WRYZ926

Our club charges $15 to test. Of course our head VE is old fashion and snail mails everything in after one passes their test. There was no FCC fee when upgrading from Technician to General. I can't give any suggestions on learning CW since I haven't even started learning it myself.

Some Midland radios can be programmed with a computer. But pretty much all of them that has everything built into the hand mic cannot be programmed with a computer. The MXT500 and MXT575 are prime examples. The 500 can be programmed with a computer while the 575 cannot be programmed with a computer.

They were correct if you are going to use the M&P Ultraflex 7 for the HF bands.

@Whiskey363 you are correct in that the offset should be right if using a repeater channel, RPT21 in your case. Make sure that you have your TX tone set to match the repeater. And yes a 50 watt radio is more than enough to reach a repeater that close with a clear line of sight. While M&P Ultraflex 7 is good coax, it is not the best for UHF/GMRS frequencies. It will have a higher loss than LMR400 cox. But you can make up some of the loss with your 6 dBd antenna. You should not have any issues getting into the repeater even with the higher loss coax at 14 miles.

Several of us in my local radio club have had the Midland GMRS mobiles and have since replaced them with the Wouxun mobile radios. They are close to the same price and are a better radio compared to the Midland radios. And before Negative Nancy has a chance to comment. We don't care that you get 200 miles from your el cheapo radios. Most of us will never get that kind of coverage.

Just be aware that the Midland models with everything in the hand mic can only be programmed through the radio. There is no provisions to program them using a computer nor to update the firmware. Midland radios are made in China too.

I guess that I am more use to dealing with military and government regulations than some. And I won't argue that it would be nice if regulations were written so that the average lay person could understand. But that is not how the government works. This subject ranks right up there with topics like linking and the use of Roger Beeps.

Things sure did get over complicated and for no real good reason. It's simple to understand. Don't broadcast, don't transmit on a band/service you are not licensed for, and don't cross band repeat from one service to another service.

I will give two examples. One is legal and the other is not. Remember I am licensed for amateur and GMRS. First example - legal Three way conversation between myself, an amateur station (station A) and a GMRS station (Station B). I am talking to station A on 2m and am asked to relay a message to station B on GMRS. Or visa versa. This is 100% legal for me to do since I am having two way communication between myself and Station A. I then pass the message to Station B on my GMRS radio, again two communication. This is 100% legal between Station A and myself since we are both licensed for amateur bands. Again 100% legal between Station B and myself since we are both licensed for GMRS. Second example - illegal Two way conversation between Station A with only an amateur license and Station B with only a GMRS license. Neither one can transmit on the other band since they do not hold the correct license. Both would be having a one way conversation as far as the bands they are authorized to use. This is one type of broadcasting. And we all know that cross band repeating from one service to another service is illegal no matter if you hold a license for both. And yes it can be done with an unlocked radio for emergency situations ONLY.

I figured I would put out the warning for you and any other people that are thinking about using LIPO4 batteries. I've seen too many of those get ruined by using the wrong charger.

Use what works best for your situation. I prefer 50 watt mobiles with removable faces since I have limited room in my vehicle. The main unit for both radios are under my seat and the heads are on a Lido seat bolt mount. I did have to go with external speakers for both since I couldn't hear either radio with them under the seat. Now if I was still driving a vehicle from the 70's or earlier, then yes there would be plenty of room to mount all kinds of radios under the dash. But that isn't the case with new vehicles.

I am going to suggest getting the correct charger for LIPO4 batteries. A charger for lead acid and AGM batteries can actually damage a LIPO4 battery. I don't know if a bench top power supply will cause any damage or not. I have a 50 AH LIPO4 battery in the shack and it does pretty good. I have only used it a couple of times during power outages while participating in a Sky Warn net. I am using the Redodo brand batteries and a Redodo charger.

Double check to see what the SWR is currently on 467.550 and 467.725 before you make any adjustments. It's always easier to make the antenna shorter verses trying to lengthen it after cutting.

The TOT is normally seen really short out of the box on most radios. I have found most to be set at 1 minute at the factory. This includes Icom and Yaesu radios. I normally set mine to match the repeaters I use which is 3 minutes. How long you have to wait for the TOT to reset will vary by manufacturer. It is usually around 30 to 60 seconds.

