WRTT642

Yeah, I have the Icom ID-52a and I absolutely love it. I also quite enjoy D-Star and run it with a hotspot and it works great. This new Kenwood has some features that the Icom doesn't which has me so interested in it. As much as I love my ID52 I would very much be happy with going over to the D75a if it really does have all these features, the only thing that would hold me back is if they are asking some outrageous price. I won't pay more than want I did for my icom and that thing was as high as I would go for a HT.

It is my understanding it is a tri-band HT. Not sure if the FT5dr is, and also does Dstar, but again that depends if you like Dstar over YSF, which personally I do yet that's a subjective issue and with the hotspots out today you can basically do most digital anyway for the most part. I think it looks great and am very interested to learn more about its capabilities. Hopefully, they will showcase at hamvention so we can learn some more about it.

Heard about the new Kenwood TH-D75A and saw it posted on gigaparts. Was curious about your guy's thoughts on it. I am seriously considering getting it as I always wanted the D74, but was unwilling to pay the inflated prices for a used HT. What say you all?

There is a N.C club page under the clubs tab. Maybe check in with them and see what you can find out. Hope this helps.

Glad to have you here. I am new to this as well, but there are some very knowledgeable people on here and that live in Alaska. I live out in Meadow Lakes so not too far from you. If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Awesome! Good job sir, thank you!

Yeah, I would still like to, but it seems like everyone here is too busy at this time. Maybe in the summer might be better, but I am up for meeting in Eagle River.

Really? I did not know that. I will look into it. If you find out anything more please let us know.

Hello all, I was just curious, what radio do you all use for your daily driver? How do you typically use it? I know there are hams on here as well, so I would be curious if any of you hams have MARS modded radios and use it to monitor GMRS/MURS/FRS while using it for ham activities? I have a MARS mod Icom ID-52a and use it for regular ham and Dstar activities, but I also like to scan the GMRS/MURS/FRS channels while I am in town. When out camping and hiking with family I have four Baofeng UV-9G's that I give to my wife and kids so we can all talk together and also so I don't have to use my Icom and risk it getting broken while out in the Alaskan wilderness. So, what radios do you use on a daily basis and do any of you hams use modded radios to listen to GMRS/MURS/FRS channels?

Hello everyone, Hope you all are having a fun and safe winter. So, a couple of us had made mention of all of us getting together and finding ways that we can all work together and get as many repeaters up and running as possible and getting to know each other more and our areas of expertise and what equipment we are all running etc. If any of you would like to meet up next Friday which will be the 17th of February please let me know. Or what day would be good for you guys. I am not sure where everyone is located and I want to make this as inclusive as possible for everyone. I know some of you are in Anchorage and Eagle River and some of us are out here in the Valley, I would like to get a consensus from everyone as to who would like to meet up, what day works best, what time, and where. If anyone here in the Valley needs transportation or want to car pool I don't mind picking a few people up. If we can all work together we can get this done. I was thinking of maybe meeting up at a Starbucks or something similar so we can have a coffee and snack. I would say maybe 2 hour slot will be great, if we need to leave early that is fine or if we want to hang out longer then that would be great too, but again, I would really like some feed back from you guys to see what everyone thinks about this. So please leave you comments below on what you think about meeting up and the specifics of it.

