marcspaz

@Lscott yes, Sir! It gets a bit tricky with a mobile, though. LOL

I don't know if Kemp Wireless does repairs for equipment they haven't sold, but it may be worth emailing or calling them to find out. They are highly recommend for sales and support.

@WRUW275 ^^^ this is the best answer. If there was a realistic way to screw the antenna directly to the output of the radio, I would. LOL

A lot of amateurs use the space weather tools on the home page of QRZ. https://www.qrz.com/ Same data here, in the top, left corner. http://www.hamqsl.com/solar.html An my absolute ? favorite is Dr. Tamitha Skov, Space Weather Woman. https://www.spaceweatherwoman.com/

I agree with Alex on all points. It's too hard to predict/calculate for all but a chosen few. And to touch a bit more or the reflection idea... think of radio waves like sunlight. There isn't perfect darkness in the shadows because the sunlight, to varying degrees, scatters off of everything around the item creating the shadow. That includes dust and other things in the air. Radio wave literally do the same thing.

A friend of mine reminded me about something pretty important. I updated the original post, but wanted to include the update here as well. With new or non-technical operators, this is an often misunderstood concept. Repeater Caveat There are some important caveats to signal reports for repeater users. The RST style signal report is not a valid reporting method. The voice quality or 'intelligibility' of the transmission is likely not going to be valid. If the reporting operator is receiving the repeater's signal well enough that there is little to no chance that the voice quality is impaired, you may be able to give and get a valid readability report. This condition is often when you will hear signal reports such as "loud and clear" or "full-quiet." These replies indicate that you have a very good radio and voice signal into the repeater, as reported by someone who has a very good signal from the repeater. Additionally, the signal strength is not relevant through the repeater, at all. The receiver's station is going to be seeing the signal strength of the repeater, not the originating station asking for a signal report. It is not possible to know the received signal strength at the repeater site unless you are the repeater owner or admin and have the ability to see the actual repeater's receive meter. Even then, most repeaters do not have any easily visible signal strength meters. The next best method would be if the receiving station listens to the repeater input frequency (assuming the receiving radio has that feature). If the reporting station can hear you directly, they can tell you how strong your signal is at that person's location. It's still not indicative of how strong your signal is at the repeater.

Thank you so much for the kind words. It is much appreciated. I really do hope it helps.

