dosw

Unless you're a superbowl-er. Their AM transmissions require the bandwidth of three CB channels.

President's agenda today: Zoom call with Putin Zoom call with Zalenski Status update on painting the fence black Hurricane hitting the eastern seaboard Tanning spray Touch up the quaffe Redistrict Texas and California voting. Say something to offend the vocal minority. (800 other things) (200 more things) Listen to an update on what letters to the president rose to the level of making it into the report (he's on the treadmill at the same time though) This letter didn't make honorable mention

You're probably accurate on that, but Wikipedia doesn't make it entirely clear that GMRS existed before '87: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mobile_Radio_Service#History

Your radio, your choice, unless your radio is using their radio to retransmit (ie, you're hitting their repeater). When you use someone else's repeater, even one that is almost never used, you should attempt to comply with the repeater owner's requests for how their repeater is used. And if you misstep, just take it in stride when someone helps you to fit in better. It's a silly thing to get hung up on, either way, though. But when you enter a room, you look around to see how people are interacting in that room. A repeater is similar; you read the room first. If the room has largely agreed to not use roger beeps, why be *that guy*?

Oh I've listened across the CB range using an SDR where it's easy to see the spectrum use. And wow, not just channel 6, but a few others are totally overrun with people who have to be causing brown-outs in their towns when they key up. The funny ones are where you see a big swoop across several channels every time they key up, finally landing on their desired channel, which they fill so broadly that they spill over into adjacent channels. The swoop is wild though. What kind of crazy equipment is sweeping through several channels on its way to landing where it is supposed to be?

GMRS came into being in 1987. The FCC officially recommended GMRS channel 20 (462.675 MHz) with a 141.3 Hz tone as a travel channel in 1988. This recommendation was removed in 1999. That means that there has not been an official "the" travel channel in 26 years. Given that's the case -- that the FCC *removed* the recommendation for a travel channel 26 years ago -- "nailed down yet" seems to be wishful thinking. There isn't an official travel channel. There isn't any de facto travel channel. There is the suggestion, from some, that 19 be the travel channel. Its adoption has not reached a critical mass sufficient to make it matter what people suggest and recommend. And north of "Line A", would be irrelevant anyway. In every area I've used GMRS in, there is not much rhyme nor reason to how the channels are used. People turn on their radios, pick a channel, and go. And on almost every paved road in the US where there's any hope that one of the 300k GMRS licensees in the country will happen to be listening within range and willing/able to respond, there is much more likelihood that cell phone service could summon AAA, a tow truck, police, an ambulance, or some other quick-responder in shorter time, with less confusion, and using established and tested infrastructure (cell towers, dispatch systems). The technological climate that existed when a designated travel channel was recommended does not exist today. The only areas lacking cell coverage today are areas with populations so sparse that it's also highly unlikely you'll find someone monitoring 19 within propagation range. If you are in a group, agree to a channel to use.

Amateur radio skews toward being an "old man's hobby." GMRS as a tool in support of family activities skews toward younger, family-activity aged people. But GMRS as a hobby is going to skew toward amateur radio age. Old men talking to random old about the radios they have and antennas they run, as a hobby. If you're using GMRS for skiing, boating, camping, hiking, offroading, that sort of thing, you're "keeping it young." If you're using GMRS to kibitz on forums, run neighborhood nets, talk to people you met through GMRS, you're raising the average age. I'm clearly guilty of kibitzing on GMRS forums. I don't get involved in nets or socializing over the air, I do ski, camp, hike... and I'm younger than some here, and older than others. I'm probably in the middle of the age range on this forum, on the older side of the "activity-oriented" users, and haven't reached the "socializing on 2 way radios" age yet.

Just wait until you try to find one antenna that works on that mount, that covers 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. You'll be quite happy with anything <2.0:1. And yes, it'll work fine.

Having watched the video, he definitely seems like a nice guy who probably just got a little hyperfocused on the things in life that he can control while other things might have been spinning out of control. Impressive, sad, brilliant, messed up. Doc from Back to the Future lives in southern California, I guess. But on the other hand, did you notice that despite the appearance of everything in shambles, his tires were in good shape? That's not a pavement princess / mall crawl vehicle. He maintains what's important to keep mobile and on the air, and lets the rest go.

I think we can now agree that the dangers of RF exposure are real.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the dedication to insanity and unfettered IDGAF displayed in this photo? And now that we've gotten a moment of awe out of the way, what are those antennas, even? Edit: FOUND HIM! https://youtu.be/SKI1W01OelU?si=i9Z5MfgNuvs-4Yib

Putting it on the trailer could get it up higher, at least by a few feet. That probably matters more than the slight difference a few layers of wood and fiberglass contribute toward shadowing the signal that emanates from the truck's antenna. But going from a mount six feet up to a mount ten feet up probably isn't worth the trouble when you have to also add 20 feet more cable. The next problem to contend with would be the ground plane. If it's difficult on a vehicle, it's often even harder on an RV with a fiberglass roof.

Got it... don't tow the trailer near an airforce base!

Thanks for the quick responses.

I was looking for TPMS sensors for my trailer. I found the following on Amazon with good reviews: RV TPMS Sensors Something in the product description caught my attention; the sensors transmit at 433.92MHz, which is in the 70cm amateur band. That raises a couple of questions. First, does the FCC allow for these low-powered short-range devices to operate in the 70cm band? I assume that given the fact they last 6 months of run-time on a set of CR2032 batteries, and obviously couldn't have much of an antenna, that they are very short range and unlikely to cause interference at more than 150 feet. Does the FCC allow them to operate in an Amateur band? Second, will they cause interference to me; if I'm monitoring repeaters within the 70cm band, typically a little higher up in the band, would these interfere? I suppose to answer that question one would have to test. The ARRL band plan shows: 433.00-435.00 Auxiliary/repeater links ...so if these are well behaved they would not interfere with reception of a repeater itself, since they are usually in the 442-445 and 447-450 range. And the only way to be sure these are well behaved is to test with a spectrum analyzer or SDR. As an example, though, I've found that one of the USBC-to-HDMI dongles I use at my home office causes interference in the 440MHz range when I'm within about 30 feet of it -- enough interference with enough tertiary spikes that some of the 70cm band is unmonitorable to me when I'm too close to this adapter.