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Nahh get that antenna outside above the roofline and you’ll still gain ALOT of performance no matter what your topography is !!

Here's my experience with the subject. I'm a fan of DCS for all the reasons listed above. However, I have found that some radios take a slightly longer time to open with DCS than CTCSS. Not a problem for us "radio people", but I have a group of radios that I use with a local theater. Sometimes the users push and talk at the same time and the first syllable would be missed using DCS. I reprogrammed the radios for CTCSS and that solved the problem. Again, this might be a brand/model specific issue but something to take into consideration.

Man I feel like the tdh3 IS a nice radio that would hang with radios 4x its price if the transmitter section wouldn’t crap the bed. Everything about the tdh3 is freaking awesome. But what’s the point of having a fully featured radio if this POS doesn’t transmit.

As mentioned, nothing will protect against a direct lightning strike. That being said, it is till a good idea to have lightning protection for the near strikes. Plus lightning arrestors will also help prevent damage from static electricity buildup on antennas when everything is properly grounded per NEC codes.

And the typical lightning strike is 30,000 amps. And the recommended wire gauge is #8. That should last a few milliseconds.

Also, if you go to Makers World you find a 3D cradle file for practically every radio free for downloading. True that not everyone owns a 3D printer but as cheap as they are now days, they should.

back in early 80's a Microwave site i maintained at Bird Springs took a direct hit on the overhead power power transformer. This site was well fortified with grounding.. Six charcoal/salt canisters and a ground web tied to each one.. The hit took pretty much everything in the block building and did some pretty good damage to the power panel. I remember walking into the building, it smelled like an electronic frying pan. The grounding system served zero purpose and won't on direct hits.

i think you wold be amazed at the number of repeaters someone sets up whom actually do not operate repeaters but do it because 'they can' This site is not a formal process. Anyone can set up a repeater here, even a Cave Man can do it.... Once someone set's up a repeater here, it's the responcibgly of that individual to maintain its status, not the site owner. If that person whom set it up died, moved on, or got bored and not having fun playing around,, oh well. it is what it is.

Hi everyone! Recently I created a 3D printed Tabletop Cradle Mount for the OpenSPOT 3, 4, 4 Pro. Not everyone has access to a 3D printer, but I'm trying to make it as accessible as I can. I've placed the Cradle Mount on Etsy with a significant price discount, and free shipping! Price: $12.96 USD Shipping: Free Warranty: 1 year warranty with free shipping of replacement if the mount does not fit as desired, or breaks due to natural use. The openSPOT fits snugly into the mount by way of a friction device at the bottom, keeping it from moving loosely while standing upright. This cradle mount is ideal for ham radio enthusiasts who want a stable place to secure their device, while having the option to charge the device while in its mount. It stands upright, allowing for ease of use, while being able to monitor the LED display at the bottom of the device. It is customizeable with your CALL SIGN, up to eight characters! WHITE primary color, with BLUE call sign color, which makes the mount look FANTASTIC! We have customizable colors, so please inquire if you have a specific request. This design was created by That Medic Andrew, as seen on TikTok and MakerWorld, using 3D printers by Bambulab and FlashForge. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. I'm always looking for new ideas and quality input to improve my designs for those of us in the hobby. https://www.etsy.com/listing/4298063353/ 73 all, Andrew, N2AL / WRTD229

I am with the original poster. As a repeater owner, part of it is either listing the repeater as open and shutting off the requests, or checking the requests. The system does email repeater owners at their registered email address when a request comes in. So it's not like they aren't seeing it. If they have the function enabled for requests, then it would seem they want the requests. So they need to answer them in a timely manner. If they want the repeater listed but be private, to help eliminate interference, then it needs to be listed as such. But putting a repeater up, listing it on the site and then not bothering to answer requests is crap. If you don't have the time to do it, turn off the function or remove the listing. It's not rocket science. I understand that it cuts into your time. I had mine listed with requests for a while and after answering 200 something requests, I set the request function to off. It clearly states that requests are NOT needed and the PL for the repeater is accessible for any member of this board. It is open to all licensed GMRS users.

If I can catch the storm I disconnect the coax from the radio and put a shot glass over the connector. Plus it's lightning. It jumped from the cloud to the ground. It's going to do what it wants. A good grounded system will definitely help guide it to the ground but there is never a guarantee. It might find another path it likes better no matter how short the ground is through the wire. It's just as unpredictable as most of nature is.

Yup, you’ll loose your radio but you’ll save your house. The few local lightning storms here, I unhook the radio and place a dummy load on the coax.

If you get a direct hit your radio is fried. Doesn't matter if it's a polyphasor or cheapy cheap. Close calls is where they do their work.

Use a Polyphaser arrestor with N connectors and grounded with least an 8 awg wire to the house earth ground. Don't screw around with cheap junk.

I was actually reading your thread while I was messing with mine and the SWR meter this morning. Seems I fared better than you with 3 out of 4 units working. I'm trying to file a warranty claim on the janky one (I assume they'll get back to me on Monday) since I'm outside of the Amazon return window. I'll probably hang onto mine and use them as loaners or something if I ever get nicer radios.

Thx for checking. The repeater listed in Prosper TX is down. Looking to hit a couple of others via Hustler mag mount on pizza pan. Will see that that does. If not, stick with Ham for repeater and distance stuff and use GMRS for 2 way radio stuff. Let’s see what the pizza plan can do! Thx again

Don't buy cheap Chinese Lighting Arrester's.. Like i did and learned the hard way..

My multimeter doesn't read out OL instead it reads out 0 but I get what you're saying, I'm replacing the coax all together. Yeah my run is 49 ft in total as my antenna is sitting on a 30ft tall mast (because of the terrain where I live.)

just a little bit of Trivia, if you look at the 'Stale' Repeaters most show expired Lic as well.. I know of two 'stale' repeaters in my area, the owners died years ago and obviously have no way to remove themselves ..

Oh, no. You’re not getting off that easy!

RG-213 has 5.28dB/70% loss at 100 feet and LMR-400 has 2.87dB/48% loss at 100 feet. The calculations were made using 50 watts in and an SWR of 1.5. You can get away with using RG-213 but LMR-400 will definitely work better. Cheaper alternatives to LMR-400 is DX Engineering 400MAX or R&L Electronics Jetstream 400Flex. As @nokones stated, stay away from the cheap stuff from Amazon and eBay. The cheaper stuff will have less ground shielding plus some use aluminum instead of copper shielding. You definitely won't get as good of a solder joint on your connectors with aluminum shielding, if you can even get the solder to stick to it.

Your multimeter continuity reading on the coax cable should be reading "OL" meaning no resistance. Your coax has an itty bitty short, that's not good. And more than likely it is at one of the connectors. If your coax run from the radio is more than 20 feet you should be using LMR400 coax that is purchased from a reputable radio electronics supply retailer and not from an operation that specializes in cheap discount inferior products.

LOL. Dear Sir, your contributions to this site more than make up for any beer deficit. Please consider the accounts balanced.