marcspaz

HAHA... got to love the nickel tour.

I understood the question just fine, and answered it. So did others. If you read my responses, you will see that I used polite language to express that fact that the tech is extremely useful (and why) and he (everyone) should spend 3 minutes reading the owners manual to learn how to use the new radio they just bought instead of complaining about it here. Of course, I just gave you the less polite, 5 cent version... but question answered none the less.

Thank you for the kudos... much appreciated, my friend.

While I agree with you... my comments are generalized. People with HT's and mobile radios aren't going to walk/drive around with massive tuning cans and massive narrow resonance antennas for improved noise filtering. Also... a hug majority of complaining and questions I see/hear is "I can't reach a repeater" and "how do I get more range out of my radio?" Most people building repeaters are likely educated and experienced enough that the don't need my advice.

It was sent to Yaesu for review. My initial thought is the controller failed. Just moments before, the transceiver would keep sending an FM carrier after I let the PTT go. I had to disconnect the power to shut it off. It seemed okay for about 5 minutes after the reboot,before the fire. Another reason I think it was the controller IC failure is because a huge voltage spike from the IF circuit nuked both antennas and feed lines on the VHF/UHF side and the HF side.

I love the way Yaesu radios look and feel. They have great features and are very intuitive to use. BUT... my FT-8900 had blown receive filters, brand new out of the box. And today, my 5 day old $800 Yaesu FT-857D caught on fire while I was in the middle of a QSO. With all of the terrible stuff that I experienced with BTech/BaoFeng ham radios, none of them caught on fire and nearly burn my Jeep down with me in it. I think I am going to switch to Kenwood. LOL

Yep. Page 26 of the manual.

I can't really speak to the Midland being a rebadged brand. I have heard some mention it, but I haven't really seen anything that supports it. I think it's like TV tech about 20 years ago. Mitsubishi was making IC's that were used in almost every TV built, so rumor spread that all TV's were just rebranded Mitsubishi TV's.... which was not true. I have several MXT400's. If you want new, no nonsense, out of the box with a warranty, they are great. But like anything else entry level, there are some drawbacks. No split tone and lack of wide-band are the 2 most notable. I have a few Baofeng ham radios. They are okay, but I wouldn't rely on them in a Dark Sky event. I use iCom and Yaesu for "when it counts". I've mentioned this before... GMRS is not a proper solution for COOP/DR ops, even if it's for your family. You really should get ham licenses and use HF. I can talk simplex wide-band FM, reliably, for several hundred miles, and around the globe on SSB. I really love GMRS and it's the platform I use the most... but it's a line of sight service/technology.

It's funny... I do exactly what you are talking about with everyone except for when I talk to my son, regardless of the band. LOL Him and I usually plan to talk on a specific frequency at a particular... so unless the frequency is in use at that time, I'll just get on the radio and say "hey buddy, you there?" or, "Hey Nick, you on the air?" I am not sure why... he is the only person I do that with on both GMRS, 2m, 70cm.

I have seen a few posts talking about getting more distance out of UHF gear, such as the GMRS equipment we use. It looks like the common theme is, many immediately want to go for more power, assuming they can brute-force their way through issues. I am hoping myself and some of the other people who have some training and practical experience can use this thread to help new users understand how to make life better without more power. I want to start with handheld transceivers. HT antennas use your body as a counterpoise. Depending on how you are dressed, how tall you are, how you are holding the radio, the radio position, the distance of the radio from your body, what direction you are facing, all impact performance. Even how much fat, salt and water your body is retaining at the moment impacts how an HT antenna works, because those things vary the conductivity of the human body. In all seriousness, forget about more power... or even more range from a typical HT. If you want more range out of your HT, your best bet is to find higher ground, figure out where the best place to stand is, and what general direction to be facing when compared to the receiving station provides the best communications path. Mobile antennas are often several wavelengths+ in overall height and the body of the vehicle is typically a much better reflective counterpoise. There is a lot that can be done in the mobile and base antenna world that can help, but for now, lets continue to focus on why 'more power' likely isn't the right answer. There is a standard in radio communications about intelligibility of radio communications. It is called the 5/9 scale. 0 to 5 for voice clarity and 0 to 9+ for signal strength in s-units. It is said that while a 2/1 signal provides partially usable comms, the lowest "reliable" communications happens at a 3/2 (or 32) and the best is a 5/9+ (often called 599, 59+20, 59+40). With that in mind, you have to quadruple your power to impact a receiver 1 s-unit. So, if the other party is receiving a signal at 1/2 s-unit while you are using 4 watts, you need 16 watts to go to 1 s-unit. You then need to jump to 64 watts for 2 s-units. Finally a third jump in power of 256 watts to get to 3 s-units and possibly getting a reliable communications signal (a 2/3 or 3/3). Depending on the modulation of the carrier signal and bandwidth, you may need to jump to 4 s-units, requiring well over 1,000 watts. Now, lets say the same receive condition exists, but now you are already using 20 watts for that 1/2 s-unit. Now your power jumps are 80 watts, 320 watts, 1,280 watts for 3 s-units and possibly needing 5,120 watts for 4 s-units. Well, the first bump you made already seriously violates power restrictions in GMRS. AND, this is under hypothetical perfect conditions, assuming nothing else changed in the environment. Which almost never exists. Chasing better performance by boosting power typically doesn't give you any truly desirable results. The top 3 items that will help improve comms in almost every band is elevation, elevation, and elevation. From there its antenna tuning (and beams) filters to reduce interference and lowering the noise floor, as some examples. So, for our technically skill folks... Would anyone like to contribute some general advice for new users to benefit from? General advice on what to do or not to do?

