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It is emitted along the entire radiating element. Look at the average location, which would be the middle. Ideally you want the base as close to meeting the elevation of the roof line, then you won't get any shadowing from the body of the truck. FYI, when modeling antennas for range over topography, you use the base of the antenna, if that gives you any indication on how important it is to get the entire antenna above the car body.

It's weird that you have 2 that both do the same thing. I (and thousands of other people) have this older firmware version and I even have a pre-production and a pre-pre production model and they all work fine.. Makes me wonder if your CHIRP programming fubar'd them somehow.

A better analogy than a light bulb would be a fluorescent tube type light mounted vertically in place of the antenna.

There was a thread where the jeep owner mounted the antenna over the spare tire on a plate. Personally, I would prefer a 1/2 wave in a similar location (perhaps the base could be nearer the roof line) over the front bumper mounts. My understanding is that the AUS version of CB is UHF, and I can't explain why they all mount in that location other than "it's always how we did it". Keeping the coax out of the engine bay and away from other electronics, and putting the antenna as high as possible, with as much ground plane as possible would be my priorities.

My daily solar rig is a "just do your best" approach. It's very simple but there isn't much that can go wrong. My maximum input is 220w and I have three 100w panels. But their max voltage never goes above the max input volts so I am good. But my panels are just laid flat to the ground, so I don't get any benefit of tracking the sun. It's fine, though. If I get a perfectly bright moment I can see the inputs maxed out at 220w which is perfect for me. Most of the time it hovers down around 160 which is also just fine. It's a rainy Sunday here and is good to see others' good ideas with their solar setups.

I run a KG-XS20G in my SXS because it is dust and water resistant. The KG-XS20G is IP65 rated. And it works just as well as my KG1000G in my car to access the repeater 21 miles away when parked in my driveway.

One thing to keep in mind with the KG-1000G is that being a 50 watt radio it has a fan to cool it. A fan draws air into the radio and in dusty conditions like off roading can pull dust into the radio and that kind of dust has minerals that can possibly cause corrosion. The KG-XS20G may be a better choice for off road use. It is 20 watts and is the mobile version of the KG-935G plus. It is passively cooled with heat sinks instead of a fan. It's an excellent radio as well. Less expensive as well. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-xs20g.html?___SID=U

The coax used for mag mounts is very lossy in lengths over 25 feet. You are better off using a half-wave antenna with LMR 400 or equivalent cable.

After sending one back? Send the other one back as well.

Hey, I just watched your review last night! Great job! Not to turn this into a Pecron commercial, but the E1500LFP, big brother of the E600LFP has an integrated 120VAC charger so no need to carry around a charging brick. I put an E1500 on order (largely due to the price), and if it performs well I may add an E600LFP...or maybe the EP3000 expansion battery. Thanks for the helpful review!

I have a little Bluetti EB3A and contrary to popular opinion, it has done pretty well for me. If you can work it within its limitations, it does really well. I haven't checked it for noisy output. That might be my go to unit for radios, if it ends up being quiet and clean. I can't say anything bad about Bluetti. I wouldn't even have an Ecoflow unit if I didn't fry my own Bluetti by accidentally giving it too much voltage when experimenting with panels. Dumb mistake. But they chose to repair it for free and ship it both ways on their dime. I can't complain at all. I have definitely watched a couple of Hobotech's videos. I like the personality he puts into the videos.

HoboTech has a good YouTube channel where he tests a lot of different solar power stations. If I recall the Pecron was a bit slow to use as a UPS. I have(and did a review)a Pecron E600LFP and for the money it'd just about the best "bang for the buck" power station you can get. 1200 Watts, 614Wh battery and it'll take up to 400 Watts of solar. See my video on my YouTube channel for more info @ TN.Frank.

Welcome! A good analogy of how antennas radiate energy in the form of a radio signal is that of a light bulb. Imagine a light bulb in the center of a empty dark room. The energy(light) goes out in all directions, now imagine that light bulb mounted in the different mounting locations on the jeep. If the light is below any part of the jeep body it creates a shadow that blocks the light. And just like light the closer an object is to the light the larger the shadow it makes than if it is further away, so the rear bumper location puts the antenna closer to the body which makes a larger shadow that the front bumper location that has it further away from the roof structure and makes a narrower shadow. As you can then imagine the roof is the best location as no shadow is created. (It also allows for a good ground plane on a metal roof anyway). This is a simplified explanation but should help you visualize what is happening. Hope this helps.

