WRYZ926

If that's the case then it's amazing that I can talk to anyone while using a HT. I'm a 5'9" and 145 pound skinny guy.

I have soldered 30 quake wire to some veery small digital command control boards on my n scale locomotives. It takes a super small tip and this solder to do. I won't even attempt stuff that small without a good magnifying glass or a digital microscope. I've never messed with surface mount components. When it comes to big stuff like 6 gauge wire and bigger, I just break out the propane torch. We had to replace a water heater at work one time and it took two of us using MAPP torches to get the 3 inch diameter copper pipe and fittings hot enough to solder together.

Yes there are many different antenna mounting options available. I would personally go with the type of mount @SteveShannon mentioned before going with a standard NMO mount on a Corvette. But that's just me. A Corvette is out of my humble price range and I would never go drilling into such a vehicle. And while not 100% necessary, One will still want to find a way to mount a sheet of metal under the antenna mount for better performance. And that would mean removing the headliner if putting the antenna on top of the car. Again, I personally wouldn't want to take the chance of messing the headliner up on an expensive sports car. Like I said, it's all perspective. I'm on a fixed income and can't even afford something like a Corvette or even a big fancy SUV or some of the bigger trucks and Jeeps.

I'm sure that you can get at least a couple of people from the local amateur radio club to help. Most enjoy helping especially when it comes to putting antennas up. And if they do help and try talking you into getting our amateur license, you can always tell them that you want to get your feet wet first with GMRS. We have a couple of members that struggle to get their amateur license due to health issues. We haven't pushed them into it and have suggested they start with GMRS. They have all taken our advice and are on the air and using the GMRS repeater.

I guess it's all in perspective to each individual. I personally would not want to go drilling into any Corvette for a NMO mount. The bodies are still primarily made for either fiberglass or carbon fiber or a mix of the two. Just me, but any type of antenna mount other than a glass mount would look out of place on an expensive sports car. I generally don't care for glass mount antennas but that would be what I would go with in this situation.

As others have said, you may or may not have any issues with a glass mount antenna. Defrosters, embedded AM/FM antennas and certain types of tint can cause a problem. Or they may not cause any issues. Some window tint has enough metal in it to affect RF signals.

@tcp2525 and @nokones gave good advice. It is common for those with camper shells/toppers on trucks to use a piece of conductive metal on the underside of the fiberglass shell with a drilled hole for a NMO mount. And for the most part a glass mount antenna will also work. I personally would go with the Larsen glass mount on a Corvette to keep the classy and sporty look of the vehicle.

It's actually not all that difficult to look up someone's address without going through the FCC website. The only way to keep all of your information private is to go totally off grid, get rid of any and all computers, phones, never banking or using checks and credit cards, have any public utilities in your name, etc etc. Oh and for those that have served in the US military since 1993, the federal government has your DNA on file. If you have ever had any type of government security clearance, they also have your entire life story on record.

Yes you are going to want some type of metal ground plane. A 12" diameter piece of metal with the antenna mounted in the middle will be enough for GMRS.

The GMRS license does not come with an attached wallet card like the amateur licenses come with. Or at least the copies I downloaded in October 2023 and the additional copy I downloaded a few weeks ago do not have it.

You can get them into cars, motorcycles, shooting sports, etc etc and they won't have money for anything else.

And that is why I avoid any and all cheap cables with clone/pirated Prolific chips in them. It's bad enough that Prolific drivers have not been updated in years. I've had issues with some cloned Prolific chips on Windows and MacOS. I have a couple that I never could get to work on either operating system. Even Linux doesn't like those cables.

That is how it is with some of our club members. And we all enjoy hearing the kids talk on the GMRS repeaters talking to Grandma and Grandpa. Some of the kids are as young as 5 and all of them do really good using call sings when required and waiting their turn when a group of people are on the repeater. Some of the kids might not ever get into amateur radios but I know a few that definitely will.

I hated those winds. They would always blow my little Dodge Shadow all over the place when going over Jack Rabbit pass in-between Ft Irwin and Barstow. Though summer at Ft Irwin was no fun either. The summer winds came out of Death Valley.

The common GMRS openings I see in spring and fall happen around 8:00 Am to about 10:00 - 10:30 AM. And we do hear other repeater traffic on our repeaters when storms are near either us or the other repeaters.

I sure don't carry a copy of my amateur or GMRS licenses. I'll happily give them my call signs and they can look them up if they really want to.

One advantage of amateur radio is that there are repeater counsels to help prevent that kind of mess. Though that is harder to do with GMRS repeaters since there are only 8 repeater channels available.

He is "that guy" and falls into the category of "some people". It must be nice to have money to just throw away like that.

Tropospheric ducting is more common in spring and fall when there is bigger change in temperatures between sunrise and a few hours afterwards. I live in Central Missouri and can talk to people in Springfield Illinois on GMRS when there are good openings. The distance is between 115-120 miles. We also occasionally will hear out of state repeaters using the same frequencies and tones come across our repeaters when conditions are just right. This happens on our 2m, 70cm, and GMRS repeaters.

GMRS repeaters are going to have the same coverage area and range as 70cm repeaters when antenna height and locations are equal. We get 30-35 mile radius of coverage with our GMRS repeater antennas at 400 feet and 35-40 mile radius of coverage with our 70cm antennas at 900 feet. Both are on the same tower. And both 70cm and GMRS has the same dead spots when one is mobile.

AS long as you are following the guidelines, then GMRS is for what ever you want to use it for. There is no right or wrong way to use GMRS as long as the rules/guidelines re followed.

That's oaky too since I have my amateur and GMRS licenses.

Either that or just tell them it's amateur radio, most won't know the difference anyway.

It is the same with most of the members of my local club.

One can't charge money or prevent others from using public frequencies. What repeater owners can do is control who uses their repeaters since the repeater owners pay for the repeaters and associated maintenance costs. And repeaters are private property. It is common curtesy to join the local club that owns the area amateur repeater by paying dues it you plan on using it often. While joining and paying dues are not mandatory, most will willingly do so to help with repeater maintenance. Setting up good repeaters is not cheap, and proper maintenance isn't cheap either. While I don't agree with charging for repeater use, paying a minimal membership due that goes towards repeater maintenance is fine.