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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.

Everyone I have met has been cool you are trying to learn CW. Some are bitter that they had to struggle with it to simply get a "Novice". I would just spin the dial and find some one else. Sometimes, even posting to a forum asking about a practice partner for "slow CW" will net some one to chat with via CW. Once you learn it you need to use it or you will lose it shortly. I have been using this smartphone app "morse toad" . Rather then learning the dit/dashes that correspond to a letter, listen to the tone patterns in your head and do a copy. A ham in my neighborhood (doesn't live here, travels a lot and is using his friend's address) pretty much is strictly CW. If you are musically inclined he said he has seen new user have an easier time with it. Instead of going ".-." equals R in your head and write it down. He said you should try and train so ".-." sound is trained in your head as "R". It is hard to explain in text. You kinda will understand what I am trying to say, if you speak a second language where you are trying to translate the foreign word in your head to your native language, is what you want to avoid. Instead you want to be able to see and apple and instantly translate into apple in any\ language. VIDEO OF WHAT I WAS TRYING TO EXPLAIN. Also, I have this as a visual reference. It may help you also.

This is true, Alexandria 675 is hidden. It is very much in use. I actually posted bitching about not knowing which repeater was in use. Till I found the setting. It is very much alive. Maybe a setting to say when the repeater was last heard to keep a repeater that is alive showing on the map. I found it hard to contact the repeater owner, not sure if it traded hand or the e-mail went into oblivion.

Maybe double billed you?

I h was and some will set up a hf rig on the car and run the coax from the base rig to the antenna on the car. With the same thought. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

You are probably wondering what a split is. Simply put Input and receive are on 2 different frequencies. Kinda like a repeater pair. On the FT991a you can manually program a repeater by using the split feature and then saving it. Nice thing about the radio is if you are a frequency range that is usually used for repeaters it will input the +- split for you. You just need to choose +- or the rep button to enable Some time on HF, the other side will want to split for whatever ever reason.. QRM (interference) or adjacent frequency spacing.due to local users.

RT systems is basically is just programming software much like CHIRP. DO NOT use CHIRP for a Yaesu radio, it has been known to brick the radio. Even Yaesu basically points to RT Sytems. You don't need it, just easier to download repeaters from Repeater Book from inside RT Systems then upload to the radio. There are only 99 memory slots that you can program. To do memory scans or quick recall. You can not use RT systems to do quick on the fly changes, Rt-systems require you to perform a reboot of the radio after programming. HRD has it's own memory slots so you can utilize that function. Download the trial AFTER you get your radio setup. You can download a trial key which is good for 30 days. As far as VFO (Variable Frequency Oscillator), it only has one. The second VFO "B" is so you can do splits and kinda does a software flop between the frequencies. Unlike a Baofeng that lets you listen to two independent VFO's. The radio itself can get frustrating till you get use to it. If you can get a member of your local club to help, you'll have an easier time with it. It is a lot to take in.

Awesome.!!! If you get the FT991a. A)Read the manual.. It is a really menu driven radio, and it sucks sometimes. To bury down menus to adjust sql and stuff, instead of just hitting a button then adjusting. B)Get RT system download, really just need an old school printer usb cable to utilize cat control and program. Keep in mind, two big downfall of the radio. 1.) 99 memory slots 2.) no true vfo B... Otherwise, I have been loving mine. I am waiting on the SDRPlay RSP1a to see if HRD will let me trying and control the radio through the Panadapter. I heard some week signals on the SDR that the FT991a couldn't hear.

It is slowly, very slowly coming together...

Wife had ordered one. I told her cancel that order. I couldn't find any information on how to scan a band unless the frequency was in memory. Can you do that even?

Sure. It is cheaper to home brew. Just no where on my lot to put it up.

You have all the awesome toys!!

You are going to look like a porcupine, just try to get over it fast. If you are lucky enough to get a tower and some verticals. In my land the Sauron (HOA) has eyes on all. I'm not allowed any antennas outside of satellite dish. Even then it has to be hidden. I have no trees on the back side of the house and the house is viewable from the street on all sides FML My psedo elmer gave me this article to ponder. He also advised against attic installs, he had it once and was un happy. Guess where all mine are going even with that said. Early plans are 40m,20m,10m,6m home brew fan dipole (the 40m will be in a ramsay configuration) with commercial balun. Diamond x50 or x300 (depends on how much space I have left over from the fan dipole). and a M2 stacked halo for 2m ssb. http://k3rrr.com/wire-antennas-287-different-wire-antennas-to-choose-from/ I hope to add either a scorpion screwdriver home setup or crank ir in a couple of years. If you have trees on your lot in the back. Go for a fan dipole in the trees or long wire. The tree that is circled decided to rest on my neighbors house so it is gone now. Current Progress of setup