nokones

Sounds like the Midland MXT26 is a better performing antenna than that other antenna.

And the only forum with a genuine GMRS Queen that will be straight with the facts and no smelly brown stuff.

There some Commercial radio shops that rent various equipment such as portable repeaters but not GMRS repeaters. Although, you could rent a commercial UHF repeater package and have a GMRS channel pair programmed and the duplexer tuned accordingly.

The radio clubs I am a member of are 503 C something Non-Profit Orgs and cannot make a profit.

Hmm, did the "Sad HAM" shoes fit?

And that is another reason why Clubs have membership dues to cover those expenses for having a repeater at a remote site and pay the American Towers of the world for the space and services for housing the repeater at their sites. A couple of my GMRS Club's have repeaters at commercial remote sites and have to pay monthly lease payments for the space and services.

I believe most people that comment on HAM are fully aware of the subject hobby. The commenter's are not ignorant. "Some People" that are HAMs are the cause to why various comments are made about "some" HAM hobbyist but not all HAM hobbyists. Just the other day, I observed the rudeness and the responses of a few HAMs that responded to a question asked by a new person trying to learn radio and they were not willing to help this new person. The new person was asking for help regarding the power connection and wirings of a vintage discontinued mobile radio. They could have easily help but they choose to be rude and not willing to help. Maybe these HAMs were just being lazy, or want to be rude which may be their normal demeanor, or maybe they are ignorant on the subject. This is an example of what "Sad Hams" are. Their comments/responses were not appropriate and I'm sure not appreciated by this new person. If they were ignorant then they should not have responded in the manor they did or not respond at all. No, they choose to take the "Sad HAM" approach. Again, not all HAM hobbyist have this poor attitude but if the shoes fit, wear them with your "Sad HAM" pride.

If the Club doesn't own the repeater how would that be the case then? The member is paying Club dues to off-set the Club's monthly operating expenses and if that was not the case then the Club would cease to operate because the lack of revenue to fund the monthly operating expenses.

That sounds like the Texas GMRS Club.

By rule, a repeater owner may share the use of his/her repeater station and permits the owner total control of who is allowed to use the repearer. The GMRS Repeater Clubs I belong to regulates only Club members can have the tone information for accessing the repeater(s) that are owned by individual Club members. The Clubs do not charge a fee for access to the repeater station. They only charge a membership fee to be a member in the Club. The repeaters are actually owned by an individual GMRS licensee and not the Club itself. The Repeater Station ID reflects who is the individual owner of that Station. I believe the Clubs I am a member of are following the rule.

These says, the only place you'll find a CB Repair Shop is probably at a large Truck Plaza that has full services.

In my 23 Wrangler IZARUBICON 2 Dr. I have a XTL5000 Remote high-powered, of course, I set the max RF output power at 50 watts, for three reasons. 1) to be legal for GMRS; 2) I really don't need the extra power; 3) I don't want to max out the Aux 1 circuit with the XTL5000 at max power draw, a CB Radio, Streamlight Flashlight Charger, and a Dometic Refrigerator. In my racecar, I use a XTS1500 portable radio with a remote PT-T on the steering with the radio connected to a non-ground plane Antenex Phantom antenna mounted to my rollcage in the rear.

I have specific vehicles for off-roading and for staying on the pavement.

Nice collection of Kenwoods. That definitely beats my two TK880-1s.

In a couple of my Jeep groups I found that there is always a know-it-all Sad HAM Einstein with his dual purpose GMRS/HAM Boofwanger radio who refuses to program the designated trail comm channel for narrowband operation so all the Walmart/Amazon bubblepack radio users can understand what he is saying and not miss any syllables. Most of the time, these Sad Ham Einsteins are the Trail Leaders and when they are I have the designated Trail Comm channel programmed in my mobile and portable for wideband operation so I can understand what they are saying.

No, I forgot to count 3 more remote mobiles I have, and I just picked up another one yesterday and it's on its way on the little brown truck and that will make 16 total. Not sure why I bought it other than it's a great little compact radio which I'll end up using it as a loaner for my radioless Jeep and Porsche Club friends on Trail and driving tour runs so they don't have to use their useless CCR radios so they can have radio communicatioms in the group.

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