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Interesting, I have several Wouxon HT's & my KG1000g+ and the only ones that allow me to change any of the first 30 are the Ham versions. All of the GMRS type accepted radios I cannot change any of the channels if I try the CPS software reverts it back or gives and error stating out of band. Maybe I should try Chirp or RT systems to program. Now the Boofwangs allow pretty much anything I want in chirp.

No need to over complicate things. Instead of spending an additional 600$ repeater, buy a better antenna and a taller mast to put antenna up higher and that repeater will go 10 miles. I had an RT97S 10W version on a Comet CAF712EFC around 40ft up or roughly 282ft above sea level and had no problems getting into it with an HT from 5-10miles away in the Piney woods of Texas with 80Ft tall pine trees everywhere.

I had a cousin on my dad's side of the family who lives in Pikeville. His last name is Jimmy Stanaford. I've not seen him in years. He had 700 acres that he raised cattle on. I lived in Crossville before moving back to AZ.

it's literally the same stuff from the same Chinese manufacturing facility. Just buy one and be happy.

The best is the one you want to spend your money on. Or, you can always flip a coin. Heads Nagoya, tails Tram.

I live a little southeast of Great Falls, at a higher elevation and in sight of town. I am considering putting a GMRS repeater at my place to see if it might be used some. Steve, W1NEK

The most "believable" results I could get was with my hand holding the cable just below the antenna. Still highly questionable results.

Yellow steel? You mean the brass NMO connector?

BEST = Works best, actually gets low SWR readings, you know, a quality product that will last, and actually worth the money...

Depending on what side of the house it's on, she might not have even noticed it yet.

As he ^ said, "best" is subjective. To my eye, as someone who is relatively new to the hobby, they look largely the same. If it were me, I'd go with the Nagoya. I know the name and something about the yellow steel on the Tram says "cheap" to me. Completely subjective and unscientific. Kind of like the original question.

Why don't you tell us what "best" means to YOU, then we can focus on those attributes.

Firstly if this isn't in the correct place, feel free to move it. Secondly, which is the best, the Nagoya or the Tram mount? https://shop.mygmrs.com/collections/antennas/products/nagoya-gpk-01-nmo-ground-plane-mount-kit https://www.buytwowayradios.com/tram-1465.html

The guy who got me into GMRS did the same thing. Ed Fong J pole attached to a twenty foot section of steel pipe, used pipe clamps and masonry screws to put it in the brick. I didn't ask what his wife said.

I'll check it out. If you get into EchoLink, look into the KF4JPU-R link - links to the AE4DD repeater in Pikeville. I'm a member of the Bledsoe County ARC and try to check in on Tuesdays when I can.

Protecting the equipment is my primary concern, but it looks like "close enough" is not a problem. Thanks.

Okay. So that's the magic number. I was thinking 2.0 might be the limit for protecting the equipment, but this is not my area of expertise. Thanks.

What did you think was back again? The tariff exemption? Yes, the country of origin determines the amount of taxes/duties/tariffs, etc. It's also based on the value that the shipper puts on the commercial invoice prior to exporting the item. If they classify it as a just a transceiver and put the value at $10 that will raise flags with customs. They will assume it's a brand new transceiver. But if they were to put classify it as a transceiver and add a note like "Item sold for parts only. Value for customs purposes only." They can get away with a smaller amount than the actual price of the radio. But they should still be using a reasonable amount for the value of the parts. This applies to new and used items. If they note that it's being exported to the US for repairs only, customs will be looking for that same item to be re-exported from the US back to wherever it came from. You have a certain amount of time to repair and return it. I deal with this almost daily as part of my job. Even if they note on the commercial invoice that it's a gift, the correct value is still required to be entered. I used to work at a place where we had people in from Brazil. Their taxes/tariffs are out of this world. One of the first things they would do when they got here was to head down the road to Best Buy and load up on electronics and video games. They would have to unbox everything and make it looked a little bit used so that they could declare the items as personal effects. They could claim they left Brazil with them and are now just returning with the same items. Several of those guys were making some serious money selling their personal effects upon return to Brazil.

Same as my user name. Tennessee Frank.

17 miles ain't bad at all...

Channel name? I watch YT more often than "regular" TV anymore, always looking for new things to watch.

It will work. That's what you want, no? You want to talk to hand-helds (HT) about 3 miles? You will be fine. If you stand on the TX, you may warm up the antenna, a little but not hurt it nor the equipment. The HTs' OEM antenna's will do 3-5 miles on flat earth to each other. And if they were HAM spec'd (which most people buy, because of power, and know no better) they are 144/430 OEM antennas and people use them all the time. You can buy a (advertised) 10watt HAM radio with a 144/430 OEM antenna and use it on GMRS channels and never know it; most of the time. That said: I have GMRS HT antennas from everyone and prefer the tiny, inefficient, stubby ones because I seldom need 5 miles in the leafy woods. If I stand on TX, they will warm up. In the woods or a crowd antennas make a difference. Line of site is not, nearly, as affected.

I thought it was back again? The majority of the Kenwood commercial radios I have were manufactured in either Malaysia or Singapore. My understanding is the country of manufacture determines the tariff taxes. The other question is how does this all apply to used radios? Does customs still consider the country of manufacture or the country where it's being exported from if the tariffs apply? I just got, a few days ago, a used Kenwood TK-3701D dPMR446 radio from the UK for example. I'm thinking about MAYBE buying a second one so I have at least two that can communicate on FM/Digital modes on the Ham 70cm band for experimenting. The seller,on the UK eBay site,has a couple left for about $122 at the current exchange rate plus about another $33 for eBay international shipping, then there is the Michigan 6% sales tax on top of the $122. If the cost goes up another 10% to 15% because of import tariff taxes that's going to be an expensive radio. Bugger is nobody seems to sell these used radios here so buying internationally is about the only option. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/640-tk-3701djpg/?context=new This business is getting confusing to keep up with.

I have used a RigExpert Stick XPro clamped in a tripod that gave a good repeatable picture of the overall bandwidth of some commercial antennas. I was able to see how "bad" the Harris UHF antenna was compared to the AllBand antenna on VHF was. For the other basic designs, i.e. 1/4 wave, 1/2 wave, etc., those have know performance from physics and aren't worth even sweeping.

No. It's probably a colinear array. Unless you want to redesign the whole array, it's not worth touching. If you are less than 3:1 at 462, leave it alone.