dosw

Ah, from my phone I got a "Page doesn't exist", from the computer I see more information, including the link you mentioned. Thanks.

Page doesn't exist. Post contains no commentary. Is there a point?

What radio are you using, what software, and what means of trying to program it are you using? Do you have access to the manual?

The license applies to you and your family. All of you can use it without any different restrictions than you, as the license owner, would have. They can talk to people on repeaters just like you can. When you and your family members are using the same, public repeater, it's often courteous to identify with some suffix to help make it clear who's talking: WSDG735 A, B, C, or WSDG735 Home, Mobile, Cabin, Boat, whatever. That's not required. It's just a courtesy. The minimum requirement is that each operator identify initially and every fifteen minutes thereafter, and you can all identify with the same license number.

Got it. Larry H Miller Ford dealership / service department in Draper. Some of the names he called out are people who are listed on the dealership's website. That puts him almost centrally located at 5 miles from my home, and 7 miles from Herriman. To be getting out with that amount of power he can't be using FRS. The call-outs are probably coming from that booth in front.

You're just on the other side of the Valley from me. Set a radio to 18 with CTCSS of 127.3 and see if you hear this guy. It's 3 to 10 such calls per hour so you may have to be a little patient.

Earlier I attributed this to a school's drop-off line, but I just hadn't listened carefully enough. It's a mechanic: mechanic.mp3 This goes on all day, from a few minutes before 8am, until around 4pm. Channel 18. It's probably a PepBoys (3.1 miles). I hear them from my kids' school, too. That's over 3 miles in a different direction. I suppose it's possible that it's not even handheld, in which case it could be any one of hundreds of mechanics across the valley. Too bad they're using channel 18. My guess is they could do this all over 500mw on channel 8, and not muddy up a repeater output frequency with this. On the other hand, I wish everyone were so enthusiastic about their work!

You probably mean MXTA26, which is still my primary antenna on the vehicle. I'm using the Comet in a different application where I wanted dual-band without compromising tooooo much in GMRS. It's the first one that gets my antenna count in this application down to one. If I had to rank the antennas I've tried on GMRS performance I would go with Midland MXTA26 (6dbi) > Laird TE B4505CN (5dbi, NGP) > Comet CA-2X4SR-NMO (6.2dbi) > HYS SDN1-T (3dbi) > Midland MXTA25 (3dbi) > Midland MXTA13 (2.1dbi). But that's just ranking how I sound from 3-miles away on simplex as well as some signal reports from distant repeater users. Each of these have their own strengths. The MXTA26 is just a good solid antenna, 32 inches tall. The B4505CN is a pretty solid "no ground plane" antena. Good signal reports, good SWR without a ground plane. The 2X4SR is not bad at GMRS, and also good in MURS and Marine VHF ranges. The SDN1-T is only 17.7 inches long, and works pretty good for closer-in repeaters, not great over longer distances across the city. The MXTA25 is so compact and doesn't draw much attention, still working alright given its form factor, and the MXTA13 is perfect to keep in the glovebox or put on the packing list in case of an NMO mount failure. Lightweight, it travels easy.

Well, for that to go anywhere it would be a year or so of petitions, a couple years of hearings, and a couple years before manufacturers start making radios with the new pairs (of course those with chirp or proprietary software for programming will not need to wait). But even with new pairs, and software, a lot of radios aren't going to transmit outside of today's GMRS frequencies. They're not supposed to be easily modifiable, right?

Mine arrived today. I tested it on my vehicle; at 462.xxxx and 467.xxxx it produced SWRs between 1.1-1.35:1. It was better than expected. Mounted on a magnetic mount on my super-sketchy window air conditioner it produced SWRs between 1.01 and 1.3:1 in the 462&467 range, and 1.01-1.5:1 in the VHF range. I haven't tested fars yet, but really I don't need to. It's going to be just fine for my needs. It's so true that this is a big, heavy, ugly antenna, by some definitions of ugly. I don't mind it. I also tested it on both MURS and GMRS frequencies mounted on a camera tripod with a GPK-01 ground plane kit. With the kit its SWR at MURS frequencies was still 1.1-1.3;1. And at GMRS frequencies things got a little worse, like 1.7-1.8:1. Without the GPK-01 ground plane kit, mounted on a camera tripod, it was more like 1.7-1.8:1 in the VHF range, and 2.4:1 in the GMRS range. Great antenna. I'm glad I got it. At some point I'd like to do a shootout of the antennas I've collected: MXTA13, MXTA25, MXTA26, HYS SDN1-T, Laird TE B4505CN, and this CA-2X4SR-NMO antenna. If anyone has parameters or methodologies they'd like to see, let me know. I can toss the GPK-01 ground plane kit into the mix as well, if we want. For mounts, I have that kit, plus a hood lip mount (positioned such that I have at least seven inches of vehicle body steel all around), and a magnetic mount.

