Jones

I am currently running a Tram-Browning 1485. 5/8 over 1/2 wavelength with ground-planes. Cheap. Tune-able. DC Grounded element. Fiberglass radome. 5dBD gain. Just under 4 feet tall. Works well. I still prefer quarter-wave antennas for mobile use.

Longer is not better in this case. GMRS is UHF. A quarter wavelength is about 6 inches. The NA-701c is a dual band antenna designed for commercial bands, and GMRS. It will work, but you really do not need a dual-band antenna. The NA-771 is a dual ham band antenna, Being longer, It will do better on VHF 2-meter ham band, but not as good on GMRS, which is out of its operating range. If you want greater range, use an external antenna on your roof, or on the top of your vehicle. For portable operation, you aren't going to get much more range with any rubber-duck antenna - the factory one will do just fine.

You are not off base, you are on home plate. Midland is indeed missing this split tone function, and that is the #1 complaint about them around this site.

You are correct in that the difference between 5 Watts and 8 Watts is nil. Those BTechs can't really do the full 8 Watts anyway. The Kenwoods are much higher quality, and yes, they can be programmed for repeater splits, and all CTCSS and DTS tones that you might ever need.

https://www.polyphaser.com/type-n-surge-protector-1ghz-blocking-cap-gas-tube-is-b50hn-c2 Put it as low and close to the ground as you can get it, or at very least, right outside the coax entrance to your shack, NOT on the antenna itself, and NOT inside the house. I do not know if you can get the coax down to a close-enough-to-the-ground level for this to do much good in your case, unless you live in the basement, or on the first floor. It needs to be grounded to the building's ground system to do it right. Best idea in an old high rise... leave a coax connector inline just outside of a window, where you can reach outside, and disconnect it from the coax going to your radio equipment during a thunderstorm. ...or buy good insurance. The correct way to ground something like this would be to have a copper strap running from the ground, (which would be bonded to the building's electrical system ground) all the way up to the roof,and have all antennas, air conditioners, and anything else electrical up there tied to that main strap. (Your building MAY already have this) Still, that's only good for the DC component of lightning. Lightning has a lot of RF components as well, and let's face it, ANY LONG WIRE tied to ground on one end, is not ground at the opposite end. It is an antenna. The longer the wire, the lower, and more frequencies it will resonate on, and the more damage can occur due to lightning. Also, if you DO have such a ground system on your building, (I'm betting old buildings don't, but if you do...) then ground the base of your antenna to that system strap with a #10 or larger stranded wire. You should also ground your polyphaser to that same strap. Do not loop-through the ground wire from the antenna to the arrester to ground, Run separate wires from each to a common ground point if you can, or better if possible to BOLT the polyphaser directly to the ground strap. If the main ground is on the opposite side of the building, you may be out of luck. Still best idea: during a thunderstorm, unplug the coax, and let it dangle outside the building.

Well, there are a LOT of brands of DMR radios out there that ARE MOTOTRBO compatible, (so i have heard - I personally own none) just be sure to ask a lot of questions before you drop your dollars. I guess this was a good "first stop" for that question process.

Ah, I see. Yes, I use part 90 radios with some GMRS frequencies programmed into them also, but mine are all analog. Although there are different bandwidths, analog is analog. It is fairly cross-compatible between radio brands. Digital, on the other hand, has several different types which are not cross compatible at all. The main types for commercial use are the worldwide DMR standard, and the American P-25 standard. There are also other proprietary types of digital "Non-standards" out there, such as Yaesu/Standard's C4FM Digital. In the amateur radio world, it is just as bad. We have DMR, the proprietary "D-Star" system from Icom, and a modified version of C4FM from Yaesu called "System Fusion". None of these digital format radios can talk to each other unless you switch them all back to analog. In the GMRS world, we are limited by law to analog only.

I don't think it will work, since the EFJ radios are P-25 digital, and the Motos are MOTOTURBO, which is based on the European DMR standard. I do not think P-25 and DMR are compatible formats. ...but anyway, what does this have to do with GMRS???