What are Signal Reports? What is an s-unit? Why does this matter? But, Why? First, why does any of this matter? The General Mobile Radio Service was segmented with the concept of being a short-distance two-way communications for licensees and their immediate family members. It doesn’t require any special knowledge, exams or understanding of the science behind the magic. However, you will occasionally hear both professional and amateur radio operators who are also licensed GMRS operators, who may be using lingo more common to other services. One of the most common will be an RST style signal report. I’ve noticed that many new operators will call for a radio check, especially on a repeater. They may get a 'signal report' from a Ham that sounds like this, “I copy you five nine.” Or you may hear “You are full-quiet into the repeater.” While these answers may be true and accurate, for new operators, hearing “Your radio sounds great” or “I can hear you fine, but there is a bunch of static. How far are you from me (or the repeater)” would likely be a lot more helpful. Well, in the event that you come across me or one of my well-seasoned friends and we forget that not everyone knows what we are talking about, this may help you understand what you are hearing with regard to signal reports… and if you would like to use the same method, provide you with the best guidance I can. What are RST and Signal Reports? The RST signal reporting system is primarily used by amateur radio operators and other radio hobbyists to exchange information about the quality of a radio signal being received. The original reporting system was created to be used with Morse Code, and is a three digit number. Each digit is used for conveying an assessment of a signal's Readability, Strength and Tone (RST). Over time, amateurs adopted this reporting scheme for voice communications as well, but it was modified a bit to be more friendly to reports about voice signals. Readability is still used to define how intelligible your voice is; meaning how well can I understand what you are saying. Strength of your signal is also still used, based on the meter on the receiver’s radio. However, Tone was dropped for voice reports. Though on occasion you will hear someone tell an operator, in plain language, if their transmitted signal has too high or too low of a tone, as some radios allow the owner to adjust the tone. Readability – This part of the report is subjective, but still helpful. Readability is used to define how intelligible your words are, on a scale of 1 to 5. A readability value of 1 means that I can tell you are transmitting and talking, but I can’t make out anything you are saying. A readability value of 5 means that, regardless of anything else, I can understand every word you say. A report with 2, 3 or 4 would be some variation between 1 and 5. Some examples on how I personally would rate your readability on GMRS would include a 2, meaning I may be able to hear enough of what you’re saying that in a life or death situation, it may be enough to get help going. With a 3, I may be able to understand 3 or 4 words out of every 5 words. We can talk, but it’s kind of a hassle. A 4 would be I can hear every word but there is static. Pretty straight forward. Strength – With regard to strength in a signal report, there is nothing subjective about it, sort of. Unfortunately, if it is scientific or subjective depends on your radio meter type and if the meter is calibrated. We are actually measuring the voltage of your signal on the receiver’s radio. This voltage is measured in S-units or Signal Units. Where this can get tricky with GMRS is, not every radio has a signal strength meter designed to support the common s-unit scale. You may have a display that shows 9 units on some unknown scale, or 10, or 15. I have even seen some radios that only have 4 or 5. I’ll explain the technical parts of signal strength measurements and if you have a radio that doesn’t use a traditional calibrated s-meter, you may be able to adopt the idea to your personal radio. This meter below is a classic analog meter. The top line measures the received signal strength in s-units. If the needle were to swing to 5, you would give them a 5 as the Strength portion of the report. For example, if you understand every word and the needle stops at 5, you would provide a signal report for their voice signal of “five five” or “5 5”. If you could hear all of the words they are saying with a lot of static and the needle is on the 3, you would report a “four three” or “4 3”. Below is a newer radio with a digital s-meter. It looks a little different, but the same rules apply. In this picture, my meter is showing a signal strength of about 5.5 (almost 6) s-units. If I could hear them perfectly, I would tell them their signal report is “five five plus” or “5 5 Plus”, meaning I understand everything perfectly and their signal strength is never less than 5. Now, the next two images show a radio that I know doesn’t have a properly labeled or calibrated s-meter. This type of meter is the reason I said there is nothing subjective about it, sort of. While an s-unit is a true measurement of voltage, this radio has 10 lines and nothing in the owner’s manual tells me what the increment values are. However, you could still adapt the concept to a signal report, making it a bit subjective. In the first image, the meter is completely full. In this state, it’s very likely that I can hear the person talking perfectly and they almost certainly met or exceeded the voltage requirement of 9 s-units. So, I would tell this person that they are “five nine” (5 9) or they are “full quiet”. In the next image, below, the signal goes to the fifth line. Being familiar with this radio, there is a good possibility that I can hear everything they are saying, but with a lot of static. So, I would be providing a signal report of “four five” or “4 5”, since the meter measurement is half the total scale. In this case, the signal report is 100% based on my interpretation of what I am hearing and seeing, rather than providing a “metered result.” I hope this makes sense. For those of you who are interested in the science behind an s-unit, here is a little history and values. In the 1930s, the industry agreed that 9 s-units would correspond to 50 microvolts (50 μV) at the input of a receiver. However, based on meter design and how the value was sampled, this was not accurately measured from radio to radio because the input impedance of receivers was not standardized. This changed in 1981. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) agreed on a technical recommendation for S Meter calibration, separately for HF and VHF/UHF. IARU defines 9 s-units for the HF bands to be a receiver input voltage of 50.2 microvolts and impedance of the receiver of 50 ohms. For VHF and UHF bands, the IARU defines 9 s-units to be a receiver input voltage of 5.01 microvolts and impedance of the receiver of 50 ohms. For both HF and below, as well as everything over HF, the IARU defines that a difference of one S-unit corresponds to a difference of 6 decibels (dB), equivalent to a voltage ratio of two, or power ratio of four. For example, if 9 s-units equals 50.2 μV, than 8 s-units is 25.1 μV, 7 s-units is 12.6 μV, etc. Signals stronger than 9 s-units are given with an additional dB rating. For example, “20 dB over S9” or simply "20 over". You can see these values on the s-meters in the first 2 images. Repeater Caveat There are some important caveats to signal reports for repeater users. The RST style signal report is not a valid reporting method. The voice quality or 'intelligibility' of the transmission is likely not going to be valid. If the reporting operator is receiving the repeater's signal well enough that there is little to no chance that the voice quality is impaired, you may be able to give and get a valid readability report. This condition is often when you will hear signal reports such as "loud and clear" or "full-quiet." These replies indicate that you have a very good radio and voice signal into the repeater, as reported by someone who has a very good signal from the repeater. Additionally, the signal strength is not relevant through the repeater, at all. The receiver's station is going to be seeing the signal strength of the repeater, not the originating station asking for a signal report. It is not possible to know the received signal strength at the repeater site unless you are the repeater owner or admin and have the ability to see the actual repeater's receive meter. Even then, most repeaters do not have any easily visible signal strength meters. The next best method would be if the receiving station listens to the repeater input frequency (assuming the receiving radio has that feature). If the reporting station can hear you directly, they can tell you how strong your signal is at that person's location. It's still not indicative of how strong your signal is at the repeater. I hope this information helps anyone who may hear this lingo out on the General Mobile Radio Service. Quick Reference Chart for S-Units

