9 replies to this topic

[Glider]

So my cities ordnance stats this:

 

§ 186.04  EXCEPTIONS.

   The following exceptions to complying with the requirements of this chapter shall be permitted:

   (A)   Any communication tower or antenna that is owned and operated by a federally licensed amateur radio operator.

 

Does anyone know IF or where I can find IF an issued GMRS License meets this requirement or is considered to meet this?

My thought is that the answer will most likely be NO but one can hope.
Trying to see if there is anything out there prior to having this discussion with my non tower friendly city.

 

 

[berkinet]

... (A)   Any communication tower or antenna that is owned and operated by a federally licensed amateur radio operator.

 

Does anyone know IF or where I can find IF an issued GMRS License meets this requirement or is considered to meet this?

My thought is that the answer will most likely be NO but one can hope....

 

Since Amateur Radio is officially designated as a service (Part97)  by the FCC I cannot imagine your city is using the term with any generality. I see two options:

A) talk to the city anyway and see what they say.

or

B) get a Tech HAM license, build your tower and mount a GMRS antenna on it.  You wouldn't ever have to own a single piece of HAM equipment.

 

BTW, the downside of asking first is once they have officially said no, you are totally out of luck.  I suggest you go with plan "B."

[Glider]

Agreed but I don't know Ohm's Law, how to do Morse Code or much technical about radios. I have been around CB's a lot even remember old issued call sign back when they did that.

 

I looked into HAM back in the 80's but just didn't get all of it and would have never passed the CW test.

Guess this is why the GMRS appealed to me when they made the license just a pay to play. I do think 2 meter would be fun though.

 

I agree that the downside of asking first is once they have officially said no, you are totally out of luck.

 

I have had a 30' tower up for 14 years with no issue but due to some construction had to take it down this morning. It will go back up but thought if I could I might just go to 50' but then may be questioned.

[berkinet]

Agreed but I don't know Ohm's Law, how to do Morse Code or much technical about radios. I have been around CB's a lot even remember old issued call sign back when they did that...

Good News! The CW test is gone. Also, you don't need to know ohm's law, the relationship between frequency and wave-length, or anything about antennas. All you need to do is learn all the answers. For example, to get a tech license you must answer 26 questions correctly out of the 35 on the test. Those 35 questions are drawn from a pool of 423 publicly available questions. You just study the questions, take practice tests, and keep doing that until you can easily pass the practice tests. BTW, out of the 423 questions, maybe 25% are pretty much common sense, and another 25% make total sense once you see the answer. So, you really only have to work on less than 1/2 the questions.

There are a lot of online resources, for free, and for fee.

Good luck.

[Downs]

CW test hasnt been a thing for the past decade.

There are online resources to take practice tests on. Many have used this route to simply learn the test without doing a lot of actual studying. Grade school children have passed the tech test easily.

This is a 15 dollar solution to your problem.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Glider]

Grade school children have passed the tech test easily.

Hey just because I lost on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" doesn't mean, well, maybe it does. - LOL

Just a little joke there.

Like I said, I looked into a HAM Ticket back in the 80's, so I guess I am very outdated.

 

The CW was always my biggest problem as I would sit with my neighbor who was a HAM guy, made all his own antennas some out of really weird stuff (some would consider trash). He could CW like crazy and would often have entire conversations that way - honestly it scared me away.

 

I will look into the test requirements as indeed this may now be a solution to the problem.

 

Thanks berkinet and Downs - Really like the way members help out here instead of just beating people up like on other boards.

[axorlov]

Morse code not needed, Ohm's law: I=V/R. Here, done, you're ready for the test.

 

Me and later my daughter used hamexam.org for the preparation. If you create an account there  it'll keep your statistics, showing the areas to study/memorize more.

[Corey]

I never even looked at the Tech test and passed on the first try. I am taking my General soon and was able to pass the test without studying.

 

Here is a good resource to prep for the Amateur Tech test  https://www.eham.net/exams/

[SteveC7010]

There are also several apps for smartphones that use the actual question pool to run you through practice exams. I passed on the first try and then used the app to pick up much of the knowledge I was missing.

[Glider]

Hey SteveC7010 - I've been to Northville before. When I worked in Lake George and lived in Warrensburg my buddy brought me there to fish. Small world. I live in Florida now.

axorlov, Corey and SteveC7010 - Thanks for the info and link. Took a practice test and for sure need to study as I didn't do very well but that didn't surprise me. Time for this old dog to go back to school - LOL