WRFN864

Are you trying to get the radios to talk directly to each other or through the repeater? If you are trying to talk direct, then use a non-repeater channel. It can still be channel 16 (462.5750) but keep in mind there are two "versions" of that channel, one for direct communication and one for talking through a repeater. Of course if you talk on one radio to the repeater, the other radio should be able to hear the repeater output. It's also possible that you are just out of range of the repeater and all you hear is static BUT you should be able to hit the Nashville 575 repeater from your home location.

Greg, looking at your location and using the RF Line of Site tool, I think you will find that 20-30 miles is going to be a challenge to reach in every direction except to the East and trying to hit Landis is going to be tough since Odell School is in the way. This is assuming you have an antenna 10m (barn height) off the ground. You would likely need a 120' tower to clear the obstacles. But RF can be funny. Example: I can hit a repeater with a 4w HT that is 40 miles away from 5' off the ground but can't hit a mobile that is 2 miles away from my Diamond X50 antenna at 30' high with 25watts.

Not 100% sure. Need to inspect the cable. It might have been damaged (I did reuse the cable). Next weekend, I will pull the antenna and the cable to see what the problem is. I really liked that radio too. It power on but no more transmit. Might this be the receive side of a future repeater?

I put up an antenna in the attic today and while trying to hit the local repeater a few moments ago, the smoke monster escaped the radio and now the whole house smells of toasted electronics. I guess there is a short in that antenna system... It was a nice Kenwood TK-8160H.

I am running an XTL5000-UHF remotely mounted in the back of a 2022 Ford Bronco 2-Door. There is an O5 head connected to that radio, mounted on the passenger side. The radio is connected to a Rugged Radios GMRS-Point5 NGP Tuned Whip antenna mounted on the front mirror. I also have a second XTL5000-VHF on a second O5 head that I use as a P25 scanner. That radio is connected to a Rugged Radios VHF 1/2 Wave NGP Antenna mounted on the spare tire mount. Each radio has its own speaker mounted behind the front seats. The VHF antenna works terrific but the UHF antenna setup doesn't work well at all. With the radio set for 50w output I can't get more than a few miles. I know that NH terrain plays an important role here in the sucky range but I think this mount/antenna combo is trash. I just don't have a better place to mount a UHF antenna with a ground plane.