WRYZ926

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.

As others have said, you may or may not have any issues with a glass mount antenna. Defrosters, embedded AM/FM antennas and certain types of tint can cause a problem. Or they may not cause any issues. Some window tint has enough metal in it to affect RF signals.

@tcp2525 and @nokones gave good advice. It is common for those with camper shells/toppers on trucks to use a piece of conductive metal on the underside of the fiberglass shell with a drilled hole for a NMO mount. And for the most part a glass mount antenna will also work. I personally would go with the Larsen glass mount on a Corvette to keep the classy and sporty look of the vehicle.

It's actually not all that difficult to look up someone's address without going through the FCC website. The only way to keep all of your information private is to go totally off grid, get rid of any and all computers, phones, never banking or using checks and credit cards, have any public utilities in your name, etc etc. Oh and for those that have served in the US military since 1993, the federal government has your DNA on file. If you have ever had any type of government security clearance, they also have your entire life story on record.

Yes you are going to want some type of metal ground plane. A 12" diameter piece of metal with the antenna mounted in the middle will be enough for GMRS.

The GMRS license does not come with an attached wallet card like the amateur licenses come with. Or at least the copies I downloaded in October 2023 and the additional copy I downloaded a few weeks ago do not have it.

You can get them into cars, motorcycles, shooting sports, etc etc and they won't have money for anything else.

And that is why I avoid any and all cheap cables with clone/pirated Prolific chips in them. It's bad enough that Prolific drivers have not been updated in years. I've had issues with some cloned Prolific chips on Windows and MacOS. I have a couple that I never could get to work on either operating system. Even Linux doesn't like those cables.

That is how it is with some of our club members. And we all enjoy hearing the kids talk on the GMRS repeaters talking to Grandma and Grandpa. Some of the kids are as young as 5 and all of them do really good using call sings when required and waiting their turn when a group of people are on the repeater. Some of the kids might not ever get into amateur radios but I know a few that definitely will.

I hated those winds. They would always blow my little Dodge Shadow all over the place when going over Jack Rabbit pass in-between Ft Irwin and Barstow. Though summer at Ft Irwin was no fun either. The summer winds came out of Death Valley.