WRYZ926

There are few areas where the 1.25m/220 MHz band is pretty active,. But those areas seem few and far between. I can only find one 1.25m repeater here in Missouri and it is permanently linked to a 2m repeater. There are two reasons why the 1.25m band is not more popular. One is that there are only two 50 watt mobile radios available on the market and both are from China. All the tri and quad band radios with 1.25m are limited to 5 or 10 watts max. Wouxun has released their KG-XS20H that is 20 watts on 220 MHz but they are not in stock at this time. The flip side is that the big three aren't interested in making a 1.25m radio with more than 5-10 watts since no one really uses the band and North America is the only market for it. It's a vicious circle. I have found that even expanded metal like what most hitch mounted luggage racks are made of makes a good ground plane for the 2x4SR. I cut down one of these racks to fit the back of my SxS and have the 2x4SR on a Midland mag mount on the rack and it works well. I'm using a 20 watt radio on the SxS.

Yes the Comet 2x4SR will be an improvement if you want multi band use. You are correct that you would not have to change the mag mount to go from the MXT-26 to the 2x4SR. All you have to do is swap them out on your mag mount. I would run the 2x4SR on my Ford Escape all of the time if I didn't have height restrictions to deal with.

I have my KG-1000G and my Icom IC-2730 under the driver's seat with the remote heads on a Lido seat bolt mount. I have to run external speakers if I want to hear either radio clearly. This is in my 2023 Ford Escape. I run the 20 watt Midland SPK100 in my Honda Pioneer 500 UTV.

Stainless steel and aluminum won't interact as much as carbon steel and aluminum will. Though you do take the chance of galvanization anytime you mix any type of steel and aluminum. I use to hate working on vehicles with aluminum rims when previous owners/repair shops would not use anti-seize on the rims. The aluminum rims would seize to the steel if one did not rotate tires on a regular basis.

I had interference issues on 2m when transmitting on 10m when I first installed my Comet GP-9 and my home made 10m inverted v dipole. The 1:1 balun is about 2 feet below the base of the GP-9. I never noticed the issue until I was transmitting on 10m FT8 and talking on the 2m repeater. People told me I had an occasion buzz on my transmission. That only happened when transmitting on 10m FT8 while talking on the 2m repeater. The fix was five clamp on ferrite beads right at the 1:1 balun and I put three on the coax right at the GP-9. Both coax cables run within 2 inches of each other from the mast all the way until they enter the house. 5 clamp on ferrite beads works for the higher HF bands while 7 works better for the lower HF bands.

I run common mode chokes at the antenna feed points and also use clamp on ferrite beads on all coax and computer cables inside my shack. A common mode choke helps keep RF from coming back down the coax into the shack. And that is a must especially on 40m. You can either use a toroid with the proper number of wraps of coax or you can use clamp on ferret beads. You want to use between 5 and 7 clamp on ferrite beads right at the antenna feed point to be effective. Less than 5 ferrite beads will not be very effective. I had a lot of RF issues with my computer when operating on 40M until I put 7 ferrite beads on the coax at the antenna. Another source of interference that is often overlooked is network cables. I kept getting interference on my HF radio until I swapped all of my cheap Cat5 cables for shielded Cat 5 and shielded RJ45 connectors.

Either way, bad things can happen when dissimilar metals are put together and exposed to the environment over time.

I agree, go with the correct radials made from stainless steel. Cheap all-thread will rust and seize in the antenna housing.

I use the Icom SP-35 speaker for my Wouxun KG-1000g and my Icom IC-2730B. You can usually find the SP-35 on Amazon for $35. They are plenty loud. The Wouxun will drive the Icom SP-35 just fine. I normally don't turn the volume up past 5 or 6 on my KG-1000G in the car. A common mistake that some make is trying to use a y adaptor plugged into both speaker ports on the KG-1000G going into 1 speaker. You get an impedance mismatch when trying to run one speaker plugged into both radio speaker ports and the sound level will very low. The only way I have found to run a single speaker is to use a dual mono to stereo y adapter AND a stereo speaker with dual speakers in the housing. A single channel speaker will not work. Now if you need something louder, there are the Midland 20 watt speakers. I have the 20 watt SPK-100 speaker on my SxS and I can hear the radio just fine while cursing down gravel roads at 35 mph. And I don't have to crank the radio volume way up either.

I would at least try to get the antenna up higher than the house if possible. Not everyone can get antennas higher than trees in the area. There are all kinds of options when it comes to antenna masts. A study flag pole will definitely work as will chainlink fence top rail or 1 5/8" fence posts with couplers. Satellite dish/J mounts also work well. Some j mounts are 1 5/8" diameter and can be extended using couplers and 1 5/8" fence posts. Just remember to properly secure any mast with wall clamps and guy wires/ropes, depending on installation, to keep them from falling. I made a mast from 1 5/8" fence posts for my Comet GP-9. I used j mounts for my Comet CA-712EFC and HF cobweb antenna. I used an eight foot piece of 1 5/8" fence post on the j mount to get the cobweb up a little and it is secured with guy ropes.

Don't forget that he has 1998 reasons why Midland and Wouxun radios are total junk. Or are we up to 4995 reasons now.