That's good news. I have stumbled across a story where a guy was running 1KW in their mobile. When he keyed up it would kill the engine of the vehicle next to them. Yes it's a very rare occurrence but does happen. I'm surprised this topic doesn't get discussed more often. As the electronics contents of vehicles goes up the "potential" of interference to or from the vehicle's electronics increases. And with EV's that get even more concerning. I'm sure manufactures are doing a good job of EMC testing and shielding, but nothing is perfect.

Well, there are two types of interference. The first being interference FROM the vehicle / device / whatever that would interfere with the operation of a radio in close proximity to the device. This would typically be noise generated from the device / vehicle that would either show up in the receive of the radio or in come cases show up on the transmitted audio of the radio being used. Second type is the radio transmissions getting into the electronics of the device / vehicle and causing erratic operation or even damage to the electronic control systems of the device. Both are a possibility, but only one can possibly be harmful or expensive to deal with. That of course being the device reacting to the RF field generated by the radio. At handheld power levels, this is going to be very rare as the electronics on something like a mobility scooter would need to be tested for certain levels of RF exposure to be allowed to be sold as having those issues when going past a police car, fire truck, semi truck with a legal radio system or even a radio station could NOT put the user in danger of the loss of control of the scooter. The type of modulation used in the radio transmission can also effect the reaction of the equipment in question. FM signals typically present the lowest probability of causing issues due to the nature of the continuous signal level during a transmission. Other modes of transmission like DMR, CW, SSB and possibly AM could have effects on sensitive equipment that FM wouldn't bother. There is a LOT to all this, but I will say that since a mobility scooter is a 'medical device' the testing requirements on it are typically going to be rather high. A kids power scooter / E-bike / whatever may or may not have the same level of ability to deal with RF being near it.

I'll own that one.

Who sits around and thinks up this kind of stupidity? No! Not just no, but hell no! This is another hairbrained attempt to make GMRS into "ham radio lite". I am an Extra class ham, and I am 100% against this. GMRS (Class A CB) was originally another means of personal (and at one time, business) communication. It should remain that way. It should remain 100% analog. GMRS allows for reliable communication with a short wavelength (think being able to use an ht in a car without an outside or excessively long antenna). It is great for families, friends, and even properly licensed hams, to keep in touch, especially with family and friends who just do not want to be bothered with testing, radio theory, etc. If someone wants to enjoy the hobby aspects of ham, play with digital, etc; then let them get off of their dead behind and study and take the tests or shut up! Those who are already hams and who want to turn GMRS into ham lite or other extension of ham radio, please use the privileges you have on ham or upgrade if that is not enough. People are continuously trying to wreck a great thing that GMRS is with these bright ideas.

Regarding the "radio shed", the south facing slope of the roof could accommodate one to twelve 200w rigid panels like on our camper. Not sure I need to go that far but a single panel dedicated to charge a modest battery bank for the comms system would be a no-brainer.

Both Renogy and Newpowa as well as other quality solar brands are designed to withstand considerable impact such as hail stones. The truck would fair much worse in a hail storm. The power bank has an internal charge controller so the install is very much plug and play. The Jackery brand can be charged with solar, 110v and 12v simultaneously. The charge controller does all the work. It will shut down below 30 deg. f, but for the fridge that's not a problem of course. For significant shade or darkness the truck or a 110v shore power connection can maintain for a the short term. We have 400w of Newpowa rigid panels on our camper with 640AH of LifePo4 batteries for off grid camping. The panels endure a lot and never a hiccup. Needless to say a GMRS base and mobile are in the works for the camper and the truck.

I installed a 1000watt lithium power bank connected to a 200 watt flexible solar panel on the roof of my camper shell. This system is for running a 70 qt portable freezer/fridge I carry in the bed of the truck. The system is able to run indefinitely 24/7 with very little attention. I’m considering a similar installation on my radio shed. It would serve as power supply for comms, and has 110v, USB and 12v outlets for running or charging other devices.

Well, a 6dBm gain antenna won't affect the area you could cover as the radiation pattern wouldn't be that much different from a unity gain omnidirectional. It would flood the area with 4 times the power fed into the antenna, though. You may want to consider the MFJ-1917 Telescopic pole for your antenna mast, it reaches a tad over 40 feet high but collapses down to less than 5 feet.

I’m just Steve. You’re welcome!

It wasn’t a waste of my time. As I answered above I’ve never seen any issues with my wife’s mobility scooter.

Generally speaking a longer antenna will result in a stronger signal for both transmission and reception, as long as everything else is equal. Whether that results in greater range is debatable. Your range on UHF is more frequently limited by terrain than signal strength.

