kidphc

Would love to test with that stuff. Alas too poor and will have to test with what you said not to a $100 antenna analyzer. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I kinda try to get my lowest mid-band. Then take acceptable if the band edges are 1.7 or so. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Trick question. 1. Yes, aluminum will work for a ground plane, like when using a drill through nmo. Many antennas are made with aluminum. 2. No, it will not work with a mag mount. Aluminum is non-ferrous, so a magnet will not stick to it or make capitance with it. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

APXs are very well worth the money if you can afford them. Especially, if you are looking at the 8k series. Since you can get them in Tri-Band. My interim till I start gathering funds again, currently jobless. Is the Harris xg series, yes older but cheaper, then buying an xts/xtl 5k in uhf/vhf and 800. The 100p (portable) was like 600 and my 100m all together was 450 (more now). When it comes to accessories (wires,connectors) I generally will buy generic, but some accesories like mics I usually go with oem. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Now you know why amateur radio guys say trim less than you need. Then tune tiny bits to find a balance with something like a nano vna. We have tons, usually a stack of antennas whips that were trimmed too much. Can you get a replacement whip? Sometimes it's less than 1/8" between "oh that works well" and "shit". Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Yup love "nuisance" button on most lmr radios. Power off back on and it's added back to the scan list. I wish my amateur radios did that. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Off topic, but need to start with the media. Everything semi, full auto, belt fed, etc is an assault rifle, as long as it's black and has a pistol grip. Point being, if we do nothing we lose what we have. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I get that. Around here marijuana is legal. Although, it was never legalized federally. Which happens to have a seat in a city that legalized it...lol Same crap happens with guns here in Montgomery County, MD. Things that were straight up deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in NY are put into law in the county i live in. But then again I am use to the people here calling in because there was an assault rifle on the hood of a jeep. No amount of explaining that it was a jack was going to make it pass the air around her head. Felt bad for the guy as had to pull the jack off his hood to defuse the situation. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Not sure if Marc answered the question that you were asking. He did but the question might have been different. Marc mentioned multiple tones earlier Many of the repeaters in this area have multiple tones. One is kinda a psedu repeater owner tone. That if you have enabled the tone he always listens to, it's his private tone. In our area, you really need to receive with no tone, or be at least able to turn the tone off (monitor). There are multiple repeaters across the area that are on the same pair. By listening for the squelch tail turning off and the recieve tones off/monitor, we are effectively able to cross repeater talk. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

It is and you will learn just how good of a site it is. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Simple way is to leave a radio on the input frequency that you have chosen then let it run for 12hours. Same on the output. If nothing heard. Of course with low to no squelch and no tones. Then you should be good to go, assured that you probably aren't interfering, but it is hard to say with so many private repeaters. Just remeber enabling tones just has it so the repeater won't open unless the the tone matches. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I always try to explain antennas as a dipole. You have one end that radiates and the other as being the reflector. With mobiles you snip the reflector portion off, and need the ground plane. When you increase gain or remove the ground plane you add more compromises. So of it can be good ( like gain, which everyone see as benefit, but neglect pattern a lot of time) and some of it bad (introduces things you have to make up for). Think of antennas as a slide bar, you take from one end to gain something but lose something in return. BTW, love your explanation. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

All antennas require a ground plane. It's the other half of the antenna in a mobile enviromment. It's the counterpoise for the element. To answer your question. Yes, a no ground plane antenna will work better in the situation you describe, were there is not much metal underneath to work with as a ground plane. It works even better with an adequate ground plane. Most no ground plane antennas ended up using the coax as the counterpoise. Just can't beat the laws of physics. Doesn't matter if it is UHF or HF. But the difference might be minimal to not noticable. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

That's another reason why. Some radios aren't capable of going out of band for a number of reasons. Some basically aren't mars/cap mod capable. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

For me dual band a is for repeater scanning, band b is for aprs. So my radio logic, said I needed a dedicated xtl for gmrs and p25..lol... well that will change when my lazy ass puts the xg100m in so I can have p25 uhf/vhf and gmrs on another radio without having to dual brick dual face the xtl. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Missed it was a mobile. You are correct about the options. Was just a suggestion. Because it sounds like he was tired of the china experience of programming. I get the m cps is a pain to learn. For cheap and easy the db20g on mobile is hard to beat. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Shrug. I know om my gmrs v1 from baofeng. The firmware allowed me to change the frs memory slots. But I couldn't change the power on those memory slots (stuck in low). Personally, I would say box the radios up and return them. Get something else that might be inline more with your customization wants. Maybe a motorola xts? Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Have you looked at hamfest for a large cavity style? You might be able to get them to tune for you as well. They should also be able to fit into your price range. May even perform better then you expect. The cheap chinsese ones are the only ones I have seen for cheap. But often barely provides enough isolation. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Should note: highly recommend a mag mount mobile antenna. Even with a handset it works well (cavet, your experience will vary). Well much better than ht inside of a car with the rubber duck antenna. It is also why we recommend sma to bnc adapters for the ht and bnc to so239 for the antenna. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Much better. Remember UHF is line of sight. So the higher the antenna the better it will work (see). Power comes into play to overcome distance and obstructions (like leaves and trees). Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Nor sure about chirp. But a video I was watching on the rt86 using retvis software clearly has a decode and encode field. It's only 16 channels and was design for business use. So be careful with settings like frequency hop and encryption, both are not allowed on frs/gmrs of course. Don't really like that the each frequency has to be set manually. Not a problem for me but I can see new users running to problems by simply fat fingering. Since you have the cable try the stock retvis software. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Repeater outputs are the simplex frequencies Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Nah. You got to say that as well. Jk more of a better way to pronounce it. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Lol.. it's po (poh) fung It's the same company always has been. It was slight different productions. Due to how the Chinese characters were interperted. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Does it sound ok when sitting still? Can be a combination of things. 1. crap mics 2. Radios are set to narrow band on the channel (fairly often cause what you describe, being underwater). It will mostly sound like it is undermodulatrd and muffled. Especially, if one radio is set to wideband and the rx radio is set to narrowband. 3. Picket fencing (not likely). The radio signal partially blocked from one radio to another. Sounds like the audio is skipping. Keep in mind the antennas aren't static. Due to them wagging in the wind (the longer they are the worse they can get) can cause other issues. But if it is muddled audio between two mobile radios close to each other, might bet is 1 or both radios are set to narrow band. Frs channels are narrow band by default and can't be changed. Verify on both radios are set to wide band on the particular frequency. Use the repeater out put channels and jack the power to mid levels and see if things improve. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk