marcspaz

Agreed that the duplexer is maxed out. I am really shocked. I also agree on the antenna issue as well. @LeoG, I know you mentioned it, but I don't remember what gain your antenna has. Gain between zero and 3dB would be in order for local comms or wildly varying terrain. 6dB or more is good for relatively flat areas and if you are trying to get the most range out of it.

I'll come up from Woodbridge! Im game for pretty much anything.

Okay folks... Leo sent me a new SGQ-450D duplexer. We gave this one a tune-up and it's looking good. I am very impressed. First, I swept it while it was factory tuned. It looked really good and if it was mine, I probably would have left it alone. On the transmit side, we had a good notch removing the receive frequency at almost -80dB. On the receive side, the notch looked even better at -85dB. Leo asked me to see what I could squeeze out of it, and I have to say, I am impressed with how well it tuned. On the receive side, we got the transmit frequency notch out -95.5dB. On the transmit side, I was able to notch out the receive frequency -95.5dB. Very well balanced. I recorded a quick video of the sweep showing notching as deep as -100.2dB, which is fantastic. The video demos the benefit of a hi-res VNA (mine goes to 1024 points), the sweep results, and the SWR at power. On the receive side, I was at 35 watts, but when I switched frequency to demo the transmit side, I forget to turn the power down. That SWR reading was at 50 watts, even though I said 35 watts. I really hope this helps someone on the fence about buying a B-Tech repeater or the SGQ-450D duplexer. @LeoG, can you share your opinion on the real-world results?

That stuff happens because terrain acts like a wave guide, confines and reflects UHF signals to extend range beyond the RF LOS. Many people here have heard the term "Knife-edge Diffraction", but there is also Terrain Ducting / Terrain Channeling aka Guided Propagation.

It's not fun... and I shared a significantly cleaned-up version of what was actually said.

I wish it was that boring around here. We have the most uncouth people on the radio around here. One lady got on the repeater (not simplex) to tell her husband to go break-up the kids from fighting because she was taking a crap and couldn't get off the commode.

@OffRoaderX did I miss something? I didn't see you call anything crap. Or was there a ninja edit? LoL

No flames... but there are so many other things that could have contributed to your results. That fact that you didn't use the exact same radio for both tests, during the same time of day from the same location (I think), are the big items that come to mind. Slight movement can make a huge difference, too. I can stand in one spot in my driveway with my HT using 0.5w and hit a repeater 30 miles away... but if I move a few inches out of that same spot, I can't hit the same repeater with my 115w mobile and high gain antenna.

Im often mistaken for an adult because of my age.

Hey folks! Had a great time at the Meet-N-Greet. Just wanted to thank everyone for coming out and share a few pictures! Talk to you all soon!

Like I said I get annoyed by it too. However I can see both sides of the argument. Gmrs radio and amateur radio communications via voice are generally conversational. There's no real need for things like tactical call signs and phonetic alphabet on the day-to-day basis. However there is plenty of opportunity when those things can be beneficial to The Operators. But that's not what annoys me. It's probably not what annoys Randy either, though I won't speak for him personally. What does annoy me is people who say their call sign at the beginning of their transmission and at the end of their transmission and in the middle of their transmission every single time they key up the microphone. We get it. We know who we're talking to. You only need to use your call sign three times in every hour of conversation. We don't need to hear it three times a sentence. And just so we're clear it's not a radio thing. I hate when people use words as fillers because they don't know what else to say. Words similar to "like" or dude, or ah, um, or whatever they use to fill in the silence between thoughts. My therapist says I'm getting much better at it though.

It's not so much complaining, more sharing an opinion. It drives me nuts, too. Its actually a topic I cover briefly in all of my training classes.

Best advice on the internet, today!

@hxpx I measured my TD-H3 on a calibrated meter and got the 0.5w and 4w... so the TIDRadio advertising is very accurate. I was pleasantly surprised. It's assumed based on the framing of the question.

I'm not sure the mobile comparisons are a realistic comparison for the original statement of: A handheld UHF frequencies between 440MHz and 470MHz 2 watts compared to 10 watts HT performance characteristics are significantly different because of the form-factor, antenna design and size, and several other conditions that make it unreasonable to compare them to a mobile radio. We really need someone with an HT that is capable of both 2w and 10w. I have an HT that outputs 0.5w and 4w (about 9dB), but still not 2w and 10w (about 7dB).