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Well, that feature is leveraging the D-Star protocol and I've never tried doing D-Star in simplex. I would have to try that out if I had someone who was close enough.
I have D-Star in my cars, Icom 5100As. Interesting to listen to the rare D-Star transmission . . . picked up someone on Westford repeater the other day talking with someone 3100 miles away in Scotland, both clear as a bell. Couldn't understand the Scot due to accent however, .
As a new Ham I'm totally lost and nobody I know around here that is a Ham knows anything about D-Star. Otherwise on FM Waltham repeater seems to be locked in with a "sewing circle" every day, all day. Not much other activity on 2m/70cm that I can hear. I've become a SWL at this point.
I think Paxton would be a bit far for me to reliably pick up, >50 miles PTP.
You'd be surprised. We get people from the North Shore down to Plymouth who can hit that box. Its about 1350 ft up.
Hell, one of the NTS net controllers lives out in Hull, MA and he comes in without any problem. And as the crow flies, that's about 53 miles give or take.
Uploading Paxton to my FT-60 now.
I put a home made J-pole in the attic and that made a dramatic difference over standing in the front yard with a 15" whip antenna. As they say, spend the money on an antenna, not more power.Well, you have a HT...so that MAY impact your ability to reach it. Be interesting to see.
A base unit or mobile unit has no issues from what I've seen.
I received nothing last night on Paxton when I was home (had to head out and serve papers so got back here ~8PM) and mostly static with a partial one-party only conversation this morning on Paxton.
I put a home made J-pole in the attic and that made a dramatic difference over standing in the front yard with a 15" whip antenna. As they say, spend the money on an antenna, not more power.
Many times I was able to work Paxton from my pontoon boat on Pawtuckaway lake in Nottingham NH. 75w, half wave vert. on a big aluminum roof on a 800+ acre water ground plane. Jack.You'd be surprised. We get people from the North Shore down to Plymouth who can hit that box. Its about 1350 ft up.
Hell, one of the NTS net controllers lives out in Hull, MA and he comes in without any problem. And as the crow flies, that's about 53 miles give or take.
"Texting" on a Ham Radio
Well, that's unfortunate. It is a great repeater. Not checked out Marlboro during the morning/evening commutes, but my few times on the box doesn't really show it to be too busy. I'm guessing you can hit that one at least.
I've heard a little traffic on Marlboro. Haven't had time to program the ID-5100s for Paxton yet. Probably this weekend.
No antennas in/on the house until I get my contractor to help me install grounding rods (he's a Ham also) amongst other work he is occasionally doing here. Not happening until late Fall most likely, at which point I want to put in an HF rig in the house.
Why do you need help with the grounding rods? Is it the part about tying into the panel?
Reminds me of my dad who was from Oregon. When he and Mom moved to CT he cleared a garden area for her. After stripping the sod and turning-in some manure he came in and said "It's done, but you'll never be able to grow a straight carrot."When I put birdfeeders, shepherd hooks, even lawn lights in the ground it takes forever as I hit rocks on the way down and all around where I want to put them, so putting ground rods in will not be a trivial matter.