GreggInFL

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. We lost power in central FL but only for ~ three days. Hang in there.

^ Nice summary.

Good luck with that. Those things are weird.

Welcome!

We cover 1,500+ wooded acres, so FRS is not an option. In fact, GMRS simplex is marginal at best.

Glad to hear it. For a moment there I thought it was just me.

Introduced the HOA to GMRS and it was well received as an all-else-fails comm backup. We agreed to use a specific channel and establish a net protocol if the internet goes down -- which has yet to happen.

Welcome. You're in the right place.

Pfft. Everyone knows it's the spark advance/retard lever.

Yeah, I'll report back after Milton. Already hearing radio checks over the area's biggest repeater.

Dear Santa...

Do you have more details on that tilting bracket assembly? I'm looking at a similar application. TIA.

Welcome. You're in the right place. I'm new at this as well and have found the forum to have some scary-smart folks who are very helpful.

Nice. How tall is the pole?

LOL. I like it. Let's do it.

^ A similar approach to a base station is a mobile setup. The same power radio into a good antenna will get you much more range than a handheld. Not as much as a base station with a better antenna, but still an impressive improvement. Here is the Florida suburbs (flat with trees) my HT is maybe two miles, but my cheap 25W mobile into a small mag mount antenna is at least ten miles. The added benefit is that it's mobile. Assuming there are not massive trees on the roads post hurricane, I can drive the 4x4 to high ground for good comms. Can't do that with a base station. You can always move it inside to use as a base unit.

I'm in the same boat as you, Kenny. In thinking about an emergency setup for hurricanes I find myself coming to the conclusion that anything I put up is going to get knocked down -- and there's nothing I can do about it. So I'll probably rig something I can set up after the event. A decent antenna with good cable and a temporary mast plugged into my mobile unit should work fine. The combo WRXP381 cited is the gold-plated, platinum model, and when I put together a serious base system that's the way I'll go.

Speaking of which, any data on the growth in the user base?

^ Ouch.

Inquiring minds want to know. So, did it work?

As mentioned above, some repeaters don't have a tail you can hear. Try transmitting to another radio via the repeater. Make sure you're not hitting the second repeater via simplex but are going through the repeater.

That's old stuff. Yawn.

Why? Why would you want anyone not doing welfare checks?

Same here with the same antenna. That mag mount on the truck helps compensate for poor LOS.

^Thanks Brent! Much appreciated. I've handed out some HTs in case everything goes down, though we are more central so we're not expecting much.