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For a while there, IIRC, a lot of Midlands just *were* narrowband without an option to correct / change that. Were the rest of the group to set theirs to narrowband it would have likely corrected the issue.

Cable can detract from the best antenna. It’s guaranteed you’ll have too much attenuation with 50’ of rg8. LMR400 won’t hurt you so much. It’s possible to get a cheap antenna with decent gain. I would get the LMR 400 and shop for a decent inexpensive antenna with gain figures you want. N connectors shouldn’t cost much more and they are more water resistant than UHF connectors, but if you do a good job of waterproofing you can get by with UHF connectors. The losses through uhf or sma vs N connectors aren’t enough to worry about.

This is true. Out my window I have an MXTA26 antenna on a Midland magnetic mount, on a sheet of steel sitting on top of a window air conditioner. Fortunately it's not in a place where anyone would see it, because it does look janky. But it works fairly well, and the whole thing is antenna (70), mag mount (40), adapter (10), sheet of metal (had in the garage): $120. I really doubt you could do a base-station antenna installation with LMR400 for less. And with this, I have no problem hitting a repeater 64 miles away with a handheld hooked up to the antenna.

I agree with @dosw keeping it under $100 is going to be a challenge. I did a test recently using a j-pole antenna that i purchased online for ~$39 using both RG8X (~$40) vs. LMR 400 (~$130). It was very surprising to me the difference in power loss between the two cables. If you could put you budget closer to $150 it gives you a few more options. Alternatively, the mag base options from Midland work pretty well for a budget of just under $100 if you could use a ground plane.

This is a very useful calculator. You can try different types of coax along with different antennas. One thing to remember is that antenna manufacturers list gain in dBi while that calculator uses dBd. Subtract 2.15 from the dBi to get dBd. RG8 will have 67% loss per 100 feet and LMR400 has 48% loss per 100 feet. I know LMR 400 and equivalent coax is more expensive but it is worth the extra cost over RG8 for UHF/GMRS use.

That sounds more like they were both set to narrow and the other radios were set to wide.

Found a combination that works using the Tidradios. I’m not sure what was done differently other than using the H3 radios and trying a different frequency and the connection box. Even with the duplexer they’re putting out about 3W out of the duplexer to the mag base antenna. As a test I put the Boafeng in the exact same configuration. I could only get them to work on the .600 pair. But they were pushing closer to 5W out.

I haven't personally experienced it, but I have known two people who had issues with their radios having poor transmit audio when talking to other brands but not to their own radios of the same brand. Maybe they're just a little bit off frequency? They were both using inexpensive Chinese radios, which are known to suffer from spotty quality control. I have several inexpensive Chinese radios and haven't experienced it, so obviously it's not a universal phenomenon.

My repeater is set to wideband mode, as is standard for most repeaters. All my HTs and the QYT mobile have two bandwidth modes: narrowband (NFM) and wideband (FM). However, the TYTs and the AnyTone have three modes: narrowband (NFM), wideband (WFM), and FM which I guess is something in between. Both CHIRP and the CPS default to "FM" which has worked just fine until now. All the 2 meter, 70 centimeter, and GMRS repeaters I've tried except mine work with the mode set to FM, and TBH I had forgotten there was a third setting. While I was updating the firmware and rechecking all the settings on the repeater yesterday, I remembered about the three mode settings. I set the "mode" for my repeater channel on the TH-7900 to WFM and it works just fine. However, when I set the mode on the AnyTone to WFM, it doesn't connect to the repeater just like the TYT when it was set to FM. I can only guess the three machines have slightly different definitions of "wideband" and you have to find the one that will enable the given radio/repeater combination to communicate. It's almost as if TYT and AnyTone outsmarted themselves with their multiple options. The Retevis RT97L seems perfectly happy taking input from either mode, so at least I have that going for me.

I personally have experienced this "incompatibility" if you can call it that. They were with Midland GMRS GXT740 radios, probably 2012ish manufactured. While they communicated with the other GMRS radios in our group, the audio sounded...bad...low and more background noise....on both TX and RX when communicating with any other branded GMRS radios (meaning I sounded bad to others using non-midland radios and they sounded bad to me on my Midland) Midland to Midland was fine. Yes, they are now old and they still sound bad when comm'ing with my Wouxuns or Kenwood

Does LMR400 plus a $70 antenna and a resonable mount break the budget? I guess staying below 100 is a pretty tight constraint. Be aware that you will probably want an antenna designed for "base station" use. A mobile antenna likes a vehicle body beneath it, whereas base station antennas usually have radials included with them. Anyway, here's the very useful cable loss calculator: https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/ With this calculator you can experiment with different antenna gains and cable types to see what meets your needs. At 50 feet, you're going to want decent cable.

