nokones

I am curious if 5 dB of loss with 9 feet of RG-58/U cable with a "N" Male and SMA-RP Male connectors using 902-928 MHz is significant to sweat about or it is no big deal? Any help would be appreciated.

If it is the Pinal repeater, the repeater owner no longer requires the PT-T ID feature to use Pinal because the problem child stop being a child.

I make it a constant habit to continue checking for shorts along each step of the connector installation before crimping the connector than after crimping I check again. It saves a lot of money and time. If I don't see "0L" on my volt meter than I look for that lowly wire strand.

Bad connector installation on the coax. You are most likely shortening/grounding out the cable with a little itty bitty braided wire strand with the connector.

There are several CCR radios that will voice announce when you either change the channel or turn it on. I think the Retevis radios will announce.

I hear moderate amount traffic on MURS. I am unable to tell if it is Walmart, but there is one nearby where I hear the traffic along with other retailers. The traffic definitely sounds like it is retail related.

There is a guy on You Tube that doesn't have a Rubicon Jeep knows a couple things about radios

You can't program custom channels in that radio with that software. You can only program custom receive-only channels

Don't ground your radio negative power lead directly to the battery. Ground the radio negative power lead to a factory chassis grounding point.

You can't change anything except the Tones, PT-T ID, Display Name, and the wideband/narrowband emissions in RPT-23 channel.

Make sure that your antenna system is grounded to the vehicle ground at the mount and not just through the coax connection. Also, do not ground your radio negative power lead directly to the battery with the later model vehicles that are laden with LED lighting and various control modules connected to a CAN system. Connect your negative power lead to a factory chassis grounding point. There is one in the front passenger kick panel well.

I guess you could call that "wideband noise"

If others are receiving you choppy and/or garbled on wideband emissions and clear not choppy or garbled on narrowband emissions than the other users more than likely are using FRS radio that have to be set for narrowband emissions or their non-FRS radios are programmed for narrowband emission operations, which means you should also have your radio set for narrowband emission operations so they can receive you clearly. And, that will resolve the interference you're receiving when operating with Wideband emissions on the affected channel. Most inexpensive radios will definitely notice the difference in the audio tone quality because those radios do not have the quality filtering components as professional radios possess.

I never mentioned Amazon in any of my postings.

Larsen or T E Connectivity (Laird) and buy them from a reputable professional radio electronics retailer like Talley Communications, Pasternack, Arcadian Antenna, Tessco, or Antenna Farm, and not from a cheap discount big warehouse operation that only specializes in shipping cheap junk sold by resellers that knows nothing about radio electronics.

I just learned that my Dummy Load took a dump and I am wondering if they are repairable and worth repairing? The casing/housing appears to be assembled with two halves and the N Female fitting has 4 screws attaching the fitting to the housing. I didn't realize that the Dummy Load failed on me. At first, I thought that the three radios I was measuring the RF output with the Dummy Load was in a dire need of an alignment and tune since I was measuring only 7 watts of output power. I measured the three radios with three different in-line Watt meters and one of the meters and slugs were calibrated last year by Bird. So, I packed up the three radios and headed to a Motorola Service Shop in Tucson. As I was about to leave, the technician came out to my Jeep and told me the first radio is putting out 50 watts and is on freq. I said no way. He quickly checked the second radio with the same results, and the third radio was transmitting 40 Watt, but was a tad off freq and needed an alignment. I said do it. The first radio was Jeep radio so I put the radio back in my Jeep and remeasured the RF and it was at 48 watts. After the Tech tuned the third radio, I headed home and when I got home, my first task was to recheck the radios again. I checked two of three radios on the bench since they were loose, and they again only put out 7 watts. So, I started replacing cables, cords, adapter connectors, ensured the power supply was putting out 14 volts. I bypassed my Anderson Distribution Block and directly connected the radio and controlhead to the power supply, only 2 watts were drawn from the power supply. So, I tried another power supply and still only two watts being pulled from the second power supply. The only thing that I haven't changed was the Dummy load. My second Dummy load was only an UHF Dummy load and these three radios were VHF mobiles so I couldn't use the UHF Dummy load. However, I have NMO magmounts and a couple VHF mobile antennae so I hooked up the antenna to the radio in place of the dummy load. When I keyed the radio, 48 watts, hot damn. I reconnected the Dummy load, 7 watts, hooked the antenna back up, 48 watts. I decided to get out my ohm meter and check the Dummy load resistance and it measured "OL". Although, I wasted a whole day going to Tucson with two perfectly good working radios, I did get one radio aligned and I did discover that the Dummy load failed and my meters and radios were nof the cause of measuring 7 watts.

