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This isn't a problem in the 400-500 MHz range. Both Randy and I have shared test results for this. Unless you plan on winding the coax to less than an inch in diameter while using some super cheap (unshielded) coax, it won't matter. Now, when you start getting down to 50 MHz to about 21 MHz, 8 inch to 25 inch coiled coax just spooled up and tossed aside becomes an issue with SWR. That's why when we do CB installations, we use either a 9 foot or 18 foot cable and just snake the extra cable around the interior, trying to avoid half or full loops in the cable. The lengths are balanced 1/4 or 1/2 wave.

A good way to see the terrain between you and your friend is a line-of-sight tool like link below. Scadacore.com had a better one, but their site seems to be down as of this post. Our cabin in up by Alpena has some serious elevation changes (300') depending on the direction. We can get anywhere from 4-10 miles using simplex with a vehicle mounted MTXA26 Midland MTX400 (SWR 1.1) and 15' tower mount MTXA26 Baofang HT (SWR 1.5). I have done some testing and agree, its all about antenna height and terrain. https://www.solwise.co.uk/wireless-elevationtool.html

Magnet mounts on 6M and HF don’t couple very well to the body of the vehicle. The cable ends up being part of the ground plane. On a 1/4 wave 6M antenna I ended up using a ferrite toroid near the magnet mount base to decouple the antenna. Otherwise moving the coax around resulted in significant SWR changes. I also paid a few bucks, at a flea market, for some magnet mount CB antennas, Little Wilson, with the idea of cutting them down for 10M. Finally gave up since the bandwidth was very narrow and the SWR jumped around every time I moved the coax a bit while adjusting the antenna.

Adding a larger, correctly tuned and well-placed external antenna will almost always certainly perform better than the stock antenna, but depending on your terrain, and 3million other variables, you may or may not notice. With good line of sight, you might get 20 miles of farz on the radios using the stock antennas, but if you have a mountain at 21 miles, then no big antenna is going to get you 22 miles of farz. Dont overthink it.. If you are getting the farz that you need with the stock rubber ducky antennas, then use them. If you need more farz, then connect to a correctly tuned and well-placed external antenna. Queue the overly complicated, 10 paragraph responses that don't really address or answer the question:

Thanks all. I ended up with a Tram 1181 140mhz-170mhz + 430mhz-470mhz Dual Band Nmo Antenna. Pretty happy so far.

Looping excess coax may lead to problems. Coiled coax acts as a choke, which is good in some situations if the coil is a specific diameter and number of turns, but it's probably better to have little or no excess. I would suggest getting as close to the length you need and don't try to shorten it or cut off factory-installed connectors. There's nothing wrong with doing that but it opens up opportunities for things to go wrong, like short or open circuits.

Yes sir, you got it. The alpha deltas at the shack would because of the sdr, and the fact the ft991a has a uhf/vhf port and hf port. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I just realized that my HAM call sign could also be a Grindr call sign. Darn it.

Around here 1 to 3 miles is normal in the city because of buildings, low elevation change and the curve of the earth. Normal distance in a flat area is 3.1 miles to the RF horizon. It's very unlikely you can send enough energy into the atmosphere to make up for those obstacles. And those same obstacles will defuse the signal you're trying to receive. Then there is the issue of RFI, which tends to overload your receive front-end, desensing it. So you can't hear the desired signals due to the radio trying to stop the RFI from over-driving the receive. Out in the burbs and countryside, I get 14-15 miles with just 5 watts. In town, it's anywhere from less than a mile to about 2.5-3 miles with 50w. Significant elevation for a less obstructed signal path is your only hope of getting ant range in a typical city.

Power output is much less important than antenna and antenna placement. I easily get 20 miles to a repeater with a 5 watt handheld and rubber ducky because the repeater and antenna are on a mountain. I use the same antenna and mount as you on my vehicle. Are you in a vehicle or using this hardware in a house? You and your buddy should find a couple hills and see if things get better.

Thank you! That's about $30; here is a less expensive alternative:

GMRS is not a "hobby" GMRS IS intended for people to bring their own audience (ie; your group while off-roading) GMRS is NOT for people that "want to make contacts" It seems you have been misinformed about what GMRS is for, and what its primary purpose is. It sounds like amateur radio or the Grindr app are more of what you are looking for.

First he/she needs a channel.

There are things called access codes for most repeaters. you will need the input and output code (usually CTCSS or DCS) These need to be entered into the radio as well in order to activate the repeater and talk into it.

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