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First, don’t mistake SWR for antenna quality. If it were that simple we’d all use dummy loads. They typically provide a very low SWR but have no ability to radiate RF. Second, the SWR meter is not a sufficient ground plane for a VHF antenna. Typically you’d need either a planar surface of metal or an array of radials of at least a quarter wave radius or length to provide a decent ground plane. For VHF that’s much larger than the body of the SWR meter you’re using. The fact is that measuring SWR for handheld antennas is frequently futile and unnecessary. Instead hook up the antennas and see what kind of performance you get.

It is the same as the Anytone, with slightly different features which are probably simply enabled in firmware. This Alinco, just like the Anytone, is a high powered mobile radio with terrific features such as cross band repeat, even digital to analog (cross-mode) repeat. It’s wrong to compare this to a $15 radio. It’s ignorant to call it “just a cheap Chinese throwaway radio.”

People forget it costs money to standup a repeater, plus the on-going costs for rent and equipment maintenance. A very lucky few manage to find free tower space due to some involvement with their work where they have access to a tower and can install equipment with permission. I forget where I was reading the thread, but there was one where a guy was discussing the idea of purchasing some property and building a tower for the sole purpose of renting out space once built. No different than constructing an apartment building and renting out units.

@Bobuff977 all fixed! @SteveShannon thanks for the heads up!

As was mentioned a single quarter wave is our best bet. I installed those on many machines over hte years for logging and highway departments. Yes it may get destroyed but they are $10 at most. Unscrew NMO and replace it when needed.

Well yea, that does change the picture.. i can imagine the moon roof will add more complications to the headliner removal. You may have to drop the whole headliner because the moonroof will not let you tilt down the headline form one side. You also dont want to route the coax along either outer edges of the headline because that will impede the air bag function. There are front fender mount options that mount under the hood and wrap around the hood by the cowl area. I had a jeep mount that worked well for that. The Mag mount works well too until you get into a good rain storm.. Don't ask me how i know that one. Good Luck. defiantly visit YouTube and see if you can get any ideas on difficulty for your headliner. It could be easier then you think and vis a versa. Good luck

Adding a fender washer to a NMO mount is a smart thing to do especially if your cab is aluminum. I looked at the third brake light mounts when I had my 2020 Ranger but decided not to get one, mostly due to the price. Plus I would have had to run an even shorter antenna on the Ranger than what I run on the Escape.

The bed will not act like a ground plane since it is lower than the cab of the truck. The ground plane needs to be directly underneath the antenna. Sometimes even mounting an antenna to a luggage rack is not enough of a ground plane.

The antenna wax will be right next to the cans of squelch. In other words there is no such thing as antenna wax. As others have said, there is no easy way to test the SWR of hand held antennas. And your body actually acts as part of the ground plane when you use a hand held. As far as aftermarket hand held antennas, it really depends on the radio it self if the antenna will make an improvement or not. I have some radios where the longer Nagoya antennas helps and some radios where the stock antenna works better.

Yes these mounts do work. But as mentioned, you still have to drop the headliner and you will lose have the ground plane. Losing half the ground plane is not a deal breaker as you will still get out but your antenna will be more directional to the front of the vehicle.

Well, unless your using this product, your antenna won't be top notch

Shhh! According to certain folks GMRS isn't a hobby. Although I looked up the definition of hobby, just in case I had been wrong all these years, and it certainly fits.

I run the 275/575 in all my Jeeps. I like KISS and that works for my needs. Not a ton of room in a Jeep.

Or a known design defect they don't want to spend time or money on to fix it permanently.

And sometimes a simple fix will cost 2/3 the price of a new radio. Myself and others have ran into that when contacting Yaesu about blown USB ports of the FTDX10, FTDX101, and FTDX991. Yaesu wants to charge $900 to fix a bad USB port. And their fix is to replace the entire board. The chip is a standard run of the mill Silicon Labs USB chip. Yaesu will only repair the blown USB chip one time under warranty and after that they will charge $900. To make it worse, they know it is a defect but won't fix it.

Again with the racist and stereotypical dismissiveness. A knockoff is an unauthorized copy of a “legitimate” product. This radio and the handheld 878 have unique features all of their own that were groundbreaking when first released, such as having the memory needed to store every contact in the RadioID database.

