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SWR meter: a measuring instrument most often used to ruin the tuning of good antennas. NanoVNA: an inexpensive electronic device that is used miscalibrated to obtain the results that are misunderstood.

Sounds right. Could also just set output to csq/none. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

My HF 228 foot OCF dipole is resonant on 1.9 MHz (and a few others / MIMO), but the antenna network has a 9.1: SWR at that frequency. I literally work the world on that OCF dipole on 5 bands. The principles in that book are the main reason I tell people not to cut pre-tuned antennas to adjust the SWR. My radio performance at home is proof positive that its true.

Yes, it is a lot to digest. The first chapter is likely all most people need to read. The bottom line is worrying about the different between an SWR of 1:1 verses 1.5:1 isn't worth the trouble.

You’re doing it correctly. For future reference you can leave the code off the receiving frequency. Sometimes that’s helpful for troubleshooting. When you leave off the receive tone you’ll hear everything transmitted in that frequency. When you include the tone you’ll disregard anything that hasn’t been transmitted using the same tone.

One word: wrist strap & belt-clip....

you gotta use one of those aluminum hard hats for ground plane? but back to this fine antenna hat and more importantly how did it go over with the chicks ?

As some of you may know, we have been trying to get myGMRS integrated into CHIRP, a popular open-source radio programming software created by Dan Smith, for several years now. I finally heard back from Dan in December and shared our API (Application Programming Interface) resources to him and test credentials for the website. Given that this was a new feature and a big convenience to users, we wanted to offer it as a perk to Premium Members of the website who support our efforts to be the go-to GMRS community. Dan expressed concerns about having any paid services such as RadioReference.com in his application, because developers would be unable to test unless they had a membership at the website. We agreed to table the discussion until we had a solution for developers to test the myGMRS integration, and he implemented the new feature into CHIRP-next, the next generation of the CHIRP application. Dan released a version of CHIRP-next on December 24th with myGMRS integrated into it. Yesterday, I sent Dan an email letting him know what changes to expect to the API once I require accounts to have a Premium Membership to download repeaters through CHIRP, so he had time to make the required changes to show the appropriate error message rather than a cryptic "Got error code 403 from server" message. Long story short and omitting the gory details, Dan decided it was best to completely remove the myGMRS integration that he had finally added, rather than work with us on how to reach an amicable agreement that makes everyone happy. We offered several solutions to provide developers with Premium Membership so they could test the feature, eliminating the concern from Dan. We are surprised by this but respect his wishes, even though it hurts the GMRS community which utilizes his product for GMRS and/or Amateur Radio. Understandably, I know many people will wonder why this wasn't just a free feature and that be the end of it. However, myGMRS is a small business and it needs to be profitable to survive. myGMRS is a one-person operation (not withstanding all the amazing members who contribute the repeater listings and forum posts) and it takes considerable resources to just to keep the lights on with there being so many users. Since the founding of RepeaterFinder, LLC, the corporate entity behind myGMRS, I have not taken a salary. We intentionally minimize the number of advertisements we show because we hate ads too, but they alone don't cover the cost of running the website for nearly 50,000 users. Very few members have been kind enough to support us by subscribing to a Premium membership, so we're always looking for new perks to add for Premium Members to draw more people to sign up. To those who do support us, I sincerely thank you! If you'd like to utilize the myGMRS lookup feature and are a Premium Member, you can download the last working version of CHIRP-next from 01/09/2023 here: https://trac.chirp.danplanet.com/chirp_next/next-20230109/ If you receive "Got error code 403 from server" when trying to authenticate to myGMRS, it means you do not have an active subscription and you can subscribe by going here: https://mygmrs.com/profile/subscriptions You can see the commit notes from Dan regarding the removal here: https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/repository/github/revisions/12301814e238458766f1f7bf06476b39a4e3ab93 Here's the original ticket tracking the feature request: https://chirp.danplanet.com/issues/9169 Thank you for understanding!