In my Motorola XTL5000 UHF mobiles, I have 35 Zones with a combined total of 860 channels programmed with GMRS for coverage in six states, and several business radio service channels. In my Motorola XTL2500 VHF mobiles, I have several business radio service channels in about ten zones in various channel configurations. In my XTS5000 UHF portables, I have 43 Zones with about the same number of channels, not to exceed 16 channels per zone. In my Motorola XTS5000 VHF portables they are essentially programmed the same as my VHF mobiles. Oh, by the way, it appears that these series radios will not allow you to program more than 50 zones. I think it is stupid that radio manufacturers design a 1,000 channel radio without any zone banks. Can you imagine trying to zip through a gazillion channels in one zone. Typical $20 POS CCR, and without PL Defeat/Monitor, Home Channel, Display with more than 6 characters, and Talkaround features.

I was comparing Trail Apples because most of the Jeepers use the little Itty bitty FRS radios and the test was also to prove a point.

I did some comparison testing measuring distances between FRS being operated inside of a vehicle and the CB Radio in both the AM and FM modes. The test was conducted on relatively flat desert terrain essentially nothing but giggley weeds and pucker bushes between the two test points at various distances. The FRS radio was operated on a two-watt channel and the maximum distance was just shy of a half-mile. The CB Radios were using 5-foot Tuneable Firestiks and the maximum distance was 2 1/4 miles in the AM mode and 3 1/2 miles in the FM mode. At the 3 1/2 mile test point and just for giggles, a 60-watt CB amplifier was turned on which barely put out 45 watts, and there was very little difference in the signal and audio qualities in the AM mode. The FM mode was not tested with the amplifier since it was not FM capable. Personally, I think the FM CB Radio could have potential use for Trail Comm.

This chart is inaccurate and is mostly confusing and contrary to the rules in Parts 95.567 and 95.1767 in respect to RF output power levels for both the FRS and GMRS radio services. The rules state that Channels 1-7 are regulated to 2 watts ERP for non-licensed FRS service and 5 watts ERP for licensed GMRS service. The left chart indicates channels 1-7 for both FRS & GMRS are regulated to a .5 watt and that is incorrect. The right chart indicates that Channels 8-14 are regulated to .5 watt ERP for FRS and that is correct, and 5 watts for GMRS and that is incorrect, all transmitter transmitting on these channels are regulated to a .5 watt ERP, regardless of the two radio services. The left chart indicates that channels 15-22 are regulated to 2 watts ERP and that is correct. Both charts indicates that the 462 (462.550, 462.575, 462.600, 462.625, 462.650, 462.675, 462.700, and 462.725) and 467 (467.550, 467.575, 467.600, 467.625, 467.650, 467.675, 467.700, and 467.725) Main Channels are regulated to 50 watts and that is correct, except for the 467 main channels, they are regulated to 15 watts for fixed class station operations. The 50-watt output is not limited to the measurement of antenna ERP for the 462 & 467 main channels. The 50-watt output limit is the measurement of power out of the transmitter before the antenna and there is no limit of the ERP of the antenna.

I believe it was 128 channels on the firmware upgrade date fof the MXT500.

If I recall, last year, I looked this up and the current treaties and agreements no longer list UHF freqs as affected freqs that have Lines A and C restriction between thd two countries. What I don't recall if that affected the T-Band freqs because since that didn't affect me, and we can't use them, I didn't care if it did of not. However, the FCC still put the Lines A and C restrictions on the Part 90 and 95 licenses.

Check the ground. Check the line voltage, and the power draw in amps, when you key the radio. Your radio will probably draw somewhere near 6-8 amps keyed and a little over an amp receiving and about a half of an amp on standby. If the voltage and power level doesn't change when keyed, the radio is not transmitting. If the voltage drops below 12 volts, the cause maybe the power source or connection. The power should never drop below 12 volts at a minimum and is looking for 13.6 volts. Also, check the codeplug and make sure there is something entered in the transmit section and correctly. Do you have in-line RF watt meter connected to verify that the radio is keying or not if the voltage/amp level does not drop. After you check the above mentioned test check points, let us know what you find out.

I meant to say "the only Midland GMRS radio" that can be programmed by both programming methods. Now, that no longer blows that theory to heck and actually it never did.

The cable and driver is only $16. The software is a free download. You should be able to sneak $16 from somewhere or cash in some recyclables, or bum the money from a friend and tell him you'll pay him back in small installment payments. You can make it happen. Maybe a Go Fund Me thing can be setup or mow some yards for the money. There are always ways to make this happen without being dishonest with your wife.