kidphc

Tech is super easy. Just study and take the practice exams. BTW, most just study for the general at the same time. Lots of cross over material. I wish I had done that.

I would use one if I could find a good one for a price. Most places sell garbage step bits, you know chinese ones unless you spend some big bucks.

Now I wish I had known about that.

Do not use the 3/4 traditional bit. It is probably for wood. It will walk and not produce a clean hole. Right tool for the job always. Btw, a professional will charge you about $200 for the job. Secondly, yes move the roof rack a bit. Any metal around the loading coil will mess up the pattern and cause other reception issues. Best to drop the headliner at least in the area you will be working. That is the only way to confirm cross member supports interference issues. Measure 4 times then start. SLOW, SLOW this is not a race and patching up a hole on the roof ain't easy. The job is easy though. I do recommend a center punch so the bit doesn't walk till the circle part of the bit is at least partially bitten through. Then clean up the edges of inside of the circle with sand paper or a step bit (be careful this can bite to hard and cause a world of headaches). Tape up the drill area with painter tape, Feel for the center punch mark and guide the tip to the punch. Then go slow. The tape minimizing chipping during the drilling process around the edge of the drill bit. Make sure the drill is perpendicular to the roof and not at any angles. You probably are going to want a use a step ladder to get above the work area without distorting the roof sheet metal. There are two NMO size standard 3/4 and 5/8. I had a 3/4 NMO and 3/4 antenna. I ended up buying a Milwaukee 3/8 pilot bit and 3/4(19mm) hole saw. About $30 at HD. I don't really like the hole saw a lot. So I can't recommend it. After you drill put you figure through the hole and feel the edges, inside, top and bottom. Clean it up as much as you can if you feel a bur or draw blood. I put a dab of 100% silicone grease on o-rings. First to keep the o-rings from shifting as I tighten up things, Second to get a good seal. It's not necessary, especially if you clean up the area. Which you should do before you place the NMO in. Just a small flake of metal can shred the o-rings. Have you ever thought about an NMO fold over antenna. They fold (manually) over so you can get clearance. In your case maybe enough to be hidden by the side roof rack bars and be save because of the height of the cross bars. Unless you have low profile cross bars.

Crap must of miss read it.

No, the PL tone is a filter. If you have it enabled you will only hear people with the PL tone enabled. Everyone else will still hear both sides fine. The repeater will ignore any inputs without the PL tone. You will hear it fine. However, using it will defeat having squelch enabled. Think of it as a sql filter. The radio won't open unless it breaks the sql level or matches the tone. So when listening to a repeater you can use either.

Although, not the most optimal location, close to the other options short of drilling. If you can keep the coil of the antenna above and away from metal you should be good. Here is some reading on placements of antennas. Some more. Yes I know it is for a CB and a Jeep. It is just to help understand the type of directionality you get with the pattern. http://www.mvaranet.org/uploads/2/7/2/2/27221859/1422988925.png

At least the equipment aren't absolutely essential. When I had pieced my dream virtual JKU I had looked at Cooltech mounts. There was another mount that bolted onto the door hinges, might have been a hi lift mount, to mod into an antenna mount. I of course printed out the list paper and deleted the file, when I saw how much it would cost. My wife asked me what I was doing, I told her burning up a dream. Over the course, I learned if mobile radio is a compromise, then on the JKU or its relatives it was a bigger compromise.

They are simple L brackets. You can mount an NMO to it like it was a roof. You just want to waterproof the under side. Here is a thread on a guy making his own. https://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/threads/two-way-radio-antenna-mount.38065/ Funny enough they are just ditch light brackets modded and labelled as antenna mounts. https://www.gtv-van.com/en/hoodline-light-pod-antenna-mount-ford-transit.html If you want easy just get a Comet or Diamond mount similar to Marc. Just make sure there is enough gap between the fender and hood before you slam it shut. Jeeps generally have a lot more slop to play with. For god sakes the hoods are still cinched tight with the elastic ties. Does your wife use the GMRS radio often? If not then you could take off the antenna and store it. Putting a $6 NMO cap on it.

