marcspaz

I can't find any pics with the Diamond mount. I'll look around some more. Here is a Comet NMO mount and the Comet CA-2x4SR on my JK. http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/Comet_Mount_And_Antenna_1.jpg Same mount with the Tram antenna http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/Comet_Mount_And_Tram_Antenna_.jpg This is my JT with the Ham antenna (screwdriver) on the passenger's side and the GMRS antenna on the driver's side. http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/JT_Rubicon/JT_Drive.jpg

You can try using the front bolt. On my JK, I had to use a lip mount on the hood, centered between the O and the N on the Rubicon graphic. On my JT, I mounted my antennas to the top of the bed rail. For the Jeep, I had great luck using a Diamond K400s and K400c mounts on the lip of the hood (which come with cables) and a variety of antennas. The best performing antenna I have used so far is a Comet CSB-790a Super Beam, but its 62" tall. Many people are looking for low profile. If you are looking for mid-sized, I like the Comet CA-2x4SR or the Diamond NR770HB. The SWR and performance are not as good as the CSB-790a, but its better all around than the traditional 1/4 wave antennas without the massive height. Then, if you want a traditional 1/4 wave, I have had good luck with both the Browning and the Tram. I have heard lots of good things about Larsen and Laird, too. However, you would need to get the Diamond Diamond K400sNMO or Diamond K400cNMO if you go that route, as most 1/4 wave antennas are NMO style. So, be sure to pick your antenna first, and then get the proper mount.

Actually, they are a shade more than 6 inches high. Very small and work fairly well.

I know the feeling. It is pretty satisfying when you finally get it working, though. Good luck! I hope you get something going,

Ditch the Midland antenna and cable. They are not good... and when they are good, its not for long. The part of the window/roof frame you are talking about is called an A Pillar. The small UHF antennas need to be at least 8"-10" away from the A Pillar. The cowl cover is fine for an HF Firestick for the CB, but its too close for the GMRS antenna. You are very close to radio damage territory with those SWR readings. I wouldn't use it until its fixed. No more than 2.0:1. 1.5:1 or better would be ideal. Your power reading on 8 is low because the SWR is bad. The lower the SWR, the more the forward power increases. If you have a 1.1 or 1.2 to 1 SWR, it would be close to 13.5 watts (assuming the PA's a putting out the advertised 15w).

The antenna should work fine. Do you have asphalt shingles? Some folks have metal roofing and/or trim and overlook that. Especially flashing materials and face boards. Make sure the antenna is at least 6 feet away from any metal or electrical lines. That includes any metal outside on the roof and side of the house.

If you are going to be doing your own work, I would recommend getting a quality SWR meter. I have found that many of the inexpensive meters are only accurate for a very small amount of the "advertised" frequency range, and the higher the SWR, the less accurate they are. I started off with a MXTA26 on all 3 vehicles. Turned out to be a terrible idea. on the 467 MHz channels, the SWR was way too high. I ended up using some small Browning and Tram antennas that are good from 450 MHz to 470 MHz. One of my trucks has a Comet CSB-790A. It is three 5/8 waves long, in phase at 62 inches long. Its rated at 7.7dBi gain and cost about $100. I get a near perfect SWR of 1.1:1 on all GMRS channels. Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine, mobile to mobile about 9 miles apart, using just 2 watts. It work fantastic... but its a lot of antenna. Most people don't like the size, because its so tall, but I love it.

I usually don't push any particular brand of product, but if you don't have the room or means to safely have a dipole, I would consider looking at a Wolf River vertical antenna. It has a radiation pattern that is safe for mounting on the roof, it can work very well on the ground, and if you keep it in arms length, you can adjust it for whatever frequencies you want to operate on. I have talked to a few people around the country who are using them with a 100w and they seemed to be working fine. https://www.wolfrivercoils.com/

Horrible idea. The antenna needs to be at least 35 feet off the ground. A log home will cause interference, almost as if the antenna is on the ground. I wold guess you likely will not be very interested in the expense of building a sturdy 35 foot mast on the roof of the house, unless it's your only option. I would also be very, very concerned about radiation exposure for people and other living animals in the house. You could make yourself and others fatally ill. Are you going to run it as a horizontal or inverted V? For an inverted V, the ends of the wire should be about 10 feet off the ground and the ideal angle is 45 degrees off the center vertical axis, for a total of 90 degrees between the elements.

