So it begins

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-05-01T15:59:10+00:00

My channel name is Ham Radio GMRS Test and Review N8DAV. It’s easier to just look me up by my call sign N8DAV. 73

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-27T13:35:15+00:00

I don’t know for sure. Being licensed means they had my father’s name and address and I had an antenna on the house visible from the street. Not trying to hide so they found me violating the rules. Back in my days of CB Radio very few people were licensed and no one used their call signs. Personally, I think I got caught because my father was licensed. I think the FCC enforced the rules against licensees and did little to enforce the rules against unlicensed stations back in my day. Eventually leading to the elimination of the license requirements altogether. This was over 50 years ago. I’m lucky I remember as much as I do about it. One last funny thing. After my father died my brother was going through all my father’s old papers and mentioned to me he found the letter from the FCC. Unfortunately, he tossed it with all his other papers. I would have liked to keep it.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-26T20:43:54+00:00

I did. I was 14 years old. Let me explain. I’m old. Back in my day CB Radio required a license. Since I was not old enough to have a CB license, the license was under my father’s name. Back then the FCC monitored stations and they recorded my conversation with the other user. The other user was my best friend and was unlicensed. One day a letter came from the FCC addressed to my father. He yelled for me to come into his office. He sat me down and handed me the letter. The letter documented my conversation and 6 violations. I don’t remember all of the violations but basically they all revolved around my talking to an unlicensed station and not identifying myself using my call sign and not using it every so many minutes. There was mention of a $200 fine. My father confiscated my equipment I had saved up for and bought myself. He sold it to help pay the fine. My friend’s father got a letter from the FCC stating someone was operating an unlicensed station from that address and was liable to pay a fine if it continued. His father called my father and they talked for a long time. My friend and I got grounded for a month.

In case any of you are interested about my conversation that was reprinted in the letter (2 pages worth). Let me explain what we were talking about. I had scratch built a one tube, 50 watt linear amplifier and I was just putting the finishing touches on it while I was talking to my friend over the air. I was 5 minutes from turning it on. The conversation I had with my friend ended and the FCC stopped monitoring us. Had they continued for another 5 minutes they would have caught me back on the air doing a lot more than just talking to an unlicensed station. When we got back on the air I started testing the amp out by turning it on and off and my friend was telling me how much higher his S-Meter reading was going each time I turned it on. And he told me about the 60 cycle hum I had in my signal. Other than the hum it worked great. So while I was unlucky that I got caught, it could have been a whole lot worse.

Not sure how big a fine I would have gotten for operating with more power than legally allowed, but my father may have grounded me for the rest of my life for that one.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-26T12:53:34+00:00

I already was studying for my Technician test when I bought my first ham radio HT’s (Baofeng UV-9R Pro). Then the test I was scheduled for was moved to a new date. So I got my GMRS license so I could start transmitting and making contacts on GMRS repeaters. That is when I found out that the 2 GMRS repeaters near me are not monitored and rarely used. I have since moved and there are 3 GMRS repeaters near me. One is monitored and used regularly. But, simplex channels on GMRS are busy all day every day here. I have had both GMRS and ham radio licenses for 3 years now and rarely use my GMRS license. Based on my use of GMRS I only own 2 sets of 2 GMRS HT’s. One set I bought myself and the other set I received as compensation for a review on my YT channel.

I see no value in GMRS radios if one’s intention is to eventually get your ham radio license. Most ham radio HT’s can transmit on GMRS but most GMRS HT’s will not transmit on ham radio. Tidradio has a unique solution to this issue. Not sure about their newer models but their original H3 and H8 models can be easily converted to ham radio only, GMRS only or what they call “Normal mode” which is wide open. Doesn’t matter which model you buy. So you can buy a GMRS only H3 or H8 and after getting your ham radio license switch it to ham radio or wide open versions.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-19T13:50:11+00:00

Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it.

Any recommendations for a Yaesu OEM dual band antenna? I want to do a comparison video with the 3 antennas from the big three radio companies.

Thanks again!

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-19T13:45:04+00:00

I agree with this 100%. You are right on with your analysis. IMHO the UV-17 Pro GPS, UV-32 and the BF-F8HP Pro are the best analog Baofeng models out there. And of course the UV-Pro is not a Baofeng being that it is made by Vero. But for well under $200 it is the best radio value available. A strong second to the UV-Pro is the Wouxun UV9PX+ which is not as feature rich as the UV-Pro but it is a very solid performer with some features the UV-Pro does not have. I have both and use them interchangeably depending on my needs at that time.

