piggin

Excellent!!!

You are welcome! I bet the price goes up when they are in stock again. You scored!

I bought my Laird/ TE connectivity FG4607 from Mouser. 249 ish dollars. Shipping was 9.95! I apparently bought the last one in stock and it got here the day before the hurricane arrived. It is an excellent antenna...that varies wildly in price!

I have a magnet mount that came with the midland 500. 6.6 to 1 with no antenna. 12 feet of lossy rg178 with nothing attached was 3.3 to 1. Some mobile magnet mounts have fairly high loss in the long provided coax. Measure yours with a active swr device and you might be surprised! I don't have any idea what the power amp is in my midland but if it is like other radios it probably has an rf power module in it. The ones in my Icom 2730A are rated for 60 or 65 watts max but run at 50 watts. I mention this because the modules are rated for 20 to 1 swr no damage at over 60 watts!!!! Very rugged. Good practice also will reduce drive if high SWR is detected. I know nothing about how the midland is built or any other GMRS radio is made but...I would be surprised if the makers reinvented the wheel to make mobile radios. The modules are economical and reduce parts count. They are probably pretty robust! And lossy cable will radiate some...which is why you could use it at all. Great story!

Yes! Try to get one with a regulated output to ensure proper performance of the radio. Set it up where you plan to use it and test it. Make sure it performs to your expectations. Do that more than a couple times to get an accurate idea of the performance your getting and to sort out any weak links! For my use my good outside antenna is more than enough. I saved the battery power for charging the flashlights and the ladies cell phones. My lights never needed charging! On the last day without power the battery reached full charge so I connected my digital scanners and charged them up and the bank was still 100 percent full. I need a bigger battery and panels to go nuts with much power. My powerbank is small and has a 330 watt ac outlet which easily will run LED lights and small fans as well as ac chargers for all kinds of cells including my power tools. I found 5 watts from the KG-905G very adequate. With my antenna gain and low loss line ERP from the antenna is 20 watts+ with 4.5 watts into the feedline. Plenty enough for what I needed.

My first priority is getting some large LIP04 batteries, big RF-quiet inverters and charge controllers. And more solar panels and the wiring to make it all work together. Something big enough to run the refrigerator. Gas powered generators are cool but you need a lot of gas on hand. And oil. and maintenance. My system was designed for winter storm related problems, when you can put food in a cooler and throw it outside to keep it cool. I lost a lot of meat in 7 days of high temperatures. I could not cook it all. We ate very well at first. By the time we understood how bad it was, it was too late. Fail. In the first days information was impossible to find about how bad it was. This was not helpful to say the least. The isolation caused by roads closed by trees and the sudden absence of bridges cut people off into small pockets. Most repeaters went down...people who relied on them were out of luck. And it became obvious right away that very few had equipment to talk far away with power backup too. My wire antenna for HF was buried under maple limbs 6 inches thick in the backyard. Even the authorities had trouble because the state linked system lost so many links from landslides and river crossings of the fiber backbone. The digital P25 system was so solid with traffic some departments had to use local comms and stay off the main state system. No one planned for complete infrastructure failure. Plan accordingly. A seriously SHTF situation.

I live in West Asheville. Got internet back some hours ago. Things that worked great during the aftermath which featured zero cell phone service, no power, no water, no internet. Power was out 1 week. Water out for 2 weeks. Wouxun KG-905G with Nagoya 771G or Diamond RH77CA. I bought 3200mah packs for both HT's and they were charged fully as well as the original 2800mah batteries. I never had to charge them during 4 days of no cell service. I never had to swap out batteries either. I used one to scan to listen to work crews with a Laird FG-4503 antenna on the roof. It and the Bolton600 feed line went through the storm no problems at all. Wind rated to 125mph. A few days later I replaced the 4503 with a TE connectivity FG-4607...also 125mph wind rated. Giant improvement for listening close as well as far away! I only have the 2 Wouxuns so I gave my daughter a Quansheng K5-(8) Programmed with all gmrs and frs channels. We stayed in the first 7 channels and that radio performed flawlessly with it's stock antenna. It just sipped the battery and still showed full charge after 4 days of being used. Daughter much preferred the smaller "cute" radio. A solar power bank kept the cell phones charged as both ladies ran the batteries in them down as they fruitlessly searched for service. The electric chainsaw and other Dewalt XR power tools did all I needed and also did not need charging for the week with no power. Whatever base radio you get, make sure you can power it. Overkill on the antenna windspeed rating is also recommended! Both GMRS antennas I have used have one piece radomes. And a 5 year warranty. I bought a Midland MTX-500 because I wanted to test it and figured if it works ok it can be used as a mobile or base. It arrived on the Wednesday before the storm. On Thursday the antenna arrived...and I took a break from pumping out the basement to unbox it. Friday all services disappeared. The midland is extremely easy to program repeaters into without a computer and it has enough power into repeaters to work well. I never needed it during the blackout. The HT's were more than enough. Power output seems fine as it draws very close to 9 amps@13.9 volts into the 4607 on repeater inputs. It has 128 channels too. No tone scan, a major omission. Audio recovery is excellent on weak signals. I was going to buy a part 95 kenwood but it will have to wait for my finances to recover. The Midland is way overpriced...it cost more than my Icom 2730A which is dual band and has crossband repeat built in. And tone scan and so many other features its nuts. But it's legal and works well. The ANL is obviously a DSP noise reduction scheme that rapidly nukes intelligibility as you go past the lowest setting. The radio gets hot if you transmit a lot on high power. A small nearly noiseless fan I have on hand blowing air under the radio makes it stay nice and cool. The Midland never exhibited intermod or signs of overloading here before the storm when used with a high Comet GP-3. After the storm I heard some weird stuff that sounded like intermod but my SDR showed "someone" was using equipment that was a wide pulsed signal that moved around the band occasionally. It was heard on the Wouxun on the other antenna at the same time...as well as a Icom 8500. Not intermod. A strange out of place transmission. Only noted during heavy military air traffic. Its gone now...air traffic is much much lower. The midland is great for scanning as the audio is good and it is much less noisy than the Wouxun. It performs on par with the Icom 2730 as far as sensitivity. It actually has a useful signal meter that only goes all the way up for really close or ultra strong signals. The wouxun pegs its scale so early it is useless for determining when someone is very close. I like the Midland, even though it is overpriced. The Wouxun KG-905G and the Nagoya 771G are both very highly recommended...as is the TE Connectivity FG4607 and the Bolton600 feedline. Sorry if this post is a bit chaotic or unclear. I am still a bit disoriented. I used ham radio, GMRS, and the scanners heavily for information. I won't post some of the things I heard. Really horrible stuff. Much worse than the media coverage conveys. I fared very well actually. But others lost everything. Many others.

