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No there wasn't any designated travel channel 30 years ago. About 30+ years ago, there was a designated emergency channel and that was the 467.675/462.675 MHz channel pair with 141.3 CTCSS. On the license in those days, it stated that channel, which is Channel 20 these days, was reserved for emergencies operations. REACT was allowed to use it for relaying emergency information amongst their monitoring stations. According to my old GMRS license, effective 2-16-1999, GMRS licensees may operate on 462.675/467.675 MHz channel pair at any time and that channel pair was no longer restricted for emergencies. After the FCC changed the rule, several REACT organizations and GMRS Radio Clubs adopted the Ch. 20 as a nationwide Travel Channel with 141.3 Hz CTCSS, but there was never a rule whereas it was never a FCC mandate. It was widely ignored by most users and never took hold as nationwide travel channel.

And how does this help me ? Kidding, kidding. You kids go out and have fun...

I've seen a lot of people asking how to do this, and i just figured it out myself. So, I'm gonna make a quick and easy guide. Here we go! YOU WILL NEED A PROGRAMMING CABLE. Mine was included with the 2 pack of radios i bought from amazon. If you don't have one, purchase it HERE. Step 1. Make sure you have a UV5G PLUS. Says it right on the radio, should be obvious. Step 2. Download a firmware update from HERE. Yes it looks a bit sketchy, I found the link from reddit, it works. Step 3. Unzip and install the application to your PC. If you don't have a program to unzip files, I recommend WinRAR. Download the free trial, its still free afterwards it just keeps asking you to pay Step 4. Plug in your radio (press the plug into your radio really hard to make sure its in) Step 5. Find the folder titled "Installation Guideline of Baofeng Programming Cable Driver". Mine was in C:\Users\YOURNAME\Desktop\Installation Guideline of Baofeng Programming Cable Driver. Open it and double click "Cable Driver", and click install. Wait a moment for it to say its finished, then close the program. Step 6. Download CHIRP NEXT. Unzip, and install. Step 7. Open chirp, click radio, and fill in the boxes as shown in the picture at the bottom of this post. Port>COM3 Vendor>Baofeng Model>GM-5RH. When you click on the model it will say something about a beta version, just click yes. Step 8. Click ok, and follow the instruction on the next window. afterwards, you should see an excel style layout with all your setting. If not, then idk what to do, sorry.

Well looking at a set of mating N connectors it looks like the mating surfaces are the flat area of the female and the rubber base of the male. If you put a small coating of dielectric grease on the female flat mating surface it looks like the internal portion of the connector has an excellent seal from anything penetrating it. The only ingress would be from the rear of the connector using capillary action into the fittings. Water getting in through the threads should have no chance of getting inside the fitting if it has been tightened properly.

Just like the threads of a flare nut not being the sealing surface I understand that the threads of a coax connector are not watertight seal areas, but I am of the persuasion that some greasy material in the middle of the connector short of hydraulic locking the mating surfaces from making contact is beneficial as water, can't occupy the same space that something else already occupies. Water can easily displace gases like air, but has a much more difficult time displacing oil or grease.

Actually, using a repeater on a ranch is one of the few scenarios in which I think it makes sense to have a repeater with a reach greater than that of the recipient radios. There are occasions when you need to do an "all hands" call ("Come to the house, the barn is on fire." "The fence is down and all the horses are out." That kind of stuff.) If someone is a bit out of range, they can still receive the message. Even so, 50 watts would probably be much more than necessary.

It may or may not help. But it is something to consider. I really haven't noticed much difference with my Comet GP-9 or CA-712EFC but I do see a change with the MFJ multi band vertical HF antenna when the temps get really low. The change in SWR on the MFJ is not as much as with the cobweb but still noticeable. Food for thought.

Yep! One can't dispute that. Also, I always follow my connector installs with a high quality heat shrink tubing with hot melt adhesive inside. Water never gets in my coax.

I think wrapping connectors is totally and utterly foolish when a healthy dab of bacon grease makes all my connections waterproof to 100m.

Interesting. I'm perplexed as I don't understand why the manufacturers wasted all the effort and materials to put a gasket that seals the two mating connectors. Had I known they lied to me and charged me more for an N connector I would have just made a Western Union splice in my coax and called it a day..

You’re wrong. From Amphenol, note the word “weatherproof”::

My suggestion is to set the transmitting handheld to transmit on 467.600 MHz. Don’t worry about setting a CTCSS tone. That will come later. Set your second radio to receive on 467.600 MHz and be absolutely sure no RX tone is set or required. Give the receiving radio to someone and have them go 50 or 100 feet away and listen. If they don’t hear you transmit one of the radios isn’t working.

That had proper weatherproofing on it. As best I could do. It was mostly done on the ground and then the antenna attached to the mast was inserted into the lower section of mast that was existing. Don't know how to do a better job without encapsulating the entire thing is rubber. But yes, if I have to go up there to strip it down new coax and antenna will be on the list. This was only up there since about June. Could also be infiltration at the lightning arrestor. But that is an N fitting on both sides. Still wrapped to death.

RG8-X LOL No no no. LMR400 by Times MIcrowave. Had to see the wife off to NY so I was able to do another check. 2pm 34ºF SWR was 1.25. I still think the water is frozen in the cable though. They say to get rid of the water in the cable to use a vacuum with a heated source. A modern wood Kiln would be perfect. I was thinking of pulling a vacuum on the outdoor end while heating up the first 3-4 feet of coax to try to rid it of water. But I'll probably just by 24' of hardline to replace the coax at the house and make it easy on myself. It doesn't need it. But it's better suited for outdoors.

