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Yeah I do NOT suggest using the only (or good) cookie sheet. You don't want upset the spousal unit.

I would try both but the pizza pan in a window should work fine. While a cookie sheet will also work I wouldn’t use it unless you have a second one because homemade cookies are really more important… I think.

I have to agree. Especially if you keep your runs 100 feet or less. And most people will not have a coax run over 100 feet. I would just stick with LMR400 or equivalent. I did the calculations for LMR400 at 467.600 with an antenna with 6 dBd of gain at 50 watts. You are only looking at a power loss of 18% over 30 feet. But you make that up and more with a 6 dBd gain antenna. which gives you an ERP (effective radiated power) of 164 watts. I like using https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/ to figure out cable loss. Let's say you have another 20 feet of coax to get from the radio to where the coax comes into the house. You are still getting an ERP of 144 watts.

Your pizza pan will work just fine.

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

You're exactly right. I wasn't aware that I needed to be in VFO mode, or I overlooked it or something. Boy, do I feel dumb. Anyway, I got it programmed correctly now. Thank you for your help!

Isn't that what I said?

You're welcome. I will suggest to everyone that they bookmark that coax loss calculator. It is quite handy.

There is also LMR400 Ultraflex which is a bit more flexible. You can use some quality RG8X if the jumpers are say 6 feet or less. There won't be much loss at such short lengths.

I have this radio. It’s a really good radio. Ignore ass hats who only have negative non constructive things to say. Most of us do. I personally use Chirp to program mine so I’m not much help with the channel wizard. I know there are those that love it and hopefully they will chime in.

Here is a novel idea @Socalgmrs, if you don't have anything positive to add to a conversion, maybe you should just NOT reply. No one likes a Negative Nancy @RayDiddio hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer.

Glad I could help! That tripped me up once also when first learning to program them. They are great radios. I got them because they are easy to program without a computer. Enjoy!

The call sign used must be an actual call sign. It still needs to be reported to @rdunajewski so he can free it up for the actual owner.

On further thinking about this issue, do you know that to program a channel/frequency you must first set "mode" to VFO using the "mode" button. You enter the frequency you want to program then open "Channel Wizard" and make the changes you want. Don't forget the last step of "save". If you are seeing frequencies you don't recognize push the " Mode" button until you see the channel you programmed. The mode button cycles though channel number, channel name, vhf frequencies and UHF frequencies if you named the channel you should see it displayed.

I have used the channel wizard almost exclusively on the three 935G+ radios I have and it works great and is easy and quick to use. Can you describe the exact steps you are doing and what the display shows. You must be missing a step.

I've been programming directly on the radio itself, using the Channel Wizard feature, which is supposed to be easy. Actually, it is, it's just weird that it changes all the frequencies and I can't figure out why. Using CHIRP and a programming cable is probably going to be my next route. Arguably, it's probably the best route, I was just hoping to be able to do it right on the radio itself. Otherwise, yeah, it's a great radio and I'm really enjoying it. I programmed in my local repeaters yesterday and went up into the hills to try it out. They were pinning the meter, but I couldn't hear anything. Figured I'd screwed up the tones. Nope. Then I saw that the frequencies were all wrong. How did I screw that up? Turns out, I didn't.

When PG&E first started putting in “smart meters” they had a frequency that was tripping early GFCI breakers (Zinsco to be exact). Some homes had to be fitted with newer GFCI outlets to replace these breakers. My understanding is they later changed their operating frequency. There were RF issues with early arc fault breakers as well which the breaker manufacturers addressed in second generation arc fault breakers. While some GFCI outlets have been installed in non grounded homes it is not and does not provide grounding but rather for ground fault protection, nor should it be used as such. The GFCI looks for a difference of current between the hot and neutral and trips if it becomes too much (I believe around 3 milliamperes). I have seen surge suppression plug strips catch fire when they were hit with a surge but had no ground to suppress to. Energy has to go somewhere. So just a note of caution there. I would not plug a surge suppression into a non grounded circuit.

"Some people" love to spend other people's money and "some people" are incapable of understanding the difference between some guy putting up a hobby radio antenna and a professional-radio station antenna. LMR400 will work just fine - it is not perfect, but the perfection-per-dollar ratio is plenty high enough for regular people.

I like scotch 103c self fusing rubber tape, a layer of scotchkote (I believe this is what @WRKW566 is talking about) and scotch +33. If you plan to remove it someday then a layer of glass cloth tape or even some cheep electrical tape would be helpful first because you will have to cut through the rest to get it off. Rubber gloves are a must when handling the scotchkote, it will stick to your skin. It’s not easy to remove. This is absolutely waterproof. That said there may be a better less permanent solution but I haven’t tried one.