I connected the SWR meter to a one-foot RG8X coax connected to the back of the radio. And the antenna side is connected to the MXTA26 with the hood mount NMO connector that comes with way too much of whatever cable Midland supplies with that hood lip mount. But again, near 40w at the 462+ range, and 27w on the 467+ range, the repeater inputs. Anyway, it barely matters, or doesn't matter. Just a weird thing. I'll need to test with a dummy load sometime.

Why does your poor quality video show a DC power supply, then? This is what is shown in the video: https://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-PS9KX-Universal-Regulated-Converter/dp/B0002BA570?th=1 That's a DC power supply, supplying DC power from the AC mains. But to respond to @WSBR383, that power supply is 13.8v, which is outside of the specs he showed us for the GMRS-RPT50. So something that @justin10 hasn't grokked yet is that he's powering the repeater 1.3v above its specified input voltage range. I rather doubt that matters so much, but it is one thing to consider. Does the problem go away if you hook it directly up to a 12v battery?

You get to decide whether you see chronological or vote-based sorting:

Reviews for this antenna seem to be generally very good. It comes in two versions: the PL-259 version, and the NMO version (CA-2X4SRNMO). Both versions are foldable. The antenna is marketed as broad multi-band, with a pretty wide VHF frequency range, and a wide UHF frequency range: Dualband: VHF and UHF 140-160 MHz / 435-465 MHz VSWR: Less than 2:1 / Gain: 3.8/6.2dBi / Max Power: 150W FM My question is how does it perform at 467.5500-467.7250. It's supposed to achieve <2:1 SWR at up to 465MHz, but 467.7250 is almost 3MHz outside of that spec. My MXTA26, mounted on my vehicle, gets a 1.4:1 SWR in the 462.xxxx range, and 1.1:1 SWR in the 467.xxxx range. So it's almost impossibly good for working repeaters, as far as mobile antennas go. How does the CA-2X4SR compare? https://www.amazon.com/Comet-Original-CA-2X4SR-140-160-435-465/dp/B00HVGQZ9G My Laird/TE B4505CN (5dbi) is in the 1.15-1.35:1 SWR range across the 426.xxxx and 467.xxxx range. And the HYS SDN1-T (3dbi) is in the 1.1-1.3 SWR range throughout the 462.xxxx and 467.xxxx frequencies, also when mounted on my vehicle.

Capital (15 miles) and Ogden (43 miles) are no problem for me. I'm a mile west of Wasatch near Little Cottonwood Road (near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon) at 5080 feet elevation. The Capital repeater is on Ensign Peak, so good elevation, and the Ogden repeater is on Mount Ogden -- also good elevation.

I tested today with my SWR meter again, and found the power output levels to be relatively higher than predicted in the software. CHIRP, for example, lists the levels as: L/L1: 5w L2: 10w L3: 15w M: 20w H: 40w In reality they came in at the following, on channels 15-22: L/L1: 4.9w L2: 10.8w L3: 18.5w M: 26.2w H: 38.4w That, with an SWR of <1.4 with my MXTA26 antenna. And that was with the vehicle shut off, so the input voltage was 12.5v, not 13.8. At "engine running" voltage (14.3v on my vehicle) it should be very close to 40w on high. However, when I switch over to repeater channels, the output power on high drops to 29w across the board. Something about the 467.xxxx range that the radio doesn't want to output close to its full 40w. But also, in the 467 range, the SWR with the MXTA26 drops to better than 1.1:1 in my installation. It probably doesn't much matter that I'm losing 10w transmitting on repeater inputs, but I'd still like to know why.

Anyway, that's not GMRS. On GMRS I enjoy when I hear traffic on the Promontory repeater, because I believe that's 63 miles from my house, and with the right $60 antenna, sounds like it's next door. That's on 462.700 / 21R. I've hit it with a UV5G with an external antenna, though I get a lot better signal report when I hit it with a mobile at a little higher power.

I picked up this one: https://utahvhfs.org/cgi-bin/rptdtl.cgi?Nr=366 It's listed as "Scott's Peak", which I think is actually Scott's Hill, northeast of Brighton, west of Park City. But the repeater list calls its location "Brighton." Snowbird is different: https://utahvhfs.org/cgi-bin/rptdtl.cgi?Nr=124 -- A 2m repeater on Hidden Peak.