I have been using Bird, Swan, MFJ and Diamond for some time. I've heard people call MFJ Mighty Fine Junk, but I like them. My Diamond meters are pretty good too... but not pro great. I would rank mine as Bird, Swan and Diamond, with the MFJ being tied with my Surecom. On if my Diamond meters (UHF) needs to be calibrated. The downside to both the MFJ and Diamond meters I have is that they are rated for a 10% tolerance, which is a lot.

I'm commenting to subscribe. I have a Bird 43. From there, I have amateur grade or less. I'm curious what the pros are using.

Kinda makes my head hurt.

It's truly a wonderful thing about antenna design, isn't it?

Dude, are you just messing with me? I think I'm being trolled by Alex... at 3AM. LoL

100% incorrect. S-units define received voltage at the receive front-end. 1 S-unit is equal to 0.20 μV (-121dBm). Also, a discriminator circuit converts FM signals to AM and extracts the information from the AM envelope. If there isn't enough detected deviation or inconsistent receive of the deviation, the discriminator cannot create a proper AM envelope, thus cannot extract the information.

There is nothing to discuss in a new thread. If you think that quality of a radio signal being received can't be described by readability and signal strength on a sliding scale and that signal strength doesn't directly impact readability because someone is using frequency modulation instead of AM or SSB, you have said everything I need to know about your understanding of electronics.

That's because it doesn't matter what is attenuating the signal (other than the curvature of the earth), you still have to quadruple your power to increase your signal by 1 S-unit. I know that you are already familiar with this, but I will explain for the new people. There is a standard in radio communications about intelligibility of radio communications. It is called the 5/9 scale. 0 to 5 for voice clarity and 0 to 9+ for signal strength in s-units. It is said that while a 2/1 signal provides partially usable comms, the lowest "reliable" communications happens at a 3/2 (or 32) and the best is a 5/9+ (often called 599, 59+20, 59+40, etc.). If you are transmitting a 15 watt signal and I can tell you are there, but I can't make out what your saying or enough of what you are saying, I am probably receiving you at 1 s-unit or less. You are going to need to add at least 2 S-units before there is a chance I can make out about 60%-70% of what you are saying. You would really want a full 3 s-units for conversational communications. That translates to jumping from 15w to 240w. If you are truly fringe and your signal is attenuated by trees, buildings, etc. to the point that we can't talk, adding another 5 watts isn't going to do anything. Jumping to 45w-50w still isn't going to make it so you can have a conversation if I can't make out anything you're saying at 15w. I did a write-up about this in 2019 -

I was thinking this myself, but held off on posting. I have done mounts with items I shared, but they were for MCV's and portable outdoor setups. They are a bit unruly in a classic POV install. There are a few people in here with some great understanding on how power impacts performance. Some PE's and EE's (active and retired). There have been many write-ups about how power impact range and performance. The reality is, unless you get a cable that is complete trash and the connectors aren't terminated correctly, you are going to be hard-pressed to detect (without precision measuring tools) between 5w and 20w... or 20w and 80w. Depending on terrain and the other radio in the communications path, you may start to notice a difference 5w and 80w To give you a real-world example, I normally have a 50w radio I use in my Jeep. It puts out 46w actual. My jeep is broken, so I put an antenna on my Ram and just hookup a 5w HT to it, which actually output 4.1w. There is no noticeable difference in how far I can communicate. I get about 26 miles away from my local repeater, regardless of if I use the mobile with 46w or the handheld with a mobile antenna and 4.1w. Checkout this video. If you're on a smaller budget, this is a quality setup to use. https://shop.motorolasolutions.com/antenna-mounting-kit/product/0180300B02?gclid=Cj0KCQiAi8KfBhCuARIsADp-A57XNGO25cd1opmbSPPzSQVJvX0iIZ1gXkz4TJBk36t3Hh_xzWtzEiwaAi6iEALw_wcB If you have a few more dollars for the budget, I would recommend this... https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-009384 If you don't want to drill holes in the roof, I personally use Comet and Diamond complete mounts, like this... https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-006519