Commercial tower owners do charge for HAM repeaters. Nothing in the ARRL or FCC rules governs how private businesses sell space on a Commercial tower. HAM clubs generally like to get on towers for free, and some trade lawn and snow removal for rent. My club rents space for its 2M and 70 CM machines; I rent space for my GMRS repeaters. As a tower owner, I am not letting anybody on for free. I am in this for money; everything on a tower for free is less space I can sell.

i had two radios in my jeep, an Yaesu FT900, the control panel took up space above the rear view mirror and the MXT575 where i stashed the control mic in the center console. The main bricks for both radios were under both front seats. The MXT500 was an option but no where to put the darn thing. I think 99% of people wanting a GMRS radio the 575 will serve them well. My Hytera is programed for the repeater ch's and a small handfull of simplex channels, most everything else is HAM.

After reading the soldering thread I'm not so sure about that.

I disagree. "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" was pretty precise... nay concise, but citizens and the government continue to F that one up pretty regularly.

Greetings, debating which budget radio would provide better reception and setup for a jeep. The BTECH GMRS-20v2 which can be programmed via CHIRP on IOS or the Radioddity DB20-G which not capable from what I view non CHIRP compatible. Unless a handheld can be attached via an outside antenna to facilitate reception, any suggestions are welcomed.

There are counterfeits of almost everything that is good. It is possible that you bought fakes. There are websites that show how to tell the difference between the legit Nagoyas and Diamonds. Directly speaking of the fake Diamond antennas, they are obvious if you have had a real one in your hand and know what the real ones look like. Going back to your testing. You did not mention testing across the frequencies/bands for each antenna. Most usually favor one side of the band more than the other. Ideally they would be tuned for center, but that is less than optimal if you end up using it primarily on one end of the band or the other

I fully understand not wanting to drill holes into your vehicle. I have yet to get the courage up to drill my 2023 Ford Escape. Plus I don't feel confident removing the headliner with all of the curtain air bags. Having a sun/moon roof definitely restricts where you can drill a hole for a NMO mount. If you get acceptable results with a mag mount at the back edge of the cab then the third brake light mount will work for you. You will still have to deal with pulling at least part of the headliner down to run the coax though. Only you can decide if the third brake light mount is worth the money, time, and effort. If it was me, I would look into a NMO mount since you have to remove the headliner for either one.

I didn't want to drill any holes in my Tacoma. I found a mount that attaches to the rear of the bed using existing bolts. They make similar ones for other trucks. Installation on mine was remove two bolts, then reinstall them with the mount in place. I used an NMO mount on the bracket so I could easily remove the antenna to prevent theft. Wiring ran underneath the edge of the bed and into the cab through a "overpressure vent" on the rear of the cab. Zero holes drilled.

i've seen NMO reinforcment plates but i think they are meant to be used under a fiberglass roof.. Think i seen them on DX but can't remember

Not easily overlooked with Parallels! Parallels pops up and asks if you want to allow it every time you plug in a device.

Yeah, spoofing DMR ID's isn't that common, true. I miss programmed one of my NX-1300's setup for DMR. I got called out on that error when making a contact while out of town last summer. Oops. I guess if that's what you find important then the feature is of value to you. Me, not so much. Just a difference of opinion.

I got close. I paid $35 for the original version of the radio with antenna, battery pack and charger base in like new condition last spring at a Ham swap.

I did, right before trying Parallels.. VMWare was so difficult and convoluted to get installed i was never able to get it running. - By comparison Parallels required one or two mouseclicks and it did everything, including downloading and installing Windows after it installed itself. It is literally so simple, grandma could do it.

