QuoteI have not researched this, but I'm going to guess that you can't

You're probably right. As my gmail account is a personal account an not used for business uses I figured I could probably keep out the junk mail (especially since the size restriction would filter out anything with images) and keep from busting any regs but, WL2K I'm sure would have no faith in my measures and not allow it.

QuoteSitting there watching a waterfall and clicking macros isn't really my cup of tea, but it's something I should probably know.

PSK31, being a pretty good mode for DX has way too much macro clicking in my humble opinion, and I totally agree, not too fun. Sometimes though I'm successful in getting a good rag chew going and it's a lot of fun. All you have to do is type in a question about his brag list instead of hit the macro for "FB TNX FOR QSO ES 73" macro. Usually the other guy will say that it's been forever since he rag chewed on PSK and that he greatly enjoyed it too.

My brother still has not learned CW and so we have found that PSK31 is the best way for us to chat since propagation rarely is good enough for us to have a SSB phone chat.

I do like having the ability to send and receive email with winmore. Without it I have to relay messages through a ham who I don't know and hope he copies everything down correctly. With winmore I can send a message directly to the person who needs the message even though he isn't a ham. For example, if an earthquake takes out my neck of the woods and all commercial communication goes down, my family in washington will want to know if we survived or not and sending them a direct email is the most sure and efficient way of doing that.
I am trying to figure out how to auto-forward my emails from my gmail account to my winmore account based on their size. I want to be able to send only the small (text only) emails to winmore so that I can check my gmail emails via winmore while I'm out camping and away from cel coverage. So far I haven't figured out how to do it.

I have yet to really participate in field day. I think I participated more this year than any other year. Last night and this morning I found a few minutes to get on the air at my home QTH. I perhaps have a grand total of one hour field day time now. I just wanted to see if anybody could hear the 4 watts radiating from the wire attached to my YouKits HB1B in the midst of all that mayhem. In all, I made about eight contacts. My strategy was to tune around the bands until I found a moderately strong signal, more or less in the clear, calling CQ FD. I would then answer him and eight times out of ten I was heard. Nobody was handing out signal reports and I had to repeat myself for a couple of them but considering the poor band condition and the QRM I think that this little test was quit successful. I'm proud of my HB1B.

QuoteI'm glad my life doesn't depend on ham radio.

Take a look at this video. It wasn't too long ago that many people's lives did.

https://youtu.be/qEvM4HxQxSQ

Here is a less expensive one from the same company. I've heard good things about them but they are not Motorolas.
http://www.mtcradio.com/tytera-dmr-md-380-vhf-136-174-mhz-digital-handy-talkie-with-programming-cable-software/

Now I remember what he said about 4 simultaneous conversations. He said that because DMR uses half the bandwidth of traditional analog FM, when combined with the fact that DMR lets two conversations simultaneously coexist on one frequency you can fit 4 simultaneous conversations in the same frequency spectrum that one traditional analog FM conversation uses.

You see, you should not listen to everything I say. You'd be better off listening to him yourselves. Here is a link to that episode of the podcast so that you can do exactly that.
http://hamradio360.com/index.php/2016/05/31/ham-radio-dmr-with-k1rjz-digital-mobile-radio/

Like you say Gil, even better yet is to invite him to post here and explain to us how this can be taken advantage of in a disaster scenario. Maybe I will reach out to him and see what he says.

QuoteI'll look into DMR... Wondering if they use it here in France...

Seems to me that he did mention what was predominantly being used in Europe but I didn't pay much attention to that part so don't remember what he said there.

QuoteThe needs to be one standard for sure..

I totally agree. He did say that System Fusion and DMR were very similar modes, they use the same codec or modulation scheme or something. If this is the case maybe the two could eventually be merged into one. System Fusion has an advantage in that it can use wide bandwidth modulation which of course allows for higher data speeds making it capable of sending digital photos and such.

Cockpit Bob, I suppose you're probably right but then who would do a thing like that ::)

It just so happens that yesterday I was listening to  the podcast "Ham Radio 360" where Rick Zach K1RJZ was talking about DMR. DMR started out in the commercial world and was adopted by hams. These digital commercial radios are dropping in price and a decent one can be had for around $110 USD. That's about half of Icom's cheapest D-Star radio. It works on analog so it's not even a bad deal for buying an analog HT. Use it for analog and if you have a need for DMR someday you already have the capability to use it.

