warthog74

That's part of the fun. When the band is open a lot of us enjoy "shooting skip". It really has nothing to do with overpowered stations. I mean they do exist, but due to atmospheric conditions you'll even hear people on stock radios as well from all over the country and/or world that sound like they are next door. Luckily (or sadly depending on how you look at it) it doesn't last forever. Generally 11 year cycles, then the CB will be mostly dead silent again until the next solar cycle.

You do already have a nice repeater in Wausau that covers about 25 miles. It may or may not be close to where you are located, but it's there if you need it. https://mygmrs.com/repeater/8068 The owner of that repeater also owns about 18 more scattered around Wisconsin. I'm just outside of Green Bay, and he owns the Depere 600 system that's up on Scrays Hill. It says it does 25 miles, but i've already hit it from 40 miles away while mobile.

For the CB side i'm just using a plain jane 2' Diesel fiberglass whip on a hood mount. For the scanner the 885 came with a wire antenna with suction cups on the end. I ran it to the back window of my truck. I'm sure there are better ways to do it, but that stock wire antenna worked great this weekend picking up signals from 30-40 miles away, so i'll stick with it for now.

Coming back to this, and a little off topic, but... I recently picked up a NIB Bear Tracker 885 CB/Scanner combo for a steal (half off suggested retail price) off of marketplace. Yes, it's a CB and it doesn't have NRC, SSB or FM, but i don't care. I wanted it for the p25 scanner capability, weather alerts, and bear tracker. Anyway, i removed the ashtray and made a custom mount. The radio just fit width-wise. Sadly i couldn't get it flush as there wasn't a lot of room behind the dash. At any rate, i like it. It's clean, and all wires are hidden.

I recently replaced my aging 1977 Montgomery Ward 702 base station with a Radioddity CB-500. Let me tell you... for a compact little $89 radio it's an excellent bang for the buck! AM/FM, 10 and 11 meter capable (by moving a jumper), NRC, echo, talkback, ctcss/dcs, weather channels, hi/low power, 7 color display, etc etc. It's basically a rebranded AnyTone AT-500M II. I don't think you'll find better radios for the size and price honestly.

Fair enough. You do you. I'll do me. Just giving the OP another option so that he isn't disappointed when that $600 antenna might not perform as well as he'd expect. You can also clear coat a j-pole to minimize corrosion without affecting it's swr/range. I'll take that vs fiberglass that splinters and cracks, or crappy wire antennas encased in PVC. As for the j-pole I linked... Not slapped together. Thousands sold, no bad reviews. I'm not a hired sales person, but his j-poles and n9tax's Slim Jim's are well built and perform very well. I own many of both and they outperform dozens of other antennas I've used over the last 35 years. Even my old steel 102" whip still outperforms Antron 99's and the like on 10/11 meter. Some things just work, and I've never had a "dud".

Just because it has a "brand name" and costs $600 doesn't automatically make it commercial quality, or good. J-poles have been used for decades and are proven to be reliable and good performers. Go ahead, spend $600 on something that probably wont work any better than a "crap" $30 J-pole. Not my money.

You could save a crap-ton of money and get one of these: https://www.jpole-antenna.com/shop/462-mhz-land-mobile-gmrs-j-pole-antenna/ It's what i use for my small 2 watt repeater attached to LMR-400 coax. At a measly 30 feet at 2 watts with 2-3db gain, it does 5-15 miles in town with tons of crap in the way. I am in a horrible spot honestly. At 60 feet i could probably double my range. Best $30 i ever spent.

House Base - Leixen VV898S Garage Base - TYT TH9800 F-150 - Leixen UV998 Escape - Kenwood TK880H Repeater - Ritron Liberty RLR-460 Not currently in use - Kenwood TK880 Handhelds - TYT TH-UVF9, Tidradio H6, Baofeng F22 (x2) Antenna's vary, but most are J-Poles, Slim Jims, or various Browning dual band NMO mounted mobiles. Units that don't apply to this thread - numerous 10/11 meter and VHF only rigs.

