WRYZ926

I'm glad to hear that you redid the connections and that improved things for you. While ABR makes excellent coax cables, their ABR240-UF is pretty much the same as RG-213. Line Loss per 100 Feet RG-213 - 5.28dB, 70% loss LMR240 (same as ABR240) - 5.40dB, 72% loss LMR400 - 2.87dB, 48% loss RG-58 - 9.16dB, 88% loss Again, The calculations were made using 50 watts in and an SWR of 1.5. I used the https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/ to get those numbers. Your numbers will be different depending on the actual gain of your antenna. Higher loss cable will actually show a lower SWR due to loss. Go with the best that you can afford along with the acceptable losses for your needs. I would go with the DX Engineering 400MAX or R&L Electronics Jetstream 400Flex before going with RG-213/ABR240/LMR240. ABR coax is good stuff and I use their cables for all of my portable/POTA setups. Check out the coax loss calculator I linked. It is very helpful.

As mentioned, nothing will protect against a direct lightning strike. That being said, it is till a good idea to have lightning protection for the near strikes. Plus lightning arrestors will also help prevent damage from static electricity buildup on antennas when everything is properly grounded per NEC codes.

RG-213 has 5.28dB/70% loss at 100 feet and LMR-400 has 2.87dB/48% loss at 100 feet. The calculations were made using 50 watts in and an SWR of 1.5. You can get away with using RG-213 but LMR-400 will definitely work better. Cheaper alternatives to LMR-400 is DX Engineering 400MAX or R&L Electronics Jetstream 400Flex. As @nokones stated, stay away from the cheap stuff from Amazon and eBay. The cheaper stuff will have less ground shielding plus some use aluminum instead of copper shielding. You definitely won't get as good of a solder joint on your connectors with aluminum shielding, if you can even get the solder to stick to it.

My brother didn't request a new call sign either. The FCC will not change it unless you request a vanity call sign.

My brother's call sign stayed the same when he went from technician to general to amateur extra. He was first licensed in 2022.

I found out that the Icom IC-2730 will do the same thing if you have weather alerts turned on. The radio will scan the weather channels every few seconds and cuts out the channel you are listening to. I've never turned on the priority scan feature on my KG-1000G and I made sure to turn the weather alerts off on the IC-2730.

MyGMRS and repeater book are setup so that only the repeater owner or authorized representative are suppose to be able to add, edit, or delete repeaters from the lists. I know with how MYGMRS is setup, if you list someone else's repeater, you will be the one getting any and all requests for access. Both websites require you to acknowledge that you the repeater owner or an authorized representative when you list any repeaters. And yes we all know that anyone can scan and get the tones easily. That still doesn't make it right for someone other than the repeater owner or authorized representative to list said repeater. I know that I would nt care for anyone else listing my repeater on MYGMRS. The reason is that they would start getting all requests. Yes the repeater is open but it is still nice when people do take the time to request permission to use it. It's common courtesy.

Also double check to see what ohms the original speaker is and match it with the new speaker. Most are either 4 ohms or 8 ohms.

Because not all repeater owner's want their repeaters listed for what ever reasons. And it also keeps from have multiple listings for the same repeater on the website. Another thing is if someone besides the owner listed a repeater that requires permission, then the repeater owner will not get any requests at all through MyGMRS.

I doubt that the 712EFC will stand up to 112 MPH winds either. We had winds high enough to blow down a 24-36 inch diameter maple tree on Easter Sunday. The winds were getting close to 70 MPH that day and my vertical antennas sure were dancing around.

The few Tram antennas I have used or setup for others were all easy to tune. And the included instructions are good. I do use a Comet CA-712EFC and it has been a good antenna that has survived several storms with 50MPH + winds without issue.

Just keeping it family friendly just like if I was talking on the radio.

While a relay is not needed, some like to have one so that any accessory wired directly from the battery will not receive power until the vehicle is turned on. This is quite common when adding accessory lights to vehicles. And it keeps from killing the battery if you forget to turn the accessory off.

