axorlov

Off tangent: The UV5R and SW-33 are truly a match made in heavens. When both are connected and used for <anything> it is a very good indication of youtube expert having no clue. And I have SW-33. It is not consistent. Most of the time it shows my grandma's birthday. And other times it shows completely random numbers. I can't trust it for anything.

You have an off center feed dipole with a MASSIVE capacitive component on one leg, you break it at feed point, you extend one leg by about 1/5th wavelength with SW-33 (it's always Surecom SW-33 with youtube experts, LOL!), and you do a measurement of SWR, which is essentially, a relation between forward and reflected power. Tell me, how your measurement have any relation to a real forward and reflected power observed at feed point by the HT transmitter. I will wait here, I have the whole day.

Friendly reminder: measuring SWR on HT antenna is meaningless, no matter what youtube expert would say.

Gotenna (both variations) need cellphone to send/receive, but they do not use cell towers. I think it is rather clever device.

Mine "-1" works fine on repeater portion of the 70cm band. No retuning was needed.

Or really? Never? Lol. And if you keep patting yourself on your own back that hard, you're at risk of growing hair on your palms.

And expensive. It is simple basic Yaris for the price of Camry. Next year Midland will release MTX650 where they add banks/zones, and bump number of programmable slots to the whopping 64, and will price it at $800. It will be Yaris for the price of Lexus GS. And it'll go like hotcakes too! All thanks to youtube influenzers.

I agree with that. Not everybody needs Benz E-class, or can afford it, for many Yaris is fine. But if in car world the difference is obvious for recreational users, in a radio world few understand how sensitivity and selectivity work together and why selectivity may be important. Or may not be important, it all depends on usage case. Certain clown on youtube, who kisses(!) and licks(!) Baofengs on camera is not helping. Disgusting...

I can't say anything regarding Wouxun, I do not own any, my buddies do not own them either. But it worth noting that there is at least one CCR brand that is truly a garbage.

Indeed. I already brought up this personal anecdote, but it worth repeating. Three of us playing with with HTs on a parking lot. Two guys are testing their GMRS setup, the third is listening to a ham repeater on 2m with UV5R. The moment GMRS guys press PTT, the UV5R goes silent. The GMRS 65cm signal totally shuts UV5R that is receiving on 2m. Out of curiosity we tried this with another Baofeng UV-B5, FT1DR and TK-3170. Yaesu and Kenwood are unfazed, Baofengs give up.

"Lies being told by GMRS know-it-alls"

Of course I do not have problem with your comment. Of course I'm ok with it. I was just explaining that WRKC935 has no obligation to anybody. His ship, his rules. And if you feel that Greater Good can have a little boost in this difficult times, go ahead and do it with your time, your money, your knowledge, and your smooth talk to tower owners. Just do it. I will be first to applaud.

TK-880 works very well on GMRS. The "-1" model is actually certified for Part 95. Software is KPG-49D, available on interwebz if you know where to look and on ebay. I have three TK-880H-1, all work without problems on GMRS and ham bands. 256 channels, zones, split tones, narrow- and wide band, monitor when off-hook, operator selected tones, quick scan, and much more. Very nice. I do not know anything about TK-360, but TK-360G and TK-370G are Part 95, if it is important to you. 370G is 128 channels, if my info is correct.

He pulled the plug because he felt like it. Feel free to step in with your resources to fill the void. Keep it reliable.

Should the unthinkable happen, when only radios stored in faraday cages will keep working, good luck (lol!) with simplex mesh network. Look, I for one, if happen to be alive and with radios working, will not be bothered by relaying somebody's messages across the land. Big fat NO. I will have other matters on hand, more pressing. From Central Florida to Alabama, is it like 500 miles? Get ham ticket, press your other party to get a ham ticket, 80m NVIS will likely cover your needs. Buy equipment, train for the event. And if 80m won't do it (but why not?) then, 20/40m will do it for sure. Have a plan, have a schedule, have batteries. Ham exam is much easier than organizing mesh network.

It's a free country, yo! (and now in my sincere voice, no joke:) God bless America!

Leave them alone, the influenzers and their court. People who can read and able to put 2+2 together will find out about 462.675-141.3 very quickly. Those who have youtube-watching gland overdeveloped will congregate on channel nineteen. Win for everybody.

FCC rules do not require tones. The reality does.