IF you have it set properly... can you "kerchunck" the repeaters? This website is a great resource for repeaters in the area you live in. Figure out which ones are close and set your transmit tones and then see if you are getting into them. If you are, then focus on holding the microphone the right way. Talking across the mic works better. Speak in a loud voice while being close to the mic. Speaking into it from right in the front of it does not work as well as speaking at an angle across the front of it does. This technique yields good results. It should also be said that if you are weak into the repeater with a low signal you may be so noisy no one will respond. If possible, drive closer to the repeater site and try again. Unless the signals you hear are very loud and clear, you may not be strong enough to talk to them. When I first got my ham license I was too poor to afford a HF radio. As a result I used an inexpensive 2M radio and ran amok trying for distant repeaters. I had a great time talking to people far away. Technique and experience really help. Don't give up! You can do it! Keep trying and you WILL succeed. I hope to see you post soon on your first radio contact. Good luck and be persistent. Try and try some more. Also...a better antenna with more gain will help out west. Stupid anecdotal story follows. I was into a machine on the coast of SC from my home in WNC one evening, and a local user of the repeater did not believe my location. The conditions were excellent for long distance due to an effect called ducting. It was hilarious because he was actually offended I was able to get into his repeater from where I was. It was an unforgettable experience and hilarious. Keep trying. You will get the hang of it and when you do you will forget all the things you needed to do to make it work. Practice makes perfect and don't give up!!!

Some models do wideband. Like the 500. Return it if you can. Narrowband is so quiet to other users it sounds like speaking quietly 5 ft from the mic. I am sure its why you are being ignored even if you are into the repeater.

Make certain you can transmit in wideband. If you are set to narrow band going into a repeater the users will hear you breaking in but your voice will be very quiet. It is critical to transmit wideband so others will hear you well.

Try connecting as directly to the battery as possible. Under high current demand the radio may and indeed will be modulated by noise (IE whine). Chokes can help a bit but nothing beats a direct battery connection, IMHO YMMV. Sorry you are having trouble. You are not the first and won't be the last. In fact this problem is SO common it should be stickied if a "perfect" solution is posted.

Please post the power supply you use for your home station. And if you can the voltage and current supplied. I have various supplies here but primarily use Astron 35m power supplies. I have a couple of them for ham and gmrs use. I heavily prefer linear supplies because I can service and repair them. YMMV so what do you use?

I am looking forward to the leaves being down here too. I am very happy with my system working better as the leaves fall. Winter is wonderful here on UHF. The only downside is ducting is much poorer in the winter VS fall and the spring. As it is, I am pretty happy with my current antennas.

For close in the minor lobes will be fine.Based on what you want to do you made a great choice. Peak wind velocities here and mounting points pretty much rule out 2 or 3 piece radome antennas for me. I like my low gain one piece radome antennas for the durability and low wind load. If I lived on the plains My antennas would be very different! Your new antenna should work well. My Comet is fed with 60 feet of LMR600 equivalent. A giant upgrade from the 100 ft LMR400 foot section I used previously. You should be GTG. Please post again and tell us how it works for you. Anecdotal reports are invaluable...looked down on by some but they still have a huge value and do nothing but add to the knowledge base. Thanks!

I have 2 antennas up and neither one is epic. One is a Comet GP3 ham 2m/440 antenna good for 5.1 DBD and One is a Laird 4503. (3DBD) The Laird is fed with only 20ft of LMR600 equivalent feedline and is fantastic here in the mountains of WNC for hearing activity in the city of Asheville and the surrounding area. The Comet has more gain is is great for more distant repeaters and really eliminates a bunch of stuff down low closer in. The effect is comical and obvious...its like a local/distance switch! Depending on the topography you can find a good compromise that is doable for both. The Laird is Lower than the comet. With the comet up much higher I have heard many guys on a repeater 100 miles away say I am the most distant station they have ever worked in my direction. There is a higher ridge between us and a higher gain antenna here might not exploit the knife edge diffraction I am using to work them. Pattern makes a big difference! High power and a fat radiation pattern can be very good in the mountains while a very high gain antenna will delete your close pals! It really depends on where you are and who you want to talk to. The Laird is to talk to my daughter when she is walking about. The Comet is great to talk to distant repeaters. Good Luck!!!