You got some winners, there. Last night on a 70cm repeater I overheard a net that was mostly mapped over to VHF, with people checking in from Vegas/Nevada, Montana, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho. The strange thing was that the repeater I was receiving this net on was based at Brighton, Utah, which is a ski resort; not one of the "big" repeaters near the city. They must have a very well placed antenna to be able to tie into a relatively spread-out network of repeaters from 19 miles up the canyon in the mountains. The "tarzan call" guy is pretty annoying. Every morning from about 7:50 through 8:00am he shouts sort of singing war cries on GMRS 18. They're mostly impossible to understand, though they mention the time. I think today I heard him say "Ashton it's almost 8AM!!!" (in a singing / shouting tone of voice). And then a little later, "It's 8:00am, Ashton!!!" (along with more chanting and singing). I think he is his son's alarm clock, and GMRS or FRS is his tool. But the signal is strong for several miles. I'm often driving my kids to an activity they participate in daily at this time, and I hear him equally well whether I'm a few miles to the north of my home, or a few miles to the south -- stronger than I would expect FRS to carry. If you're this guy, and you're reading this, please switch to channel 12; that sort of thing doesn't need to be transmitted at more than 500mw.

I had some old 2001 FRS Motorola radios where, all devices configured with the same call tone could be made to vibrate when the call tone came through (even with volume off). Those were the only radios where the button potentially served a purpose other than to amuse seven year olds.

I like this one: https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/ And it agrees with your calculation, assuming a 1:1 SWR. As I tinker with different antennas and cables, I find that I get 1.1-1.5 SWR with all of my antennas when properly mounted with a ground plane. So if you have a perfectly acceptable 1.5SWR your power to the antenna is estimated to be 5.7 on that calculator. The calculator doesn't take into account loss through connectors. There will be a little, there. If you put a 5.1DBd antenna on there you would have an ERP of about 18.5, again minus a little for connectors.

What's 'pro' about this one versus the UV-5G? Just curious. It looks exactly the same.

Event coordination -- not big professional events, just school and summer camp kinds of events. Lots of road construction: "The last car through will be the red Nissan. Ok clear to send." Lots of building construction: Pasame el martillo cuando termines, por favor. or Drop that load of lumber along the side of the property. A local flower nursery: Can you unpack the pallet? We have someone here who needs potting soil. Some local go-kart raceway. Lots of kids playing walkie-talkie. Roger beeps, call beeps and chirps, talking over each other, shrieking, feedback. Some guy on 18 doing a Tarzan call followed by "Good morning everyone!" every morning around 8am, with no response. A guy going hour after hour on one of the local repeaters. Nothing wrong with that -- if people are engaging and communicating with him, it must be interesting to them. But it tends to tie up the repeater between two people talking almost back to back without pause for a half hour or an hour at a time. Nobody knows the repeater's owner, from what I've heard. But it is extremely well placed, with a strong, high quality signal that covers the entire metro area. Radio checks and signal reports. Repeater nets, and simplex nets. The simplex nets are local neighborhoods doing a sort of emergency preparedness drill every week. DXing repeaters -- Last week there was a guy who went way out onto a mountain in the "west desert" to do some HF DX-ing, but also checked in with a local repeater to run a net just because it was interesting to see how it would work out. But the overwhelming majority of what I hear is kids playing with radios, and construction of some form. Why do I listen? More interesting, while driving around, than listening to the FM stereo radio in my car. And somewhat mind-numbing background noise as I work from home as a programmer.

I'm just following up to confirm, the 6/14/2024 release of Chirp Latest contains the bugfix for the RA87 scan modes. If you start up Chirp today, it will suggest downloading the newest version, and that version will have this bugfix. When I looked over the code I saw that it was probably a one line fix in the driver, suggested the patch. The author acknowledged that it was suitable, applied it, I tested it, and then they rolled it out and closed the bug report.

Your other posts mention a couple of Wouxton radios; KG1000G and an 805G. Those are both nice radios, but I've never seen a two-way radio that scans anywhere near as fast as a dedicated handheld or desktop scanner like even a basic Uniden BC125. A scanner like that would scan through 100 memory slots in two to four seconds. Things slow down if there's traffic, of course, and even if you've got PL tones set on the scanner, it has to pause long enough to hear the tone. So there are limits. But a dedicated scanner from 20 years ago will beat most two-way radios in scan mode.