Need a Tee-Shirt with FBI stenciled on it too to enhance the effectiveness.

In order to rock that you need to wear dark glasses, a suit, and talk to your wristwatch.

What's the power fold back like on the swr meter? Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

They probably spent so much on weapons & etc that Baofengs are all that they can afford with what they have left

I don't know if the article is intentionally or unintentionally hilarious

Let’s not get carried away…. it’s about scoring hot chicks, not a revolution.

You’re gonna want to have the full kit if you’re new. The speaker mic, when properly worn, add the image of a battle hardened GMRS warrior. For maximum effect, wear it over your shoulder from the rear. A tactical type folding antenna will also convey general badassery. Never never visit your local shopping mall without a folding knife, sheath worn only, on the opposite side you carry your holster worn HT. Basketweave sheath will send a stronger message. Finally, none of this works without tactical clothing. 5.11 pants generally work, but buy them big so the butt is saggy. The summer alternative is cargo shorts, worn with Crocs and socks. Now you’re ready. Have condoms ready.

A good rule of thumb, if you're willing to accept the thumb rule, think of it this way. The repeater station being high and the mobile units being low. You always go high and in for frequency and in for the tone to the repeater and to the mobile units go with down and low in frequency and out for the tone.

I went to a local hamfest a few weeks ago and a few of us radio users that have never met decided to meet up. One of the guys said to find me, just "look for the odd ball, it will be me" but wouldn't say what to look for. He had a hat with a antenna kinda like yours, we found him.

I typically saw the orange or yellow plastic ones. You mean like this one?

I just bought a RigExpert Stick Pro which works up to 600 MHz. I have the NanoVNA with the N connectors and I feel comfortable using it but it’s a pain in the ass to recalibrate every time you want to switch to a different band or zoom out and realize that your calibration doesn’t include what you’re trying to do. The RigExpert is much more convenient. Is it $300 more convenient? I think so, but time will tell.

I have zero experience with Tidradio, but 0.5 to 0.8 miles in the suburbs sounds pretty normal and my exact experience in most places I visit. In a flat area with zero obstructions, your range is going to max out around 3.5 miles. I think the fact that we can use repeaters makes the service desirable for many people, since range gets extended anywhere from 8 miles for a causal home setup to 100+ miles for a mountain top repeater. As far as handheld radios go, I am a huge fan of Wouxun. I would recommend either the KG-905G or the KG-S88G. Larson, Comet, Diamond, Laird and several others make great 3.5" to 5" mag mounts. Any major brand should be fine. My favorite 2 antennas for GMRS are the Midland MXTA26 gain antenna for flat areas and the Tram 1126-B for hilly / mountainous areas. If you don't find your SWR meter, the Surecom SW-102 is surprisingly accurate.

Covid. Combination of people stuck at home and lowering of gmrs license cost. Are big factors. Some migrated from cb, which really is a shit storm 80-90% of the time now adays. I know of 6-7 people whom left cb and went gmrs. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

It's rather unreasonable to expect any service to remain static. Analog TV has gone basically extinct, 11M CB now has analog FM, auto manufactures are trying to eliminate AM radios in cars, the FM PMR446 license free service in the EU now allows two types of digital voice modes and so it goes. GMRS was limited in the number of channels it could use and the changes in 2017 added more, and a few headaches. It's going to change again. It's not a question of IF but WHEN and what those changes will look like. Some of the proposals here have little to no chance of happening while some do have merit. If GMRS doesn't evolve it will just be another dinosaur looking for the nearest tar pit.

Just an update that Premium Members can now export a CSV file compatible with CHIRP from the myGMRS Reports page: https://mygmrs.com/reports Note that there was a bug in CHIRP that prevented cross-tone DCS codes from importing properly, but this has been fixed with today's latest update of CHIRP-next.

Pink antennas always work as chick magnets (and longer is better).