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*sigh* ...

I promise not to tell Randy

Honestly if you’re going to do anything that’s more permanent than peel and stick you should really just punch a hole and install a through-hole NMO mount like @gortex2 showed.

I'm a member as well to support their efforts on protecting all amateurs but I don't participate in 99.999% of their events as I don't like contests. I work community events such as parades and bike races/rallies.

Yeah, you are exactly right! I heard that proclamation/warning and chose to ignore it. I'm not a radio purist so as long as it works reasonably well, I don't really concern myself with all the technical perfection (usually only detectable with test equipment). The photo I posted above shows the 3rd brake light mount with a dual band 2m/70cm antenna, but most of the time I use a little 6" Tram 1126-B 1/4wave antenna. I like that little Tram because it is very low profile, and most folks do not even notice that I have an antenna up there. My SWR is 1.2:1 on my Btech 20W mobile and it works great for my real-world purposes on both GMRS and 70cm. In fact, based on my experience, I might argue that for UHF, ground plane is often over-rated. I can drive in circles, presumably transitioning between lots of ground plane (to the front) and arguably zero ground plane (to the rear) and the folks I'm talking to usually can't tell the difference. That's good enough for me!

Do you need an IP67 rating? Unless you engage in activities where such a spec would be meaningful, the RA89 would be yet another HH an apparently you already have a lot of those.

The picture didn't show the 2 GPS Pucks either. So in that truck I had 4 APX8500 multiband radios, 1 Sierra Wireless LTE Modem and a Lowband radio. So technically 5 radios. My new truck has the same radios but have glass mount wifi, LTE and GPS antennas due to spacing on the roof. Waiting on a new cap and will have my Starrlink and some other antennas on that and most likely move my lowband to a ball mount. What reason. Beacuse I can. . But in reality they are for my job. In my volunteer life we run multiple radios for SAR (VHF, UHF, 700/800) and can have up to 4 radios in an officers vehicle. Most just run a VHF and UHF. Public safety is all over on the east coast so not one radio will do all. Even our multibands are nice but if dispatch is calling me on UHF trunking I can't hear a user on VHF calling command. So multiband only gives us the ability to have more options. Doesn't fix the need of a tool for each job.

If I get up at 3 am it’s to use the WC.

That is the sound of telemetry data, while listening to it with an analog receiver. Its very common to hear on FRS/GMRS channels in rural areas where farming is mostly still family run and they don't have big budgets for automated monitoring and control systems.

IDK, I have a few "POS Pandaland" antennas, and they seem ok... (at least for my purposes). At 460Mhz a 1/4 wave whip on an NMO mount is electrically very simple (no loading coils, etc.). It's not that the SWR doesn't change from the resonate apex of the tuned bell curve, it is a matter of how much it changes and if that change falls outside of a safe operating range or results in a humanly noticeable performance degradation. I'm no metallurgist, and perhaps there is much I don't understand on this topic, but at the relatively low <=50-watt power level used in GMRS, it would seem that a minor materials differences between a Pandaland vs other name brand whip antenna would have a negligible impact and be functionally imperceptible in most real-world scenarios. Anyway, that has been my experience. All I'm saying is that sometimes it is ok to give a Panda a chance!!

That’s great. And when I spoke about participating I certainly didn’t mean contests and things like that, but rather engaging with leadership of the ARRL at the local level and higher to help them know how best to serve us. Contests might be a lot of fun (I haven’t participated in contests either) also but I consider the work they do to inform us of legislation and intercede with our government representatives to be their most important work.

Yeah, same with the bug zapper. They end up in the collection tray on the bottom sooner or later, but they seem they just can't help themselves. After a while of spending money on CCR's many people end up buying a much higher price radio. I like to tell people looking at the CCR's, cheap Chinese radios, you get what you pay for, and often not even that.

Agreed. I have mine set to monitor one channel only, the one I'll transmit on. It's convenient to have the other three available with the touch of a button, but monitoring four channels, and being forced to switch to transmit on the last active channel, is not appealing.

I remember doing some radio testing on 800 Mhz in the very early 80s. I was driving up S.R. 99 in Fresno and this Cadillac with Texas plates kept hitting the brakes in front of me. Then I realized that he was doing this everytime I keyed the 800 Meg radio. I drove up along side thinking he may be a tad impaired and I noticed that he had a box on top of the dashboard and a light would light up when I keyed the radio. The box was a Fuzzbuster (radar detector) and obviously he thought he was being targeted for speeding. So, I told my partner in crime let's have some fun. With the freeway speeds being 55 MPH in those days, we let him get up to about 80 and we keyed the mic and he slowed down to 55 MPH and we kept it keyed for several miles. I bet he was getting impatient going 55 MPH. We pulled off the freeway because we needed to get some gas and that was enough fun for the day. It's a true story, I know because I was there causing all this fun. No, the caddy did not have any bull horns on the front of his car.

