WRKW566

Nope, no coils. The shell is empty and what you see in the picture is what is there. The center "element" spring, what have you is crimped directly to the connector center conductor. what you have is what I expected to see when I popped open the assembly, which was super easy, I just partially screwed an adapter to the antenna ant put a screwdriver between the plastic cover and the adapter and pried it off. Caveat, I had been smacking stuff with the antenna too amuse myself so I bet I fractured the super glue holding it together. It smells like that.

I can't get to the local repeaters without changing location. Not interested in an antenna outside the house. I really don't care if the antenna has any gain, I just expected more than I actually got. Sure, a little gain from a larger antenna would have been nice, but these stick-things I have are actually harmful to the radio at best, much less provide any gain. I let my expectations get out of control and mouse-clicked myself into a bunch of junk. I just go on about this partly to make myself feel better and partly to keep someone else from setting expectations and ending up with useless radio junk. I agree with you, rubber duck antennas are more about not braking off the antenna when you mishandle your radio than they are about performance.

These show to be dual band, 144/430MHz but the "math" for these is centered around 393.5MHz 1/2 wave. This thing can't function at any of the labeled frequencies. https://www.onesdr.com/whip-antenna-calculator/

My comment was born of frustration, not directed at you are anyone else. The subject of these antennae popped up and triggered my ire. It would be great if I could find a way to rebuild these, I have more time than the new antenna would be worth of money. For now, they make great fidget sticks. Edit, here. Take a look at my "factory" Nagoya antenna. nothing but a connector and a length of spring wire. the overall length from the tip to the female pin in the connector is 38cm. No loading, nothing. Just looks like an antenna.

I am sour on the "771" antenna. The "factory provided" Nagoya 771 antennas I got directly from Baofeng are fakes... so says the Nagoya website. Not dropping $30 a pop (shipping included) for replacements. The factory "Nagoya 771" antennas from Baofeng don't work as well as the "gimmie" antenna the radio comes with. Sure, I could buy one directly from Nayoga but why put good money after bad. I will look for other options. Not Nagoya's fault but at the very least they could defend their brand by telling Baofeng not to sell the fakes. I guess they don't have the profit margins to hire layers to do that stuff. (not interested in a "bidding war" here, you guys don't have to tell me all the places where I can get these antennas for less money. Don't waste your time.)

I have never considered that FRS was range limited. I always figured the power limit was a design thing to keep the playing field level in manufacturing. This is an interesting new think for me. It may be a very good reason to own an FRS only 'talkie just so that in a busy area I can introduce as little additional "noise" as I can. Big power ain't always good power. Warning: Thread hijack incoming... recommend nice FRS only product. should be something a person will not be ashamed to display... no hello kitty radios

Next thought that bubbled up is, if you set one of your radios to monitor 467.600 and then use the other radio to transmit to the repeater, can you hear voice? I get that the repeater can receive your carrier and the tone to open the repeater but trying to find where the voice is lost. If you get voice this way, the repeater is doing something odd. There needs to be a continuous tone to keep the repeater "open". Still fishing here.

I may ask dumb questions and you may ignore me, but I ask anyway... Do the two radios, your HT and your mobile work in simplex between the two? No repeater involved, no tones or weird stuff.

"Your friends and family will say and do things to you that your enemy would never consider." You people let me know when I start treating you like family, 'k?

Geek is what the guy at the carnival was called who would bite the heads off chickens for the audience. While strictly not an insult, I would rather be called a radio dork than a radio geek. The Internet agrees with you about the accepted meaning for the word dork but unless I give myself the ability to redirect the hate in other people's words, I become directed by those words, and as such directed by the thinking of those people. Name calling is childish, name calling as an adult is stupid as we are charged with the responsibility to think about things or risk affecting other people's lives. As children our name calling was just the expression of our thinking without the education to communicate intelligently what were were feeling. Call me anything you like as long as you call me for dinner

AND save the first read to a file. That read is your recovery option should there be some nonsense down the road. Thank you Steve (I'm out of upvotes for today. Sucks being a positive person : )

In the old days, we would walk next door to talk to our neighbor. A 5 minute walk, sometimes to find they were not at home. We were not bothered by this when it happened. Sure, we could use the phone but the phone was a luxury that was mostly reserved for adult activities. Getting caught flapping on the phone usually came with sanctions. Now days, we use a cellphone to talk to the person in the next room. Using a radio is kinda like walking over to your neighbor's house but still sitting on the couch. And you can "walk" to a neighbor's house that is 10 minutes by foot. If you are out camping, you can tell your kids to "check in" every 1/2 hour or so and hand them a watch. This has the effect of geofencing them as they can't get far and still meet the 1/2 hour check-in. A radio lets them "check in" without the walk and extends their range of exploring and what ever. It also lets them function autonomously and interact with one another when they want. "Line of sight" is a term that is used to control expectation not a hard condition. If you are truly in line of sight with a person, and not in an area with background noise, you can likely yell at them and be understood. The radio makes this easier on your neck bones GMRS is not a replacement for anything, it's an additional tool to be used when acting as a group. In the event of an emergency, there has to be someone ready at the other end. If your 10-minute neighbor lives on the other side of the local creek, then you have a real tool in the event of a weather generated disaster. The creek washes out the bridge and the cellphones are out and your landline used the poles along side that same bridge... all now down stream somewhere, the GMRS radio becomes something very useful. Sure repeaters are a "thing" but unless you are routinely using them, buying a GMRS radio and dropping it into a desk drawer next to your Glock is not a "ready" situation.

Beware counterfeit Nagoya 771 antennas. If the product image shows an orange bag, beware. Go look at the products on the official Nagoya website... heck, just buy the antenna directly from them. I have four "771" antennas that are rubbish. The factory Baofeng antenna works in all cases where the "771" antenna I received does not. On that note, anyone know a way to modify a counterfeit antenna to be any use?

Is there room in the center armrest? Heat from the radio would be a problem. I looked at Internet pictures of the interior of a lot of Rav4's and that's a tight compartment. I can understand how finding a mounting location will be difficult. One "solution" I have used is to build a fixture that positions the radio against the driver's seat between your legs. Bend up some flat stock and screw a couple cross braces into it and it can be a solid mount. routing power and coax to the radio becomes easier than working behind the dash. Big drawback is when you hit the car in front of you looking down between your legs to adjust the radio. unrelated but related: WRKW566 Rule One; If you can't adjust it from the steering wheel, wait until you are stopped. All knobs, buttons, touch screens are "off limits" while driving. So far, zero automobile accidents. (Shift lever exemption, manual transmission)

Nothing at all! "Dork" is not a derogatory term... at least not to me! Perhaps when we were growing up, "dork" was probably intended as an insult, but remember who was giving out those insults... the dumbass who looked at your hobby or activity and could not see themselves doing that. If you didn't want to chase a ball like a dog, likely you got called a dork. It only bothered you if you cared about the person calling you a dork. Now days, "dork" is a badge of honor implying an extended understanding or expertise in a chosen field. Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking were "dorks".