WRYZ926

WOW!!! Looks like some people could use a Snickers Bar about now. We can't blame it on people being cooped up in the house due to cold weather either. We aren't sticklers on the use of call signs on our repeater. You can either give your call sign at the beginning of your first transmission or at the end of your first transmission. I know the rules only state every 15 minutes and at the end of the conversation. But it's a curtesy to give it in the first transmission since we have a lot of people with the same names or they sound similar on the radio. It makes it easier to know who we are talking to. The only time we say anything about someone NOT using a call sign is if they are kerchunking the repeater. It' not hard to just say "your call sign testing". And if they want to give their call sign at the end of every transmission, we won't say much about that either. This is especially true if there are a few of us on the repeater talking as a group.. To each their own.

That will make a difference. I have tried the Nagoya and Abbree 771 and 771G with all of my hand held radios. The 771 did make an improvement with my Baofeng GT-5R and the 771G did make an improvement with my Baofeng UF-5R GMRS radios. I tried the 771 on my Icom IC-T10, Explorer QRZ-1 (TYT UV-88), Wouxun KG-Q10H, and Wouxun KG-935H. In every single case with these radios, the stock antennas worked better. I also tried the 771G on my Wouxun KG-935G and again the stock antenna worked better. You won't know if an aftermarket antenna will be better, worse, or the same as a stock antenna without trying. And yes the longer 771 is a pain to use in a vehicle or even when carrying a radio on your belt. The best improvement you can make is to use an external antenna on your vehicle or a base antenna at home.

I tried the Nagoya 771 antenna on my Baofeng radios along with radios from various manufacturers. The 771 is around 15.5" long. I did see a small improvement when using the 771 on my Baofeng radios. But the OEM antennas on all of my other hand held radios worked better. Plus you have a longer antenna to deal with. You are better off just sticking with the OEM antenna the radios come with.

You are correct that the mobiles aren't a good comparison to hand held radios. But it does show that even going from 20 watts to 50 watts does not make a big difference. Hand held use short and very compromised antennas that aren't very high above the ground. Line of site will make more of a difference than 2 watts versus 10 watts. Here is a question to ponder. Will a hand held work better if used by a big person compared to a skinny person? I ask since our bodies act as part of the ground plane when using a hand held radio.

I did a similar experiment using 20 watts and 50 watts on my base radio and Comet CA-712EFC. There is a GMRS repeater about 50-55 miles straight line distance from me. I could get in and was heard at 20 watts but had lots of static/noise. Switching to 50 watts made all the difference. The extra 30 watts didn't get me any more FARZ but it did make my signal clearer. It's not going to make much difference between 2, 5, or 10 watts with an HT when everything else is equal. One has to quadruple the output power to gain 1 S unit (6dB). And most people won't be able to hear the difference in 1 S unit.

Definitely not enough difference between 2 watts and 10 watts when using a HT for anyone to notice. Now I have held my cane up in the air while using a HT and cell phone and have occasionally seen a slight improvement. But I have to point the cane towards the tower no notice any change. As mentioned, UHF frequencies do not get along with trees, especially evergreen trees.

Remember that the advertised amperage of power supplies is the peak amp draw and NOT the continuous power draw. You can figure the continuous power draw will be 75% to 80% of the peak amps. Most 30 amp power supplies are only good for 22-24 amps continuous. I run my Icom IC-2730 and my Wouxun KG-1000G with an Astron 30 amp power supply and it does fine since I never talk on both radios at the same time. I tried running my Yaesu FTDX-10 or Icom IC-7300 with my LDG AT-1000ProII auto tuner on the 30 amp Astron. Tuning with the LDG would be enough to cause the 30 amp Astron to go into protection mode and shut down. Either radio and the LDG tuner runs fine on the Astron 50 amp power supply.

The Astron power supplies are worth the extra cost when compared to some of the cheap power supplies on Amazon. I just replaced a 50 amp TekPower switching power supply from Amazon with a 50 amp Astron switching power supply. The TekPower was only a year old and it started making noises whenever I transmitted with my 100 watt HF radios and also put noise in my transmissions. Now for a truly clean power supply, you are going to want a linear power supply, but those cost more than switching power supplies.

As Steve mentioned, most transceivers require an external dc power source. Even dedicated 100/200 watt amateur base transceivers require a 12v power supply. Part of the reason is that internal power supplies need to be small enough to fit into the case along with everything else which means using a switching power supply. Switching power supplies can cause electromagnetic interference - EMI and radio frequency interference - RFI. Having the AC to DC power supply separate and in an all metal enclosure will help shield the radios from EMI and RFI. Though that is not a guarantee. Take a standard ATX computer power supply out of the computer case and it can/will cause EMI/RFI issues with nearby transceivers and other electronics. The EMI/RFI gets even worse if you remove the case.

This is a good thing. My first hand held I bought was a GT-5R from BTech's Amazon store. I was missing the ear piece and they were very quick to respond when I contacted them. They went above and beyond, they sent a new charging base, ear piece and a hand mic.

I'll have to look at our Bridgecom repeater next time I am at the repeater site. I doubt it is Part 95 certified as it is the exact same repeater that Bridgecom sells for the amateur 70cm band. The only difference is how they program them before shipping. There is a person near me that owns several GMRS repeaters along with several 2m and 70cm repeaters. He uses Motorola Quantar repeaters for all of them.

That has been my understanding also. Most just use a Part 90 certified repeater. You can find used Motorola Quantar UHF repeaters cheaper than what Bridgecom and B-Tech want for their GMRS repeaters. And the Quantar is way better. If one goes with the Quantar 125, they just need to make sure to turn the power level down so that the 50 watt max is not exceeded.

Oh boy, I must really be messed up and beyond any help since I have my Amateur and GMRS licenses. I can't speak for other repeater owners. I do try to answer any and all requests in a timely manner. PS: I'm not crazy, I am perfectly insane, verified even.

I have bulkheads through the wall to bring the coax in. I also have a metal plate on each side of the wall with a piece of 1/4" 20 all thread through the wall that I use for my ground point. I have a ground rod right below the bulkheads and the all thread, plates, and lightning arrestors are all connected to that ground. That ground rod along with my masts and roof mounted antennas are all bonded to my service ground. I disconnect the coax from the bulkheads inside the house and put caps on them. I know the caps won't be much protection but hopefully they keep any charge coming down the coax and just shooting into the room. Nothing will protect from a direct lightning strike. All we can do is minimize the damage from near strikes.

I use to run a CB antenna on a metal toolbox that was mounted to a homemade wooden flatbed. The tool box was definitely not big enough for a proper ground plane for CB/11m but it still worked. A few guys run a Yaesu ATAS antenna or other types of screw driver antennas on the bed rails of their trucks and Gladiators without issue. HF definitely needs a bigger ground plane than VHF or UHF.