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That or I could try threatening her with being grounded. Oh wait... pretty sure my authority in that area disappeared 18 years ago.... Buttering it up it is.

Sounds like you have some buttering up of the new landlords. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

I went with 7/8" Andrews Heliax myself, but kinda overestimated the length I actually needed. Hence I have nearly 20' excess which I've gently coiled up and tie-wrapped neatly. For any future needs I have 678' of 1/2" Andrews FSJ4-50B Heliax. The Type N Male connectors are $20 each.

The 'coil' is about 2.5' diameter. You can see it in this zoomed picture: The connectors I bought for the (free!) heliax are not crimp type. The tool for prepping the heliax cost $139, but only takes about 10 seconds with an electric drill to complete the job. The connectors are compression type and requires only two wrenches to tighten 'em up. I didn't mind buying the tool to do the job properly since the heliax cost me nothing! Here is a shot of my 'antenna farm' on the roof. The G5RV-Junior is strung between 2 x 32' fiberglass poles on the left side of this picture. You can see the 300 ohm ladder line towards the middle of the antenna. The tall white antenna near the front of the house is my UHF antenna I originally had for my repeater. I wasn't happy with the performance of only 5 mile radius so I sold the repeater to a gentleman in Oregon who had a nice tower space at 450' on top of a mountain for it. He was happy to pay me about 90% of what it cost me. It was not quite 5 months old. Near the center of the roof is a dual-band V/U antenna, with another V/U antenna on a chimney mount. There is another antenna on the chimney UHF mono-band. There was a 6m antenna on the chimney as well, but a storm eight years ago took it out. I managed to put it back together but haven't bothered having it put up again, as I no longer am physically able to do any roof walking at 73 years old! Not visible is a J-pole UHF antenna on a short mast which I use as a test antenna when working on fellow hams/GMRS rigs. In the foreground is my "ARC(h) Nemisis, doggone power lines...

Thanks bud, I was able to make my first repeater contact today while mobile because of your help. I am starting to figure out how to program this thing and work the menu. It's pretty confusing until you have messed with it a bit.

For the acronym dictionary... FPP = Front Panel Programming. The ability to set radio configuration parameters without a computer or programming software.

There's one input tone that I'm aware of, and there's no tone on output. This was done to force everyone to monitor before transmitting since NYC is so RF dense. I haven't tried to use it in many years, so I didn't even know it was operational. There's a note on the listing from 2017 saying it was suspended for interference reasons, but I don't know if that's the latest info. Here's the listing for it: https://mygmrs.com/view?id=2604

I can speak to the few Kenwood portables I own. Those are: TK-370G-1 (FCC ID ALH29473110), 128 channel, wide/narrow band setting per channel TK-3170-1 (FCC ID ALH34713110), 128 channel, wide/narrow band setting per channel TK-3140-1 (FCC ID ALH32263110), 250 channel, wide/narrow band setting per channel TK-370-1 (FCC ID ALHTK-370-1), 32 channel, wide band only TK-3160 (FCC ID ALH36423110), 16 channel, wide/narrow band setting per channel TK-3360 (FCC ID ALH415100), 16 channel, wide/narrow band setting per channel Pro's: All of the above are Part 90 certified, however the 370G, 3170, 3140 and the 370 are also Part 95 certified thus are perfectly legal to use for GMRS. The 370G and 370 are larger older models, built like a tank and a bit on the heavy side. All the other radios are "palm-sized". Depending on the radio they will take either a nickle metal hydride or lithium ion battery pack. Some will take either one. The battery packs and chargers seem easy to find, original or clone on line. All of the radios, except the 3140, use the standard Kenwood style two pin accessories and use the cheap "Baofeng", cheap Chinese, programming cable. The 3140 however uses the Motorola type multi-pin adapter for accessories and programming cable. I've had good luck finding the programming software with license keys on line. Some have the "engineer's" key which lets you do anything with the radio even if it's password locked. If one wants to use the radios for the Ham 70cm band some model sdo cover 440 MHz and up, or allows entry of frequencies below the lower official band limit, 450 MHz, with a warning popup. The radios will operate there. From what I've read the Kenwood radios seem to work about 5 percent outside of the official band limits so for a lower limit of 450 MHz you likely can get the radio to work down to 440 MHz. I've got mine programed that way, and the simplex along with the repeater section are primarily above 440 MHz anyway. I've had good luck finding operator and service manuals for these radios as well. Con's: The radios are typically only 4 watts max output, option to select low of 1 watt. The difference between 5 watts and 4 watts I doubt is noticeable in practice. Chrip doesn't fully support these radios, and with most of them it's very buggy. I highly recommend using the official Kenwood software. They all use, except the 370, the reverse SMA antenna connector you find on just about every cheap Chinese radio. I think, my guess, is when they designed the CCR's they simply copied an existing interface design, looks like they picked Kenwood. The 370's antenna connector however uses the old Motorola screw stud type antenna connector. No true VFO. However on a few of the radios, after removing a configuration diode and enabling the feature in the programming software, the radio can be front panel programmed, but only to a memory slot. I know the -370G is possible since it's covered in the service manual, not sure about the others. Most of the radios do offer some form of security, voice scrambling or inversion, but legally it can't be used, at least not on the Ham or GMRS services. For Part 90 service I don't think that's a problem.

