PB92

Don't feel bad keithress, I'm still trying to figure out how to program the PL tones in my 400. Can't say I see it anywhere in the manual for some reason. Maybe I need my decoder ring on or something.

Outstanding!! Like the NMO mounts. From my experience with NMO holes, I would recommend this on the bare metal on that roof. It will rust. Been there done that. Its called NO OX ID. I have two NMO mounts on the trunk lid of my Crown Vic Police. I can't post a link form some reason. It's top of the line stuff.

Yes, yes gatekeep, that's the call sign. I call them locals because of two things, one is the signal strength, and two I thought I heard a street name in West Haven, CT.

Well, so far from what I can tell I believe a few "locals" here in CT (I cannot verify that) seem to be some "bubble pack kids". Along with these two fellows on ch20 in Suffolk County NY, I hear also a couple on ch20 man and woman. The guy is testing his equipment with the woman. They were giving locations probably to figure distances, I think they may be in West Haven, CT. Next town south from New Haven. I keyed a couple times on low power (3-4 watts) but didn't get a response. I originally setup the MXT400 in my Interceptor as an addition to my prep comms. But I started to get into GMRS and I really like it. I'll keep going with it and see if I get anything. Maybe after a while if folks keep hearing "WQYX865 listening" they will realize it's not just kids playing around. But I'm having fun with it either way.

I agree, everything you said makes sense. Maybe in a way that's a good thing. I'll keep trying.

Yes berkinet, I do hear that. Midland manual says ch1: 462.562 ch2: 462.587 ch3: 462.612 Today on the way home on scanning, I heard "children" on ch1. I keyed and announced "WQYX865 listening".......did that a couple times then one of the children said "stop talking"...........soooo.....I think the radio is transmitting ok. Probably a couple kids playing on bubble packs. There is a professional Communication/Radio shop here in Berlin, CT. They do PD, Fire, etc. I may stop there and ask for a tech to check it out. Dunno. I'm still learning the whole GMRS aspect, maybe I'm expecting it to be as busy as CB is.

I'm just a bit surprised that I cannot get any response. There is traffic here in CT on ch1,2,3,17,20. Maybe I have the radio setup wrong, I don't think I do................... :-O

Hey JohnE, I looked at that list for NY, only Suffolk County listing was a closed private system started by law enforcement for their families. My search continues. Oddly enough, the MXT400 receives great, everything works, but to date I have not made any contact with anybody. I have it set on "scan" and when it stops on an active channel, I wait a little and announce "WQYX865 listening"..........or "monitoring"........

No my mistake folks, it's 462.600. Never could type well............. :-(

Yeah I did check into that, yes ch17 is 462.000. How would I go about finding out the repeater info to see if its listed in the directory?

Well the GMRS radio was another "layer" of comms for my prepping gear. I may add yet another, as I am a huge fan of redundancy. Besides so far I think I like the GMRS aspect...... I don't understand all there is to GMRS, but I didn't know everything about custom high-end CB's either 30 years ago. I like it, I'm having fun. I'm not at this time interested in getting my ham ticket for reasons I mentioned in another thread (yes I know ham is popular in the prepping community) I did quite a bit of research on which way to go...GMRS, FRS or MURS. I decided on GMRS.

I never thought of that axorlov, good point. So, I need to buy a specific meter then?

Well, the 400 does not have a tone scan feature. I have no idea if their repeater is listed. All the radios screen shows is the channel I'm on, which was 17.

Hooked up my Roadpro RPSWR-2C swr meter. No matter where I set the buttons, it pegged the needle all the way over to the right. So I don't think its working. One thing I did notice though, with the Midland antenna, even with the power on low, when I keyed the mic the radios meter would always show all the way up like full power. With the DPD antenna, the power meter actually showed the different power levels of the radio where I set it, on low the radios meter would only light 2 bars, on medium 3 bars, and radio on high power, all the bars would be lit. So my testing continues.

Well, I can pickup these two guys talking in Suffolk County NY from East Haven, CT. Both antennas pick them up. So far, the Midland MXTA11 "seems" to perform just a tad better then the DPD antenna....(all though I like the all black DPD look). Could that be the 1/2 of DB in gain the Midland has over the DPD, I can't say. Mostly all of my operation is while I'm driving, sometimes I will sit in front of my home. I don't have any hardcore data to back up my observations, just a small swr meter. I did not set or adjust any swr's on either antenna. I may hook the meter up in the next few days and see...(weather has been miserable).