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Why not? My truck's lighter sockets are rated at 120 watts. Stock. Nothing out of the ordinary. Quiz, can you tell me how many amps that is? It's a rhetorical question. That means I'm not interested in a response because clearly you don't get it. Not knowing things isn't a crime. In fact that is what has been great about this community. That people help people and they become educated. You got to want info though and you are something else. Let's recap. When you told us it was pulling 23 watts on 13.8 volts, well you are the one that told us it was less than two amps (regardless if you realize that or not, math/ohms law, you should try it). When @nokones asked for some clarification (because your statment made no sense) you insult him. That's a great way to show us how absolutely brilliant you are. double down and insult the guy. Then @Sshannon tries to explain because clearly their was no need to be insulting people and you insult him and say he's wrong. No he is not and being loud and insulting dosn't change that. I don't understand why this forum has taken a turn for the worst with all the insultling lately but I can pin point the people doing it. It would be nice if you could try being a better human here on the forum. Regardless you are going on my ignore list which does make this a nice Sunday morning indeed.

One thing Joel is correct about is that a person must read their manual correctly. The Anytone at-778uv is a 25 watt radio. The factory fuses are rated for 10 amps, which is less than the current many power ports are fused to handle. The section that recommends 12 amps (3.2) has nothing to do with installation in a vehicle. It’s specifically making a recommendation for the capacity of a base station power supply. That makes sense because you don’t want to always run at the upper limit of an AC/DC power supply. @WRUU653, I’m sorry you got pulled into this. It’s obvious that Joel has a problem dealing with people and it’s regrettable that he’s now directing his ire towards you.

You’re still missing the point. You said that your manual said you must provide a 12 amp source. Then you said your radio draws 23 watts, a number that doesn’t make sense. That’s what Kenny was telling you. Kenny explained that’s less than 2 amps. Now you’re talking about your radio using 20-30 amps, numbers which still make no sense for a GMRS radio, even while transmitting. My mobile ham radio outputs 100 watts of RF. At 13.8 volts it does that while drawing 23 amps, which is a power consumption of 317.4 watts. That’s a power efficiency of 31.5%. The rest of the power is mostly converted to heat and some light. This radio would require a direct connection to the battery. During receive my radio draws 0.6 amps (at 13.8 v), which means it consumes 8.28 watts. So, where did your “23 watt” figure come from? Is that something you measured on an RF wattmeter? If so, that’s not the power “draw” but rather the output power. And if that’s the output power, then your radio probably doesn’t need a 12 amp circuit. 12 amps would be a reasonable current requirement for a radio with a 50 watt RF output if it were as efficient/inefficient as my FT-891. But, if your radio only puts out an actual 23 watts (RF Output), and if it operates at the same inefficiency level as mine (31.5% of the input power is radiated as RF power), then the actual power consumption while transmitting is 73 watts, which represents a current consumption of about 5.29 amps, a value that’s easily delivered by your cigarette lighter socket. So Kenny was trying to get you to understand that you were using numbers and units that simply didn’t make sense the way you used them and in return you accused him of drinking. I can see why he might want to.

Hey folks, I figured I would start a thread since it seems like there is some interest. So, lets see if we can get a nice weekend-long offroad trip coordinated to Troy NC, wheeling in Uwharrie National Forest. I am tagging people I think are close and may be interested, but everyone is welcome to join. @StogieVol @gortex2 @hfd376 I am thinking a weekend in the Spring would be good, so we can camp. Of course, Uwharrie Cabins are an option too. Anyplace that will accommodate everyone and give us a place to relax and hangout after a day of wheeling. I am thinking April 20th or later would be good, since the average high temps are in the low 70's and the rainfall for the last two years was pretty minimal. However, I am open to suggestions for other dates. Ideas? Comments? Concerns?

@WRPG745 @marcspaz Dickey and Daniel both can be done in stock if you are careful, pick good lines and take some bypasses. We had an Old stock TJ on 30" tires do both trails. Marc, once you get past the Gatekeeper, then the tight switchback on Daniel you will reach the 4 choice hill of Daniel. The far right is the hardest and go down in difficulty moving left. Very technical except for the easiest (far left) but it's all rocks going up. Enjoy! We had a blast at Uwharrie. Below is the TJ that did all the trails at Uwharrie.

The best antenna to do what I'm looking for is the Laird B4505CN with the GR8PI magnet mount. It's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for all the help

Radio Amateur and I don't mean HAM Radio nor do I drink, smoke, or consume any substances.

