No joke. Just think of all the LoRa stuff out there.

I’ll check it out. I’ve been using Breezy Weather and have been happy with it as well.

In addition to what @shortwavesurfer has, I would like to add you go through your house and look for noise inside. I found many noisy electronic devices when I did. I suspect you are more likely to find interferences this way. The call is often coming from inside the house.

I have an OCFD which has the long leg within ~20ft of the neighborhood lines but the don’t cross. I don’t hear any noise but it is at about a 45° angle to the lines. I have a “kinda ugly” common mode choke I built and put up with the antenna so I can’t tell you if it’s choking out noise but I would suggest you use one. If you hear interference, you should contract your power company and let them know because the lines aren’t supposed to be interfering (at least in the US).

Depending on your geometry and distance between your antenna and the power lines, there may be impacts on your reception and transmission. I don’t know enough about thee physics, though.

I believe the band error arises when you have a frequency programmed outside the allocation (amateur vs commercial) for the radio. It must be set in the CPS as well but don’t remember where but it is one of the first/early settings you should set.

I would recommend looking it up on the Bridgecom YouTube videos. They can be tedious but they also have some very useful information.

I think what you’re looking for is in the Optional Settings > Key Functions tab of the CPS. After you’ve saved your codeplug, you need to load it to the radio.

What do you mean by “unlock?”

I have an AT-878UVII+ and I only know of 2 options available - amateur or commercial.

I figured it out.

In the settings, if you set up an email address to forward you emails, you won’t receive then over the air.

I wouldn’t recommend the AT-878uvII+ (or the 878uv) as a first rig. It is a good radio (I have one) but it is DMR and uses a Windows-only CPS that isn’t user friendly to program the rig. Similarly, it is a bear to program on the rig. Unless you really want to get into DMR (is there activity in your area?), I would suggest the king of all HTs - the Radio Shack HTX-202 (I have one as well). They’re easy to program on the rig, true FM, have a superhetrodyne receiver, are a classic, and can be found at reasonable price on eBay. Drawbacks - only 2m, big, squelch seems sensitive to some of my computer monitors, and you’ll probably need to buy a wall charger and new battery.

Not my kid. She only had it on for a specific reason and she only accepts she had to put up with it for now.

She's more than happy to bring it up as an issue from time to time.

Increasingly, it really doesn't need to die. Digital modes are available for enhanced AM which could provide shudder stereo and more.

It does provide a benefit - but to the very greedy, very few. If there was ever parity, the bands would be filled with their greed noise.

Until another company gets a license and does it themselves which will lead to more looking for licenses… until the band is useless trash filled with interference.

And we thought the woodpecker was bad.

I'm hoping the comments against this terrible are heard over the filthy lucre the "liquidity generators" are throwing at politicians.

The radio spectrum is a common good and needs to be regulated accordingly.

No. They can be fed wherever is convenient.

I think a 40m EFHW might be your best option. If you can keep the antenna up for extended time, you can make a window bulkhead with some wood or you can buy one of the fancy ones MFJ makes. Otherwise, you could just run your coax to the antenna and then tie (with parachord or similar) the ends to the tree, etc and something sturdy inside.

A more expensive solution would be to use a magloop inside. You could also get a vertical and put it in the yard and run coax to it.

I can’t comment on that one but I have the MFJ-1026 and it works exceptionally well but there are caveats - it can only eliminate what both antennas hear and (as far as I recall) are similarly polarized.

In my case it is effective in eliminating noise from my daughter’s older TV and some other suburban interferences.

It takes a little time to get used to using but, once you are, tweeking for the best signal becomes natural.

I can’t comment on steering reception because I’ve never really used it for that purpose. I suspect it would work depending on the geometry/positioning of your antennas. A Yagi or beam antenna would be more effective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaTcIzLk880

Something makes me think it takes a lot of time - not to mention coordinating with other events but a FediQSO party might be something.

I am afraid we’re a distinct minority in the hobby, though.

Do you have any newspaper stories? I was wondering about communication myself. When you say “AM,” I’m assuming you referring to commercial radio.

Had anyone heard anything about Hams?

It, technically, isn’t because it is capable of 20W max.