I have the BTECH GMRS-20V2 in my Ram. It works really well, and the footprint of the radio is small. I upgraded my truck recently to a newer one and did a permanent install: the radio box fits into a cubby in the center console, the antenna cable runs through the main pass-through grommet in the firewall, and the antenna fender mounts alongside the hood. The power comes from a fuse tap under the steering column. All said and done, the "radio" is just the handheld microphone which contains the display and control buttons. It works great. To answer your question about the handheld: you absolutely can get a screw-on adapter for a handheld to connect it to an external antenna. They're cheap and readily available. Connect a microphone to your handheld and it becomes easy and convenient to use, and you don't have to modify your vehicle at all for your radio install. Just run the antenna cable in via the door opening, the weather seal will go right around it. Some people put the handheld in mounts that fit into a cupholder. Easy, fast and cheap. Highly recommended for someone in a leased vehicle or who simply doesn't want to modify their vehicle. With a mag-mount antenna you can take it off the roof before you go through a car wash.

And you'll also notice the casting of the body/heatsink that it probably came out of the same mold.

I like mine.

I agree. I think they are a far better value for the money. They have a bullet proof front end. That's were it really counts. People focus way too much on transmit power. The reality is if you can't hear the other station it doesn't matter how much power you transmit with. I have a cheap TH-8600. Its built like a tank, BUT the front end has poor selectivity. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/414-th-8600-on-mountjpg/?context=new I pick up garbage like a high power transmitter used by a fire department 20 miles away on one of the GMRS/FRS channels like it belongs there. I've even picked it up slightly on the VHF side! I get one of my Kenwoods out, I hear nothing on the same frequency. That's what a good front end does.

Not exactly a "budget" radio but this one you're unlikely to out grow. Plus it won't have some of the frustrating programming limitations various GMRS specific radios exhibit. If at some point one wanted to move into Ham Radio the 400MHz to 470MHz band split is perfect. With a cheap feature license key the radio can be enabled to do either NXDN or DMR digital voice. The only down side is the radio is NOT part 95 certified, Part 90 yes. So far the FCC doesn't seem to mind the Part 90 radios so long as they are carefully programmed to conform to the rules. Maybe as some point they will just throw in the towel and officially allow the practice, enough people are already doing it. The radio shares the same programming software as the NX-1300 HT's, and I believe you can exchange code plugs between them. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/?context=new The software can be found on the Internet so the cost with getting the license key for it isn't an issue. The attached catalog pages are from 2024 so the price may have gone up a bit. I have an older NX820 that is very usable for GMRS and Ham Radio, and likely can be found for a reasonable price on some of the well known auction sites. You just wouldn't be using the digital part for GMRS however. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/250-nx-820ghjpg/?context=new I looked at the price for a Midland MXT575, at it was cheaper, but considering the difference in quality and features the Kenwoods would be a smarter choice. Kenwood NX-1800.pdf

There are three good places to hard mount an under dashmount radio in a Wrangler, especially a MXT500. Hell, I even have 4 radios in my Wrangler, two under dashmount type, and two with remote controlheads with the radio units mounted behind the two front seats on the floor, and I have the 4 radios powered by the Aux 1 circuit. Here two of the locations I used. Be patient,so I can get to my PC to edit and rotate the one picture.

Just stocked up on 44 rechargeable batteries from Amazon. And, 5 new batteries for the Kenwoods, who knows where these prices will go.

I had a MXT575 in my jeep which was nice because the control head can be stashed under the seat. The Mic controls the radio functions at the palm of your hand. I don't have the jeep anymore, the radio went with it. I really miss that radio. It had as good range as i do with my current Hytera Radio. I paid about $385 on Amazon. I do a lot of HAM stuff so i need the Hytera setup. For GMRS i defiantly recomend a Midland. Maybe someone can recommend other Midland models which im not familiar with

You bet. You certainly can set the RX tone also but if it doesn’t match the repeater output tone you never will hear the repeater. Often the repeater has two different tones. If you leave the RX tone empty then you hear everything on the channel.

It worked. Midland told me I had to have both TX and RX tone set. Thanks so much for the help.

In that case your calculations would be 4.30 db too low. An isotropic antenna is theoretical, a single infinitely small source with a gain of 0, meaning multiply the input times 1 to get the output when working with linear values. Having a dBd gain value for an antenna is convenient but for a calculator like this you always want to take the antenna gain back to dBi so you’re not inadvertently throwing the output value off. Maybe a better way to explain it is that the dBd value is only useful for comparing an antenna to a dipole. For purposes of calculating total gain you always need to start at 0 which is the dBi number.

