WRYZ926

He has been asked what radios he uses multiple times and he has yet to answer the question. I think he's up to 999 or 1009 reasons why one should not buy certain brands of radios.

I wouldn't say that is a glitch with your radio. I have noticed the same thing when others are using narrow band and I am using wide band. It is more pronounced when talking through a repeater. I have heard that no matter if I am using an HT or a mobile/base radio. I tell them to switch to wide band and their transmissions are clear when they do.

Dang it, I ran out of reactions for today.. Nice setup. Our club is actually removing DMR from our 70cm repeaters since no one uses DMR anymore.

Yes the US Military has the equipment to monitor and transmit on all frequencies. This includes cell phones even though they are not suppose to listen to cell service in the states.

I have found that there is no one magic antenna that will work well and/or be an improvement over the stock antenna for all handheld radios. The Nagoya and Abbree 771G antennas did make a difference with my Baofeng GMRS radios but the stock antennas on my Wouxun GMRS radios did better than the 771Gs did. All you can do is try a few different antennas and go with what works best with your radio.

Just remember that any and all updates/support for Windows 10 will stop in October of this year. I think there is an option for continued Windows 10 support if you are willing to pay annually for it. Yes Wouxun radios do cost more than other brands but they are better quality and are generally clean as @RayDiddio mentioned. I have Baofeng UV-5R GMRS, handhelds along with Wouxun and Icom handhelds. The Wouxun is definitely better than the Baofeng radios and it is even better than the Icom IC-T10 I own.

As others have stated, there will be no difference in range. Look at different radios and go with what has good reviews, the features you want and at the price you want. The Wouxun KG-905G is a good radio that is easy to use. The plus is no buttons for new users to push and then mess the programing up. Programming the 905G is very simple using the free Wouxun software available for download at Buy Two Way Radio's website. Note that the Wouxun programming software only runs on Windows 10/11. And contrary to a single person's opinion, the Wouxun GMRS radios are well liked and they all get good reviews. In other words, learn to ignore Negative Nancy like the rest of us do.

I would go with a different repeater channel if all possible. The reason being is that anyone in-between the two repeaters will have issues from receiving both repeaters at the same time. I go through this all of the time being halfway between two repeaters.

While you will only hear the one repeater by doing that, you will still receive the signal from the other repeater. You can see it on your radio if it has a signal meter. It's the same way on a repeater channel with tones set and someone close by transmits on the corresponding simplex channel without any tones. You won't hear the simplex transmission but you will still see it on the radio's signal meter. Just because you can't hear one of the signals does not mean that it will not interfere with the other signal that you can hear.

Yes it will. There are two repeaters on 467.550 that are 100 miles apart. Now they do not interfere with each other since they are far enough apart. But I definitely receive both being half way between both repeaters. One repeater uses tones while the other one does not. I receive both repeaters but I never actually hear anything from the repeater without tones since I have tones set on my radios. If I were to turn the receive tone off on my radio then I would hear both repeaters.

I'm beginning to think that when brains were being handed out, Negative Nancy though someone said "trains so he said "no thanks, I'll take the (short) bus". Unfortunately I have had the same argument about GMRS repeater ID requirements with fellow members of my amateur radio club. I had to break the regulations down for them so they would understand that a GMRS repeater does need to ID per Part 95.1751 quoted above. When they kept bringing up family members I had to remind them that we are in Missouri and not Arkansas. Plus the fact that most people that use our repeater are NOT related and they have their own GMRS licenses.

You should not be transmitting in simplex mode. If you have your radio programmed correctly then you should be transmitting on 467.650 and receiving on 462.650. That is if you are talking about the Sara650 repeater in Florida.

I have only seen new butter bars do something like that . I received a lot of good training while stationed at Ft Devens in 1991. I went through Jungle Warfare in Panama in 1989 and combat lifesaver course while stationed in Germany in 1993. Like a lot of skills, using military radios is a perishable skill after a while. I doubt that I could operate a SINGARS radio now days.

I'll add to what @SteveShannon said. It is sometimes easier to keep antennas separated vertically versus keeping them separated horizontally. A lot will depend on your locating and setup. Think of the radiation pattern of vertical antennas as a beach ball. The lower the antenna gain the rounder the pattern will be. The higher the gain, the flatter the pattern will be. An example would be comparing the pattern of a 5 dBd antenna and a 9 dBD antenna. The pattern with the 5 dBD antenna will look like a donut while the pattern of the 9 dBd antenna will look like a thick pancake. Keeping the antennas separated vertically works. As Steve said, you can always move the lower antenna down some if you do get some interference.