I’m an ARRL member because I want to support the one main U.S. based group that represents us hams. They are not perfect but I think having them is better than having no organization. But the only way for a group like this to succeed is for its members to participate vigorously, informing the organization how to best serve the members. Not enough people do that and to its detriment the league sometimes fails to listen.

Good one.

WSJV 482 here! Made my first contact today in Waynesville, NC! Didn't get his callsign but at least I finally hit a repeater!!

Don't give up, maybe he'll get you next time.

When I get back home in about a week, I'll sweep a Midland MXTA 51 and TE Connectivity/Laird/Antenex/Antenna Specialist A450 antennae and see how they perform. I don't own nor will I ever buy any non-professional quality two-way radio product so I won't be comparing a Tram 1126 B antenna.

220 MHz activity in OK?! Interesting! Simplex in addition to repeaters?

As a side note some people have commented the CA-2x4SR will match well on the Ham 1.25M band. I just ran an SWR sweep to see for myself. Added the graph results to what I had posted before. The results for 2M/MURS/Ham 1.25M/Ham 70cm/GMRS is here. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/615-ca-2x4srjpg/?context=new I have to try this out, the 1.25M band sweep, on the nearly identical Diamond NR240CA antenna. I already have it for 2M/MURS/Ham 70cm/GMRS. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/613-nr240ca-roof-rack-mount-swr-and-photojpg/?context=new

Yes, on my Pofung P15-UV, a direct clone of the Radioddity GM-30 (and Baofeng UV-15Pro) and locked to GMRS, Menu 41 is the SYNC function and works like you describe. On my Baofeng UV-13Pro, the Ham Radio that also transmits on GMRS out of the box, it is Menu 42 and works like you describe. Note: my Pofung has firmware V06.03.006 My UV-13Pro V06.01.014

Nope, if you didn't get his callsign, first name and QTH (current location), it doesn't count. Keep trying. just kidding - making contact is fun when you're just getting started...I'm not sure what would get me excited anymore.

Thanks, @SteveShannon!! I appreciate all your help!!

Easy way to test is stick a thick sheet of plastic under the antenna magnetic base while the vehicle is stationary. If the match still looks OK then the glue won't make much of a difference.

Sounds like you are trying to connect to AOL by phone.

The BTech UV-5x3 is a tri-band Ham Radio that also supports the 220 MHz band and has some nice programming features over my older Baofeng UV-5Rx3. I do not know if the 5x3 supports transmission on GMRS.

Modern epoxies have a tensile strength of 3000+ psi. Just glue it down, if you don't mind it staying there forever.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CDKMWYGR?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_14 Note display. Set menu item #41 to SYNC = ON.

Done that too. Although, we didn't have enough power to turn on the street lights when we keyed, it definitely caused the picture on TV Channel 2 to wiggle a lot.

It really amazes me that "Some People" get the same VSWRs on a cheap POS Pandaland antenna with a spread difference of almost 20 megs. Really? Wow, that is amazing that any antenna can do that.

@nokones that is hilarious. I would have done the same thing and messed with the guy. That is better than my friend driving through neighborhoods and scrambling everyone's TV's with his CB and linear amp when we were in high school. Since statute of limitations has passed. While at Ft Devens, we would have to test the airborne electronic warfare equipment and we would occasionally have some fun messing with the locals.

Gotcha. Then yeah, supporting them just provides some money to help protect amateur radio frequencies, educational and outreach programs, and other stuff. I haven't joined but I'm thinking about it.

Thank you for the reply. To clarify, The question is not about 'Why ham' and more about joining the ARRL. I enjoy this hobby as well as GMRS (I'm bought in for both in more ways than one). Thank you for your perspective. I 100% agree and feel the exact same way: "I'm getting into it because I think the antenna theory stuff is neat and POTA sounds like fun. It's more of a hobby thing than the stash of GMRS radios I use to actually talk to people in my group."

I think you already answered your own question. The only benefit of getting one more HT is the water resistance. Yet you listed several new things that you can do with a mobile radio.

Basically. Unlocks the radio to transmit wherever it's capable (ham, GMRS, and other places it probably shouldn't ever transmit). Similar to unlocking through software.

I actually have never attempted a hardware mod to any of my legacy Ham radios (pre-CCR), primarily because I am not involved with MARS/CAPS. I did not get involved with GMRS until I discovered that the UV-5R that I purchased from Amazon would communicate with my grandson's Motorola FRS radios. That being said, I note that Ham Radio Outlet and DX Engineering often sell a "MARS/CAPS" modification to many of their amateur radios being sold by them, that are capable of such modification. Given warranty issues on new purchases, I would suggest that is the way to go when purchasing a new radio.

