... Between 4:15 AM and 4:50 AM Wednesday, the local 911 center received several calls from drivers about it - the last driver to call in said that it was so bad that the dual wheels on the back of his semi got airborne as he went over the leading edge. Everyone made it across OK before the bridge was shut down by authorities at 4:52 AM Wednesday.
An independent structural engineer contradicted the State's engineer. The State maintains that there is no risk of collapse - while the independent engineer said that if the pier holding that portion of the bridge sinks 24 more inches, the vertical and lateral loads on the Japanese supplied steel that is supporting the bridge in that 400 foot section will exceed the ratings of the steel and the shear point of the rivets and it could in fact collapse.
The next news conference is later today (Thursday) and at that time it expected that they will announce that a 600 foot section of the bridge will have to be completely removed, existing piers removed, new pilings driven down to bedrock (if they can find any this time), new piers constructed and then new steel and road surface support structures installed... about a year for demo and construction. The problem is that this community does not have a proper city street detour in place at the moment to allow semi's to make corners properly and until proper signage and alternate routes can be developed, the car and truck crashes will be much higher than usual. We also have days with dense fog in the mornings this time of year with visibilities at 100 feet or less... and this will also hamper travel and increase accidents during this time of "driver education" as to the new cross town routes.
ERS NY 575
in General Discussion
Posted
Did you calculate approximate ERP from the system ?