WRYZ926

The XS20G is an excellent radio that I am sure you will enjoy. It is pretty simple to program through the radio itself.

My club is setting up our emergency coms trailer in a local park for this weekend.

I just tested the 2x4SR versus the SBB1 on the Melowave magnet mount. Granted the SWR will be a little higher since I tested with the SxS parked inside the garage. The 2X4SR was 1.8 at 467.600 and below 1.5 on 462.600. It was 1.6 or below on 2m and 70cm. The SBB1 was at 1.8 at 467.600 and at 2.5 at 462.600. I then put the SBB1 back on my Ford Escape. Inside the garage, SWR was 1.7 or lower on 2m and 70cm. On 467.600 it was 2.2 and on 462.600 it was 2.8. Again the low ceiling along with the metal garage door tracks and garage door opener being close to both antennas will affect the SWR readings and make them higher. I then pulled the Escape out of the garage so that there was nothing close to the antenna. This was using the Midland MXTA12 magnet mount. SWR was 1.6 or below on 2m and 70cm. SWR at 467.600 was at 1.6 and at 462.600 it was 2.2 I can say with my non scientific experiment that the Melowave magnet mount works better than the Midland magnet mount. Both mounts are 3.5 inches in diameter but the Melowave is not as tall. I used my Rig Expert Stick Pro analyzer for testing. For the OP, the 2x4SR antenna will work fine for 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. PS: I tested both antennas with the Melowave mount on the expanded metal rack and also on top of the aluminum tool box (with steel plate attached). The SWR did improve with both antennas on top of the tool box. There was not a big improvement with the 2x4SR. The SBB1 had more improvement on top of the tool box. With the SBB1 mounted lower on the rack, the SWR at 462.600 was at 2.8 and at 467.600 it was 2.3.

I was wrong and corrected my earlier post. I was thinking off the KG935G and KG-Q10H software. The KG-1000G/G Plus software does not allow one to change the A-D buttons. That can be easily done through the radio itself.

No idea on that one. I have my SBB1 NMO mounted in the center of the roof on my 2023 Ford Escape using a Midland MXTA12 magnet mount. The Comet 2x4SR is using a Melowave magnet mount which is on the expanded metal rack on my SxS. I'll swap the antennas around to see if the mag mounts make any difference.

@marcspaz you did get good results with your Comet SBB1. I have a SBB1 NMO and the SWR on 462 and 467 are over 2.0 while 2m and 70cm are under 1.5

I have been keeping up with this thread and also just watched the video. I don't know what to make of that email. I personally would want to see the entire email to include the address that it came from. As stated, the federal govt. will give a "verbal" warning in person and not through an email. And All of the written warning that I have ever seen have been via regular mail using an official letter head. I willl wait for more information before passing judgement one way or another.

All good advice given by others. Definitely go with 6 gauge wire for grounding the mast/tower. I do run 10 gauge from my lightning arrestors to ground, but that is such short run. I made my own wall passthrough which has a piece of 1/4" all thread for a grounding point. All of my lightning arrestors are attached to it with 10 gauge wire and I have a single 6 gauge wire going from the all thread to my ground rod.

The KG1000G Plus CPS works for both versions of the radio.

I'm not 100% sure but @OffRoaderX might have done that.

The Wouxun software is pretty good and easy to use as long as you are running Windows. I have two Wouxun cables, one for their mobile radios with a RJ45 connector and one K1 for their hand held radios. I use the Wouxun software that you can download for free from Buy Two way Radios.

The Chatty Cathy's and the quick keyer's can be an issue at times for others wanting to use a repeater. This happens a bit on our repeater which is not normally linked to any other repeaters. We have an Allstar node but it is more for people to connect using apps on their phones when out of range. I can always tell the quick keyer's on the Bridgecom GMRS repeater because you never hear the first part of their transmissions. I don't know if there is a setting on the repeater, but one has to key up for a second before starting to talk. Those quick keyer's are use to the 2m repeater which is not that way.

I have used 1 5/8" fence post couplers without any issues. I do have my masts secured to the side of the house and/or guyed well with dakron guy rope. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BCFTBL4H?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 I use 16 stainless steel zip screws to hold the coupler onto two fence posts. This has held up just fine for me even with heavy winds. These couplers also fit most j pole (satellite dish) mounts too. I used two 8 foot lengths and a 6 foot length of 1 5/8" fence posts with couplers for my dual band antenna mast. I do have the mast securely attached to the side of the house with three clamps and it is also guyed at the top with dakron guy rope. Here is my 6 band cobweb antenna mounted to a j mount with an 8 foot 1 5/8" fence post.

I just remembered that I checked the SWR with the SxS parked inside the garage. I am sure the metal garage doors and metal door tracks affected the SWR reading. SWR on the GMRS repeaters was no higher than 1.8 for 467 MHz while the SWR for 462 MHz, 2m and 70cm was all around 1.2 to 1.4. Ys it is. I ended up getting the spring base for my 2x4SR. https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-ca-spr The spring did not effect the SWR readings.