:thumbup

Your emergency might not be my emergency, and vice versa. Just have a communication plan for your emergency. If it is to organize community to clear the road from the landslide with FRS, so be it. If to order pizza from Lubbock Texas, more power to you. Just plan ahead, and be realistic with the expectations. And do some training too. Just like with any other communication plan, have an answer to three questions: 1) what do I want to say; 2) who do I want to talk to; 3) what do I need from them/what can I do for them. For example, we had (still have) a fairly detailed plan between me, wife and kids about what to do if major earthquake hits. Radio comms is a part of this plan, but not a major part. It is rather "nice if it works" sort of thing. Our house is on one side of the dangerous fault, while mine and wife's office on the other side of this fault and also a mountain ridge. I always maintained that I need 48 hours max to get back to the house in any circumstance. During this 48 hours, stay calm, save water, save batteries, and adhere to Radio-3-3-3. If I'm not there in 2 days, assume I never will be there, and act accordingly. Of course, there are more details, I do not want to bore you with. Like, for example, reserve frequencies and alternate time slots in case of interference or whatever. We did our regular training while we were camping, hiking, being around. Now kids are young adults and of course think that parents are super uncool, but trained skills will not disappear. Couple of years ago, when some major fires were burning around our community in California, and we were sitting for a few days without electricity, cell service and internet, it was handy to use battery-powered laptop and battery-powered FT-817 and Winlink to maintain email exchange with my elderly parents, so they know that we are fine and have plenty of canned food, stoked on water and have a full tank in a car, should we need to dash out. The experience and equipment I have from the SOTA and other -OTA activation helped.

I mentioned it in the other thread, I also use Argent Data SR1 simplex repeater, and it is very useful and convenient little box. For those who do not know, it is not a real repeater, rather a controller for a radio, allowing it to record and re-transmit stuff. In essence, you configured it to operate as a normal repeater with delayed repeat. Because of that you can go away without duplexer and with only one transceiver vs receiver-transmitter pair. I thought of that too, but decided to go with regular simplex repeater setup (one frequency) for a number of reasons. Cool, anyway! Btw, commercial radios (TK-880 and TK-3170 in my case) can be programmed to listen on 467.xxx and transmit on 462.xxx without any trouble. And the obligatory note: simplex repeater very likely runs afoul of Part 95 rule about store-forward systems not being allowed. I use it only when far away from civilization.

Yeah, you threw me off with "simplex repeater". This term has a meaning. But asterisk software does not have run on Pi. Any Linux will do. Old laptop should do just fine. Beaglebone boards are still available on amazon and elsewhere.

I have Argent Data SR1 simplex repeater. I use it occasionally, when deep in the woods. I connect it to my TK-880H in the SUV, with self-fabricated cable. Argent Data has schematics for the repeater and for cable connector, so if you know few things about electronics, putting together a cable for any radio is fairly trivial. Repeater is programmed to listen and stay silent, and repeat only when it hears DTMF "0". Combined with efficient antenna on a tall flat roof of SUV, it greatly improves range of our HTs. Especially, if SUV is parked at a good high spot. The operation goes like this: when far from campsite hiking I call the family and give them some time to answer (about 1 min). If they can hear and answer me, fine. If they do not, I send DTMF "0" from my HT. Repeater hears it and repeats the last transmission with all its mighty 40W. If I hear this repeat, I know for sure that family also heard it. If I do not hear repeat, I know that I'm out of range and need to find higher ground to be heard. SR1 can be programmed to parrot every transmission, but that's extremely annoying, and gets long real quick. Also, simplex repeater seems to be in conflict with store-forward prohibition on GMRS, but it sort of not fully clear to me.

The Surecom SW-33 is a garbage, as your experiment shows. Youtubers will youtube, of course. The reason why I guessed it's SW-33, because it's very characteristic of it to react on power level, like 5W vs 40W on UHF. Your regular yuotuber is not going to have a clue. I use Diamond SX-600, which is still cheap, and cannot be used in any serious setting. But the measurements are consistent across power levels and frequency ranges. Good ground plane is where your NMO mount contacts the conductive plate, that is at least about 6" in diameter. The picture shows that there is no "good" ground plane but there is "some". I would think, 1/4 wave antenna will work better, and I would think 1/2 antenna will work tons better.

So, what you are saying, that you see SWR 1.46 on channels 2 (462.5875) and 3 (462.6125) and SWR 2.1 on channel 17 (462.6000)? It is indication that your SWR meter is garbage. SW-33, I hazard to guess? With regards to antenna, any 1/4 wavelength antenna will work better and will not be too tall (about 6"). The 1/2 wavelength antenna does not require ground plane, and it will be around 12" tall. 5/8 antenna will also work without ground plane, but it's not going to be more efficient (if mounted without good ground plane), and will be a bit taller than 1/2.