robertwbob
KE0WRU
i kinda thought he was running in tight circle like dog chaisin his tail but yesMaybe his front & rear wheels are rolling opposite of each other ?
where are all the 2 meter operators?
- Thread starter robertwbob
- Start date
KF0NYL
Member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2023
- Messages
- 261
- Reaction score
- 227
Our club is blessed that the local radio station lets us use their 1000 foot backup tower free of charge. Its a nice tax write off for the radio station since we are a non profit.
The radio station has been for sale for a couple of years now but has not had any interested buyers. We will probably lose access to the tower once the station sells. We will never find another tall tower like that nor be able to afford to rent space at other tower sites.
The radio station has been for sale for a couple of years now but has not had any interested buyers. We will probably lose access to the tower once the station sells. We will never find another tall tower like that nor be able to afford to rent space at other tower sites.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
After using digital modes, both in my professional life and ham radio, those 'charms' are definitely not charmsI consider that part of the charm of analogue.
It's all in the ear of the beholder, I suppose. That's why there are different flavors of ice cream.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
I find analogue tiring to listen to now, having to pick out voices through picket fencing, static and weak signals gets old. What ever floats your boat I guess.It's all in the ear of the beholder, I suppose. That's why there are different flavors of ice cream.
Sitting at a desk, trying to pull a callsign out of fade or weak signals on HF is different for me though and I don't mind that, but mobile and having to fight to hear someone you're trying to have a conversation with? Nope.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
You left out low deviation CCR's with awful audio and the $15 mag mount antenna.
I agree with you, I get tired of listening to the 2 meter rag chews in the morning when the technical ability has been tossed out the window in favor of whatever CCR they can get shipped to them overnight.
DeoVindice
P25 Underground
If you haven't given P25 a try, you should! A few of us around here operate P25 on 440 simplex; audio quality with full-rate AMBE is excellent and I subjectively find the fidelity and intelligibility to be superior to analog. If it's not to your liking, the equipment will work very well on analog too.It's all in the ear of the beholder, I suppose. That's why there are different flavors of ice cream.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
IMBE is also great. I'd challange the average user to tell them apart. But yes, full rate P25 is far nicer to listen to than analogue. Especially when signals are at -115dBm or weaker.
k6cpo
Member
"Blinded by the price..." These people think all radios should work like they do in the movies and on TV. They think they should be able to talk to their cousin at the South Pole Station from Manhattan with a $20 Baofeng they bought on AliExpress.
Not all Hams are amateurs, but many amateurs are amateurs.
MTS2000des
5B2_BEE00 Czar
Most YouTube hams have zero idea how infrastructure works, and what makes good infrastructure work- it's not just high dollar QUALITY FNE like a Quantar or GTR8000, it's the SKILL SET of the person(s) who construct, tune/align and maintain such equipment.
Any 10 year old can buy a Bowelturd of Chinazon, go to Repeaterbook and their copy of Chirp and slam a bunch of repeater pairs/PLs into a low rent radio. Only someone with real, actual skills can construct a high performing duplex in band repeater, optimize it and maintain it to make that $20 road apple radio for further than the road it's sitting in the middle of.
robertwbob
KE0WRU
humm i wonder if my $250 + kenwoods,icoms,and yaesu radios are a turd? dont smell like schitt. but not cheep chicom crap from the LAND OF ALMOST RITE
Interesting. I know what P25 sounds from listening to my Uniden 536HP/996T. My ear has always preferred analog, which I guess makes me a bit of a dinosaur.
Never thought about using P25 for 2M/440/etc and had not planned to buy any new equipment right now. Are you using surplus commercial radios? It's certainly worth listening first to see how much P25 is being used around here.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
Try listening with an APX, XTS, XTL, Kenwood or Tait subscriber radio, that has been properly configured.Interesting. I know what P25 sounds from listening to my Uniden 536HP/996T. My ear has always preferred analog, which I guess makes me a bit of a dinosaur.
A hobby receiver, based on a discriminator tap, isn't even close to the same quality as a P25 subscriber.
Talking to my friends with a XTS2500 on our local P25 repeater, is far easier to listen to, than listening, using the same radio, to listen to the plethora of $20 CCR's.