Hi Paul, Many radios on the market, including the Tidradio H8, ( I own one too) have the ability to receive on frequencies or bands that they do not have the ability to transmit on. This is why you were able to program frequencies into the radio that you can only receive and not transmit and it allows the device to be used as a frequency or channel scanner. At the risk of stating things that you may already know, here is a bit more explanation. The transmit frequency range(s) are locked by the manufacturer in the firmware or software of the radio. This is most often done so that the radio remains compliant with the certification for that device which has been granted by the regulatory agency for your country under their respective rules. I am not familiar with the regulatory entity in Australia so I cannot speak to that entity or their rules, but for example here in the USA frequency allocations and things such bandwidth, as how much transmitting power may be used etc. are defined and regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, aka the "FCC" and often radios sold here in the USA are FCC certified for use in a specific band that is defined by a "part" or section of the FCC rules code. For example, a GMRS radio here in the USA would be authorized under part 95 of the US FCC code and in order for the device to be Part 95 compliant or certified the radio would be required to adhere to certain frequency restrictions, band widths and power levels, etc. In many cases the radio might be capable of transmitting on other frequencies or bands or use more power etc., but these software imposed restrictions prevent that from happening so that the device can be compliant with those rules associated with specific uses. Some devices can be "Unlocked" to remove these artificial, software imposed, restrictions. You mentioned that you were considering getting your HAM radio license. In the case of the Tidradio H8, if you purchased the HAM version of the radio and not the GMRS version, that specific device does have the ability to be unlocked (Google it). However, while unlocking the device may allow it to transmit on the HAM frequencies and GMRS frequencies (or as you referred to the CB frequencies) that does not mean that the device is certified or authorized for such use by your communications regulatory authority, and you may or may not be licensed to use all the frequencies that the device is capable of working with, so be sure to do your homework about your local rules and requirements.

Yes, you need the forum software to recognize that you are a premium member in order to create a club. Rich will have to fix your account. I’ll report your post to catch his attention.

I recommend that you add @Socalgmrs to your “ignore list”. Life gets better. Personally I prefer to have a link to the CFR page on the internet rather than capturing a point in time with PDFs: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95

Just what I Thought !! YOU DON'T Know what Warranties Are ! Nope, was Your best answer.

Contact their support and see what they say - if they give you the run-around, or dont help, just send it back and tell them to send you one that works or give you back your money. Amazon makes this VERY easy to do.

Confirmed he is a true H.A.M.s radios operator with that line.

I wasn't going to post about this... but then again, I'm surprised I waited this long. I was wrong when I posted in a different thread that you can't charge a fee for repeater use. I never had the desire to, and while I am sure I have read the rule before, I just forgot the details. It's as plain as can be that you can charge for repeater use. 95.1705 (f)(3)(ii) states a station may be shared "...On a non-profit basis, with contributions to capital and operating expenses including the cost of mobile stations and paging receivers prorated equitably among all participants;..." meaning you can charge people for use as long as you are not profiting, and everyone is charged (about) the same. Reimbursement to break-even for expenses is fine. Profit is not.

I like it when regulations are written to give users leeway to make the service work the way they need it to work. There are large pay-to-play GMRS repeater networks near me. Some standalone, some linked. I don't personally want to pay a monthly fee but I do not mind at all sharing in the expenses if it is a shared resource. Not everyone has a hill in their backyard and a tall tree to toss a wire over. Some want to pay big $$$ for premium locations or whatever. Leasing stuff is expensive, whether it is a spot on a tower or a spot in a transmitter shack or whatever. So while I do not want to pay monthly/recurring for access to a repeater, I will pay as I go for a week or a month or a flat $50 here-ya-go-thanks for the weekend or whatever. If I have to; I'd rather everything be free lol. But I'm just saying what I'd be willing to pay. However... What I do not like, and will not comply with, is the additional callsign junk. I already have a government issued callsign, a unique identifier for using on the air. I do not want this separate group ID like "CHAT 99" or whatever. There is a pay-to-play group down near Chattanooga TN and they make their users identify with "Chat XX" with a unique number assigned. No thanks. No, really. No thank you. I'll use my already unique identifier, and that will be all I use. Or I'll not use the system I have the choice to make.

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