marcspaz

On 10m, I have talked to people in Asia, as well as several dozen countries outside of North America. There is basically only 2 years out of every 11 year cycle, where 10m is not all that good for long distance.

Mobile or base, you are likely going to need at least 2 radios (possibly 3), a diplexer and best case, 3 antennas, if not more. As far as antennas go, I am not aware of any antenna that 'works' on 2m, MURS, 1.25m, 70cm and FRS/GMRS. Definitely none that cover all that AND HF. My opinion, regardless of what base antenna and tuner combo you use, you're not getting a single antenna to 'work' on all of those bands. I've tried. With decades of experience and a massive network of smart people, it's just never happened. Sure, a tuner will make the radio happy, but it will be like a dummy load... it's not going to radiate.

That image has a great looking setup! Ill check out the ZIP when I get home.

Honestly, I don't know if it's just my antennas, but I have a CA-2x4SR both in NMO and UHF style and they both kinda suck. The SWR is fine everywhere except on 462 MHz frequencies. But they just don't seem to perform well compared to some of my other antennas. Like, to the point that I don't use either of the anymore. At one point, they were my favorite, for reference.

Over the past few years, I have tried just about every commonly discussed antenna available in the US. I literally have 8 or 10 antennas sitting in my office and garage right now, and 4 more in/on the truck. Anecdotal I know, but the absolute best antenna I have used for 2m/70cm/GMRS is the Diamond NR-7900a. It's rated for 300w/250w and, 3.7/6.4 gain. Real-world, it far out-performs my dedicated MXTA26 GMRS antenna, which is the best dedicated GMRS antenna I have used. Not only is the range the best and able to handle the most power, the SWR on 146.52 is 1:1, on 446 it's 1.3:1, on 462 it's 1.6:1, and on 467 it's 1.5:1. The Diamond NR-770 is a close second. The power ratings are a little lower at 200w/200w, the gain is a little lower at 3.0/5.5, and the SWR is the same everywhere but 462, where it's a little higher... 2:1. It's 1.4:1 on 146, 1.1:1 on 446, and 1.5:1 on 467 (which is where I spend most of my time). The slight sacrifice in performance benefits does yield a smaller, thinner, lighter antenna that is more discrete. However, I still prefer to use the NR-7900.

I have a friend who retired from the industry a few years ago. Thankfully he got everything sorted for me. Thank you! I appreciate it. I am using the ASTRO 25 Mobile CPS software and a USB cable to program the radios. It's a lot easier than I originally expected. Between the plain english field titles and the help file, I have been able to figure everything out.

@Sshannon Good catch! I didn't think to look for the operator's name.

They definitely did not have the authority to do that. In the same way only the FAA regulates airspace over the US, the rules of the airwaves are regulated exclusively by the FCC under authority granted by Congress. The rules say that no one owns any frequency, and all operators work on the premise of first come, first serve. There is nothing that says you can't have a conversation in-between conversations, and it's actually pretty common, as long as no one is causing harmful interference and everyone must yield to emergency traffic. I love having that conversation with the idiots that tell me to "get off their frequency". LOL

I'm assuming its a scam. To be frank, I don't trust any text, emails or phone calls, and 100% of "official" letters I have received from the IRS, Social Security Administration, and most other agencies looking for payment or ID turned out to be fake. Scammers pull info out of public database to do targeted emails, hoping you call the number on the letter and give them you info and credit card information, instead of calling the public number of the official government site. Along with still being active in the database, there is nothing listed in the administration section. I would also recommend checking it occasionally and just carry on.

Not really. I would be more prone to put money into an antenna first. However, there are some radios that just hear better than others, so you could buy a radio with a better receiver. Some receivers can have their sensitivity increased/tuned. There are also receive pre-amps. And then, of course assuming the antenna and radio are at least working as designed, there is no replacement for elevation. A cheap vertical dipole at 10,000 feet will work better at receiving weak and distant signals, more so than the finest high gain directional antenna only 20 or 30 feet off the ground.

There is a pretty decent amount of p25 in the DC metro area. Some local Ham clubs have VHF digital repeaters up and running. The radios I have are both digital and analog, but only the VHF radio has the encryption module to support DES and AES. I'm not to interested in digital encryption... I'm more looking to use these in conventional as high power Amateur radios and for GMRS. I have low set to 25 and high set to 110. I had my choice of compatible heads when I got them, but I love the old-school look of the w7, and they fit perfectly in the space above my radio bar, between the bar and roof.

Well, the install isn't done yet, but I am pretty excited. I figured I would share as I make some progress. I am at about 35%-40% complete after about 8.5-9 hours of labor. I guess over the next few weeks, I'll try to finish up, but it's going to be a lot of labor to finish running wires and to do some custom interior work.

My opinion, if you don't want to run the risk of finding trash or a gem on any given purchase, try Kemp Wireless. I got luck with friends in the industry, so I haven't purchased anything directly from them. However, I have several people in my life who have done a lot of business with Kemp Wireless who are very, very happy. Me personally, I got two XTL5000 radios, one UHF and one VHF. Both radios are rock stars, making over 110w and great audio. I have been using them at home for a couple of months, and I'm about to install them in my Jeep, today.

Some folks don't understand that there is a very good reason that an external power supply that is 20 years old cost $250... until they waste about $1,000 and a year of their life. Same idea applies to repeaters.

