WSAM454

If your home will have an "attic" space, then that would be the highest point you will have it you can't mount the antenna outside. If it is a crawl space type, then your best bet may be a mobile type or a "J-pole" type antenna in that space. Appliance/HVAC wiring through that space can possibly interfere with your reception (or the radio can interfere with the appliances) so it still may not be ideal. Yes, read all the HOA info very carefully! There may be appearance objections to an 'unsightly' antenna, or health objections, to having a 'dangerous' RF source in the community. Good luck!

You asked about antennas and coax, so my thoughts: The Comet vertical antennas are popular. If you plan on a run of more than about 30 feet of coax, then you will want a low-loss type cable, especially if you are using only a 5 Watt HT. You can loose almost half of that power just getting the signal to the antenna if the cable is not of good quality and low loss. The most popular is called Times' LMR-400 cable, which is a low-loss cable, about 1/2" in diameter. Even lower loss, but more expensive,is M & P Ultraflex 10, also about 1/2" in diameter. Avoid the smaller diameter (1/4") cables, like RG8x and RG58, as their loss is too great. Quick searches will give you info on them as well as the Comet antenna GMRS line. As BoxCar mentioned, your best bet would be with a 25 Watt mobile type radio in the house, especially if your surroundings are pretty much flat and not at a high elevation. You mentioned being at about 700', but is the area is flat , then everything nearby is also at 700' and you will need to get the antenna as high as practical. Mounted to the side of the house means it will be about 30 or so feet above the ground; a good starting point.

Will you be talking with others (that are on the move) through the repeater or just with someone at home? If at home, then you may not even need a repeater. (What do fat people have to do with the repeater; will they absorb more RF???)

You will fine extremes on both sides of this discussion, and actually, some feel that the SAE connectors have better high-current-handling properties and a more secure, water-resistant connection than the ever-popular Power Poles. As BoxCar said, for current draw under about 6-8 Amps the cigarette lighter plug is fine, and if you do not foresee many rig/power connections, (using the rig in more than one car, or in car and home) then the SAE should serve you fine. If you want the ability to use your equipment along with others then the PP might be a more universal consideration.

The KB8VBR gmrs antenna that the OP said he is using is a copper tubing type of J-Pole style and mounts to a length of pipe or tubing. https://www.jpole-antenna.com/shop/462-mhz-land-mobile-gmrs-j-pole-antenna/ If he were using a twin-lead type "slim jim" antenna, (like the N9TAX antenna ) then yes, it must be hung from the top and remain in the clear. Not the easiest thing to do for a permanent installation. (I am not sure why the OP used the term "slim jim" along with the KB8VBR antenna description, since the link clearly shows it is not that style of antenna!)

Comets are very popular. Just be aware when comparing gain figures that some makers give them as dBi and some as dBd. The dBi ones will be higher; over-simplifying, it is because of a different way of measuring, but the important thing is to compare "i" to "i" and "d" to "d" The more conservative "d" rating is a bit more realistic, (usually about 3 units lower) and a good maker will be sure to let you know which they are using.

Yes, you can opt to just receive a repeater using a its freq on VFO mode. You may want to have the rig remain quiet until the repeater transmits; nothing to do with "ham radio leftovers," actually more likely commercial/business user leftovers, since many businesses shared a freq and the other users did not want to listen to constant chatter that did not concern their business! Also, you might want to use the VFO to set up a simplex frequency to communicate with another user, but only want to hear from that user, so again, it keeps the receiver quiet until the desired signal comes through. It may be easier to set up a memory channel for this, but it is not necessary, and actually to set up a memory channel manually, you usually have to set up all the parameters using the VFO mode before saving that info into a memory channel.

If it is not a voltage drop, then possibly RF is getting back into the supply. What antenna and feed line are you using, and how is the SWR? Also, it there are fuses in line, make sure they are making good contact; pull them out and put them in a few times to be sure the contacts between the fuse and the wires is good.

What are the improvements/corrections that the newest firmware offer that the older one does not provide. Have there been so many problems with the radio that it needs to be updated every few months? The radio will continue to work even with old firmware so unless there is a major flaw in the way it is working now, then I agree with gearjunkie; if it aint broke dont fix it!

Just a thought: Are you sure you have the radio set for repeater split operation, or are you possibly transmitting on the repeater's output freq? (and not + 5MHz) Than might explain the strong signal you are receiving (from the repeater) and the weak signal that the other station is reporting (since they are hearing you 'direct' and not through the repeater.)

As above, about 2 feet separation would be ideal for UHF freqs, and about 4 feet for VHF. Also, if the antenna(s) all have good solid connections to the body of the vehicle, (not mag mounts!) then the entire vehicle would act as the 'ground plane.' (it does not necessarily need to be an actual 'plane' or metal sheet just below the antenna, although that would be ideal, and why the optimal location for antennas is the vehicle roof!) If the antennas are mounted on separate body panels, (hood and trunk) it is often suggested that they be 'bonded' together. This is usually done by using flexible 3/4"-1" wide braid. for example, running a piece of braid from the hood hinge (or door hinge) to the body of the car; running braid from the trunk/hatch back to the body and not just relying on the hinge to maintain continuity.

