Leaderboard

Being one of the last cool Saturdays left before summer hits here in Phoenix, I finally got around to drilling and mounting some antennas on the roof of my 2013 crew cab F-150 4x4, 3.5 EcoBoost. The truck has a sun roof which significantly limits antenna placement. With the sun roof fully open, I was able to place both antennas 12" from the rear of the roof to clear everything. Not ideal, but it works MUCH better than the mag mount I had been using. Stretches of highway on my commute that were completely deaf to our local repeater when using the mag mount antenna I can now hit easily. Here's the final result: I picked up a Laird X-ACT hole saw from a local radio shop and it worked great. Holes marked and masked - measure twice, cut once! I got a great tip from a fellow AGRC member which was to put down a protective layer above the headliner when it was dropped down in order to catch all the mess from drilling and sanding; I laid down an old towel on top of the headliner before I got started. I used gorilla tape to keep the coax from flopping around, and ran both cables behind the rear passenger side airbag (super important!), down the rear pillar and under the door trim up to the center console. Antennas installed - in the photo is a Laird QWD144 1/4 wave 2m on the right and a Larid BB4502N 1/2 wave UHF for GMRS on the left: I also have a Larsen 150/450/800 on the front fender for my scanner: I currently have a Uniden BCD996P2 and a Motorla CDM1250 installed in the truck; an Kenwood 2M rig will be in there soon: Action shot!

Link for Details: http://fox2now.com/2018/04/19/worker-killed-when-missouri-public-tv-tower-collapses/

Good job. But. Your pictures don’t have any snow. In jelous. And temps of 40 lol

This is getting off topic and should probably be moved to the Ham area - however I have to call BS (sort of) on this. The BaoFengs and other brands work just fine. I've watched them on a spectrum analyzer, and while a little sloppy compared to a high end radio, they were certainly not as bad as YouTube would have you believe. There are always those who look down on inexpensive radios, most of them have no actual experience using them. IOW they are "experts by proxy", passing along information they heard or saw on the Interwebs. If you don't like cheap radios, fine. But they work, they are a great entry point for new Hams, and don't deserve the reputation they get. IMHO, YMMV, HAND. 73's.

Steve, as already mentioned by Jones, I would suggest taking a look at the BTECH GMRS-V1, which has repeater capability. https://baofengtech.com/gmrs-v1 The BTECH GMRS-V1 is FCC certified for Part 95A (GMRS) and is therefore legal to use. If you want to learn more about this radio, Miklor, as usual, has a FAQ on the GMRS-V1. http://www.miklor.com/BTGMRS/BTGMRS-FAQ.php The GMRS-V1 can be purchased through Amazon for $54.99 with free shipping, so four of them would run you $219.96, which is well within your $250.00 budget. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LWOLZ8L And if for some reason you happen to dislike the free CHIRP programming software, RT Systems offers its BTS-GMRSV1 Radio Programming Software. https://www.rtsystemsinc.com/Articles.asp?ID=619 The RT Systems BTS-GMRSV1 software requires use of an RT Systems USB-K4Y cable, which can be purchased together with the software for $49.00. https://www.rtsystemsinc.com/BTS-GMRSV1-Programming-Software-and-USB-Cable-p/bts-gmrsv1-usb.htm You could purchase four of the BTECH GMRS-V1 radios plus the RT Systems software and cable for an amount that's just slightly over your $250 budget and you would be repeater-ready for the future. If you acquire now radios that aren't repeater-capable and later wish to use them through a repeater, you would have to purchase new radios. Good luck! Frank.

Welcome to the hobby Steve! I'm guessing by you mentioning radios in the 25 dollar range your suggesting portables radios for your family. I myself only use Motorola, but that wouldn't fit the 250 price range. I was looking around and can't seem to find any that you could get 4 of and not go above 250 that I consider "decent" radios. Baofeng may be your only choice unless someone can chime in with another brand I may have missed. Good luck! Maybe I'll hear ya on the air one day.