@WRTC928 I tell people the exact same thing all of the time. One needs to practice and be proficient with the tools they plan on using in an emergency. That covers everything from communication, defense, first aid, etc. I went through the air crew survival training, jungle warfare training, and combat lifesaver course while I was in the Army. Even with that type of training you still need to practice to keep your skill level up. Even just picking up a radio once a week to talk to family and friends is enough to keep your skills up. One should trim with what tools they will need so that their use is second nature.

At least they are using their radios and practicing for when an actual emergency does happen. Radios are like firearms, people buy them "just in case" and never actually use them or practice with them.

I forgot to mention that fact. Thanks for bringing that up. You definitely do not want to transmit on the radio that is not directly connected to the antenna. So in the case of the repeater, I would make sure that transmit is turned off or just turn the repeater completely off when using the other radio. I know most radios will cut the output power down when the SWR gets too high but why take the chance of burning up the finals.

Yes it does.

You will definitely want a coax switch. A duplexer will not work for using a repeater and a mobile radio on the same antenna. I have had good experiences with the Diamond brand of manual coax switches. I have a 2 port and 3 port switch. While they are not top of the line, they work well. The Diamond switches are definitely cheaper than Alpha Delta switches. Here is the 2 port coax switch I have. Diamond Antenna CX-210A Heavy Duty Wideband Coaxial Switches CX210A

Here is what we have experienced with commercial farms in the mid Missouri area and it isn't good. The area commercial farms will only have a single license in the owner's name while letting every non related employee use their call sign. That's if they even use call signs at all. We have also had commercial farms not even bother with having any license. Then they will try to use repeaters owned by others without bothering to get permission. Plus there is no etiquette and lot's of cussing by the farm employees. Most of the local GMRS repeater owners have banned any type of business/commercial farm use on their repeaters because of this. You don't dare run a repeater without tones on both receive and transmit. Otherwise you hear all of the local farm workers on the corresponding simplex channels cussing. And again most never use call signs and probably don't even have licenses. Yes I know they could easily find the repeaters' tones, but most are too lazy to do that. If farms want to invest their own time and money putting up their own repeaters then that is fine as long as they aren't interfering with the existing repeaters all ready in place.

The few Tram antennas that I have dealt with all need tuned. And they come with the directions on how much to cut off for the frequencies you want to use. It's pretty simple especially if you have a NanoVNA or antenna analyzer. Though you can use the SW-102 also, it will just take a little longer since you have to test at different frequencies to see where the SWR dip is at. I always cut slightly long and then test the SWR and adjust from there in small increments. The last Tram antenna I cut/tuned was the Tram 1174. I cut it close (long) and then made 1/16" to 1/8" cuts until I got it where I wanted. I tuned mine for 467.600. My SWR is 1.4 at 467.600 and 1.2 at 462.600.

I have two Xiegu G90 radios. The first one I bought directly from Radioddity and I won the second G90 in Radioddity's 12th Anniversary raffle back in September. Both radios work great and shipping was very fast both times. I had a technical question and their customer service was very quick to answer my question. The G90 I purchased was one of their bundle deals that I just could not price match anywhere else. That being said, I will buy from Amazon or other venders that have better customer service and better/easier return policies when possible. And I am will to pay up to $20 more for the peace of mind. Now if the difference is closer to $50 or more is a different story. I have paid 10-20 dollars more for amateur radios by ordering from DX Engineering, Giga Parts, and R&L Electronics over finding the same radios elsewhere. Those three companies have great customer service and easy return policies. I avoid eBay, especially for amateur radios since there is a good chance that you will get a Japanese or European version that doesn't work on US amateur radio bands.

While the Comet CA-712EFC is a good antenna, it might be overkill and too big for what the OP needs. Especially since he is using a 30 foot telescoping flag pole. Plus we don't know what the local terrain is like where he lives. He might be better suited with something with a little less gain than the CA-712EFC. And yet again, not everyone lives in a flat and wide open desert where they can tx over 200 miles. That kind of distances is quite rare for most of the country.

No it's not but the name does fit him.

A few of us let Negative Nancy distract us. As far as the OP, I'm sure that he would have better luck doing a local fund raiser instead of asking total strangers on the internet.