kidphc

I second this. Trying to find a triplexer for my for my Harris 100m. While not impossible hurts, cheaper ones are +280 and commercial ones average $600+ for used ones. Note: watch antenna spacing. My xtl5k (set for gmrs and p25 65cm/70cm) when at full tilt has blasted my ftm400. That is with the 5/8th for the xtl at the back 1/3 of the roof ND the 2/70sh on the driver front fender. Doesn't happen the other way around with the ftm400 on 70cm and the xtl5k on gmrs. The xtl is just has better selectivity. I have to turn off the ftm400, when using the xtl. Marc has toasted a vhf xtl. Not sure if has to do with the proximity of his uhf xtl. Maybe he can chime in. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Don't go with a higher loss cable coax. Additional height or additional gain from a higher gain antenna will be negated in the losses of the coax. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Your title for the thread is "Terry Sullivan". Lol.. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Higher gain normally is going to cost you bandwidth. ⁵/8 over 5/8th best I have had for gmrs was my laird. But only going to do between 450-470. Big thing here is the more bands you add. The harder it gets, because more comprimises are added. So one band ends up at the bad end and one of the other bands is acceptable, then the last band becomes meh. Best = least comprimises. Closet to what to what you want is going to be something on the lines like the nmo 150/450/800 or nmo150/460/700. Note no 200mhz. They are also designed for the public safety focus (ems/fire/police). They have acceptable (depends on what think is acceptable) swr for amateur services. No, they are not tuneable. There is the 2x24sr. Very stiff, meh for me at least performance wise. You can use diplexers/triplexers and separate antennas? Are some bands listen only? Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

He won't listen. Still regularly tries to climb towers to help out with the repeaters around here. I was going to do the same as you. I was going to tether the base of the antenna as well. To stop the antenna from swinging. Even thought about climbing the pine tree to lash the antenna with rope. Damn hoa... Alas, the tree one storm decided it wanted to take a nap on the neighbors house. If you can get access to a bucket truck, it will make securing the antenna easier. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

None. It is what I recommend. If you could get it above the canopy, it would be awesome. Local here WRPJ758 Roland 2.. has one on top of a 100' tree, where he hoisted part of a tower, and a flag pole. One of the best stations you will here. Simplexes 18 miles easy, and hits repeater, up to 30 miles away with conditions. He is also only like 250 feet above sea level. ( rolly polly terrain of dc hampers his range) It is grounded properly, running heliax 50w from old motorola mobile, as well as a commercial antenna. Heliax from the antenna to his house. Pic is from the base ladder. Which is about 15 feet up. Keep in mind he was very picky with the mounting gear. He didn't want to poison and kill the tree with the bolts. Only maintenance, has been to redo the ground wire, with broke due to the growth of the tree. Currently, the tree has claimed it as part of its trunk. He wants to climb the tree to clear the canopy from around the antenna. None of us want him to, since now he is 78. The antenna use to be above the tree. Now you can barely make out the tip. I have more pictures at home. Old photos he gave me. Will try to post more later.http://files.mygmrs.com/forums/monthly_2023_11/IMG_20220922_164134.jpg.cd1cbfd566fdc74e1cf9b504678e9ae6.jpg Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

You could use a repeater radio = $$$. Or 2 kg100g with repeater cable, less $$$. Or old commercial radios and configure them as a repeater less $$$ (like kenwoods). You would need a duplexer. Price will depend on if you choose a cheap Chinese brick duplexer or something like a 5 cavity duplexer. Plenty of youtube videos on different configurations. Depending on topography and antenna height. The repeater may not make 35 miles straight line. Most of the repeaters around me (d.c area) will generally have an 18 mile radius. These repeaters are usually minumum 100' with no obstructions using all commercial gear. From the repeater (like a quantar), antenna (lots of comwaves) to heliax feed line using cavity duplexers (for the isolation, and power handling). Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

That is what is currently available. With some of the radios. Btech pro, garmin reach. Albeit simplex only. I can't see gmrs users spending the umpteen money on the digipeater or server infrastructure part of it. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I have some old radios like that. I even have one that only way to set a pl. Was to crack open the case and flip dip switches. Bet you have flash backs when an unaware user sets a tone on his aprs frequency which happens to be the voice alert tone, and you get the screech. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

To be honest I just use cell. With location tags, ie airtags and such. As well as the apps no need really. Been trying out civtac app, to kinda have aprs like functionality. Civilian version of atak. Which I think was designed to work with an mpu5 mimo radio. Nasty little rabbit hole. Thank god mpu5s are like $30k. Quick overview of atak/civtak: Atak video. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Well to be fair... Having aprs like service for family is kinda a cool idea. But omg, that would make gmrs so much worse. With the network being over congested with packets. Hmm, i want to update every 30 sec, so I can track everything. To loosing, a channel for a dedicated aprs frequency or worse having aprs packets on every channel. The unaware don't realize that the amateur aprs frequency is lost to anything but aprs traffic, yes i know voice alert. As well as it is noisy as hell. With voice alert, any transmission basically halt traffic till it clears. Depending on the node, it can have a backup from 13 billion weather stations ¹/4 mile apart. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Speaking of infrastructure. I wonder how many of millions $$$ cumulatively clubs have spent to set up digipeaters. Just for the end user to have aprs functionality, not talking about the hobbies style with a Pico and baofeng. But rather an actual integrated ht or or mobile. There are no ht units sub $250, avg about $400+. Mobiles are the usually $300+. Higher then most gmrs users are willing to pay. If the FCC was considering having aprs down the road, I don't think they would of specifically said, ok you get a little digital (thx garmin for lobbying for this, not aure how much you guys paid), but you can't use it on the repeaters. In fact, any radio that has the capability must not have the functionality on the repeater pairs for type certification. This alone leads me to believe the FCCs attitude to be. You want it? We got a tech license for you to get, they have it. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

