WRYZ926

If you are talking about the Ghost antennas, The Midland Ghost MXTA25 and Melowave Shadow are pretty good for being so short and they work better than the Nagoya UT-72G antenna. But they won't work as well as a taller antenna such as the Midland MXTA26 or Comet 2x4SR. I have a height restriction since I park in the garage so I run a Tram 1174 tuned for GMRS on my Ford Escape.

I've seen people use NMO mounts on fiberglass/plastic tops on Jeeps, Broncos and truck toppers. They will epoxy a metal plate to the underside of the top for a ground plane. That would be another option for you. Mounting an antenna to a luggage rack will definitely reduce the ground plane. How much that affects things will depend on the size of the rack and how far it is above the roof. A expanded mesh metal roof basket will help increase the ground plane compared to just the rack. Another option is the Midland MXTA38 plate. I have one on an aluminum toolbox that works well holding my Midland magnet mount and Comet 2x4SR on my SxS. You will still need some type of ground plane under the MXTA38 plate though.

The club member that has made a bunch of j pole antennas actually uses some old solid center conductor 75 ohm coax cable for the GMRS j pole antennas. So far they have held up through all types of weather conditions. The center conductor on the 75 ohm coax is fairly large so it holds up well.

What @WRUU653 suggested is definitely worth trying. Plus those RJ connectors are not the strongest and will wear out with constant movement of the cable/cord. It could be something as simple as the connector went bad or there is a break in the wires. And the RJ connector going bad or wires breaking can happen with any brand of radio. RJ connectors are not the best choice for this application since the cables are constantly getting moved around. plus the wires are small too.

@brasda91 Thanks for sharing that link. Yes that is always an option. But I don't want to have speakers right next to my head like that for several reasons. One is the fact that I wear hearing aids. Another is safety, I try to keep things that can be projectiles in an accident down to a minimum I cringe every time I see people bejewel their steering wheels and dashes right overtop the airbags. Thats nothing but a claymore waiting to go off.

Man Road Runner would be neat to have. I could really aggravate my friends with that

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for drinks that might be spit onto screens and/or keyboards.

WOW Negative Nancy just can't help himself. So are we still at 999 reasons not to own a Chinese made radio or are we up to 1998 reasons now. On topic. I won't be any help since I hardly use scan let alone priority scan. Too many kids, farmers and drunk hunters (during deer season) to listen too.

I have tried the Nagoya 771G and the Abree version on my KG-935G. The stock antenna works better. And don't let the negativity bother you. There is nothing wrong with Wouxun radios. There are plenty of us that own Wouxun radios and don't have any issues with them.

I have a Comet 2x4SR and SBB1. Both are 1.8 or below for 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. I still run and operate GMRS only antenna on my Ford Escape since I like to use my dual band and GMRS radios at the same time. The same goes for my base station. I run the GP9 for dual band and the CA712EFC for GMRS. The 2x4SR is a good multi band mobile antenna and works well for 2m, 70cm, MURS, GMRS and VHF public safety frequencies.

The Comet GP9 is a tall antenna and not everyone wants or can have an antenna that tall. Several of us in my local club use the GP9 and we tested all of them on the GMRS channels. The SWR on 467 MHz averages around 1.7 to 2.1 and the SWR on 462 MHz averages around 1.3 to 1.5 on all of the GP9 antennas we tested. I'll have to see if anyone local has the Comet GP6 to test.

Well that didn't take long. I knew Negative Nancy would put his worthless half a pence in. The negative vibes need to go. Plenty of people use J pole antennas with great results. One of my friends has made several J poles for GMRS for other club members and they all work. He has also made a 6m j pole out of copper and a giant 11m/CB j pole out of aluminum tubing. It works well too. I have a 2m j pole made from 3/8" aluminum rod that works well and sometimes use it portable. I also made the faraday clothe j poles for portable work.

Steve is correct. You will get opinions ranging from hey are junk and no better than a dummy load to they are great antennas. I have a 2m and 70cm Fara-J antennas to test out once the swamp dries up a little. They are clothe j pole antennas made with strips of faraday clothe. You can make your own or buy them from https://vfcomms.com . They make a 6m, 2m, 70cm, GMRS and Meshtastic version of their Fara-j antennas. I went to check the yard today and what a muddy mess. We went from snow and single digit temps all last week to 60 degrees yesterday and today.

