marcspaz

I feel the community at large is welcoming. There are a lot of people i have met that love to share knowledge and experiences. Especially to help new people. I will say that there are several things that happen that can make some individuals seem abrasive. One is a combination of two things, being some folks just don't do well expressing opinions in writing, and others read things that have been written and attribute malice when there was no intent. Both of these cases can lead to misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Another issue is that some people (including myself on occasion) have decades of experience, correct someone who is simply mistaken, and then the thread turns into a shit-show because ego starts to kick in. That said, i feel like those instances are far and few between. I also know for a fact that several members here argue like they hate each other, but are literally friends and spend social time together in person. (This applies to me and a small group here, too) So, not everything here is as it seems. So, generally speaking, I think GMRS operators and the community at large are welcoming and friendly. I would hope money isn't the only reason. I have seen Rich be very forgiving to people on all sides, paid members and free members. That said, if there truly is a problem with someone, paid member or not, I think there should be some grace... but if it's not resolved, definitely let them go after a few attempts.

Again, just my personal opinion, what you used to do for a living has nothing to do with membership value. With the exception of the privilege of saying they are a member, what does the organization bring to the table, that we cannot otherwise get for free somewhere else?

Eh... I do all of this for free for 3 different groups... we have people who volunteer time and I pay for all of our digital footprint. Unlimited storage, unlimited throughput, unlimited email accounts and email storage for $150 per year. Few bucks per registered URL / Domain. I spend more for dinner for my family one night out at a restaurant than for our internet footprint for a year. Having donation options would be one thing, but there is zero chance you're convincing me that you need to collect a membership fee to cover costs, imho

I've mentioned it repeatedly, and in great detail, that the treaty has been amended / replaced with a new treaty that removes the restrictions for our frequencies. Regardless of what is on your previous copies of your license, it is no longer in affect.

I see it's pay-to-play... No thanks. I don't need a Home Owners Association for my radio use. LoL

Are you talking about the VHF stuff?

We should schedule a 0700 breakfast meet up at the County Hospital cafeteria! We need to wear hats with our call signs and or favorite PT t-shirt. LoL

I have two radios that have remote Bluetooth headphone with built-in microphone. As long as I'm inside of a 35 ft bubble, both radios work really well and there's no wiring to do. I can literally just be walking around the house

Same concept as a screwdriver antenna.

That cool! I'll have to take a look later and see what they have.

Im kind of hurt. In one of your videos you said that a forum member mentioned it to you, and I was all excited because I thought you remembered our conversation, but nope! You love Josh more than me. I don't think I can go on. You're not getting your hoodie back...

We can definitely talk farther on low-band due to being able to take advantage of ground wave, sky wave and ducting, but repeaters could be very helpful because those propagation methods are all inconsistent. I tried to use SSB voice on 6m for more than 20 years with terrible luck. When the conditions are right (which isn't often), we are able to talk 20-30 miles... but most of the time, it's RF LOS. The really long distance stuff seems to be happening on FT8 and other weak-signal protocols most of the time, but still dependent on the solar cycle and ducting. To get over the whole handheld issue, I personally would have a crossband repeater in my vehicle, use UHF handheld to my VHF vehicle for full power and range. I do that with Ham radio all the time. I think the biggest challenge to bringing repeaters online will be duplexers. I don't know of any that currently exist. So, until commercial units become available, we are going to have to make them ourselves. Thankfully, the longer the wavelength, the less sensitive the size/length of components would be. Novice builders will have better luck as they start making their own.

This is almost all there is in the amateur community. If people want it, they will spend the money and find a way. Also, I doubt any companies will tool a new radio for low-band GMRS, because most HF amateur radios already transmit on all of these frequencies. I guarantee you, if the market opens, damn near every HF amateur radio manufacturer will spend the very few dollars needed to have their engineers write new code to limit existing radios to the low-band GMRS specs. The duplexers are pretty big... about 86" tall. However, the bigger they get, the easier it is for a DIYer to make one.

I would say it was a good investment if you need or want inexpensive and reliable short range comms. You can 100% use your radio as you would like, but may need to do things like use Tone squelch to stop hearing unwanted traffic and/or timing use between active conversations or the higher frequencies, which is common/best practice anyway. The congregation will make it a bit more cumbersome to accomplish, but still usable. Adding a repeater that would be usable would be way more complex to accomplish.

Mike already identified many frequencies that are in unused sections of spectrum with zero active licenses nor tech that would use the space. So, there is no one nor any company with valid grounds (standing) to contest the reallocation of the frequencies.