If you are planning on that repeater to cover more than 2 - 5 miles you’ll want to get the antenna up at least 50ft. Otherwise you may be disappointed with its lack of coverage area. You said you’re on a hill. Are you higher than most everything around you? If so, then 25ft might be enough. The higher you get that antenna, the better your coverage area will be. Plain and simple.

I love my TYT TH9800. Great radio for the money. However, rumor has it that the 2021 and newer models are locked down and will not TX on GMRS and MURS frequencies among others. You'd have to find a seller with new "old stock" pre 2021 build dates to actually get a good one. I bought mine 9-10 years ago and it came unlocked. Hate to see you buy one and get hosed with a frequency locked unit. If you're on a budget, these radios are worth the price, and aren't restricted at all. Small too. Barely bigger than a deck of cards. I own a few of them, work well for what they are, but do have some of same quirks other cheaper units do. Here's some reviews.

I'm no math wiz, but it's probably a wash. The connector with an extra 18 feet (totaling 68 feet) of coax will probably suffer the same loss that a solid 100 foot run would. Just make sure to seal that up good if the connector ends up outside.

I suspect the same. Battery not beefy enough to handle the load. If you want some ideas, here is the link to my simplex ammo can repeater that also uses an sr-112. I have no issue powering a 10w mobile radio, the sr-112, and a charge controller with a 6ah lifepo4 battery and a 10w solar panel.

Another vote for the KB9VBR J-Pole. Best $30 i ever spent. Not everything "cheap" is junk. I bet this antenna would easily outperform some $150+ antennas on the market.

Final update: The 102” whip with the slim jim was too cumbersome to be “portable”, so i moved the so-239 bulk head to the top of the case and i now use a Nagoya NL-R2 instead. Then i widened the hole where the so-239 use to be and installed a water proof cig plug socket for solar charging. This project is now complete.

Holy antenna farm Batman! My wife thought i had a lot of antennas on the garage. 102” whip for CB J-Pole for GMRS VHF whip for MURS Little scanner antenna.

In the house i use a dual band MURS/GMRS tuned N9TAX slim jim j-pole in the attic. I use a KB9VBR GMRS tuned j-pole out in the garage. (yes my cat likes to sit up there and chill) In the mobile i use a Browning BR-182.

It's an older ’06 F150 Lariat SuperCrew 4x4 with 237,000 miles on it. The rims are from a 2018 F150. Still runs like new.

Neat. Too much clutter for me personally. My dog would have drool splattered all over those electronics in the center console.

Slick. Sadly no sunglasses holder as this truck has a sunroof. I thought about detaching the face of my TYT TH9800 and putting it in the tray if this didn’t work out, but glad it did. I like keeping the TYT in the house as a base unit. If something happens to the Leixen it’s only a $70 loss. It’s basically a glorified Baofeng HT in a mobile form factor, but it works well enough and is capable of 25w if needed.

It will have to due. So far it seems fine in my brief testing this afternoon. Not many options on a truck with a bed liner and tonneau cover and your garage door is only 7’ tall. At least it looks better than a mag mount tossed in the center of the hood.

Browning MURS / GMRS tuned antenna i got about 9 years ago before my original GMRS license expired. It came with a mag mount. I’m guessing it uses the metal from the vehicle for a ground plane. Here’s the Ebay Link.

Lol. That’s Alissa White-Gluz.

Spent the afternoon ripping my dash apart. I had ordered an aftermarket stereo and mounting/wiring kit that arrived today. As i was putting the kit together i noticed the tray under the stereo looked tall enough and deep enough for my Leixen VV998 dual band radio. Sure enough, it fit nice and snug. I drilled out the back of the tray to run the coax and power cable, and made a few more holes for venting. The radio has a setting to use the microphone as a speaker so i didn't have to worry that i covered the internal speaker or find room to mount an external speaker. I think it looks good, and it sits flush with the stereo face plate. While i was at it i got rid of the mag mount, and finally installed the NMO hood mount.

You could save some money and use a lower powered radio. Wont need as big of a battery or a higher wattage solar panel. For instance my recent simplex repeater build has been running for a few weeks now on a measly 6ah battery and 10 watt solar panel. However my radio only draws 1.5 amps at 10 watts while transmitting, and .3 amps when idle. Here is the link if you want to see what i used and how it turned out. Might help give you some ideas.