For the jumper at either end you typically want something very flexible. The shorter the jumper the more flex you want. LMR 400 isn’t very flexible because it has a solid inner conductor, but M&P makes two different 10 mm (same diameter as LMR400) cable types with stranded center conductor. One is called Ultraflex 10 and the other is called Hyperflex 10. Most of the cable manufacturers do something similar. For more flexibility you can even go to smaller sized cable, such as M&P Ultraflex 7. It really depends on you setup, but for example I have an 18” piece of RG8x going between my radio and my SWR/Wattmeter, then a six foot piece of some flexible coax that is similar to LMR 400 except with a stranded center conductor. I think it’s M&P Ultraflex 10 or maybe the ABR equivalent. That leads to the pass through/lightning protector. Yes, there are conductor differences. The thinner, more flexible jumpers have more attenuation, but because they are short the loss doesn’t matter much. That’s the only way it will adversely affect performance, but that’s the trade off and it’s doubtful you’ll ever notice the slight loss.

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

All you are going to get is people re-enforcing their opinion that whatever they bought is the best.. and, you will get one that will say "brand X is junk and everybody i know that ever had one returned it or threw it away"...You can ignore him because we are all pretty sure that he is rhee-tarh-ded.. Tell us what is important to you in a radio and you will likely get some better recommendations ..

Go right back to that dealer. He might be able to clear this up quickly.

First thing I did when I saw it. Thanks for posting

WSFB954 Donald Chilton (Lenny) I live in Murfreesboro Tennessee. Been a radio nerd for quite awhile! And I’m able to hit the Brentwood repeater!

On the railing your signal would look like a football if you could see it. Better EW but still usable for a shorter distance NS.

I did say "if".

Thank you all for the replies. You've been a great help.

I made sure I grabbed an old pizza pan. I have two newer and better ones.

Don't need to open squelch if you have a meter. If it's showing incoming then you wait.

Thanks! Bookmarked.

For sale 80 feet of Andrews Heliax LDF5 7/8" hardline. Thanks for the calculator and all the help. Much appreciated.

Finally able to hit the repeater from my yard this afternoon. Spotty on my end but other traffic was heard clear, however I'm not getting through to the other user (static and white noise heard by other user). Between system improvements and foliage thinning, it has made a difference, at least from my location. -WSEM281

This thing, all because of RANDY, is getting pushed further and further back for shipping dates. I should have ordered when I was going to but of course I didn't.... I should have listened to the warning to order NOW but of course I didn't...

Radio is funny and rules of thumb sometimes are never right for all situations. A Yagi should make you reach further, but because it limits the various other paths the RF may take I think it’s actually self-defeating in this situation. Try an omnidirectional antenna at ground level. After all, your 905 works at ground level with 1/10th as much power. Putting your antenna at 25 feet might simply be placing it at just the right level that the trees can block RF.

Totally fair criticisms there. Not even being able to copy & paste lines like any other 'spreadsheet' type program is really dumb. The software is pretty clunky... it does the job, but there's no reason for it to be that annoying to use. I don't have a ton of experience with a lot of different "CCR" programming software, but in my two data points, it seems to be a thing. Wouxun's is equally bad for my 905Gs.

The best I got is my stove turning on.

For reasons mentioned by @SteveShannon the Yagi may not be your best choice for this situation. I think the ano-50g needs a ground plane, if you don’t have one you may want to try a different antenna. It sounds like you are set up for a base station.

So the kg-905g is transmitting into a low gain antenna that transmits in all directions. I don’t know what your range is (same two miles or closer in?) but a Yagi is a poor antenna to use for anything other than a clear shot directly to another antenna. And I am not familiar with the ano-50g, but in trees like that I would be much more inclined to try a low gain antenna on the kg-1000g. That will let the signal radiate in all directions like the antenna on the 905 does.

My biggest gripe is the fact that there’s no alternative to the Radioddity software for,programming. My second biggest gripe is that you can’t export channels from one configuration and then import them to another configuration even if the channels are compatible.

Can’t you use Chirp? Chirp will import from RepeaterBook.

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

OVERLORDS, not gods...

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

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

It's most likely NOT a Wouxun issue. The negativity is getting old. @WSFR966 What antenna are you using with the KG-1000G? And how far away are you when you try to use the HT? Do you have a clear line of sight? I run a Wouxun in th shack and vehicle along with Wouxun HT's and don't have any problems. I am running a Comet CA-712EFC base antenna, a Tram 1174 on my vehicle and the stock rubber duck antennas on my HT.

Voted and Happy with the results!

One thing to remember abut Midland radios, their models with everything in the hand mic cannot be programmed using a computer. Out of all the GMRS and amateur band radios I have, the Wouxun KG-XS20G and KG-935G Plus are the easiest to program. Guys give me good signal reports when using the KG-XS20G with a Comet 2x4SR antenna.

Maybe watch some video reviews and user experiences on YouTube, so you can get an idea of the various features offered by different brands.

I will suggest getting a mobile radio with a good IP rating since you said you want to use it while off roading especially if you are in an open type vehicle such as a Jeep or UTV. Knowing what features you want will help us give suggestions. And don't forget that you will need a good antenna.