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No, people don’t really come looking for advice. They really just want to see how useless you can be. It’s entertainment.

Switch it back to English. Plug in the programming cable. Open the software (it should still be in English). Read from the radio. Open up the Edit menu. Choose Function Setup. Menu Language is the third selection on the right column of the Function Setup dialog. Change it to English (the middle selection). Write to the radio.

Well, I got up and running with my new antenna, a $40 “uayosek”(whopping 2.5db) off Amazon and 25 ft of DXEng RG8X connected the BF UV5G Plus. At 16’ in the air with my handheld, it got 4.84 watts on high @1.04 swr. Worked well enough I bumped it down to medium and got 3.42w, and 1.62w at low. I was able to hit the big repeater on Sunday full quiet at high, and a little scratchy on medium. Having listened to suggestions made, and the Euro being about even with the dollar, I ordered 25 feet of MP Ultraflex 7 Sahara, which arrived today. Preliminary test shows 7.94w, 4.95w, and 2.61w, a significant improvement. SWR appears a tiny bit higher, but it is coiled and only tested on the antenna down so that will probably change. Price wasn’t too crazy for the Ultraflex, about $65 assembled and shipped. It definitely fits the bill though, lighter than LMR400, only .28 thick, the BNC connectors they put on it look like they were straight up machined out of bar stock, and its db loss is only a touch higher(.1 or .2 db) than LMR400UF. I am gonna try to get it all put up tomorrow night for the local net, but so far it looks like it will work well.

That question gave me work PTSD The customers I've worked with have never once in recorded history made a change to their equipment before it started working improperly. Sometimes, they never made a change even after we hold their hand and show them the evidence of the change they made

Thanks to everyone for their help; I should have realized the answer was in the programming software.

Day the truck got dropped off at my house it had 5 holes in it....

Tested on my 935G and it does the same thing. I dont think its a bug, it's just how it is. There may be logic behind it but if you turn off The monitor function it goes back to working "normal". Probably more of a function that if you are monitoring and hit on the flashlight you won't be blinded.

I have asked you several times. What would you suggest as a better alternative with similar capabilities? Yet you never answer. If you want to rip something down go for it, but you better be able to not only back it up but suggest an alternative. I have to assume you either have no idea of what your talking about or something else in you life is affecting your logic and reason.

One more down vote. I’m getting closer to winning the pool all the time!

Welcome to the forum. I know you’re new but you will find Southern California has quite a lot of repeaters. A massive number by comparison to most places. Maybe a few less where you are but still more than most. When going to the map page click on the gear icon in the upper left corner and select stale and offline repeaters as well and you’ll find a few more. If the owner hasn’t updated their repeater info in more than a year it will fall into the sale category. Cheers.

If you look on the map of repeaters here on myGMRS.. there are at least two or three repeaters that cover your area pretty widely.

There's no menu option on the radio to change the language, I believe it can only be done through the programming software. My guess is you mis-clicked an option. Should be easy enough to switch it back.

Modern vehicles use thinner sheet metal to save weight for improved fuel economy. What might have been in the past a minor adrenaline surge when the antenna whacked a tree branch now may result in some real damage to body sheet around the antenna mount. I would think a bit more about the usual advise to "just drill the hole" and mount the antenna.

There's NOTHING wrong with that connection at all.

Sounds like a good config choice. My buttons are setup with PF1 being the things I use most, Weather and FM and the two thing I need but use less frequently; monitor and flashlight. The reason I prioritize FM (tuned to local news) and weather over other options is my GMRS use-case in primarily for emergencies and special events where realtime info they provide is important. After posting I thought about using setting SQL=0 as a workaround and that seems to work without problem. Thanks!

I don’t know if you need to fix anything. You’re transmitting You mentioned hearing a sound after you transmitted but you wouldn’t call it static. It might have been a squelch tail. If you have a nearby friend who has a radio have them listen while you transmit. Announce yourself and ask for a repeater check. As @WRUU653 said the red bar shows that you’re transmitting. Once you get someone to respond you’ll feel a little more confident.

Just installed Comet CP-5NMO (finally got a warmer day) and did exactly what i needed it to do and the Comet SBB-1 NMO works perfect. Nice a sturdy and the antenna is actually quite impressive on AIR band besides what its designed for. Ill be using it with my H3 and my Q10H depending on needs.

Just think about what the INSIDE of that car must look like!

I see that they also have the option to buy just the mount and coax for $60.

Thanks, ill make sure to do that. Ill get to use my rarely used Fluke meter.

This guy has a few more.

Sweet!! Looks like you have some unused real estate that can accommodate 5 more.

We have a total of 6 repeaters. Our 2m repeater sees the most traffic and somedays it is really busy and other days you might go hours in-between hearing anyone. Then we have our GMRS repeater and it is the same way as our 2m repeater.We also have our main 70cm repeater at the same location that hardly gets used anymore. We also have two other 70cm repeaters that are located at opposite ends of our area. All three 70cm repeaters are currently setup for analog and DMR. No one uses DMR or any other digital FM modes. So we are in the process of getting rid of DMR and will then have all three linked together with the ability to to also link the three to our 2m repeater. Our 2m repeater has around an 80 mile radius of coverage so we get a bit of traffic from people traveling through mid Missouri. As Steve has mentioned, there is definitely more to amateur radio than talking on FM repeaters. a lot of guys use Single Side Band on the HF bands and even on the 2m band. And there are all of the different digital modes being used along with CW. Just because you don't hear anyone on the 2m/70cm repeaters in your area doesn't mean that amateur radio is dead.

