Leaderboard

It appears that the new $35 fee for GMRS licenses will take effect on April 19th 2021. Great news! for those up for renewal and those on the fence. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/03/19/2021-03042/schedule-of-application-fees-of-the-commissions-rules Jack

I have painted all my base antennas with Plasti-Dip spray paint, since it is rubber-based. I have painted them with the camo collection to blend into the trees. No negative affects at all on my GMRS repeater antenna, my DMR ham repeater antenna, my ham dual band antenna, or my scanner discone antenna. The SWRs remain low on these antennas, and there is no degradation in performance, so I would imagine the same results would be achieved on a mobile antenna. Just don’t use a metallic-based paint like some of the Krylon/Rustoleum products. I always buy black antennas for my mobiles, because I have no chrome on my lifted Xterra. In fact, I have parts of my Xterra painted with Plasti-Dip spray paint, and it shows no signs of wear after 2 years.

@Wayoverthere, thanks for the information. Didn't know that they were preprogrammed for correct offsets +5. So, when I seen this on my local repeater list, I started investigating and couldn't find that information in the manual, and Midland's tech support is, very slow to respond. Thanks for answer.

Many of the less expensive radios leave some flashing from the casting process that partially obstructs the tiny hole for the microphone. Cleaning out the flashing to open up the hole results in much better pickup by the microphone element.

We used to tell them to follow that curly cord from the device in front of their face. You'll find your radio there.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/2426-decent-cheap-swr-meter/

The CB 27 MHz frequencies are in the 11 meter band while Ham frequencies which are close are 10 meters. The 10 and 11 meter number refer to the length of a full radio wave. 300 divided by the frequency in MHz gives the wavelength.

A dummy load is required when you want to get accurate power measurements from your power meter. A dummy load can help confirm your SWR meter is (at least partially) calibrated. A good dummy load connected to the output of the SWR meter (in place of the antenna) should cause the SWR meter to always read 1:1. If it does not, you either have a defect meter or a defective dummy load. No question is a dumb question if you don’t know the answer to it. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM