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Just keeping it family friendly just like if I was talking on the radio.

Unless I missed a Billy Ray Cyrus tune, it was Aaron Tippin That tune goes back a bit Anyway, nope, not even close to overdoing it

I don't know if this helps anyone, but I decided that I can't be bothered to pay RT systems when the provided software works just fine. That said, entering data is a pain so I wrote two python scripts. Now, what I did is not very complicated. The first script enters the two frequencies, the name and sets the tx power to high. All of this data comes from a simple csv file You then save the .dat file The second script then loads the .dat file, searches for the entries and then amends it for the CTS and DCS codes. The .dat file uses a four digit hex value to determine the displayed value. If anyone wants the scripts, DCS/CTS lookup and my excel sheet that does the lookups. Let me know. it's rough and ready and needs a little prep to share. But as it is, it allows me to edit the spreadsheet, copy some formulas and then export the data for use. While this took me about as long to 'develop' as entering the values. And it took me longest to build the DCS/CTS to four digit lookup table. Of course this requires a 'little' knowledge of python (enough to have python installed and be able to run it) and excel.

Perfect! TY it showed up fine.

2.15 not 2.5

Couple things to point out. dBi and dBd are two different values. dBi is going to be 2.5dB less than dBd. Because the dBd "d" stands for dipole. Which has 2.5dB of gain above a isotropic radiator. Which is the 'i' in dBi. I don't own the Comet that others have talked about. The circles I run in and company I keep gets me DB-408's and DB-420's for my stuff. Those of course are the 2K dollar antenna's you mentioned. But a guy in Columbus put one up on his repeater and it was a night and day difference between the 6dBi antenna he got with the repeater and that one. It probably added 5 to 10 miles of range or better to his repeater, all other things being the same. No change in mount height. Now, be aware that you can have too much gain if you have a lot of height. The realized gain in an antenna is accomplished in moving the radiation pattern. Think about it like a 100 watt lightbulb. If the light is going all directions, at all angles, no specific direction or angle gets any more light then another. To create gain, an antenna take the unused light radiating up and down and points in to the horizon. The more this is done, the higher the gain. When you get the gain high enough, there isn't much radiation down. So with a bunch of height, you overshoot the signal where you want it to go. Mind you it requires a LOT of height. But if you are on a mountain, and get a super high gain antenna, the valley below will NOT see much if any signal. Just be aware of that.

"SEO ACCY" refers to a specific fuse, likely within the vehicle's fuse box, that provides power to "Special Equipment Option" accessories. This often includes items like mobile radios for police vehicles or other aftermarket equipment. I have this slot. This slot gets no power when the key isn't in the run position. Trust me I don't doubt your method and I know its sound and proven. I'm learning so please be patient with me. The main issue would be testing to make sure that the circuit is not overloaded correct? Update: Thanks for the "why" question. It led me to do some more research. While theoretically the fuse tap would work it's likely for the radio to overload the circuit. Lesson learned and that came simply from you asking why. I appreciate your response. Feel free to add any nuggets that you think that might help further.

I got my GMRS license not too long ago. It's still kind of quiet but I don't care about talking to strangers. If it happens then cool. I got it for my family but we're so spread out that a few repeaters in the area would be absolutely fantastic. I'm actively working on a proposal for the company I work for in Blanchard to see if they would sponsor a repeater on site. It would probably be a hard sell since its a multi-national corporation but it never hurts to try. I would love to work with a few entities for sponsorship to put up a few across the Shreveport/Bossier area.

You left the "sh" off.

While a relay is not needed, some like to have one so that any accessory wired directly from the battery will not receive power until the vehicle is turned on. This is quite common when adding accessory lights to vehicles. And it keeps from killing the battery if you forget to turn the accessory off.

It is the recommended method for any mobile two-way radio. Not enough to matter. Why?

I personally would not try running anything more than a 25 watt radio from the cigarette lighter/accessory port. I would personally just run the positive wire to the battery and the ground wire to a good chassis ground. Anytime you power a transceiver through the vehicle wire harness you take a chance of getting RFI issues. Now if you are worried about a power drain, you can use a 12v relay that won't power the radio until the vehicle is started. Here is a diagram showing how to wire a relay. So you would run a wire from a power source that is only on when the vehicle is running to 86, that will only close the relay switch when the vehicle is started. And you can use a fuse tap for this. You still want to run the radio positive to the battery positive and the radio ground wire to a chassis ground. For the relay, to work, run the radio positive wire to the relay 87 pin and then another wire from the relay pin 30 to the battery.

I had been using the UT-72g for a little while, and I had no problems with it at all. I am very new to GMRS, but it seemed to perform very well for me. I just recently got a MXT-A26. I have only had it on for about 2 days now, and the weather has been really bad, so I haven't been able to use it much. We also don't get a hell of a lot of GMRS traffic in our area. So I really haven't been able to compare them much yet. But the UT-72G seemed great for me. I also live in Southern Colorado, by a lake, so we have some plains and mountains.

Someone posted here not too long ago on how to do it but I agree that it would be better to just buy the ham version.

Would this be the same for a 40 watt radio? Would that still have a slight trickle drain on the battery? Can I use an add-a-fuse tap to power it from the fuse panel?

How do you know it’s not working? What are you trying to do? What have you done? What isn’t working?

Some times deals are not deals. What brand heliax are getting a such a deal on?

You hit the nail on the head. People should do their research before committing to anything. Unfortunately you didn't. I just want to say there's being cautious and then there's paranoia. Worrying about something that has way less than a 1% chance of happening will just drive you crazy. Don't do that to yourself. Don't do that to your family.

Give us point A and point B. With that we can determine the LOS. You may be fine with HT to HT -- on a good day, down hill with a tailwind. You're welcome. And welcome to the site.

I have the 712efc and the paperwork that came with it claims 9.8dBi. It's on the bag and in the paperwork so that's what I assume it is. So it's even bigger than 7.2

I have the RA87 and have used both Chirp and the Retevis software to program. From everything I am looking at it sure seems to be programmed correctly, but still not working. Is anyone willing to send me their programming image file to compare? Thanks

Disregard. Misread Post.

Del Webb does not skimp and they are pretty savy at making deals i.e. my buddy gets his internet as part of the association package, no extra cost. Del Web make deals with Broadband providers whom they choose to allow to come into their properties. He gets a basic 300MB package free claims thats all he needs. I get about the same with my Starlink on my RV and it works great

I put this up in my attic for my repeater. It's just a backup that I can switch to in case of lightning. It comes with or without the ground plane kit, i recommend the ground plane kit. I haven't given it the distance test yet.

If your antenna is 100 feet in the air an additional 1.5 db might be worth it. As you increase db the antenna's radiating pattern on an omni-directional antenna gets flatter. It sends more of it signal to its horizon. I would recommend plugging the info into a one of the free typographical antenna coverage calculators to quickly ascertain if it is worth it. They changed this tool it seams. It use to allow you to map it out and set each site differently with gain and antenna values. This is what I use to recommend. https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ Have you thought about a yagi on with a TV rotator? Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk