MarkInTampa
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Posts posted by MarkInTampa
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Works for me. Searching the database actually seemed a bit quicker.
Just wish the FCC would state what the problem was. If it was just a corrupted database, that's fine. If they were hacked, I'd like to know. I just did a credit card payment a few weeks ago and would like to know if the card was possibly compromised.
I have a debit card I usually use online that I keep $20 on. I transfer money to it and use it for anything I purchase online. The one time I didn't do this was with the FCC, just forgot.
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20 hours ago, Lscott said:
It's also commonly called a "Parrot" repeater.
The way they function is the repeater will record, some seconds to a minute or so, of the input audio stream. Then on termination of the reception it will re-transmit the audio just recorded usually on the same frequency.
These repeaters are less expensive due to the fact they don't need bulky and costly cavity filters, used to isolate the receiver from the transmitter, for true simultaneous reception and transmission of the audio stream. Some have built one for remote emergency communications.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o05ILiIg5o4
https://www.argentdata.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=98
The negative aspect is the delay due to the necessity of recording the input audio stream and then the re-transmission. Many people find using a Parrot repeater rather irritating due to the delay.
I've got a Argent simplex repeater I use every now and then on my base station. I use it for testing radios and antenna's by myself in the field. It makes testing nice not having to rely on somebody manning the base station or annoying folks on the local repeaters with a radio check every 30 seconds when swapping antenna's or range check.
Also keep it around if somebody wants to hear what they sound like on a normal repeater. Plug in the unit into the mic jack real quick and repeat the repeater back to the repeater. Say that 10 times fast. Neat little trick I've used a few times.
I
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From the manual...
[VFO/MR] Frequency/Channel Mode Hotkey This key toggles between Channel (MR) and Frequency (VFO) modes every time the key is pressed. Channel mode has three different channel display types: Channel Number display mode, Frequency+Channel Number display mode, and Channel Name display mode.
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Got the programming cable today and pulled the config. It's already programmed for GMRS! Ran a quick test and it appears to work so I guess it's worth a trip to the radio tech to have him check it out. Although it's programmed for GMRS it's CW ID shows a ham callsign that lives around 30 miles from me, don't know what that's about.
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11 hours ago, Bamishere said:
How make one side gmrs and other repeaters? amybody know?
Bring up the KG-1000 software and go to the "Scan Group" tab and create two scan groups such as GMRS and Reptrs (you are limited to 6 characters).
Assign each scan group what channels you want assigned to that group - must be sequential channel numbers. By default the GMRS simplex channels on the KG1000 are channels 1-22 and the repeater channels are 23-30
Load the "GMRS" scan group on the left VFO (display) and the "Reptrs" on the other
A few things to consider:
See the below example - since the scan list works by sequential channel numbers, its a good idea to save frequencies to channels numbers in groups and leave gaps for adding new channels to that scan group. If you are scanning something like 70cm ham repeaters then save those channels as channel 200-299.
The KG-1000G+ I had (first week they came out) had a bug on dual scanning. Instructions say start scanning on one side, press the band button to go to the other side and hit scan and you can scan both sides at once. There is/was a bug that pressing the band or scan button (sold the radio, forgot what button) to change sides on the radio itself to start scanning on the one side then the other side would stop scanning. If you hit the button on the microphone it works fine. Don't know if that's still the case.
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3 hours ago, gortex2 said:
Take it to the shop. You stated you have no idea how its programmed. It could be on GMRS, or public safety or Land Mobile frequencies. A shop can put in on proper test equipment and possibly read out whats in the repeater.
I've got a programming cable for it on the way and already have the software. In looking through the software it appears to be one of the most simple repeaters/radios I've seen compared to my DMR HT's to program. There are examples of this repeater setup for GMRS here on this forum as well. For the most part everything is on one page and unlike Wouxun software the help menu actually works. I'll pull the config off of it when I get the cable to see where it sits now. If it's in the 450-470MHz range now I'll swap it over to GMRS and do a quick test. If it's tuned currently for something below 450MHz or so it may not work for GMRS or will need to be tuned for it. Guess if that's the case I can set it up on 70cm to test it (yes I hold a Tech license). Just don't want to put money into a paperweight if it doesn't work at all.
