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Tune your antenna and they'll just work

All of the Ghost antennas i've tested (more than just one brand) all performed better than the UT-72G antennas I tested them against .. that should give a baseline that they aren't as bad as "some people" repeatedly claim.

I really like the Ghost. It performed much better than I expected it to. It does seem like a good choice for heavy equipment.

Once again, if he weren't being an ass and interfering with official operations, he would have never come to the attention of the FCC and they would have never known what kind of radio he was using. Don't be an idiot.

Not quite, fixed stations are primarily used to pass DATA between two fixed locations i.e. flood monitoring stations and monitoring posts. "Base" stations are control sites which activate repeaters or fixed stations to report. Base stations are at either permanent or temporary locations and are used to pass both data and voice to other base stations or mobile stations either through repeaters or directly. This implies there are three classes of stations, fixed stations reporting to another, single, fixed station, control stations, which may serve as both control and base stations and mobile stations which have no permanent location.

After using the 42" and 18" Abbree "tactical tape measures" for a month, I have to say I'm impressed. The 42" gets as good or better SWRs across MURS, GMRS, 2m, and 70cm than the Comet 2x4 and doesn't need a ground plane. I tested it by hanging it from a rafter, so no ground plane was available. I can't say whether it actually outperforms the Comet in real-world use, because in the areas where I use my radios most, almost any antenna can get through. I can say, though, that with the Abbree and the Comet, I can use a repeater 22 miles away on one watt, which I can't do with any other antenna, but the Abbree is far more convenient to lug around. The 18" Abbree performs as well as the Nagoya and HYS 771s. Again, I can't say for sure that one is better than the other, because I don't have a particularly challenging environment, but it's certainly not worse than the others. Plus, a black AR-152 just looks badass with that antenna on it. I liked the multi-band TTM so much that I bought the GMRS version. I also tested it with a Nano VNA hanging from a rafter with no ground plane, and its SWRs were good enough, approaching 2.0:1 below 462.50000 and getting better from there. It's going into the bag with my portable repeater. I figure if I can get that thing 15'-20' up, I should get pretty good coverage. All in all, I'm quite satisfied with them. As I mentioned in the original post, they seemed a bit gimmicky, maybe more "cool" than practical, but I'm happy to report I was wrong.

Martin aka WSCD723 made this post a year ago. I would guess that by now he has confirmed that his radios work.

My bad. Someone musta bumped this old thread and I didn’t notice the date.

Hi Dave, Gil, @wruu653, pointed out that the repeaters appear in a search if you turn on Stale and Offline repeaters. But then I found something weird, a mismatch (I think?) between map view and tabular view. If I do a tabular data repeater search to include stale and offline, both repeaters appear on the map. But if I go to map first and turn on those two switches for stale and offline, the repeaters don’t appear on the map. I have written to Rich, the site administrator, to learn what I might be doing wrong. Anyway, if you do a repeater search to include Stale and Offline repeaters, both Eureka repeaters appear in the list, allowing you to select them. If you do that they appear on the map and more importantly the owner’s call sign is available for you to contact him. You might want to contact the owner and ask him to update his data on the site.

You're not kidding. Many years ago I was dealing with government surplus and you'd be amazed at what was let out in the wild that I should have never seen. Not only harddrives, but other tech that retained sensitive information. Believe it or not, the Pentagon was the worst offender. This was after 9/11. Of course, I was required to destroy the items. All of this is attributed to human stupidity and laziness. As for digital radio, I absolutely dislike any form of it.

I regret to say I haven’t mounted it yet, but will start with a ghost antennae.

A couple of mine were from a radio shop, and came preloaded with a bunch of school district stuff back east, both analog and digital. Another with a bunch of fire stuff preprogrammed. A couple have come completely blank, but that was expected given they were advertised as (and the packaging/appearance was considered with) NOS.

