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Understood. I have the same interest for our neighborhood here in Hurricane Central.

He was responding to me, not you. And he was very helpful. If you're getting an SWR 4.6, something is definitely awry. What kind of antenna are you running on the Tram base?

The tri-band Nagoya wouldn't get acceptable SWRs on one band (I forget which) no matter what I gave it for a ground plane, including in the middle of the roof of my car. The Nagoya HD-A (2m/70cm) didn't have an acceptable SWR on any band, despite being allegedly a no-ground-plane antenna. A couple of other Nagoyas did perfectly fine, including the UT-72. I've had (I think) 3 Trams and haven't had problems with any of them. With regard to how far they will tx/rx, I haven't noticed anything worth mentioning. However, in the area where I do most of my driving, the topography imposes a practical limit on any mobile antenna. Again, I'm not sure this means anything with regard to their ground plane units.

I appreciate the info. I am up to speed on bands. I didn't notice that the Nagoya was tri-band. So aluminum is better for tri-band than brass? Why would that be?

I help with our ham repeaters, but I don’t operate one of my own. I’m slightly interested in putting together a portable GMRS repeater for our rocket club.

Now I remember why you were on my ignore list …

Did you even look at what I referred to?

Towers not up yet. Still packaged in the shop. And yes, only GMRS. mine mine mine.

So Steve, do you have a repeater?

I just used Convert.Guru HLP to TXT converter (https://convert.guru/hlp-converter) to convert the 7 HLP files in 49D Version 6.30 and attached them to this post. Slightly different version but should be close enough... 49D Help Files.zip

is that tower only being used for GMRS?? I'm lucky,, on a 30' mounted 14' ABGL and my house sits on a hill 225' above the valley below..

You were a week too early. Cainhoy 700, short range. https://mygmrs.com/repeater/10685

It's true around the big population centers at least, per my family in the area. 15-22 are basically useless because every repeater channel is repeating the same message from some guy on the other side of the state talking about his genital warts or whatever it is rag chewers like to go on about.

So why are you looking at Tram and Nagoya?

With the exception of mounting hardware, steel is seldom used in antennas. Aluminum is lightweight and a very good conductor. For RF connectors brass is much more easily machined and a better conductor than steel. But brass is often plated to prevent oxidation which can affect performance (mechanical and electrical) and appearance.

I hadn't noticed that difference although I would assume that since it claims to cover all three bands without specifically claiming it's only for Ham, it would be sufficient for both. You are correct I don't yet have my ticket, I don't know if I ever will either. Which is why I came to the GMRS specific forum for answers. I wouldn't have thought the mount was actually specifically tuned to different frequencies being a block of metal. Would it actually matter for GMRS, that much? I got the Tram one, when all was assembled, it's getting 4.6+ SWR, I was curious if it was maybe it being defective or what's the possible cause of the problem, reason for my initial query. Also, people aren't born with knowledge you gain it when you ask questions and learn it.

New York and Jersey runs circles around Georgia in linked repeaters.. Linking is happening in almost every state.. The worst i think, New York

Phrased they way you did, it likely wouldn't. However, in the reddit post, several people implied (or maybe I inferred) that the club/group/whatever has every repeater pair used on their network, making it almost impossible for anyone else to standup their own repeater anywhere in North Georgia due to capture effect on the mobiles in the area. Im sure the capture effect causes problems on simplex and same channel repeater inputs, too. Of course, I am summarizing an interpretation of what I read and sharing an opinion based on that interpretation, assuming it's true.

The Nagoya is 'Tri-Band'. If you want to get deep in the weeds and basic: Each transmit is trimmed as close as possible to the wavelength, and the ground plane is a 'virtual' (If I don't add that some pedant will comment, but you can gloss over it) mirror image of the same Tx from the top (I know all about null-fields, leave me alone; you had over a day) and, ideally, is also 'trimmed'. The different rods should combine for one of three bands and the trim 'matches' the trim of the wire (antenna you see) you picked to transmit on that antenna. If you, in fact, have a dual or tri-band antenna, both will equally perform but they are tri band and that seldom works well without friends, work and beer. But you don't want a tri-band bc I presume you do not have a HAM license or would know all this. In a perfect world you would calculate to a specific frequency, do some math, cut things and 'trim' to perfection but we use 'bands' of frequencies. The other one says UHF; that's a huge band. I'm going to say you will have more options with the Nagoya.

I can't get the Microsoft 'fix' for viewing the old .hlp files to work on my Windows 10 machine so I can use the KPG-49D HELP files. VERY FRUSTRATING! Does anyone have the HELP files for Kenwood's KPG-49D Version 4.21 in text (.txt) or Microsoft Word or PDF or any other file type that I can download? Thanks in advance.

Wait.. How does linking a repeater across multiple states monopolize every channel?

I would love to tell them that linking over a network is a rule violation, not a law violation, and linking repeaters via analog non-routed RF is assumed to not be a rule violation (legal), since its not explicitly denied in the rules. Now, linking repeaters across the norther part of the state and monopolizing every channel is a @$$h0l3 move... which should be the real topic.

Apparently someone's had enough

I guess? Like I said, I'm new to this. Why would one have brass and one have steel?

I kid you not, I bought one of those little pond fishing, plastic, trolling motor boat thingies about two years ago. Store it in the side yard up against the house. Earlier this month my wife goes "Why is there a boat propped against the side of the house?"