kidphc
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Posts posted by kidphc
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***Initial signal reports.
Usual route i take home. So a fair comparisons, since I know where the holes are for spotty or weak coverage.
With the Signal Stalk, most reports were scratchy and having background noise on transmit. I was also getting hashing on receive. The dip around the Morman temple was reported as really really bad copy.
As a comparision,the usual reports when using the Laird B4505 CNS were like sitting in the room next to me, clean as a base station. The dip around the Morman temple usually reported with this antenna as scratchy with sometimes a drop out.
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I thought the sti flexi was more flexible. Well I thought by some of the pictures.Not much different than the Sti Co Super flex whips.
Is it about the same?
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Yeah mine had a glow in the dark tip. But 3d printed base.Theyve moved over to an injection molded base on the signal sticks within the last couple of batches (bought a sma male one in black around black Friday last year), it's a nicer finish now. They also appear to be using glow in the dark tips on all of them, irrespective of color, which is a nice touch.
Nice to know they are making changes. Especially, with the warranty if something happens you get a replacement.
Lifetime warranty doesn't apply to the stalk antenna. But he sells replacement parts.
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Agreed. Been happy with mine. Part of the reason I was willing to try a signal stalk.Two thumbs up from me for the Signal Stick. Best HT antenna I've had, if you don't mind the length.
Of course, little things like signal stick (3d printed antenna connection) not being finished (layer lines from 3d printing) let you know it is a small operation. On the signal stalk the ferrule to the nmo doesn't match the colors of the nmo base.
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Well minus the price. For $40 vs the usual 80-100Not much different than the Sti Co Super flex whips.
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No. Signal reports as of today, just got it installed.
Btw. Don't run out and buy one just yet. It is a 2m 1/4 wave and 3/4 wave 70cm antenna.
3/4 have a weird radiation pattern and a take off angle of about 60‐70 degrees.
So who knows, how this will work in the real world.
I should of have taken 2m sweeps but failed to. I really wanted an antenna taller than the 1/4 for 70cm p25 and gmrs, i was also hitting the 1/4 wave in some garages. 2m was not a consideration, so I didn't even bother.
Because of the garage/tree thing I started searching for nintinol antennas. 2 came up signal stalk and sti flexi ( about 2x the price).
The sti was ruled out for the first round due to the cost and the cut chart would of had it back at 1/4 wave for gmrs/70cm. Might still try it in the future. Going to look at my buddy Seth's sti antenna to see if it is more flexible.
** the signal stalk is flexible. But no where near a signal stick. You will not be able to loop a signal stalk like a signal stick. I think you can loop the Sti (will check when I get the chance).
*** DO NOT try to trim with cutters. I recommend a bolt cutter or cut off wheel. Even my pneumatic cutting off wheel at the shop took some time to cut through it. On the order of 5-10 seconds. Usually, it will go through a steel whip in 2 seconds.
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Cut off a hair more than an inch (1") whip measurement 19"..
446 Mhz (national 70cm calling Swr was at 1:1.4 swr.
472.7250 Mhz ch22 repeater input the Swr was at 1:1.49 swr.
450 Mhz swr (target mid band) was at 1.08 Swr.
Note: weird curly q in the Smith chart. Never seen that before.
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Initial swep of the uncut signal stalk measures 20".
About 2.5 swr at 467.725 Mhz. 1.75 swr down at 440Mhz.
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Found there wasn't much info on the signal stalk. So might as well put it up for people to see.
First off, the signal stalk installed.
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13 minutes ago, gortex2 said:
I run 1/4 wave on both my UHF and VHF on my truck. I also run the LArsen Tri Band on my truck (4 of them) but I find the 1/4 wave does the bulk of my work and does it well.
Good to know. Kinda spoiled with all the mobile units. Almost don't want to go back to the ht with an external antenna days. Ocassionaly, have to throw it in high power, I often find myself on fringe of some of the repeaters.
XTVA with the xts5k is redundant with the XTL5k. So the XTVA sits in the garage with all the hardware. Who knows maybe I'll get permission to throw it in the JKU or the wife's van one day.
Now talking about a $2.5k APX.... i'd probably go your route, but throw the amp in just because.
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Probably will separate the antennas. Plus if a 1/4 is wracking crap in parking garages the diamond well it will become scrap metal fast.Oh! If you want one antenna that does it all, get the Diamond NR7900a. It is high gain. VHF/UHF power rated 250w/300w respectively, and covers everything we need to do on amateur and GMRS. Probably the best mobile antenna I ever owned.
https://www.diamondantenna.net/nr7900a.html
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When I get the vhf unit I will be installing another signal stalk if it works well after trimming.Ahh...yeah, I think I missed you were trying to have 2m on the same antenna.
The signal stalk is great on flexibility and durability, and does great signal wise on 2m and 70cm... haven't tried it for gmrs. The tram 1181 is a hair shorter, and on my truck was the difference between hitting all the beams in the parking garage at work, and just hitting an occasional one...it isn't as flexible as the signal stalk though. I think your truck is taller, too.
I would rather punch another hole in the roof then run a diplexer if I can.
