WRXZ797

I have moved on from that radio and really don't use it much. I was hoping to give it to my son, who has expressed interest in GMRS. I am going to reach out to Midland to see what they say, but I'm not holding my breath. I have also moved on to Ham radio and have been doing a lot with that on HF, but I really see the benefit still in GMRS as a family communications system. I'm planning on outfitting all my kids with radios. Do you have any suggestions on better, affordable GMRS radios?

Hello all. I got an MXT115 about 2 years ago that has until now worked relatively well. That is until recently I put it into scan mode and absolutely can not get it to stop scanning. Tried the button obviously with no luck. None of the buttons work to take it out of scan. I can temporarily stop the scan by hitting the PTT, but it goes right back. Tried turning it off/on goes right back. Did a factory reset and just goes right into scan. Has anyone experienced this?

The responses make me feel a lot better about the situation. Thanks so much. I have been looking at the MyAntennas 80-10, and the palomar 80-10 ocf dipole. How does the MyAntennas work for you on the phone portion of 80? The closest tree of signifigance is in the neighbors yard and all of their trees have significant sway during storms. I live in the Dakotas where wind is a very real issue the whole year. On the far end Im hoping to slope it down to maybe 20 feet using fence top rail secured to my shed if I go with the palomar, or sink a pipe down in some concrete way in the back yard and then secure it to that for the EFHW.

I have been thinking like a rohn steel telescoping mast but anything that would be sturdy enough and hold cost down would be ideal. We are know for our wind where I live so I want it to be pretty sturdy but its not gonna be holding up very much weight.

Hello everyone. I am wondering if any of you guys could help me. I just got my general ticket in February and I am looking to set up my shack for HF. I am lucky that I have no HOA restrictions to deal with, and a pretty sizeable yard for being in a city, so I look to take advantage of that size to put up a wire that can operate on multiple bands. I have been considering an endfed half wave about 141' in length, or an ocf dipole roughly 84' and 30' from the feedpoint. My issue is no sizeable trees anywhere near enough. The wife is not keen on a mast in the middle of the yard where I could put in proper guying. One solution I have considered is using the house to secure a mast. I would sink the bottom section a few feet into concrete. Then secure it to the exterior of the house using wall mounts. The peak of the roof is roughly 22' above the ground so I would just get it to about 30' and a fix the balun right on the mast and run the wire plus mount my lightweight 2m/70cm antenna on the top. My question is would this be secure enough? 73 KF0NVZ

Appreciate that. I'm looking forward to try to make a lot of my own stuff. I have very little technical background but the only way I'm going to learn is to just get my hands dirty and so a little trial and error. Thanks again.

Thank you all for your comments. I already have all the things necessary for the tape measure one so my investment is basically zero and I just want to kind of get my feet wet building stuff. I'm just hoping that I can get out to the local repeaters from my house and provide a stronger signal than capable with the rubber duck on the handheld. If I can do that I will call it a success.

Hello all. I am a new ham and I'm looking forward to building my first homebrew antenna. I have seen a lot of videos regarding the tape measure yagi on YouTube, and I'm planning on constructing my own. Mostly to hit repeaters in the area that are on the fringe of the range for my handheld (Kenwood tk-270G). All these videos give different measurements for cutting the various elements and pieces of PVC for gaps between them. I realize that the length of an element is going to be more resonant on on a certain frequency than others, but is there a length that will cover the entire band "pretty well" either side of the sweet spot so to say? If I cut it to be optimally resonant at 146.500MHz will that work decently enough on say 145.500MHz? Any bit of your expertise would be very much appreciated. 73's to all. KF0NVZ (Greg)

I agree with everyone on the MXTA26. I had been using the little antenna that comes with my Midland radio but hitting repeaters across town was spotty. Now I connect with ease.

I thought that the cable looked a little thin and cheap looking. Thanks all for the responses.

Hello all. I am very new to this forum and to GMRS as a whole. Acquired an Midland MXT115 and have it set up in my vehicle. I've been getting a range of about 1-1.5 miles in a suburban environment with the little 6.5" antenna that comes In the box. Could one of you guys give me some examples of another antenna that would work with this particular radio and how much improvement could I expect. The other question I have is in regards to how these radios do in temperature extreme environments. Where I live it gets very cold in the winter (-30F is at times possible) and also subject to pretty hot summer temps (around 100F max). How do these radios do in these environments and is there anything to protect them short of taking them out of the vehicle?