Lscott

Three. When one is lazy and holds the microphone 3 feet away from their mouth.

People talk about equipment choices, but that's not the only thing. Some new Hams are interested in using their new found ability to communicate in a volunteer capacity. A few guys I know like to work at various parades, marathons, take part in emergency training drills etc. In fact one buddy just took part in an "active shooter" training drill conducted at the major regional airport a couple of days ago. Others are involved with "SkyWarn", "Races" and "CERT" groups. https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/ https://www.usraces.org/ https://community.fema.gov/PreparednessConnect/s/article/Keeping-Lines-of-Communication-Open-CERT-Ham-Radio He's also a volunteer "first responder", plus uses his skills to build communication command vehicles used by local Ham clubs and some cities. I've seen a few of his projects he's worked on. Top notch work and VERY professionally done too.

It really boils down to the user/operator/programmer of the radio. If a non certified radio is carefully programmed to meet the exact frequency, bandwidth and power limits of the service it would be very unlikely to be distinguishable from an officially certified radio. However the services are primarily aimed for the general public that has little to no technical knowledge of radio theory. Thus the certification rules are designed to physically limit the radio's operation to avoid interference to other services due to accidental miss adjustment of the radio if access was allowed to arbitrary, freely, adjustable frequency, power and bandwidth settings. So, in general the rules are such that a lay person could simply buy a certified radio, turn it on, and immediately use it without the possibility of disrupting other services. Do people use opened up Ham gear, non certified commercial gear etc. on the various Part 95 services, yes, but the smart ones won't admit to it in a public forum, and they are very careful how they program their radios to avoid interference and disruptive operations. They usually have the necessary technical expertise to do so.

I would suspect most, if not all, GMRS radios have a power setting function. I know on my commercial grade radios I can switch between 4/5 watts to a low of 1 watt when I don't need the higher power. Note FRS is limited to a max of 2 watts on most of the channels and as low as 0.5 watts on a selected number of them per FCC rules.

While the TH-8600 is smaller than a TK-8180 you might try a similar idea. I used one of the weighted bases for a GPS unit as the base. The weight kept it in the swallow recess on the dash of my Jeep at the time to keep it from sliding off. The weighted base also had a rubber mat on the back to keep it from slipping much as well. Also maybe using some Velcro strips on the dash might work too. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/414-th-8600-on-mountjpg/?context=new

In the above case you might want to look at the this antenna. It will handle both Ham and GMRS. Also if you have a VHF MURS enabled radio it will work with that too. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/268-ca-2x4sr/?context=new The antenna is available in UHF and NMO type mounts. There is an optional spring loaded bottom element which will save you some possible roof and or antenna damage if it hits something like low tree branches. A number of people on the forum have had good results using it. Note it is a BIG antenna and does require a good ground plane to get the claimed gain and SWR match range.

I wish I did. I only have a couple of Motorola XPR-6580's for 900MHz and just got a used Kenwood NX-411. Both are hand held radios that do maybe 2.5 to 3 watts on the band. Neither one takes direct programming of frequencies in the Ham 33cm band without doing some hex editing of the programming software for the Motorola or the code plug for the Kenwood. I published a manual how-to for the NX-411 on another group. A fellow Ham there is writing a custom utility to automate the code plug hex editing based on what I discovered how Kenwood encrypts the code plug contents. https://groups.io/g/AR902MHz/topic/hex_editing_kenwood_dat_files/108936914 The main issue with a 900MHz mobile radio is the significantly higher losses in the coax cable. You think it's bad on GMRS/Ham 70cm, wait till you see the numbers at 902/927 MHz. For example if I used the typical 17 feet of RG-58, usual for mobile antenna installs, I would see a 41 percent power loss at 902 MHz. My 2.5 watt HT would get 1.46 watts to the antenna.

Do you see getting an amateur radio license in the future too? That will change the antenna recommendations a bit. Those that do usually ask if there is one antenna that will work for both services. Some other important info would be the usual application, like just around the town use, off roading etc. Also do you need to park in a garage, need to pass through drive-through windows etc.? Some of the nice mobile antennas are rather tall and don't like low over head hanging obstructions.