I personally would not try running anything more than a 25 watt radio from the cigarette lighter/accessory port. I would just run the positive wire to the battery and the ground wire to a good chassis ground. Anytime you power a transceiver through the vehicle wire harness you take a chance of getting RFI issues. Now if you are worried about a power drain, you can use a 12v relay that won't power the radio until the vehicle is started. Here is a diagram showing how to wire a relay. So you would run a wire from a power source that is only on when the vehicle is running to 86, that will only close the relay switch when the vehicle is started. And you can use a fuse tap for this. You still want to run the radio positive to the battery positive and the radio ground wire to a chassis ground. For the relay, to work, run the radio positive wire to the relay 87 pin and then another wire from the relay pin 30 to the battery.

He’s full of it. The license is in only one person’s name but all immediate family members are allowed to use that call sign.

Last time I checked the US military is still using 30 MHz to 70 MHz. I know we used that section all of the time when I was in. Low band was 30-50 MHz and high was 51-70 MHz. And the 6m band is not called the magic band for nothing. 6m is either open or it’s not. And it doesn’t matter if you are using FM AM or SSB. 6m FM won’t get much farther than 2m will

No updates that I know of. Unfortunately there is no mic gain adjustments on the KG-1000G and the mic is definitely hot. The best thing is to make sure to hold it at a slight angle when transmitting.

The cigarette lighter is the worst thing to use, especially for a 50 watt radio. The lighter port is usually only rated for 10 amp and a 50 watt radio pulls double that on transmit. Plus there is a greater chance of getting RFI into your vehicle wiring harness that way. Your best bet is to run the radio positive lead to the battery and the radio negative to a chassis ground. This is especially true if it is a newer vehicle equipped with the battery management system.

I still carry around some souvenirs from my time in Iraq, so maybe the shrapnel is helping to act as a counterpoise.

If that's the case then it's amazing that I can talk to anyone while using a HT. I'm a 5'9" and 145 pound skinny guy.

I have soldered 30 quake wire to some veery small digital command control boards on my n scale locomotives. It takes a super small tip and this solder to do. I won't even attempt stuff that small without a good magnifying glass or a digital microscope. I've never messed with surface mount components. When it comes to big stuff like 6 gauge wire and bigger, I just break out the propane torch. We had to replace a water heater at work one time and it took two of us using MAPP torches to get the 3 inch diameter copper pipe and fittings hot enough to solder together.

Yes there are many different antenna mounting options available. I would personally go with the type of mount @SteveShannon mentioned before going with a standard NMO mount on a Corvette. But that's just me. A Corvette is out of my humble price range and I would never go drilling into such a vehicle. And while not 100% necessary, One will still want to find a way to mount a sheet of metal under the antenna mount for better performance. And that would mean removing the headliner if putting the antenna on top of the car. Again, I personally wouldn't want to take the chance of messing the headliner up on an expensive sports car. Like I said, it's all perspective. I'm on a fixed income and can't even afford something like a Corvette or even a big fancy SUV or some of the bigger trucks and Jeeps.

I'm sure that you can get at least a couple of people from the local amateur radio club to help. Most enjoy helping especially when it comes to putting antennas up. And if they do help and try talking you into getting our amateur license, you can always tell them that you want to get your feet wet first with GMRS. We have a couple of members that struggle to get their amateur license due to health issues. We haven't pushed them into it and have suggested they start with GMRS. They have all taken our advice and are on the air and using the GMRS repeater.

I guess it's all in perspective to each individual. I personally would not want to go drilling into any Corvette for a NMO mount. The bodies are still primarily made for either fiberglass or carbon fiber or a mix of the two. Just me, but any type of antenna mount other than a glass mount would look out of place on an expensive sports car. I generally don't care for glass mount antennas but that would be what I would go with in this situation.