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Thank you for your kind response. Having experienced the simplex node ROIP issues and the Zello app, I agree with your points.

For a really high gain antenna that is likely true. For a modest gain one the answer isn't so clear cut. I recommended a Comet CA-2x4SR dual band antenna for a friend at work, who got his GMRS license, and looks forward to getting his Ham license as soon as local clubs open up for testing again. You can get it in either a UHF or NMO type mount. http://www.cometantenna.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CA-2x4SR.pdf He mounted the antenna on the fender of his pickup truck. It would have been better on the roof but at 40 inches tall it made things difficult going into parking garages, drive thru windows at banks and fast food joints. I used a Rigexpert AA-1000 antenna analyzer to do an SWR sweep of the operating range. https://rigexpert.com/products/antenna-analyzers/aa-1000/ On UHF the SWR was OK. As long as the SWR is under 2:1 most radios should have no issues and work OK. 432 MHz - 2:1 438 MHz - <1.1:1 454 MHz - 1.9:1 464 MHz - 1.2:1 467 MHz - 1.6:1 469 MHz - 2:1 The SWR on VHF was even better. 140 MHz - 1.5:1 152 MHz - <1.1:1 160 MHz - 1.6:1 This is close to what the published spec's from Comet are for the antenna. While the UHF band has some notable dips and peaks in the sweep it is still very usable. The antenna was mounted close to the roof pillar. I would guess if it was mounted further away the SWR sweep would have looked a bit better. You're right about a 1/4 wave having a large bandwidth. I built a couple out of PCB mount type female BNC sockets and some 1/16 inch stiff buss wire for the elements soldered to the center pin and the flange, bent down at 45 degrees for the ground plane. All about 6 inches long. Sitting on a table top the SWR scan showed a max SWR of 1.4:1 at 430 MHZ and 470 MHz after some slight trimming. The minimum of almost 1:1 was at 445 MHz.. I'm using this on top of a bookcase at the office with a handheld UHF radio. It works better than the typical rubber dummy load, called a rubber duck antenna, that the radios ship with from the manufacture.

Comet CA-2x4SR dual-band antenna has a capacitance hat to tune it for GMRS simplex frequencies. It works really well on the FRS and repeater frequencies too. I have tried a dozen or more antennas. For high gain and solid range, it can't be beat, in my opinion. 6.2 db gain, 40" tall so it works with a mag mount, and rated for 150 watts if you want to use it for other UHF and VHF applications.

For now, yes. We don't want simplex nodes right now because: 1. It kind of goes against the spirit of radio. If you're using a simplex node to just cover your house to talk over the Internet, you don't really need GMRS to do that. 2. Having one node per person adds a lot of complexity and load to the network. It's a lot more that can go wrong and then you have audio issues, announcements or IDs going off, and people connecting and disconnecting a lot. 3. We (mostly me) don't have the time to hold everyone's hand and set them up with a personal node. There's still a steep learning curve to setting up a node if you've never used Asterisk before, and it requires some comfort with running Linux commands. A lot of people don't have that experience and we just can't spend hours on each person for free setting them up. It's much easier to spend time on a single node that is on a repeater with good coverage so you're potentially linking many people together and not just one at his house. We're more interested in covering as many people as possible with as few nodes as possible to keep the overall quality of the network up and minimize problems. Lately we've started to have some growing pains during the National Net where the nodes aren't all cooperating, and trying to fix things with potentially hundreds of new nodes would just be a nightmare. Zello is one avenue I've explored as a way to tie into the network. Zello is a great app but it has several issues that make it hard to adapt to our network. Zello sends the audio to their central servers, then forwards on to the recipient in a non-realtime manner. This is great for ensuring the message got to the recipient and is fairly clear, but there is latency introduced in sending the audio to the client particularly on a poor connection. The problem is people end up doubling over one another. It's still a possibility but it would probably be a single node that people can choose to connect to, rather than many nodes.

True. And the higher gain they are, the more narrow the bandwidth will be, and more difficult to tune. There are no antennas that have enough bandwidth to be used from 420 MHz to 470 MHz without tuning, but the most bandwidth coverage is from quarter-wave antennas, which are about 6 inches long. A quarter wave can cover from 433 to 468 with good results and fairly low SWR. ...and watch out at ham fests and flea markets for quarter wave UHF antennas that seem too cheap. I saw a guy once selling UHF quarter-wave NMO antennas for $1 each. I measured one, and it was only 5-1/4 inches long. Those are to cover 470-512MHz, and won't work for GMRS or ham. If they are too long, you can grind them down. If they are too short, . . . _ _ _ . _ . . Guys, if you are looking for a super high gain antenna for both Ham and GMRS use, just give it up. There will be a compromise on one end, or the other. If you must use just one antenna for both UHF ham and GMRS, then use a quarter wave tuned to 450.

I am glad that I am not the only one struggling with a TK-880! I purchased one from Ebay and I have not had any luck getting the KPG-49D software (ver. 4.20) to access the radio. When I turn it on it quickly displays VER: 1.5164 (Passport firmware?) then displays CH 1. I cannot get it into programming mode from the panel and the KPG-49D. I get an error message that says "Please check connection and communication port setting". The power switch, volume buttons and the monitor button work but nothing else. I have not found a way to do a hard reset or unlock the radio. It is a TK-880-1 Ver 2.0 according to the tag. Frustrating to say the least. Ham radios have been a piece of cake in comparison.

If there is anyone close to NW Indiana who wants of needs 1/2" Andrews FSJ4-50B heliax, let me know. I have 678' of it which I got for free, so I'll be happy to share. I only need about 300' of it myself. The connectors are inexpensive. I paid $19.95/each for two of them. F4PNMV2-C Type N Male for 1/2 in FSJ4-50B cable, Knurled Nut, Captivated Pin, MFR: AndrewOne source for male N connectors: https://www.rfparts.com/connectors-heliax/connectors-12heliax/12helicon-fsj/f4pnmv2-c.html https://puu.sh/G8TuS.png