PastorGary

September 25, 2013 @ 16:30 Hours CDT /// Posting this information for friends and relatives in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan who use Interstate 43 near Green Bay. Wisconsin: Today we have had a major bridge failure locally. The Interstate 43 bridge over the Fox River has had at least one of the support piers settling in the past 10 hours and this has caused a structural sag of over 30 inches across all 4 lanes of the bridge. This has bent and weakened the steel support structure and road surface of the bridge. The bridge is closed indefinitely and while detours are in place, it will be a traffic nightmare for months to come. There were 40,000 vehicles per day using that bridge. Click for Details: http://www.jsonline.com/news/traffic/i-43-bridge-in-green-bay-closed-after-dip-reported-b99106394z1-225168872.html WISDOT engineers stated late today, that it looks as if at least the one pier and many hundreds of feet of bridge will possibly have to be replaced. If this pier settles another 30 inches, the sag will reach the break point of the steel substructure and rivets - and could potentially fracture and collapse that section. ============================================================================================

One way to get communications through if a weak signal is a problem is to place any radios equipped with an external speaker/mic out in the group's fringe areas. By using that configuration, the operator can hold the radio up as high as possible while using the speaker/mic with the other hand. Two to three feet of antenna elevation may not seem like much, but having done this several times in the past myself, it does make a difference.

Jim - If you check with the originator of this thread up in Post # 1, I'm sure that John can answer your questions. I am not involved in RX preamps and have never seen one in operation.

Adam - Welcome to the Forum... I located your inquiry over at RadioReference and the feedback that you received from William: http://forums.radioreference.com/gmrs-frs/274432-icom-f21-vs-f21gm.html Personally I'm not at all familiar with any ICOM radios... I use Kenwood commercial equipment almost exclusively for GMRS and a couple Wouxun portables on my Part 90 licensed frequencies, but I'm sure that some of our members will chime in with opinions from personal experience. Just give them a couple days to get back here after their weekend activities... remember, it's football season...LOL...

There is a nice, detailed thread on this topic located in the Forum link below. If you have any questions after looking over those posts, please feel free to post in that thread and we'll help out as we can... http://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/60-proper-antenna-grounding/

Hello, Kris and welcome to the Forum. One of the least expensive and good quality feed lines for that distance would be LMR400. You can also use Andrew Heliax Hardline, but there isn't much of a difference at 40 feet for cable losses. This is one link below to LMR400 through Amazon.com's supplier... http://www.amazon.com/LMR-400-Ultra-Cable-Connector-Black/dp/B0013REMTE/ref=sr_1_13/191-9435265-3190724?ie=UTF8&qid=1378928960&sr=8-13&keywords=lmr400+cable I have also used RG213 successfully at 50 feet or less and that is about the same cost as LMR400 in many cases. [ Lets give our new member some tips on cable and setup - Thank you. ]

` ` My post here today is the same as what our Chapel provided to approximately 4600 families this week. While I do not usually place my Ministry texts here in this GMRS forum, I am posting one tibute today - in reflection and as a memorial regarding the terrorist acts on September 11, 2001 and the challenges that we still face 12 years later. [ Contains general religious content - for those who may not wish to view this ] - Good Day Friends; As the 12th. anniversary of the 9-1-1 radical terrorist attacks on the US is remembered this week, we look to the present and what is it that we see? The same type of conduct by individuals who are plotting each day to do harm to others. While we see the terrible conflicts worldwide in the news each day, let us not forget to honor those innocent victims who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, in New York City, Washington, D.C. and in a farm field in Pennsylvania. May God continue to bless the families of those who were lost and may we all honor their memory in prayer. We also pray for the first responders who assisted victims that day - some of which also lost their lives in trying to help others. On Wednesday, September 11, 2013, please join millions of others in a moment of silent prayer. Thank you and may God Bless.

Thanks, William - Valuable info. For those persons who do not have the luxury of a single button to select reverse, it might be prudent to have reverse GMRS repeaters programmed into your commercial mobiles and portables for your most popular local systems just in case a repeater goes down and someone needs assistance - who would normally use the repeater.

A colleague mentioned something recently that was quite interesting - to be utilized in the event of an emergency. If a person has a radio that is usually used with a GMRS repeater and the repeater goes down during bad weather or a natural disaster, how would that person be able to use that radio in an emergency if it is only programmed for the repeater? The repeater owner or a designated alternate could have a MOBILE radio programmed just like the repeater, so it could be used to receive a repeater-only mobile. The pseudo-repeater mobile radio would be programmed to receive on the 467 frequency and transmit on the 462 frequency. That way, the person who would be attempting to hit the repeater that failed, would still be able to communicate with someone in an emergency. Has anyone done this in your own applications? [ This would probably fall under 47CFR95.143 ] .

I had some incorrect or arbitrary info from WIKI again... So, I changed the text a bit to be more accurate

This link below gives BASIC info on RF fields as they apply to human exposure from cell equipment, etc. At .01 to 10 nanometer wavelengths, human cell destruction is cumulative with time as ionizing radiation (XRay machines, etc.) This may not fully apply to frequencies as low as GMRS, but this info should be considered for safety reasons - CLICK >>> http://www.fcc.gov/guides/human-exposure-rf-fields-guidelines-cellular-and-pcs-sites

It may not be advisable to place a 'rubber duckie' antenna directly on the connector on a mobile radio. I have seen that done with a Motorola Radius and the high RF field coming off the antenna literally caused smoke to come out of the RF final, internal power regulator and receiver IF sections. It was toast. Get the antenna away from the radio by 3 to 4 feet if possible with coax and some type of mobile mount with metal ground plane plate of some type to manage the SWR.