I love the fact the pre-amp on the vhf models are a flashcode and not an add on board.
Marc,
Any reason you went with a high power vhf?
Are you going to run dual heads or run a w3?
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I'll have to talk to Marc next time there is a meet. Or if I catch him on bullrun.I think [mention=2213]marcspaz[/mention]has used a tram 1/4 wave that had a nice wide bandwidth in UHF...I don't remember the model number,.or how is measured out across the range though.
On the larger side, I know the Browning br1713bs has a nice wide bandwidth (410-490 rated) and showed low swr everywhere I tested in 70cm and gmrs (1.2 or less)
I ordered a signal stalk. 1/4 2m, 3/4 wave 70cm. Mostly because it's nintinol and more then 1/2 the price of a sti flexible antenna.
1/4 wave, unfortunately is play the antenna song in parking garages. So want max flexibility.
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12 minutes ago, zzz said:
I have seen some discussion about private repeaters that folks have put up, that they do not want the masses to have access to. So they keep the tones private, unless someone is in their group or sometimes they charge money for access. I understand the moral implications to my question, but I am curious from a strictly technical point of view...
If I find a repeater that's access tones are private, why cant I just scan for the codes, assuming I know when someone is transmitting, and eventually gain access to that repeater?
Because unlike Ham repeaters. GMRS repeaters are usually privately owned, thus private party. Even ham repeaters don't need to be published or shared (most are, and are owned by clubs).
A local repeater to me is not published but open to GMRS users. We do have problems with unauthorized (non-license) and people whom are purposely/willingfully interfering with the repeaters. Yes, we have a semi active group hunting for this person. It so bad, so much so that the repeater owner is pulling tones. Requiring several dozen users to have to reprogram radios. He has even discussed the idea of completely pulling the repeater off the air or switching frequencies.
Its better to be a contributor then one of the nuisances. You of course could spend the tens of thousands of dollars to properly setup a repeater, if you have a location (that doesn't cost you $2k a month, like a commercial site).
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On 2/22/2023 at 10:49 AM, gortex2 said:
To do Dual Brick on the XTL you need the W3 head, SP Firmware and a SP cable that's pretty hard to find. It will not work with the O5 head. Your best bet is a second O5 head if your going to add VHF into the mix. Your right VHF decks are not cheap these days. For a while they were pretty reasonable but everything went up in the last couple years. I've seen some APX decks for the cost of the XTL.
That is what I was reading. They are on ebay for about $500. I read somewhere that some SS (special services) had motorola configure a dual brick with the 05s. Not sure but my buddy whom I bought the radio it is an S split,using modded cps to get it in the "q" split without the "out of band" message. Said not to stress about it, that he's help me when it comes time... Sooo cryptic. Long story short. Told me to run an extra power cable and canbus cable as he handed me the new cables. So we shall see.
Good news is I found an antenna that might work well with GMRS and 70cm UHF p25. This too is a we shall see. Since the spread is about 38+- mhz. From one end of the band to the other end of the band. Which is huge to cover short of using a 1/4 wave with high swr on the edges.
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On 2/23/2023 at 11:32 AM, tweiss3 said:
Yea, I don't understand how the VHF stuff is so expensive all of a sudden. I just picked up an XTVA with the HHCH for an absolute song to play with, since I have a XTS5000 in UHF, and wanted to see if I could get a VHF and about choked at the prices.
Yup, unfortunately most of the XTVA I was looking at were also missing the amp. I could find the amps for uhf, but they were damn near the cost of the XTS. Friend suggested just looking for a mobile Telewave amp since the Moto one was a Telewave to begin with (take with a grain of salt, I might have been having another stroke during the conversation.)
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It begins. Replacing the CDM1250 for this beauty of a XTL5k...
Gotta get it installed.. Now to figure if I really want a VHF brick to dual brick it or run a second O5 head in the rear of the truck with a hangup set to get cool points.
Just too bad even mid power VHF bricks, and the DTMF mic (standard doesn't fit well in my hands) are silly priced right now.
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No firmware crack is available that I know of.
The sister amateur radio I know people have been able to unlock, not a gigantic amount of information out there on how.
The firmware is the main difference between the two radios.
There is really no point to open tx the radio. Since the kg1000g has the ability to listen to ham bands it is tx locked on those frequencies. -
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Only currently on gmrs repeaters.
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You don't need to mars/cap to listen. The radio just needs to be wide receive capable.Thank you all. I looked at the anytone 878uv as an option. Part of me hoped the 50 watt kg-1000g could be unlocked but that's from my old habits of thinking more wattage is better.
I like to monitor marine bands but not talk since I'm not licensed and this radio wouldn't be in a boat.
I will likely get my ham license one day but plan to monitor for now to see if it's something I want to get into.
I like the idea of the Kenwood and Motorola mobiles but programming sounds tricky and even getting the programming software seems challenging.
I'll have to look more into the Mars/Cap thing since this is all new to me but I'm hoping to monitor more frequencies and transmit on GMRS.
Thanks for the help!
Maybe a $20 sdr from Amazon and a long wire might be something to look at for receive.
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Signal stalk tuning.
in Amateur Radio (Ham)
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