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As a relatively new member, my experience with @SteveShannon couldn't be more opposite.

Look, anyone can post two web links and ask which is best. It’s the laziest way to post. But without explaining exactly what you mean by “best” nobody can give you a serious answer. Now had you explained what model of Laird antenna you had and that you think it might require a ground plane, people would be able to give you a serious answer to your question. So, why don’t you try again. I might not have the answer and if I don’t I won’t act like I do, but at least you won’t look like an entitled idiot.

All the cool-kids use GMRS Ch19..

My point is the two different lengths of the poles make for 3 differently tuned ground planes. I paid no attention to the frequencies the plane offered; it was not easily available. One length is one band, the other a second and combined you end up with the cheaper 20" 'UHF' option. The cheaper one will work but you have no ability to trim/tune it on the plane. That is assuming Nagoya has the assembly for each band somewhere. You can guess around 8" is GMRS if nowhere else to start and try the other one for best SWR. I doubt 20" is optimal for any GMRS antenna. There are reasons, I'm not getting into, why this is not as much an issue on a car but I will add moving the magnet around is enough to 'tune' the plane on a mostly-flat metallic surface >8". Edit- For some reason I referred to the other one as cheaper when it is $10.00 more. Does not change my 'opinion'.

It's true around the big population centers at least, per my family in the area. 15-22 are basically useless because every repeater channel is repeating the same message from some guy on the other side of the state talking about his genital warts or whatever it is rag chewers like to go on about.

With the exception of mounting hardware, steel is seldom used in antennas. Aluminum is lightweight and a very good conductor. For RF connectors brass is much more easily machined and a better conductor than steel. But brass is often plated to prevent oxidation which can affect performance (mechanical and electrical) and appearance.

The Nagoya is 'Tri-Band'. If you want to get deep in the weeds and basic: Each transmit is trimmed as close as possible to the wavelength, and the ground plane is a 'virtual' (If I don't add that some pedant will comment, but you can gloss over it) mirror image of the same Tx from the top (I know all about null-fields, leave me alone; you had over a day) and, ideally, is also 'trimmed'. The different rods should combine for one of three bands and the trim 'matches' the trim of the wire (antenna you see) you picked to transmit on that antenna. If you, in fact, have a dual or tri-band antenna, both will equally perform but they are tri band and that seldom works well without friends, work and beer. But you don't want a tri-band bc I presume you do not have a HAM license or would know all this. In a perfect world you would calculate to a specific frequency, do some math, cut things and 'trim' to perfection but we use 'bands' of frequencies. The other one says UHF; that's a huge band. I'm going to say you will have more options with the Nagoya.

No need to over complicate things. Instead of spending an additional 600$ repeater, buy a better antenna and a taller mast to put antenna up higher and that repeater will go 10 miles. I had an RT97S 10W version on a Comet CAF712EFC around 40ft up or roughly 282ft above sea level and had no problems getting into it with an HT from 5-10miles away in the Piney woods of Texas with 80Ft tall pine trees everywhere.

Yeah that looks way different. When I try to cut anything from this list is just does nothing and just reverts back to this stock look.This is the CPS from B2wr where I bought the unit. Of course anything past ch30 I can put anything I want with no issues. Perhaps the OG poster was using same software and creating issues. I think Chirp or RT systems might allow such edits.

No response from Retevis as of today. Despite being cooperative, polite, and giving them all the photos and information they requested over multiple emails (as detailed in my earlier posts), Retevis has not responded since my last post on this subject back in April. So I cannot recommend Retevis. They sold me a defective radio and do not stand behind their products, in my experience. If you get a dud, you've just thrown your money away. Buyer beware. Radioddity, on the other hand, did take care of me, and I CAN recommend them.

I think he was asking @SDJeffrey whose name also happens to be Steve.

I second this. I have the same antenna on a 36' mast for my repeater and I get 10-15 miles depending upon the direction. Terrain is less favorable to the northwest than in the other directions. When I'm recovered from my shoulder surgery, I'm going to put the antenna on a 50' mast. The greatest "bang for the buck" is almost always getting the antenna up higher.