With money being tight you can try visiting the local dollar store and see what they have. You won’t be spending much. You might find something you can use with some modifications to allow quick mounting to a window still, hand rail etc. and take down quick when done. I’ve used a number of things when I had to live in an apartment for some years. Even tried a magnet mount on the air conditioner mounted in the wall. Put the antenna on the outside and routed the cable through the case to inside of the unit.

If it was so simple we wouldn't get any business here.

Looks like you might need guy ropes on the car instead of the mast when the wind picks up.

Oops. I have an older Comet antenna, CA-2x4MB, no longer manufactured unfortunately, that was really wide banded. I think it was better than the 4SR. No ground plane too. Looks like a higher gain version of the 4SR but taller. Even on my Mazda SUV I have to look out for low tree limbs while driving around. The one in the photo is over 20+ years old. I have a spare still in the green Comet bag they come in that's never seen the outside world. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/471-mobile-mount-with-antenna-rear-view/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/469-antenna-collectionjpg/?context=new

It's a 5/8 wave design thus a bit fussy with the ground plane. Used one with a home made ground radial setup. I bent the radials at about a 45 degree angle. An SWR sweep showed a decent match. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/268-ca-2x4sr/?context=new

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/265-never-enough-antennas-on-mobilejpg/?context=new

Did it look something like this? https://imgur.com/eUWMHhA

It was sort of funny when the propaganda news media was reporting on the protests saying they were mostly peaceful with over turn cars on the street behind them, burning buildings and looters running by with arm fulls of stolen goods. Yup.

Radio has been very quiet here too. Don't need the crazies. I use a cheap triband CCR here at work as a cheapo scanner. I have it setup for FRS since most of the business are using them because they're cheap and no license required. Plus it's the same frequencies used by GMRS, at least the repeater outputs are.

I've been reading a few posts here and there where there is more activity to get a bill passed to prohibit encrypting things like police communications, at least for the dispatch frequencies, the tactical communications could remain encrypted. The logic used is two fold. One the equipment is paid for through public funds, and second for public transparency. Most likely not encrypted. Depending on location somebody might be have been in range to pickup the local radio traffic. That's not so sure now-days about HT's and encryption. Several of my radios have anything from RC4 enhanced 40 bit encryption, compatible with various other manufacture's radios. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/?context=new And I have two with AES256 bit included.

I believe that. I did benchmark my TH-D74A once. It scanned through about 20+ channels in a second. For an HT that's quick.

So has anybody been monitoring the local GMRS channels, and the Ham bands? I remember a few years back when various protests were going on hearing local chatter on the Ham bands, a protest by the General Dynamics tank plant, on 70cm. Then believe it or not on some of the commercial business frequencies too! It seemed another protest was also ongoing at the same time. That one the protesters were using a local mall to park and get organized and the mall security there was keeping an eye on them. You can get live up to date news on what's happening without having to wait for the "filtered" coverage from the media. This is really a safety issue. The mall protest was only about 15 minutes by car from my home so yes it was of big interest to me. If it wasn't for the chatter on the radio I wouldn't have had any idea it was happening. People frequently mention getting into GMRS for emergency reasons, well trying to stay ahead, and away from, any potential trouble I think qualifies.

Been scanning the local GMRS frequencies and repeaters since this morning. It's been very quiet.

https://www.abc3340.com/news/nation-world/us-businesses-board-up-ahead-of-possible-election-day-unrest-presidential-election-november-5th-2024-washington-dc-portland-oregon-luzerne-county-pennsylvania-wilkes-barre-politics https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-vs-harris-cities-across-us-board-up-ahead-election https://www.kgw.com/article/news/politics/elections/downtown-portland-business-window-board-up-election-preparation/283-83092bf2-ef68-4bbe-8176-e82b3ec147b7 https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/11/natl-guard-troops-on-standby-ahead-of-potential-election-unrest/ Just a few examples. Sad the country has to be this way.

Now where is the cop hiding?

Like these guys? https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/militia-radio-frequencies/