Willie

Blasphemy! Everybody knows there is only ONE real Godzilla. And he is in black and white. The end.

P.S. Just for the record, I saw a down vote for Randy's post that I don't feel he deserved so I gave it an up vote from my view. What he posted was correct. The second radio I received was not "DOA". It worked as it was supposed to except for a failure to communicate via a programming cable connection. He gave fair advice to send the radio back which I agreed with. He has no control over what happens beyond that so I don't understand the reasoning for the vote. While I don't have an issue with anyone voting any way they want, I just wanted to add my $0.02 as well. Anyway... I hope everyone has a great holiday season!

Epilogue: Well my 2nd Wouxun KG-Q10G radio is finally fixed. Buytwowayradios sent it back to me untested ie. they did not open up the radio to do any visual inspections or continuity testing. They plugged a programming cable into the radio and said it would read/write to the radio consistently. I have no idea how many cables they went through to find one that worked, but they did send that cable to me along with the radio. After I got the radio back it did indeed work with the cable they sent with it. I even bought another Wouxun cable and it works as well. Then I tried using my rt-systems software and cable again.... and again it would only connect with the first radio but not the second one. Since buytwowayradios would not replace the radio under warranty I opened it up myself to have a look since the 'warranty' was useless anyway. After a good look I found the upper 2.5mm phone jack on the PCB sat farther in on the board edge than the lower 3.5mm jack. Those two make up the 'mic ports' in the side of the radio. They used two individual jacks instead of the more common dual phone jacks I often see. I tweaked the upper jack to get it to stick out a hair more (not much ~ 0.020") from the edge of the PCB into the radio case so the opening was closer to being parallel to the lower jack opening. After reassembling the radio I redid all of my previous testing and now both radios work with all cables and both software packages. Even mixing cables between the software packages... it all works now. So to celebrate my now voided Wouxun warranty on a one month old radio, I bought myself a second Yeasu VX-6R radio (NOT from buytwowayradios) and just did a MARS mod on it, which is what I should have done in the first place. Once bitten...

I got the 'too many connections' error once, a few days ago but it resolved itself about a half-hour later.

Also known as size dash 110 (-110). You can also get the same size in a square cross-section if you prefer, although they are much more expensive in that form. More like the little rubber flat washers that come with Nagoya antennas as opposed to a 'normal' o-ring with a round cross-section.

I thought used MRE packaging is what they are making FRS radios from now. Recycling and all that... <j/k>

Yeah It's working again now. I guess I just need to slow my roll...

I don't know. That's the problem!

Well just don't exceed the number of fars allowed or you know who might come around and tell you - "NO SOUP FOR YOU!

What is the number you are allowed to use on the forums per day? I seem to have exceeded my limit and need to start keeping count. (Too many great posts to discover.) I tried searching the rules and guidelines but haven't been able to find an answer. These emoji things down here in the lower right corner of each post. *****

BINGO.

Yes, I like how you can set up multiple zones with multiple transmitters and get the all the alerts on a single receiver. We went with the handhelds so we can be in the back yard and still know when someone shows up at the front door. Plus being able to use them for personal coms between us if we end up in different areas.

Appears to, yes. https://www.l-com.com/Images/Downloadables/Datasheets/ds_HG-GPSGLNMO195-SMA.pdf

True that!

I have a couple of Dakota Alert handhelds that are used in conjunction with one of their driveway motion sensors, but I have it set up over my front door to alert me to people on the walkway approaching my front porch/door. That way I'm alerted to delivery drivers dropping off packages but don't bother to knock on the door or ring the doorbell. I can't afford to leave packages sitting on my front porch unattended for very long due to the porch pirate trend. I happen to have a Walmart located at the end of my block and I've also thought about the possibilities that presents as well.

Update: I sent radio #2 back to them and they received it today. Within minutes of the tracking # saying it was delivered, I got a call from them saying they already tested it and it was working fine. They connected the radio to their computer and said it read the radio, no problem. Why did you send it in? I explained again all the testing I did with both radios, and two different software/cable packages, and neither would read or write to radio #2. Then he said well... I checked to see if it would read from the radio, but I did NOT check to see if I could write to it. Hold on a sec... Then he said hmmm... I got an error, hmmm... no communication.... port 3.... Being a late Friday afternoon he said he will check it again next week, and if it works he would likely send the same radio back to me and maybe with another cable. Having already told them I used two different brand new cables and software that works every single time with radio #1 but NOT radio #2. They still want to blame the cable(s) I'm using - after having a failure while using their own cable? WTF????? I can't say I'm impressed with their diagnostic skills thus far, but will have to wait until next week to see what call they make on it. But if they send me the same radio back with an internal open circuit (intermittent?) in the radio itself - lets just say I will not be pleased.

Man.... this thread has gone to the birds. Literally.

I understand that it will work. I am just curious to know how much (if any) the antenna placement affects the directional performance of a UHF mobile radio. I know it was an issue back in the day when I had a CB radio because of the lower frequencies. I don't have and have never dealt with a GMRS mobile radio before. So finding the best SWR is the only concern then?

I know this discussion is focused on SWR, but I'm not seeing any mention of antenna placement vs radiation pattern. Is this not an issue with UHF? I'm just wondering what a VNA analyzer might tell you (if anything).

One of my favorite quotes: "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

Ummmm... yeah. I've definitely heard that one being used on air before. Those reports remind me of the days when Uncle Sugar wanted you to NARC on your neighbors during the 'pandemic' if they had visitors over.

If you say what part it is that you are feeling lost about the most, it would help others to point you in the right direction. Nobody learns everything at once. As far as getting a response from a PM, you have to realize that not everyone on the forums checks in every single day to get messages and what not. I'm just a novice myself so all I can recommend is to concentrate on the basics. Don't even think about repeaters until you get simplex down pat first. And I make a lousy teacher so take anything I have to say with a large grain of salt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhYJS80MgYA Oooops... Lscott beat me to it.