I was talking about a mount like the following. All mounts as far as mobile (hell even base stations) for the most part are all compromises. It is what you can live with when it comes to compromises.

Wouldn't a torrid or a choke help with the common mode rf energy riding the wiper/defogger wiring? I know mostly they are used to stop noise. Just wondering if they would help any.

Another option but gives up some ground plane (thus giving some weird patterns) is to use a lip mount on the trunk or a mount that bolts into the hood hinge. Then you could cram a 1/2 wave on it. Unfortunately, all the options will kinda interfere with drywall on the roof.

When you pull the antenna off, hopefully it was an NMO mount. Then swap the antenna double check the connectors on the mount and the antenna as well as the coax out of the mount. Correct any corrosion and potential issues. There are a lot of losses associated with VHF set ups. Any issues with the cable or mounts will cause problems such as degraded reception and transmission. One thing that was never mentioned is where is the current antenna mounted?

Here is the view from the roof rack level. The Nagoya UT72 (rear) has the loading coil in the base. Which I believe was contributing to the large amount of Picket fencing issues I was having. Note the Larsen (front) has the loading goin mid way up. I am hoping for less picket fencing and reception issues from the antenna due to the design differences.

I had done some SWR readings for a mag mount Nagoya UT72, Btech/Baofeng recommends for the GMRS radios. They do suggest using a proper NMO mount and another antenna. I am installing an Yaesu FTM400XDR and had picked up a Larsen/Pulse 2/70SH for use with that radio. So why not do a small review. I will continue adding to this review as I get more info. I will be getting the Larsen 2/70b in the future. Larsen Pulse 2/70 SH (link goes to dx engineering. Why, because Larsen's page is a bit of garbage) Vital stats: Mobile Antenna Band Frequency Coverage Range Vertical Antenna Gain Element Phasing (wavelength) 2 meters 144-148 MHz 2.1 dBi 1/2 70 centimeters 440-450 MHz 4.0 dBi 3/4 Larsen NMO mount Nothing special. Standard 3/4 drill through NMO. It was between this and the Laird NMO. Comes with 17 Feet of RG58. You will need to have a PL259 connector or N type fitting, with appropriate splicing gear. Here is a visual representation of the Larsen 2/70SH 1/4 NMO next to the Nagoya UT72 mag antenna. Notice how the Larsen (front) is a bit shorter looking. It is because of the way the NMO mounts versus the magnetic mount. It should be noted that a big CON of the Nagoya UT72 is you can not simply swap out the antenna on it. The connection of the base the location of the loading coil all cause it to be a real pain to find something else. If you go with a magnetic mount make sure it is an NMO style magnetic mount, so you can swap antennas out. Keep in mind the Nagoya UT72 is about $26 where a decent magnetic NMO without antenna is usally twice that price.

One of the many branches that is the store, it basically is one huge storage rooms setup as a maze .

When you walk in

Got to go to RF Connection in Gaithersburg, MD. Little Ham dungeon, been open since 1984. The owner is a fellow ham K3TKJ, been licensed since 1962. Highly recommend this small business. Was able to get 100' of LMR400, Splicing tools (same one as DX Enginner) and 4 PL259 connectors for $172 including the tax. The LMR400 was about 69.00 which was a steal. Since, usually he has it advertised for a $90. I jokingly referred to the place to a friends as a HAM Dungeon.

Hence, why everyone asks if Marc's house looks like a porcupine from all the antennas. Long wire Will solve a lot of problems. End feds lot of people run multiples to get resonance on multiple bands. Concentrate on the bands you will use most often, say 20m and 40m. For a tech worry about 15m,10m, 6m and 2m. You can always add antennas. I was looking at the Dxcommander antennas, this one in particular. I could build one close to the price, I however I like, his ingenious way of mounting the multiple antennas and feeding them. Plus I would spend double the price designing the same pieces.

