WSAA254

Elevation is everything. Best distance I have is 50 miles at 5 watts. If it were not for the elevation of the repeater, there is no way I could do it... best of luck

I use a compactenna scan-III. It is a wide band antenna, that give good results in the gmrs bands. I also use this antenna with a SDR, and on a routine bases get NOAA, AM broadcast, I have even picked up some weather satelite data (137.1). Below are my swr results for a number of bands. I think there are better GMRS specific antennas, however for my setup, it works quite well. The first pic is swr at 462 and 467, the second is 420 to 470, third is 2 meters. I have also shown the switch setup I use to switch from the GMRS to sdr setup. I have the wouxun kg1000 plus, but find myself using it primarily for GMRS, When setting it up I confirmed it worked for NOAA/FM etc, however for my use, the wouxun is probably overkill, since I don't use all its capabilities. Best of luck

Could not agree more. I ASSUME if the radio has some degree of complience standard, and the radio manufacture has been around awhile, it should be ok. No spurious emissions, etc. All I have is a nano vna, I have never verified that the wouxun xmits at the power advertised. Course if I had to make a choice on selecting a really "clean" transmission, or the last watt out, I will take the "clean" transmission. xmit power is more of a advertising point, as oppose to what it really means. Great content, and information.. all info is good info. regards

Very well said. I never really appreciated the whole line of sight, until I experienced it first hand.

Just repeating what other folks have said. The key will be the antenna, I love the flagpole suggestions, there is lots of possibilities there. initially maybe focus on a base station and the antenna solution. Fortunately gmrs frequencies lend themselves to small antennas. There are "ghost" antennas which are small. I am not in a HOA so I have more flexibility. A attic solution may work, depending on type of roof. There are some ghost antennas which are only 3-4 inches tall, specific for mobile installations, may not be ideal for base station, but its better than nothing. The image below is of the antenna I use. Its primary application if for mobile use, however with the added counterpoise ground solution it works very well for a base station. Since gmrs antennas can be so small, some folks will put the antenna on a roof vent, and if the antenna is only 8-12 inches tall, and it were painted the same color as the roof vent, it would probably be next to "invisible" best of luck, there is a solution

I am using the Compactenna scan-III . Its more of a "general" purpose wide band antenna, but seems to work very well for gmrs. Below are swr results in the 462-467 range, with this same antenna I can get into 2 meters with a swr of around 2 (not great but workable). I think are are other antennas not so "general purpose". Some can more focused on 2 to 3 bands (2 meter/70 cm/gmrs etc)... The third is 420-470 swr results. Its all a tradeoff. best of luck

I think I will pretty much echo what everyone else has been saying. 1. Elevation/line of site is king. see the below chart regarding my own situation. I can hit the repeater with 5 watts at 50 miles, but if it were not for the elevation, there is no way. folks have hit the same repeater with a hand held from this area. 2. Quality coax. I use LMR 400. one end has the pl 259 connector the other has a n type connector into a antenna switch. This is a build your own cable through dx engineering. The shot below shows the antenna connection to the switch. switch can select from gmrs to sdr. 3. SWR, its more important for xmit, but a tuned matching circuit is better than one that is not. Bottom line is you want as much real energy getting to the antenna, or from the antenna during reception. Best of luck, all the information presented here is good stuff.

Just to put the SWR in context, years ago (50+) I had a Heathkit hw-16 I used for novice license work on 80 meters. Crystal controlled etc. I did not have a SWR meter initially, I finally got one, then checking the di-pole antenna, had a SWR of 6:1. I know this is all comparing apples to oranges. I guess at this point my Standing Wave Ratio became Sitting Wave Ratio. When I went and sold the HW-16, (all tube). the guy who bought it had the tubes checked, and the final output tube was a little weak. Guess that reflected energy was not the best thing. From what little I know, if you can stay under 2:1 its good, anything under 1.5:1 is better. Having said that I have seen the smallest things affect SWR. Antenna is one in the list. Excellent input/feedback. All info is good info.. regards

I currently use a compactenna scan-III. Its general purpose, but works well for gmrs.

From what little experience I have had, its like squeezing jello. You can get a really good tight antenna that really works well for a specific freq, but then suffers outside that given frequency. It kind of comes down to where you spend most of your time. if 90% of your time is hitting repeaters, then tuning around 467 is a good thing. Picking a different antenna can make a difference to. A antenna with a "FLATTER" swr response, may not give the highest db, but may give a better overall performance. Its to easy to fall into the "Analysis Paralysis" mode and overthink it. SWR info is good, however little things can affect swr reading by a tenth or so. So SWR numbers can really tell you which way the wind is blowing, but splitting hairs over a 1.2 versus 1.4 is great from academic discussion, but does not mean that much. Its good info... All info is good info. regards.

After reading all the feedback, I would say if 10 folks are saying use XXX meter, then you probably can't go wrong. I use a nanovna h-4 for swr, its overkill, however one thing I have noticed, swr numbers can vary by 2-3% depending on connections, coax type, coax run length, or if you have any antenna switches in the feed line ( I do). I have seen my swr numbers vary by 0.1 depending on the coax type I connected to the nanovna, which hindsite what it is I probably would go with what has been recommened as opposed the nanovna. As long as you have a meter that works in the frequency range required, and you have a few other folks that say Yep this works for me, then your good... Best of luck.. All info is good info... regards. The image attached is swr after a antenna switch and using the same coax that connects to the kg1000.

I should have mentioned antennas, my apologys. I use the compactenna scan-III that is only about 10ft in the air. The response is fairly good from 100mhz and up, HF is not that great, although I can get better response at night. I am sure there are much better antenna setups for HF stuff, but for my purpose this works ok.. I also use the same antenna for GMRS, with very good results. Having an outside antenna makes all the difference in the world, anything you do outside will beat any little antenna they give you for inside application. Best of luck.. all info is good info... regards

I went through some work on deciding between a midland or a wouxun kg-1000 plus. In a way I would have preferred the midland, it was simpler. The kg1000 will do more than I ever needed, however it was more flexible on software interface. I know that technically you don't have to have "software" on a computer to "program" them, but boy it sure makes it easy. The problem for me regarding the midland, it required a windows computer to load firmware updates, While I could have probably/maybe figured this out using bootcamp on the mac, I just went with the wouxun and use CHIRP for programming. The wouxun has worked out very well, but its way more than I need. I would have been happy with the midland if there interface was easier... Hope this helps, good luck.. All info is good info... regards

I am currently using a SDR play with there SDR connect software. I also have a gmrs setup with a switch between the two "radios". It works well. If I am working with the SDR I always go the the freq that the repeater is transmitting (462.***). I have notice between the gmrs receiver and the sdr, that the quality of the reception of the gmrs is better. This makes sense since its a superhet receiver. The big difference if voice quality, and the gmrs radio has less static. On your sdr make sure that the squelch is reasonable, you should see some activity on the waterfall. Also try to play with the sampling rate, this may provide a better resolution. Best of luck, the SDR stuff can be like drinking from a fire hydrant. A lot of time the gmrs is kind of quiet, so see if there is a known network traffic at somepoint. All info is good info... regards

I went with DX-engineering "build your own" cable. If your building alot, then maybe getting the correct tools etc would be worth it. If your just doing 1 or 2 then have it built. You can also pick the type of connector for any given cable. Just my 2 cents, best of luck.