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Standard heat shrink tubing will not be very waterproof in a location that gets a lot of rain year round. The marine grade heat shrink tubing will work but it will be messy when trying to remove it since it has heat activated glue inside to ensure it is waterproof. The self fusing rubber tape wrapped with good electrical tape for UV protection works the best. That combo has been used for a long time for sealing coax connections for amateur radio, CB and TV.

I think that this paragraph is pretty succinct: The Moxon rectangle is a 2-element array using dual coupling between elements to produce its nearly cardioidal pattern. Because it depends upon both the mutual coupling between parallel portions of the elements and the coupling between element ends, it is not amenable to the addition of further elements for increased gain. In other words, a Moxon rectangle is not expandable by the addition of director in the manner of a standard Yagi. But the author, SK W4RNL, goes on to describe how to stack the rectangles: http://on5au.be/content/a10/moxon/moxstack.html

Depending on the connector on the hardline you should be able to just order a jumper from DX Engineering (they will also do custom) or Gigaparts or Ham Radio Outlet. All sell short jumpers with nearly any end. I have several LMR400 and UG8X jumpers for the last few feet.

I TRIED to warn you! *Their.. .and.. Do you seriously think anyone came here to find out what you would do?

If a group has endeavored to hog up all eight pairs in an area, if someone puts up an independent repeater and it happens to cause the greedy hogs interference, I look at that independent owner as performing a great public service.

Well to be fair I was trying to be generic with the answer. If you are wide they are narrow. You would sound loud to them. They would sound like they are under deviating and need to turn the mic gain up or yell into the mic Going through the repeater (set to narrow) it would really matter if you were wide banded. The repeater would clip the audio and retransmit as narrow and sound a bit to quiet. Sound fidelity wise, wide sounds more natural where narrow there is often clipping of the highs and lows. There is just more bandwidth to play with. Think playing music at 40bits vs 256 bits. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Reported to Rich

Most will use self fusing rubber tape and then a good quality electrical tape over top of that for UV protection. Scotch Super 33 is about the best electrical tape to use overtop of the self fusing rubber tape. Here is the self fusion tape that I use. Proxicast Pro-Grade Extra Strong 30mil Weatherproof Self-Fusing Silicone Rubber Sealing Tape

When I get time, I will give it a shot. I have all my programming saved, so it shouldn't be a problem to reload or import. Thanks for the information.

A group on this forum? Join first, and discover what is already here. If not here, then where, and what kind of group, in person group, or forum? And if forum, wjhy not simply take part in what is already here, and other places?

Well I hate it when I answer my own question. After all that typing I figured I should check to see if this mic is internally grounded/modded.... And it's not. I touched the mic clip button to the chassis and hit P0 to start scanning and it worked. Looks like I'll heat up the soldering iron tomorrow. Thanks anyway, all. 73

Hi Uncle Yoda! The 550 is now showing as "Off-line". Not sure what happened to it. That other one you mentioned, everyone I know in the area has laughed about it for years. They have that silly disclaimer that it is "members only" or similar, but always say that they are not currently accepting new members because of concerns about overcrowding in an emergency. Seriously? I know people that monitor it regularly and never hear a peep on it, or maybe hear a brief test or kerchunk at times. Why they don't just say that it is a private clique and they don't want anyone else joining from outside, rather than playing word games, nobody I know has figured out. I think you called it with "...just camping out on the frequency." The one guy who located a repeater on top of their (mostly unused) channel would have probably been fine had he not chosen to pipe in garbage from all around the country via that network, artificially creating frequent traffic on his repeater and causing them to feel somehow "threatened".

Another DB20-G user here. Nice compact radio that will reach out as far as I need it to. Simple to program, once you figure out the Radioddity software, and is unlockable to use for other frequencies (if you have a HAM license) or just to open up ALL the slots for a buttload of repeaters if you go past the limit in the GMRS version of the software. WSFC997 Jeff

ABR Industries will make just about any cable you want and their prices are reasonable. https://abrind.com I have a few cables and jumpers from them and they are good quality cables.

We don't have one group hogging everything, but all the frequencies are in use or at least claimed except maybe the 550 (off-air but still listed). I'm not sure what the best choice is for the next one to be put up. Is that private 600 one ever used or are they just camping on the frequency?

Let the repeater wars BEGIN!!

If you have a 2nd radio just clone it and you can restore it quick and easy too.

In this case, the "source" is the org that runs the repeaters I'd just never noticed, because most repeaters don't mention (and are wideband)

If you are transmitting wide band, you would probably sound a little loud and maybe scratchy or clipped to the narrow band receivers. (there you go 2 opposite answers!)

Audio would have been quieter. Like the mic gain was too low. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

OK I'll try again for UV resistant tape. Thx

While 3M Scotch Super 33+ is more expensive, it does hold up to UV exposure.

Sounds like they have a nice spread!

