Lscott

As a side note I've notice that a surprising number of schools are now using NXDN radios verses analog. They quit using the cheap FRS radios.

Ah, the magic of 3-D printing. We have a 3-D printer in our engineering department. We don't use ordinary plastic thread. Instead, I'm told, it's a more expensive carbon fiber type for extra strength. For things like belt clips you might want to look into that. Also you have to watch out which direction the layers are put down verses the forces applied. Plastic printed parts have failed along the boundaries between layers, they don't bond that well. A few suggestions have been made where people have put the finished part in an oven to get the plastic temperature up where it will bond better at the layer boundaries then let it cool back down.

https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_Squelch.php

You could build two of those and mount them at 90 degrees to form a turnstile antenna at 6M. That would give you horizontal polarization and a 360 degree compass coverage. Some Notes On Turnstile Antenna Properties - QEX 2002-03.pdf

After seeing the TH-D74's selling for $1,000 and up on eBay in some cases I can believe it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/394386920360?hash=item5bd34ad3a8:g:v2cAAOSwm0pjoSSL&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4LPOYFxcbXMope3RzgBYPvEsMI8ZHIf8nhH6%2FeDmniW%2F1xIXD14qQW0B%2F4pMriRSYaTbFGxqYCiHcdn2QpWzqYZVjFbAO9kvot8k0%2FmxeFSqLxeFMYO1J43OJ%2F41lhTO0X4Iedf43yQ54HE1Lp7K8FABrwV%2BdxfkgvnPZ6lArRISC%2FmJ0Zzl2ibsbYpeUFiaFg7ikVdxCS5ra%2FHZXyUGqUS02FfXDeYm10j2JKt%2B7hWdDvvZriDDjvWIKJkbdV53Xzh2DvKinifhwgHPGWlr9McsBhcoJ7WskSgBeusULWBX|tkp%3ABk9SR5DH4PewYQ

For a cheap portable antenna for 6m the one in the link looks simple enough to build out of coax. https://vk1nam.wordpress.com/6m-sota-antenna/

When the band is open most of the activity is on SSB and you may not need a lot of power either. There aren't too many choices in that area. A favorite for portable/backpack operations is the IC-705 which seems a popular choice, put it's not cheap! https://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/handheld/705/default.aspx https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-017149 HRO will do the MARS/CAP mod for you at extra cost but will also honor the warranty on the radio so it might be worth it.

My TH-D74A HT is modified. These sell for scary high prices used now that they are discontinued.

This doesn't seem to get mentioned much but if you're an active scanner user there might be some pitfalls. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/605

I'm and engineer, spelling wasn't my strong point.?

Oh, one other thing about battery packs, the capacity. Some scams you bump into is the battery pack may work fine but you don't get the "expected" operating time because the manufacture cheats by installing lower capacity rated cells in the pack. So unless you have a way to check the REAL capacity, in mAH, you can't be sure you're getting what you think you paid for. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/248-2117323252_batterypacktestingjpg/ https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/258-104331801_testedbaterypacksjpg/

Looking at the photo I don't see any kind of "balum", usually a ferrite slipped over the coax at the feed point, or several oops of coax in a coil also at the feed point. Without the balum the coax ends up coupling into the antenna that results is a distorted radiation pattern. https://www.w8ji.com/Slim Jim antenna.html https://w6nbc.com/articles/2020-TBDcoaxchokebalun.pdf

