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If the VNA is accurately calibrated it will probably be more accurate than an SWR meter. Unless you are using something like a Bird meter with the right size slug, the directional RF coupler in most consumer SWR meters are non-linear in detecting the very wide range of RF power that’s transmitted forward and being reflected at low SWR. The good news is that it really doesn’t matter much at such low SWR values.

Attention seeking behavior married with arrogance. It’s what’s for dinner!

Or just because the sarcasm wasn’t sarcasm at all.

If both devices are 100% accurate, the difference can be explained by the different load presented on both the coax and the antenna, more likely the coax. You haven't told us the type of coax or the length or the transmitting power. What you are seeing is likely cable loss - some power not getting to the antenna (being absorbed on the way up) and some power not reaching the SWR meter on reflection (some power being absorbed on the way back down). The skew of the readings agrees with this. (WOW, I got to use "skew" in a sentence!) Moving the SWR meter to the other end of the coax may or may not confirm this. Also possibly changing the transmit power. A way to help most people understand this is a dummy load on the end of the coax. The SWR of a dummy load (in ideal conditions) is exactly 1:1 because all of the energy is consumed at the dummy load end; NONE is reflected back. Some time back someone posted that they measured 1:1 SWR with a dummy load. As a joke, I posted "I hope so." Only a few people got it.

In practice those readings are so close I would not have given it a second thought.

Well they're both sort of equally budget type meters. The nanoVNA was like $65. I do run through the calibration slugs before each use. I don't really have it in the budget for a RigExpert. Yeah it's all fine, but I do use the vna a lot for experimenting with other antennas and making wires etc..

Sometimes I get a comment if someone is having some sort of trouble or has a question. I get an email but when I log into mygmrs.com and look at the comments, its not there so I cannot reply to the comment. Is there some limit to the number of comments that would keep it from being stored?

No thank you ! Ham radio has everything you are looking for. No need to change the intended use of GMRS. The ham test for tech is very easy. WRKL858/KK4THK

Once you propose how to prevent hogging all repeater channels I will sign. Without the hogging limitation, this just solves one thing and presents a new problem in its place. Ursula K. Le Guin's Lathe of Heaven

HOW DARE YOU SIR! HOW...DARE... YOUUUU....

Obviously. Probably due to the inappropriate style of sarcasm for this forum.

No, that shine/glare is not from an Armorall coating. That glare is shining from your chrome bumper onto my Mickey Bajas

Shots fired!

There’s no reason to believe that your NanoVNA is less accurate than a RigExpert. I have both. The RigExpert is more convenient, but not necessarily more accurate. In fact because you calibrate your VNA against the standards each time you may even be seeing more accuracy from the NanoVNA.

Is there a better location on a 23 Jeep Wrangler for a VHF Highband non-groundplane Laird B1442N antenna? There is no such thing as an adequate antenna mounting location on a Wrangler. These three locations are the best there is for a Wrangler and are being used for my Motorola XTL5000 UHF, Motorola XTL2500 VHF Highband, and my Cobra 25 LTD Classic AM/FM CB Radios.

Well it's been quite an eye opener with this new GP-9 antenna. Last night I was moving across the dial and just listening. On .600 with an open tone I was receiving a distant repeater. I'm aware of all of the repeaters in my area, and what I'm supposed to be able to reach. Besides the 2 .600 repeaters in my area (Crete and Kane) the next closest thing is over 100 miles away. This one was low, in and out, and scratchy. Had to have been some sort of ducting condition to be getting in here.. I've also been scrolling through the simplex channels. The amount of traffic that I'm hearing from what I assume is FRS users is unbelievable. There's some barely readable traffic on nearly every channel. It's like I am sitting here DXing GMRS lol. The ears on this antenna was something I didn't really even think too much about when I got it, but evidently it's equally a part of it's upside. It's on another level. For simplex uses, it seems to have a pretty reliable bubble in a radius of 6-8 miles around my home to a ground level or mobile station. To another home radio with an outside high mounted antenna, probably significantly more. I wish I knew some people with such a setup in the area to simplex test with. I'm VERY happy with this antenna.

I've used a UV-5R GMRS on wide band with an MP31 and they worked just fine together.

I have done tests with people listening to me while I change from narrow to wide and back to narrow. The difference was just not very noticeable.

It would be very strange for a repeater to operate toneless. All kinds of RF crap would get through and be annoying.

Because they make a good ground and I have had this for centuries so I decided to use it. There was no ground at the antenna bracket except through the coax. With all the electronics and if the antenna mount isn't grounded you are subject to transmitting noise to other electrical components. This antenna was not GMRS or UHF. It is a VHF Highband 150 Meg antenna.