BTW, I believe that the XTL and APX will address up to 4 heads. There is a way to set the head number on each head and they get daisy chained from head to head. The power would be a bigger issue at that point as I don't know I would want stand along power supplies running each head creating a ground loop on the data cable between the heads and the radio.

I'll share the date with the "financial administrator" of the household and see whats on our calendars.

Pretty much every mobile GMRS and ham radio comes with SO-239s on the radio, in spite of their lossy nature on VHF and UHF. I have heard of folks changing the connectors on the radios to N, but most people I know just use what's there. My 2m, 440 and 1200 Mhz repeaters, with their associated duplexers, circulators and antennas, are all N connectors.

He has a video comparing N connectors to UHF connectors too... The differences were less stark than in these angle connectors, but he wasn’t testing at UHF frequencies. I prefer N connectors. They’re just better connectors and more resistant to moisture penetration.

I watched the video and yes, I agree with you. But.... If someone is using SO-239s at 460 Mhz they're really not too concerned about a fraction of a db loss. What did he say, 3db loss through 10 connectors? So, using two in your system is going to be minimal. I have loads of old silver plated Amphenol connectors and happy with them because they are just good connectors. Everything I do on UHF goes through an N-connector if I can help it. I know hooking up the spectrum analyzer to measure return loss on a duplexer I can see the loss change as I tighten the N connector until it's fully seated.. That said, the ones DXE is selling are nickel plated brass and probably aren't that much better than Mr. Chung's nickle plated brass ones. I'm not knocking Amphenol's US made connectors, but you can easily reach the point of diminishing returns for hobby radio. If I were budget limited, I would rather invest in good feedline and use a marginal connector. The most loss is in long lengths of cheap coax. Forgot to add, according to DXE specs the body of the connector is made of Zamac which is basically pot metal. The real question, does the Chinese adhere to the metallurgical formula for ZAMAK and does it really matter after it's nickel plated?

Ch. 16 and surf the the others. Spent a lot of time in Uwharrie NF years ago. Palmetto Jeep Club even owned a trail (SAWMILL) for winter maintenance before it was re-routed. Seen lots of changes pass thru that park. Did some (worked) Camp Jeeps too in VA. Mostly we wheel with VA4WDA and Williamsburg, TN, JJAM any more. Completed the Trans American Trail and others....

$65 (!) shipped to southern California. In some cases, I've had generic connectors fall apart or not seat correctly. Those are the two (rare) problems I've had with cheap connectors. The vast majority have been trouble-free.

Watch this video before you make up your mind, please. The difference is very measurable. It’s not an issue with SWR; it’s a problem with attenuation, aka insertion loss: And I agree that without stressing your system you might never notice the difference. There are places that sell new old stock ones for $15 each or so. RF Parts or American Radio Supply appear in google searches. I was fortunate to inherit a few of the old silver plated ones from Amphenol. I absolutely understand the hesitation to spend $47 for a pair of these.

As an unlicensed H.A.M. for over 40 years, I can tell you that you are 100% correct.

I'm not doubting your expertise, but at $47.00 for two nickel plated brass Amphenols from DXEngineering, I'll stick with a nickel plated brass one from the south side of China for a quarter of the price. I don't think either of us will be able to pick out the Amphenol 100% of the time in a double blind test.

I posted some Jeeping pics on my profile if anyone wants to see my Ol' Girl.

@Extreme Sorry about the dog. I actually only have 1 badge so far, but the wife and I love to travel so they give us a reason to travel and trail. Plus I like the badges. We hope to be out that way at some point. Looking very forward to it.

So there are some issues using a beam specifically with simplex operations. First issue is beamwidth of the antenna. Think of an onmi-diredctional antenna as a bare light bulb, the light comes out in all directions pretty much equally. Then we get into a short yagi of 3 or so elements. That's like having a flashlight. It's a directional beam of light that spreads out as the distance increases but is still very directional as compared to the bare light bulb. Now we get into the longer boom yagi's. And while 7 elements isn't really a big beam as opposed to some of the 30 element ones that ham's use for Satellite work, it's still significant forward gain. That's gonna be like a cheap red laser that up close is just a dot, but at a distance, the dot might be a foot or two across. You need to point that dot at the other person you are trying to communicate with and hold it on them throughout the communication as it progresses. And the more elements, the smaller that 'dot' is that you need to hold on the other party. Because once they are out of the dot, they are no longer able to communicate with you. Second issue is more of a regulation thing. While the repeater channels are NOT ERP regulated and any sort of antenna system can be employed for these simplex channels, some of the simplex channels are indeed ERP regulated and the ERP is a calculation of antenna gain and input power to the antenna. A 10 watt radio into a beam with 3dBi of gain is the same ERP as a 20 watt radio connected to an antenna with 0 dBi of gain (typically an omni-directional antenna). If you get into 6 or 9 dBi of gain, your .5 watt radio is no 2 watts, or 4 watts, when you are regulated to .5 watts of ERP and FRS is always regulated on ALL channels hence the reason an FRS radio has an antenna that can't be removed and connected to a different antenna.

