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Well, I'm one of those that had to pass three tests to get my license and I'm not on a pedestal looking down on anyone. And that first bunch of hams that I met didn't know I was active on CB either. They were just a bunch of douches, which is why I didn't hang around their club much longer after I found out their true colors.

Just like anyone who has to pass a test to get a license they look down from their pedestal at you like you were trash. I see it in the contracting world all the time with plumbers and electricians.

The group of guys that I met on air on CB, and in real life, were a lot more welcoming to me than the group I met on air when I first got my ham license. We had more fun than the hams at that time too.

I’m bad at counting also. But at least I use an occasional period and paragraph breaks. Every so often I see a post that is one long run-on free association. Those make my head hurt.

Have to say, I miss the hay-days. Back in the `70s and `80s (a little of the early `90s, too), I had an absolute blast on the CB. I had a base station and also a mobile in every car. My base setup had an ERP of 122kw. When I would fire it up full power, none of my neighbors could watch TV. One of the people closest to me said he was pretty sure my radio caused his refrigerator to hum. LOL Compared to back then, it sure feels like nobody is using it.

Hi Brad, Antennas are much more than simply a good SWR reading. A dummy load will provide nearly perfect SWR while emitting very little RF. All antennas have gain, which is a concentration of the emitted RF in a particular pattern, expressed in dBi or dBd. If you have time, knowledge, and the right tools it’s possible to make and tune an antenna to perform as well as a commercial antenna. I wouldn’t advise it for someone who’s eager to get on the air though. And if your time is valuable it’s unlikely you’ll save money. Most antenna are already made of materials unlikely to corrode although sometimes manufacturers screw up and use set screws that are not stainless.

No. As long as you do it right/dont screw it up, you lose nothing.. The SWR is a good indicator to let you know there are no shorts in your coax/connectors and the antenna is not way out of tune - but yes there is more: Does it actually work?.. and the answer is probably yes... You are already WAY over-thinking all of this. Just install everything, double-check with your SWR meter, then go enjoy your radios.

Hey guys, I’m new to radios. Sorry if this is a dumb question. I’m in the process of building my base station. I’m good there. Got a Comet CA-712EFC antenna, LMR400 coax and a Kenwood to-8180 30 watt. I’m getting around 1.2 - 1.4 SWR. I just ordered a couple used tk-8180h 45 watt radios on eBay. I want to put one in my jeep and another in my electric Cushman cart (for shits and giggles). My question is now that I have an SWR meter I’m thinking about getting a generic antenna for my vehicles and tuning myself. I’d prefer stainless for corrosion resistance. By tuning my own antenna and using stainless am I losing much? Versus getting a pre-tuned GMRS antenna?? thanks, Brad also, at the end of the day is it just getting a good SWR reading or is there more?

Not all faraday bags are created equal. Better double up on them if using cheap bags from Amazon or eBay. Or stick them in a faraday bag and then into an all metal container.

our stick your phone in a Faraday Bag

That's only 4 paragraphs...

It seems I have a reputation to either change or uphold. Here are the ten paragraphs and big technical sounding words. Sorry. Lossy cable will always make your SWR appear artificially low when measured at the radio. If lossy cable is attenuating your forward power there will be less power that reaches the antenna and then whatever power is reflected by an imperfect impedance match is attenuated before if gets back to the radio. So an RF power meter/SWR meter placed at the radio will see erroneously low reflected power, resulting in an erroneous calculation of forward power and an erroneously low calculation of SWR. If your radio has an ALC circuit, it limits output power as SWR increases and allows greater power if the SWR appears low. Where are you measuring the power? At the radio or at the antenna? If you want an accurate reading of the SWR of the antenna, you must read at the antenna feed point. If you want to see how much power is reaching the antenna, measure it at the antenna feed point. If you want to see how much power your radio is emitting, measure at the radio. Sometimes it’s very helpful to measure power at both places at the same time to see the difference. How are you measuring it? Some RF power meters are simply better than others. Expensive ones are calibrated to a standard for a specific frequency and power range. Inexpensive ones may lose accuracy at different frequencies and power levels which can make things appear better or worse than they really are. Are all measurements at the same transmit frequency? Our radios often (always?) have a range of power output levels that change at different frequencies.

Seeing higher return power would be due to the antenna having a high SWR as it is reflecting power back down the coax. That's why a dummy load should be used to test power output as the dummy load is a perfect 50 ohm match and should show a 1:1 SWR. That takes out coax loss and reflected power returning down the cable.

If you leave it at home you have an alibi also. I was home, check my ping...

Good Morning, I have great news to report. Progress has been made and we are getting closer to putting our GMRS repeater on the AIR! The calculations on this repeater show a substantial coverage area for Perry and surrounding counties. This repeater is free for use to all properly GMRS Licensed users. There are common sense rules of use that need to be followed, such as emergency traffic and Emergency Operations have priority to air time. No unsupervised minors etc. the rules of use can be found at our club page: https://forums.mygmrs.com/clubs/41-claarc-gmrs/ Although participating on our club page is not mandatory it is recommended and appreciated. To formally request access to this repeater please use the following link: https://mygmrs.com/repeater/6858 If you are in need of a radio or advice on how to proceed you can reach out to us at: https://cogentradios.com/contact/ If you are interested in this and active on facebook you can follow us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/claarc

Happy Friday the 13th !!

Oh, so "exactly nobody in the US uses FM CB" was just an exaggeration. I get it. But again, there's three users around here that I know of. What's your handle? I'll tell them to give a call out to you if they are ever in your area.

FM CB is still new and most of the radios in service don't have the FM capability. I imagine FM will become used more as users either upgrade or replace existing radios.

Not that I'm planning to participate in any crimes, but it seems the best solution is just to leave it at home. If they did that, FRS radios could certainly be handy for coordination.

I hadn't thought about loss in the cable causing an artificially high power reading, but now that you mention it...I guess it could. Thanks. None of the antennas I tested are likely to be the one I ultimately end up using, and I have 50' of LMR400 Ultraflex to feed it. There's always going to be some loss. All we can do is keep it to a minimum. As far as I know, anything you can easily coil up and carry is going to have quite a bit of loss at 462 MHz.

Yes, I have driven extensively in the central US with a CB and I hear some traffic on AM but nothing on FM. Others in CB forums have had the same experience. Most (all?) CBs sold in the US today have both AM and FM capability, but it seems that it rarely gets used. I don't count myself as a "user" of FM CB because I just listen. I haven't randomly gotten on CB and announced my presence for several decades. Would someone answer if I did so on FM? I don't know. I use CB almost exclusively to monitor road conditions, and all of that is on AM. My TYT TH-9800 will scan both AM and FM frequencies and I have yet to hear anyone on FM. I have a CB on a separate antenna in case I want to transmit, but I hardly ever do. Mostly I just hear a sh*tshow with occasional business use and highway conditions.

I've had the same experience with the monster sized dual band Ham antenna on my ride. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/471-mobile-mount-with-antenna-rear-view/?context=new It doesn't look like any common "CB antenna", but I guess people just go with what the are familiar with.