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WSHP964 joined the community
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gortex2 reacted to a post in a topic: Why no FRS/MURS combo radios?
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WSJJ659 joined the community
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LeoG started following How Do you Get Permission
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Being inside a bowl is no place for a repeater. My house is near the river so I'm pretty low down. My shop is in one of the higher parts of the town which believe me isn't high at all. About 100' higher than my house. And the coverage is nothing to talk about. Keeps me in touch with the wife within town mostly. It will be going higher, but still it's not 500+ feet up which is what you need to start getting decent coverage in my area. To many hills and valleys along with loads of trees full of leaves to suck up the signal.
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WRUU653 reacted to a post in a topic: POTA Question
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This ^^^ I would add also that a lot of people assume Amazon will be the cheapest but many things like radios, cable, antennas, and other things you’ll find are less from places like DX Engineering, Ham Radio Outlet, Gigaparts… it’s definitely worth shopping around and comparing from reputable places. Make sure you factor shipping cost though but sometimes you’ll find what you want is cheaper at one place over two or three others for whatever reason and it doesn’t always seem to be the same place that’s cheaper… just my two cents, that I saved lol.
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WRUU653 reacted to a post in a topic: POTA Question
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WRUU653 reacted to a post in a topic: How Do you Get Permission
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WRUU653 reacted to an answer to a question: Best HT Antenna?
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WRHS218 reacted to a post in a topic: Simplex listing?
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WRCL209 joined the community
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It works!
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Personally I wouldn’t use either one of those. I would buy a better known brand such as ABR, M&P, DX Engineering, Times-Microwave, Belden, etc. The way to make certain you’re getting a quality product is to buy from a vendor you trust to provide quality products. If you buy an unknown cable from an unknown vendor on Amazon you’re completely responsible for assessing the quality.
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SteveShannon reacted to a post in a topic: POTA Question
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https://www.amazon.com/MOOKEERF-KMR400-PL259-Male-Cable/dp/B094D3DFG3 There's also a KMR400 cable too.
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LOL, test questions, yep, I know. A lot of stuff I learned in Tech School at DeVry is coming in handy now. Also, that's one reason I'm sticking at 2M, it's the lowest my radio will do and there's quite a few repeaters here for 2M. I'll need to see just how far from the tripod I'll actually be and see how close I can cut the distance.
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Thanks guys, I try the suggestions and follow back
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SteveShannon reacted to an answer to a question: Best HT Antenna?
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Losses through any coax go up as the frequency goes up. RG-58 is terrible for UHF. RG8x is better than RG58 but still poor compared to something like LMR400. Each person must calculate what the actual losses will be and decide whether they can afford that amount of losses. What’s worse, the losses are expressed in decibels which can be confusing until you become familiar. A loss of 3 decibels means you lost 50%. A loss of 6 decibels means you lost 75%. Every coax company has charts that show us how much loss they have at a particular frequency, usually for 100 feet or 100 meters. Be careful not to compare the two. A meter is more than three feet. Losses increase with length as well but that’s a linear relationship: twice as long equals twice the losses if the frequency is the same. Most of us find a calculator online to calculate the losses at the exact frequency and length of the type of cable you’re looking at. Just google “coax loss calculator“ and you’ll find one. This is the most common one: https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/
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WRXS344 joined the community
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I am happy with the Nagoya 320A I have. Works well on all three bands
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I, unfortunately or otherwise, do not have a castle atop a golden hillside. It's a split level in a depression, surrounded by foothills. I can hit their repeater to get over the hills but within the bowl, my friends and I are trying to put something up to link us all without having to simplex around the bowl, relaying messages. We wouldn't and couldn't compete with this other local group. Our thought is, though, if we can take our traffic off the mountaintop and keep it in the bowl, it's a win-win for everyone. We don't have to pay and they have more bandwidth to talk about smoking meat, going to Wally World, eating at Sonics, and talking about the good old days of CB and sending postcards. Or whatever it is they talk about. But your point is well made about the rent/lease of a repeater. I had no idea it could be that expensive. Dues, at that point, make sense. Like I said before, go easy on me. I'm new.
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Getting their repeater up on the tower was probably a few thousand monies to get it installed and probably several hundred to $1k - $2k per month, every month, depending on the location. That's why they charge for people to use the "free public service" which is neither free nor a public service. When I put up MY repeater, open for everyone to use for free, the cost was around $1k .. $500 for the repeater (used Vertex 7000), the coax, mast/hardware, etc and paying a professional to climb on my dangerously sloped 3-story castle-roof to install it all.. (I got the antenna for free!).. But my advantage is that I live atop a golden hillside overlooking the slums below which is almost as good of a location as the very expensive towers very near me.. not quite, but close enough, so i have decent coverage. Sticking your pole in the ground with your RT97L would work, but would not have near the reach as their tower on the mountain.. unless you are like me and have a castle atop a golden hillside.