Double check to see what it is on 467. I find that the SWR is usually higher on 467 versus 462. The difference is usually not much but it is different. I trimmed my Tram 1174 for our local repeater at 467.600. I got the SWR down to 1.4 at 467.600 and 1.2 at 462.600. I find tuning for the 467 easiest while others will just tune for lowest SWR at 465 and call it good.

The club I belong to suffers from wanting new shiny stuff to go in our ecomm trailer. Luckily there are enough level headed members around to refocus everyone on maintaining our repeaters. There are three of us, including myself, that are on the trailer committee. All three of us get aggravated since most members couldn't care less about using the trailer outside of the once a year field day. At least we don't have any orange vests or hard hats. We already had one of the widest coverage areas in the state with our 2m repeater. We just replaced the aging repeater with a Motorola Quantar. That made a definite improvement. We also replaced the Raspberry Pi controller with an Arcom RC210 controller. We are now in the process of taking DMR out of our three 70cm repeaters and getting them setup up with AllStar. The plan is to have the three 70cm repeaters always linked and the ability to link them to our 2m repeater when needed. A few of us ran into a brick wall when it came to getting a GMRS repeater setup. We just did it and then presented it to the club after we had tested it for a coupe of months. It is easier to ask for forgiveness than asking for permission. Half of the guys that were against GMRS now have their GMRS licenses after seeing how well it works. We get the same coverage area with the GMRS repeater as we do with the 70cm repeater at our main site. And the GMRS repeater antennas are at 400 feet versus the 70cm antennas at 900 feet.

C-Rat cans use to work great. But that age is long past. You can't make any coms with MRE packaging like you could with C-Rats.

You definitely have to check the resonance of different tin cans.

Having some type of battery backup is always a good idea. And there are different ways to set it up. I do agree that inverters going from 12V DC to 120V AC and back to 12V DC is inefficient but sometimes that is the best setup for people. I normally run my radios from a 120V power supply but also have a 50 AH LIPO4 battery for when the power goes out. Now I can't run very long on that single battery without a way to charge it. But it works for running my dual band radio during power outages. And that allows me to check on people and participate in the local Sky Warn nets. I just won't do a lot of rag chewing while using the battery. And I am still researching the best option for my house for solar panels to keep my LIPO4 batteries charged. And you can turn the power down on your radio if you do not need to run full power. That will help make a battery last longer.

Here is a good video from KM4ACK and his thoughts on why Hams need GMRS. And I have to agree that it is always good to have as many modes of communications as possible. Why Hams Need GMRS

I would say that is true for most, but not all vehicles. I know it's not true on my 2023 Ford Escape. The shark fin only has the GPS and Sirius antennas in it. The AM/FM antennas are actually built into the rear window I forget which thread these mounts were discussed in on the forum. They are a viable option for those that only run one antenna or don't mind swapping antennas out regularly. This is correct. But the gentle slope of most SUV/CUV roofs won't make a big difference. I have to run short antennas on my Escape and have the GMRS antenna towards the back. I still have at least 12 inches of metal all the way around the base for my ground plane. I do notice a very small difference between my antenna in the middle of the roof versus towards the back. But it is not enough to worry about. I was more concerned about keeping the antennas spaced to minimize any interaction between them.

Well you do want to put the antenna on a flat spot when ever possible and on the top of the vehicle. Sometimes that is not an option though. For the OP, anywhere on the roof that will not interfere with his sunroof and has at least 6 inches of metal all around the mount will work fine.

I'm sure that birds dancing around on the wire will change the SWR. Now if a person dances on the wire you will probably need new wire.

As long as you have at least 6 inches of metal all the way around the antenna mount then you should be good to go. A 6 inch radius is the recommended minimum for a good ground plane. And even "no ground plane" antennas benefit from having a good ground plane.

I would first figure out exactly how far back the sun roof goes inside the roof. You don't want the NMO mount and/or coax interfering with your sun roof. While as center as possible is ideal, you really don't need that much metal around the base for a good ground plane with UHF