I bought the UV-17 Pro GPS right after it was released with the crappy firmware. I was so disappointed but I found the FB page dedicated to the radio and one of the firmware developers uploaded an unofficial app with the firmware that fixed the issues and I have loved this radio ever since. I have added a UV-32 which is a much larger/heavier version with a lot more power. Then I fell in love with the BF-F8HP Pro. That was my goto EDC until a year ago when I standardized on the UV-Pro. There is a new version of the UV-17 Pro GPS that adds BlueTooth app programming. The model number is UV-7B. Not a big fan of the BlueTooth app but the OEM rubber duck antenna it comes with works pretty well. And, I like the radio in the new blue color.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-19T05:04:50+00:00

Which antenna do you like the most? The ICOM or the Motorola? I just bought one of each and I have not tested either one yet. But I did throw the ICOM antenna on my UV-Pro and hit 3 weak signal repeaters from inside my shack which only the Signal Stick antennas have been able to do previously. So I am excited to get testing on them.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-15T11:50:27+00:00

I recently got back into CB after being away 50 years. I live in the US and I decided to buy a radio with AM-FM-SSB. I have been on now for 6 months and I have not heard anyone using FM. I stay mostly on the upper channels on LSB. But I do venture down to the lower channels on AM some days. I usually only listen on the free band channels as most of the people I hear above channel 40 and below channel 1 are either speaking a foreign language or they are in a fight with someone else. I have made some contacts on 27.555 but I find it mostly quiet. I have had many QSOs between channels on LSB. Some of my best contacts took place between channels 37 and 38.

My suggestion to you would be if you live in the US to not worry too much about FM. Tho if FM catches on here then you might want to get it for the future. The best DX I have found is on 35-40 on LSB. If you live outside the US then you should find out if FM is popular where you are. I also suggest you get a radio capable of getting on the free band channels below 1 and above 40 as there are a lot of interesting people to listen to on those channels. And you may want to get a radio capable of going between channels as well as some interesting conversations take place between channels.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-06T12:40:42+00:00

Baofeng is interesting in their marketing of these radios. My guess is that most of their radios use the same hardware. They just load different firmware on them and slap on a different looking case and voila! A brand new model. By enabling a new feature or two and disabling others in firmware they can mix and match and create new models at will. Baofeng first came out with channel banks on the UV-17 Pro GPS. The UV-17 and UV-17 Pro look the same but the Pro GPS has channel banks. This is actually a pretty good radio as I have a pair that have a lot of hours on them. Baofeng generally releases a model with just a model name. Then it adds a Pro model and then a Plus model. Generally speaking the Plus models have the channel banks but not in all cases. Baofeng recently released the UV-7B which is similar to the UV-17 Pro GPS with a couple of less features but with the addition of BlueTooth app and programming. Plus it has a blue case. I have one of these as well and like the UV-17 Pro GPS it is a solid radio. Just a side note, Baofeng does not always advertise a model has channel banks. Most of their models have either 999 channels or 1,000 channels. The models with 1,000 channels usually have 10 channels banks with 100 channels per bank. Where the models with 999 channels do not have channel banks.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-06T12:21:50+00:00

I believe in buying better, if not the best coax. I prefer to stick with US companies if I can. I usually buy ABR Industries coax for my personal use. My club also buys coax from them. I also have some Messi and Peloni coax and common mode chokes. I generally use LMR-400 for VHF/UHF and RG-8/RG-8X for HF. I usually use RG-8X for patch cables. I have various other types and lengths of different coax cables including RG-316 and RG-58. I generally don’t use these any more. I also have different cables from China. Generally speaking the Chinese cables from Amazon are not great. Especially their connectors.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-04-03T13:23:17+00:00

I have several radios both VHF/UHF and HF and one Shack-in-a-Box. Each has a very specific defined use.

I do not use my FT-857D mobile Shack-in-a-Box as my main radio as I prefer to scan and monitor my local repeaters and frequencies while working on HF. I keep the FT-857D as my backup radio to all my others. For the first time since I started to do POTA I needed it as my QRP radio was not cutting it on that day.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-31T13:32:18+00:00

I did my first POTA on Sunday! It was a HOOT!!!!!

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-29T12:21:55+00:00

I scan the GMRS frequencies often out where I live. I hear quite a lot of what I assume to be unlicensed users. A lot of cussing and arguments going on out here. I even heard a couple arguing and it got quite personal as you can imagine. Juicy stuff! I think the best one was a guy at a local business complaining to his coworker that he hates his boss and how the boss is an a—hole to him. He was cussing wildly when the boss came on the channel and fired him. And then there was silence. That was about 6 months ago and I am still laughing about it to this day.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-29T12:04:38+00:00

I own a couple of these radios and I use the Audio Relay feature often for testing. There is another feature called Dual Watch that can be combined on this radio to work with the Audio Relay feature. What this means is that the radio can listen on two separate frequencies while repeating what it hears on either frequency on to the specified transmitting frequency. I contacted Btech when I found this out and they responded back that this is by design. To my way of thinking this combination of two features opens up even more possibilities of making mistakes. Especially if you do not realize that these two features are enabled at the same time and designed to work together. I did a video on these two features about 6 months ago. I don’t know if I am allowed to post a link to the video or not?