In fact, making a repeater compliant with Part95E isn't all that hard. Most of the compliance issues for GMRS relate to user control over frequency. Since a repeater operates on a fixed frequency, that part is already taken care of. I'd assume the biggest problem is the cost of the certification likely exceeds the potential sales value.

Have you searched the MyGMRS repeater directory and map?

That may not be as big a negative as you would think. Looking at the ARRL band plan for the 70cm band the simplex section isn't that big. So, on some of my Kenwood radios I programed in a series of simplex frequencies like 446.000, 446.025, 446.050 etc. You can look at your area to see what they typical channel spacing is. The memory names were 446-000, 446-025, 446-050 etc. Now when I rotate the channel selector it sort of looks like a VFO. Not perfect but does a good job. The radios I have use "zones" so the "VFO" channels were assigned to its own zone for convenience. Other zones were assigned the GMRS channels, repeaters etc. That kept everything organized. Then I programmed one of the function keys to switch zones. Even with a 128 channel radio I was able to cover most of the simplex sections with a few repeaters and the GMRS channels too. If you can find a radio with 250 or more channels you likely can cover everything with spare memory channels for future use.

Another Anaconda? hahaha.... How did you manage to coil the anaconda??? with 1 a kilometer curvature radius?? hahaha.... the 7/8 Anaconda was just too much for my 25 foot run, basically to the top of the mast over on a 2 1/2 story house, so I went with FSJ4-50B b/c I could also fit it easily inside the 1" antenna mast tube... At some point before I had some Heliax 1/2, but turns out the cable, for some unknown reason to me, was clearly damaged as it always read massive SWR on the analyzer... no matter what connectors were installed. Good to know about the gigantic spool of FSJ4-50B, however, factory made cables for me only, with factory pre-installed tri-metal N connectors b/c I now know I can't crimp those Heliax cables to save my own life... so its better to pay the professionals to do it right, just once. heh... I think the FSJ4-50B is a great cable for most runs, provided you don't need a 200 foot run or something that long... for anything above 50 feet I would probably go 1/2 and anything beyond 150 probably 7/8 Anaconda... G.

I went the bare bones route with a 100w harbor freight solar kit, it comes with everything you need minus a battery and an inverter. I just wanted something to keep my radios online and charge electronics so I don't have to run my generator 24/7 in the event of a long term power outage like we have had in the past from ice storms. The long term plan is to expand my solar to 400w so I can run my fridge and deep freezer intermittently off an inverter to keep food from spoiling. I run wood stoves in the winter anyway to keep my heating bills low so that covers that.

It was my clumsy fingers that caused that, indeed I meant to type FT-857D. As for the Xeigu G90 it is indeed made in China, but the build quality and superior parts used push it into the same category as any of the three Japanese brands, as does the price! I was honestly amazed to discover that it actually receives slightly better than my IC-7300, and transmits equally well. I put a two way coax switch and set both radios to the same frequency in the 20m band. I also set the 7300 to 20 watts to match the G90. I made six contacts in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas. During the contacts I switched between the two randomly. Each of the six reported no change in signal quality. In fact they weren't convinced I'd actually changed radios! However, when receiving, the G90 produced a much richer and fuller sound with far less hiss. It was far more pleasant to listen to. Imagine my shock discovering that the $500 Xeigu G90 was easily as good as my $1000 IC-7300! Okay, the 7300 does have more "Bells and Whistles" than the G90, but still... BTW, I still have and use my really ancient Kenwood TM-V7A. The blue/white screen died about 12 years ago, but the radio still works perfectly! I keep it parked on my club's 2m and 70cm repeaters. I was at a pre-Covid hamfest last winter and found a brand spanking new TM-V7A still in the box! I offered the guy $100 for it and he said "Okay." So I have a brand new "old" radio as a backup.

Did I say this already? THIS... this is how its done.

Thanks for the tips, I might try it... but I've given up on crimping any cable, b/c when you finally discover what rendered the setup range-less was my poor crimping job... its kinda sad.... G.

And this, ladies and gentlemen is the best example of "doing it right, doing it once" Dang it... I guess I am in need to step up the ante here... 7/8" holy anaconda Batman.... and I am only running FSJ4-50B as my 25 feet feedline... all silver and trimetal connectors, tho. G.

Yeah rg400 can be tough. I found a easy way. Take scrap 2×4 drill a whole so the center conductor can slip easily through the center. Before you cut the sheath, slip the shrink wrap, ferrule, and the ring. (Using pl259 here). Proceed to cut the coax, slip the ferrule part way on to the shield wiring. Slip on the pl259, place the rest of the shielding around the connector. Take the crimper and gently grab the ferrule. Place the whole thing onto the 2x4, make sure not to damage the center lead. Using the crimper as a vise push down till seated. Finish the crimp and check for shorts as usual. Kinda works for n connectors as well. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk