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Funny how many are "blessed" when they get off their butt and open their eyes.

Seems they found a working solution for them that puts the text book junkies to shame. Funny how things work in the real world when you put the books down.

That's how they assemble Midland radios.

You sir are slacking. Not enough radios!!! Now that's areal nice setup. Enjoy.

Check out this guys solution. He says he uses a no ground plane antenna for vhf/uhf ham. Found one similar here although it says it's a tunable CB antenna from Firestik. Then I saw this, it looks like maybe a glass mount or lip, I don't know. He's going to fast around Nurburgring to see it very well I don't know if any of these are options you would consider but it was fun looking at what people have done. Good luck.

Good for you and your area. Not everyone Is blessed with your options, it’s a big world out there and everybody has their own ideas how to enjoy it.

Seems you simply don't know the right people to get access to good sites for free or at reduced rates. Seems utterly foolish to use that business model to suck in up to 50 "paying" GMRS members that will most likely move on when they see it's simply not worth the price of admission. Of course, if this is a commercial repeater site then it will have other renters and lease holders with deep pockets footing the bill to run the damn thing and show a profit for the owner. As for the GMRS repeater at this site, it will most likely be just a hobby for the owner or a friend of the owner. Don't urinate on my leg and tell me it's raining.

We have GMRS repeaters in the area that have phenomenal coverage and don't "demand" membership fees, but would gladly accept donations should they be offered. Guess what? They get donations. Simple choice, you want to be foolishly strong-armed for money to use a repeater, be my guest, not me. Way too many other options.

This is exactly the problem I've been chewing on all week. I appreciate you working through it with me. : Halo is aluminum so magnets are out. Halo to hatch lip panel gap is extremely narrow making targa top interface non viable without routing. That brings me to glass mount and hood mount. There is a no drill weather stripping bypass near the body line intersection of the a pillar for the coax pass through which makes me think lip mount on the aft passenger side edge of the hood is viable. For the grounding strap I was looking at using the R/H side of the firewall to pick up continuity. : There are a few ways I was thinking of making the ghost antenna working but they modifying the car in some way, shape, or form. Being that the Z06 hood is a prohibitively expensive item they all go out of the window. One idea that I was thinking could be cool is to scarf in a ground plane with a through connection on the lower surface. : Am I missing anything? It is a little difficult thinking through modification and install without all of the parts and car present. Sunday is the day though fingers crossed it all goes smoothly and I'm ready to roll.

My concern would be that the flexing of the antenna would cause the composite material to crack over time. Personally, I wouldn't do it. Metal is a lot more forgiving than either fiberglass or carbon fiber.

I know some guys that own a large number of different calibers. And it's NOT that I think one is better or worse than the other. I can't sit here and argue the 'stopping power' or the 45ACP, when I own a 454 Casull and KNOW BETTER. But a Elephant Pistol, Raging Judge Magnum, is NOT a concealed carry pistol, any more than a 556 AR pistol is. But the 454 DOES have superior stopping power to the 45ACP, or most any other pistol caliber. And of course it chambers 410 as well so there is that if I need a pistol with real power. I stay with 45 caliber pistols and 30 caliber rifles (308, 300WM) for lack of need to stock a huge number of different bullets to reload with. Other than the 240 grain 300's that will not fit in a 308, most all my rifles shoot the same bullets. The 223 of course, because everyone has an AR or 3 around, shoot the same loads. The odd man out is the 338. But that was my '50 BMG' type rifle that was more affordable to buy and shoot than the 50. Oddly enough I do have a complete setup to load 50BMG, just no gun to shoot them in.

Now, remember that this is coming from a guy that has an open repeater that covers 7 counties and REFUSES to take money because it's too much of a PITA to do so. YOU sir have NO idea what running a repeater actually costs. Outside of the 20 bucks a month your electric bill went up with your garage repeater that has a 5 mile range. Tower SITE.... 48K purchase price. Another 30K in electrical, roof, materials. 300 bucks a month in electric bill 200 a month in property taxes. A 300 dollar LIGHT BULB that has to be changed every 2 years. We change it ourselves or that would be a 3300 dollar light bulb. 300 for the bulb, 3000 to climb up and change it. Although at some point we will need to invest in a powered rope ascender that will 'pull' one of us up the tower when we are too old to physically climb the 230 foot ladder to access the light. Think battery drill powered winch. SO, paying 25 bucks a year, or even 10 bucks a month to access a repeater that has coverage in 7 counties is a STEAL as opposed to just the electric bill.

If you haven't already, look around for GMRS clubs in your area. If there are others, it might be very difficult to start another one. If there isn't much competition, it's really just a matter of passing around the word. You'll have to decide if meetings will be held in person, on the air, or both. You might want to have a short presentation on some GMRS-related topic at each meeting to keep people interested.

Went with the phantom antenna you suggested it will be here Monday. I appreciate all of the helpful suggestions.

