axorlov

Influenzers... they are so adorable

FCC added it to cover: "Cool, but let's pretend I'm not communicating with the other service, I'm just blabbering out loud. And the other party too. Not a two-way, no no no. We are in a different services, sheesh!". I would guess whoever worded that rule first time had an experience.

In addition to that, stations in Amateur Service are only allowed to communicate with stations in Amateur Service, with very few exceptions (97.111); one way transmissions are specifically prohibited, with very few exceptions (97.111b and 97.113b).

That is pretty much a requirement, to ground the mast. Silly amount of static is easily accumulated on insulated mast just from the wind blowing around. Arrestor should be placed near where coax enters the house. Ideally, at the ground level, as mburn explains. In my case, even though the house is single story, I have an entrance at the roof parapet, and this is where I have arrestor placed. #4 wire is running down to the grounding rod, and this rod is connected with another rod at the electric panel with another #4 wire. This setup is in compliance with the code. You can probably go away with much worse setup, but you at very least, ground the metal mast and coax shield. Otherwise your radio will be a path to the ground for the static.

Intermod (it's a username on this forum) is an owner, you can send PM to him. They turned me down few years ago, but you may try, maybe their hearts softened over 5 years. It may be possible to hit it from Manteca, repeater is roughly at 1800', while Altamont pass is at about 1000'. The 70cm repeater at the same location is easily reachable from Tri Valley, from every place, and has a good coverage over Bay Area proper, except the mountain shadow in North San Jose, and in Fremont. And this is with reduced power, as far as I understand, because of PAVE PAWS radar site. GMRS frequencies do not fall under military control, so coverage supposed to be same or better.

Not exactly what you are asking for, but I hope it helps: I have Diamond X50NA, and the SWR tests I did replicated the graph in the factory manual quite precisely.

Congrats on the callsign! From what I read about the look of big bad waterfall display and knobs, I think you know what you want! It starts with Elec- and ends with -raft! Oh yeah, on a budget, nevermind... I have FT-817 (which is not a good base station!), I use it for portable operation from the woods. I'm thinking about something like FT-991A for a base at some point next year.

I used similar headset to what Lscott posted, for Yaesu, before I lost it. Convenient when kayaking: hands are full with paddle. And when hiking they allow to keep radio clipped to the top of the backpack, instead of usual place on the belt, which have good effect on range.

I'm the one who does not like Ed Fong antenna. There are much better options for about the same or little higher price. You can search this forum for "Ed Fong" to get for- and against- opinions.

Not many places to look. From the top of my head it's ham HF, ham SAT, and ham EME. Notice the "ham" as a prefix, that requires skill and determination. The EME is out of reach for most hobbyists, even determined and skilled. Ham will cover natural disaster, though, if you have operators on both sides of the disaster. Winlink over HF and HF APRS might be a solution, offering contact with non-ham emails and phones outside of the affected area. But in case of "whatever" the whole ham universe will be quickly shut down, just like it happened during WW2. What we're left with are homing pigeons and bicycle couriers.

Baofengs are only good for tickling girlfriends. And for this better tools exist. Useless from every point of view.

You're such a tease!

Nope, you posted the pic, so it's you who tell us why. I'm intrigued too.

1. MFJ-880 is only good up to 60MHz. Cannot be used for UHF. It is actually written on it's face. Notice, the reading that is on the photo does not make any sense: the reflected power is higher than forward power, and the SWR is bigger than infinity. 2. With the mount like this, lip mount with a fender/hood close to the side and no ground plane, I'd expect the antenna whip would need lengthening, not shortening.

Ok, I am retracting my earlier statement, that was done without thinking.

And you make sure it stays this way, not functioning, by clobbering the input. :thumbsup

"Talk-around" is a simplex on repeater output in LMR, no? As opposed to "reverse" in the ham world: to see if you can hear on the repeater input? Edit: Just confirmed, "talk around" is a simplex on the repeater output. The "reverse" function is to find out if you can hear your correspondent on simplex.

Also look from this perspective: when you are talking to your buddy on simplex, both are in simplex range, and hold the frequency only within this range, often short range. When taking simplex to your buddy on the repeater input, you both are still must be close, but you block frequency for much wider range, the reach of the repeater, without any benefit to your conversation whatsoever.

Repeaters often are mounted high, and they hear far because of that. When Michael using Tone A talks on repeater A, repeater B also hears it, but does not open, since it waits for tone B. If Alex will start talking to repeater B using tone B in the same time, both repeaters A and B will likely produce garbled output, since both are hearing both Michael and Alex and tones A and B. It may happen that Michael is closer to repeater A, and repeater A will "hang" on Michael's signal, or vise versa, but no guarantee. For this to happen Michael must be _much_ closer to repeater A than Alex. If, as you said, coverage is similar, garbled output is much more likely. I'm sure you know all of it, I'm explaining for others who might read it. Where it's different from simplex on repeater input? Here: both repeaters A and B are on the same output, so if Alex does not have Tone B set for decoding/receiving, he will hear Michael on repeater A, and will not transmit, because Alex adheres to good operation technique and etiquette. If Alex has Tone B set for decoding/receiving, he still will notice "busy frequency" LED and/or will monitor for a second-two, to make sure frequency is clear, because of good operation practices, etc. However, if Michael talking simplex on repeater input (both A and B are on the same input in your example), Alex will have no idea about busy frequency. When Alex talks to repeater B with tone B, repeater suddenly produces garbled output for no apparent reason. Or worse! If Michael is _much_ closer to repeater B than Alex, or uses his high-power transceiver, innocent listeners of the repeater B will be subject to Michael's nonsense!

Channels 1-7 are in between channels 15-22. The difference is power: 5W on 1-7 and full 40W on 15-22. They should show same SWR, if everything is correct. I hazard to guess, your problem is related to measurement setup: connectors, meter calibration, interpretation of the readings.

Bad advice. Absolutely do use 462.xxx0 MHz simplex with all 50W. Simplex users are entitled to use these frequencies. Repeater outputs are too entitled to use these frequencies. Use good operating practices to avoid interference. Now, simplex on 467.xxx0 MHz is a big "f- you" to the repeater, because these are repeater input frequencies. Operating simplex on repeater input messes up repeater for everybody else who might use it at this moment. This is why simplex on 467.xxx0 MHz is not allowed by FCC (not to be confused with 467.xxx5 MHz).

Channel 20 (462.675 MHz) as a road channel is a common knowledge. Other things to be aware of: water is wet; Santa is not real; Earth is round; hot is on the left on the faucet; do not mix chlorine and ammonia; people do live to the north from Line A and these who don't, they sometimes travel into these uncharted wretched lands.

Does baofeng hear the hash with antenna removed? Maybe create a really poor receiving antenna out of piece of wire, that will receive the hash only when close to the source. I'm curious, is the interference only in 462 MHz range, or on 70 cm as well?

There is one already, 462.675 with tone 141.3, aka Travel Tone

I miss the good knowledgeable people from the past too. Too bad they do not visit anymore.