#gmrs

Any #GMRS #radio folks? I'm thinking about getting a license and two HT for myself and others (partner, nephew, in-laws, etc) for camping, hiking, and use when we're close but separate. I'm curious if folks have strong opinions on it and which HTs to get. The btech gmrs pro looks nice, but maybe is overkill? The GMRS-V2 would probably be adequate but lacks a few of the fancy features of the pro (GPS, etc). Also, there's a 3x price difference.

@dustin@sunny.garden The #GMRS license is cheap and easy, and it gives you more range and repeater capabilities above and beyond FRS I would personally stay away from the GMRS PRO because there is no standard for GPS and its vendor and even model proprietary I’d srart with the stuff from the more big US names like Cobra if you want simple and reliable. If you want IP67 or better rated waterproof radios, the Baofeng UV-9G is a solid cheap pick, but if you want something that absolutely has to work in a Situation, i have heard good things about the GMRS Rockie Talkie

okay so let's think this out I have a UHF antenna at a not well known height pinging a location gmaps says is 1084 meters away (line of sight). We'll call the altitude of that location 0m to simplify maths. Openmaps has it on the low side of a 20m line. That matters to get actual altitude at the end; at most, it's another 2-3m down probably? At 850m (straight-line) from my 0m location, a signal clears a +70m hill on its way to either end. So start at 0m and create a right triangle with the signal path, and 70/850 should be the tan() of the angle from the 0m point. Therefore 70/850 = X/1084, and doing the maths gets you X = 90m. 90+20=110m, ish. But my best direct estimate from the same topo maps is 93-95m. #gmrs #AmateurRadio

Being at +93ishm _does_ clear the +70m hill (90m actual) but not at an angle that should let me see the 0m points - but I do. So. Bouncy signals? Bad maths? Weird RF-over-angle behaviours? (Same kind of thing gets you picket fencing) I dunno. hm I don't think I'm fucking up my maths but am I? Or is this "don't mix google maps and open maps it only leads to pain"? #gmrs #AmateurRadio

DC light ON ^_^ #AmateurRadio #GMRS #3dPrinting #PowerSupply

They talk! :D The power supply is holding 12.14V at high power transmission, which makes the radio happy, the radio doesn't seem to mind the antenna (which has a replacement rod I cut to the right theoretical length, hopefully the right actual one lol, replacing the original) and the little blue HT is talking to the base unit nicely. Like it should! This should not be a surprise, but it's nice that it's all behaving so far. ^_^ #radio #gmrs

new (to me) radya all cleaned up ^_^ (gmrs/frs) (it was reasonably clean already I just made it cleaner, there was sticker residue and such) #radio #gmrs #frs