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More info on passive repeaters. Passive Repeater.pdf

That's absolutely possible/probable that the nearby signal from one radio is causing the other to desense enough not to receive audio. I've seen it with as little as 1/2 a watt from a Midland gxt causing the baofeng uv5r go completely "deaf" to incoming audio on simplex. It lit up like it was receiving, but no audio. If this is the case, some distance between them will help

I used that antenna on my Toyota SUV that has a heavy duty rack for over a year. I have a NMO mounted through the roof that I used for 2m. I have since replaced the 2m antenna with a GMRS antenna and use it instead of the Nagoya. I now use the 72G on my wife's Honda with no roof rack and see no difference in TX or RX. Same radio, same antenna. I understand this is anecdotal and of course, YMMV.

I was able to communicate with the family at camp over most of this road as I traveled north ( blue dot ). At this point there is quite a ridge in the way. As the miles grew to the north I was losing them, around four trail miles north of that intersection just south of the blue dot. I think I was still talking to them at that lodge, for example, despite the ridge in the way. Given the positions shown here, was the UHF signal perhaps going along the valley north-east from the blue dot, bouncing off a mountain, then going down the other valley south to the green dot? It was pretty impressive no matter what. If it matters: Midland MTX-275 15W mobile with a quarter wave on the Jeep hood, going to/from a Wouxun KG-S88G 5W handheld with a half wave in the trailer. If I keep this up I may put a better antenna on the trailer.

Looking over the passive repeater pdf from @Lscott I had a moment of recollection, I have worked on radio, cell and television towers on many occasions as an electrician but on the power side of things and I suddenly remember seeing one of these passive repeater panels. I never knew it’s purpose. Very cool to finally know the story. As a side note I loved going to these locations, I would take photos from some ridge with a lake below or some such scenery text it to my brother with the caption “my office today”.

This blows my mind, a picture truly is worth a thousand words. Thanks for sharing. @Lscott I can always count on extra reading material from you sir. Many thanks

Probably, but at this point the RF was put under control by the ferrite and I needed an IP67 weather resistance.

I followed @wayoverthere’s advice and got a ProClip for my RAV4 and KG-1000G: I just had to drill a 2nd hole to match the middle holes in the head unit. The mic hangar is just a metal hangar with the 3M sticky on the back. I think it's similar to this one at WalMart. (can't remember where exactly I ordered it from)

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification!

So I live in the mountains here in Alaska. I have found that GMRS signals (UHF) do very well at moving down the deep valleys flanked by tall/steep mountains. I assumed this is reflection/refraction. I can also confirm that GMRS (UHF) signals get chewed up by heavy forest. Further to that point, there is a commercial UHF passive "repeater" on a ridge behind my home. It is just a large flat metal "billboard". In my experience being in the mountains and away from urban areas "increases" the performance of the radio through better signal to noise ratios. Urban areas tend to drown out weaker signals but out in the back country were there is less RF noise that weak signal comes through strong.

More than a few times my Chinese GMRS junk has performed fine in situations the internet experts say it could not. I have even out performed VHF ham radios a couple of times.

Yes. The "Beta Version 3" is powered by a 60 watt panel (~33 volts at 2 amps) hooked up to an Epever Tracer MPPT controller rated to -40 degrees. I have two of these controllers running this winter. They seem to work fine in the Alaska winter. Downside is these MPPT circuits are louder RF wise than the PWM. I don't claim to be an expert on that but I found the controller was making RF noise when the sun was GONE and was quiet when the sun was present. I thought the opposite would be true but it wasn't. I was able to quiet it down with Mix 61 ferrites on all the outputs/inputs of the controller.

That's possible. There are such things as passive repeaters, nothing more than a huge sheet of metal acting as a reflector. The mountains could be doing that. What might be more likely is some diffraction effects. Light waves, and RF waves, will experience diffraction when passing a sharp edge. In your case it could be the ridge at the top of the mountain. Enough energy diffracted downward to make communication possible. Warning only math geeks should try to read this. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0117276.pdf This isn't as bad and the illustrations make the explanations easier to understand. https://www.ihe.kit.edu/img/studium/Wave_Propagation.pdf

Motorola called CTCSS PL, for Private Line (their marketing term) even though it doesn’t truly provide “privacy” in the sense of preventing being overheard. Thus, the digital ones were called DPL. The digital codes can also be inverted. When entering in Chirp you could see NN or NI or IN or II meaning uplink and downlink codes are “Normal, Normal”, “Normal, Inverted”, “Inverted, Normal”, and finally both inverted. There are a number of terms for these, but don’t let that fool you. Many manufacturers even provide a simple number to the tone, but they are not standardized. My Garmin says tone #7 is 82.5, which Motorola calls PL #6. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on them: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Tone-Coded_Squelch_System As Marc pointed out, all of the CTCSS tones are expressed in terms of Hz with a single decimal value. DCS are always whole numbers and sometimes people include some letters.

