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This is not true. A grade 8 bolt is always higher strength than a grade 5. While you are right that heat treating to achieve grade 8 does cause the plastic region of the bolt to decrease. That only means that the transition region from recoverable bending (elastic, meaning it returns to it's...

There's been plenty of advice about an external speaker. FWIW, I use old cast-off Motorola HSN1006 units that used to be all over hamfests and eBay. Generally speakers don't have to rocket surgery, you want one that's loud enough and most anything you find in ham, commercial radios or...

Is the point may be that InReach devices aren't creating their own ad-hoc network? IOW, a message between two InReach devices sitting next to each other still have to see the Iridium constellation. Even if that's what is meant it's not really a fair complaint. It's like saying a cell phone...

Generally yes but in this case a 1/4λ to cover the lowest frequencies (bands 13/28 on Verizon, for example, are 700 MHz) is 4 inches tall so physical length isn't difficult to achieve practically. The biggest problem is interference and obstructions around them. That's why some antennas you...

I can't say firsthand but that won't stop me from speculation. There's a couple of designs from which all these Chinese radios derive. The standard free-for-all, work everywhere radios are usually direct conversion architecture based on a RDA1846 IC (e.g. the UV5R, etc). The main problem with...

In this case there is some logic to it I think even with channelized simplex. If you're using perhaps the digital mode of an FTM-400 you could see FM carriers even if your radio doesn't demodulate them to find unused frequencies. But, yeah, generally having band scope in a mobile or portable...

Do you have a budget number in mind? The Wouxun KG-805G and KG-905G are probably some of the better GMRS radios but they're not cheap. You can spend more if you want additional features but these two in particular are known to be good GMRS radios. By better in this case I mean actually takes...

That's unlikely if the battery is fairly depleted, however you are right that those battery banks are more aggressive about turning off as the load approaches full. I've seen where you have two algorithms competing such that you can get oddity with some devices. Anker and similar profile for...

This is a "sort of" question because whatever is on the roof is going to be better but some antennas benefit more from large planes under them than others. And in the case of a simple 1/4λ having a sufficient planes under it is basically mandatory, which is probably what you're getting with a...

Just my $0.02 but if you want dual band and dual VFO you might be better off assuming you'll need to go remote face mounting. Not that the DR-MD500 is bad necessarily but there's not a lot of history and it's maybe an Anytone AT-D578UV that's been rebranded. So I'd have some concern about it's...

I'd be wary of using Riv-nuts on your 'Nest. The fiberglass is not very thick and often the internal structure is wood. So when they expand and squeeze they will most likely just crack the shell. There's a few places where there is steel molded inside the 'Nest with a void behind it, like the...

A J-pole is a very fine antenna but doesn't seem like it would meet some of the OP's and many of the subsequent posting member requirements for a mobile antenna other than cost and naturally performance? Even as a portable antenna it's not the most packable when built with soldered copper...

That telescoping mast is an awesome find. It's aluminum, which could be useful (as insofar as it could be your radiating element directly, although an extra section or two would be handy) or a slight inconvenience (e.g. affect tuning potentially and you have to consider lightning and static...

Absolutely true, different strokes for different folks. Nothing wrong with Gaia if it works for you. I prefer to spend my subscription money with Caltopo, which I just find more useful. It does decent routing, has an ability to act as a map tile server for other applications (requires the top...

Are you after something for mobile or stationary use? When you say "directional" I'm wondering if you mean a Yagi or dish maybe and how big of an antenna you're using. Anyway, lots of hams have come up with tilt-up masts over the years for all sorts of reasons. Very common with large beams...

Do you mean dual band as in covering perhaps both 2m and 70cm or actually dual tuners? If you want the later it's hard to imagine a smaller radio than that Alinco Bill shows. It's pretty small. In fact I'm not it isn't the smallest ever. There's been some small radios, the Yaesu FTM-10...

Would be nice to see better connectors like the TNC in ham radio. I think the downside to the TNC is that it's a fairly complex connector mechanically and doesn't offer enough to justify in many cases. The N handles slightly more power and will tolerate large coax and hard line a little...

Their worry back then was amateurs causing interference, which doesn't require a specific radio to cause and is still a problem. Some of the Chinese radios a few years ago could easily have been mistaken for jammers they were so bad. Of course it's possible to work around. That's one reason...

It's not some big national security secret, the FCC publishes their enforcement activity. https://www.fcc.gov/eb-iaa

DCS doesn't use a digital carrier. DCS is sending a low baud 23-bit telegram at 134 bps superimposed on your analog FM signal. It's so slow it would sound like a very low frequency tone if it wasn't filtered, just like the actual low frequency sub tone of CTCSS, which are analog tones mixed...