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Or as my chemical spill response instructor and CERT instructor called it Methyl Ethel Bad Stuff. It's funny how the things that can kill you in one specific state are ok to posses in 49 other states. BTW, how are you handling the fact you can't charge you government mandated electric car while you have rolling blackouts? I wonder if the blackouts effect the folks that vote for liberals and the conservative voters equally.

Some repeaters will generate CTCSS when they ID while others don't. Your configuration for TX PL/DPL and RX PL/DPL in some radios are separate, other radios will use either a single entry for both or rely on whatever the TX PL/DPL is set to for RX if nothing is configured. Try looking for a 'monitor' button on your radio. That will open the receiver regardless of the tone being received. See if you are hearing the Morse Code when you hit that button. Also, understand that the ID of the repeater is NOT going to happen every time you key it up. There is a timer in the repeater that if it hasn't transmitted ID in the time set in the repeater programming, typically 13 to 15 minutes, it will ID. If it has ID'd in the last 14 or so minutes it should NOT do it again. There is no requirement for a repeater to ID with the PL/DPL tone encoded. Ham's typically have this enabled so they can hear it to remind them to ID. Of course, some of them have talking repeater controllers that will babble on about where the repeater is, the frequency, call sign, time, temperature, how high the tower is, how much power it's running, club membership information, and a whole list of other nonsense that no one cares about. We have a ham repeater here locally that goes on for 15 seconds with this nonsense every 9 minutes rather or not it's in use. And for the love of God don't key the thing up after it's ID'd because then the secondary in USE ID will come on and it will ID again. If it's timed right you can get it to ID 3 times in about a minute. Hence the reason NO ONE uses the dumb thing. Personally I hate talking repeater controllers. The one on MIDWEST is fine. It runs once an hour, and has useful information. But if it was announcing crap every 15 minutes I would be unlinking my repeater. Anyway, I would be looking to see how your radio handles the PL/DPL configuration and see if you can disable the PL/DPL on receive to see if that helps. I am just guessing but I am willing to bet that the radio doesn't have some special filter to keep the Morse ID out of the receiver.

An inch for the mount is a good buffer...I want to say mine are about 3/4". On wind noise, mine isn't the best vehicle to judge this, since it has an aftermarket exhaust (not all that quiet). That said, I've only ever noticed minor differences in noise between the antennas in the windiest conditions...the comet and Browning have tight springs like that 2nd you linked, but they're also both in the neighborhood of 3' tall, with phasing coils along the way. I've run the 70cm tuned version of that first laird and never noticed any noise, and wouldn't expect a difference from that tight spring on the 2nd...good performance too.

SUCCESS!!! This software creates code plugs that are unencoded XML. I used my HEX editor to change the TRANSMIT frequency on Channel 19 to the INPUT frequency for Repeater Channel 19R and used the BF-T11 software to enter the ENCODE CTCSS tone and now I have confirmed at home that these handy little units can transmit and receive on the 5 MHz split! Now 2 watts is not enough for me to actually access my local repeater from inside my home, but later today when I go driving closer to this repeater, I will confirm that this will actually allow me access to this 650 Repeater:

The BR-6140 is a half-wave dipole, having ~2.15dBi (0dBd) gain. Mounting closely over a ground plane is going to distort the radiation pattern (probably sending most of the energy up into the sky rather than horizontally). Generic (hence the 300MHz) vertical half-wave dipole in free-space: Oh, you'll want to compare the 3dB beam width too... The 3dB points are where the power is half of the maximum. Same antenna located 1/4 wave above ground: Strongest signal is on a 14 degree take-off angle -- might be good if you are only trying to reach repeaters on tall mountains. Note the reduction in gain, however -- 1.89dBi Located 0.01 wave above ground (the NEC2 software core doesn't like wires touching actual ground, and I can't justify paying LLNL for a license to NEC4 or NEC5): Smoother lobe, but a 19deg take-off angle. But only 0.79dBi gain! Mounted 20 wavelengths up: Take-off angle is only 2deg, practically horizontal -- and with ground effects nearly 7dBi gain The Nagoya requires a ground plane, and using just raw dimensions is 1.5 wavelengths long. I'm not sure if it is base-loaded, center-loaded, or both (I'm used to antenna with a central "lump" being center-loaded -- better radiation pattern, but also more wind drag). Or possibly the center lump is a phasing system and the antenna acts as two phased stacked verticals -- a 5/8 wave is 0.625 wavelengths long, so two stacked 5/8 waves could be about 1.5 waves long. NOTE: the Nagoya is a 6dBi antenna. That's twice what the half-wave dipole has for gain unless the half-wave is mounted, as shown, 20 waves above ground (actually, with the bottom just one wavelength above ground, the half-wave shows around 6dBi, but with a higher take-off angle). Presuming it is mounted on a proper ground-plane, it should outperform the half-wave mounted close to ground. At one wavelength above ground, the half-wave will start to compete with it.

