Leaderboard

After obtaining my GMRS license earlier this year, I finally broke down and ordered the Midland MXT115 that just arrived yesterday. I put it in my vehicle this morning just to give it a checkout. There is a GMRS repeater within 2 miles of my residence and thought I'd try making a contact however I can't get the radio to go in to "Repeater" mode. The instructions in the manual are fairly straight forward and I've followed them step-by-step however I cannot get the desired sub "rP" to appear on the display, nor will it transmit in duplex mode on the repeater channels. Before I call Midland tech support can anyone suggest a hint or possibly a step that isn't in the instruction manual? Thanks, Art WQZD805

I dont have pictures but there are a ton on RR. Yes radio decks are all bolted to a piece of painted plywood that uses a Steel L bracket to the seat bolts.

Are cb radios illegal? Hard to talk law without being political and I can get very political. Bottom line, don't use a radio if it infringes on another's freedom. All laws are created after the abuse of freedom occurs, cause an accident while being distracted using the radio and you are part of the reason government grows and we all lose freedoms we once enjoyed. Love your neighbor on the road and you have little to fear, do it not killing someone and there are many laws you are in violation of the least of which is radio usage. "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded" Self government is great power, with great power comes great responsibility. You literally hold the lives of others in your hands, abuse it and you lose the gift of self government to another government, they lose everything.

Go over to radiorefetence. There’s several recent threads on installs in aluminum bodied Fords. Tons of info and experience there for the reading.

If you have access to a linked repeater through stone mountain, wait for open check-ins near the end of the net. New users are given a chance to check in after roll call for active users. When you check in, give net control the following information: Call sign, slowly and clearly so net control can write it down. For me, it would be "Whiskey Roger Alpha Kilo 9 6 8" First name, Where you are, (City/state or just state, up to you) and whether or not you have traffic for the national net. You must check into the regional net at 7PM, or check in through MyGMRS under Nets. Net Control does request that if you say you'll participate in the national round table that you be there. Lotta people say they have traffic then dont show up. After all that, your call will be put on the roll call, adding the state of VA to be called out. Your call will remain on the list as long as you are active. If you miss 5 meetings in a row (Correct me if I have that number wrong) your call will be removed.

I got several solar panels new from the company linked below. I also purchased a few used ones at Ham Radio flea markets. I would recommend something in the range of 20 to 50 watts for the panel.This should be sufficient to keep a small handheld radio or a mobile radio running with the right sized battery pack and solar plane size. https://www.renogy.com/solar-panels/rigid-solar-panels/ I also have several of the MPPT charge controllers from this company. I have several of the GV-5 models. One for a lead acid type when there is nothing else available and several for LFP battery packs. https://sunforgellc.com/gv-4/ https://sunforgellc.com/gv-5/ https://sunforgellc.com/gv-10/ I wouldn't recommend the use of any kind of lead acid battery unless you want the cheapest portable battery solution. I've wrecked enough gel-cell and AGM types. They have to be kept on a trickle charger when left sitting around for more than a few weeks. If you don't the batteries self discharge quickly and the plates will sulfate. Once the plates are sulfated the battery is finished. I recommend going with a LFP, Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4), batteries. They hold a charge for months, some even for a year or more, and don 't get ruined if they sit around only partially charged. The only caveat is the cost . I got a couple of the battery packs from the company at the link below. One was the 6 amp hour BLF-12045W and the 40 amp hour BLF-1240A. Don't forget to get the wall changers for these batteries. The above charge controllers I got were the models designed for LFP batteries, NOT lead acid or LiPO's. https://www.bioennopower.com/collections/12v-series-lifepo4-batteries I also have a 12 volt to 120 volt AC pure sine wave inverter for the rare case where I need 120 volts. I picked up a 300 watt unit which I have set up to work with the 40 amp hour battery. https://gpelectric.com/products/300-watt-pure-sine-wave-inverter/ Now a few words of caution about connecting solar panels to batteries. A few people skip the charge controller and wire the solar panel direct to the battery, through a blocking diode. While that will work in an emergency with lead acid types DON'T try this with LFP battery packs! Just about every LFP battery pack contains a battery protection module. The module will disconnect the internal battery cells from the external terminals in the case of a short circuit, over discharge resulting in a dangerous low voltage or when the battery pack reaches max cell voltage on charge. The last one is the killer. A so-called 12 volt panel is really 20 to 23 volts when open circuited. So when the battery reaches the max safe voltage the protection module will disconnect the internal battery pack so it effectively open circuits the solar panel, which promptly jumps way up in voltage. Most mobile equipment can't handle anything higher than 15 to 16 volts without damage.