I have a Comet GP-9 and the SWR is 1.8 on 467 MHz and 1.5 on 462 MHz. That being said, I still run a Comet CA-712EFC for my GMRS radio so that I can run my GMRS and dual band radios at the same time.

You can find the Icom SP35 speaker on Amazon for $30 or $35 all of the time. Most other places want $50 or $55 for it. The Icom SP35 is an excellent small speaker. And if you need something louder for an open cab vehicle then I can highly recommend the Midland SPK100 20 watt speaker.

And the R56 document is not an opinion either. It is directly from a manufacturer. One should always follow the NEC (National Electric Code) when installing antennas, antenna masts and towers. The Reeves document makes things easier to understand and worth reading.

This is what I found as far as a dual male mono to female stereo y adaptor. I don't know 100% if that would even work. &D 3.5mm Stereo Female to Dual 3.5mm Mono Male Audio Cable, 3ft 3.5mm 1/8" TRS Female to 2 x 3.5mm 1/8" TS Male Y Breakout Cable Splitter I might be the guinea pig for $6. If I get that adaptor then I can try it with my mono Icom SP35 and along with a stereo speaker that I use with my Xiegu G90. The G90 only has a headphone jack which is stereo and a mono speaker doesn't work well. Again muffled sound.

I ran into the same problem about a year ago when I tried several Y adaptors with my KG-1000G. All of the adaptors were stereo to stereo. They work fine when connecting a single mono speaker to a single port but not when trying to use both ports at the same time. As I stated before, part of the problem is the impedance mismatch. And @SteveShannon a mixer would definitely help along with the correct mono to stereo y adaptor. The only thing I have not tried yet was using an actual stereo speaker with both left and right speakers in one unit. Some radios, like the Icom IC-2730, will push audio out for side A and side B from one single port. But the KG-1000G definitely won't.

I took a close look at the Wouxun y adaptor. It too is stereo to stereo which we know will not work when trying to send two mono ports to one single speaker.

I won't argue about that either. GO with what is best for you.

Now if the Radioddity DB-20G was actually IP rated for dust and water then I would have strongly considered getting one for my SxS. But since it is not IP rated, I went with the Wouxun KG-XS20G instead. One won't go wrong with the DB-20G or the Wouxun KG-XS20G or KG-1000G. The DB-20G wins for those on a tighter budget.

Just personal preference here. I would go with the Icom IC-2730A for $310 over the Yaesu FTM-150RASP for $379. I'm disappointed in Yaesu's customer service and the fact that they want to charge people $900 to fix a bad USB port on some of their HF radios. The issue is that they know it is a bad design but refuse to fix it. Plus the parts required to fix the USB port are pretty cheap compared to Yaesu charging $900 to replace the entire main board.

I've owned both and still have the Wouxun. The main reason I got rid of my Midland MXT500 was because of the low output power on high setting. I got rid of the Midland before I knew that I could have sent the radio back for repair. I used both the Midland MXT500 and the Wouxun KG-XS20G 20 watt radio when we were testing the antennas on the tower for our GMRS repeater. We tested on simplex first. I am 22.5 miles away from the tower. The KG-XS20G actually did better all around than the MXT500 did. Both radios were hooked up to my Comet CA-712EFC.

The 20 watt Midland SPK100 is a good choice for open air vehicles like Jeep Wranglers and side by sides. I installed the SPK100 in my Honda Pioneer 500 and can hear just fine while traveling at 35 MPH down gravel roads.

Another option if you want a custom length cable is ABR Industries. Yes they will cost a little more but they are excellent cables. You won't go wrong with cables from ABR Ind., Messi and Paoloni, Times Microwave, or DX Engineering. Another good source that I have only used for short jumpers is the Jet brand from R&L Electronics. You will be fine as long as you stick with LMR400 or a quality equivalent. Avoid the cheap stuff from Amazon and eBay. The Comet CA-712EFC is a very popular antenna that works well. It is long at around 10 ft. The Comet CA-GMRS is another good antenna if you need something shorter. There are other brands that will be suggested.