If you find a repeater listed on this site as an OPEN GMRS repeater, with no tone or DPL listed, there is a good chance that it does not require any tone at all to access, or that it uses the well-known default GRMS tone, or "Traveler's Tone" of 141.3.

PL tones quite often are the same on input and output, but that is NOT ALWAYS the case, and you may need different tones for RX and TX. If you want to listen to all traffic, it is safe to put no tone on RX, and use a TX only tone to access most repeaters. - but then you will hear EVERYTHING on the frequency whether on the repeater or not, even bubble-pack radios.

That is correct for this band. If it only shows 3 digits behind the decimal, and if that third digit is 0 or 5, you may assume that the last digit will be zero. You can also assume that if the third digit is 2 or 7, then the last digit will be five. (ie 462.637 would be 462.6375)

MON or Monitor disables the PL or DPL tone on receive so you hear everything on the frequency. SCAN does just that - scans all programmed channels until it hits something. I'm not sure how the Kenwoods work, but my Midland LMR radios allow me to scan with the MON off, in which case they will only stop on proper PL or DPL deocoded transmissions, or I can scan with the MON function on, which then the scan stops on ANY signal received, regardless of PL/DPL.

I forgot to mention that with a K40 or a Wilson, if you are going to need clearance for a parking situation, either of these can be quickly and easily removed from its base by hand, and tossed into the back seat.

You will get best results with a quarter wave whip (approx 102 inch) mounted on the passenger's side of the car - either the rear fender, or the right-rear part of the bumper. This will give you a slightly directional pattern toward the front left of the car, or "further down the road" as it were. Placing the antenna on the driver's side of the car will put the signal off to the right, which is not the oncoming traffic area. If you want a good omni-directional pattern, but with slightly reduced overall range, use a 5-foot tall base-loaded antenna in the center of the roof. A good choice might be the Wilson 1000RT-B roof mount. Do not go with a magnet mount. If you drive a sedan, you might also consider a K40 Trunk-mount.

I've got several 70-1336b units, and you don't need to do any major mods to them to get them on 2 Meters. You just need to re-tweak the RX and TX VCO trimmers until they go into PLL lock, and they work great. Just program a low frequency into RX and TX on one channel, such as 144.300, then reset the radio. It might RX just fine, and if so, then OK. If it beeps and shows Error 3 on the display, then adjust the RX VCO until it quits beeping. Next, hold down on the transmit button, (make sure to have a dummy load connected). You will get the beeping and Error 3 again. While holding down the transmit button, adjust the TX VCO until it quits beeping, and starts transmitting. Now, go back and program your favorite 2 Meter repeaters and simplex frequencies into the 8 channels. (If you have hacked software, you can actually put up to 24 channels in some of newer models of these radios, and most all of them will hold at least 10 channels.) That is all the mods needed to get a 1336b on 2 Meters.

This un-related page has some photos which may help you. Pin 6 is ground return for external options. you do not need to hook it to anything. http://www.quest4.org/radio/kct-19.htm

KCT-19, Accessory Plug Pinout: Pin 1- External mic hook input or system busy output ** Pin 2- Mic Ground or Speaker audio mute ** Pin 3- Ignition Sense input Pin 4- Receiver Detector output Pin 5- External Mic input or Transmitter Sense out ** Pin 6- Ground Pin 7- Switched battery + (13.6 volts, 0.75A max) Pin 8- External PTT Pin 9- Data Modulation Input Pin 10- Horn alert Pin 11- Squelch Detect output Pin 12- Speaker Audio output Pin 13- Link Complete pulse output or Speaker mute input ** Pin 14- Serial Control data input or Mic Mute input ** Pin 15- Serial Control data output or Data Control channel signal input or Link complete pulse output or Transmitter Sense output or Foot Switch input ** **(all dependent on jumpers or programming) Try hooking +12 Volts to pin 3.

