marcspaz

@WRVS497 I would want to hear a recording to see if its at an unusual level, but what you are describing is SOP for mobile operations. Unless you are within a couple of miles (or closer in many instances) of the repeater or another simplex station, you are going to have static and popping on transmit and receive. Dust and other pollutants can become statically charged when they rub against one another. They collect on the surface of our vehicles and our antennas. Driving can cause dust static. It never goes away until you stop, which is when the static stops. The perceived loudness usually increases with speed. Also, as you drive, there are 'things' (trees, buildings, hills, even people in some cases) that are moving in an out of the radio path as you drive, changing the receive level of the signal. Plus, if you have a whip antenna, the wind is moving your antenna all over the place. That changes the direction or focus of the antenna's receive and transmit pattern/path. Imagine putting an flashlight on your antenna and going for a ride. Think about how the light beam would be moving all over the place as the antenna moves. That is a good, but over exaggerated example, of course. These are just a small sample of what can cause noise while driving... there are many others, including noise generation from your vehicle itself. If you don't hear these things when you are stopped or when you are driving close to the other radio, this is because the signal strength of the desired signals has gotten to the point that they significantly overpowered the random noise signals.

2dB of loss is almost nothing in the GMRS world. You would have to lose 6dB before you even see a difference on a properly calibrated S-meter on your radio and I would be willing to bet money you would never hear the difference while you are having a conversation. In a situation like yours, I would be more upset about the connectors you added 1 foot from the magnet, that is now beating up my paint job while I'm driving around.

If you are mobile, actively in motion and hearing pulsating while receiving a signal, there is a very good chance you are simply hearing what is known as picket fencing. As we travel, especially in cities and wooded areas, 'things' between you and the station you are hearing actually cause a shadow, causing a pulsing of the received signal. It is especially common with handheld radios while using an external antenna. When you transmit, people on the other end will also hear your transmitted signal pulse, as well.

Are you using both of them in a mobile application, as base radios, or both?

To to be sure no one else reads your post and trashes an antenna or cable... No.. you can't trim a base-loaded CB (HF) antenna to use on GMRS for more reasons than I feel like typing. Antennas with a coil and/or capacitors have a very, very narrow usable frequency response. On the wide side, it would be 3 or 4 MHz. On the narrow side, it may only be usable for a few hundred KHz. There is no way you're jumping from 27 MHz to 465 MHz (approximately the center of GMRS). Also, there's no reason someone can't use RG58 cable in a mobile installation. Most mobile applications would only experience about 1.5dB of losses due to the cable. Basically, that means 20w out of the radio would be 14w to the antenna. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

That's a good looking setup, for sure. I have been thinking about something like that for my Ram 1500. I don't want to drill any holes, and I have seen a few styles like this floating around. Looking forward to seeing the final results.

I have no idea what I just watched. LOL

CB is still on fire in the DC metro area as well as down in high-traffic areas of Florida. Have to say though, many of them sound like they would fit into the 50+ YO demographic. I have a couple younger friends of mine who own their own tractor and they all seem to have zero interest in radio. Only one of them has a CB, and he said it's only because 1 very old-school depots he goes to frequently still uses them for traffic control and to call tractors in to a specific bay when it's time. I've been on GMRS daily for years. I only talked to 1 truck driver, and that was on a repeater back last summer. He said he was regional and was looking for repeaters to use as he traveled throughout the area.

When you go in the menu, there are options to calibrate the frequency display (0.1KHz increments) and the power measurements. They are VHF, UHF, low power VHF, low power UHF, adjustable in a plus/minus percentage of the base reading, up to 100%. I can't help you on not wanting to spend money on a device to calibrate against. Everything that measures, requires calibration at one point. The cheaper the device, the less accurate and more often the issue of calibration occurs. My best advice is, buy a much more expensive, quality meter that is known to be accurate from the manufacturer and doesn't require calibration often (maybe after a few years or after a drop/impact/etc.), or don't worry about it and just use what you have as a binary device. Have to warn you though, you're going to spend several hundreds of dollars ($400-$500+), but still won't completely get away from the need for calibration.

^^^ This! have mentioned this a dozen times if I mentioned it once. The Surcom SW-102 is a user-adjustable tool that needs to be calibrated. I have had to re-calibrate mine 3 times this year. Even if it was accurate out of the box, that doesn't mean its still accurate. That doesn't really mean anything. I'm not being a smart@$$ when I say the closer to zero you get, the more accurate the meter is. Also, I just did a test of my radio using a Surecom and shared the video. The Surecom was out of calibration after I had calibrated it at the end of last summer. It was misreading a 101w radio as 78w. It also had a bad SWR reading on my dummy load (result of bad power reading). I had to calibrate it with proper tools (or you can use known good meters to compare) so I could use the digital meter in the video, to provide accurate results. The reality is, the fact that you get the same results on the antenna and the dummy load leads me to trust the results even less.

