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No. Generally mobile equipment is designed to operate at a nominal 13.8VDC plus or minus 15 percent at most. That would be nearly 16VDC on the high side. Take a look at the manual at the following link. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/downloads/dl/file/id/1411/product/5287/wouxun_kg_1000g_owners_manual.pdf Look at page 80.

I am assuming it's receiving noise/static? If so, There are a few possibilities: The squelch is set too low. Try turning it up to 9 There are actually signals (static/interference/bleedover/illegal digital) coming in. Try listening with another radio to see if it comes in on both or just one radio Something in your Jeep such as LEDs, PWM, ignition, or lord knows what else, is causing noise/static interference - Good luck if this is the case Something else that i'm not thinking of that the other good members here will list below

This is a Rohn BX48. It’ll stand 48’ above the surrounding ground. Buying it was almost certainly the easiest part. It must be attached to a solid base. The documentation describes a block of seven sack concrete that’s 5’9” square by 5’ deep. However, my cabin, which is where I intend to install this, is in the Boulder Batholith. I have boulders throughout my property that are larger than a truck. I just need to figure out how to anchor this to one of them.

THAT'S IT!!! YOU'RE A GENIUS! I jammed the connector really in there (and it looked as if it seated deeper), and lights are a-flashing and the progress bar moved all the way! "ReadSuccessed" Thank you!

Yeah, but short ones to avoid hurting the boulder.

Wood screws?

Don’t pick the ones on TicTok or OnlyFans. You can do better.

True. I was talking to another ham across town in the Detroit area here on a local repeater many years ago. That repeater didn’t have a courtesy tone. If you didn’t know better it sounded like two guys talking simplex. Anyway another ham broke in on the output frequency, full quieting. We thought he was local using the repeater. Then he asked were we were located. We told him our approximate location by local towns around the main Detroit area. The guy didn’t seem to have a clue what we were talking about. When we asked him for his location we were shocked to discover he was on a mountain in New York State. This was all on the 2 meter band.

You’re right, the tower isn’t designed to be guyed. In fact, the primary reason I got this one instead of a Rohn R25 is the free-standing design. I would rather not guy it if possible. I would dig the hole and buy five yards of concrete first. But, not everything always works out the way I want. So, if it needs guys I will just have to figure it out. The soil consists of a lot of decomposed granite. Based on the guys used for utility structures and cell towers in the area it seems to work well.

Here’s another picture of the antenna.

Do any lights on the radio flash? I know with mine it took a little finagling to get the plug to fully seat in the radio due to the rubber bit that wraps around/between the 2 ports. It's been awhile since I messed with mine but I want to say the red and green lights flash when it's reading/writing. You mention picking the port from device manager, so it sounds like windows is recognizing the cable.

I never used either so I appreciate hearing your experiences.

P.S. on second thought your slab idea might help with a nice flat surface and you could pour cement around large bolts that have a bend in them like what’s used for street lights. Cut a plywood template to run the bolts through for your mounting pattern to attach the antenna, with rebar epoxied into the rock for the slab to rock bond.

Very nice Steve. It reminds me of a place my grandfather used to have. It also had boulders. I broke my arm as a teen jumping from one to another. The epoxy works really good too. I’ve used both before in concrete. I’ve never had an issue with either but I lean towards using anchors fwiw.

I had a 2-KG-1000G repeater setup for a while and IF i remember correctly, you have to change a setting in the menus/basically turning off the repeater functionality before you can use it as a simplex base station - but, that is based on my very unreliable 2+ year old memories.

Most (not all, but most) repeaters will give you a "kerchunk" or squelch-tail sound after you unkey. Some may have a roger-beep. If two repeaters in the same area are using the same channel and same tones, you wont know which you're listening to unless the signals are different enough to tell them apart; ie; one might be strong, the other might be weak. Generally speaking, you will never find two nearby repeaters on the same channel with the same tones because it would be a clusterphuc. My bet is that one is out of service or its a duplicate listing. (Bonus response!) Welcome to the exciting GMRS lifestyle!

My joking answer is, don't do it! Unless you want a hobby to become an obsession, profession, side gig, take over your life, etc. This leads to taking electronics classes, engineering school, geek related jobs, and taking over your life in some way shape or form. In all honesty, I have recently used FRS, GMRS and amateur radio to recruit future radio technicians, as this is a field that is not going away, and IT departments may only be able to take over some of the network connectivity aspects of larger radio systems.....but it can lead to a very lucrative hobby/career. The youngest technician I work with is 38 years old, came from Icom America, and will probably inherit an enterprise (nationwide) Motorola based radio network. Which started by him getting his amateur radio license as a teenager. (This was before the recent FRS/GMRS changes that took place in 2017, otherwise I would recommend starting with FRS and then GMRS - no test to take). Find a radio club, take the test, learn as much as possible (by doing as much as possible within time/budget) and one day it may pay the bills, fund the hobby/obsession.

Yeah, after working in and on communications gear professionally and being a Ham for as long as I have, there really isn't anything that would shock me as far as range goes.