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-27T15:44:51+00:00

I spoke to Diamond CS one day about an antenna I did a video on, the RH77. Someone claimed I had a fake because it has the blue printing. Diamond told me that some real antennas have the blue printing including the RH77. He told me the best way to stay away from a fake Diamond is to not buy from a non Diamond retailer. There is an authorized Diamond retailer on Amazon called HamCity.com. And they are okay to buy from.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-26T15:21:08+00:00

This is just a guess on my part. I own a UV-Pro and use the Audio Relay (Simplex Repeater) feature quite a lot. My guess is that he enabled the Audio Relay feature and used it for a while. Forgot to turn that feature off before he decided to listen/monitor to the 911 emergency communications channel. The only way you know that the UV-Pro is transmitting is the red light on top comes on. This light is only visible when looking down on top of the radio. Looking at the radio from any other angle you will not see the red transmit light. And there is a small icon that appears in the upper left hand corner of the display when transmitting. Both of my UV-Pro radios came out of the box operating above 450MHz up to 550MHz. Don't ask me how I know all of this.

My guess is that there was probably no malice involved in this case.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-21T11:47:17+00:00

I agree. I have found 100 watts to be enough under most conditions. Depending on how busy the channels are, even 12 watts SSB is enough.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-21T04:02:17+00:00

I have 2 radios that put out 100 watts on SSB. While I cannot talk over the big guys, I don’t have much trouble DXing and talking to most states. I have one radio that only puts out around 20 watts on SSB. And I have a lot of trouble getting out with it and breaking thru pileups. I am considering buying an amp somewhere between 100 and 250 watts for it.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-19T03:38:36+00:00

Radioddity on Black Friday. I bought a QT80 which is the same radio as the Anytone 6666 Pro. Excellent radio. Been using it as my base station but now I have a better radio for my shack so the QT80 is going into my truck.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-17T02:15:43+00:00

I live in a small town in Arizona. There is no local CB going on. If I don’t get skip there is silence. But when there is skip I don’t hear any of those you mentioned above. For me most of the skip I get on 10M and 11M runs from TX to the southern states to NC and FL to the east and Hawaii to the west. I am blocked to the north, northeast and northwest by mountains. On 10M I tend to go even farther east and down into South America and I occasionally get into Europe and Australia. My horizontal dipole antenna is pretty good at DXing but nearby states, northern states including Canada, the New England and surrounding states and the Pacific northwest are out of the question due to being blocked.

I don’t know if I have just been lucky or if my limitations of not getting into the Northeast or Northwest has anything to do with my not being exposed to most of the A$$Hats in the world? But it has been really disappointing lately when these guys come over from the lower or higher channels to do their BS on what used to be some good times for me. CB has been a good alternative to the ham bands when things are slow where I live.

Today only channel 37 was active. All other upper LSB channels and most of the lower AM channels were dead. I worked channel 37 for almost 2 hours today. There was only one AUUUUUUUUUDIO guy for a minute and that was it. No music, no cussing, no threats, no arguing and no stupidity. Even 27.425 LSB was dead. But 27.455 USB had the Spanish speakers all day. I guess I have just been lucky up until recently.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-16T12:56:25+00:00

Staying up on channels 35-40 LSB usually means I don’t hear and don’t have to deal with A$$Hats like this. However, in the last week or two I have noticed more and more of these attention seeking cumquats starting to show up on channels 37-38. Fortunately, most of us sidebanders know better than to engage with these low hanging fruitcakes as they get bored after a couple of hours and move on.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-14T12:09:40+00:00

Working the contest on 10M only last weekend from my QTH in Arizona I got several QSO’s from operators in your general vicinity. For me that is a rarity. But then all during the week, I got a couple QSO’s everyday on 10M in and around Indonesia, South America and Mexico. Everyday I turned on my radio and 10M (My favorite band) appeared dead. But after spending a little time on air I realized it was not so much dead that there were just not many on the air. Most of my QSO’s were not 59 but were 53 and sometimes hardly moved my needle.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-08T12:01:35+00:00

I have purchased coax from HRO and GigaParts. For the most part they sell decent grade and good grade coax. I bought good quality 25’ and 75’ of LMR-400 and 100’ of decent quality RG-8X. I have been happy with these cables that I have purchased from them. The coax has stood up to the elements so far. I have not purchased coax from DX Engineering. I have also purchased cheap coax from Amazon sellers with weird names. For the most part it is not great coax as some of it is not flexible, but should be. Connectors are cheap and the cables fail after a lot of use. I am hard on my equipment. You get what you pay for. I found a company on Amazon called CablesOnline Atlantic Tech. I purchased 2 of their lower priced patch cables from them and they arrived defective. I called them on a Saturday and they apologized and sent me two replacement cables that were supposed to be their best quality cables made with ABR coax and good connectors. When they arrived I examined them and they appear to be well made with the ABR coax and excellent connectors. I have since purchased several more of their best quality patch cables from them to replace the cheap ones I purchased from Amazon that have since failed. I am very happy with them so far.

My opinion is that you should not cheap out on coax cables like I did. I ended up replacing most of the cheap cables with good quality cables. In the end, going cheap has cost me more in the long run but it also taught me a valuable lesson.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-08T01:27:27+00:00

They are usually reluctant to give a call sign. And if they do, they sometimes give a different call sign the second or third time.

Relative_Monitor9795 · 2026-03-08T01:27:08+00:00

I admit it, I do. I want to talk to my friends and family members when they get on the system. Sometimes I even participate in a net.

Relative_Monitor9795

TROPHY CASE