WSAR863

Great answers. Thank you!

Thanks @Sshannon! Got a couple more questions, if you have a couple minutes to humor me. Does the coax from the connector to the driver need to be a certain portion of the wavelength, or does it not matter? I used RG8x @ 50 ohms. Where should the feed point be on the dipole driver? At the very end or do I need to try to find 50 ohms? Will it be less than 50 ohms, if on the very end, closest to the center of the dipole driver? If so, does that matter? Will it impact the SWR if it's lower than the feed line's impedance of 50?

Does the wire running from the SO-239 to the driver elements of a yagi need to be made of shielded coax or can any wire work? I would think using plain, unshielded electrical wire would make it part of the radiator/driver.

@OffRoaderX, you're the reason I started getting into radio. I hope I don't let you down! I'll try to keep my findings short... and to the point. I am North of Saint Martinville, Louisiana. I will drive around in the next couple days, use my yagi and see if I can figure out what it is. It has to either be very powerful (to penetrate canyons) or a satellite, right? My signal, on 18, appears to be coming from the direction of a cell tower, but I guess we'll find out. The one on channel 3 seems to come from everywhere, like your channel 18 signal.

I recorded this repeating noise on these GMRS channels. 17 seems to bleed over to 18. Does anyone know what this is? It's constant and not my phone . PXL_20240227_002951446.LS.mp4

1, the interference is in the direction of the repeater. That being said, idk if it is actually interference or loss of signal. It's almost like the signal just goes away. I can pick up the repeater, move over a foot, lose the signal, move over another foot in the same direction, and have it again. If I raise the antenna, same thing. 2 feet higher, static. 3 feet, good. 4 feet, static. 2, Good idea, but yes, I'm on wide.

Finished a 9 element Yagi yesterday and I got it tuned in to an SWR of 1.09:1. My nearest repeater is about repeater 40 miles away, in Baton Rouge and I am able to hear them talking on it, but I have 3 issues. 1, the antenna has zones of interference, where the signal becomes overwhelmed by interference. Moving over/up/down usually fixes the issue and I can receive the repeater with only a very slight hiss. What could be causing the interference and is there any way to counter it? 2, I can hit the repeater and it responds to me, but the people say they can't hear me. Idk if my TX volume is low or I'm getting too much background static. Is there anyway to tweak the antenna without adding elements or watts? I already have my SWR about as low as I can get it, tuned to the RX frequency of the repeater. 3, I can hear the people talking, but I have to turn the volume all the way up. Like I said, there is very little background hiss, but it's like they are whispering. Thanks for any ideas!