No, but he/she could make the argument that you are in violation of the state law regarding use of radios while driving because you have no authority to operate that radio at all. Would it stick? Who knows? Probably depends on which judge you get. But it would be a nuisance to have to defend it. Do I know some officers who would do it if you were showing your ass? Oh, yes.

Not really. As mentioned, it's easy to show if you are putting any dues money in a specific account and only using that money for the repeater. But, for the sake of numbers. Lets say you have 50 users that all pay 20 bucks a month. That's $1000 a month. You are just dumping all that money in your personal bank account. You can show a 100 dollar a month electric bill at the site. You can show a 100 dollar a month site rent. And you can show two service calls from a radio shop at 500 dollars a trip for the last 12 months. So the 'dues' income is 12K. You have receipts for $3400 bucks for the last 12 months. If you don't have a minimum of $8600 in your bank account, you are profiting from the repeater. Because YOU spent the money for something outside of the repeater upkeep and maintenance. And again, I am speaking based on the RULEs / REGULATIONS as written, not what's being enforced. But, first thing is a file from the FCC, probably for MORE than what you are taking in per year in dues. Second is the FCC informing the IRS of the 12K per year, and operations of a for profit business. Now if you have all your ducks in a row and are claiming that as income, and depreciating the repeater, line, duplexer. Writing off the electric bill, maintenance costs and all the rest, then it's a business anyway. So no one is gonna do that. So the IRS smacks you. If you aren't doing all the business stuff, then the state will what their share too. And may come at you for operating a business without a license, insurance, or whatever other laws they have on the books. So we are back to, I put up a repeater. Everyone with a license is allowed to use the repeater WITHOUT paying a fee, dues or any of that. I put it up for my private use and ALLOW others to access it. Then when it's questioned, it's my repeater, for my needs and others are ALLOWED to use it. No business intent at all. Because the county is a tenant on our tower, we had to establish a business, move the ownership of the tower to the business, and all that stuff. It was a PITA. But the tower owner gained a tenant by doing all of it. Since he dislikes ham clubs as much as I do, so we don't even claim it's a club house.

Unless, there is a local ordinance or state statute or if he/she is a federal officer, I don't believe he/she can enforce a federal rule/code.

I got sidetracked and never got to finish the quiz.

Yes

Well, are the Midland MXT500 and 575 straight or gay radios?

At some point, I may swap out the WP-9900 for something that operates on 1.25 meters (220). There's so little traffic on 1.25 that my buddy and I use it as our own private simplex band. There's a repeater in Oklahoma City, but I've never heard anyone on it. However, I'm using an HT and can only listen when I'm closer to the city. My buddy and are on 1.25 enough that I'd get some use out of a unit in the vehicle. Currently, I have a base unit in the house, a mobile in each vehicle, an additional mobile in the truck, and more HTs than anyone with good sense should own.

In your menu or CPS

Probably, but you'd be surprised the esoterica some law enforcement officers know. I once stopped an Army recruiter driving a GSA vehicle and he was dickish about it, so I demanded he cough up a Standard Form 46 (government driver license) before I'd give him the ticket and let him leave. This was a long time ago -- the government driver license hasn't been a thing for decades. A deputy sheriff in the county south of me owns the GMRS repeater in that area. If he was of a mind to be petty, he might demand some kind of documentation of your authorization to operate that radio. If you were operating it while driving, he'd be well with his authority to do so. I'm not saying we should all carry our license(s) on us -- I don't -- but there is a non-zero chance that someday you may wish you had.

No, not really. I have direct access to 12 radios from my desk sitting here. Mind you they are remote controlled via a dispatch console system and are at the tower. I am actually looking to add to the setup since I don't have 10 or 6 meters covered currently on individual radios. But the Yeasu 847 I can connect to via Remote Hams does offer me access to those bands. Not looking at 220 at this point, but I do have 900Mhz on analog, DMR and P25

Personally I was never into the 50 cal stuff, rifle or pistol. I would like to say that I have avoided anything chambered in 5 dollar bills or above, but I do have a couple rifles that do cross that river. So I reload those, and it's not as hard to deal with. Now, I will also say that reloading will NOT save you money in the long term. But when you can shoot the rifle 40 -50 times for 90 bucks, as opposed to 10 times (338 Lapua) you get to be a better shot and enjoy the rifle more. But it's still a 90 dollar range trip. Of course 50 or so rounds of 300 WM and a 100 or so rounds of 223, and possibly 45ACP. At least you leave with a smile on your face. And a sore shoulder. I also remember AMT and their stainless '1911' framed guns. The one I always wanted was the 'Long Slide' which was a 1911 with a 9 inch barrel if I remember right. I REALLY wanted one of those... until I found out they weren't the most reliable 1911 to own. At some point I will no doubt purchase a 1911 and the needed parts to build my own long slide. But tower's ant radio's are what I am involved with for the most part since 2018 when Matt bought the tower. At some point I will fire back up the press and turn out some 300 and 338 and make a range trip.