Lscott

No, but telling everyone you found a $100 bill under the driver's seat should motivate the minimum wage employees to do a better job of cleaning out the interior of the cars as an extra service.

Firmware E4B3 TK-280_380_780_880_980_981 V1.zip

See attached file for the V1 radio firmware. Firmware E4B3 TK-280_380_780_880_980_981 V1.zip

That's the point where I quit watching.

The manufactures of the commercial radios are rather secretive about their bug fixes. The bugs that got fixed are likely only available to dealers and service centers, but the rest of use are left in the dark. I've attached one for the last DMR firmware update I have saved for my NX-1200/1300 radios. It doesn't say much. I'm sure various bugs got fixed they just won't disclose. You want to see why updating firmware is required? Look at the horror show for the D878UV radios. Read the change logs. They can't simply just FIX what they have, but then add features while managing to fuck up other shit that use to work. Look at how many updates they've issued. That's been my experience for the past number of years having to deal with this Chinese radio. This is the worse radio I own for radio firmware and radio programming software reliability. http://www.wouxun.us/category.php?category_id=93 Their new D168UV seems to be following the same path. It was only released for sale a few months ago. https://www.wouxun.us/category.php?category_id=108 NX-1200D, NX-1200DV, NX-1300D, NX-1300DU, NX-1200A, NX-1200AV, NX-1300A, NX-1300AU DMR.rtf

I don't know about the other person but I'll update radio firmware just so I don't experience weird radio behavior at an inconvenient time. I've also had to do it on occasion when the radio programming software says some of it's features are NOT supported by the firmware revision in the radio. I get that message when trying to write a code plug to the offending radio.

I'm glad I don't have anything really pressing at the office to do today so I can spend my productive time reading this stuff.

I found this on-line and had my sister print it up for me. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2884874/files

Yup. Good enough!

The best way is anyway that works, doesn't damage the coax cable and doesn't let water leak into the vehicle. You can look at other installations to get some ideas. The links below are for my CX-5. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/471-mobile-mount-with-antenna-rear-view/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/473-close-up-of-mobile-mount/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/474-mobile-mount-coax-routing/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/472-mobile-antenna-install-side-view/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/476-mobile-mount-drip-loop/?context=new Some people will tell you that RG-58 has high losses at UHF, it does, but one has to look at the total system and make a judgement call to see what works the best. In my case I ended up using two types of coax, a very thin type to get inside and a lower loss type, better than RG-58, for the rest of the run. This might be over the top but I did the analysis for several installation cases. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/483-cx-5-antenna-system-analysisjpg/?context=new

You don’t need a fancy antenna for HF just to get on the bands. A lot of Hams just build simple horizontal dipoles.

Just think about what the INSIDE of that car must look like!

This guy has a few more.

Modern vehicles use thinner sheet metal to save weight for improved fuel economy. What might have been in the past a minor adrenaline surge when the antenna whacked a tree branch now may result in some real damage to body sheet around the antenna mount. I would think a bit more about the usual advise to "just drill the hole" and mount the antenna.

That's really the whole issue most of the time.

I did some quick screen captures of a Ham 70cm J-Pole simulation I had done some time back to show what people can expect. The radiation pattern of most interest is the azimuth one, perpendicular to the vertical element. As seen in the attached images there is some asymmetrical gain variation. The vertical, elevation, pattern is more complex and only of interest if the other station is at high angles , above or below, the perpendicular point.

They are real antennas, and they do work.

Some of the frequencies are in consecutive steps of exactly 100KHz too, so it's not even based on some standard channel spacing either. My first guess is these were "test" frequencies used to "tune" the radio's PLL circuits. I know my commercial radios have a special bank of frequencies just for that purpose. The attached photo is from my NX-1300 for example.

Ah, that's a very useful link for this! The take-a-way is there are such grandfathered GMRS business users out there.

What did you use to test the SWR? I've done some testing myself using a Rigexpert AA-1000 and didn't get great results with the 7500. The comet CA-2xSR did reasonably well. My old Comet dual band CA-2x4MB is the best one I've had, but it's not manufactured anymore. These antennas are sensitive to the type and location of the mount being used. Particularly the CA-2xSR. I currently have the CA-2x4MB on my Mazda. The fold-over spring is weak so I have the antenna permanently taped so it doesn't flip over while driving. I have a spare brand new one still in the green plastic packaging. The antenna is about 60 inches tall so I have to be EXTRA careful where I drive. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/471-mobile-mount-with-antenna-rear-view/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/473-close-up-of-mobile-mount/ And this is when I had it on the old Jeep. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/259-ca-2x4mb-jeepjpg/?context=new Antenna Scan Results (CA-2x4MB VHF Jeep).pdf Antenna Scan Results (CA-2x4MB UHF Jeep).pdf Antenna Scan Results (CA-2x4MB MURS Jeep).pdf Antenna Scan Results (CA-2x4MB FRS_GMRS Jeep).pdf CA-2x4SR VHF TRI MAG MNT.pdf CA-2x4SR UHF TRI MAG MNT.pdf SG7500A VHF Scan GND Radials.pdf SG7500A UHF Scan GND Radials.pdf

I think before that question it's important to understand what it is, and isn't. There is a good write-up at this link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-pole_antenna Most of the issues with the antenna stems from it's radiation pattern. Depending on construction and installation the antenna may present some noticeable asymmetric gain characteristics. One other important point is the antenna requires some kind of "decoupling" network for the connecting coax cable. That's typically done using some snap on ferrite cores very close to the feed point, or a coiled up section of the coax cable. If this isn't done then all sorts of weird highly asymmetric gain characteristics may occur along with high SWR readings, and even RF getting back into the radio causing distorted audio.

Likely they would complain anyway if it was just FM and some real chatty users had the other repeater keyed up for long periods.