WRQC527

I appreciate your taking the time and effort to test these and post the results. I've built both the copper J-pole (but not a slim-jim) and the Ed Fong for two meters. I found that the copper J-pole did better, but it was very susceptible to detuning if there was anything near it. But if you can get these things in the open, they're effective. I hear folks fairly often doing Summits On The Air on 5 watts using Ed Fongs, from 40-50 miles away. Of course, there's people here who don't like anything.

Since I'm in a condo with no option for a permanent antenna, I have it in a go box along with an MFJ-945e manual tuner and an FTM7250. It runs off a 35 ah AGM battery on a maintainer. At home it identifies as a base station with a temporary antenna, but next weekend it will run on solar and identify as a field station.

I'm partial to my Yaesu FT-891. It doesn't do 2 meters or 70 cm, which is fine with me. I have other radios for that. But in my humble opinion, it's the best deal out there for a hundred watt HF/6 meter radio. Also, a friend of mine loves his Xiegu G-90. Cheaper, not as many watts, but you get a built-in tuner, which the FT-891 doesn't have.

We need more information. Take pictures. Provide a model number. Clue us in on what frequencies it's tuned for. A duplexer, to way-oversimplify, is a "filtering" device that, among other uses, allows repeaters to function using a single antenna for transmitting and receiving. They can be fairly valuable.

**Disclaimer** The following is my humble opinion, and may or may not reflect the opinions of the rest of the folks on this site. A couple of things. First, GMRS was never intended for reliable long-range communications. From the FCC website: "The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is a licensed radio service that uses channels around 462 MHz and 467 MHz. The most common use of GMRS channels is for short-distance, two-way voice communications using hand-held radios, mobile radios and repeater systems." That said, some GMRS folks have tried to force GMRS to be a long-range communications tool, with varying degrees of success and questionable legality, using linked repeaters, internet connections, and such. Second, If you are truly interested in exploiting your Baofeng UV-5R to include long-range comms on the cheap, my suggestion is for you and your friend to get your amateur radio technician licenses. Amateur radio has, shall we say, figured out linked repeaters and other methods of linking radios, literally on a global scale. For examples of this, look up the Winsystem at https://www.winsystem.org/ and Echolink at https://www.echolink.org/, both of which will allow you to talk to others long-range on your UV-5Rs These are but two examples. A word of warning though. Linked systems, GMRS, amateur radio, and others, like any other comms, are not 100% reliable. You won't be able to communicate in every grid-down or SHTF situation. If somewhere between you and your friend in Texas there is a break in the link, such as a repeater going off line or the internet going down, game over. Also, some folks here have mentioned HF as a method of comms. The issue is that there is not much along the lines of decent HF gear that isn't going to cost you an arm and a leg. Interstate contacts on HF are definitely not a sure thing, and far from reliable. It all depends on conditions that change literally by the minute.

Lol like Ribbit. Sort of.

It's a serious question. I missed it the first time I took the test, as well as several other questions. It took me three attempts before I finally passed with the required 62.5% correct.

As a condition of selling it? HRO asks me, but it's because I have an account with them, but they ask me for any purchase.

I've never heard of any vendor asking for a call sign before selling a radio. The most I've seen is vendors with a disclaimer that says listen all you want, but amateur and GMRS radios can only be used for transmitting by licensed operators. But I have seen vendors requiring an amateur radio call sign in order to purchase an amplifier that functions on 10 meters because of the potential to use them on 11 meters. Who would ever do such a thing? .

I tend to agree. I generally don't even use GMRS except for repeaters. I'll use MURS simplex if it's just my wife and I. I rarely hear call signs on either simplex amateur 2 meter/70cm or GMRS. Although my amateur radio friends do ID on simplex.

Cornell Law Correct. You must use either voice or Morse code. Those are your two choices. That's what this excerpt from FCC 95.1751 tells us. Also, when you ID, you are not fulfilling an obligation to your fellow licensees. Whether they know CW or not is none of your concern. You are fulfilling your obligation to the folks who issued your license, whose rules you claimed you'd obey when you applied for it. (a) The GMRS station call sign must be transmitted: (1) Following a single transmission or a series of transmissions; and, (2) After 15 minutes and at least once every 15 minutes thereafter during a series of transmissions lasting more than 15 minutes. (b) The call sign must be transmitted using voice in the English language or international Morse code telegraphy using an audible tone.

All four of my amateur repeaters ID with CW. But I do know of several that have voice IDers. And voice messages for nets and time of day. One of them even has the real Dick Van Dyke as the voice.

I don't have a dog in the fight. ID how you want, and truth be told, every crotchety 90-year-old amateur radio operator who thinks CW is the only acceptable method of communicating almost exclusively IDs with CW, but to me it's quicker to just say WRQC527 than it would be to play an audio file that plays "dit dah dah dah dit dah dit dah dah dit dah dah dit dah dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dah dah dah dah dah dit dit dit". Also, call me unenlightened, but where would you find a handheld radio that can transmit an audio file? There is a way to make Baofengs and other CCRs transmit up to a five-digit DTMF string when you key and/or unkey the PTT, (which, by the way, makes a pretty nifty customizable roger beep if you don't like the obnoxious standard-issue Baofeng beep), but as for an entire CW string, I ain't never heard of it. That don't mean it don't exist.

He is the poster child, a classic use case, as it were, for the Ignore User feature of this site. I suggest placing him on your list.

I had a friend in junior high who would have given his left n... I mean he would have given anything to have Wonder Woman's email address. Oh... Wait. That was Lynda Carter, not Linda Carter. And it was 1975.

The folks who say they don't work are the folks who have probably never tried them.

Ask for a signal report. Radio checks are what you ask your wife for when you want yet another radio.

How far are you from the repeater? What kind of radio? Are you outside where your signal isn't trapped in a building or a vehicle? Are there buildings, trees or other obstructions blocking you from the repeater?

The grindr app will definitely help you decide.

A few other questions: What make and model of antenna and radio, how is the antenna mounted, (you say it's a mag mount on a metal pole, perhaps a photograph to show us how), what kind of coax (RG-58, RG-8X, RG-8, LMR-400, that kind of thing.)

Also, ignore @WRYS709. Not only does this person not speak for the rest of us, this person definitely does not speak for mygmrs. Welcome to the site.

Same here. Ours was down here in Fullerton.

I'll bet a hundred million dollars cash that there are probably hundreds of ways you could have answered this person that wouldn't alienate them from further interactions with mygmrs.com.

Come on man, don't leave us hanging.

I firmly believe Echolink is a solution in search of a problem. Same with Allstar. That's just me though.