Agreed. HT antennas use your body as a counterpoise. I'll start a new thread about this so I don't completely derail this one.

What software are you using? If it is CHIRP, go to the link below. I posted a bit in there that should help. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1639-using-chirp-to-program-gmrs-repeater-into-handheld/ Do yourself a favor. Unless the radio isn't critical and is being used in a rough/dirty environment that will likely break radios due to contaminant exposure, don't by any of the following brands... TYT QYT BTech BaoFeng LEIXEN Retevis Zastone EasyTalk (EZTalk) Rivins HYS TALKCOOP Radioddity SAMCOMM BACKCOUNTRY ANSOKO TIDRADIO BOCOTRAN ANYSECU Stryker TWAYRDIO Ailunce There are more to stay away from... but I think you get were I am going with this. And if you are tight on cash... that is an even better reason to stay away from them. CCR's are cheap for a reason. And its not because they are reliable or good performers. Don't waste your money.

Agreed. On field testing, mobile to mobile, bumping the power from 5 watts to 50 watts only netted an additional 1/4 mile. That's it. The only time I can see any benefit to boosting power is in a flat-out life or death emergency and you are trying to increase the odds of someone/anyone hearing you. And even then, if your in a bad spot, it wont matter how much power you're running.

Same here. I have had an original X50a on my roof for almost 18 years now, still with the original feed line, too. Still dead perfect match. The Virginia winters are not as bad as where you are, but still... Got to love em'.

RFParts.Com sells them... so does Ham Radio Outlet. They are about $50 each.

Man, can I relate. I have two Btech HT's that I use when off-roading. I'll settle for the reduced performance out in the mountains because we are only a few car lengths apart and if I drop a radio in the mud, I would rather have it be a $20-$30 BaoFeng than a $250 Yaesu.

Glad I could help!

I have a pile of them in a bin at my desk. A few aluminum connectors too.

EDIT: You have one of the more complex requirements. This image is how you should set up CHIRP... http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/SplitTone.JPG Or this if you want to hear everyone, not just repeater traffic... http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/SplitTone2.JPG I can't speak about what your radio can or can't do, but Chirp is pretty straight forward. Use the image below as a reference for what the general meanings are. Start here... https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/MemoryEditorColumns LOC is the channel location, aka what memory slot. Frequency is the simplex frequency of the channel you want to use. If it is a repeater frequency, you enter the repeater output frequency, which is what you will be listening to. Name is just that. Pick a name that give you an idea of what channel you're on. Now... the tone mode can be a little confusing for people. There are a few options to pic from, but until you get used to the radio and software, I would not set the tone mode for anything unless needed for a repeater. The tone mode that is most commonly used is 'Tone', which your radio transmits sub-audible tones to open the squelch of the radio/repeater receiving your signal. If you look at my example below, I have Tone set on the repeater memories. But I also have TSQL on two repeater memories. That function transmits a tone to open the repeater and my squelch only opens when the repeater transmits that same tone. The reason I have that set up is because there are two repeaters near me, using the same frequency pairs, but they use different tones. So, by using TSQL, I know when I hear a signal, it is coming from one specific repeater. So, you populate a value in the Tone column if you what to trip a repeater, but hear everyone. Use the TSQL column if you only want to here people or machines using a tone when they transmit. (Note, there is a Cross mode. That is for radios that support transmitting one tone to open a repeater [for example], but having another tone open the squelch on their radio. I would suggest spending some significant time researching how that works before you mess with it.) You will also notice that I have two memories configured for DTCS, at the very bottom. This mode is commonly called Digital Code Squelching. It is just another squelch type. Most repeater owners don't use this method. It is most common on simplex channels. It can also be insanely complex. You can have DTCS or Split DTCS, transmitting one code and your squelch opens with another code. Than you can reverse the code sequence on none, one, either or both. I would suggest spending some significant time researching how that works before you mess with it. If you look at the image below, you will see which tone column is associated with what tone mode. That should help understand those. Just ignore DTCS RX Code, DTCS Pol, and Cross Mode until you learn about how those items work. The duplex mode is going to be None for the GMRS and FRS channels, unless you are programming a GMRS repeater pair. Then it will be a Plus (+). If you are programming a repeater pair and select plus, the software should automatically select the proper frequency offset, based on the starting receive frequency. If it doesn't, you should enter 5 MHz (5.000000). This automatically changes your transmit frequency, when you press the PTT, to the repeater's input frequency. For Mode, you can use FM for everything except the FRS channels 8 through 14. Those must be set to Narrow FM or NFM. Also, if you cannot program your transmitter to 0.5 watts or if your radio has a detachable antenna, per the law, you are not allowed to transmit on those frequencies. My radio doesn't go any lower than 1 watt and has a detachable/external antenna. So, I have them programed for receive purposes only. Power and Skip should be pretty obvious. Anyway, hope that helps. http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/ChirpProgram.JPG