Wow. I may have been programming my radios incorrectly. I also thank you for that.

FTDX-101D can't do neither VHF nor UHF. It is certainly not a mobile, in a sense that it would not fit into single-DIN or double-DIN space. Try to look for 6 seconds, maybe?

If the number is just 3 digits, like 023 or 412, it will be digital (DCS). If it's 4 digits, 3 numbers, a decimal and then a 4th number (141.3 or 146.2), it's analog tone (CTCSS).

INPUT Tone = TX Tone OUTPUT Tone = RX Tone The words “Input” and “Output” are relative to the repeater. So, your radio transmits the Input tones the repeater requires, and receives the repeater’s Output tones. Set your TX tone to the Input tone needed by the repeater. At first leave the RX tone empty. Once everything is working you can try putting the Output tone in for the RX tone.

Can we please get rid of stupid daylight saving!?!?!?

"Picket fencing" is sort of a doppler effect from the antenna moving around (unless one is driving past a really tall metallic picket fence ? ) -- nothing that can really be adjusted by the grounding status. You placed the antenna on top of a tall thin stick -- both the stick and the antenna are going to flex under wind and motion. The suggested roof mount takes out the tall stick.

In order: 1. Yes. If necessary you can always add a fan. 2. No. 3. Not at all. No, you are not better off setting up a repeater and using an HT, especially if you’re trying to hit another repeater. 4. Sorry, I haven’t. Please share your pictures though. 5. No, being in a wooden cabinet will not cause interference.

GMRS is allocated 30 frequency channels in the range of 462 MHz to 467 MHz, which are divided into 22 simplex channels (where you transmit and receive directly) and 8 repeater channels (where you transmit to a repeater, which receives and re-transmits your signal on a different channel). Generally, when setting up a frequency channel on a radio, we transmit and receive signals on the same frequency. However, for GMRS repeater channels, we set up transmit and receive frequencies differently; the difference between these two frequencies is usually 5 MHz. In some cases, such as yours, these frequencies may already be pre-set. However, most repeaters require that you transmit a specific tone (often called PL, CTCSS, QC or CG) before they listen to your transmission. Therefore, you may need to set the tone value for the repeater channel you want to use.

If you’re talking to each other through a repeater, you will both tune to the same repeater channel (22-30). Each repeater channel is preset with a transmit (uplink)frequency (transmission from your radio to the repeater) which is in the 467 MHz range. You will need to match the CTCSS or DTCSS tone the repeater expects or your transmission will be ignored. The repeater relays what you transmit by transmitting it on a frequency that’s exactly 5 MHz lower, so if your uplink frequency is 467.550 MHz then the downlink will be 462.550 MHz. Using separate frequencies like that is necessary for full duplex operation, which is what a repeater does when relaying a message as it receives it. The repeater channels are already configured for the offset frequencies. Many repeaters list downlink tones, but a tone is not needed to hear them. If you just want to talk to your friend you would both tune to exactly the same frequency in the 462 MHz range (15-22) which are the simplex channels. 15-22 channels receive and transmit on the same frequencies as the receiver channels for repeaters.

I bought these radios for the combination of voice and GPS functionality. Without the GPS it's really just another radio. Having said that, I'm loving this radio for motorized recreation. For those of you that don't snowmobile in the mountains on public land, ( state, blm, Nat forest) there are groomed trails that will lead you into the play areas where, riding becomes a "free for all". It is allowed to ride anywhere. Keeping track of your riding buddies is a lot like herding cats. Then someone gets stuck in a place where he cant be seen easily. This radio is a very useful tool. I can look at my phone and see him on the map showing direction and distance. Priceless! Here is an EXTREEM example of radio use in the Backcountry. http://www.tetoncountysar.org/latest-news/2023/3/6/qk29lnp7936s69wiw56idtnp8ll4jj

If your in Central Florida give us a call on our Central Florida Channel 462.6750 Tones 100.0 in and out. Also Zello Central Florida GMRS. Where are you going to be? I have a list depending on what area you're in

I'm in NE Florida, but this list has some from Central Florida, too. Radioddity_UV-5G_20230122.img