Is this for a mobile install? What NMO where you going to buy? They are pretty standard... but there aren't too many that I am aware of that you can connect LMR400 directly to. You may want something like this. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLMHJ338/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0BLMHJ338&pd_rd_w=rmjiK&content-id=amzn1.sym.88097cb9-5064-44ef-891b-abfacbc1c44b&pf_rd_p=88097cb9-5064-44ef-891b-abfacbc1c44b&pf_rd_r=Z692ND5PVAJ7M99DKEJC&pd_rd_wg=JaTt0&pd_rd_r=bf38e4e0-6457-4b78-aeaf-f3229a8dd933&s=pc&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExREVHQ1daWFZYOEkzJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUExMDE1NjEyMkRUMVA5OThLTjFONiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUExMDIwMjIzM0RQSVFJUk9DN1FQTCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU= These are great PL-259 connectors. https://www.amazon.com/PL-259-Connectors-Adapter-Connector-XRDS-RF/dp/B07V4RJS64/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3O4FEIU6300NT&keywords=PL-259+Connectors+Male+UHF+Type+Attach+Adapter+End+Connector+LMR400%2FRG8%2FRG8U%2FKMR400%2FBelden+9913%2F7D-FB+Pack+of+2+by+XRDS-RF(NOT+for+TV)&qid=1676695065&sprefix=pl-259+connectors+male+uhf+type+attach+adapter+end+connector+lmr400%2Frg8%2Frg8u%2Fkmr400%2Fbelden+9913%2F7d-fb+pack+of+2+by+xrds-rf+not+for+tv+%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-3

@WRUA262 ?

Assuming the photos are a true representation of V1 and V2, that is not a "full redesigned radio board". 2 parts worth about $0.23 and 2 solder jumpers on the same board (RDA2300 UHF v1.5, dated 2021/10/13). 1 additional capacitor, 1 added resistor, 2 solder jumps.

Randy is a straight shooter. If its good, he will let you know. One of the things I like about his videos is, when it comes to the gear, he just tells you how it is. He doesn't play favorites or fluff a product for a vendor because they sent him gear.

I agree, its a possibility. I didn't really think about that. It is a good practice to follow. I am looking forward to this! Even if it doesn't make the video, any chance you will put it on the Tiny SA and see how the signal looks? I'm curious, because a lot of people trash BTech / Baofeng radios, but most of the units I put on the scope are cleaner than any of my UHF ham radios at 2x to 4x the price. It's good to know if the build quality is there in a more affordable radio. Especially if someone is on a budget and trying to make good choices for the money they have.

I wish you the best of luck, but it's a solid pass for me. I bought the V1 when it was released and did a review of it. I loved some of it and hated some of it. In the end, I didn't recommend it. After looking at the v2, it looks like the same radio with a new part number. Plus, I am not sure how much I trust a radio when the manufacturer had to put the following 2 items in the "Getting Started" section of the manual... I mean, they catch fire so often that how to avoid it and how to deal with it when it happens is in the manual? Not a confidence builder, to say the least. If the unit emits smoke or an odor, you should immediately cut off the power supply. Then send the radio to the nearest service center or dealer. Do not operate the mobile transceiver on high power unless it is necessary...

I do remember chatting, now that you mention it. I have to do some work on my Jeep on Saturday, but we can always meet up in Gainesville or Haymarket sometime Saturday or Sunday and check it out. I can toss some tools, meters, and spare equipment in the truck, too.

My daughter lives in Preston, Connecticut. I am visiting her every month (up from VA). There is not much going on in the area, unfortunately. I have been thinking about putting up a repeater in/near the Norwich area or possibly closer to the CT/RI line... but I have been slammed and haven't found much time for testing.