I imagine that the entire plate is something like 8x12 inches in size? If so, you might find that tuning the antennas will be difficult, since being so close to each other they might interact, even though they are on different frequencies. As far as use, I agree with kidphc; I would not be comfortable transmitting 20-40 Watts on one antenna while another radio (even on another band) antenna is so close. Possibly OK if only one radio was on at a time, but I would opt for putting only one antenna on that plate. Also the cable you show in one photo looks to be a very small diameter. so hopefully it will be a very short run to the radio, since losses will be great.

i have wondered about this also. Since charging by USB is becoming more popular and if a USB phone charger is a standard 5 Volts, wouldn't either the battery itself and/or the desktop charger unit must have circuitry to raise the charging voltage up somewhat?

Using the PL tone on your transmit frequency will key up only one repeater, and if you set up your receiver with PL, and it is has a tone on its output, then that will be the only repeater you actually HEAR, but if the other one is transmitting also, you will see it on your receiver's meter and it may be stronger than the one you want to receive, so while PL is helpful, it will not totally eliminate the other repeater. If you see a received signal, but don't hear anything, the other repeater is on the air, and that would not be a good time to try transmitting you yours. If you do not activate your receive PL then you will hear whichever repeater is transmitting.

I am not familiar with Bolton cable. Some Amazon products have questionable heritage, so I would prefer actual Times LMR-400, (not an "equivalent") but otherwise it all sounds good. A miinor point: just remember to leave a drip loop at the cable's entrance to the vent, so any rain water will stay out of the house! Good luck with the new station.

Can you turn down the power on your existing radio, and see how the coverage is with around 15 Watts?

If your family is all in the same place, you might consider using directional antennas (beam, aka Yagi antennas) aimed at one another. That would increase the gain of both receive and transmit at each end. They must be as high as possible, and you might have to 'aim' them with the help of cell phone communication to get them set up. Best results would be using 50 Watt radios at each end on the appropriate high-power channels. Beams can also be rotated, so you could have two locations to rotate the antenna to. Not recommending any thing in particular, but just to give you some basic starting info: Two examples of beam antennas: https://www.arrowantennas.com/solid/464-7s.html https://buyantenna.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=602 Rotors: https://www2.randl.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_6020&products_id=67461 https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-007316

Some thoughts: Even though you hear the squelch tail, while you might be managing to key the repeater, you may not have a strong enough signal to actually be heard and understood. (you are mostly noise) What kind of power and antenna are you using, and how far from the repeater are you? Is the repeater an "open" one, or one only available to members? Have you gotten permission to use it? It may not have many users and you don't have much of an 'audience' to hear from. Try specifically asking for a report, saying you are a new user, and want to confirm the operation of you station.

Loss does not necessarily equate with SWR. You can have a perfect 1:1 match, but at the end of 25' of RG58 you would expect to see about 2dB of loss, (approx. 40%) so 5 W in will give you about 3 out. More likely a dummy load problem at UHF frequencies.

If you are concerned about cable loss, take a look at the 7th reference table here: https://0f03806ff3d3e74e9602-196c53d60dd8027754ef96352b4703ae.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/Magento/Live/Misc/m&p_vs_coax.pdf Not inexpensive, but the M and P cables currently have the lowest loss of the 'flexible' (not hardliine) cables available. As WSAK691 said, the LMR loss for 50 feet would be about 25%, and can be made up with a good gain antenna to actually get you over the initial output power of your radio.

Cutting off a few feet would help, but probably not too much. I mainly wanted to make you aware of the significance of cable loss at UHF (450MHz an up) frequencies. The gain antenna type you quoted is about the best you will find in a mobile antenna, but for your final base station, I would go with a gain antenna mounted on the roof, in the clear. Someone should be able to offer some brand name and model suggestions. Depending on the cable run from it to the radio, (over 50-75 feet) you might consider a low-loss cable. LMR 400 is a favorite and more reasonably priced than what has become the lowest loss flexible cable available today, M & P's Ultraflex 10. Avoid any of the RG-58 or 8X size ( approx. 1/4" diameter) cable for long runs.

Just a comment: The mag mount you mentioned comes with 13' of RG58 cable, which will have an approximate 1dB loss. That means that you will be loosing about 20% of your power from the radio, so if you are really putting out the full 5 watts, only 4 will reach the antenna. The antenna you mentioned does have more gain that the one mounted on the radio, so overall, it might bring the output up to about 6 Watts, which might be enough to make it into the repeater, but just be aware that if you were that noisy it may not be. Find the best place for the cookie sheet and antenna and keep it there. The base station radio (more power) you have planned will be most useful !

You may be able to "key up" the repeater, which means you will hear its squelch tail, but your signal may be too weak to actually "hold" the repeater and allow for meaningful communication. Are there any other repeaters you can try? If not, at least try using the radios on a simplex frequency and see if you can communicate with each other. That will at least confirm that the radios are working.

This site lists all the GMRS frequencies and their channel numbers. Don't worry about the other columns for now, just the channel and freq. Just look up the frequency and see which channel it is. If your radio does not use the "-R" naming, then just imagine that channel 15-Rpt is channel 23 and continue numbering from there. That is how you will dial it in on your radio. https://www.rightchannelradios.com/blogs/newsletters/gmrs-radio-frequencies-and-channels Most radios use CTCSS ("PL") tones. This site lists them: https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2022/10/chart-of-standard-ctcss-tones.html Good luck!

If you cancel with them, then following the rules, you would be obligated to notify the FCC of a change of address, since the license is good and still in effect for the full 10 years. I do not think that there is a way to cancel you license . Another consideration: will HamRegistry be around for the next 10 years to protect you?