I agree, you can't go wrong with a Mossberg. I have a 590 Now that we have derailed this thread, the question is whether to start a Radios/Jeeps/Guns thread or to continue to mutilate this one.

I checked mine and it was under 2.0 on GMRS channels. I don't remember the exact numbers though. The first time I checked I did it inside the garage which gave horrible SWR reading on GMRS. Once I pulled my vehicle outside the SWR readings were fine.

Cincinnati Its a very heavy RF site with 5 other towers around it. Mostly microwave and appears 800Mghz (I think) in the room that we have. I'm sure this had some factor in the failure. I am in the works now of a second site. I have to attend another City meeting for final approval and it could all fall apart but it would be great to consult with you guys regarding the antenna choice and setup if that's okay? Thanks again Gortex2 Marcspaz for the information WSCP709 used to be WQXC777 Cincinnati 7250

I have the same model Baofeng Radio. Their support advised me to use the Radioddity UV-5G Plus. I can confirm this works on the radio. That said I have 5 and 2 of them will not read no matter what is picked. Waiting on support for a fix/replacement on those two units.

Sometimes just trying a different USB port is the solution. My buddy was messing with a radio the other day and two of three USB ports didn’t work, but the third did.

I have a Mossberg 88, and in my opinion, you can't go wrong. I think I paid $120 for mine. I have it set up for 1 3/4" shot shells.

In the event you "should" need a shorter antenna at some point, I can recommend the Comet SS-460B-NMO which has also has a spring base. It's 18" tall without the NMO mount, and with that ground plane you'll do fine on 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. MURS is its weak point though, if you can live with that. Its sibling antenna, the Comet SBB2-NMO has similar characteristics, but no spring base. SS-460B-NMO - Tested on top of an extended cab Silverado using a RigExpert Stick Pro, center-mounted with a 3" NMO mag mount: Comet SBB2-NMO (same vehicle, same mount):

I personally have not done it but heard from others that they have. NORMAL mode unlocks all the GMRS or HAM frequency "Safeguards" and rules... which of course makes it non compliant. You just have to be careful and know what you are doing when programming in normal so you don't end up transmitting unintentionally on frequencies that could actually get you in trouble. and know the Wide/Narrow and lower wattage levels allowed on GMRS "channels" as well to stay in compliance. Especially in the GMRS channels 8-14 where the power is half a watt and narrow... otherwise you can potentially send interference to local repeaters on those channels.

It means the channel slots the radios has... (there 199 of them) will not transmit on channel above 54. You can only put in listen only there. So any custom legitimate GMRS frequencies can only be put in below 55. I found this out when I was starting to add a lot more repeaters into my radio. Only way around this... is to unlock it in NORMAL mode and be very careful how you program so you don't set something up that has you transmitting on non permitted frequencies.

O, damn that's a lot of GMRS repetitive frequencies to program in there since there are only 22. I don't have that issue, but i also haven't added GMRS passed 36. But i do have many other frequencies programmed and have no issues.

@SteveShannon thank you for that information. I use CHIRP or RT Systems software on my 2018 Mac mini. I have found that the RT Systems software is better than the Icom provided software. I have a Windows 11 computer for software that is only available for Windows 10/11. This includes the Wouxun programming software and quite a few of the programs I use for my N scale model trains. I still wonder if it is an issue for @WSEM624 if he is using Parallels.

The Lairds, now T E Connectivity, look good and beefy and they appear to be a great NMO mag-mount, but for some reason, the Lairds will run a little higher VSWRs than the Midland mag-mounts.

I’ve only used the Midland NMO mag mount. It is what I started with and I’ve found no reason to switch. But I do get a broken signal on transmit (meaning people report that my signal is broken) sometimes when moving on the interstate. Maybe it was just picket fencing. A friend recently bought a Comet magnetic base NMO mount (CM-5NMO) and it is slightly larger diameter, looks and feels well built, and appears to sit flatter. He and I have conducted tests where he is driving to the I-15 interstate, up over the continental divide, and north on his way to Helena which was the same path I had traveled earlier. Although eventually a weak signals prevented reception I never heard any breaking up while he was in motion. It’s a sample of one, so really only anecdotal, but it was noticeable to me. It’s not enough of a reason to dump the Midland mount, but if I were buying a new magnetic mount NMO, I would try the Comet this time. It’s about $33 at the usual ham radio shops.

I think most will agree with you on that. I am running the Midland mag-mount for my Comet SBB1 dual band and Tram 1174 antennas on my vehicle and another one with a Comet 2x4SR on my SxS.

If you're going to use a mag-mount, the Midland NMO mag-mount is practically the best one out there to use.

Reach out to the owners of 2m or 70cm repeaters listed in your area; it takes a little research to find them, but they typically identify with Morse which will give you a call sign that you can use to find the owner. Or look in Repeaterbook, or on the band plan website for your region. A 2m/70cm repeater owner could help you through the process of finding a site (possibly the site they're using), getting in contact, and so on. Some hams are happy hams, and will help.