I've played around with SDR using a RTL2832U dongle that I got from the Hak5 shop years ago and Gqrx on my Linux Box. I think my main drawback is not having a very good antenna. Other than that they are a lot of fun to play around with. In fact, pulling out the SDR and trying to listen to stuff got me thinking about Amateur Radio which lead to GMRS a couple weeks ago and here I am now, LOL.

99% of the time I charge from solar since we get a good amount of sun year round here in AZ. I highly recommended the 36v/200w Edostory solar panel for the Pecron because in my observation it can be picky on the lower power solar input. Pecron makes some solid no frills units.

That is an awesome setup! If only the EV manufacturers could figure out how to do something like that...like they told us they would. I love the radio shed idea as well. I've been contemplating something similar to maintain the charge in several lead-acid batteries I have on hand...which is ultimately what lead me to consider solar generators for their advancements, efficiency, portability and flexibility. I considered assembling a few LifePo battery banks to charge in something like your radio shed with fixed solar panels, and then move from the work truck to the camper to the office or to the house in the event of a power outage. With so many options from Anker, Bluetti, Ecoflow, Pecron and others, I doubt I could put together anything as efficient or as effective as they offer. Great information, everyone! You've all given me much to think about. Much appreciated!

I haven't had any issues with noise in my transmissions when using my Bluetti solar system. I don't use the 12v socket, I use it's pure sine inverter. But, that's me and my setup.

I have a friend who had a Chevy Volt. He had really good luck with it but he needed something to pull a trailer. He ended up selling the Volt to fix up his Suburban, which seemed like it was always in the shop. Now he has an older F-150. I hope he has better luck with it.

I don't see any reason, with the right hardware, that a dual pl setup couldnt be implemented similar to what CARLA has on the ham side. One pl, your audio goes to the whole system, while another pl repeats on that machine only. If you key up the local pl, linked audio is muted until a set period after local activity ends, and the link resumes. http://carlaradio.net/thesystem/pl_ct.php

@UncleYoda and @RayP bring up great points about linked repeaters. We have had issues on our local 2m repeater when someone linked another repeater to it and then left it linked for days on end. We had a lot of kerchunking and other issues until that other repeater's link was shut down. And we have quite a bit of traffic and rag chew on our GMRS repeater that having other repeaters constantly linked would also cause issues.

See your private messages. I sent you the info on how to do it. I've had other password locked radios off or eBay. It sucks when you get one unless you have a way to remove them.- Oh, the TK-3173 is a very nice radio for GMRS. Its basically the same, uses the same software as the TK-3170, but it also includes trunking. If you have a Ham license you can program out of band frequencies in the radio, the software with generate a warning but will accept the entry, allowing you to put in some Ham 70cm repeaters.

Linking has similar issues on HAM too, except there we can usually switch to other repeaters. For HAM temporary, user-initiated linking is an alternative. I don't know if that is feasible with GMRS linking systems, but if so, would be better than permanent, full-time linking. Linking just at scheduled times is another option.

It seems as though every newbie who wants to dive into putting up a repeater(s), for some reason feels the need to link it/them to other repeaters or some big network. Before doing so, please consider that there are ONLY eight GMRS frequencies which may be used for repeater or 50W simplex. More often than not, when you have multiple repeaters linked, you will have situations where a rag chew in progress is only taking place on one or two of the repeaters, but that conversation will necessarily tie up ALL repeaters linked to the used one(s) at the time, as well as the simplex aspect of each repeater frequency for anyone in range of it. The guy trying to use one of those uninvolved repeaters, another repeater in range of any of them, or 50W simplex in range of any of them, will have a difficult or impossible time connecting with his family or friends. Because someone thinks it kewel and trendy to link a bunch of repeaters together, people trying to use any of those eight GMRS channels in range of repeaters so connected, for the original purpose of GMRS, will likely be out of luck. Please take this into consideration before adding to the congestion of those eight channels with unnecessary linking. If you wish to provide a service to the GMRS community in a given area, an open stand-alone repeater capable of covering as much area as feasible will be a far greater service to a given area. I understand that in San Francisco, it is perfectly legal to relieve oneself on the sidewalks. This is probably not considerate of others who use the sidewalk for its original intended purpose. Just because we "can" do something doesn't mean we necessarily "should" do it.

Although your power supply might be rated to provide up to 30 amps, it had better not be using that much. When transmitting at a full 50 watts you should see somewhere around 12 amps max. When in standby it should only read an amp or so. I would hook up a separate voltmeter and watch what happens to the voltage measured right at the power input on the back panel of the radio. If it sags under 12 volts you have a problem with your power. If it’s not in warranty then I would look for poor connections to the power supply. I had a radio that was constantly resetting and I eventually discovered that there was a bad connection on the power cable. I would agree that it sounds like there’s an internal problem of some kind. I don’t know if you could load the 50v2 firmware. I agree with @WRXB215 that BTech should just replace it.