Welcome! I'm glad you found our little group here. I am completely new to radio for the most part. I first received my GMRS license last year then I took the amateur radio test and passed the technician exam. So I do both now which I love doing. I am still trying to learn more about radios and how they operate as well as repeaters and antennas. I recently joined my local ham club here in the Valley called MARA, and I met some really nice people that have helped me out with understanding radio more. Recently went to club meeting a couple days ago and it went great and made some new friends. I really hope to maybe get all of us together here soon, we talked about maybe meeting up mid February, and we can all bring our radios and start getting something going with getting repeaters up and running to connect us all together. I will make some more post about it and start contacting everyone by the end of the first week of February. Hopefully there will be a day we can all meet up. Seems like you have a lot more experience in this then myself which I am open to any feed back you might have on how to accomplish a common goal here in Alaska. Any knowledge you have will be very valuable to us all so please feel free to post on here as much as you like. I stay up on the site and active a lot more now. Hope to hear from you more and any ideas you might have will be much appreciated. As myself being so new to radio there is a lot I am still learning and any knowledge you can pass on will be greatly appreciated and this goes for anyone else in our club. Sounds like everyone of you have more experience than me in this field so please feel free everyone to post ideas, thoughts, and comments on how we can get something going. Even though I started this club I don't take it as I am the owner of it, this is a group effort and see everyone of you as equal owners.

I'm game. It will have to be in a couple weeks though. I have a A LOT of stuff going on right now, but maybe sometime mid February? That should be enough time for everybody to think about it and get it planned. What do you think?

? Not sure if anyone will buy that.

Interesting ?

LOL. Cant wait to see the responses to this one. This is gonna be fun. I agree with you to a point. I am licensed for both amateur and GMRS and I use both quite a bit, some days one more than the other, and I can see what you are saying to an extent. I have made some great relationships with some really solid guys on ham and there are some really great people that are doing some really good work on expanding the capabilities of amateur radio, BUT with that being said I have been doing a lot of digital work lately and I can say that I have also came across some really, umm, how do I say this nicely, "sad hams" as they are so called. People who are angry for unknown reasons and are quick to "correct" you and have really bad attitudes for no apparent reason. I have also come across some guys that were clearly intoxicated and were a bit of a nuisance, but they usually get called out really quick by other more experienced guys. GMRS is great are there are some really cool people on their as well, but I don't see the two being equivalent, they both are tools to use for the job that needs to be done. So far my experience with GMRS over the air has been fine and haven't had any issues with the few people I have come across on it, they have all been respectful and nice. So I think it is just a numbers game. You meet way more people over a greater distance on amateur than you do on GMRS. I can not speak on CB as I have never personally used it, but I have heard stories. Both are great, I have had more issues with people being "sad hams" on amateur than I have had issues over GMRS, but that simply is because I have talked to a lot more random people over ham than GMRS. I am sure there are jerks in GMRS too, I just haven't met them. Yet, lol. Thanks for the post.

Let me say thank you for all you do. I became a premium member shortly after joining because personally I felt like I was stealing from you guys with as much resources you have on here. All the help and info I have received on this site and then even being able to start a page for my state has been great. We have some really good guys up here in Alaska and they are really getting us caught up with the rest of the states which I am so grateful for. I don't mind volunteering and helping you with whatever you need, but I don't know how much help I can be still being so new to radios, but I'm always willing to help others if I can. Thank you again sir!

Welcome sir! Thank you for all our time and expertise as well as putting the equipment up. We much appreciate it. I drove down to Palmer the other day and tried to access it, but i couldn't get through to it. Maybe I will give it a try tomorrow. If you would like I would love meeting up with you and talking more about this subject or maybe a phone call. I am still learning all about this and I would love to talk to someone who is further down the road than I am. If you need any help with anything give me a holler and Ill see what I can do to help out. There are others here that are trying to get things running out here in the Valley as well as Anchorage. If we all work together we can really get a good net going that can cover South Central. There are also some up in Fairbanks as well as the slope which I found interesting. Anyway, keep us updated and let us know what we can do to help!

I am cool with that, not sure if there are other arrangements with other users, anybody is welcomed to chime in on their thoughts or ideas on this.

