WRUE951

i had a homemade J-Pole on my portable RV repeater set up and was always impressed with it.. Then for some reason i decided to try a Midland MXA w/ground plane kit.. Although always afraid to admit it, my home brew J-pole performed better and about $160 bu bucks cheaper.. I also get better SWR with the J-Pole and probably why it performs better..

So I wake up this morning i get an alarm from my repeater. (High SWR) So i go to check out what's going on.. My antenna (Hustler G6-450) is buckled sitting at 2 o-clock.. What the hell????? Then at the base of the mast I see a bunch of large black bird feathers, but no bird, just feathers, looking like Raven feathers... So it looks like a G*d D*mn bird hit my antenna and destroyed it ($500 bucks).. I have never ever heard this happening... Mind Blowing.. Now i'm looking to re-order and i'm seeing everyone charging nearly $200 for shipping on these things.. WTH.. Sipping cost really that high.. Looks like its time for a trip to Vega..

you are better off getting a Duplexer and i recommend getting from www.Buytwowayradios.com. Make sure to have them tune Duplexer to the Ch. you operate repeater (otherwise you'll get one tuned to Ch 18).. Also, make sure you are using LMR 400 or better cable... Don't buy your cable from Ebay,, get it from DX or BuyTwowaayradios.com Connectors are also important, i prefer a quality (Times Fiber) UFF N-Type Crimp but you will also need the crimp tool.. (worth having).. And the connectors need to be sized to your cable. In other words. LMR Connectors for LMR 400 cable, LMR 200 for LMR 200 cable. etc... Be patient, you'll get there.

send it to the White House,, Adress it to Joe

i think you'll have have better luck $hitten in a prescription bottle. Either way,, have fun

Well, Da, you can $hit in a prescription bottle too if you wanted too .. The FCC does offer experimental licenses 47 (Part 5).. Have at it....

When we RV, I have a portable repeater, two Maxon's cramed into an old Ammo can. I've got a Harbor Freight Telescoping Flag Pole mounted on my rear ladder on my RV. At the top mast I fabricated an angled plate clamped with 1.25" pipe clamps and mounted a Nagoya mobile antenna with a mini ground plane kit. The et-up works great and at some locations i've reached over 40 miles. We use it a Lake Crawley a lot which inspired someone to install a perminant repeater in the nearby mountain ranges. My 5th wheel is set up with solar so no worries with power.. Another guy we RV with got his hands on a Hytera RD965 compact portable repeater on Ebay real cheep.. It's a DMR repeater but works in Analog as well. Thats a very nice setup, it has provisions for its wine battery pack. He uses the same antenna set up i have. I stole his idea.. The Harbor Freight Telesctping flag pole is pretty decent, works well and under 100 bucks..

WHY???? serves zero purpose,, nada, nothing.. its even funny

Hell, i'm probably as old as you and 'had' the same mindset. I've been in communications my whole life, Retired from it.. 20 years ago when i decided i wanted to get into some UHF Radio stuff took the Tech test and passed with a breeze.. At the same time, the VM's talked me into taking the General and Extra, i passed both of those, (barely). I only studied for the Tech.. OK.. Now i had a year to pass 5 words a minute in mores code. Had no interest, never studied, never took the test. Last week Steve Shannon posted a Ham study site here. https://hamstudy.org/. I tried the General and Extra for the hell of it. Scored the General at 78% and Extra at 80% first stab.. So i decided, (i still have a little left in me) to study a lil bit more and go take both test and hopefully pass at 100%.. What the hell.

I don't think the FCC is gonna be 'nice'.. As they already have.. Typically their 'grace period' is 90 days.. So Hmmmm,, are we getting close yet?

Well, lets just wait and see.

When i got my Tech Lic some 20 years ago,, the VE told me that 25% of licensed Ham actually participate in using the service.. So i would imagine that number is about the same for Ham use. IMO i think licensed users in GMRS is a little more active.. I monitor both bands and i hear quite a bit more activity in the GMRS side than i do on the Hanm side.. would guess GMRS around 30%..

And hiding under 'REACT' by any chance?

more than likely where the missing repeaters are hiding.. defiantly not due to owners not posting their coordinates.. That number is very very low

There is a very very small count of owners not submitting coordinates for their repeater.. The last time i counted these, about 6 months ago, it was less than 15 overall for the complete database.

Report it.. (them)..

Last January the ARRL reported 336,513 GMRS issued licenses, and 386,122 Technician issued licenses. Looks like there is slightly more Sad Hams out there.

No ID??? And you called him a Ham?? Common Shannon, you know better than that...

you talking about the 3 dummy out-laws back east.. The FCC is watching each one of them very closely.. YUP

the lack of support signatures pretty much says it all.. The % supporting it is very very low..

I had mine sitting in similar spot in my Ram for a while. I liked the location but it was kind of a pain maneuvering my sun screen..

Go to your bedroom.. NOW

You are just 'Full of' all kinds of fairy tales.. aren't you.. N E X T..

Every instance i've heard off, ducting in the upper UHF Band seems to probagate on receiving signals more than it does allowing two way communications over the same distance.. I've heard a lot of stories where people can listen to a very distant station but none where two stations actually commucated over that distance.. Would it be possible YES, but conditions would have to be near perfect.. I would like to hear from someone if they ever made a two way contact under ducting conditions. Haven't yet.

The FCC will never spend a millisecond changing the rules to allow linking in the GMRS Band when linking is already established and managed under Ameture Radio. Plain and simple, GMRS does NOT have the allowable bandwidth and nor does it have responsible groups to manage the spectrum. And secondary, it will never consider DMR in the Band for the same reasons.. (But i do think DMR has a better chance) To you folks that constantly wine and cry about wanting to legally 'get off' on repeater linking in GMRS.. It's time to become a 'Sad Ham' Bring Randy with ya, he just might enjoy himself.