One thing Rick likes about using DMR is that he lives in a rural part of the states where there is very little repeater traffic. Even though there is repeater coverage there are too few people using them to find someone he'd like to talk with. With DMR he can select a channel based on how big of an area he'd like to be heard in. If he goes to the state channel all the DMR repeaters in his state will rebroadcast his call. If he chooses the regional channel on his HT all the repeaters in his state and the neighboring states will open up. He can choose nation wide channel and open every DMR repeater on the network nation wide as far as I understand it. Custom talk groups can be made for whatever the occasion and only people scanning that talk group's channel will hear him. They say that it makes great use of resources because one repeater can handle many talk groups. In a tactical situation (marathon or whatever) you can have a talk group for all the mobil units, one for all medical units, one for all base units, one that everyone can hear, etc. They can all use the same repeater and not have to hear traffic that wasn't intended for them. And because of the way that DMR uses timesharing two talk groups can be using the same repeater at the exact same time and not interfere with each other. If a third talk group tries to talk while two others are already talking he'll probably get a busy signal and will have to key his mic again. If more than one repeater is in the network and within range than his radio can select the repeater with an open channel. If I remember rightly Rick said that theoretically up to four talk groups can use one repeater at once. I'll have to go back and see if he actually said that. As I said earlier I'm far from being an expert and I might have all my facts messed up, but you get the idea. It's not about better sounding voice or anything, it's about being able to talk to who you want to, when you want to, wherever he might be located.

As hams most of us don't have a real need for that but we also don't have a real need to do anything on the radio. We do it because it's fun. If listening to the nation talk group isn't fun don't do it. As far as ways it can be implemented for use in emergency situations, I think it offers some advantages over traditional analog to responders as long as the nature of the emergency doesn't compromise the repeater network.

I'm no expert on digital voice. I've never used a radio with it so they don't come less experty than me. From what I understand though, it has very little to do with the quality or range of the actual voice transmission. I think it has more to do the the metadata that can be included in the transmission. Echlink, IRLP, WIRES, etc. all try to create ways of interlinking repeaters so that ham radios can talk world wide and function more like cel. phones but I think this kind of thing is easier to accomplish and implement features and capabilities in the digital realm. That at least is usually the selling point for digital radio in the public safety and commercial fields. Interoperability is the buzzword.

I'll add that since it doesn't have a freq display it should have direct freq input like the MTR. However, since it can be used as a SSB radio and not need paddles there it might need a different way of entering the freq. than what the MTRs use. At any rate, I think it should have some means of doing this. Even if the VFO knob has numbers written on it finding the freq that you and you partner agreed to QSY to without a readout or direct entry might prove to be too slow and in-exact.

I know you disagree with my next thoughts but in my mind, ease and speed in setup and taredown, as well as reducing the number of wires and accessories strung all over trump the need to keep it simple. Moving the speaker and battery inside the radio's enclosure means I don't have to carry headphones whose cords a going to get tangled up with the paddles cord while I'm oppersting and I'm not going to stand up with the earbuds in and pull the radio off the stump it's sitting on. Having everything possible attached to or built into the one unit makes it easy to pick up and reposition, stuff back in to my pocket or whatever. Of course as a single band unit I think it should be able to operate without a tuner so that will help to cut down on clutter and keep the radio small. 

QuoteI think radio designers all swore a secret oath to ignore Bluetooth..

Wouldn't a KX2 with bluetooth and a dedicated PSK/RTTY IOS/Android app be the perfect paring? You wouldn't need to use the paddles to send digital and non-CW proficient people could have a portable and easy text entry device.

thanks.

Howdy Oliver,
the link doesn't seem to work for me.

Thanks Gil. That's good news for us. 21 foot is a big loop!

For a while now my brother and I have been trying to set up a sked. We are still struggling to find a band and time that is reliable. Part of the problem is the noise level he has to deal with at his QTH. He lives in the Seattle area and has to deal with a constant noise level of s6 and up on all bands. I can often hear him fine but I'm down below his noise level. He is currently using a G5RV installed stealthily in his backyard. He lives in a HOA and can't put up an obvious beam.

We have been researching magnetic loop antennas for their high Q and noise rejecting characteristics. I know some of you here have experience with them so I was hoping you could give me some insight into them. Do you think that they are a viable option for this situation?