Again it is going to depend on your location, terrain, amount of trees and buildings, etc. More realistic simplex range for 70cm and GMRS is going to be 2-10 miles, again depending on your surrounding and location. We have guys check into our weekly 2m simplex net from as far away as 55 miles straight line. They definitely are using beam antennas up high on towers and there is a good chance they are also running amplifiers too. I know we do have guys that check into the 2m simplex net that are 40-45 miles away and they are not using any type of amplifier and they are using vertical antennas. Again location and height of the antenna plays a key part on how far one can be heard. My dual band antenna is a GP-9 with the base at 22 feet above the ground. The farthest I have talked to anyone on 70cm or GMRS using my 50 watt mobile radio on a simplex channel/frequency to another using a base station with a vertical antenna at least 30 feet above ground has been about 25 miles. But that is pushing it. I use a short Comet SBB-1 NMO dual band antenna and a short Tram 1174 antenna tuned for GMRS on my Ford Escape. Now talking to someone 18-22 miles from my base radios to their base radios is normally not a problem when using 70cm and GMRS. There are a lot of variables on how far you can get out using VHF/UHF such as type of antenna, antenna height, your location and local terrain, etc. To answer the original question, you won't get out any farther using the 70cm amateur band compared to using GMRS when the radios and antenna setups are the same as far as power output and antenna height.

Yes one can use an amplifier on 2m and 70cm. But comparing apples to apples by using a 50 watt 2m/70cm mobile to using a MGRS 50 watt mobile, then there will not be any difference in the range with 70cm and GMRS.

We have our 70cm repeater antennas and GMRS repeater antennas on the same tower. The 70cm antennas are higher but the actual range is the same for both GMRS and 70CM. We get between a 30-35 mile coverage radius with the usual dead spots due to local terrain. Our 2m repeater antennas are at the same height as our 70cm antennas and we get a 80-85 mile coverage radius with it. Those ranges are all with using 50 watt mobile radios and good mobile antennas with the proper ground plane. And before "some people" state how they get 200 + miles with their GMRS radios, they live in the most perfect ideal location across wide open and flat desert terrain. Real world range will be anywhere from 15 miles to 50 miles depending on what part of the country you lie in and what the local terrain is like.

I have two KG-1000G radios along with one KG-XS20G. I have not had any issues with all three radios. The XS20G is a very nice 20 watt radio and easy to program through the radio or with a computer. Actual output power ranges from 18 watts to 25 watts. It also has the same screen and menu setup as the KG-935G hand held radio. The plus of the KG-1000G is that it is 50 watts and has a removable faceplate. That makes it nice when space is limited like in most new vehicles. It costs close to the same as the Midland MTX500 and MTX575. I have used all three and prefer the KG-1000G. A lot of people are happy with the Radioddity DB-20G. SO that is another option for you.

Many HF antennas were made with twin lead wire from Radio Shack. And I still have a great set of Radio Shack Realistic speakers that still sound great after 40+ years. I have to agree with @SteveShannon, I would rather use a good quality 75 ohm coax over some cheap craptastic 50 ohm coax. I don't even like using the cheap Amazon or eBay coax for short jumpers even though loss is not a factor with such short lengths. The biggest issue I have is the lack of shielding in the cheap stuff.

One of the main differences between cheap coax and more expensive quality coax is the amount of shield braid used and also the materialist is made from. You will only see about 50-60 percent of the dielectric being covered by the shield braid on cheap coax where you will see 70 to 100 percent coverage in the more expensive coax. The amount of shield braid makes a difference in how it protects against RFI and will also act as a better counterpoise when the coax is used as such. It is common to use the coax as a counterpoise when using end fed half wave antennas for HF versus running a separate counterpoise wire.

I reran the numbers using RG-58, RG-8X, and RG-8 with the length of 15 feet since that is the average length used in vehicle installations. RG-58 RG-8X RG-8 Now most mobile antennas will not have 5 dBd of gain so you will have to adjust that number using the calculator.

I ran the numbers using the https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/ for several types of coax. Here are some screen shots showing the losses for 100ft of coax. LMR400 RG-8X RG-8 1/2" Heliax

I've tried the Nagoya 701G and 771G on my KG-935G and the stock Wouxun antenna performs better. I do see an improvement when using the 771G on my Baofeng UV-5R GMRS radios.

I do wish that Wouxun would include a way to adjust mic gain in their radios. And yes the KG-1000G mic is on the hot side. Another thing that greatly helps is holding the mic at an angle to your face instead of flat. PS: ignore Negative Nancy

Oh I can feel my blood sugar levels spike just looking at that photo. Why tease a diabetic like that. Outside of just stocking one type of connector and keeping the prices and inventory down, there is absolutely no reason to use PL-259/SO-239 connectors for any VHF/UHF radio when N Type connectors are better. While N Type connectors are definitely more weather resistant, I still wrap them just like I wrap PL-259 connectors out of habit.

It's always a trade off when determining what type of coax to use. For the average person setting up a base station where the coax run is 50 feet or less then LMR 400 and equivalent is fine. Just like every type of antenna is a compromise. Go with what works best for your situation and that also fits your budget. Not everyone can afford LMR 600 or 1/2" Heliax cable.

You will get a baker's dozen if you can get all the radio manufacturers to start using N Type connectors on all HVF/UHF/GMRS radios.

Two very important tips to always remember.