Although, in defense of the CCR's(sorry @MTS2000des ), we have found, now that we have modernized our primary VHF and UHF repeater and we have repeaters with properly working PL and Reverse burst detection, lots of the CCR/bowelfeng/BTech/Retvis/Anytone/other no-name chinese junk, has at least a(mostly) functional PL reverse burst. Something the decent ham manufacturers refuse to implement.
We got rid of the beeps and boops, and lots of the squelch crashes. Thankfully the DR-2 repeater we have on the air is Fusion only, no mixed mode crap.
Hopefully we will either e-cycle the DR1's we have, or they get shipped a long ways away from where I live so we don't have to suffer with them on the air.
There is a TON of surplus, high quality, used P25 gear on the secondary market.
I'm using XTS2500's on both 2m and 70cm. They are cheap if you pay attention to what you are looking for. My UHF one I got for less than $200, my VHF one was under $250. Both are full keypad, and have DES-OFB/AES256/AESGCM hardware encryption. They both have a reasonable Flashpoint code for what I use them for.
XTS5000 are cheap as well. The XTS2500/5000 and their mobile counterparts are probably the best value for getting into P25 on the ham bands. Software is out there, programming cables are cheap. They are not difficult to program, although it is much different than hammy toy radios.
XTL5000's, with the correct W3 HHCH TIB, a bit of soldering skills, 2 external speakers, proper flash option and a W3 HHCH, and you can make a dual brick mobile.
If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, there is the APX series.
If you like L3Harris better, they have some good options, just choose wisely, the lower end Harris radios kind of suck on P25.
Kenwood has a bunch of options. TK5210, 5310, 5710, 5810, 5220, 5320, 5720, 5820. NX5200, 5300, 5700, 5800
There is also the Viking line VP and VM portables and mobiles.
Tait is another reputable company that has some very decent VHf and UHF p25 gear as well.
No comparison to a legitimate commercial radio. I have both the 536 and 996XT, there's no comparison. My Unications come closer but still not usually the winner.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
I swear, one of the former tecknishuns that was in our club, had a fetish for green painters tape for labeling EVERYTHING. but label makers are expensive.
I wish I had a photo of the jar of gender bender/adaptors that we pulled out of our primary repeater site. I wish I had measured the total length of LMR400 we pulled out of the airchain. Including a F<->F-N barrel that was connecting 2 random chunks of LMR400 together, between the 5 channel UHF transmit combiner and 1-5/8" UHF transmit antenna feedline. He couldn't even be bothered to find or make a jumper of the proper length.
I need to take new photos of our repeater room, there have been some more changes.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
You know what a poor receiver decoding P25 sounds like, not what P25 actually sounds like.
It's like saying 'I listento D-Star or hammy DMR, and digital sucks'. No, digital doesn't suck, you just haven't had the pleasure of listening to P25 on a P25 radio, with modern DSP and proper audio settings. It is not anywhere near how it sounds on a hobbyist toy.My ear has always preferred analog, which I guess makes me a bit of a dinosaur.
I have to agree with this. Several of us use DMR simplex of thru Motorola DMR repeater and I think it sounds good. The problem comes in with all this cross linking of talk groups or people jump in even on the local group with a crap radio. We're all running Motorola stuff including a little SL 7550 and and even it sounds great compared to the ham stuff.
We also do 900 DMR and it's actually provided equal range for the most part and no static picket fencing or other "stuff".
I received my first response on 2m last week - my very first 😊, I'm new here. The national call frequency. New tech, rolls out of bed with a slight hangover, keys up and catches someone listening who says hello back. Not the first time I imagined it would be, but I'll take it 🤔😁
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
Hammy DMR has definitely suffered with the plethora of low cost DMR.
I think the biggest down side of hammy DMR is the lack of a standardized LTR style trunking format like capacity plus trunking. Static time slots is such a limiting, and hinders really effective use of having 2 time slots.
Side by side compare full rate P25 to DMR, and you will be blown away.
Compare 2xXPR7550e, with current firmware against 2x XTS2500 at final release firmware, and you will wonder why you are suffering using DMR(besides obviously having 2 talk paths on one RF channel).
Yep, don't miss static, picket fencing or the talking controllers.
DMR will actually provide better range than analogue thanks to the wonder of FEC and being able to decode and fully recover audio at signal strengths that would render analogue unintelligible.
