Lscott

I my location there is a general "Net" meeting once a month on the GMRS repeater. It's run similar to what you hear on Ham repeaters simply because the format works. Lately there is a "Prepper's Net" on Tuesday nights each week. I think the current roster has about 177 registered users for the repeater. The repeater is owned by the City of Troy and was their backup machine for the fire department in the beginning.

That likely has more to do with diffraction effects. I've experienced that at audio frequency where I work. When somebody was running a 1/2 hour short circuit test, on an inverter setup for 10KHz, just walking a dozen feet one way or the other the high pitch screaming fades out noticeably, and there was nothing in the way.

Bad advise. The pipe rail material is too soft, doesn't have the mechanical strength to resist anything other than a VERY light wind load without bending, even for modest lengths.

Thanks. That link worked. I down loaded the manual and added it to my on-line electronic library on the computer.

Link doesn't seem to work for me.

There are similar types of plans. Trouble is there are too many of them. https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/3-3-3-radio-plan-for-shtf-communications/ https://ovatvc.org/2022/03/the-wilderness-protocol/ https://tcares.net/the-wilderness-protocol/

Sounds counter intuitive. Something I should look into.

The old sat disk mount is most likely in a lump of cement so no real connection to the earth. He would need a good ground rod at the base with a heavy gauge copper wire between it and the antenna base. I don't see the need for a ground radial system.

One of those fiber glass masts might work. Getting one with a larger diameter, which may not need any guy wires, and keeping the height high enough to do the job is worth looking at. You can contact the manufacture and see what they recommend.

You might need bigger U-Bolts. That pipe looks rather larger in diameter. I would consider getting a length of antenna mast to get the antenna up higher. Getting it up higher than the local home roof peaks would be the minimum I would recommend. Don't be tempered to use stuff like water pipe, fence pipe etc. All of those are soft and will bend easily in a modest wind. Antenna mast is manufactured using higher strength material. https://static.dxengineering.com/global/images/technicalarticles/dxe-st300cm-22.pdf https://www.hamuniverse.com/antennamastguying.html https://mgs4u.com/fiberglass-push-up-masts/

Looks like you’ll have no problem clamping a good length of mast to that pipe.

Do you have a photo of it you can post?

The wall thickness doesn't matter for RF performance. It is a factor for the mechanical strength. However the larger diameter of the conductor will make a noticeable difference in the bandwidth of the antenna. The larger diameter will result is a low SWR over a wider range of frequencies.

The problem with high gain antennas is the height. You have to constantly remember it’s up there. No garage parking, fast food and bank drive throughs and low hanging tree branches to name a few of the hazards. The first time you forget is when it gets ripped off the roof. If you’re lucky it’s just the antenna/mount that gets wrecked.

I think linked repeaters serve a purpose, however I just wished the rules were more clear cut. Setting up a system is risky since the FCC could pull the plug on the idea resulting in a waste of time, money and hardware. So long as people understand that they can make their choices accordingly. Then there is the digital voice mode issue. More posters are commenting about hearing increasing digital voice activity in some areas. The FCC will have to do something sooner or later. Either get serious and enforce the rules, or change them to legalize the practice. Personally I’m in favor of the idea if done in a manner that’s not disruptive to the majority of existing FM only operators. I started a thread a while back about possible rules changes. It got derailed by a discussion of an issue that had little to do with the topic. In any case I did attach a paper outlining an idea to one of my posts.

That would be great. You really need a COR contact if you want to build a repeater using a radio. Some have sort of done that on a custom basis by using a simple circuit patched into RX LED circuit.

Some other view points on the matter. There are some specific caveats pertaining to data encryption. It's not a blanket permission either. https://www.rrmediagroup.com/News/NewsDetails/NewsID/17804 https://www.qsl.net/k/kb9mwr/projects/wireless/Data Encryption is Legal.pdf

I think if you go through present and past threads on various topics it will be obvious who those people are. Two are on my block list because I don’t want to waste my time getting posting notifications when they post their garbage. The linking discussion pertains to GMRS not Ham Radio. The question about it’s legality is murky since the rules are a bit ambiguous so it’s a gray area. Until the FCC clears up the language there is the possibility they will unambiguously make it clear one way or the other, maybe flatly prohibiting it by name. Other rules are rather straight forward, however some posters encourage operating practices, equipment modifications (software - hardware -programming), that leave little doubt it violates the rules. Demands for “proof” of enforcement actions, and lack of any, is not permission to ignore them because it’s “really” ok. Essentially the poster(s) are looking for acknowledgment from others their actions are OK to excuse what they know is wrong. I’m not playing that stupid game.

Getting the antenna up higher will make a big difference. Try to get the antenna to at least clear the roof top of your house, and any near by if possible.

That's true. I occasionally catch some DMR traffic on one of the GMRS simplex channels where I work. I verified that by using the digital monitor function on my D878UV I took into work one day just to see if I could identify the source. Nothing was said that I could use to figure out who was responsible. It doesn't happen often enough to bother checking frequently. About the rules you have a point. There are several people on this forum who have the attitude if the FCC hasn't busted anybody for an obvious rule violation then they mustn't care so it's OK to continue doing so. The worst part is when they encourage other users to do the same.

Here is some more info on eggbeater antennas. Antenne Eggbeater-Engl-Part2-Full.pdf Antenne Eggbeater-Engl-Part1-Full.pdf

There are "gain" and radiation pattern differences between the various antennas. Also at UHF it's LOS, line of sight, so just moving even a few feet can make a huge difference when there are obstacles between the radio and the repeater location. One other item you may notice while driving at times is a flutter or rapid momentary dropout of the signal. That's commonly refereed as "picket fencing". That's due to the signal being blocked by buildings etc. so the signal path between radios, or radio to repeater, changes rapidly as you move.

Code plug hacking can be a lot of fun, getting a radio to do things the manufacturer doesn’t allow. I did about the same thing with would otherwise be 3 useless UHF 2 channel Kenwood ProTalk radios I got from a buddy for free. Programmed one channel for the typical GMRS road frequency and the other the local GMRS repeater. None of those are in the selection list of preconfigured frequencies for those radios.

What does piss off people are those that treat the rules as “suggestions” with no concern for possible enforcement actions, or where they prove inconvenient when they want to do something that’s prohibited. There are several on these forums who think that way. Unfortunately they set a bad example for the newbies.

Not very reassuring without firm legal ground to support the practice. At least people should be aware that it could be ruled as prohibited at some point so one shouldn’t get their panties in a twist “if” it ever happens.