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37 minutes ago, Sshannon said:
Even though the receiver is tuned to a 5 MHz offset, without filtering on the receive side the 5 MHz offset ceases to be meaningful. The receiver front end will receive it. I don’t know whether it will overload it.
I've got a local Motorola dealer/shop 5 miles from me that also supports the ham radio community and usually has a table setup at any hamfest in the area. Guess I could call him and see if he could check it out. Again, I plan on donating it and don't mind spending another $100 or so to get it up to snuff but if there are issues with it I'll flip it for parts.
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30 minutes ago, Sshannon said:
First, I applaud your wish to help the repeater owner. In a world where generosity sometimes seems to be lacking it’s refreshing to see someone perform an altruistic act.
I think there’s an easy way forward. You can use incandescent light bulbs or heating elements as a dummy load if you really want to surprise the repeater owner or you can surprise the repeater owner with an untested repeater and he/she can come up with a dummy load. At the lowest power setting you don’t really need to worry about power damage to your finals as a result of impedance mismatch.
It's not the impedance mismatch on the transmitter I'm worried about. For testing I plan on using my base antenna connected to the TX of the repeater and nothing connected to the RX of the repeater and use a HT on 1watt without an antenna right next to it to key it to keep from overloading the RX. I was just wondering since there is no duplexer or coax connected to the input of the repeater if there was enough separation with the base antenna 40ft directly above me to keep the transmitter from bleeding 5MHz away back into the input since it's not shielded or connected to anything.
Don't have a clue what frequency the repeater is currently on, have to wait for the programming cable to do much more testing.
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21 minutes ago, tweiss3 said:
Typically you test it with a dummy load on the output, and you can leave the RX unattached. Just keep your duty cycle down (in accordance with your dummy load rating) and watch out, it will get hot.
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I don't have a dummy load handy. My thought was to use the low power mode on the repeater with no RX antenna for a quick test. My favorite local repeater (30 miles away) on .600 is being ran by a couple of old Johnson mobiles converted to a repeater with a power amp at 400ft and is getting a bit noisy. I wanted to test and make sure the repeater I bought works. If it does I'll program it for .600 and do a surprise donation to the owner of the existing repeater. I have no interest in running a repeater of my own but got the Vertex for $100 bill so couldn't turn it down, figured one of the local repeaters could use it.
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I picked up a Vertex VXR-7000u repeater for a heck of a deal without a duplexer that I would like to test to make sure it works. It does power up fine. I need to order up a programming cable to find the frequency it's set at and ordered one last night. For testing since I don't have a duplexer, can I run the repeater WITHOUT a RX antenna since I'm sitting right next to it with the TX antenna hanging 40ft directly above me? Would not connecting a RX antenna provide enough isolation to test? Hate to buy a duplexer if the repeater doesn't work.
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19 hours ago, Lscott said:
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19 hours ago, Lscott said:
Well this got a lot of comments from people and photos taken at the Hamvention last May. The match was about 1.1:1 or so at our group frequency of 448.5MHz. It’s a 1/4 wave design. Ran DMR at 1 watt so the average power was about 0.5 watts.
I went to a local hamfest a few weeks ago and a few of us radio users that have never met decided to meet up. One of the guys said to find me, just "look for the odd ball, it will be me" but wouldn't say what to look for. He had a hat with a antenna kinda like yours, we found him.
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The strongest GMRS repeater by far in my area runs analog and P25 and has been for years. It's not exactly a secret, the NAC is published on their web page. P25 is seldom used, maybe a few times a week but almost every time it is used I'll hear folks freaking out about "what that noise is", "isn't that illegal", "how do I block it", etc. It's not my repeater so I really don't care.
We also had a repeater move frequency a month or so ago move due to somebody running encrypted DMR on the same frequency and causing interference with his repeater. That kinda sucks for me, now I have two repeaters (one 10 miles west, the other 35 miles southeast) pegging the S-meter on the same frequency but at least they are on different tones.