Man, that really sucks. I hope you can get this all sorted out. If I were the judge, I'd tell Btech to replace the radio warranty or not since it's not what you actually ordered.

I have the Midland MXT500 and two Wouxun KG-1000G's. The Midland is sitting in a box while the two KG-1000G's are in use as my base station and in my vehicle. My base station is a KG-1000G while my mobile setup is the KG-1000G Plus. Both radios are very close in price but the Wouxun is definitely better. The KG-1000G has better transmit and receive audio, a removable face for mounting in vehicles and just seems better made than the MXT500. Even though I don't care for the Midland I would still take it over the B-Tech GMRS 50v2. @WRZX542 you didn't say where you are located. Location, terrain, etc will affect how far you can reach out. You will have farther range in places like the desert southwest or the Great Plains without a lot of hills/mountains or lots of forested areas. A 50 watt radio will help push the signal through forested areas compared to a 20 watt radio. You won't see much of a difference in open areas with a clear line of sight.

One of our club members has the TD-8H and hasn't had any problems getting out on any of the bands. He did use the app to program the radio from his phone.

I like running from a battery, deep cycle or even a hand me down car battery could work. now pair that with a battery maintainer and you should be good for a few hours of use? I am running a 300 watt solar system hooked to two 100 amp hour batteries. I believe this system can run continuous 24-7 with my use. I do however understand some may not have space and resource for a setup like this. Also if it was a heavy use (or repeater) it would not net 24-7 continuous use without added power.

The only problem I have with power stations like this is the amount of noise they put out. They are so buzzy. I have two Ecoflow River2 Pro's that I swap out for my camping setup. Use one while the other charges, etc. They put a loud buzz into the 12v power output that I can hear thru the audio on handhelds that are powered on while charging, and they put a loud AC inverter buzz on audio equipment if it has an amplifier. I'm not even going to test how noisy they'd be on a radio transmitter. For general use, they have been a game changer for camping and for keeping my tool batteries charged for work. But noisy for sensitive electronics. Far noisier than I expected them to be; the River 2 Pro is one of Ecoflow's flagship models. It's their biggest small one. Well, I'll say they are noiser than I *wanted* them to be. But it has to be very difficult to make something like that quiet. The best thing I've found for backup power is just a battery. You can use the solar power station to charge a good backup battery, but I don't know if I would use the power station to run the transmitter directly, unless I just had to.

I have 2, 300 watt/watt hour Bluetti solar generators, and 2, 100 watt solar panels to keep them charged. I like to use 1 to power the radio, as it's charging from the other generator, which is being charged with 1 solar panel. The way I use my radio during normal use, 1 of the generators will keep me powered up for an entire day. I've tested it. It will last longer, if using low power. I can even charge all of my HT's at the same time.

I've not had any issues getting my TD-H8 to transmit, but only on GMRS. I will say it does seem to have a really good receive, well, if anything it's better than my Baofeng UV-5R variant. I do not see anything about this being a superhetrodyne receiver though. I mostly have been using the TD-771 Antenna that came in my bundle.

Try using thr App version to program those radios. I found the App works really well. Don't forget to turn on the Blutooth link between your cell phone and the radio.

It doesn't transmit at all if i'm reading correctly

it will not transmit as in the transmit light does not light up, or, you just cant hit the repeater?

This proposal can eat dirt. GMRS is GMRS, amateur is amateur. I don't want to see some powermonger trying to grub up a whole different radio service with the admonition of the FCC because they think being certified in a different one makes someone better. That's a Reddit Moderator level of self-importance.

It amazes me in some areas hams are all over GMRS, crying over usage but on the 70cm band its crickets. Maybe we should petition the FCC to give us the 70cm band for GMRS use ? The only UHF repeaters I hear around me are linked repeaters and 90% of the folks talking are not in the area I am in. The others are crickets.

I seriously doubt it. It's written by a ham. Hams are notorious for having zero sense of humor. In fact, "Hams have a sense of humor" is one of the true or false questions I answered on my Technician exam.

The House of Representatives should open an investigation by the House Un-GMRS Activities Committee and subpoena Ham Radio operators and ask them under oath: And then ask them to name other Hams that they have spoken to on GMRS!

One of the things that you’ll quickly learn, either by recommendation here or by use there, is that power is highly overrated as a predictor of range. A good receiver that has both sensitivity and selectivity and a good antenna are much much more important than getting an 8 watt output radio versus a 5 watt radio.