The 2x4SR is an excellent antenna and works very well on 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. I run one on my Honda Pioneer 500 SxS along with a 20 watt radio. The highest SWR reading on the three bands is 1.8 which is good to go. I am using the Midland magnet mount with the antenna on an expanded metal rack.

I did put one or two clamp of ferrite beads on all of my antennas (right at the base) to help with RFI. But I am running a CA-712EFC for GMRS, a Comet GP9 dual band and three different types of HF antennas. The antennas are between 25 and 50 foot apart. Now if the CA-712EFC is your only antenna then I would not worry about any type of choke since they are tuned and you are using good coax. The loop showing the instructions is more for ease of maintenance and also a little stress relief on the antenna coax connector. The loop allows you to pull the antenna out of its mounting pipe if you ever need to remove the coax for any reason without having to cut any cable ties along the mast/tower. I generally put one loop at the bottom of each antenna for this reason. Now I do have several wraps of coax along with clamp on ferrite beads on my HF antennas to help keep RF out of the shack or from interfering with my VHF/UHF/GMRS antenna coax cables since they are very close to each other where they enter my house.

This is very true. I live 21.5 miles away from our repeater sight. The 2m and 70cm repeater antennas are at 900 feet while the GMRS repeater antennas are at 400 feet. It is very hit or miss if I can get into the 70cm and GMRS repeaters from my house using an HT with rubber duck antenna. Yet I can use my two mobile radios on low power with a Comet 2x4SR antenna or my base station on low with the Comet CA-712EFC (mounted on the house roof) and get into the repeaters every time. Both the Wouxun KG-1000G and KG-XS20G are around 5 watts on low power. It is the same with trying to get into the 70cm repeater as it is with the GMRS repeater. What makes a difference is the height of the antennas on my vehicles and home versus a rubber duck antenna. Now there is a bit of static when using the mobile/base radios on low power but I am still able to understand others and they can hear me clearly. Bumping up to medium or high power clears up the static. Any antenna with at least 6 dBi (4dBm) of gain or higher will definitely help overcome any cable loss. Just make sure you are using the correct coax for UHF frequencies such as LMR400 or equivalent. G8 and RG8X are best suited for HF frequencies and have more loss on VHF and UHF frequencies.

Here is how to unlock the KG-Q10H: How to unlock Wouxun KG-Q10H This unlock will not work with the KG-Q10G that I know of. The Q10G firmware, like most GMRS certified radios, is locked down. I won't get into whether one should or should not unlock their radios to transmit out of band. That is a personal decision and that horse has been beat to death.

Another thing is how the system is when listing open repeaters on this website. I listened ours as open and I still occasionally get requests from people to use it. I usually always grant permission as long as they have a valid GMRS license.

We have discussed this many times on the forum. Getting a range of 200 miles is very unrealistic for most people. 30 to 50 miles is more realistic depending on what part of the country you live in and what the terrain, forested areas and structures are like near you. That being said, the Comet CA-712EFC is an excellent GMRS antenna. I get about a 25 mile range on simplex here in Mid Missouri with our rolling hills and forested areas. The base of my antenna is about 20 foot above the ground. Also remember that the best antenna in the world won't do any good if you are using the wrong type and/or low quality coax cable. And try to get the antenna as high as you can get it.

This is very true. These types of attacks were part of our training when I was in the Army. On topic, getting your amateur license (general or extra) will serve a person better for long distance communications as long as conditions are good. VHF and UHF are for short distances with good line of sight.

General rule of thumb is to space antennas apart by 1/2 to 1 full wave length. A full wave length for CB is 11 meters/36 feet. A half wave length is 5.5 meters/18 feet. So you would want your GMRS antenna at least 18 feet away from your CB antenna horizontally. You can put antennas closer together vertically if you have the space to go up and down.

Local repeaters will only be operating on backup power for a few days at most if the power grid goes down long term. The same goes for any type of Internet service too. And you need both for linked repeaters to work. VHF (2m, 1,25m, and 6m) and UHF (70cm and GMRS) are line of sight and not good for long distant communications. This is where getting your amateur radio license makes sense. You will need a General or Extra class license to operate on any HF band outside of 10m barring any real world emergency.

Setting the duplex to OFF will disable transmission. The easiest way to do this is within CHIRP. You actually have four choices for duplex: blank (for simplex use), + , - , and off. Selecting off disables TX for that memory channel. Here is a screen shot of CHIRP so you can see what I am talking about.

One definitely can't complain about those SWR readings. I don't use MURS so I concentrate more on antennas that work well for 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. From your posts, the Comet GP-6NC looks to be a very good antenna for MURS and GMRS I wonder if it was just your antenna or if all of the GP-9NC antennas are that way. I have a standard dual band GP-9 that does well for 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. I have not tested it for MURS.