The short answer is, yes... you can use two antennas instead of a duplexer. The long answer, you can, but you need a separate transmitter and receiver that are directly coupled (linked) with some type of cable to manage keying, audio transfer, etc. (See KG-1000G, for a less than perfect example). Transmitter power levels, antenna types, cable types, etc., will dictate how far apart the antennas need to be, what the elevation differences need to be, and what the gain/sensitivity of the transmit and receive sides should be. If the antennas are not spaced properly, the transmitter can make it so the receiver doesn't hear well, it could cause a transmit loop, and could also damage the receiver. If you make the antennas to far apart, now you're dealing with transmission line losses causing issues instead. There is some art to it, as well as the science. If you are at a stage in learning where you have to ask this question, chances are you don't want to try setting up a repeater right now. This is not ment as an insult, either. If you don't know what you're doing, you can waste a lot of time and money before you learn enough to get a good system stood up. I would recommend finding someone local to you who has a good working repeater and is willing to spend some time teaching you about the details and why things are the way they are.

Geek Alert: Sorry... LOL So, your total distance is just about 100 yards past 1 statute mile and the ridge line is creating about 650-660 foot barrier. That is not really an unusual experience and should be repeatable. The explanation can get a little complicated, as to why. Misconceptions about the Line of Sight coverage reflect the thoughts that UHF waves travel only in straight lines. This is not true. First and foremost, radio signals do follow the curve of the earth (to a degree, literally). Second, RF photons diffract more strongly than optical photons because it has a longer wavelength than the optical photon. This is expected and predicted within classical electromagnetic theory and by quantum theory and why RF LoS is further that visual LoS. If you have an antenna that has a pattern with takeoff angles between 5 degrees and 20 degrees, you are going to have great success with talking longer distance and talking around objects. This is because a huge amount of radio signal is reflecting off of stuff in the atmosphere, as well as being refracted by the atmosphere. However, the further you go, the wider the photons grouping gets and the more diluted the signal gets (fewer parts per million) and the harder it is for a receiver to do anything useful with it. Using 15w as an example, the usable energy is going to be cut to 3.75w (1/4) within the first mile and 0.9w (1/16th) within the 3rd and 4th miles. So, at a mile... its likely that it would work with that type of obstacle. At 4 miles, ehh... not so much.

If the number is just 3 digits, like 023 or 412, it will be digital (DCS). If it's 4 digits, 3 numbers, a decimal and then a 4th number (141.3 or 146.2), it's analog tone (CTCSS).

I agree with the aforementioned... I used MXTA26 with a variety of radios on GRMS, including mobile and handheld. So far, it's been the best performing mobile 'gain' antenna I have used on the service.

Welcome!!! I totally get the whole "my family/friends don't get it" situation. My wife and son were/are Hams and lately neither of them think I'm sane. LOL I'm a bit south from you, down in Prince William County, but there are a bunch of GMRS repeaters and users around the DC/B'more area. There are countless amateur repeaters, too. Ask questions if you have any. There are some very, very smart people here with tons of experience and willing to help. Have fun and hopefully I'll catch you on the air in my travels!

In the Jeep, I'm running two 110w XTL5000 radios (one for VHF and one for UHF). I also have some customized Yaesu FMT-300DRs for same band/crossband VHF/UHF repeater systems and an FT-891 HF radio. I have entirely too many radios at home to bore people with... but the flavor is a variety of Icoms such as an IC-745, IC-746 Pro, IC-7000 and IC-7300. I have a bunch of HTs; mostly Baofeng and Yaesu. Also a 300w VHF Amp (FM and SSB) for when tropo ducts are the place to be or if I want to mess around during a VHF contest. I really want 991a. I need to stop making excuses and just buy one.

^^^ True story!

That model is from 2017-2018. I don't know if it adjusts the same as the current version. Beyond the auto timeout for power and lights, yours doesn't have the menu options mine does. The current models, the +/-99 is a reference to adjusting a percentage of the read value. Also, if you want to do it affordable and it's something you're going to do once in a blue moon, you need a known good/calibrated meter to compare it to, and a dummy load, both good for a few hundred watts to give you long enough working times. Unfortunately, I don't think its something we can help with remotely.

I have an XDRS dummy load and an attenuator. They are cheap, but not bad. Without seeing anything first hand... I would say that the transmission line on the antenna is balancing the load. Additionally, I would never use a 50w dummy load to test a 50w radio. I would use a minimum of 100w, but 300w would be better. This is because of the duty cycle. My 100w XRDS-RF directions say that at 100w, the dummy load can only be used for 10 seconds, and then it needs to be allowed to cool for an additional 600 seconds. That said, if you used it for more that 10 second in a 10 minute time period, you probably cooked the resistor enough that the resistive value changed. Also, Surecom SWR meters tend to be pretty close out of the box, but they are user configurable. Sometimes, they do need to be calibrated. In any case, if the meter is "close enough", chances are the SWR on the dummy load is low enough that its safe for the test you want to run. Though, me personally, I would be more prone to use a real and calibrated field strength meter and compare that to a custom tuned dipole, since that is the benchmark that gain is typically measured against. A few $$$ and some wire, you can make a dipole for under $3, but the meter may cost $100 or more for a decent one that is "close enough".

I agree with the others. The lip mount should give you a decent ground plane. At these frequencies, electro-magnetic coupling is fine. Just make sure the screws are tight enough to provide support that the antenna doesn't wave around, fall off or bend the sheet metal, but you don't have to worry about puncturing the paint/etc. to get a good ground.

No need to apologize at all. I didn't take it that way. I phrased my response the way I did to give context to why I believe it is necessary to take an exam to participate in Amateur Radio. I think I could have framed my response with a bit more concise background. While the people who participate in groups like this forum are either more technically inclined or want to be, most people I know who use GMRS treat it like FRS, MURS and CB radio... its a toy to many of them. Best case, it enables them to enjoy outdoor activities and its mostly an afterthought. Sorry for the confusion.