nokones

The VSWR check will tell you if your cable and connectors are not shorted out and that your antenna is performing insofar as tuned for the GMRS frequencies. It is a way to determine there is not a problem with your cable and connectors. Maybe there is a GMRS enthusiast/friend near you that is willing to check that for you. Where do you live?

Not all repeaters have a hangtime. Do you hear any hangtime kerchunks from other users? Are you sure that you are on a Repeater Channel that transmit 467.600 MHz?

The Phantom antennae are not bad antennae. If if is the Midland Phantom it will be tuned for the GMRS freqs however, you should have a ground plane under the antenna if you intend to get some farz out of that antenna. As for being in a group of Jeeps it should work fine but do check your VSWRs to make sure everything is up to snuff.

The Shaw Butte Repeater is back on the air with both the same local and link tone inputs, at least for now. It does appear that the Links have been deactivated because in the Link mode the Towers 600 repeater just stays idle unless that repeater is not on-line. I'm too far away for Pinal to check to see if the Link is activated. Hopefully, the repeater owner for the Towers 600 repeater will get that repeater back on-line so we have coverage on the off-road trails in that area.

I think my body and paint would be protected from Tire Donuts. Steve: I know of a cheap Jeep, a 96 TJ, with stuff on it, for sale around the corner from me for $9,000 OBO, just in case that you might want better body and paint protection.

Most States require both parties involved in traffic collisions to file a Financial Responsibility Statement, usually with the Motor Vehicle Division regardless if there was a Police Report taken or not. It protects the not-at-fault driver in case the situation goes sideways when the damage to a vehicle is more than the required limit. If the responsible party does not follow through with their financial responsibility, the State will step in and take action on the responsible party and if necessary suspend the responsible party's driver's license until that Financial Responsibility is met pursuant to their motor vehicle statutes. It essentially notifies the State who was involved, the insurance companies involved, etc. It usually is a one page form you complete and either take it to the Motor Vehicle Department or mail it in. Some states allow on-line filing.

Insurance companies will total a vehicle in a heartbeat so they can minimize their financial loss by taking possession of the vehicle and wholesale it off to recoup some of their loss. Don't give in to the other insurance company's tactics. Stand your ground and force them to repair it. The value difference between the cost of the repair and the value of the vehicle shouldn't be the decision factor, especially by the other driver's insurance company, rather if repairs are made or not as long that the vehicle's safe integrity is not compromised. That should be your decision. You are the party there-of that has the loss. The worse case scenario may be that the other insurance company low-balls you and you get a check and you pay the difference on the cost of the repair. If the other company does not agree to your wish to have it repaired, you could go ahead and have it repaired and take the other driver to court for those repairs since his company did not pay for the repair. Ultimately, the other driver is financially responsible and liable for those repairs not the insurance company. Also, you should file a Financial Responsibility Statement with the State. Depending on the State and if there is a road rage statute and how it is worded, and the totality of the facts, his actions could be considered an act of an Assault with a Deadly Weapon at a minimum.

The problem child was creating havoc on both Towers repeaters and Shaw Butte. It is believed that he may be causing problems on other repeaters in the area. So far my repeater hasn't been affected, yet. I hear the Station IDs being transmitted but no repeat traffic on Towers 600 and Shaw Butte. I believe the respective repeater owners have shutdown the receivers. I do hear simplex traffic and I have heard the problem child on 575 simplex stirring up the havoc with a few people. It appears that Saturday and Sunday mornings appear to be the best days for his doings. The Towers 575 owner has given permission to a few people and I hear them occasionally. I recently have been granted permission but the tone information he sent me was either a typo/transposed so I am unable to get into the repeater and I am waiting for clarification from him on the tone.

They know exactly who it is that's causing the problem. He even gives his call sign during those episodes. I have heard some traffic on Shaw Butte and I go I try to use the site with the previous tones but no luck. I finally got approval for Towers 575 but the tone I was told to use by the owner either does not exist or was a typo/transposed. So, bavk to square one.

Maybe Motorola should have thought of a better name for CTCSS/DCS instead of Private Line/ Digital Private Line so the term would not be misconstrued as being Private. I think General Electric (GE) had a better idea in using Channel Guard (CG) for naming their CTCSS/Private as a name that can't be misconstrued as being private. I don't recall what name RCA used for CTCSS/DCS.

Some repeater owners are now requiring a specific or individual PT-T ID either DTMF or MDC1200 for authorized repeater access.

Accordingly to my recently calibrated Bird 43 and my new 200-500 MHz 100W 100D slug because the old slug did not pass muster on the calibration, my Vertex Standard EVX-R70 40 watt rated repeater is putting out 42 watts into the EMR Corp Duplexer and spitting out a tad shy of 31 watts from the duplexer into a Laird FG4605 omni 5 dB antenna with the tip at approx 30 feet.

You probably would have better luck with smoke signals providing it's not windy or use a carrier pigeon. During a castistrophic event such as grid down situation there are going to be a gazillion people trying to do the same thing at the sametime. It will be radio chaos and with 15 miles of distance between those two points, you might as well double that gazillion factor of radio users.

The Towers 600 repeater owner has changed the PL encode and restricted the use as the repeater owner of the Towers 575 and Shaw Butte repeaters has done. It is unknown when the two repeater owners will allow open use of their respective repeater for the General user.

Towers 600 is not in Maricopa County. The site is in Yavapai County near Crown King.

Yah, kinda looks like he was slurring his words.

Also, some, not many run both a CB and GMRS. The GMRS channel will vary depending on the group/club. When I am alone, I scan all them without any tone. As for the CB, I'll monitor Ch. 16 AM. The other days on my run to Crown King I actually heard some off-roading radio traffic on CB Ch. 16. There were a few Side-X-Sides on the road and I did notice a CB antenna and an UHF antenna on one of them.

And speak/type in English. Never heard of a UV5R being built and/or sold by Mororola and with 20 decibels of what?

I have a bunch of radios so I don't have to take a radio that is mounted in a car for a base unit. Although, I do have some radios that I use for temporary mobile units with my Car and Jeep Club's for my radioless friends so they can have radio comm on the driving tours or Jeep Trail runs. My Pickup and Jeep have permanent mounts and I use a Jerk & Run setup for one of my cars that accommodate an installation Here are my two permanent base radio setups and a couple of mobile temp. Jerk & Run Setups.

Patience people. Some respond right away, some will after they attend to work and/or family matters first, and some won't respond at all especially if they have posted the tone information. Just use it until they say otherwise.

Even if you can pronounce it, still don't buy the .99 connector.

The Antenna Farm sells the element separately. I've bought several rods for Laird base load antennae.

Don't worry, I won't. By any chance, is the Taco Villa still there across the Street? Just curious.

Business Radio Service (Part 90.35) application is only $205 if you apply for itinerant VHF and/or UHF freqs to avoid the cost of frequency coordination, and these freqs can be Nationwide on one license.

No, haven't. I don't do apps. Apps are for the generation that are too lazy and refuse to contribute to society and buy cheap Chinese crap with those Apps. And someday, I may meet Randy in passing on the trail.