Except for special events, most ham traffic is not on VHF/UHF and not through repeaters. Those repeaters will certainly see use during special events, nets, or sometimes casually by hams as they run errands or travel through a city. I have used the Phoenix DMR repeaters before, but 99% of my ham activities are spent on HF making contacts directly to other hams. There’s no real challenge to making contacts via repeaters and a lot of ham radio is about making distant connections, exchanging signal reports, and moving to the next connection. I’ll see if I can show you a signal report map showing a snippet in time in the Phoenix area. Here’s a map from PSKreporter of activity over the past hour: Each inverted teardrop shows one ham. I suspect you’ll agree that between 5 and 6 AM is probably not a really busy ham time, but there are still a pretty decent number of people who are working contacts using digital modes. None of this is through a single repeater and they are almost all trying to make contacts with someone at some distance:

Looks like they didn’t fill the notch with an excess of solder. I wouldn’t worry about it. If you’re concerned, leave the cable unattached and the antenna removed and take an ohm meter and test that there is no continuity between the center and shield. I’m sure it’s probably fine. edit- as @OffRoaderX said, test that it’s not shorted. This is good practice regardless of what the ends look like especially after dragging the cable through the firewall and what not.

I have used dozens of 'special' connectors like that with zero ill effects.. If you have an SWR meter just check it after you hook it up to make sure it's making contact/not shorted.

And RT Systems works well for this radio.

The Comet SBB1 NMO is a good antenna for how short it is. Mine does well for 2m, 70cm and definitely usable on GMRS too. I have mine in the center of the roof on my Ford Escape.

Agreed. As SteveShannon and AdmiralCochrane stated, VHF/UHF repeater use, while often active, is really not the main attraction in amateur radio. I hear about the same central Maryland repeater traffic AdmiralCochrane does and many of our local 2m and 70cm repeaters do have some very busy periods, but the real activity is on HF, where one can talk to people all over the world. It is very seldom that one can find an open HF band that doesn't have worldwide activity. I do monitor some of the local VHF repeater traffic and check into some of the nets (ARES & our club's), but my main interest is in making long range contacts. Like trout fishing, you watch for the rise (listen for a station down in the noise), then cast to the fish (try calling the station) in an effort to catch the fish (make the unusual contact).

"Let him who has never made a silly, bonehead mistake cast the first stone" or whatever it was Jesus said to those guys.

Same. It performs pretty well for me and I like having it. I get better range with it than I do with any stick antenna.

It is NOT deformed; the lower area makes it easier to hold the solder against the connector and cable. Not all are made that way, it is not supposed to be straight across at the end. You can touch a soldering iron to it for a few seconds to get the solder to flow a bit better if that will give you peace of mind, but really not necessary.

I’m just curious. What did you do right before the language changed to Chinese?

Agree, but this is why I follow up with a nice thin fender washer on the inside of the roof to distribute the force more evenly when the antenna hits something. I never had any bent sheet metal or antennas ripped out of the roof.

Damn, you made it 6 days without punching a hole in it? That's got to be a new worlds record for having the willpower. You're going to drill, so get it out of your system now.

GMRS and Ham Radio are BOTH Hobbies. IF you don't want to hear normal conversations on Gmrs, then turn it off.

Looks fine, Run with it, if your Swr checks out.

Yes, be sure you don’t have it on dual watch. I had my bottom channel set to a frequency that had activity or active interference on it without realizing it. I kept wondering why I was hearing stuff even though there was no activity on the upper/larger channel A. Since then I keep dual watch turned off.

That is one of the reasons we used to get our club to put in the GMRS repeater. And we have had a couple of GMRS users decide to get their amateur license afterwards.

Only when I buy that junk in the large tins every Xmas, lol

If you are talking about the Ghost antennas, The Midland Ghost MXTA25 and Melowave Shadow are pretty good for being so short and they work better than the Nagoya UT-72G antenna. But they won't work as well as a taller antenna such as the Midland MXTA26 or Comet 2x4SR. I have a height restriction since I park in the garage so I run a Tram 1174 tuned for GMRS on my Ford Escape.

New guy here. I am hoping we will get more repeaters and operators here, in SoCal.

Sitting here, eating pop-corn, reading this thread and listening to my Midland = Priceless!

I've had the Ed Fong GMRS J Pole for about a year now and have been very happy with it. I'm able to hit repeaters in the area, some as far as 45 miles away, or use it for local simplex communication. Of course, antenna height, line of sight from you to the repeater or station you're trying to reach will make all the difference. There are probably better options as far as base antennas for GMRS out there, but I choose mine for easy of mounting.

Well that didn't take long. I knew Negative Nancy would put his worthless half a pence in. The negative vibes need to go. Plenty of people use J pole antennas with great results. One of my friends has made several J poles for GMRS for other club members and they all work. He has also made a 6m j pole out of copper and a giant 11m/CB j pole out of aluminum tubing. It works well too. I have a 2m j pole made from 3/8" aluminum rod that works well and sometimes use it portable. I also made the faraday clothe j poles for portable work.

Based on what I’ve read, the ones made,of copper tubing are about equivalent to a dipole in performance, not high gain, but decent omnidirectional performance. I intend to build one this spring sometime. It’ll be single band, possibly 6 meters. That’s the only vhf band I don’t have an antenna for now.

Repeater 19 is channel 27 and 462.650. It will already have a built in offset of +5 on Tx but you will need to add the tones for the repeater you are using. Go to menus 9 and 10 to enter your tones. I have no issues with programming in this radio. You have a great GMRS radio.