One way is to listen for a repeater tail after you unkey. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Not really better. But amateur uhf does offer some advantaged gmrs can't. - majority of digital repeaters are on 70cm - the ability to crossband repeat with our mobile radios between 2m/70cm - unlink/down link for duplex satellite coms - secondary aprs frequency (not many 70cm digipeaters near me though.) Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

My question is how many radios (gmrs/public safety) have any of this available in the firmware or even a sdk. I am not aware of any gmrs/public safety radios that have cat controls. Personally, a pi with potentially a adruno attached wired to the radio. The adruno and pi handle the work. The radio simply transmitting, with out some type of cat control I am not sure if a radio can change frequencies. Do dispatch consolettes have the ability to be cat controlled? Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Nor really answering the question. I do have an xts5000 that was converted to model 3 from model 2. Never reprogrammed it, because one can not simply copy the old plug. On my Harris xg100p. I can't move personalities. I can change about everything about the personality. But moving personalities from one zone to another without a cps kinda goes a bit against how part 90 was designed imo. Part 90 radios weren't designed for radio people, more for non radio people to use under a broader license of an entity. So it could be managed by an administrator. He'll even my anytone at878 uvii + which is part 90 type accepted. Even in amateur mode doesn't let you move personalities in zones. Fpp not really even available when set to part 90 mode. They do have a mode that allows some fpp in part 90 mode, that is still very limited. For me It was more to change tones. I have different zones, for the p25 and ham stuff. Is there a reason you are moving personalities from one zone to another? The xg100p works off a mission plans, all radios need to have that feature. I thing the apx series from motorola is more in line with the xg100p. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Don't expect big differences with hts. However, the antenna outside in the air is certainly a step in the right direction. The higher up the better. With antennas in the attic. Make sure you don't have the metallic roof barrier, metal shingles. It will be better but not leaps and margins. I made my own indoor blade antenna with n9tax twin line jpole and electric track (to hide wires). It's mounted to the kitchen area and goes up 2 stories. Coupled with even a 20 watt radio it gets quite far. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Going to have to read up, but not tonight. It's in the amateur/lmr/public safety world for a good reason. At least with those groups it has admins, for good reason. Local p25 repeater got replaced with a dmr capable repeater. It was down grade (older repeater unit) so it could run a fn pi unit to handle dmr traffic. Pissed a lot of us off. Since, now I have to reprogram 6 of my radios with useless talkgroups to use p25. Only work around we could find, adding 6 p25 local talkgroup to each radio. Complete bs... still isn't being used for dmr. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

My question is who would manage the talkgroups and networks? The manafacturers? Every family or group would want their own talk groups. Unfortunately, with gmrs/frs there are only so many carrier frequencies available. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Or $$$.. Mananafacturers pushed for FM on cb and digital in the GMRS world. FCC appeased both (especially by limitting digital and giving it at the same time), wonder who got the pay off. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Probably won't. I you want digital get an amateur ticket. The way the FCC acts, gmrs is a stepping stone into the amateur world. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Very possible many mdc users are ignoring the rule. To be fair though, it generally would sound like a Motorola roger beep. People would really hate the sound of digital over the radio, especially if they couldn't decode. Tune into 144.390 with no pl, see how long your sanity last. Most hams turn on receive pl or stay away from the aprs frquencies. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Technically illegal.. with the recent changes they allowed gmrs to send data. Such as gps location and small text messages. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E "Digital data. GMRS hand-held portable units may transmit digital data containing location information, or requesting location information from one or more other GMRS or FRS units, or containing a brief text message to another specific GMRS or FRS unit." But went as far as saying not over the repeaters. "Digital data transmissions. Digital data transmissions are limited to the 462 MHz main channels and interstitial channels in the 462 MHz and 467 MHz bands" "5) GMRS units must not be capable of transmitting digital data on the 467 MHz main channels" FCCs way of saying don't do it on the repeater inputs. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Not noticeably. You will lose a little more gain, with the additional cable and connectors. But it will be marginal. Usually, more of a problem with longer runs, say +50 feet. Then coax choices and connector choices start being critical, to reduce loses. Many of us have long runs of lmr400 with connectors that cost almost as much as the cable. Only to have jumpers of 3-5 feet of rg58 (due to the flexibility and size). By the way chances, are the mount you are using has rg58. Most f150 guys just use the third brake light mount due to convienence of routing and installation. The ones I have spoken to have said they feel it isn't optimal. But easy of install and not drilling was worth it. Not sure if any of them tried bonding the mount (ground strap) or if they are even isolated (to prevent dissimilar metal corrosion). One fire dept guy on his f350 went with an aluminum cap and drilled out the cap for 4 nmos. He likes to listen to the boys when he is off duty and will go to call if he thinks he can help. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Must be nice. Can't even get that range with my 2m radio and antenna. Damn rolling hills of the d.c. area. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk