WRYZ926

There won't be any noticeable loss with RG8X when using jumpers that are 6 foot or less in length. You are only looking at a 2% power loss at 28.300 MHz with a 6 foot RG8X coax which equates to a los of 2.2 watts. And the lower bands will have progressively less loss. And if you don't want to make them yourself then I will suggest looking at the Jet brand from R&L Electronics. I have several of their short jumper coax cables and they are good quality and at a good price.

The Abbree 771 is a decent antenna. But in my personal experience it depends on what radio I am using on if the antenna makes a difference or not. I did notice a small improvement when using it on my Baofeng radios. But the stock antennas did better on my Icom, TYT and Wouxun radios.

That is the way they show up at least on HF bands. I was getting birdies due to a bad network cable that showed up as thin solid lines on the waterfall.

I was surprised when the KG-XS20G actually would transmit on channels 8-14 when it shouldn't. And it does put out 5 watts when I checked.

This is true. All of my Part 95 certified HT's will not allow you to change the power output on channels 8-14. And most Part 95 mobiles won't even let you transmit on channels 8-14 since the lowest they go is 5 watts. The Wouxun KG-XS20G Plus will transmit on channels 8-14 at 5 watts if set to narrow band and low power in the menu. I've taste it but try to never transmit on those channels so I don't cause any interference issues.

There is quite a bit of simplex traffic in my rural area. GMRS is popular with the farmers. And simplex traffic really increases during the firearms deer season which starts this weekend. And some of the conversations from the hunters is not suitable for women and children. I won't even scan the different channels for the next few weeks for that reason.

Yes that is how it works. The catch is if someone on the same simplex channel as the repeater output is using the same tone then you will hear them too. I had to laugh when we first put our GMRS repeater online when some of the guys were complaining about hearing a bunch of kids. The first thing I asked them is if they were using the RX tone on their radios. And of course they were not.

There is no way I would run a GMRS repeater without using both RX and TX tones. Just like I always run both RX and TX tones on my radios too. As mentioned, you will get all of the simplex traffic if you don't.

I have good luck using DX Engineering 400MAX cables. And ABR Industries also makes good coax cables. I use ABR coax for my portable setups. And don't overlook the Jet brand from R&L Electronics. I am using a few for jumper cables in the shack.

I have found that to be true. My Baofeng radios saw an improvement with a Nagoya 771 antenna while my Icom, TYT/Explorer, and Wouxun radios do better with the stock antennas.

I hardly ever give a S number unless asked for it when on simplex but never when talking on the repeater. We had a know it all that kept giving a S number when we first put the new 2m repeater in a few weeks ago. We had to tell him that his signal report doesn't mean a thing to us as it was how he was hearing the repeater itself. I tell new people how understandable they are and how much static I hear when they transmit. Once they have been using their radios for a while then I will start saying if they are readable or not. @LeoG I am glad you mentioned the KG-XS20G. I found out the other day that the XS20G mic is not as hot as the KG-1000G mic. With the 100G I have to hold the mic at more of an angle so that I don't overdrive but with the XS20G I have to hold the mic parallel when I speak.

Our club has been looking into the Kraken system. We have been having a kid get onto the 2m repeater and we had a CB'er on our GMRS repeater this morning.

Then maybe I will look into using the SRD with my laptop for chasing down the kerchunkers on our repeaters. The manual I found mentioned several different uses.

I need to learn more about using a SDR since one came with my Icom IC-7300 when I bought it. I have a DX-Patrol MK4 SDR receiver and three is a pan adaptor installed in the IC-7300. But I ma pretty clueless on using the SDR receiver with the 7300.

Yes the SBB1 just clears the garage door opening. It occasionally will hit during the winter when the driveway heaves a little. But it has not been harmed (yet).

Again, If you don't have anything positive or constructive to say then don't bother replying to people. We are all getting pretty tired of your negativity. You bad mouth Wouxun radios every time they are mentioned and even when they are not. And @SteveShannon is spot on with his comment above. A name change didn't help.

One of the best antennas that works on 2m, MURS, 70cm, and GMRS is the Comet 2x4SR. The only reason I don't use it all the time on my vehicle is the fact I park in my garage all the time. My 20" Comet SBB1 just barely clears the 7 foot garage doors and the garage opener. There are a few shorter dual band antennas that will also work for GMRS. The Comet SBB1 is one of them. The Midland MXTA26 is hard to beat for a GMRS only antenna. Again it is about the same size as the Comet 2x4SR. Yes it is ideal to get the antenna centered on the highest point of a vehicle. But that is not always possible. Plenty of people run antennas on the hood, tail gate lip, Jeep spare tier mount, or bed rails right behind the cab on trucks and they all get out fine. I do run two antennas on my 2023 Ford Escape just because I do like having separate radios for 2m/70cm and GMRS. I am using the Comet SBB1 dual band and a Tram 1174 for GMRS. The setup works for me since I am restricted by height requirements. And I still get out just fine. Yes I hit dead zones on 70cm and GMRS in valleys and/or locations with a lot of pine/cedar trees. But that is how things go with UHF. As far as radios go. The DB-20G is popular where one can get by with a 20 watt radio. There is really only 4 main choices when it comes to off the shelf Part 95 certified 50 watt radios. The choices are; the B-Tech GMRS 50V2, The Midland MXT500, Midland MXT575, and the Wouxun KG-1000G Plus. The Wouxun is the better radio out of those choices. And don't listen to the Negative Nancies. The Wouxun KG-1000G is a good radio and plenty of people use it over any other 50 watt GMRS radio.

I've gotten out of a couple of expensive hobbies but still have three main hobbies that get expensive. I had to give up riding motorcycles due to health and I don't own any Jeeps at this time. I had newer Jeeps along with a 1962 Willys M170 front line ambulance. I keep it simple with my boat and only have a little 10 ft pond hopper. I still am into firearms along with radios and model trains. Boat = bust out another thousand HD Harley Davidson) = Hundred dollars here and there Jeep = Just Empty Every Pocket.

You're welcome. I will suggest to everyone that they bookmark that coax loss calculator. It is quite handy.

There is also LMR400 Ultraflex which is a bit more flexible. You can use some quality RG8X if the jumpers are say 6 feet or less. There won't be much loss at such short lengths.

Yeah I do NOT suggest using the only (or good) cookie sheet. You don't want upset the spousal unit.

Here is a novel idea @Socalgmrs, if you don't have anything positive to add to a conversion, maybe you should just NOT reply. No one likes a Negative Nancy @RayDiddio hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer.

We get it that some will bad mouth Wouxun radios every chance they get. @FishinGary I have never used the Channel Wizard with my KG-935G. I either program the channel individually and then save it to an empty memory slot or use the Wouxun programming software. I haven't had any issues.

A pizza pan or even a 9x13 cookie sheet will work fine.

I have to agree. Especially if you keep your runs 100 feet or less. And most people will not have a coax run over 100 feet. I would just stick with LMR400 or equivalent. I did the calculations for LMR400 at 467.600 with an antenna with 6 dBd of gain at 50 watts. You are only looking at a power loss of 18% over 30 feet. But you make that up and more with a 6 dBd gain antenna. which gives you an ERP (effective radiated power) of 164 watts. I like using https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/ to figure out cable loss. Let's say you have another 20 feet of coax to get from the radio to where the coax comes into the house. You are still getting an ERP of 144 watts.