nokones

The MXTA26 is an excellent performing antenna for GMRS. Do you intend to purchase a NMO mount and cable from Midland or another brand like Laird from a supplier like Arcadian Antenna? Midland has both a standard NMO mount and cable and a NMO lip-mount and cable. Either one will get the job done. I believe for simplicity and convenience Midland installs the PL259 connector on the cable which is approximately 17 feet in length? In that case, you will have to whack off the connector and reinstall a new connector. Don't go cheap with a POS Chinese connector from Amazon. If you want it to work properly, buy a quality connector, like Amphenol, from a supplier like DX Engineering. It would be easier to just tuck the excess cable under the carpet/mat or into an interior trim panel than whack off the connector if you are not comfortable with crimping/soldering on a new connector. You mentioned that your fenders mount antenna will stick about 6 inches above the roofline. What make and model Truck do you have?

I think Randy gets his info from Zenu (sp) so you know that it has to be accurate.

This is my permanent antenna installation. It actually works very well.

This actually worked better than I thought it would. It was just a temporary thing while my glass-mount antenna was on order. My body panels are composite.

DCS/DPL "411" is a standard DPL code and used a lot throughout the radio land.

No problem, it's your faith and you can have all the faith you want or not want in this matter. It's a freedom of choice.

That means there is about a .0000002% chance that it could affect a repeater.

Back in the day (many decades ago) with the use of Single (Burst) Tones (there were five tones to select from 1800-2552 Hz), I use to tone out Mary Had A Little Lamp on the air.

Let me check my notes for the specific dates and times and of course the exact details and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can.

I don't believe they are saying that you have to join to use the "free airwaves". They're just saying that you can't use/activate their private property, the repeater station equipment, with the "free airwaves" unless you are a Club Member, which is their right. You can use the "free airwaves" to your heart content providing that you do it in compliance with Part 95, subparts A and E.

It is my understanding that the "Roger Beep" tone(s) will and have interfered with the control of some Linked Repeater Links.

The Midland MXT500 mic jack is an 8-pin jack port. Do you know if all 8 pins are used? The pin-out information should tell you that. If so, you will need to find a Desk Mic with 8 wirings and the diagram/pin-outs for the Desk Mic in order to match the pin-outs for the MXT500 mic-jack. Are you able to obtain that information? One thought is cannibalize a donor MXT 500 mic for the Midland mic connector and mate the wirings to the recipient Desk Mic. wirings. The desk microphone impedance will need to match the radio microphone impedance. If you can obtain all the information and the required components, I can do the soldering for you. I have a MXT500 that I can test it out for you after the soldering. I won't charge you for the work but you will need to cover the shipping cost both ways and include the prepaid shipping label when you send me the components. There used to be several radio accessory shops that would do custom twoway radio audio work with audio accessories such as Setcom, PVP Communications, Klein Electronics, and Planet Headset. Some have stopped doing custom work and they just focus on production work only now. You might want to contact the aforementioned and see if they would be willing to do custom work for you.

Can't go wrong with the brands used by Public Safety agencies if you want reliability, longevity, performance, and cost-effectiveness over a long period of time. If you buy cheap, you get cheap. You don't see Public Safety agencies using some of the cheap antennae previously mentioned.

Dual band HAM antennae are essentially compromised and not efficient for GMRS freqs. You need to determine what is your target freq for efficiency and get the antenna that resonates the best on that freq and take the hits on the other freqs.

You should put a quality antenna analyzer on your J Pole without the cable and sweep it and see what the antenna resonates at. Then try with the cable attached and sweep it. Then put the MXTA 26 at the end of the coax in place of the J Pole and sweep it. The results should indicate where your problem maybe located. If you need to replace the cable "Do Not Buy Cheap Cable" from Amazon.