I also like the battery option. I am using a pair of 6-volt Trojan golf cart batteries in series, and float charge them at 12.8 Volts. Yes, it's not 13.8, but 12 Volts is close enough, and that last 1 watt of transmit power that I am losing really does not make any difference whatsoever. At 12.8 Volts, I only need to add water to the batteries once every 60 days or so. If I float them at 13.8 volts, they will boil out in 2 days or less. Those golf cart batteries are extremely high current, and very deep cycle. They can keep my whole ham station going for an unknown amount of time. I do cycle them once a week by shutting off the charge supply, letting the voltage go down to about 11.8, then turning the supply back on. Under normal monitoring and light-duty transmit, running it down to under 12 Volts takes about 12-14 hours. I also have a solar array that I can patch into the power bus if needed or desired, and a 7.5KW continuous-duty gasoline powered Generac Niagara with a whole-house Eaton transfer switch if times get really tough.

RE: SPC-BP2 Banana plugs... These screw together, and have a compression-fit internal base with teeth all around the plug center core. You strip the wire back about 3/8 of an inch, put the wire up through the plug shell, and then fan the wire strands out around the teeth. Screw the plug body back onto the pin, and tighten down. VERY solid connection with no crimping, no soldering, and no tools other than the wire stripper. EDIT: Note... You cannot use these with solid wire. Must be stranded. Edit again: INSTRUCTIONS: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91U5ZPPxbbL._SL1500_.jpg

For high-current banana plugs, I have very excellent results using Mediabridge SPC-BP2 plugs. Shop carefully, as the price varies widely, and wildly. The best buy is picking them up in 12-pair packs for under $30, if you can use that many.

True THAT! The last true natural disaster I worked as a volunteer communicator was the May 6th, 2015 tornado that went through Roseland Nebraska. I was taking an alternate route on my way home to avoid the storm, talking to friends on the 2 Meter repeater in Hastings when I got a call (on the 2 Meter repeater) from the Adams County EOC, asking if I was in the area of Roseland. I was about 10 miles east of there, and could see the problem. They had ZERO information on the situation, and were unable to contact anyone in the area. At their request, I turned west, and proceeded toward Roseland. When I got there, the damage was done. The storm was already passed. No longer able to reach the Hastings repeater, I checked into the Heartwell NE repeater, which is RF linked into the Campbell NE UHF hub, which is RF linked into the Hastings Repeater. I was the first to call in to Adams County EOC to have them send first responders. I found no injured persons. I found property damage to the extreme. On my reports, they called in trucks, tractors, saws, manpower, the natural gas and electric power companies.... No one really needed ambulances, so only one or two had to be sent out just in case. That saved hours of time for emergency responders. Why did ham radio help here? ...because the tornado ripped out the main fiber optic box on the south end of town, thus there was NO internet. NO telephone. NO cable television, NO emergency communications to the dispatch office. NO police radios. NO fire department radios. NO service to the local cellular phone tower. The place was an island of zero communications due to one point of failure. But that has nothing to do with GMRS. I was asked to help if I could, and I did. It DOES go to show that any installed communications structure that relies on land based internet, or even cellular data, is prone to failure at the time it will be most needed.

I use tone (DPL actually) so that I DO NOT hear anyone else sharing the same frequency. I don't want to hear the annoying chatter from everyone else at the lake, I only want to hear when MY family members call. THAT is what tone squelch is for. LOTS of people can share the same channel without me having to listen to everyone. Your argument of "what if I have an emergency and need help"...well, this may sound harsh, but your emergency is NOT MY PROBLEM, and I don't care. FRS/GMRS is not designed for emergency comms, but may be use as such by organized groups.

Your associates would not be able to use your license, and must get their own. However... Your family, including all first-removed relatives can use YOUR GMRS license, and be perfectly legal in doing so. All spouses, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, cousins, aunts, uncles.... anyone related to you by family can use your GMRS license and call sign with your permission.

Those Midland antennas are junk. Tram these days isn't too much better (and I say that as a Tram Dealer!). Look for Maxrad, Larsen, or Laird antennas, and don't pay too much attention to gain ratings. Most of them are misleading advertisement exaggerations, or just flat-out lies to sell you something.

Since these are ending in .5625 rather than .565 or .560, there is a very good chance this is also programmed for narrow band operation. You'll want to change it to wide-band for GMRS use.