WRTC928

It was pretty much impossible to get a good ground plane on my truck unless I mounted the antenna right on top of the cab, but I didn't want to use a mag mount. After going through a lot of antennas, I settled on the Nagoya HDG and it worked beautifully on a Breedlove bed rail mount right behind the cab. It's about 1/25" diameter, 48" long, and rigid, so it may not be for you, but I'm happy with it.

Yeah, but mountain lions require a special license.

Call signs work very well in amateur radio where each user has an individual call sign, but I can imagine that with 3-4 families with 3-4 members each using a GMRS repeater, it could get a bit confusing.

For an average-height adult, the horizon would be about 3 miles away if the earth were perfectly spherical and smooth. UHF waves aren't 100% line of sight; they do bend slightly due to the earth's electromagnetic field, but it wouldn't add much. So, maybe 3.5 miles if the earth were smooth. Barring anything else, that is the practical limit of a UHF radio. However, the earth isn't smooth and even a little difference in elevation can alter the line of sight substantially. From my house, I can't talk to the WalMart 2 miles to the southwest, but I have talked to another HT 15 miles away to the southeast, a GMRS repeater 25 miles to the northeast, and a 2 meter ham repeater 33 miles to the northeast. Two days ago, I had a conversation on a 2m repeater 20 miles to the north with 1 watt. The difference is elevation -- all the repeaters are on towers and my house is in a relatively high position. To my southwest, there is a hill about 30' higher than my house. I suppose there's some practical limit to how far you can communicate with 1 watt due to atmospheric and electromagnetic interference, but for any practical purposes, it's terrain that limits your range. From one mountaintop to another mountaintop with nothing higher between, 100 miles is attainable with an HT. Unfortunately, most of us aren't in that position.

My son who lives in Alaska carries one of those for bear protection. He loads it with Buffalo Bore hard-cast flat nose 320 grain .45 Colt magnum rounds. He also keeps it beside the bed, because nothing says "f*** you" like sending your engine block into orbit. Personally, I wouldn't choose a single-action, but he's a former national Mounted Pistol champion and he can work that action ridiculously fast. However, being armed won't keep someone from breaking into a car in a state as unfriendly to protection of self and property as California. The mopes aren't accustomed to thinking in terms of personal danger while committing a crime. The laws are much more homeowner-friendly where I live, so the miscreants are less likely to target a vehicle parked in front of a private property. They typically break into vehicles in parking lots in the city. I live on a dead-end driveway off a dead-end street in a town of 6,700 people. They probably figure (correctly) that I have every feature ranged. I have to be more careful if I'm leaving for a couple of days, although I have left power tools on the back deck while I was gone for more than a week and they weren't touched. In the city, I just pull the power head off and conceal it. I may also unscrew the antenna and toss it inside the car if I'm in a little more sketchy neighborhood. That's really about all I can do, so beyond that, I don't worry about it.

That's a helpful tip. Good to know.

Interesting thought. Have you done that?

I'm glad I could help. The main reason for the two-radio setup for was a situation where I might need to provide a radio for someone else. One radio isn't much good by itself. I've bought another case for a single-radio setup similar to yours, but I haven't put it together yet. BTW, if they make them for your radio, I highly recommend the silicone/rubber protective sleeve. So far, I haven't broken a radio by dropping it, but it's only a matter of time.

Interesting. I did not know that. We mostly have deciduous trees where I live, so I haven't observed that some trees block signals more than others.

That is true. Sometimes a signal isn't entirely obstructed, but it isn't entirely unobstructed either. For example, in a forested area, the signal isn't usually completely blocked, but it is definitely attenuated. More power often will help with that.

This is one of the few cases where more power might give you more range. If you have unobstructed line-of-sight to the repeater's antenna, you should be able to talk to it with almost any radio. If you have significant obstructions in the way, you won't be able to hear the repeater. However, if you can hear it but not talk to it, it's likely there is enough partial obstruction to reduce the signal but not block it entirely. In that case, a little more "punch" might get you through to the repeater.

As far as antennas go, higher is better...with some caveats. The most significant limitation to range is terrain. Radio waves travel in a straight line (for any practical purposes). Depending upon the terrain, it may be that in order to make a real difference, you'd have to have a ridiculously tall mast. It's also possible that a higher antenna won't make a difference because you already have line-of-sight to anyone you want to talk to. For example, my house is on a bluff above a river. I already have line-of-sight to any repeater within a reasonable distance; a taller antenna (mostly) won't change that. I can reach almost everything in the region with a 19" mobile antenna on a steel pizza pan in the floor of my living room. If I could get my antenna up 50'-60', I might be able to reach a couple of repeaters in the Arbuckle Mountains, but that's just not practical for me. I suggest you drive around and find out what you can reach from various locations and from your house before you put an antenna on the house. Your vehicle is another matter. An external antenna absolutely will make a difference in range and clarity because you're essentially sitting in a Faraday cage. I'm not familiar with the MOBLE antenna, but it's almost certainly better than using the stock antenna from inside your vehicle. I got really good results with the 3" Midland Ghost antenna, so it doesn't necessarily have to be tall to work well. Don't fall into the trap of thinking more power will give you more range. It almost never does. If there are obstructions between you and your target, you're not going to get through them with any practical amount of power. VHF and HF operate by somewhat different rules, but for UHF (i.e., GMRS), an obstruction is an obstruction, and you can't force your way through it. The radio in my car goes up to 40 watts on UHF, but I typically run it on 10 watts because only rarely does boosting the power make a difference. Congratulations on joining the community. You can have a lot of fun with radios.

I was interested that BTech recommended the Nagoya HDG for their repeater. I've had one (recently gave it to a new GMRS licensee) and it was a pretty darned good antenna, but I wouldn't think of it as the top of the list for a repeater. Perhaps they recommend it because it doesn't require a ground plane? That's certainly a valid consideration, but not a really major one, IMO.

I've never experienced that. I think it's likely that most higher-power radios are sold with higher-rated antennas.

I'm sure it happens, but I haven't seen very many that I thought looked suspicious. You're advertising to a very wide audience on Ebay and the likelihood of being spotted probably is too high for occasionally selling a random item. On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me at all if many/most radios sold on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are stolen. Even so, the pool of potential buyers is pretty small, and most fences won't pay very much for a GMRS/amateur radio. That's not to say a criminal won't steal one if they can, but they won't work very hard for it. I try to make it inconvenient enough that they won't bother.