I'd be more concerned about having a stack of adapters as long (and as bulky) as the apparently highly rigid antenna itself presenting a risk of physical damage. Most rubber ducks at least have some give when something hits them on the side. That stack (which appears to be SMA->TNC, TNC->SMA) looks to have left a large torque point on the radio's SMA connector; nothing braces the bottom of the stack against the body of the radio (in my experience most SMA rubber ducks make contact with the retaining ring of the SMA connector, or provide a washer/o-ring to fill any gap). But then, I also still own HTs that use BNC connectors for the antenna... (RatShack and Midland CB; Maxon GMRS-210+3, RatShack (Maxon) HT-202, Pryme PR-52 -- the only one still on the market, to my knowledge, is the Midland)

You bet. The fourm has been (and continues to be) a great resource for me too, and I try to return the favor when I can .

It's not ideal, and you will likely loose some TX power due to a higher SWR than normal, but it wont cause any harm - however beware of the "experts" that will leave a 10-paragraph long response telling you that it will cause damage to the radio. To them, I say, just watch this video about the KG-935G to see that a little high SWR wont hurt it -> https://youtu.be/yrLB7augoQU

Thanks for taking the time to explain things to a newbie.

The 1/4 wave are effectively half of an antenna, using the metal mounting surface as the other half (ground plane), similar to the 12" spring antenna you linked. On the other hand, the first one linked (the 15") is a half wave, effectively carrying both halves, which is why it mentions not needing a ground plane. The"base loaded coil" is a way of making it act the same size to the radio, while allowing it to be downsized physically, to some extent. Signal wise, generally the pattern may be a tiny bit less vertically on the base loaded compared to the 1/4 wave, but marginally further in distance...one of those things you'd find if you were on the fringes of range. I've had no clearance problems with 1/2 or 5/8 wave uhf antennas, even in the 7' clearance garage at work, though it doesn't park indoors at home. For reference, mine are on the roof of a single cab, mid 2000's 2wd Ranger clone. In terms of cable run from the magnet, consider your routing carefully to protect the paint, and protect the cable from pinching or kinking. If you're running it in inclement weather, watch the routing for water intrusion as well. I routed mine along the doorframe to the bottom, and turn upward to cross the seal...on the car, similar concept along the trunk seal, though I do have to be careful closing the trunk.

I laughed pretty good on this one. LoL I know it's hard to believe, but I have seen enough people ask this question that I figured I could post it in one spot and just link it. That way I don't have to type it over and over. I know what you mean about the meters, too. I have a Tektronix analyzer sitting on the shelf of my office. $26k when it was new,, a million years ago.. I do like the cheap meters because their good enough for pass/fail, which is all most GMRS operators need. Plus, if I put screen grabs from the analyzer up, the people who need to know what it says, can't understand what they are looking at. But, yeah... here we are. LoL

God, I just found this by accident, and couldn't agree MORE. I posted earlier today on eHam about this very thing. Ham's seem to WANT to piss off all comers that are new to the hobby to the point they toss their equipment in a closet, and allow their license to expire in ten years, never really getting involved with the hobby because they came across this mentality and figured it wasn't worth the effort to remain in the hobby.

Well golly Gee.... it gets hot here too, and we don't have these issues with flex alerts or any of that stupidity. Can't say we have ever had a MANDATE to conserve energy here. And as far as cancer causing materials. Yep some stuff causes cancer. It's only regulated there, because state governments in other places expect their populace to be smart enough to not get over exposed to them. One one state feels like their residents are too stupid to understand that and create stuff like prop 65 to regulate it. Then again, interacting with some from that state, I can see why they would feel that way about it.

