WRYZ926

The Comet GP9 is a tall antenna and not everyone wants or can have an antenna that tall. Several of us in my local club use the GP9 and we tested all of them on the GMRS channels. The SWR on 467 MHz averages around 1.7 to 2.1 and the SWR on 462 MHz averages around 1.3 to 1.5 on all of the GP9 antennas we tested. I'll have to see if anyone local has the Comet GP6 to test.

Well that didn't take long. I knew Negative Nancy would put his worthless half a pence in. The negative vibes need to go. Plenty of people use J pole antennas with great results. One of my friends has made several J poles for GMRS for other club members and they all work. He has also made a 6m j pole out of copper and a giant 11m/CB j pole out of aluminum tubing. It works well too. I have a 2m j pole made from 3/8" aluminum rod that works well and sometimes use it portable. I also made the faraday clothe j poles for portable work.

Steve is correct. You will get opinions ranging from hey are junk and no better than a dummy load to they are great antennas. I have a 2m and 70cm Fara-J antennas to test out once the swamp dries up a little. They are clothe j pole antennas made with strips of faraday clothe. You can make your own or buy them from https://vfcomms.com . They make a 6m, 2m, 70cm, GMRS and Meshtastic version of their Fara-j antennas. I went to check the yard today and what a muddy mess. We went from snow and single digit temps all last week to 60 degrees yesterday and today.

I have a Comet GP-9 and the SWR is 1.8 on 467 MHz and 1.5 on 462 MHz. That being said, I still run a Comet CA-712EFC for my GMRS radio so that I can run my GMRS and dual band radios at the same time.

You can find the Icom SP35 speaker on Amazon for $30 or $35 all of the time. Most other places want $50 or $55 for it. The Icom SP35 is an excellent small speaker. And if you need something louder for an open cab vehicle then I can highly recommend the Midland SPK100 20 watt speaker.

And the R56 document is not an opinion either. It is directly from a manufacturer. One should always follow the NEC (National Electric Code) when installing antennas, antenna masts and towers. The Reeves document makes things easier to understand and worth reading.

This is what I found as far as a dual male mono to female stereo y adaptor. I don't know 100% if that would even work. &D 3.5mm Stereo Female to Dual 3.5mm Mono Male Audio Cable, 3ft 3.5mm 1/8" TRS Female to 2 x 3.5mm 1/8" TS Male Y Breakout Cable Splitter I might be the guinea pig for $6. If I get that adaptor then I can try it with my mono Icom SP35 and along with a stereo speaker that I use with my Xiegu G90. The G90 only has a headphone jack which is stereo and a mono speaker doesn't work well. Again muffled sound.

I ran into the same problem about a year ago when I tried several Y adaptors with my KG-1000G. All of the adaptors were stereo to stereo. They work fine when connecting a single mono speaker to a single port but not when trying to use both ports at the same time. As I stated before, part of the problem is the impedance mismatch. And @SteveShannon a mixer would definitely help along with the correct mono to stereo y adaptor. The only thing I have not tried yet was using an actual stereo speaker with both left and right speakers in one unit. Some radios, like the Icom IC-2730, will push audio out for side A and side B from one single port. But the KG-1000G definitely won't.

I took a close look at the Wouxun y adaptor. It too is stereo to stereo which we know will not work when trying to send two mono ports to one single speaker.

I won't argue about that either. GO with what is best for you.

Now if the Radioddity DB-20G was actually IP rated for dust and water then I would have strongly considered getting one for my SxS. But since it is not IP rated, I went with the Wouxun KG-XS20G instead. One won't go wrong with the DB-20G or the Wouxun KG-XS20G or KG-1000G. The DB-20G wins for those on a tighter budget.

Just personal preference here. I would go with the Icom IC-2730A for $310 over the Yaesu FTM-150RASP for $379. I'm disappointed in Yaesu's customer service and the fact that they want to charge people $900 to fix a bad USB port on some of their HF radios. The issue is that they know it is a bad design but refuse to fix it. Plus the parts required to fix the USB port are pretty cheap compared to Yaesu charging $900 to replace the entire main board.