Any UHF amplifier that covers up to 470 MHz should be fine. However, there are some really big warnings I have about using an amplifier. First, on the 462 MHz and 467 MHz main channels, 50 watts is the legal limit for mobiles, repeaters and base stations. Fixed stations are limited to 15 watts. (A Fixed station is defined as a station at a fixed location that directly communicates with other fixed stations only.) Second, on the 462 MHz interstitial channels (the channels between the main channels) stations are limited to an effective radiated power (ERP) of 5 watts, witch means the final power amplifier (PA) will likely need to have much less than 5 watts of output power. This applies to mobiles, hand-helds, portables and base stations. Then, to make things even more complicated, on the 467 MHz interstitial channels, stations are limited to an effective radiated power (ERP) of 0.5 watts, witch means the PA will likely need to have much less than 0.5 watts of output power. So, be very careful on what frequencies you opt to use an amp on. Frankly, I wouldn't spend the money, I would just get a new radio. Quality UHF amplifiers are much more expensive than a radio that runs up to 50 watts.

That seems to be an excessive amount of RFI. I run 1500 watts and high-gain antennas on UHF, VHF and HF at home and there is no RF interference with anything in my house. Along with a bad connector on the cable lines, as mentioned above, there could be an improperly installed connector on the radio's antenna transmission line on the radio or antenna side. I would ground the cable box, cable coax connectors, the radio, antenna transmission line on both ends, and be sure the antenna and mast are properly grounded. May end up being a junk cable, though.

There are a ton of encoders and decoders out there, but if another operator is free-handing it and is not transmitting in a consistent speed, they fail to copy correctly. Yes old-timers and people who took the time to learn will give you grief. But many of those same people will brag about all of their unattended, automatic FT8 contacts to Japan when they were sleeping. So I wouldn't sweat it. There really is no way of gauging how many people use automatic tools, but I'm willing to say it's a lot. Especially since many HF radios made in the last 20 years have memory slots for pre-programmed words and phrases that are used often.

I should call it high sped escort? LOL About to speedily escort? haha I'm lost.

It does a lot that I need. The light controller makes it so I don't have to cut-up and mount stuff on a new vehicle, plus I get to retune for tires, gears, etc once I get the lift kit on. There are some other nice things, like disabling the auto start/stop (which drives me crazy) enabling lockers in 2-wheel drive, etc. The price is high, but in scope for a tuner. Since I don't need to flash the ECM and never will, I figured I was good. Thanks! Lindsay is a motor-head, a Ham, and into most of the hobbies I am. So that helps a lot! LOL

All of the mobiles are gone. I have two Ham Radio handhelds that seem to work OK. So, my son and I use them when we go 4-wheeling while out of the trucks. If one of us mistakenly drops an HT in the mud or on some rocks, better dropping a $35 is better than dropping a $300+ high-quality HT.

This is a demo of some custom and built-in emergency light patterns in the Tazer JL Mini, as installed on a Jeep Gladiator. There are 15 different combinations, depending on if the engine is on, the headlights are on, or if the engine and headlights are off. I am an amateur radio operator and I am a volunteer emergency staffer with Amateur Radio Emergency services, serving Prince William County Government, and other government agencies. Current Virginia law allows amateur radio operators to have and use safety strobes on their vehicles while both stopped on public roads, as well as in motion, depending on the service being provided. Regardless of if you are in Virginia or another state, consult an attorney and your served agencies, to be sure you adhere to the laws in your state and rules of your served agency. This information is for demonstration purposes only and should not be misconstrued as legal advice. Strictly use at your own risk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzFgfHXkLIA

Roger, Roger! LOL

Nice review! I would stay away from VHF while using it. 3:1 is almost guaranteed damage to your radio and that is pretty close.

hahahaha!!! Remote SETI team!

LOL They are mad that my 1984 pickup is in the circle. Plus, within minutes of putting it up, I was asked by one of my neighbors how long the eyesore (portable) was going to be in my driveway for. I can imagine how they would respond to a nice parabolic or steep take-off beam on a single axle trailer out in the middle of the circle. hahaha

Oh yea... not surprising. I lose downlink connections if it rains or cloud cover gets really heavy. Got tired of fighting it and decided to stick to local comms (except for the ISS on rare occasions).

Unless you have an antenna that doesn't require an external ground plane, you have no choice. Generally speaking, foliage will always absorb some RF energy. However unless you are trying to communicate through dense vegetation, it should still work fine. One of my antennas are in the woods behind my house, below the tree line, and I get great performance out of it.

It's slim pickins for new, Part 95 hardware. There is a bunch of grandfathered hardware out there, though.

Wow. That's a serious enthusiast, right there.

The easiest way to ID a gen 1, without calling Midland, is the mic. If it seems like an odd gloss black with a loop instead of a button, and it was new in a sealed box, it's a gen 1. For some reason they used poor quality plastic for the gen 1 microphone. When they did the gen 2 updates, they used better materials for the case of the mic and switched to a button hanger instead of the loop.