Then more than likely you will need Intrinsically Safe certified radios, the one with the Green Dot. An used Mototola or Kenwood Intrinsically Safe radio would more than meet your needs for just a few hundred dollars and will last you many years. As for applying for a frequency, it appears you will need to apply for an Industrial/Business Pool IP frequency and coordinate your application with a Petroleum Frequency Coordinator. I think you would be better off to consider the VHF Highband for your operation. As mentioned in the above response, an itinerant frequency for the reasons stated would be easier to apply for and won't require any frequency coordination or other application approvals. However, I believe all the itinerant freqs can only be licensed as a mobile (MOI) with only 5-6 watts of RF power. I'm not sure if a base station, even a Temp Base (FBT), operation would be approved with an itinerant freq. You may have to have that operation approved by a Frequency Coordinator.

You may need to check the plastic inserts in each antenna/cavity port. I believe the XLT Duplexer is one of those cheap duplexers that are susceptible to the insert being burned out easily by RF.

I doubt that Ohio has any desert area or that type of terrain.

You should look at to see if the Parma and North Ridgeville repeaters can meet your needs.

Forestry Work = Meaning what exactly? Planting trees, fighting fires, or clearing out dead tree branches or thining the forest? Depending on what your intention is on how you plan to use your radio will dictate the frequencies you can legally use during your forestry operation. As I suspect, you are most likely a private entity and not a government agency, you may have to acquire a license for use in the Industrial/Business Radio Pool (Part 90) and depending on your activity that will also dictate which radio service frequency you can be licensed on within that Pool. You should familiarize yourself with Part 95.35. More than likely, you may not be eligible to use GMRS or any freqs in the Personal Radio Service (Part 95) based on your intended use Public Safety Grade radios would be the Motorola APX series mobiles and portable for the current generation and the Astro 25 Digital Series such as the XTL/XTS series mobiles and portables for the previous generation of radios. The cost of the APX series is thousands of dollars for new radios and the used radio market is somewhat limited in inventory but less thousands of dollars. The Astro 25 Digital XTL/XTS series used radio market is plentiful as most of the public safety agencies along with the federal agencies are changing out these radios for the APX series radios. The cost of these radios are very reasonable and these radios should give you plenty of years if not a decade or two of good service use. You can buy portables for around $200-400 and mobiles for about $400-600 depending on the features and flash codes. Don't get hung up on if you need the Trunking features although most of the used market radios are flashed for Trunking and Digital operation. If your communication needs are just analog conventional than you'll should find these radios are almost a dime a dozen.

You need to submit your request to the repeater owner through mygmrs.com by clicking on the details button for that repeater on the map. The Tones for Pinal did not change. SWCRS activated the PT-T ID feature and issued every member their personal PT-T ID number in order to access the repeater. Your radio has to have the ability to send the ID using MDC1200 system feature for it to work.

Were you westbound heading home when you were on top of Chiriaco? Maybe eastbound on top of Chiriaco would have worked better with the antenna facing towards the repeater.

As I was referring to the "R" and "Q" model radio, those radios are Motorola radios. The Kenwood TK880 model (25 watt) band splits are: the TK880-1 is 450-490 MHz; TK880-2 is 485-512 MHz; TK880-3 is 400-430 MHz and the TK880H is the 40 watt radio with the same respective band splits. As Lscott said, you may be able to push the 70cm freq programming in the Kenwood. Since, I am not an Amateur, as in HAM radio operator, I never had a need to try that with my Kenwood.

I've heard that people in some areas in the East Valley are fortunate to hear both the 650 and 725 repeaters along with Pinal. We're not that fortunate here in the West Valley for the Two Tucson and Pinal repeaters. Since, the Pinal Repeater requires PT-T ID to access the repeater do you hear the ID squawking? I haven't been within range of Pinal since the change. I'm just curious if you can hear the squawking on keyup?

With my K40 on my Pickup I think I am seeing between 3.4 and 3.7 with my Cobra 29 LTD Nightwatch depending on the selected channel, and my Firestik II antenna on my Jeep with my Cobra 19 DX III is seeing about 2.8 to 3.1 depending on the selected channel. The power levels were checked with the engine running. I'm still waiting to come across someone with a FM CB Radio so I can see how FM 29 LTD performs.