nokones

I have 39 portables (38 UHF and 1 VHF) and 12 mobiles all UHF. I am able to afford my radio hobby along with my car racing and other car (sport cars and Jeep) hobbies because I have a good income for the rest of my life.

The 8180 is the 30 watt version and the 8180H is the 45 watt version as previously mentioned. The 8180 30 watt version does have a low power setting of 1 watt and the low power setting for the 8180H is 10 watts but unfortunately the 10 watts is not legal for GMRS channels 1-7. Get the TK 8180. The difference between the two radios you will never know the difference between 15 watts in performance. It's only about a dB and a half less. In a group of other wheelers on the trail, more than likely the other wheelers are using either CCR POS junk or Walmart special bubblepack radios, in that case the TK 8180 30 watt version will be more than sufficient. Also, you can't go wrong with the cables built by Blue Max 49ers.

My first guess, something may not be properly grounded that may be contributing to the squeal on another device.

I would stay away from and don't spend your money on the CCR POS junk, and take a look at some of the Kenwoods and Motorolas that are offered for sale from several reputable used radio dealers that sell on eBay. There prices are very reasonable and there are various models that should meet your needs and last a long time. Also, I have both a Cobra 25 LTD Classic CB and a Motorola XTL5000 Remote setups in my 23 Wrangler Rubi 2 Dr.

In response to the comment made about losing radio coverage when changing from wideband operation to narrowband operation, I was unable to identify any loss of radio coverage or poor audio quality for the public safety radio system that I was responsible for. Maybe that was because we were using quality radio equipment.

Channel 9 is an interstitial low-powered channel that can't exceed .5 watt ERP. Using a low-powered channel in any rural back country area doesn't make any sense at all. I think that was a poor choice.

For a GMRS and consumer grade radio, I would stay away from the cheap Chinese POS radios and take a look at the Midland GXT 67 Pro or the Rocky Talkie. They may not have any foo-foo bells and whistles that really don't make the radio better but, they are simple to use and of better quality than those radios produced by a non-english speaking government owned corporation in a far-away land. There are videos comparing the two aforementioned radios that are produced by an English speaking non-government owned corporation located on the "Land of the Free".

I like the Bird 43 Inline Watt Meter

There is no such thing as an unladen swallow. They are always loaded and crap all the time all over the place. When they are half empty they load back up because that is what swallows do. This is a normal occurrence every year after March 19, Los Golondrinas day, the return of the swallows day. I know, I grew up in San Juan Capistrano in my younger days. Oh, the Airspeed Velocity of a laden swallow varies between 31-40 MPH

I have the same repeater. Please describe the help you need and I'll try to help you. Depending on what is preventing you from proceeding, if necessary, you can send me your codeplug file and I can set it up and send it back to you for uploading to the repeater. If you need the programming cable, contact Blue Max 49ers. I'm not sure if he has the software. If you have the software, depending on the codeplug firmware and the software versions, you most likely need the Windows 7 or 8 64 bit Operating System and most cases, you have to run the application as the administrator.

Signal Peak provides excellent coverage on the backside of the Four Peaks. I can kick Signal from my driveway here in old people country with my Pickup. I haven't played with it south of Phoenix yet. The owner is the same owner as Towers 575 and Shaw Butte along with Mt Elden, Diamond Point and Greens Peak. The repeater owner knows who the guy is creating the havoc. Not sure what in the future holds for anything to be done. I'm not sure if a complaint has been made or not to the FCC.

Yes, 100.0 Hz (CTCSS not DPL) on the uplink/mobile transmit and 165 DPL for the link mode.

I was just able to key both the local and Link modes a couple minutes ago with my portable radio sitting in my house and I am approx 25 miles from the site. The repeater does not have a tone on the downlink it's CSQ on the mobile receive. I have been hearing the Station Identification recording and yesterday the guy that was creating all the havoc on the Towers 575 was all wound up yesterday morning on Shaw Butte trying tear a new dark hole spot into somebody all morning long. Maybe try giving it a shot with a real radio.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I scan with no tone or code, CSQ on receive but I do have the travel tone set on Tx freqs.

I believe there are two repeaters near Bishop now, a 600 and a 625. If my memory serves me right, the 600 uses the travel tone in/out and the 625 uses 114.8 Hz in with CSQ out.

When I am the only Jeep (usually with a shotgunner) out on an easy Fire Road where it's flat and wide not likely to get into trouble, I do the same, scan all main and interstitial 462 MHz channels with the radio set to Tx on Ch.16 and I have my CB also on Ch. 16. Most of the Jeep Club's I run with use Ch. 16 with a specific DPL code for Trail Comm. However, when I wheel with them I run my radio in the monitor mode for CSQ on the receive side.

Thanks guys.

I didn't realize the bushing was incorrectly installed until I was poking around and checking grounds. The bushing in between the cable grounding point the bracket was an obvious clue.

The problem was the plastic bushing was installed under the mounting bracket instead on top of the mounting bracket and the cable was not grounding to the mounting bracket. The cable mounts to the bottom of the mounting bracket. Now, maybe I didn't need to order that 2-30 MHz Bird slug now, OH well, at least I have one now.

Ah Hah - Just shy of 3 watts with just about 1.12 or so:1 on Ch. 1, 1.15 or so:1 on Ch. 20, and almost but less than 1.2:1 on Ch. 40. I think my problem is solved now and I am a happy Jeeper. Both my Telewave and my DOSY are pretty close and good enough for hobby work. And this check was with the engine idling with 13.21 VDC at the battery.

The 25H Slug ordered from Bird and now onto checking to see if I have any improvement with my VSWR using a cheapo CB VSWR meter that wasn't really all hat cheap. Oh, I just remembered, I have a Telewave 44 I can compare with.

Ah, I found my plastic bushing doo-hickey was reinstalled wrong by the Dealer that installed my Heavy-Duty Mopar Spare Tire carrier Mount for the Rear Tail Gate. I reinstalled it properly and after I get done with my morning Traffic and Weather Reporting Duties for my GMRS Repeater Club, I'll recheck my VSWR. I wish I had a 27 MHz slug for my Bird. Maybe I'll buy one just to compare.

The Tail Gate is grounded and so is the coax run to the mounting area..

My suggestions besides getting a quality duplexer like a Celwave or EMR Corp. duplexer, is scrap the idea of using two mobile radios that were not designed for a continuous duty cycle and a multi-radio environment and get a real repeater and save your money, time, and energy.

Also, check the plastic inserts in the duplexer ports to see if they are burned out. This is a common problem with the cheap duplexers.