I’ve reported this to Rich. He’s the only one who can answer.

I have two of them. I bought a used AA-600 from one of the local repeater owners because it was a good deal even though I already have the Stick Pro. The AA-600 has a larger screen. The Stick Pro is small and convenient in a go bag. Plus the Stick Pro has Bluetooth and I can see it with my phone. I helped a friend put up an antenna and I attached the Stick Pro right to the antenna and we would tune the antenna then put it up in the air and I could see what the SWR was in the air. If I could only have one I’d keep the Stick Pro. It’s the black thing right at the bottom of the antenna in the picture:

The old saying "A man with a watch knows what time it is, a man with 2 isn't certain."

PASS - Best Thing That Ever Recently Happened, Is That The FCC Mobility Division Clarified A Long Over Due Ruling On The Linking Of GMRS Repeater Stations...... Like It Or Not - GMRS Repeater Linking Is Only & Mostly Supported By Those With Small Roof Top Repeaters Wanting To Talk Distances, Those That Are Unable To Take Or Pass A Ham License Test, Or Repeater Owners Wanting To Engage In A "For Profit" GMRS Operation. Time For All To Get Over This.......

pass

Here’s a pic of the painters pole and the base mount I use for it.

I have one too. It’s a solid radio, but surely returned because people don’t take the time to learn how to use it. I also find less it more, so mine doesn’t get used much.

I think it is a good radio. I bought one for my son-in-law and he has no problems with it. As the Queen of Everything GMRS, stated, the radio is fiddly. There is a lot going on with it and it isn't as easy to navigate in, menu wise, as some other GMRS radios. My s-i-l also has a KG-935G that is his goto radio. I have the HAM KG-UV9PX version and have never had any issues with it. Computer programming is less hassle than using the radio keyboard on both. I have a KG-935G+ I use as my goto. I have programmed a lot of the stuff that comes on the UV9GX/PX into the 935G+.

I Programed in the club tones in my Wouxun UV9GX and found I had great connection to the Through the west repeater. Amazing coverage or this region and great support for outdoor activities near Bailey Cayon Sierra Madre. I’m unable to hit The Mesa Crest Repeater here as I’m to close to the mountains, making for a shadow on coverage. It will be very useful for venturing outside the this neighborhood. Thanks again for the welcome.

I have to disagree with some of this... I'm not saying this is you specifically, as I don't know you well enough, but that is not a qualifier to convenience people you know what you are doing. I spent the past 40 years fixing well over 1,000 crap installs from offroad shops and gas station mechanics who think they know how to install a radio (especially CB), but don't. This is not accurate. Fender and hood mounted antennas for VHF and UHF work great for almost all vehicles, including Wranglers. It's not as good as the roof or other high point on the vehicle that provides more elevation... but the performance difference with the extra height wouldn't be noticed by the average user. Meaning, there may be a measurable improvement, but not a practical one. The worst places (which seem to be a growing fad due to Ausie videos) is the front bumper, bull bar, and rear bumper. The only way to get worse than those is to have them inside the vehicle or dragging in the dirt behind you. LOL Unless someone didn't install a mount right, you would have to do a lot more than drag through some bushes to damage an antenna mount. I have been wheeling the heavily wooded and rocky trails of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic for 40 years. Almost all of those years have been in a Jeep with a hood-lip/fender mounted antenna. Same with a vast majority of my friends. I have never seen a lip mount or fender mount antenna get damaged or ripped off in the bushes. In fact, if you watch the video I posted, my Jeep fell 6 feet and crashed into a dirt wall, snapping my fender flare and side mirror off. I even dented the fender, the lip of the hood and the side of the bed. The antenna mount and antenna that sticks out the side were not damaged at all. Again, that is not accurate. Having the UHF antenna mounted on the fender does not make it directional. We are dealing with an electromagnetic energy bubble that extends for thousands of miles in every direction. A non-conductive cab on a Wrangler (even conductive cabs on most other vehicles) is entirely too small to make an RF shadow. For UHF and VHF radios, unless there is a piece of metal close enough to the radiating element (7 inches or less on GMRS) to obscure the bubble or short the signal, there is zero impact to performance beyond the very minor height different you could achieve with a roof mounted antenna. Due to shielding by the metal of the cab of most vehicles and the special coatings on glass of all modern vehicles, the RF energy has some trouble penetrating the glass and roof, going inside the vehicle. This does not impact performance outside the vehicle. Wranglers don't have conductive roofs and the glass is only an issue if you are trying to use an HT inside the vehicle, with all of the glass windows in place. Otherwise, any glass that is in place is actually helping protect the occupants of the vehicle from RF exposure from the outside of the vehicle.