I'm sure at some point over the weekend, at least a couple of us will run Dickey Bell and I am going to try Daniel for the first time. For the rest of the weekend we would be wheeling trails that are 100% stock vehicle friendly. If you have a stock mid-size or full-size pickup, high clearance SUV or a stock Wrangler, you will absolutely have a good time wheeling with us. We'll be sure to get everyone through safely with the most amount of fun. The only two things I can think of is, hard plastic mud flaps may get broken, and full-width side steps could get bent. I would recommend unbolting them before going anywhere but on a gravel road.

Haven't done any BOH. Was to go to Moab last Spring with some friends but my dog got very ill and had to back out. We run the many thousands of acres of BLM/USFS trails. Great Basin high desert is perfect for GMRS and repeaters.

Let us know when your going to Flagpole. Its on my list. Next weekend in VB for a family thing but then around rest of year.

Rausch Creek, Is where we were planning to go. There are 5 Badge trails there. Enjoy the trails and be safe my friend.

Ehhhh wrong again! you read wrong. Its very clear what I said "The other thing I found out is when I was reading the radio manual, I'm required to connect it to a minimum of 12 amp so I can achieve the maximum steady output. It was drawing 23 watts on my 13.8 power supply at home." So it means, i wont be able to use a cigarette lighter socket. I have to wire it all the way to the battery." Its very clear that in order for me to run maximum wattage I have to do a full power. Are all right man? I wont barge into a conversation that you don't even understand to begin with. I wasn't here to change someones life. I'm just quietly making a conversation to somebody. If you feel confident in using a 2 amp power supply on a 23-25 watt. go ahead, Manufacturers wouldn't recommend you to use 12 amp power supply for no reason. They tested that product on different and maximum conditions which varies in power consumption. I'm not stopping you for what you want or think and In fact I wont even say anything. I think that makes a lot of sense rather than pulling out the famous word "It doesn't." LoL.... Keep it up man. I'm a quick learner.

To make it simple read your manual correctly. There must be a reason why you're using 20-30 amps than 2. Not unless if you wanna power up a 23-25 watt radio with a 2 amp wall-wart or less. I just wanna remind you that receive and transmit are 2 different power draw. But if you're happy with 2 amps, go for it. I'm not in the position tell you what to do. Yowhiee!

The thing is that what you wrote is confusing. If your radio draws 23 watts, the current at that time is 23 w/13.8 v, which is less than 2 amps. Nope, Kenny is exactly right. So maybe you don’t understand what he explained?

Sounds good! I only have a handful of badges. I should work on them. I am heading to Rausch Creek on Friday and we are going to do a trip to Flagpole Knob in the George Washington National Forest on the 30th Trying to get a couple runs in before the snow hits.

@Extreme It's the Jeep Badge of Honor Trails.

@StogieVol my pleasure. If you would lime the company, let me know when you go wheel in Pennsylvania. Ill head up with you.

Well, hell. There you go. All he has to do now is buy a XTL mobile with two O5 heads, and the appropriate length data cable, and of course the radio with the APX style TIB, and that should work. I know the XTL2500 radios, without the accessories, brick only, are extremely cheap, less than $100 on eBay but, I don't know if the XTL2500 radio firmware will accommodate the Two Heads and One Radio Configuration. I guess Motorola did away/discontinued the 3 foot length cable. I don't see it on the chart

Ooh, yah. A Tone Remote console is definitely a solution maybe not the cheapest but technically its one of the cleanest and best solutions. Since, he is in the same location/building (home), and there are no Telco RTO or Pieceout circuits to tend with, just a house cable, he can even go with a DC control circuit, if they're still available these days, I know thats dating me.

