marcspaz

Just my opinion, this is really all that matters. If it works, sounds good and you're happy, nothing else really matters.

If you go to their submission for change on 6-21-21, the C2PC letter asking to go to 16kc from the 11kc, the documents very specifically say that no hardware changes were made to the transmit and receiver. It's not the full 20kc, it's 16kc by software. It could only go to 16kc and still remain in compliance.

You can put me in the Midland camp, too. I have used a lot of different radios over the years and they seem to hit the mark with reliability, advertised v. actual power, and ease of use. If you only want a few watts, the MXT115 is good, but I recommend the MXT500 and MXT575. They were natively designed to be wideband, they have a lot more power (enough to actually make a difference in range), and the audio quality is much better on both transmit and receive. The down side is, they can be a bit pricey. While the newer MXT275 can be programed to run wideband, the circuits were not originally designed for it. This means you are working on the edge of the capability, which leads to weak performance in wideband.

I like courtesy tones for digital radio, where there is no obvious break, but not for analog. I prefer a slightly extended squelch tail on analog. Dealers choice, as the say.

RG174 is terrible for UHF. There is more than 20dB of attenuation every 100 feet. I would use as little as possible. Even at 6 feet, you are cutting your signal by about 65%-66%. The loops in the wire have zero impact on your antenna performance, nor any noise. There has been issues with cheap cables being used for HF (no where near where GMRS lives) with people accidentally making RF traps and creating very high SWR issues by using very cheap coax and looping many, many 10's of feet of coax in about a 1 foot diameter. With GMRS, its almost impossible to accomplish this on purpose. Unless you are making loops that are a few centimeters in diameter with almost unshielded wire, its even less likely that it will happen by mistake. Something seriously odd is happening in your Jeep. Is there any chance you have access to another radio to test with, to see if its the radio or Jeep? For what its worth, when I have the roof and doors off the JT, once I get to about 20 mph, there is a static energy that gets created and it opens my squelch only on repeater channel 19. I have to use a TSQL instead of TN, so I don't have to hear static while I am moving. This is only with my MXT500. None of my other UHF radios have this issue while receiving on that frequency. If I put just the roof on, just the doors on, or both the roof and doors, the issue goes away. And it doesn't matter where the antenna is, either. I can even take the antenna off the mount and I still have the issue. Since the TSQL at least stops the noise, I just let it go, but it was pretty annoying.

I sent my MXT500 in for service. They fixed it and had it back out in the mail to me, literally on the same they they received it from me shipping it to them. Got the radio back before the end of the next day. In my opinion, they have fantastic service! As far as if any channel is set to wide or narrow, you really need to check in the menu of the radio. Each channel is set independently and we really don't have any way of knowing what yours, specifically, is set to. As far as wide or narrow and the radio's receive sensitivity, there is no relation. I don't have an answer for you why they seem to appear different between the repeater channel and the simplex channel. Only that the bandwidth setting isn't it. Eh... it doesn't quite work that way. Overdriven is a function of signal strength. The bandwith doesn't have an impact on signal strength. Non-linear demodulation by the discriminator circuit causes distortion. In wide band, the radio will transmit and is configure to receive a signal that is 20 kHz wide. In narrow band, the radio will transmit and is configure to receive a signal that is 12.5 kHz wide. The wider the bandwidth, the more data the signal can carry. In voice radio, that data is your voice. So, the wider the bandwidth, the better the fidelity. Without getting too far into the weeds, if a narrow band radio receives a wide band signal, not all of the audio is captured. This causes a signal to sound like it has a little more base and louder than narrow signals. If we go the other way around, and a wide band receiver hears a narrow signal, about 38% of the bandwidth the receiver is listening to has no signal. The empty space is filled with RF noise and the discriminator circuit ends up outputting audio that is both slightly higher in tone and lower in volume. Again, I can't really speak to this exact situation, but I don't believe a repeater was used in that case. Anyway, same rules apply as above. Bandwidth differences don't cause that issue.

For troubleshooting, run the radio on a separate battery and see if the noise is gone. Also, if you unplug the antenna from the radio, is the noise gone? Without getting into a bunch of technical BS about capacitive and inductive coupling and introducing noise, mounting a mag mount on a plate that is sticky taped to the hood is likely contributing to your issue. I strongly recommend this type of lip mount. Also, if you absolutely insist on a bonding strap, go from the hinge bolt to the body like the points in the photo.