OMG is this REALLY a topic of discussion. The MOST common issue for a radio that is rated for 50 watts NOT doing 50 watts is it's actually NOT generating 50 watts. The second most common issue is line loss. And for the love of God, 49.37 watts is not 50??? Are you KIDDING ME?!?!?!?! This type of stuff is where the lack of ANY sort of testing of knowledge of subject matter to get a license becomes fully apparent. And drives guys that have a heavy back ground in RF systems up the damn wall. As Mark mentioned, there are a ton of singular reasons that power output can go down from what the spec the manufacture stated as being the 'rated output'. Any ONE of these can come into play, and it's typically a combination of them that will reduce power output. And these figures are generated by the designer NOT a test by the manufacture when the radio is built. And people need to have SOME small understanding of how much effect there is on coverage when you are down to 45 watts from 50 or even 25 vs 50. Becasue there is NO difference between 50 and 49 at ALL. Case in point. I loose 30 watts in my transmit combiner. So when my repeater is programmed for 50 watts, my power level leaving the building as measured at the surge suppressor at the cable window is 20 watts. The repeater talks for 30 miles in most directions and is only limited within that circle of coverage by topographical issues. Meaning I can't get RF to pass through hills, buildings and other structures. And that is a fact of UHF RF propagation and is consistent with all equipment operating on the frequency range. Nothing to do with 50 vs 20 watts. If I increased the power to 200 or even 2000 watts those locations would still be blocked from reception of the signal. Something as simple as a 3 foot cable being between the transmitter and the watt meter WILL decrease measured power. By at least a couple watts at UHF regardless of the cable type. And even the connectors have loss in them. So on paper the radio may calculate to have a power output of 50 watts but you will never seen that power level with an accurate meter due to something that simple. Another issue with not measuring the rated power of a radio is the radio and the meter used to measure the power. Good test equipment is expensive. A Bird 43 power meter is about 300 bucks new. The required element for it to work is another 150 bucks. And that meter is rated for an accuracy of 10 percent of the full scale indication of the element in the meter. Meaning if the element is 100 watts, that meter can be off as much as 10 watts and STILL be considered within spec. You are measuring a 100 dollar radio with a 20 or 30 dollar meter and expect the same level of accuracy. Yeah Right. I don't care if the meter has ability to indicate down to the hundredths (.01) of a watt. It ain't that accurate. I have a 40K dollar piece of test equipment that is coupled to a 700 dollar power coupler that is all sent off the be certified every year and calibrated. It ain't THAT accurate. And if you think that the meter you got from Amazon for 40 bucks is better than my 40K dollar piece of test gear, then YOU are the one living in a dream world and nothing I can say here is gonna change that. Hell I can make a measurement with what I have, disconnect the cables, reconnect them and they will indicate a difference in power of more than a hundredth of a watt. And that is just from cable placement and cycling of the connectors. And YES, ALL RF connectors have a finite number of connects and disconnects before they are deemed 'used up' and have to be replaced. For microwave testing, the adapters and connectors are rated for between 50 and 100 insertions. And cost 50 or 100 dollars a piece for a simple N female to SMA male adapter. And NO you don't check 6 Ghz microwave power levels with a Bird 43 either. That would be done with a HP watt meter that the POWER sensor is over 1000 dollars and the meter is around 10K. And the N connector is replaced on those every 2 years during calibration. Now that is getting into lab grade test equipment, which is NOT something that you are going to be buying from Amazon for 40 bucks. But it WILL measure accurately down to .01 watts and below depending on the power sensor used.

Just drill a hole and drop a 1/4 wave on it. 99% of the time that will outperform what you need and not require removing it daily t go in a garage.

Which ? The roof rack ? If so yes goes around windshield to the top tray then to the rear of the jeep.

We use the Garmin radios when we’re out searching for rockets. We can see each other’s locations (simplex) in real time on a topo map. In the event of a medical emergency (this is hilly terrain) we can find each other quickly. Having a uhf channel sending APRS (or any kind of location data) is definitely not useless.

He is correct though, it would be easier to help if we knew what radio the guy was using.. And I prefer his direct and to-the-point replies to the 5-10 paragraph uncecessarily-complicated answers that always include a full resume of the person leaving the reply as well as a list of all the radios they own. I guess we all have different want/needs in forum replies..

Same thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Tone-Coded_Squelch_System

This is ideology is a result of the constant barrage of ham radio operators acting like snobs, idiots, and whatever (take your pick) in online forums every day seemingly doing their best to chase away newcomers to the hobby. And yes, GMRS users also do this, but strangely, many of them also have ham callsigns listed on their forum signatures.