I thought I would try to give an explanation about repeater codes since it has been a topic lately on the air. I think it is much easier to grasp if you look at it from the point of view of LISTENING. Codes are a way for a radio to IGNORE or REJECT signals that the listening operator DOES NOT want to hear. Any radio with a code set on its RECEIVE frequency will only open the squelch to let the properly coded signal audio “break” through. The code is a key to the lock. The assigned code must be present in the signal from the TRANSMITTING radio to open that lock and for the receiver to hear. Our community repeaters are programmed with that RECEIVE code set and expected so they only engage properly coded transmissions. They reject every other stray transmission that might be occurring on that receive frequency, (467 mHz). We have to put that code in our TRANSMITTING frequency when we program so the repeater will respond to our transmission. When the repeater “hears” you because the code indeed matches, electrical circuit magic instantaneously happens, and the repeater simultaneously re-transmits your message on the designated output channel (462 mHz). But, people listening for your radio signal from the repeater usually are only interested in that particular repeater’s transmissions, not the other noise happening in the background. So, for your benefit, repeaters are usually set with their own TRANSMIT code. If your radio has that matching code set for your RECEIVE frequency requirement, you, too, will only hear that repeater’s properly coded transmission. Your lock has been opened. But if you don’t set a receive code, ALL POSSIBLE signals on that channel will be heard by you, including the repeater signal you want. This code setting also provides a low level of protection against unauthorized people using the repeater or talking to you on your receive frequency, since a person must know the code being used to unlock either radio. Since there are only 8 repeater pair channels, there is a high level of duplication of the frequencies across the region. If they are close together geographically, these codes help keep the overlapping chatter separate, but it’s not perfect. Closing notes: 1) There are a couple hundred possible alpha numeric codes available consisting of two different types: CTCSS and DCS. 2) Not all manufacturers make available all the same codes. 3) It is possible to have any radio “fooled” into “hearing” a non-coded signal if a coded signal comes in at the same time, opening the squelch. 4) Your own radio is not required to have a receive code set, if you want to hear everything possible on the channel. I have done that with our own Gallatin and Grassland repeaters at times. I listen to two repeaters at once, no code. 5) It is possible, but uncommon, for a repeater to have one alpha numeric code for RECEIVE and use a different one for TRANSMIT, so you need to double check on the repeater listings for what is being used. 6) Remember when using the term TRANSMIT and RECEIVE, make sure you understand which radio in the conversation is being referenced. 7) Our community repeaters are “duplex” requiring the use of two frequencies. They listen on one and simultaneously and instantly retransmit our signals on the other. Our radio’s frequencies are “flipped” to do the same. The repeater receive (our transmit) is 5 mHz higher, with the decimal being the same. A radio hiccup (feature?): I noticed when I am scanning, my radio will rest silently on the Gallatin repeater when someone is transmitting on Grasslands, and vice versa, even with my codes set. So, the radio does “know” there is a transmission occurring, but it won’t let the audio come through the squelch without the right code. In my inexperience, it took me a minute to figure out what was going on! That’s why you may still see a receive light on a channel that has a silent radio. I've talked enough! Steve WSGH297

My RT97L has been working great for my ranch & firearms range since I upgraded to the better cable.

Almost never.

This! Testing the SWR of a handheld radio antenna is either very tricky or useless, depending upon whom you listen to. Performance is what matters.

This is a very useful calculator. You can try different types of coax along with different antennas. One thing to remember is that antenna manufacturers list gain in dBi while that calculator uses dBd. Subtract 2.15 from the dBi to get dBd. RG8 will have 67% loss per 100 feet and LMR400 has 48% loss per 100 feet. I know LMR 400 and equivalent coax is more expensive but it is worth the extra cost over RG8 for UHF/GMRS use.

And humble, too!

I know.

Bigger and higher/above any (metal) obstructions will always be optimal... But unless you are trying to bounce your signal off the moon - ie; you are just talking with your friends on the road and/or using repeaters within 5, 10, 20 miles or so, I would question whether swapping out the antenna and having to fold it up/down all the time would be worth the money or the hassle. TL;dr: If you are some kind of radio dork that obsessively requires every tiny maximum bit of performance, whether or not you'll ever notice, and at any expense, then get the bigger antenna. If however you are a normal person that just needs to talk with your group while traveling, then your Ghost antenna is just fine.

No malls anywhere near me, but there is a Dollar General within range. They don't use radios, though; they just yell across the store.