Leaderboard

Yes the placement of the antenna will affect the "ground plane" which in this case is your vehicle, and have a major lobe as you described for a CB antenna. This is why the center of the roof is recommended for best coverage.

Back in the old days when the PL-259 and SO-239 were invented, what we now call VHF was imagined to be UHF!

I keep wondering why the radio manufacturers keep using the SO-239 connector on mobile radios. Maybe because they've always done it that way. I absolutely HATE the SO-239 and PL-259 connectors. They are spec'd as UHF connectors but they are not 50 ohms at UHF, probably around 45 ohms. Mechanically, they suck too. They also do not provide a full 360 degree termination for the cable shield. I would not use one of these connectors above about 30MHz. They are far more trouble than they are worth. On a 440 ham repeater homebrewed from Icom UHF Part 90 mobiles, I did a little surgery on the transmit mobile and got rid of the SO-239 connector. I replaced the SO-239 with a length of RG142U coax coming out of the mobile with an N connector on the other end. The tricky part was getting a full 360 degree shield connection to the circuit board inside and to the radio's heatsink casting. The first thing I do on mobiles now is I put an N female to PL-259 adapter on the SO-239 connector on the mobile and then deal with nothing but N connectors the rest of the way.

Thanks for the suggestion. I ordered one yesterday.

That 299 thing is a waste of money, as I've been told in numerous occasions by other Commsupport members, who have tried it, and told me precisely to avoid it at all costs. Quoting some of those people here: "its utter garbage" So I would personally stay away from it, and trusting those people has made my radio range grow tens of miles, and I am no longer stuck at <2 miles on 50W mobile anymore. Again, you are better off with an XiR radio that has a Motorola designed FPP. With that said, I honestly think you won't need it, I could be wrong, but in my experience I haven't had a need to have a VFO or any sort of FPP... even before starting carrying LMR gear, I don't recall ever using VFO or FPP on my GD77, MD5 nor TH-F6a.... The handful of times I've used VFO on the TH-F6a was to listen to HF and AM airband, b/c these days everything is all digital, so you need to buy a digital scanner, with multimode capabilities... Also, the scan speed on all CCRs is pathetic at best... and the XPR7550 and the 6550 can only do 16 channel scan lists, so either way, you are screwed..., you'll be better off buying a dedicated digital scanner. IMO, just program all the Itinerants, Moto LMR radio channels, EMS, Fire Dept, Hospitals, Marine, A large set of Ham repeaters, GMRS, etc etc. basically anything that might come in handy, and you're set. Again, If I wanted to just listen to traffic I'll just encourage you to buy a dedicated Scanner, or an HF rig. If plugging 200 channels by hand is not your thing then there are codeplugs already made for the XPR radios that will have a ton of repeaters already programmed in them, just download and flash. G.

Very good point for us newbies! I have found repeaters not listed here, but local in the area. I figured that the repeater owner would not hear me trying to locate the CTCSS until I had found the correct code to get tone or, no static. I am on the very outer edges of two repeaters AND ONLY HAVE LIMITED time in areas that I can make contact in the mobile situation I am in. But I have found one owner that now listens for me every Weds morning as I pass thru an active area where we can chat. Hes happy his equipment is reaching the far and I'm a happy to know my rig is actually working as designed too.

For me like with my CB when traveling I set my mobile unit on scan as it then scans all frequencies. If we are in the woods with our Jeeps I still prefer the scan set up because if someone wants to talk to me and they key up I will hear them and be able to respond. This system on the CB has helped me avoid long freeway delays dur to accidents etc.!! I am sure the same will happen with my usage of GMRS with CB on trips.

Could do a fender bolt mount (like this: https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/ford-f150-2005-2008-1189 ) or lip mount, mag mount is an option, but not the best for your paint...

The topic of the use of un-certified radios on GMRS, including Part-15, Part-90 and Part-97 gear, has been: discussed, argued, debated, nuanced, bantered, ridiculed, promoted and otherwise been beaten well past death on MyGMRS,com. It certainly is worthwhile to note any certification a given radio might have. Be it as a pro, con, or simple comment. But, please let's keep this thread to a simple presentation of brand name UHF radios that work on the GMRS frequencies and not get into that discussion again on this thread.