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).

Congrats and welcome Steve!

No doubt gatekeep, I have been operating high end CB radios for nearly 30 years, these guys from Suffolk County were blowing my doors down. I just don't know how to find out the PL.DPL tone of these guys. They are local to each other, like 5 minutes away.

Hi Logan5, the repeater would explain how my meter is pegged. I hit them several times wide open ch17 at 40 watts, got nothing. So how do I find out the PL.DPL tone to talk with these folks? Couger100101, on my Interceptor I'm using the Midland MXTA11 27 inch 6dB gain, mounted on the trunk lid through a hole with a NMO mount. Of course the radio is the Midland MXT400.

Hello all, So, I'm in East Haven CT. On my way home from work about 1230-1300) I listen to these two operators talking on channel 17 (462.000). Been listening for about 2 weeks. Now my MXT400 has 3 power settings, low is about 3w, med is about 15w, and high is about 40w. I had the radio on low, when I could I keyed the mic, gave my call sign and said monitoring. Did that for a few days. No response. Then I went to medium power, same thing, nothing. So today, 3/22/18, I listened to them all the way from about North Haven CT (about 1/2 way home). The closer I got to my house, their signal strength got higher, and then about 1000 feet before I got to my driveway, their signal pegged my meter all the way up. So I started looking for antennas on houses and vehicles, figuring these guys are right here, few houses away, basically right on top of me. Saw nothing. Now I have lived here for 18 years, I know the neighborhood well. I initially thought they were using a privacy code, I could hear them but they couldn't hear me..(if that's how the privacy codes work on GMRS)..don't know. Then they started talking about this last snow storm. Now in East Haven we got maybe 3 inches of snow. They were saying they got 14 inches. I said whoa, 14 inches, where are these guys?? Then one finally said......."yeah here in Suffolk County we got hit good". Suffolk County, that's in Long Island, NY. So I checked the distance, from East Haven, CT to the closest point in Suffolk County is 50 miles as the crow flies. Sooo, if they are on ch17 GMRS, their signal is knocking my door down, I hear them crystal clear, and I keyed at 40w....how could they not hear me???????? Now if this was my CB, ok, I get it, I'm "shooting skip"........I have talked from CT to Indiana on skip...................but how is this working on GMRS??

Soladaddy, of the two the DPD "seems" to be of a better quality. The MXTA11 almost seems like it would be in a bubble pack hanging in the truck stop. Oddly enough, the MXT seems to perform slightly better. Now the difference in DB gain is the DPD is 5.5, and the MXTA11 is 6DB gain. I can't say whether or not that 1/2 DB difference between the two antennas makes that much difference. I travel the same routes to and from work, same times, and I always have the MXT400 on scan mode. I'll put the MXT antenna back on for tomorrow see what I get. Then I may put my swr meter between the radio and the antenna and see what I see. In Commspreppers review of the DPD antenna, he did say he felt the DPD was of "commercial quality"...........on the other side of that coin the Midland MXTA11 antenna may be a better "match" since they are from the same manufacturer.

Soladaddy, I understand the MXT400, 115 and 105 are narrow band. Cateyetech, I really like this radio. Performs outstanding. I installed this under my Cobra 29LX in my P71 Interceptor with custom fabricated brackets........(I have to take a pic and post it here). It'seasy to use (if I can do it anybody can).........I run it on low power except for a couple channels that are active I run it on medium power. The first antenna I used it with was the Midland MXT11A, a 6DB gain antenna. I mounted it on a NMO mount on the trunk lid (hole was already there) Gave great performance. I then ordered the DPD Productions GMRS double 5/8 wave 5.5DB gain in black....(Commsprepper highly recommended the DPD). So far it seems the radio receives a little better with the Midland antenna. I'm still testing on which antenna gives the best performance. The only and I mean only little fuss I have with the 400 is I would like the ability to change the screen color. I would very much recommend the MXT400. I have the MXT100 as a backup radio.

Anybody else running the MXT400............? Love the radio.....

Oh my..........they must be tired......LOL........I wish they would just leave it as it was. No need to mess with the clocks.

I have received that message as well.......................

Dhm001 is on the money. If I decide to get my ham ticket, I will get that radio....................BTech Mobile UV-50X2 50 watt for sure.