I've owned both and still have the Wouxun. The main reason I got rid of my Midland MXT500 was because of the low output power on high setting. I got rid of the Midland before I knew that I could have sent the radio back for repair. I used both the Midland MXT500 and the Wouxun KG-XS20G 20 watt radio when we were testing the antennas on the tower for our GMRS repeater. We tested on simplex first. I am 22.5 miles away from the tower. The KG-XS20G actually did better all around than the MXT500 did. Both radios were hooked up to my Comet CA-712EFC.

The 20 watt Midland SPK100 is a good choice for open air vehicles like Jeep Wranglers and side by sides. I installed the SPK100 in my Honda Pioneer 500 and can hear just fine while traveling at 35 MPH down gravel roads.

Another option if you want a custom length cable is ABR Industries. Yes they will cost a little more but they are excellent cables. You won't go wrong with cables from ABR Ind., Messi and Paoloni, Times Microwave, or DX Engineering. Another good source that I have only used for short jumpers is the Jet brand from R&L Electronics. You will be fine as long as you stick with LMR400 or a quality equivalent. Avoid the cheap stuff from Amazon and eBay. The Comet CA-712EFC is a very popular antenna that works well. It is long at around 10 ft. The Comet CA-GMRS is another good antenna if you need something shorter. There are other brands that will be suggested.

We have a battery backup system at our repeatr sites and also have the ARCOM RC210 controllers setup to give us a notification if the system switches over to battery backup. The battery backup gives us enough time to get to the repeater site and get the generator going. The limiting factor is if we cannot get to the repeater site.

Did you seal up the joints on the antenna and where to coax connects to it? You could also have a cut in the coax that you didn't see. Either way, you are on the right track replacing the antenna and coax. The Comet base antennas do have seals on all of the joints but I still wrap them just like I wrap all of the coax connections.

The DX Engineering Max400 is an LMR equivalent and good coax for less cost. Search around for LMR400 equivalent coax. I would just stay away from the cheap stuff on Amazon.

A job is not done correctly if no blood is drawn.

The main issue with Baofeng radios is not the transmit quality. The issue is the receive quality. They are more susceptible to frontend overload and interference when compared to other radios. But yes the Baofeng radios do work as intended and have allowed many people to get into amateur radio and/or GMRS without spending a lot of money. The same thing can be said about Hi-Point. Granted most of my experiences has been with their carbines. They are cheap, no frills firearms that work reliably. Again they serve a purpose that they allow people on limited budgets to be able to have a firearm for self defense. It doesn't matter what we talk about when it comes to radios, firearms, or anything else. Prices and quality range from very cheap to very expensive. And even the more expensive stuff will have their quirks and/or issues. Go with what you like and also what fits your budget. Don't worry about what others say.

Don't bother because he will state that he has 999 reason to not use any Chinese made radio. In fact he will only recommend an old commercial radio that requires either MS-Dos or Windows 3.1 to program.

Most Y adaptors are going to be stereo aka 3 pole males to stereo 3 pole female. And that is where the problem arrises with sound quality. And @MSnow is correct that you will want a 3 pole in to dual 2 pole out adaptor along with a stereo speaker for everything to work correctly and sound good. I never tried a stereo speaker with the stereo y adaptor yet. But I can tell you that using a stereo y adaptor with a more single channel speaker sounds horrible when connected to both speaker outputs on the radio.

I've had my KG-1000G radios for about the same amount of time. I have one in my 2023 Ford Escape and the other in the house. My experiences have been similar to yours. Installing radios in the Escape was a bit of a pain too. There are very few spots to get wires through the firewall. I am running a Tram 1174 antenna for GMRS and a Comet SBB-1 for 2m/70cm. I have height restrictions since I park my Escape in the garage. Plus the parking garages at doctors' offices have low clearances too. The Wouxun KG-1000G is close to the same price as the Midland MXT500/MXT575 and it has performed better than the Midland radios for me. And don't let Negative Nancy poo on your posts or about what radios you use. Just ignore him like the rest of us do.

I do wish that Wouxun would have a mic gain setting on their radios. The KG-1000G mic is a bit hot. I haven't had any complaints when using the KG-935G or KG-Q10H. But then again I am not holding the radios too close to my face either.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Hasn't the Yaesu 8900 been discontinued for a few years now? And yes the TYT TH-7800 and TH-9800 are copies of discontinued Yaesu radios.