FT991a can tune 3:1, otherwise it will shut down. A good external tuner is something you are going to want for any antenna, just to protect the radio. This is irregardless of what radio you plan on using. Personally, I have been looking at verticals. I need a portable style antenna because of the HOA. Most verticals are going to need radials, so you are going to bury wires or have them all over the lawn. Even certain portables can be permanent mounted. A Hustler 5BT/6BT are going to perform their best when on a mast or tower. Even a zero-five flagpole is going need to radials since it is essentially a 1/4 vertical stuffed inside of a flagpole (they suggested a remote ATU). The greyline flagpole (don't buy one) is suppose to be designed with no radials still is going to want a remote ATU. You should start seeing a trend. The idea of a fan dipole is to have 1/2 resonant antenna for each band with a common feed point. With endfeds you are going to want to do some matching then a tuner. You have options though https://www.qsl.net/va3iul/Antenna/Wire%20Antennas%20for%20Ham%20Radio/Wire_antennas_for_ham_radio.htm . Get the aspirin out. There is always a mag loop, cons are cost and the bands, no 60m/80m unless you home brew. The other notes that should be made when DX most are going to be horizontally polarized versus vertical polarized antennas. Which will make them a bit deaf comparatively. Doesn't matter if you spend 20k on a radio, if the antenna system is no good you won't hear or worse you will have good ears but no one will hear you. The sucky thing about CW is it the lower part of the bands. So you have to measure for the longest antenna length given for that band. I never understood the whole love for the G5RV, I can see a whole mess of designs that are better.

Try lowering the wattage on the HT and make some repeater contacts. The repeater is doing most of the work, so that is awesome for you. For simplex, communication a good base antenna and a radio with about 50 watts opens things up. The IC7300 is an awesome HF rig. If you plan on dwelling in the land of HF it will be a better rig. It's a bit more sensitive the the FT991a. Comes down to superhet versus SDR radio. Remember, jack of all trades master of none adage it applies here also. If you plan on doing 2m simplex as well as SSB (with a different antenna setup) the IC 7300 can do it. You'll need a transverter to accomplish this. Which isn't really simple as buy this and plug it in. It's close but can be rough depending on the route you go. Added: CONGRATS ON THE CONTACTS!!!!

The bold section is the key point. You are probably opening the repeater. 1. Re-verify tones and offsets. (which sound like they are set right) https://repeaterbook.com/repeaters/map/map.php?maptype=standard&state_id=08|Colorado&band=14&freq=&band6=&loc=%&call=%&status_id=%&features=&use=% 2. Get a second radio,to monitor or a cheap SDR receiver setup (monitor repeater output) OR The simplest, throw your call sign out with a short message on the repeaters every so often. If someone answers you have your answer. Another thing to think about if you are going to use CW a lot is to get a CW weighted vanity call sign. It will allow you to choose a call sign to apply for that is easier when using CW. https://fistsna.org/callweight.php There is also an option in the FCC ULS when applying for vanities to apply a CW weight to selections. You actually are in hotbed of potential HAM activity due to all the parks. You actually have quite a few repeaters, try programming them and just set the radio to scan. BTW, there is a big difference with an HT (even with a 42" Abree antenna), a 1/4 mag mount attached to a car roof connected to your HT, and a base station antenna llike a Diamond X300. A lot of it has to do with height but the ground plane also makes a big difference. Here is a fun project, make a tape measure yagi, connect it to the HT. Start pointing it at the repeater general locations and try again from the roof. Chances are the repeaters are on top of the mountains, Worst case you spent $10 and now have a yagi you can use for Fox hunts and satellite work (Which I think you'll need a new HT since the downlink is 70cm, might be able to repurpose some GMRS gear for receive only for that ).

Those things are frowned up. There are gun laws, drug laws and laws in general that are broken by people all day long. You'll learn where to stay away from and again just adopt the mentality of " spin the vfo". You can't unfortunately, change other people only yourself. You can make some awesome friends on HF even if it is only for a few minutes. Don't let those type of things discourage you. Your are going to see the same issues with any hobby, group of people or the likes. To loosely quote the Simpsons "like people some of them are just jerks". Just the nature of things. You are going to find the chill, the angry, the elitist, the lazy, it's just life. You'll find them all. Makes life interesting! Here is another CW study tool. http://www.g4fon.net/

You'll get there. It's not an overnight skill. Keep trying and one day you'll be like this guy with a straight key.