- Yesterday
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I'm currently looking into it, actually. A few of us, actually. And we're looking at the Retevis RT97L to do the job. The problem is that they have the high ground; literally on top of a mountain on a tower. I've been around long enough to know that you're being sarcastic, but explain it to me like I'm five years old. What are the costs associated with maintaining a repeater? I know you did it for awhile. Am I naive? $600 for the RT97L, another grand, say, for a good antenna and some coax. Mount 'er on a pole and voila? Fix stuff as it breaks? I assume, for some, there might be a lease or rental for the space on a tower? That wouldn't be the case for me as a member in our group has space for it on his property and is willing to host it. Tell me, Queen of GMRS, what am I missing?
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Forgive me, I misspoke. You are, as I presume is usually the case, correct. To the last part of your post, I think the issue that most of the people local to this group have is that the group doesn't publish any data regarding their intake and expenses. I'm too green to know if that's a requirement or not, but they hold Thursday night nets and do them live on YouTube and their production studio looks like it would put an NFL TV trailer to shame. People wonder where all that money is coming from. Not to mention one of their senior member started an online radio sales company and advertises for it over the net every week. It's...odd, to say the least.
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This is what I've been using trying to figure out how much loss I'm going to deal with running a line out to my backyard: KV5R Coax Loss Calculator 144mhz with 25' of RG8X is probably going to be about a ~21% loss. 450mhz drops down to 38% loss. I actually don't know of anything short of like LMR-400 that doesn't have high loss with VHF/UHF, but now you're getting into stuff that's almost three bucks a foot. Edit: I have no idea where my mag mount base went, but I'm pretty sure it uses a 16' RG8X line and even with the loss, like 4W at 450mhz out on my porch is WAY better than 5W in this RF dead spot I've created in my office with all the monitors, computers, and metal peg boards. You may not notice the loss with a short run.
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You probably should use this coax from Gigaparts: ABR400-Ultra Flex 18ft RG8 Coax Jumper w/ PL259 Ends 25400F-PL-18 $72.95
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I use this antenna when out and about with my tripod. Diamond Antenna X30A Dual-Band Base/Repeater Antenna and the radials provide the ground plane. https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-X30A-Dualband-Repeater-Connector/dp/B07MHRQLPZ/ref=sr_1_5?content-id=amzn1.sym.2e97d935-d5f5-4935-88bd-cb6d2a136d95%3Aamzn1.sym.2e97d935-d5f5-4935-88bd-cb6d2a136d95&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9gr60MfiQ3rLkc-wuJNMNsh33FjzOsgb6_kDN23UovpO84RiADkVij7Md6Fv47tNcLcJNjp-c4i5G-4uo1hEL2b-bhsv6nco4SXPn2xhepbzgHC6VBbzgKt_ZYcFjVUZjo8tG_NymETIRSjyYYSjTFj6AIRvzv8ZPAjfLkMrF9KB-xE8FVHry9zLDv2J-uj3csGAdtdO7i1kL0mnVSxNI3d31Vzoj4ArC2kUyvEK200.daQJzEPpZIEL2NL220nwEeuxkzht5SriXV6_v_o6Z_I&dib_tag=se&keywords=diamond+antenna&pd_rd_r=3a490f52-44c2-4485-b72b-f7ce79001c9f&pd_rd_w=QoDRC&pd_rd_wg=tnwf7&qid=1754868332&sr=8-5
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KAJOCO joined the community
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What about 2M? I was under the impression that RG8x gave less signal loss across all frequencies. I'm still learning this stuff though. What would be better then, RG58? Also, I know shorter is better but I wanted enough length to get the antenna out and away from any tables I'd be sitting at.
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WSJI887 joined the community
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WSGW394 joined the community
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MAURYBANKER changed their profile photo
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WSIP642 joined the community
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That’l learn ‘em!
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You should teach them a lesson by putting up your own repeater and letting everyone use it.
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Be sure you do the math to figure out the losses in 25 feet of RG8x for the highest frequencies you intend to use. It could be substantial. RG8x is fine for HF, but lossy for 70 cm.
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MAURYBANKER joined the community
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What kind of connector does it have? The ad doesn't specify. From the picture, it looks like a BNC or SMA male. Edit: Never mind. I clicked on another tab and it says it's SMA female.
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I'm thinking of something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Dual-Band-Antenna-2m-70cm/dp/B08YWHTHC3 Hooked up with 20-25' of this: https://www.amazon.com/XRDS-RF-Coax-Cable-Coaxial/dp/B0DMNZ9FPJ And this: https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Adapter-Coaxial-Handheld-Kenwood/dp/B08BCSYDN3 On a tripod I have.
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Although they are hard to find today and require a bit more strength to hold steady, the 2 meter 5/8ths telescoping antennas offer me quite a bit of “more fars” when I operate HT portable.
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I'm in Naples and would love to get in on some NETS. I also have a condo in Milwaukee and this summer have been able to connect to several repeaters there and in Michigan across the lake. I have connected to TRON725Naples with permission and also BONITA575 with permission. Thanks to both owners.
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GMRS is not a “public service”. It is a Personal Radio Service. You’re right that people shouldn’t be making a profit from charging to use their repeaters. The regulations allow recovering expenses only.