Exactly! While everyone else is a NY Strip, we're a Ribeye. LoL

Quick question, if there are so many ham repeaters that it's so difficult to add another one, why would you need to? Just use the existing repeater network.

OffRoaderX beat me to the punch because I'm a little long-winded today. LOL Unfortunately, it can be, depending on where you live. It's not like CB or Ham radio, as far as the social aspects are concerned. I typically tell people its a "bring your own contacts" type of service. Just my opinion based on anecdotal experience, most people who get into GMRS are either looking for 1 or more of 3 things. 1.) Emergency/backup family communications where cell service is poor. 2.) Communications with family and friends while doing outdoor/adventurous activities. 3.) For community service. Providing repeater service for the community and putting together emergency planning in the event of a disaster. It's not really a rag-chew type of service... though in highly populated areas, there is a little of it.

@gortex2 the 03 is sharp, for sure. This was a deal I couldn't pass on and im very happy with it. I am also going to get a separate VHF unit to compliment this UHV model. I was using a MXT500, FTM300DR, and an FT891. The 891 will stay for now, but even at the age of these radios, they are way better than the new amateur radios on the market. Since the FCC has grandfathered in these radios, I'm going to use it as an opportunity to improve my mobile setup with something much more durable.

I wanted to share a quick video. I picked up another XTL5000 a few days ago. Got an amazing deal from a friend of mine on a complete system. I did a quick bench test and I am very happy with the power output. The receive sensitivity is amazing, too. I ran this on my bench for about an hour on GMRS and Ham and the unit is still cool to the touch. I am 100% replacing my gear in the Jeep with this.

I'll take a solid pass. Way, way to much money, even though I'm positive it's a great radio. I used a pair of ICOM MURS handhelds and couldn't get 1 full statute mile out of them. Measured output was 1.2w on high. I sent my son the the school parking lot and he went out of range before he got there. Just for grins, I called out to him with my bullhorn and he could hear that. Could make out what I was saying, but he heard it, which was better than the radios. So, while you're mileage may vary, it's a whole lotta nope for me.

I was telling Steve (and may have mentioned it earlier), my original FRN was created for managing my amateur license. I created a second FRN for the GMRS license so my wife and kids could each have their own FCC login account to view/manage the GMRS related items without them having access to my account associated with my amateur license. Since I lost my GMRS license info and FRN, I just requested a new license under the FRN I created for my amateur account. Technically, I had two concurrently active GMRS licenses under 2 different FRNs. Though, after Steve helped me with information I needed, I was able to recover my second FRN account, but there is literally nothing listed under it anymore. I have no idea what happened to it.

@Sshannon I appreciate it!!!

@Sshannon that is the same issue I ran into. It's like my old FRN was erased from CORES. i can't see anything about my old license in ULS or License Manager. I tried looking it up by name hoping after I created a new account, I could seize ownership of my old FRN, but only my original amateur licenses was displayed. After not getting any help from the FCC support team, I just gave up and started over.

Yes. It is listed in public search results for a license in the ULS.

I actually did this exact thing. I lost my old FRN and old GMRS license information. I couldn't recover my account because the email service provider I registered with went out of business and I lost access to my email account. So, I applied for a new GMRS license under the FRN I created when I got my amateur license.

@OffRoaderX I am by no means an authority on this, but this information may help. From what I found, it used to be against the rules, but it isn't any longer. 47 C.F.R. Part 95 Subpart A, specifically 95.131(a) stated "An individual may be licensed as the responsible party for only one GMRS system." Everything I have found suggests that the restriction on having only one GMRS license per individual was removed as part of the FCC's efforts to modernize the GMRS rules in September 2017, primarily to make it easier for families to use the service.

Everything actually sounds good. I have to agree with a few things that @wayoverthere mentioned about the cable and a dummy load. Unless the patch cable is some really obscure cable that is incredibly high loss due to a bad connector attachment, etc., the patch cable is likely not it. I would replace the patch cable with some LMR400 (or equivalent) just as a quick test. Also, get a dummy load to test with. I use this one and its pretty good for the price. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Mcbazel+Surecom+0014-0156&i=electronics&crid=1PHJLEIZFR33P&sprefix=mcbazel+surecom+0014-0156+%2Celectronics%2C59&ref=nb_sb_noss

Where are you measuring the power? At the radio or at the antenna side? How long is the coax between the radio and the meter? Is the cable between the radio and the meter also LMR400? How long are your power wires? What gauge are the wires? Are there any connectors on the power wires between the power supply and the radio. What method did you use to connect the power cables to the power supply? (Lugs, power poles, screw-downs, etc.) The more information the better.

Have I mentioned my poor impulse control? LoL