I have 3 of the MXT400s. The all put out about 35 watts RMS, depending on how long they have been on.

Having lived in New England for many years, I have seen what ocean and road salt does to everything. What a mess.

NP... I'm a fan of Diamond antennas myself. Them and MFJ... I have had good luck. I seem to have the best luck with stainless steel, though.

If I may be so bold, I believe he is making a comment about 'brand loyalists'. Not saying this is you... you and I have chatted off line and you seem like a smart, well-versed individual... but in my experience, many recommendations are because of limited exposure. Not that they have had a wide exposure or performed any significant testing. So they talk up their favorite product or the only product they have used. Honestly, everything that I have that has weather exposure gets replaced every 12-18 months. Especially cables with ends that are not water tight and mount terminals that are not water sealed. Everything starts to oxidize and/or corrode with time. The only exception to that rule is 3/8-24 heavy-duty studs and stainless steel whips. That is only because they can very easily and reliably be disassembled and cleaned. An example of why... I tried using a K400 mount for more than 2 years. The base corroded enough that the electrical ground was not perfect and it led to the receiver in my Yaesu 6m radio going bad. I am still waiting for it to come back from repair. Needless to say, that mount is now gone and I switched to a 3/8-24 stud.

Thanks! I appreciate it!. Yea, it take a lot of time and money to restore these old vehicles. But, so worth it when they are done. That old CUCV is my favorite vehicle to drive. I miss that old 6.2L Detroit, but the 350 is pretty fun too. No joke, right there... You can kill yourself quick with a farm jack. The bags are awesome for mud, snow and sand, for sure. Definitely very stable platform. Cool. Let us know. It's always good to see how others resolve issues. Things we share will likely save someone a lot of grief.

I wanted to do that, but my wife complained that she didn't want to see the antenna in the middle of her field of view. Figured that was a nice compromise. LOL I love my farm jack. I agree, they are a get multipurpose tool. I like the air jacks but my Jeep is too tall. I can't find one that actually gets the tires off the ground. Thanks! I know it doesn't look like it now, but that is/was an M1008 CUCV. At least it was when we bought it. It started life on Fort Lee, and eventually made its way here. We completely restored it to original military spec, including the troop seats and paint. The original 6.2 was in it and it only had 52,000 on the clock. It had the IR/Service lights, 24v electrical (basically for just the starter and jump port). Sadly, the motor let go, then the TH400 let go and took out the transfer case. After that, someone smacked the bed with a big truck and made a mess of it. We put a 6" lift kit on it, cross-over steering, high-performance carbed 350, rebuilt the turbo 400 with a manual reverse valve body, and slapped a new transfer case in it. It has all new brakes. Its about to get a new hydro-assist, front and rear winch, and some other minor stuff. Anyway, we changed it so much that we decided its not much of a M1008 any more. So we are restoring the full interior and we are going to slowly rehab the outside. After the first restore... http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/CUCV/CUCV1.jpg http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/CUCV/CUCV2.jpg I volunteer with the County, doing emergency comms. So, we are setting it up for 'Hi-Visibility'. We still need to finish the paint, but this is what it looks like right now... http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/CUCV/CUCV3.jpg http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/CUCV/CUCV4.jpg