Good info! So, I have heard rumors of one being out on Flat Top, but I have not been able to confirm that personally. Getting something out on JBER would be great, but umm yeah good luck with that I guess lol. We have one the has recently popped up in Palmer and another member here is going to get one up out in the KGB area more towards Wasilla, so hopefully we can get something going to connect the Valley together. I am trying to work on getting one up and running for out here in the Big Lake/Houston area, but the only I problem I see trying to connect Anchorage to the Valley is that Baldy is kinda in the way lol. That is unless getting one up on top of Baldy, but again good luck with that lol. Maybe getting something out on the hay flats are connecting something down KGB towards Point Mac and we can jump Knik Arm, but I'm not sure how powerful it would need to be, but if we could get something like that then we can bypass Eagle River and connect Anchorage and the Valley.

Thanks for the info update. Please let me know when next one is I will try to make a point to having to get out there and jump on it.

Hey, have you gone out to Palmer yet and try that repeater? I asked creator for access, but I got no response. Also, let me know what I can do to help you out on that build you got going, if I can do anything I don't mind to help you since we live about 5 miles from each other lol. I need nothing in return.

Hmmm, good catch. Thank you for the info. I do not have Facebook so that is helpful information. Did anyone make mention of any repeaters that are up in Anchorage that are active that IS NOT on my list of repeaters? There should be one up in Eagle River, but not sure what you are using for radio or how far south you are in Anchorage. I live in the Valley and do not go to Anchorage all that often so I do not know for sure. I am planning on driving around here soon and trying out all the repeaters that I do know of to double check their statues. If you can give some updates on Anchorage that would be great.

100% correct!

Presumptuous of you to make such a comment about my respect of rules. Seeing that I have received both my GMRS license and my amateur radio technician license before ever transmitting over any of those radios respective to their use. As well as making mention on numerous occasions of myself informing others that they should have a license before transmitting on said radios. My initial comment was about my experience with GMRS and now amateur radio. I saw that many others have given their own stories and experience with radios, so I felt that it would be ok for me to put in my own story and experience. I do come on here to be apart of a community of individuals who hold the same interest. Is that not ok with you? Or do you want only those who agree with you to comment on here? Is it not ok with you to disagree on certain subjects? I will say this again as clearly as I possibly can. Should you have a license to transmit on GMRS and amateur radio? Yes. Do I agree with that? No. Do I have a valid GMRS and amateur radio license? Yes, WRTT642 & KL5LD. Am I going to tell people that you should have a license to transmit on GMRS and amateur radio? Yes. Will I berate or harass or report or degrade or ignore or dismiss or harm or hurt or threaten anybody who chooses to use these radios without a license? ABSOLUTLEY NOT. Will I encourage and uplift and strengthen and cultivate and teach every person I know everything I know about radios regardless of their license statues? ABSOLUTEY YES. So, I hope this clears up this issue and if I see anybody talk about this subject on this forum on this website, which I do pay money for the premium service, then I will continue to respectfully give my two cents on the matter. It is that simple. If you want to block me, then go right on ahead I don't mind, that is your choice, but I will not block you. If you want to try to get me banned from this forum, then please by all means go ahead and do so if you think I am such a nuisance to disagree with you or others on this subject. If I get banned then fine, I would rather not have that happen because I do enjoy very much coming on here and meeting new people and having these conversations and to continue to keep up on the club I made for my state, but so be it. But do not think for one second that I will just bow to you or anybody else when it comes to this subject and fall in line because I will not. Let us agree to disagree. BTW, Frozen is not a silly movie nor is the song Let It Go. It is an amazing movie and song that my daughters adore as do I and my son and my wife and quite literally tens of thousands if not millions of other people. What I find interesting is that you would say my daughters are silly little girls whom you don't even know then again to presume that this movie and song is only for silly little girls. Not very progressive of you and to be quite honest is a very rude and disrespectful statement to make on the gender role stereotypes of these type of movies and your gender inequality language. Please be a little more respectful next time. Thank you and good luck to you on your thesis.

Sounds good. Come back on tomorrow and see if you can hook up with any of the other members. I believe a couple of them live in Anchorage and Eagle River so maybe they can make a contact with you over the repeater. I plan on doing some meet ups once all this snow goes away, would be great to meet all you guys.