I'm still convinced there is something wrong. I have owned Jeeps most if my life. My last 4 JK's and my current JT all had antennas mounted to the hood and I have never had noise on any of my radios. Also, I'm assuming you have a JL or a JT, which are already grounded. Adding a bonding strap isn't going to change anything.

Honestly, if you are hearing alternator hum on a modern FM radio, I would be more concerned about the health of your alternator. The alternator should be replaced if AC ripple voltage of more than 50mV is measured. You usually can't hear it in an aftermarket FM radio unless the radio is trash or the ripple voltage is over about 300mV.

Both rock-stars! I had a 98 2dr 1500 and currently have a 2020 1500 Rebel.

Wait a minute... you don't have a Jeep? How the heck did that happen? LOL

That is a great price. I have to say, out of the 2 dozen plus antennas I tested on my Jeep, the MXTA26 and the Tram 1/4 wave are the only 2 I kept. That Midland antenna has more measurable gain than another antenna I tried that advertised 9dB gain.

I am not a lawyer nor a law enforce officer,, but I spent a long time studying constitutional law and criminal justice. Almost a decade. I have a high degree of confidence in stating that if something is not explicitly prohibited, it's assumed legal. There are very, very limited exceptions where guilt is assumed until proven otherwise. In those cases (statutes) it is very clearly defined as a prima facie prohibited act until determined otherwise allowed. I am unaware of any law that has actual assumptions.

There are very few antennas that don't require a proper ground. Many lip mount systems come with aluminum plates to prevent damage to the lip, but unless you are using a half-wave antenna, you need to scrape a bunch of paint off or ditch the aluminum clamp plates and let the screws puncture the paint into the metal of the lip. One of my lip mounts actually required me to add a ground strap. Thus is an example of the clamp plates.. This is one of the mounts with a ground strap...

Perfectly legal for business use. No need to test boundaries. You will be inside them. § 95.2703 Definitions, MURS. MURS. A two-way, short distance voice or data communication service for facilitating personal or business activities of the general public.

100% agree.

I actually carry 2 antennas to use. Depending on where I am, I swap them around. I use the 6dB gain antenna when I am relatively flat areas, but if I am driving through the mountains (like when I go offroading) I use the 1/4 wave antenna.

@axorlov / @WRKC935 I'm kind of confused. Are you saying that antenna height doesn't help with propagation as much as additional power in cities because of buildings. Or are you saying height doesn't help when you are actually in a building? Or neither of those? I think I am missing something?

My post really focuses on base stations. May e I should mention it specifically, but I assume telling people to put their antenna 30 or 40 feet higher was an indication. If the antenna is higher than the trees, then you don't have to worry about them. LoL

@Lscott, good deal. I have a 10w 40db attenuator that should do the trick. I'll check out the HP. Looks like it may have a bunch of features, besides fir being a generator. I read up on it tonight.

My signal generator died today. I still have a TinySA that has a generator built into it, but I can tell you with certainty that the generator does not drop to -139dBm, as it claims on the screen. Regardless of what I set it to, it looks like the lowest it goes is -98dBm So, it's not very good for testing receive sensitivity. I found a cheap Rankomu on Amazon for $130. It's rated for 0.5MHz to 470MHz, between ‑70dBm to ‑132dBm which is fine for what I am doing. Before I buy a questionable product, does anyone have a recommendation (based on experience) for a RF signal generator with about the same coverage and features, at a decent price? I don't want to spend $1,000 or even $500. This will mostly be a toy and an occasional review or alignment tool for me. It would be fine if it only drops to 0.1uV, but 0.05uV or better is preferred. TIA, Spaz

I have heard this as well. It might be fun to actually test this. I'll have to see, but I may hook up a spectrum analyzer to an antenna and then use a telescoping mast to see what the dB reading are on the analyzer side. It may be a bit more than a week, as I am traveling through Monday and have to work, but I am penciling that in.

Thank you! My pleasure, truly. I'm no expert, but I try to be as accurate as possible and deliver it in a way that everyone can understand, regardless of the reader's experience level. My goal is to help as many people as possible, because if it wasn't for the community, I would have been lost.

This is not accurate. You can use any modulation type (including digital) on any HF band except 60m. Also, there is extremely limited bandwidth restrictions on all HF bands (depends on modulation type) except on 60m, which is heavily restricted.

Fortunately the owners around me do well with coordinating. However, I can see getting kind of PO'ed if after 10-15 years of smooth operation, someone puts up a new repeater and starts causing harmful interference.