With many commercial and business operators going to 700 to 900 MHZ last year, there are many radio shops that have "trade in" antennas in warehouses just collecting dust. An excellent way to fabricate a permanent or movable base station antenna is to buy a used NMO mount and attach that mount to the center of a piece of 20 or 22 gauge galvanized steel cut in a circle 12 inches in diameter as a ground plane plate. Get a used gain type, center loaded mobile antenna and secure it to the NMO mount. Use a couple 6 inch per side "L" brackets (for putting up shelves on a wall) attached to the underside of the ground plane plate so that the legs of the "L" brackets are as far apart as the diameter of a mast pipe. Secure the "L" brackets to the mast with two spiral radiator hose clamps and bingo - a base station antenna with around 3.7 to 5.4 db gain (depending upon your antenna element choice) that can be placed just about anywhere. Varied NMO mounts: http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/mobile-antenna-mounts-264/ The ATV situation may pose problems because most bodies are fiberglass or carbon fiber. But we can use the same type of NMO mount and steel and use a compact 6 inch 1/4 wave mobile antenna tucked out of the way wherever it would be convenient to mount. Whip imaging: http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/laird-tech-qwft120-763.html I personally have no experience building directional, vertically polarized yagi's, so I'll defer to others for suggestions there. This is an example of one: http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/tram-browning-br-6355-3581.html If you do contact a radio shop for used components, just check with them to see if they might have a trade in UHF base station antenna resonant to around 460 to 464 MHZ. I recently picked up a used Tram antenna for $18.00 - it is like the one in this link: http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/tram-1486-1575.html Good luck with the projects.

New member Earl mentioned the fine Kenwood TK-805d radios in a review thread. Just wondering out loud: Is it possible to use two Kenwood radios to construct a good quality repeater? I have seen this done with a few Motorola models, but not so much from the Kenwood line. If anyone has experience in setting up home-brew repeaters made from Kenwood equipment, please let us know what's involved regarding > model numbers, cabling, accessories, programming, duplexer set up and interfaces if needed. Thank you.

+ 100

Earl - Thanks for that tip... With the number of storms that you deal with in Nebraska, I'm sure that it will come in handy for users here at the Forum. Welcome !!

` ` ` The Forum Staff has been given an assurance by un-named members, that by reopening this thread, no additional hints of a superiority attitude will be present. We are opening this thread again for civil exchanges and we thank everyone for their patience while this situation was worked out. Moderation Staff

Logan - We will keep the family and friends in our prayers at this time of sadness as well as for your loss of a friend. God bless...

On behalf of Rich D., William and myself, we would like to thank everyone who is participating in this forum. We have an excellent membership and the sharing of knowledge between members is making this forum one of the best places on the Net to get quality information about radio systems and specifically GMRS. Thank you all and if you know any licensed operators who are not yet registered at the main site, please tell them about us.

` ` ` I'm not certain if there are Michigan truck plates on this one, but this is what "Bob" was talking about... http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t5FNc70E3CI/TmiRD_6IqLI/AAAAAAAAKZY/eFDCj19uY3E/s400/bud.jpg

After reading the text, I can say that because of the band separation and their narrowband request as presented, there would be no affect to GMRS operations. That being said, since there are MANY VHF Part 90 frequencies available again because of users going to 700 and 800 systems before January 01, 2013, the petitioner would be well served to look at VHF High Band where more space is available now - for even VHF trunking.

Bob was sitting on the plane waiting to fly to Detroit , when a guy took theseat beside him. The guy was an emotional wreck, pale, hands shaking,moaning in fear. "What's the matter?" Bob asked. "I've been transferred to Detroit - I've heard the people are crazy there.They've got lots of shootings, gangs, race riots, drugs, poor public schools,and the highest crime rate in the nation." Bob replied, "I've lived in Detroit all my life. It's not as bad as the media says.Find a nice home, go to work, mind your own business, and enroll your kids ina nice private school. It's as safe a place as anywhere in the world." The guy relaxed and stopped shaking and said, "Oh, thank you. I've been worried to death. But if you live there and say it's OK, I'll take your wordfor it. What do you do for a living?" "I'm a tail gunner on a Budweiser truck."

Logan, I hate to mention this, but how easy is it to take the mast down? With a tree as part of the support, any Tropical Storm or 'Cane could rearrange things in a bad way. Just this morrning, our TSRC software started chewing on tracking solutions for a central Atlantic system (not named yet) located at 10 north by 40 west that looks as if it has southeast to east central Florida in it's path in around 13 to 16 days or so. Way too early to make any predictions, but I'll update in the Weather area if this developing storm becomes an INVEST or a Tropical Depression/Storm.

John - Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. P-G ========

Thanks, Billy - I'm not from the area and can't seem to find if there were any GMRS systems on the Twin Tower roofs. There was a little info about the equipment on top of building # 7, but it didn't list anything specifically GMRS.