No, you do not, if you are using one of the pre-programmed, out of the box repeater channels. if you are creating a new, DIY custom repeater channel, many radios will require you to know what you are doing and enter the transmit frequency and the off-set/receive frequency.

Okay I guess I am, after looking this is the only radio I have had to manually put in both TX and RX, the TX would just automatically bump the 5mhz up. Still a little new to GMRS. Thanks fellas.

A full duplex repeater cannot transmit and receive on exactly the same frequency simultaneously. On a single antenna system the two frequencies must be different so the duplexer can prevent the full power of the transmitter from overwhelming and damaging the receiver. That’s also reflected in the regulations. We transmit to a repeater on the 467 MHz main channels and we receive from the repeater on the corresponding 462 MHz main channels. The only time you transmit and receive on the same frequency is when you communicate on simplex. That’s all preprogrammed on certified GMRS radios so you wouldn’t have to program it in.

Sir, if you have a problem with Germs, I will connect you to EMS....

Oh ya, I know. I'll wait until I have access to the bucket truck. The antenna isn't actually easily accessible. This is an earlier picture. The mast holding hardware has been greatly increased.

I'll see what I can do to come up with some data. My 6 band cobweb antenna is affected the most when it comes to very cold temps. My thinking is part of the reason is the design. A cobweb is basically a folded fan dipole where all bands (except 6m) are bent into a square.

SWR can change with temperature changes. I have seen it happen on my HF antennas when temps get into single digits. The SWR usually goes up a bit. But the SWR goes back to normal once temps get to 20 degrees or higher. So far the changes have not been so bad that the internal tuner on my IC-7300 can't handle. Most of the time I don't even need to use the internal tuner.

There are many ways to get an antenna up in the air. The main thing is to make sure the antenna and mast are secure so they don't fall over.

You can use twigs and stones if you guy wire it properly . Myself I've been using 1.5" EMT conduit for masts. You can use 1.25" copper pipe to join sections together, they fit snug. I use a 2' section of copper and then 3 self tapping screws on the upper and lower sections to secure them together.

Well I've been having an issue contacting this one repeater I frequent. I don't have enough evidence gathered yet to say the SWR and the bad reception are a 1 to 1 correlation. But I plan on leaving the meter inline for a week or so to see if there is a temperature correlation. Also have issues contacting the repeater at my shop. Again, just starting up with the investigation into this now that I know my SWR is moving around way more than I think it should. I understand if it's raining or inclement weather the SWR can move. But it's been pretty clear. We had a 1 minute rain event the other day, but the problem has been around way longer than that short rain burst.

You can use 1 5/8" fence posts as a mast or to extend the height of a j mount. You will need some 4 Pieces 1-5/8" X 6" Chain Link Fence Top Rail Sleeve to attach the fence posts together or to a j mount. I will suggest using some guy rope to guy the mast if you extend the j mount or the mast is more than a few feet above the mount. I have used 1 5/8" fence posts with those couplers for a mast and also extended j mounts with 1 5/8" fence posts and couplers without any issues. I do run a total of 16 zip screws into the coupler to attache them. I put 8 zip screws into each pipe I am connecting. The main thing is to properly guy the mast to support it and the antenna. Here is a photo of my 6 band cobweb antenna that is on a 8 foot section of 1 5/8" fence post attached to a 40" tall j mount. I have it guyed at three points with guy rope. Here is a photo of my Comet CA-712EFC GMRS antenna attached directly to a 40" tall j mount. I did not need to guy it.

Do you realize that you responded to a 5 year old posting that may no longer be important?

Or just spend a bit more on a real antenna.

A 10 watt repeater will be just fine for the OP's needs.He is only needing to cover about a 1 3/4 mile radius. The key for him will be getting his antenna up as high as he can get it on the highest point of his property, He doesn't need a 50 watt repeater for that. 50 watts is overkill for such a small coverage radius. Plus he can save a lot of money by getting a Midland or Retevis 10 watt repeater.

Work had me get rid of a bunch of old Motorola HT220's, various versions (some with PL capability, some with more than one channel), all pretty beat up, but kept a few for pictures....this type of use.

The power of the repeater isn’t nearly as important as the installation of the repeater. Installed at a location that’s within range of the different handheld radios, with good cable and a high antenna it can greatly improve your communications reliability.

Would this be the same police we call (911) when our Door Dash order is incomplete, like when the driver steals some fries? Asking for a friend.

If you suspect anyone of an infraction as it pertains to the proper use of their GMRS license / callsign, you should IMMEDIATELY call the police. Do not try to confront the person or sort it out on your own as they could be dangerous.

Just build it. Dr. Fong documented building his j-pole antennas in QST magazine articles.

If you are planning on eventually running 100 feet, you WILL need better coax cable. RG-8x is NOT RG-8u. 8x is the small coax used for CB radio. Even the best grade of 8x has over 9 dB of loss at 462MHz at 100 feet. For the low-cost/best performance per dollar ratio, go with LMR-400. NOTE: I do not EVER recommend LMR-400 for repeater use, but for simple base station operation, it works great.

With centimeter radio and cheap cable, the cable length is not going to change anything even remotely close to noticeable... likely not even measurable. Also, anything under 3:1, you won't have any risk of damage. Anything 2:1 or better is good. Anything 1.5:1 is really good. getting a 1:1 match usually means the antenna is not resonant at your target frequency. You should be very pleased with 1.4:1. Normally I target about 1.75:1 at the antenna feed point and then use an LC network to maximize output power to the antenna. Get that antenna 40+ feet in the air and you will dramatically increase your coverage and performance in the covered areas.