nokones

What are the VSWRs? My attic antenna is working great under a metal roof tiles. Your need to make sure you're using a non-ground plane and definitely check the VSWRs

The factory Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Rear Window Tint is not a tinting film material. It is actually a dark window known as Privacy Glass. I don't know how the glass manufacturer tints the glass.

Larsen has instructions on how to place the antenna mounting halves on the glass with the defroster elements. Don't let the defroster sway your decision on using their antenna. I've been using one on my 23 Wrangler Rubicon with great success. If my factory window tint had metal in the tint, I'm sure it would do a great job of reflecting power back to the radio and result in the appropriate poor VSWRs. My VSWR on 462 Megs is 1.2:1 and on 467 Megs 1.6:1. I doubt that I have any metal in my tint.

Try "Ohio Solo Tech" for the Kenwood programs to download. The cost is very reasonable, about $25, for the KPG-49D and yes that is the program for the TK-880 series.

I don't think the RSS based programs were ever downloadable from Motorola. Only some of the early/vintage CPS based programs were downloadable up until last fall. Motorola only has the current CPS available for downloads.

Typical characteristics of one cheap chinese junk POS radio desensing another cheap Chinese junk POS radio in close proximity. Real radios in most cases may be a little statically depending on the signal-to-noise-ratio, but at least you would be able monitor the traffic.

Apparently, that is how they do it in Maine. I don't think cell phones is a very expedient method of getting any notifications out to the people during certain situations if that time comes and definitely defeats the purpose when people store their radio equipment in boxes and place them in storage. It appears to me that community is not prepared to deal with any situation if it should arise or could care less if it does.

You must be referring to the AZ GMRS Repeater Club Traffic & Weather reports conducted on 550 Alpha from the White Tanks Repeater. I am one of those Net Operators and when I do do the reports, I usually do the reports in the morning. I am also a member of the AZ GMRS Emergency Services Group and the RDF Team, and one of the Club's Ambassadors.

Or for group recreational activities such as Jeeping out on the trails. I don't normally see Jeep Creeps using HAM radio while on the trail. 99.98% of the trail comms are normally simplex. Although, occasionally, I will hear some CB traffic on Ch. 16 AM during a Blue moon situation way out in the boonies on the trail.

These are great quality units. They're the same as the Vertex Standard EVX-R70.

It was my understanding that most of the microphones that echoed were modified from using a old Vibrasonic (Reverb) that was used back in the 60s connected to your car radio speaker system to listen to Wolfman Jack on XERB while causing the Boulevard.

Ok, stay vigilant and be safe.

Here are some of the Laird antennae I have available and use. From left to right, I use the Laird 1/4 wave unity gain with my Kenwood TK880-1 on my Porsche up in the hills and mountains during the Porsche Driving Tour runs with great success; the middle antenna is the B4502N non-ground plane 2.4 dB 1/2 wave I use with my Motorola XTL5000 on my 21 Silverado Dually Diesel; and the right antenna is my Laird B4505NS non-ground plane 5/8 wave 5 dB antenna that I never had to use so far. Based on the information posted, you should be ok with the quarter wave unity gain antenna. Try that one first and if you feel you need a little more antenna than the 1/2 wave B4502N that is propery tuned would be the next antenna to try. The 1/4 wave unity gain does not require any tuning.

This is the type of cable staples I use in a pneumatic stapler.

Did you have to evacuate your turtles, Jeeps, and radios since you're north of the Foothill Freeway?

Out of a gazillion mobile and portables radios I own, only one of my radios has the Roger Beep feature and that is my Midland MXT500 which the feature is not enabled. This radio is one of my loaner radios for my fellow radioless Jeep Creeps so they have trail comm on the runs. As for the my position on the Roger Beep, I don't care if someone use it or not, it's just another radio thing, like squelch tail, repeater kerchunk, MDC squawk, old LAPD Saber PT-T ID chirp, voting comparator control circuit status tone blurps, or plain ol' RF Static. Radios and radio systems are prone to emit noises. It's the nature of the beast, it is just part of it.

And there were the power mics with the echo. The echoing mics were kinda cool but I never had one.

As I said in my above post about losing my Firestik II on a Jeep run, I received my replacement Firestik II 5 Foot antenna a couple days ago and the early morning temps today were in the 80s so I made time to tune the new antenna. My spare antenna was only a 2 Foot Firestik II antenna. I was able to tune the new 5 foot antenna to 1.0:1 across the board. The meter needle did moved off of "0" but barely and it was not even close to "1.1:1. I have never seen a tune almost perfect like this before. Just for giggles, I rechecked the 2 Ft. Antenna and I was 1.2:1 to 1.3:1 across the board. On my next Jeep Trail Run, I'll use the 2 footer antenna on the trails and just use the 5 Foot antenna for highway use only.

I believe a 10 watt difference in power is less than a decibel. That is miniscule and not even measureable in the Farz. If you can't reach the repeater with 40 watts more than likely you will not even reach it with 50 watts.

It is my understanding most of them are serviceable. When the inserts start to burn out, you will see a reduction in your Farz. You can stay on top of this by periodically by checking your coverage footprint. I don't know if the VSWRs would get worst or not because it is mostly a desense issue rather than RF being reflected back.

My EMR Corp Duplexer mounted to a backboard. The cables were custom made by me. If you're going to use a cheap Chinese duplexer I would be more concern about burning out the plastic inserts at each connection port rather than the mounting orientation. The cheap Chinese duplexers have a habit of burning out the plastic inserts in the ports from RF.

I need take a look at the rule again, maybe it is time to start buying operational fixed station equipment and/ are microwave for linking

The once was Laird LMR antennae are marketed by T E Connectivity and have been for about a year or two now.

"Some People" I know, and I am one of them, choose not to be a HAM for various reason and spending the money on HAM gear isn't the reason at all for me. You can say that it's not the fact of the hoops that you have to jump through to get your license, it's some of the people that are involved in the hobby. I haven't seen that in the GMRS community.

All seven 462 Interstitial channels and the eight main 462 channels are very busy with simplex traffic throughout the West Valley of the Phoenix Region. The 550, 575, 600, 700, and 725 channels have moderate use with repeater traffic and will provide very good coverage throughout most of the Phoenix Region and are high level elevation repeaters. The 625, 650, and 675 channels is mostly light to light moderate repeater use and are mostly low level elevation repeaters. A couple of GMRS channels are used for a lot of off-road activities by numerous off-road groups throughout the entire State. GMRS Channels 16 and 18 are the most used channels along with some trail comm use on FRS/GMRS Channels 5 & 6. I have heard some CB radio traffic, not much, I assume are trail comms because I hear them occasionally off the beaten path way out in the boonies. The CB traffic I've been hearing is AM traffic. I don't know if there is any FM traffic because I haven't been monitoring FM while on the trail.