marcspaz

Putting an antenna on everyone's roof is going to be the best bang for the buck. In the UHF radio band, height is might. The higher in the air the better. I would also recommend getting a radio that is at least 15 watts with no more than 50 feet of LMR400 cable, which will give you about 11 usable watts at the antenna. A 25w radio with no more than 100 feet of LM400 will give you about 12w of usable power at the antenna. A 50w radio and 100 feet or less of LMR400 will give you the best advantage with 26w or more at the antenna. I wouldn't worry about the HOA with an outside antenna. A half-wave antenna is only about 12 inches high, and a quarter-wave antenna is about 6 to 7 inches tall when you include the ground plain. If you get a black or silver metal whip antenna, unless they happen to be on the roof doing an inspection, I highly doubt anyone would notice.

I could be misreading the post, but I think OP called out to see if anyone needed help, not that OP needed help... I think. /shrug

My last repeater (Yaesu DR-2X, same one Steve showed) had a STE programmable value on it. There are no references to Hang Time nor Reverse Burst in the owners manual... but I know that it had a Hang Time function and a Reverse Burst function, too. I'm at work right now, so I don't have a lot of time, but I can see if there is anything in any of the advanced manuals later tonight.

Not sure what to tell you. On most of the gear I have used, it's programmed on the receiver side and it's referred to as Squelch Tail Elimination, STE or Reverse Burst.

Nope, I'm definitely talking about squelch tail and STE. You are referring to something different. But, what you are referring to could also contribute to a user not hearing the repeater when they release their key.

I tried to put a repeater up in Stafford, near the hospital, and the county turned it down. They said I couldn't put up an antenna structure any taller than our building. I couldn't find a commercial site willing to donate tower space. I'm not interested in starting a club, but I may be able to spend some resources on getting the repeater up sometime this year. Depending on how much my health improves, of course.

Along with either the wrong RX tone or the repeater not transmitting a tone, the repeater could be programed to not transmit a squelch tail. Meaning, when you stop transmitting the repeater stops transmitting immediately or it stops transmitting the RX tone you need the instant it stops receiving your single, and then drops the transmit a fraction of a second after. That is very common in the DC metro area.

So, i was feeling better today and went outside to play with the radio. Evidently my memory is trash. My quick split maximum is +/- 20k, not 20m. I haven't used 6m in 2 years, and I don't know what I was doing for the odd offsets. Sorry I led you off in the wrong direction. I will tell you this, if I were to start using them today, I would reprogram them so the memory channel has the transmit side saved, and manual offset the receive side, so I don't have to program 2 channels with tones. But, I stopped using 6m because there is literally no one for me to talk to. I am pretty sure I have made 1 voice contact (excluding my son) in 20 years.

I've been in bed sick yesterday and today. When I'm feeling better, I'll go take a look. If I'm mistaken, than the only other option is to take up two memory slots and run traditional splits.

That sucks... i thought for sure that would give you the space you need. I wonder if I have more quick split space due to the MARS mod or some of the other work done.

I went through my logs and only have data on two radios. My FTM-300DR and my MXT500. I know I tested a BTech/Baofeng, but can't find the data and don't have a radio to test right now. I tested using guidance per TIA-603, measuring the 12 dB SINAD reference sensitivity at 60% of the rated system deviation for the test signal. My FTM-300DR, which is a super-het, @ 462.725 MHz was/is -121 dBm or 0.2 uV. My MXT500, which is a direct conversion receiver, was -123.6 dBm or 0.14 uV. This is pretty important for people to be aware of. Just because superheterodyne receivers are known to be better technology than direct conversion receiver technology, that doesn't necessarily mean any given super-het radio will hear better than any other given direct conversion receiver. Brand and build quality matter. Midland is an icon in two-way radio and should not be dismissed as a player. Also, I did not measure my Moto's, but I can 100% tell you that while running both radios in my Jeep at the same time, I lost count of the number of times my Moto could here a signal well enough for a 100% copy, that my Yaesu couldn't hear at all. One of my friend is going to tune my Moto transmitter output power for me. I can ask him to run a 12 dB SINAD for my while its on the analyzer and share that info.

The Quick Shift is selectable from +20 MHz to -20 MHz. I can shoot a quick video a bit later today, if that would help?

The problem we are running into is, not all repeaters in our area are on the standard -1 MHz shift. I have 7 repeaters stored and two of them are 0.5 MHz shift. I can save them in memory, but the shift isn't variable. Every time we change the shift, it changes for every memory in that band. So, I saved 7 6m repeaters on my radio. 5 with standard offset and 2 as simplex, and just use the quick-shift feature to get the right input frequency for the non-standard offsets.

Looks like it's going to have to be saved as a split. So, save the repeater output as a memory, and then program the quick-split button for the offset you want to transmit on (menu 05-13). That way, you can just go to the memory, and then press the Split button and you are good to go. Almost all of the 6m repeaters programed into my radio are -1 MHz ... but there are 2 that are -0.5 MHz and that is how I ended up setting up those two.

I can't find my cable or software, which are probably both I the radio box, which I'm sure has been thrown away by now. I'm going to head to Ham Radio Outlet in a couple hours. I need it to read and program my radio.

I think you have to program it as a split, instead of an offset. But have to check.

Hmm. I haven't tried that, but the RT Systems software should let you program custom splits per memory channel. I'm at a customer site, but can look when I get home.

Exactly. The nature of its use defines its type. A flat head screwdriver is a craftsmans tool when it turns screws, and a burglary tool when used to steal a car.

I must be missing something. Where is that in the rules? I ask because how we use the radio defines what the radio is. For example, by definition a base station is a station at a fixed location that communicates directly with mobile stations and other base stations. However, the exact same radio can be a control station, as defined by use of a station at a fixed location that communicates with mobile stations and other control stations through repeater stations, and may also be used to control the operation of repeater stations.

Mine is primarily for offroading and keeping in touch with my family and friends while local.

Not only is it not allowed (as normal practice), the only way to use the repeater in that configuration would be to use non-type approved hardware or otherwise type approved hardware with a configuration that invalidates its certification and legal use. So, it would be a double no.

That's awesome! You're going to have a blast. I have to run into a meeting, so I will post some more a bit later today. The number one thing for me was to set the scan edges up per band, so I can scan and listen while driving. That way you don't have to watch the radio or manually adjust it. The best part is, while scanning, when you hit the top or bottom edge, it just loops back to the start of the frequencies again.

I'll own that one.

@tweiss3 I have the FT-891 in my Jeep. That radio is an absolute winner. I have worked 103 countries while mobile, including most of Europe, New Zealand, South Africa, and several in Asia and most of South America. 10/10 would recommend.

Funny you should ask... Cricket Ventures worked with Wouxun to develop a GMRS mobile radio that now know as the KG-1000G. I worked with Danny from Cricket Ventures in 2020 to do an unbiased eval of the only prototype in existence at the time. Man, I fell in love with that radio the moment I turned it on. Anyway, per my communications with Danny, the electronics of the KG-1000G are indeed the KG-uv980 with different firmware. While I have never used a radio that was marketed as the KG-uv980, with the success of the KG-1000G, I have to think the KG-uv980 is a rock star, too.