That changed. Here are the cables for the APX. Just installed the 50' one in a command post application.

Motorola does have a package with the XTL5000 & APX series radios where you can have two control heads operating one transceiver. But the Motorola data control cable maximum length is 30 feet. The cheapest would be is wire a speaker into the other room but you still would have to go back to the room with the radio to transmit. Depending on the make and model of his radio, there may be a Vehicular Repeater System (VRS) unit available that he can attached to the radio and enable it when he leaves the room that has the radio and control it with an out-of-band portable radio. eBay has some Pyramid VRS units listed for sale. Essentially, the VRS units function the same and the interface cable is what connects the VRS unit to the radio. You just need to make sure that the VRS unit is out-of-band with the subject radio. And, maybe Pyramid can make the interface cable for him depending on his primary radio make/model and configuration.

Do you mean 23 amps or watts? If you're pulling only 23 watts, that is only a couple of amps at the most. What is your radio rated for RF Power Output? A radio on standy/idling and/or receiving normally won't exceed an amp and a half. What is your power draw when transmitting and how many RF watts output would that be?

Weare in Uwharrie monthy doing trail cleanups with the park along with other weekends just wheeling.Its nice that its only a couple hours from me. Not many places in VA that allow the wheeling like UH

Been Jeeping for 40+ years. First vehicle was a CJ. Currently we wheel our 2009 JK 2 Door. Its our beat on off road jeep. Also light wheeling of our 2020JT. Do alot of Jeep Jamborees, so Uwharrie for 5 years now along with Greenbrier and others. Do alot of Forest Service roads with the JT. I use what ever channel others are on but scan when alone.

What makes you think it was his wife's?

I was hoping to find your excellent review on this radio. Once I get the radio I'll know about Windows 11 use. Something about an old and new chip in cable and required driver.

I heard that one of the big GMRS youtubers is going to be reviewing this radio in the next few days.. FWIW, ones shipping now come with a programming cable and the antenna is removable - no screw, no glue..

have been using these for decades but single band https://d3dqzy9ky05fbv.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ASP-Mosaic-Series.pdf also have been using a Laird B4505 for a few yrs now and I find it comparable to the Mosaic

I'll second what @kidphc says, but would like to add that using any of these "all band" is a compromise. Also, stick with a good quality commercial grade antenna manufacturer such as Laird or Larsen. I've used Larsen for decades and never had a failure and they performed really well. On my truck, I use a dual band antenna for 2m/70cm that been in service for over 10 years. I recently added an NMO antenna for GMRS that is of poor manufactured quality made by Midland. Bottom line, stick with quality commercial grade antennas and use separate antennas for multiple bands and radios.

This topic comes up every once in a while in other threads but not discussed on its own. A number of people got GMRS, and or Ham, radios for use during an emergency but haven't given much thought to how the radio(s) will be powered once the battery pack is dead, for portables, and how to recharge them. For an extended power outage, over a large area, gas powered generators likely won't work for long due to the fact the gas pumps likely won't have power either to refill the gas cans. One case in point was the great northeast power blackout in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003 I'm in the Detroit area and the gas stations had no power except for a few. Those were only pumping gas for police, fire etc. nothing for anybody else. One solution is using a small solar power system to keep a battery charged up. There are plans all over the Internet for building "solar power generators" with one example below. https://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/PV/PortableSolarGen/easy_diy_solar_generator.pdf Some of the info above is out of date, but the general idea of how to build one isn't. So what plans have people made to power their radio equipment when the grid goes down?

If I were starting again I would get a repeater capable handheld GMRS radio and just listen. You can learn a lot by just hearing what others are doing on air, both positive and negative. Get your GMRS license and just get on the air. If you have a friend or family member who is interested that is even better. GMRS is more of a utilitarian radio service than HAM and a lot of people use the service to just communicate with friends and family. Normally if someone on a repeater asks for a radio check they will get an answer. It certainly can't hurt to try. Most of all, try to have fun.

Hey folks. I just wanted to take a minute to thank the members of MyGMRS.Com for the support and well-wishes. I know sometimes we bicker among ourselves, but at the end of the day we're all human, trying to enjoy the hobby and help we're we can. All of the messages, emails, etc. have really shown me what a great group we have here and how when someone is truly down, the petty stuff gets put aside and concern for a fellow member becomes the priority. Again, thank you all. - Marc

Are you alright man? You must be doing something else besides drinking...