I looked at Pennsylvania's bill, and see that the exemption for Amateur radio was removed, so it applies, as written, to all mobile radios. However, this part may actually be interpreted such that a mobile radio is allowable, provided you aren't switching channels and are simply talking using a hand held mic, pushing only one button. So it may be okay. I will take it as such. This wasn't in the earlier iteration of the bill. It has passed and has been signed by the governor. " Defines the use of an interactive mobile device as using at least one hand to hold, or supporting with another part of the body, an interactive mobile device, dialing or answering an interactive mobile device by pressing more than a single button, or reaching for an interactive mobile device that requires a driver to maneuver so that the driver is no longer in a seated driving position, restrained by a seat belt."

Wow, we doing THIS AGAIN?!?!?!! Fixed stations are communicating with other fixed stations. Linking aside. If you have a repeater at a remote location, and a base station at your house, when you are talking on the REPEATER, that's fixed station operation. If you go to a simplex channel and talk to a mobile or portable radio, then you are operating fixed BASE. So ONE radio can operate in BOTH manners depending on how you are communicating. The other situation is simplex between two base stations. Both are 'fixed' or not mobile / portable. Reason for this is to NOT create unneeded interference on the frequency by operating at a power level above the minimum required to maintain reliable communications. Repeaters and other base stations have added range due to their elevated antenna systems over a mobile or portable and of course have antenna's with more gain as well. This isn't anything new... commercial has had this same regulation for years. The difference is in part 90 commercial they refer to the radio as a CONTROL STATION. It's still a 'base radio'. This is also how you get the maximum antenna height regulations for fixed base operations.

The message you’re responding to is over a year old. GP62 hasn’t been seen in about half a year.

Oh hell no, just an old people

IF, you are using gmrs for what is is ment for you would know if you are getting out since you would be using your radio with friends and family while going an activity. Gmrs really isn’t for chatting with randos. Might wanna try ham for that.

Im on Ch 18, i can't hear ya

Hi Martin, I'm new to GMRS also. I've had my liscense for a while but haven't used it until now. Just got a new radio and haven't talked to anyone yet so I don't even know if I'm getting out. Give me a time and a channel and let's see what happens. Thanks, Dale WRDW850

Op what route did you go an is it working ?

Is there a reason there is a sudden “avalanche” of licensees? Did something happen to suddenly make these licensed 2 way radio services popular ? Possibly the prepper movement?

These types of laws are passed due to the lack of common sense among the general public. I have seen too many people staring at their phones, tablets, or laptops while driving down the road. The worst was a guy on his tablet and reading a newspaper while driving in St Louis morning rush hour traffic. And it is ID10T's like those people that came laws like this o be passed. The federal government threatening to take away funding goes back a long time. They did the same thing to get states to reduce the speed limit to 55 MPH.

These laws are getting ridiculous. I get the "no texting" laws but requiring no touching of a cell phone are silly. Not everyone can afford a brand new vehicle with blue tooth sound connection and built-in GPS. GMRS, before they called it GMRS was Class A Citizens Band. One of the Federal Highway agencies is currently blackmailing states into passing these laws, or lose Federal Funding. This is likely un-Constitutional, but has been happening for decades to force states to knuckle under to their will. Years ago, I was listening to Coast To Coast AM one night. I forget who the guest was, but he was talking about this trick they have used to force states to pass seatbelt laws, DUI enhancements, and other unpopular laws in the name of "safety". The guy noted that in his home state (not sure, but possibly Missouri), they were threatened with loss of funds if they did not pass a seat belt law. In an unusual nod to personal choice and freedom, legislators in his state did the math. They figured that if they failed to pass a seat belt law, it would amount to a $5 penalty for every man, woman, and child, who were then residents of that state. They decided that personal choice and freedom were worth more than five dollars and told the Feds to go kick rocks. As it should be! Stuff like this reminds me of a saying my maternal grandfather used to quote a lot. Truer words were never spoken. "More laws, less justice." Marcus Tullius Cicero

I realize this is an eight month old post, but there’s actually a thread just for this question:

Even the best professionals can make mistakes. One that comes to mind was a journeyman electrician who was installing a back of batteries as part of a large UPS system. He somehow became part of the circuit. Lived but never worked again. Sad part about this was though it was through his own failure he sued and won. Bleeding hearts will side with the electrician. But it ended up making the company owner decided to retire. It ended up costing about 30 people their jobs. And destroyed a great company that was pretty well respected.