marcspaz

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

Comet mount and antenna for daily use. http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/Comet_Mount_And_Antenna_1.jpg http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/Comet_Mount_And_Antenna_2.jpg http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/Comet_Mount_under_hood.jpg Comet mount with Tram antenna for offroad use (so I don't break the other antenna). http://fiveguysracing.com/marc/HAM-GMRS/Comet_Mount_And_Tram_Antenna_.jpg

I have a 2016 JK. I am using the comet NMO mount and the comet CA-2x4SRNMO, clamped to the side lip of my hood, on the passenger side, just in front of the windshield. It works great. 1.5:1 swr on 467 mhz. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

It's pronounced Marc, BTW.

You always have to ID from the originating station every 15 minutes and at the end of your transition session. Same as ham, but an extra 5 minutes.

I got you. I agree that the audio fidelity is lower in narrowband because there is simply less data. I never tested how much power increase would be needed for the same fidelity. That would be a fun field experiment with a couple of radios. My son just got his ham ticket. I'll have to see if I can get him to hop in the truck and help me run that test.

I have no idea who this company is... but this article supports my comments above. https://www.mwrf.com/systems/comparing-narrowband-and-wideband-channels

I'm confused. Are you referencing GMRS/FRS specifically? How does wideband have a 3db advantage? 3db of what, exactly? Carrier power? Modulation? Received signal strength? Are you talking about a wideband FM receiver listening to a narrowband signal? I ask because the tech stuff you wrote is nothing like what I have been taught and observe in practice in FM signals. In AM, sure, you can make a preposterously wide peak to peak sign-wave and just flood the airwaves... but that still doesn't make it cleaner or better. Just more of it. Hence the popularity of SSB in NLS radio services (MF/HF, for example). Every 3db of loss is power cut in half compared to the reference power, or 3db gain is double the reference power. And to change a received signal by 1 s-unit, you would have to quadruple your power or reduce it to one quarter of the starting power. That is a gain or loss of about 12db compared to the reference power. So, I'm having trouble tracking how you are determining loss or gain based on this understanding. As far as signal to noise goes, narrowband is the lower noise bandwidth, not the higher. The reason we use wideband in line-of-sight radio is because wideband carries more data... in this case a voice signal, thus better audio fidelity inside of the short rang capability of the frequency and power being used. Due to being a line-of-sight service, there is no benefit to using narrowband. Maybe there is a misconception that wideband has better signal to noise ratio because there is more voice data for a wideband receiver to work with, but there is actually more noise too, reducing the heard distance. Narrowband usually has a far greater range of reception because narrower filters can be used, cutting out unwanted band noise. The transmitted energy is also concentrated on a smaller portion of the spectrum.

Its not just you. We have discussed it here a lot. It's irritating to a good portion of the people I have talked to. In my area, its every channel, all day. Construction companies, grocery stores, schools, restaurants, warehouses... like you said; poor mans business radio. I personally find it irritating. Not that they are bothering me, because I couldn't care less who I share the frequency with. My irritation comes from the fact that it was marketed as "Family Radio" for a very long time, is still marketed as "Family Radio Service", and many families use the band as such. I curse like a drunken lunatic. Bad language and talking about work related stuff doesn't bother me, but families, kids, church groups, etc., shouldn't have to hear it. FRS used to be a wholesome place for them, and in most of the nation it still is, but around high population density areas, not so much.

The benefit of using a narrow channel is the lower noise along better sensitivity and range. The advantage of wideband is the capability to transfer higher data rates. I would stay away from narrow band unless you want to forget about digital and hi-fidelity. As far as repeater pairs go, CTCSS and DCS were created for a reason. If you are using tone or digital code squelching, unless the repeaters are within miles of each other, you can have potentially hundreds of repeaters in place within a 500 mile radius and not interfere with another repeater. The only exception I could potentially see there is if traffic went up 100 fold and all repeater owners started using 200' towers; which I don't see happening. Additionally, there is a massive shortage of people willing to spend insane amounts of money for proper repeater equipment, site rentals and maintenance costs, just to allow other people to user their system for free. (Hard to imagine, I know.) Opening up more pairs isn't really a need.

148 pages. I'm 16 in. Should be interesting to finish up.

There is a monitor button on the front. If TSQL or DCS are enabled, when you press the button, you will see the busy light and S Unit bar light but no audio will be presented due to the lack of proper tone. I tested it a few minutes ago, just to be sure I am not putting bad advice out there.

Exactly. Think of cell phones. They use a voting system to help keep your call uninterrupted.

I just thought of something after reading these two posts. A repeater near me is already configured with split tone and travel tone, but the owner doesn't advertise the travel tone is enabled. I don't think it will help OP at this point, because it seems like they have already tried it, but if someone runs into this issue with another repeater and reads this, it may be worth trying the travel tone to see if it's enabled.

That is not an option with the Micro Mobile line of radios. Turning on the encode function without the decode function, is still split tone, which the radio can't do. Also, leaving the RF squelch open with the tone squelch enabled still results in no audio output on the receiver.

No split tones on the Midland stuff. Can't even do transmit encoding with no decoding. You are limited to repeaters with the same in/out tones unless you get another radio.

Its a reverse SMA, so, not really. Just don't snug it so much that the rubber/plastic base of the antenna starts to mushroom or deform. RCM has a good idea about trying another antenna, too.

You have to quadruple your power to impact a reciever by 1 S Unit. The one watt is not the issue. I would be more prone to think that your friend either didn't have a connector screwed on correctly, was near an object that adversely impacted his signal via absorption, or he was not on a 4 watt scale as believed. Edit - forgot to mention, Baofeng radios are terrible. It could be that your receive or his transmit are simply not within proper spec.

You make a lot of good points that I don't disagree with, but I can't help but wonder how much of your opinion is biased by an extensive background in amateur radio. In the ham world, we are really spoiled with access to top-notch hardware and many Hams like to tinker and learn. So, getting better hardware and going through the steps to build a great GMRS radio is nbd. I think most people who are new to GMRS don't fall into that category. I could be wrong... but I think that's the case and those people just want a turnkey radio. Me personally, I love my Midland MXT400 radios. I have 3 of them in 3 different vehicles and they work fantastic for what I use them for.... including repeater use. Though, my opinion of GRMS is that it's the UHF version of CB, so maybe my expectations are just much lower. Especially when I "need" high quality comms, I have some nice, high performance ham gear. Just a thought... and again, I agree with you. Just don't know that it's the only answer, is all.

Hahaha! I laughed so hard I snorted.

Just as an FYI... kinda related... Today, for the first time ever, I found a repeater that did not pass through tones, nor transmit it's own tone on the output.

I have a home not to far from there. Not many repeaters ID... but the few I am aware of are for REACT emergency response teams, only. Many owners seems okay with people using their repeater as long as you ask... but the REACT systems are off limits to non-members. Even members only use them during drills and actual emergencies.

I had one. I was not a fan and sold it to another member here on this forum. It does have a lot of nice features, but the frequency stability and ability to sustain power levels while transmitting were less than stellar. And the transmit signal is horribly dirty. I also had 3 of their ham 2m/440 radios all break within a couple of weeks of total time. I would have kept it as a cheap solution in my Jeep, since I Offroad all the time. However, with the the doors and roof off, the screen washes out 100%. Oddly, the Ham radios didn't have that problem.

@RCM... lots of good info and points. I appreciate the insight.

I haven't seen that. I'll definitely look through it. Thank you. Yes. I am in Florida currently. I have homes in Virginia (NOVA) and Florida (St. Petersburg & Ft. Lauderdale). I go back and forth between the two. I have a 5 element beam, which should do the trick.