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I've got a VGC VR-N7500 Bluetooth 50watt base radio that is totally controlled by a Android or iPhone app, doesn't even have a head on it. The Bluetooth works about 40ft, good enough that can sit on the back porch with my tablet or cellphone to use it but not on the other side of the house. However if I leave my tablet connected to the radio and on internet, I can run the app on my cellphone and access the radio anywhere over internet (kinda like Zello) and can control the frequency and tone of the radio remotely - but not scan or other features. It's a fun radio to play with but I hate the interface so it sits on the shelf most of the time.
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6 hours ago, WRDC898 said:
I'd much prefer a separate speaker altogether for clarity and use one for my Icom 7000 Ham radio. You really don't need HI-Fidelity when your on a net, but something that has peak response in just the vocal range. A speaker that peaks from 200hz to 1khz is all you need as well as good enclosure.
Just want a nice clean desk. I have a remote head radio and keep the radio and power supply up and away from me to keep fan noise down a bit but also rules out the internal speaker. Right now I'm using a old TEAC desktop stereo speaker tucked behind the monitor. I needed to blow $20 at DX Engineering to get free shipping on a order and picked up one of their $20 external radio speakers. What a joke - my HT speaker sounds better. Guess you get what you pay for.
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I'd like to run the amplified external speaker jack of my base station to my desktop computer just to mix in with the computer speakers. Has anybody got a recommendation on an adapter to drop the speaker out to line level or as a USB sound device?
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I was doing a job a few years ago and picked up 6 "Ozark Trail" FRS HT's from Walmart in two packs. Just found one of them in a box yesterday and it does have a default ctcss tone of 67.0 across 22 channels.
Range sucks on them - we installed truck parking detectors at the interstate rest areas and had to validate and time stamp every truck that came in and out of the parking lot to make sure the system was working. They had a hard time trying to make it across the parking lot, had to sit outdoors in the middle of the lot to coordinate things. Battery life is excellent on them, one of the guys forgot to turn the radio off when he threw it in the back of my car. Every now and then for the better part of a month I'd hear a muffled voice when driving for a second and couldn't figure out where it was coming from before I found it (low battery chirps). At least it didn't interfere with the voices in my head.
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2 hours ago, kidphc said:
Have you unitrunker? How is it? I recommended giving it a try to someone whom was trying to listen to p25 and dmr trunked systems.
Out of of a lot of the software that was kinda free it had something that had something like a GUI vs dsd+ (I think that is what it was called).
Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
Haven't tried Unitrunker. I thought you had to have at least two SDR receivers to track trunked systems. I just have one at the moment (DX Patrol) but looking at getting different as a 2nd SDR receiver - looking at a RSPduo but find it hard to stomach the $300.
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SDR Sharp with Simple APCO (p25) and Simple DMR plugins most of the time. Simple point and click the waterfall for analog and most unencrypted DMR and P25 traffic. Kinda like HDSDR for the limited HF I listen too though. I'm a Windows guy and currently have HDSDR, SDR Console, SDR Sharp, SDR Uno, SDR++, SDR Trunk and SDR Angel installed. Spektrum is a pretty cool as well, makes your SDR dongle into a quick down and dirty spectrum analyzer and actually works pretty good.
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A Hytera HR65X or HR106X repeater will link across internet out of the box.
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Two repeaters 24/7 at 30 miles. On rare occasion when the conditions are right there is a monster repeater 160 miles away. I am in Florida - not a lot of mountains.
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6 hours ago, wayoverthere said:
so...i have version 2.6 for PC installed (dug around and i still even had the installer file for it), and it DOES offer the option to "Create new Zello account" on the login screen. That said, they seem to have removed this version of the software from the website, and appear to only list the business focused version (with associated subscription fee).
Thanks for this! I downloaded the PC version of Zello from Zello yesterday (188mb) and couldn't get it to work right or even log in correctly with my existing account. The version you have is only 3.5mb and works like a champ.
repeater/amplifier attenuator fix?
in Technical Discussion
Posted
Is this what you were looking for?
If you can't get to set mode it may be locked out. See this pdf to enable set mode https://manualzz.com/doc/19316255/fr3000-repeater-set-mode-adjustment.pdf