WRQC527

There's nothing wrong with these amplifiers. There are some valid use cases. Like if you need the power but you don't have anywhere in your car to mount a mobile radio, or if you want to use the same handheld both in the car and when you're walking around. Mount the amplifier under the seat or someplace out of sight where it gets airflow. I run a Yaesu FT60 amateur radio in a cupholder mount with a magnetic mount antenna when I drive my wife's Kia Soul. The five watts is fine around town but it would be nice to have that amplifier under the seat.

Unless it consumes a significant portion of the savings on your insurance you get by using that app, get a cheap burner phone so you don't need to use the phone your app is loaded on. Seems easier than trying to find a repeater with autopatch.

The same thing applies with mobiles. Midland mobiles can be expensive, like $400 expensive, and they get mixed reviews here. In fact, some folks hate them, and they're not shy about letting us know. But there are cheaper mobile options, under $200, that people love.

More expensive doesn't always mean better or more capable. I had a pair of Midland GTX1000VP4s that retail for about $80 a pair. I got them new in the box at Goodwill for much less, but my Baofeng UV5Rs are half the price and more capable. Much better battery life, repeater-capable, the list goes on.

I'll second that. My UV-5Rs transmit just fine, but they have the worst receivers of any of my HTs. Same thing with my Juentai JT-6188 mobile (KT-8900 clone). Not only are the receivers deaf, they have extremely poor adjacent channel rejection. My JT-6188 is unusable as a mobile radio. I stick to my Yaesus for any important comms.

My wife and I are the only ones who use my call sign. We refer to each other as Popeye and Olive Oyl. So far, the FCC has not said a word.

Not really amplify, but the cookie sheet acts as a counterpoise. Your HT typically puts out about 5 watts, and the counterpoise helps to get more of that 5 watts out by providing the other half of the antenna, so to speak. The same as the roof of your vehicle would if you put the antenna on the roof. The antenna on your HT is essentially half the antenna, the other half is the metal under the antenna. Or if you're carrying your HT, your body is the counterpoise. Antenna theory is a big subject. It's sometimes hard to explain, but by God, people here will try. My suggestion would be to read up on it from sources like the ARRL, and check out KB9VBR's YouTube channel, KE0OG's channel, and others.

There's a couple of ways to do that. First, assuming the stock antenna on your HT is removeable, (not all are), you can replace it with a better one. Many folks here will pontificate on what that might be. Second, you can attach an external antenna to the radio with a few feet of coax and mount it to the roof of your vehicle, or a cookie sheet, etc.

H.A.M. (or HAM) isn't an acronym. It's a word. Ham. Like you've read, its origins are sort of varied. The reason some people here use H.A.M. or HAM is to irritate ham radio operators. Some folks here are openly hostile toward ham radio operators. It's an inferiority complex or something, I don't know.

Back when drive-through covid tests were a thing, I heard the clinic two blocks away coordinating from the parking lot to their office.

Yep, and a uniform and a ticket book.

Your friend is wise. Remember though, while your immediate family is covered by your license, everyone in your party who isn't covered by your GMRS license needs their own license. But if you are using amateur radio to keep in contact with other people in your party, everyone needs their own amateur radio license. No free lunch for your immediate family. Not everyone wants to take a test. That's the beauty of GMRS. You don't have to know much. You just need $35 for a license, and maybe $30 for a radio.

I never noticed before. He has three hands. Or at least three arms. I can't see the third hand.

Technically you're not connecting to anything when you communicate through a repeater, linked or otherwise. It's more like you're accessing it, if you will. The repeaters are what are networked, so when you transmit into a networked repeater, your transmission is coming out of whatever repeaters or nodes are networked with it. And folks accessing those repeaters are doing the same thing, so you can hear them. No need for any extra work on your part.

I'm convinced that the reason some people want this kind of thing to pass is that they refuse to differentiate between a radio that doesn't take your eyes off the road and a smart phone that requires you to often look away and type. Therefore, their logic is "If I can't use my device, no one can." Followed immediately by "nerny nerny nerny".

Is this test graded on a curve?

Coconino County in Arizona tried this about ten years ago. Enough amateur radio operators and truckers got together and pushed to eventually get the law changed to exempt mobile radios. Also, here in California, we've been dealing with hands-free laws that are vague about mobile radios and loosely-interpreted by law enforcement, and at one point a memo was issued to the California Highway Patrol that said mounted radios with wired hand microphones are not considered wireless devices. It's all very convoluted across the country, and even from one city or county to another. But in the 12 years I've been an amateur radio operator, I've never had law enforcement give me a second (or first) look when I'm using my radios, even when they're right next to or behind me. Only one friend of mine was pulled over, and the officer let him go when he realized it was a ham radio micophone he was holding.

The funny thing is that if you enter this young man's name into the Google search engine, you can come up with a lot more information than just his address. Where he went to school, who his fellow students were, when he graduated, where he works, when he started, what his job title is, his baseball stats, his college activities, other business he's involved with, I mean this guy's life is an open book. And that was with about two minutes of searching. I'm not saying it's cool to put every GMRS license on a publicly accessible map without at least asking them, but let's be real... all someone needs is your name.

From all the information I've read over the last few minutes, it appears that whatever offer DX Engineering made was rejected. Who knows, maybe they or someone else might finally work something out, but for now whatever is left of MFJ after next month will be a shell of its former self. It's going to be a bunch of MFJ-branded imports.

Maybe MFJ can be "parted out" to save the brands. All those different companies under one umbrella must be hard to manage as a whole and still stay profitable.

Direct to the battery with fuses is widely spoken of as very effective, because it's most likely the cleanest power you'll get. Some radio manufacturers put fuses on both the positive and negative leads as well, rather than just one. Putting a switch in the curcuit is a good idea so you can completely remove power from the radio. Some radios draw current even when they're turned off. I found this out when my QYT KT8900 killed my go box AGM battery in about a week, so far down it wouldn't charge. I also have an inline filter that I built. I've included the link below. It filters out almost all alternator noise. http://www.sanantoniohams.org/tips/whine.htm

I'm not sure how the FCC communicates your new license to you these days, it's been a couple of years since I got mine, and several years since I got my amateur call, but you can check daily on their site: https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchGmrs.jsp Just type in your FRN and click on the search button, and if your license has been issued, it will show up. The FCC database normally updates once a day, overnight, so check in the morning.

Thanks Steve, yes there's not a huge cost difference, and I probably won't roll the dice on the cheapest coax. Some budget coax is definitely budget for a reason. I make do with my RG-8X when I need to set up a temporary base antenna. Obviously not ideal.

I'm curious if anyone here has experience with Bolton400 coax. I'm looking to upgrade to 50 feet of an LMR400-type coax. I don't want to cheap out, and $1.20 a foot seems a little too good to be true, but this coax gets decent ratings. I know there's other brands out there, but for a budget like mine, and maybe some other folks out here, I want to keep the cost down. https://www.amazon.com/Bolton400-Cable-Coaxial-Commercial-Installations/dp/B07YBJRBW7/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&th=1

My Quantar lets you talk over the IDer but if you interrupt it before it gets the entire ID out, it will keep trying every minute or so until it IDs completely. Once it IDs completely it won't ID again for ten minutes.