Dup'd

The only other thing I can think of is the duplexer is not tuned correctly on either side and the protective limiter circuit and the transmit radio is stopping it from transmitting so it doesn't break. You are going to need a VNA at a minimum to test. At this point I don't trust the duplexer. I'll kick some thoughts around, but without being right in front of it it's going to be hard to troubleshoot from this point.

I'm now leaning more to a connector problem (either the direct wire or the connector box (shown in a prev post)) coupled with a possible duplexer problem. I've swapped btwn 2 cords and the connector box, all combinations of 6 different radios (from 2 different man'f), high side/low side connections on the duplexer, antenna combinations, frequency pairs, etc. I can still get a receive and transmit using either the cords or the connector box (this box only works with H3's) when not connected to the duplexer. Using the connector box, the transmit radio does key up on today's trials but it doesn't stay in transmit long enough to actually say anything. I am still open to new thoughts or ideas and will give it some more thought over the weekend. I don't have an issue hooking things up and doing some basic troubleshooting, but I'm out of my element and don't have the tools to troubleshoot much further.

Hello all! New user here. Recently purchased the dual pack of GM30 plus units. Since I live in “the suburbs” with lots of folliage, and houses and whatnot, about 10 miles from my city center (Dallas for those who care) I figure getting an antenna up on my rooftop is my next order of business. Hardline with some unobtanium antenna is the “best”, but for those of us who want to pick a price point and go… Where is the division between cabling cost vs antenna cost? 50/50? Does an $80 antenna with RG8 make more fars than a $20 antenna with LMR400? Or vice versa? Do I bother with N connectors for something like this, or, since I’m just going to SMA, do I just get something thin and not bother? My particular application calls for about 50 feet of cable to get to the top of my chimney, and I’m hoping to budget around $100 on this simple setup.

If you are looking for a way to use a "travel tone" on your radio when YOU travel, so you have access to the local repeaters, then I would suggest that you set up additional (new ) channels on your radio, with the same channel numbers that you use at home, but program these with the "travel tone" and use those when traveling. You can name the new channels as T-20R, T-2R1 etc. Whatever will help you differentiate them from your 'home' channels.

Ahh,, So if you access your contacts via your Phone Icon, you don't see the 'Share My Location' option.. You only see it when you select your 'Contacts' Icon... I've always accesed my contacts via the phone app.. Interesting.

@SteveShannon, self-explanatory they largely are—I guess my bleary-eyed brain at almost midnight eastern last night hadn’t thought of the dropdown in the repeater creation page. Thanks for posting that for us all!

As in much of life the easiest way to find out is to try it. So, I started to add a repeater and then cancelled after discovering what the drop down list contains. I think they’re self explanatory:

First off, before I even get to the question, gotta say, from a mapping and data perspective (my day job), awesome job overall on the site! I was wondering, really just curiosity, what are the possible options for, and definitions of those options, in the “Repeater Type” field? I’ve seen Open System, Permission Required, and Members Only, but I was wondering (even with these being largely self-explanatory) if those are the only possible types, or if there’s more, or detailed definitions for the types.

Great Information! I am currently studying for my license. Yes, I listen to the Nets Hear in CT and the reach is far. I know that the Bears Club repeater has a far reach up north and into Rhode Island at time. I can't wait to get my license!

Once you turn on the ability to use repeaters, the Garmin Rino turns off digital data. Last choice on the contact ^. Right after “Add to Emergency Contacts”

Yes all APRS radios will send location data when operating in APRS mode.

Yea I'm familiar with the Find Me app but i don't think it works with phone calls or off your phone directory. In fact, i just checked my phone directory and i don't see a 'share my location' however i do on the find me App. I don't think Find Me provide a bread crump option like the Rino. I've used the Garmin Rino's but never through a repeater. The Rino has a bread crumb feature but you have to upload through their map program, i forget what it was called. I remember it was kind of a pain.. The phone app we used (i think it was Log GPS) was pretty cool, we used it at work for a ton of things, even for logging USA fiber routes. It tied into your camera and you phone log. The app we used was somewhat custom also, It has an option. if you are code savvy, to write some of your own parameters. ... We had someone that did that for us.

Curious. Do any ham radios have gos and save/transmit location data?