Understood. I have the same interest for our neighborhood here in Hurricane Central.

He was responding to me, not you. And he was very helpful. If you're getting an SWR 4.6, something is definitely awry. What kind of antenna are you running on the Tram base?

The tri-band Nagoya wouldn't get acceptable SWRs on one band (I forget which) no matter what I gave it for a ground plane, including in the middle of the roof of my car. The Nagoya HD-A (2m/70cm) didn't have an acceptable SWR on any band, despite being allegedly a no-ground-plane antenna. A couple of other Nagoyas did perfectly fine, including the UT-72. I've had (I think) 3 Trams and haven't had problems with any of them. With regard to how far they will tx/rx, I haven't noticed anything worth mentioning. However, in the area where I do most of my driving, the topography imposes a practical limit on any mobile antenna. Again, I'm not sure this means anything with regard to their ground plane units.

Now I remember why you were on my ignore list …

Phrased they way you did, it likely wouldn't. However, in the reddit post, several people implied (or maybe I inferred) that the club/group/whatever has every repeater pair used on their network, making it almost impossible for anyone else to standup their own repeater anywhere in North Georgia due to capture effect on the mobiles in the area. Im sure the capture effect causes problems on simplex and same channel repeater inputs, too. Of course, I am summarizing an interpretation of what I read and sharing an opinion based on that interpretation, assuming it's true.

I would love to tell them that linking over a network is a rule violation, not a law violation, and linking repeaters via analog non-routed RF is assumed to not be a rule violation (legal), since its not explicitly denied in the rules. Now, linking repeaters across the northern part of the state and monopolizing every channel is a @$$h0l3 move... which should be the real topic.

I kid you not, I bought one of those little pond fishing, plastic, trolling motor boat thingies about two years ago. Store it in the side yard up against the house. Earlier this month my wife goes "Why is there a boat propped against the side of the house?"

Why not buy a professional grade Laird base station antenna which is a better quality antenna and be even more pleased then you would be with a Tram.

it's literally the same stuff from the same Chinese manufacturing facility. Just buy one and be happy.

I live a little southeast of Great Falls, at a higher elevation and in sight of town. I am considering putting a GMRS repeater at my place to see if it might be used some. Steve, W1NEK

Depending on what side of the house it's on, she might not have even noticed it yet.

No because i mounted the antenna on my chimney.

Nicely done - a huge improvement in group run communications! I helped our club migrate to GMRS a couple years ago and it was very well received. It is now a requirement for all club sanctioned events. We've got a thread detailing the change and the pros of GMRS, along with a rundown of our favorite and suggested gear to get folks started. I joke the radio is so you can hear good dad jokes on a long trip but we do a lot of training and guiding, so it really aids with instruction, direction, and safety. I can also run a separate channel on dual watch with the group and my tailgunner so we can talk logistics if need be.

At the last weekend's Two Rivers Off Road Club's 4x4 Blast, the Club made it official, they are moving from CB to GMRS. All of us on Saturday's run used GMRS and were impressed by the transmission clarity. There was a mix of HT's and mobiles.

There is a designated Aeronautical channel for private fixed wing aircraft for air-to-air communications. That channel is 122.750 MHz. Private Rotary Wing (Helicopters) have their own air-to-air communications channel.

That's standard procedure for the military. We would always have at least one ground based forward air controller per brigade and usually had one per brigade combat team. And they used the low VHF band, 30 - 70 (88) MHz. IN the big Army units, the FAC's were always Air Force personnel. They always complained about living in the mud and muck with us ground pounders.

I can only speculate, but perhaps they reserve the air band radio for conversations with the tower and leave it tuned to that frequency. Chit chat on GMRS doesn’t affect that.

Not if you bought it on Amazon... True. I bought mine direct from Retevis. I thought I was doing Retevis a favor by cutting out the middleman. Proves again, no good deed goes unpunished.