I finally got around to reading the posts in this tread. Yup, battery packs are ripe for fraud. I had my own experience. I purchased two new, non Kenwood, battery packs the seller said were compatible with a particular Kenwood part number. I tried to charge them in an official Kenwood charger and they failed with a blinking red light signaling a battery pack issue. After some investigation it turned out there is an internal wire connection between two of the external charge contacts was missing. This on BOTH battery packs. I confirmed it with a meter and a schematic for that battery pack in the service tech manual for the charger. When I externally soldered the wire on the back side of the pack it would charge as expected. I contacted the well known seller, on eBay, explained the issue and provided them with the details. I asked for a refund since the battery packs were NOT compatible as advertised. All I got were multiple excuses and was told it's the charger. I ended up filing a complaint with eBay, sent the two packs back and got a refund. I left negative feedback for the seller. They repeatedly contacted me later and more or less "begged" me to change the feedback. I said no and told them I'm sure they had others complain too, and knew there was a problem. What I think happened is they got a good deal on these Chinese manufactured battery packs because the manufacture likely sold them cheap rather than scrap them out as a total loss. The manufacture likely discovered the packs were missing the internal wire connection during the build process, crappy quality control. The eBay seller then sold them trying to make a quick fat profit from what they most likely knew were manufacturing defect battery packs. By lying to buyers it's their charger they wouldn't have to give refunds, and most people, unlike myself, have no way to check if that's really the case and quit asking for a refund. I did buy two more battery packs, non Kenwood, from another eBay seller for slightly more money. Those I had ZERO issues with.

Finally found somebody who has more look ups than I do on QRZ!

If you have one of the typical Chinese GMRS radios they normally use a reverse/female SMA type antenna connector. I believe the one at the below link is what you'll need. This is the type of connector you see installed, in the photo in a prior post, on the cheap radio I use at work for a scanner. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/nagoya-smaj-bncj.html

One other point. When you want to operate the radio as a stand-a-lone you can leave the SMA to BNC adapter installed but you'll need to find a Rubber Duck antenna with a BNC base. I would highly recommend you do this since the SMA connector, adapter and radio, part can wear out from repeated installs and uninstalls. The one in the link is available with several base connector types including BNC. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/nagoya-na-771g.html

That's a very good suggestion. Most of my stuff is BNC too. You can usually find adapters from just about any type of connector to BNC. Also I find patch cables at swaps using male BNC connectors on the ends. That makes it easy to quickly connect stuff up for temporary operation when you have the adapters.

Have a look at this one. It has some gain as long as you have a nice roof on the car to provide a good ground plane. The gain will definitely be benifical with a low power radio like an HT. https://dpdproductions.com/collections/gmrs-base-mobile-antennas/products/gmrs-double-5-8-wave-mobile-antenna

Do you have an older version of the radio memory file that worked? If so try programming the radio with it and see if it functions normally. The memory contents programed into the radio currently might be corrupted. Writing a known good memory file to the radio might fix it. If so then try changing the radio memory programming to what you currently need and write that to the radio.

Well I signed up for the $60 2 year subscription. I'll see how it goes. Thanks to everyone for their input.

I don't have any scanners to program. It seems that's what the site is basically built for as the main usage. What I would be looking for are a few frequencies that I can put in a my radios to monitor. That's all done manually so downloadable lists aren't useful. Some of the other points you make are valid. I wasn't aware there are other databases not visible to non-paying members. Those have me leaning towards shelling out the money. If I do then the 2 year subscription might be the one. There is no discount for the longer subscriptions however. Oh well.

Thanks. This is the sort of info I was hoping to get from people. With more stuff getting marketed as subscription services, cable TV, satellite radio, even the remote start on my new ride is a pay for service, and it's spreading. One needs to sit down and honestly ask if what they are getting is worth the price paid. https://fortune.com/2022/07/12/bmw-heated-seats-subscription-microtransactions-south-korea/

I didn't make it clear. I'm questioning is it really worth it. What aspects are worth the cost that couldn't be found elsewhere? So far I haven't really got a direct answer to that. If I have to pay for something I want to know if I'm getting value for the money spent. I couldn't care less how they ensure or maintain the database on that site. They're asking money based on it's contents so it's their problem.

I don't care if it's crowd sourced. If I have to pay money to access various features it should be more reliable/accurate. Otherwise just stick ad's everywhere to pay the costs and let people use it for free. In that case I wouldn't care.