Damn, you should have saved the money and went with a quarter wave!!!

With a strong signal, most normal people will not notice.. With a (very) weak signal it becomes more apparent and irritating.

I think the critique was mostly regarding off-road rough trail driving. Mall crawling is a lot easier on antenna mounting.

There is nothing 'wrong' with this radio, but it is very fiddly and has a lot of options/knobs/dials/bells, and whistles.. If you like that stuff, you'll love this radio. My experience has been fine, but I prefer a less complex radio.

I trust the NanoVNA more. Try hooking it up to your computer so you can get nearly infinitely fine-grained scan points. Or narrow your scan range, or set the center instead of start/end points. Also there's a menu buried deep within for increasing the scan power. I haven't used it, because "auto" seemed good enough. I've found the two tools disagree a bit, too. Be sure you're calibrating for the exact range you're sampling.

It may not be the norm but they do exist throughout the country usually in way far out locations away from other repeaters. Although, I believe a no-tone repeater still exist in Orange County CA if it is still active.

It seems like you're understanding it fine. You're aware of how tones work, and even know how to run a tone scan. So the issue is that when you key up the repeater using that same done, you don't get in? It could be a split tone. The tone scan is only going to tell you what the outgoing tone from the repeater is. Often times the input tone is something different.

Were you logged in to the site. Normally if your not logged in tones will not show up.

Yes it is annoying. There is one repeater near me that does not run any tones.

Yes. Resolve is amazing. It's got a small learning curve but once you get going it really just does what you need. The other one I would recommend is Sony Vegas, but Resolve is polished and nice.

Never mind. I don’t have anything nice to say.

I'm in the same boat as you, Kenny. In thinking about an emergency setup for hurricanes I find myself coming to the conclusion that anything I put up is going to get knocked down -- and there's nothing I can do about it. So I'll probably rig something I can set up after the event. A decent antenna with good cable and a temporary mast plugged into my mobile unit should work fine. The combo WRXP381 cited is the gold-plated, platinum model, and when I put together a serious base system that's the way I'll go.

Just exactly how much have you had to drink?

That’s what I remember too.

I like my DB20-G. The software to program it is a little clunky and the manual is *thin*, but there's plenty of user support out there (there's a few good thread on here regarding the DB20-G and the other Anytone 779uv clones). It's a bit restrictive in how it wants you to program it in GMRS mode but if your needs are for something a bit more open, it's easily unlockable if you're comfortable programming in the GMRS rules yourself. (EDIT: Note that there are versions that do and versions that don't come with the programming cable. The DB20 did. I believe the Retevis did not. Just keep an eye on the listing to make sure it includes the cable) I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT recommend the BTech GMRS 20v2. The interface is a mess, changing the volume involves hitting the MONI button and then tapping down the volume while listening to the speaker scream from static, and the speaker sucks so it had to be near full volume for me constantly. That was before it just stopped working after a couple weeks. So...that one went back to the rain forest from whence it came.

I picked up a Rocky Talkie 5W radio. Some peculiarities: All channels are set to narrowband by default. You can however go through a process to change each (high power) channel to wideband, and the change persists across power cycles. Channel 22 had a CTCSS tone configured out of the box. Its "TX beep" is local only, meaning when the beep's enabled it doesn't transmit the beep. It is not a roger beep. When setting CTCSS/DCS tones you can only see a slot number, not the frequency itself. Set your repeater tones with manual in-hand before you head out! The scan feature only offers CO mode, continuing scanning a few seconds after carrier drops. You have to enable repeater channels with a special power-on sequence. Once enabled, they stay enabled across power cycles. What I like about it: USB-C charging. Solid feel in hand. Battery life should be great, I haven't tested it. Simple enough for any family member to use. Relatively small size. The clip actually is a set of jaws with teeth for traction, unlike most clips that are a single blade that just presses against the battery with a bottom lip. Honestly I didn't buy this to use it, but I make accessories for HTs and needed this for that purpose. I thought some of you may benefit from these observations.

Actually going to a lower loss line could make the SWR worse as seen from the radio end. The reason why is the energy reflected from the antenna back to the radio is attenuated less, more reflected power, that would otherwise be adsorbed by the feed line. The SWR can be calculated using forward and reflected power using the formula below: SWR = (1+sqr(Pref/Pfwd))/(1-sqr(Pref/Pfwd)) Where "sqr()" is the square root of the value inside of the "()". And "Pfwd" is the measured forward power going to the antenna while "Pref" is the power being reflected by the antenna miss-match back to the radio.