WRQC527

The Indian navy intercepted and freed the crew of an Iranian fishing boat yesterday off Somalia that was commandeered by pirates. On display appears to be the gear confiscated from said pirates. I'm interested to know about what appears to be some kind of ham transceiver. Hard to tell what it is, but it does bring new meaning to the term "pirate radio".

Welcome, James.

My wife is 100% cool with any radio purchase I make. As I am with her non-essentials. If I try to hide any radio purchases, or any purchases, for that matter, the most likely group that could offer me help would be something along the lines of Parents Without Partners.

Before you go throwing any radios in the trash based on some smart-ass who says it sounds like it came from K-mart or Radio Shack, tell us exactly what model of Anytone radio you have and how you are trying to use it. (Location, distance from the smart-ass, that kind of thing.) It's possible your issues can be solved before you dump more money in.

What kind of scofflaw user would dare try to increase power over the legal FCC maximums?

Although I personally have yet to buy anything, take a look at Mercari. There's a lot of radio gear in addition to pretty much everything else you can (legally) imagine. It's not an auction site, it's more Poshmark-like, FB Marketplace-ish, or OfferUp-esque.

Dude has only 10 posts (at the time of this post) and he's already on multiple ignore lists. Is that a record?

You're right about the PO box option. Many people I know, many people I look up on QRZ.com, and my own club repeater, N6CRA, all have PO boxes instead of street addresses. But these days, even without the help of the FCC, anyone can Google your name and probably find out where you live, and buttloads of other information you probably didn't even know was out there. Displaying your name on the FCC database isn't giving people any confidential information, it's just making things a little easier for them.

I didn't see anything for a "plus" model. Perhaps it is what you're looking for. Hope it helps. https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/2AJGM-UV5G

I use GMRS primarily to contact my wife when I'm out of cell service range, which happens frequently in our local mountains here in southern California. For me and many others, I use GMRS as a communications tool, and I use amateur radio for both a communications tool and socially.

What's wrong with leaving FRS/GMRS as is? "Listening to the people" implies that there is a majority of the hundreds of thousands of FRS/GMRS folks out there who have come to the conclusion that FRS/GMRS is flawed because it doesn't include the scenarios you put forth. Does that majority exist?

One more time. What is the make and model of the radio you are using in your truck, and what is the make and model of the antenna on your truck?

No reason to keep the brand out. Also, if you are using a quad-band ham radio antenna on GMRS, you may have problems. It's a rare antenna that can do both GMRS and amateur 70cm. An antenna that has low SWR in the amateur radio frequency range will likely have high(er) SWR in the GMRS frequency range, and vice-versa.

No such thing as a stupid question. And being a machinist, you're probably smarter than half the people here. Describe for us, if you will, your setup. Radio make and model, antenna make and model, how it's all mounted, wired, that kind of thing. More info from you = better answers from MyGMRS.

I've had mine for about 3 years now. One thing I did that really helped was to go through the TX audio settings and fine-tune them. There's lots of sources online that people have shared.

I personally know two people who use their business addresses on FCC records. At least they're reasonably sure no one will show up at their house. I agree though, the FCC posting your street address with your license isn't the best idea.

I've been using my 25-year-old old (inherited) MFJ-259 that does up to about 170 mhz for HFand VHF. For VHF and UHF I use my Diamond SX-40C. I also have a NanoVNA, but I've found that it reads a little higher than my other devices. It has its place though and I use it often. And in fact, when we were at my repeater site last month, my friend's Comet analyzer was useless. It was so affected by all the RF from the dozens of repeaters at the site that we couldn't get any decent readings. My Diamond meter worked just fine. Sometimes simple is what is needed.

You seem angry. I think you need some alone time.

But it was me who quoted the words "victimless crime" and said there's no such thing as a victimless crime. Thus agreeing with you.

That escalated quickly. I'm not sure what you're so fired up about.

There's no such thing.

I think you should be able to set it up on a per-channel basis. I have a pair of Baofeng UV-82s that I set up with two channels. One channel has PTT-ID, one doesn't. I set them up in CHIRP within the channel settings. I wouldn't be so bold as to say this is how all radios with PTT-ID work, but that's my experience.

I live in a condo where I can't set up a permanent antenna, but I set up my very simple homebrew ground-mounted HF antenna on the common area grass outside my condo similar to a Wolf River Coil setup. I normally do 10-40 meters. I've got some decent DX contacts and a lot of contacts in Canada and the U.S. I just can't leave it set up. The neighbors sometimes ask but they all think it's pretty cool.

Technically, hams shouldn't respond to folks transmitting without identifying with a valid call sign if they know a person is unlicensed. The reason being that they would be violating FCC regulations the same as the person transmitting. That said, the FCC probably isn't going to do anything about it unless they get complaints. But there are self-proclaimed amateur radio enforcers who will berate and otherwise confront folks transmitting without a license. Personally, my life has no room for such things, and it's easier to ignore them.

I have a 35 Ah AGM battery powering my base station (Amateur HF/VHF/UHF and GMRS) that sits on a 4 amp battery charger/maintainer 24/7. I have a pair of solar panels worth about 15 watts that will keep it charged if needed. All of the components came from Harbor Freight.