OffRoaderX

I cant put my finger on it, but you sound very familiar and I think I like you.

Yes.. Many repeater owners list their repeater then vanish.. Many also specify that it is an open repeater or that anyone can use it and dont bother replying.. If the tones are listed you can usually start using the repeater and ask for permission over the air, or just use it and wait until someone asks you to stop using it..

I haven't compared the two, but they are probably 98% the same, if not more. To see if it's compatible with CHIRP, read the words on the CHIRP compatibility page, here: https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Supported_Radios

I've tested this 100-ways to Sunday.. and even Monday.. My results show that it might help.. a little.. maybe?.. on some radios.. I think? Basically, any improvement was so slight, i wasn't even sure if it was an improvement or just my very vivid imagination, and it certainly wasn't worth risking my reputation by looking dumb walking around with a piece of wire wagging from my radio. It should be noted that it almost always did show an improvement in SWR on my meter - but, a slightly lower SWR does not necessarily mean more farz

and for deconfuckulation: You will experience zero noticeable degradation in performance if you roll-up the extra few feet of cable and tuck it away somewhere, vs shortening it, in-despite of what "some people" will try to tell you.

Yes. You have to pay extra but it's worth it.

99.9999998% of the time, NO...

More lies perpetrated by the Sad-H.A.M. cartels.

Yes. Make sure it has good airflow.

Warning: Do NOT listen to the "experts" that love to spend your money - for occasional tuning/testing of your antenna you do NOT NEED a $500+ SWR meter. Normal people use inexpensive meters like the Surecom SW-33 or SW-102, and they work just fine. If you plan on testing/tuning antennas professionally or as some kind of a hobby, then by all means get one that costs much more and is *slightly* more accurate.

Midland MXTA26

Unless you are trying to bounce your signal off the moon, just mount your antenna in the best spot you can, as high as you can get it, and it will work fine for for highway/trail comms. My antenna is mounted above the rear tail-light/rear fender of my jeep, below the roofline, where many "experts" warned me it "will not work". and while it certainly does not work as well as it could, it works just fine. I can hit a repeater with it at 92 miles and regularly get 20+ miles on simplex and have never had issues on the trail where i could not hear someone that others could, or they could not hear me. My two words of advice are: 1) ignore the 'experts' B ) - dont over-think it.

I'm not sure why, but, I think I like this guy.

I guess i'm going to jail.. along with the thousands of other business/LMR users in my area. But @Radioguy7268 is correct -there is a rule and I stood corrected.

"Skip" means that if you enabled scanning on your radio those channels will be "skipped" during the scan. As to why it's there or who put it there: Nobody can answer that, and it does not matter

I was also going to suggest a Business (LMR) license - If you pay a service to do the application for you it is actually a very simple process and most only charge a couple hundred $$ - I just go my own LMR/Business license and 5 authorized frequencies from a place called Kemp Wireless in Oregon (yes, I paid full price) - I all needed was a credit card, 15-minutes on the phone with them, and I had to sign one form. But many radio-resellers can do it for you. With the Business/LMR license, you just use the radios on your assigned frequency(s) - no need for callsigns or anything.

Speak for yourself.

Fixed that for you.

As Mr. @Sshannon already said, NO .

Yah, that's the problem.. Right there...

I've been declared a shill and I dont even say that!

Are you sure it is channels 1-7 not working? By design and per FCCs rules, the KG-1000G will not transmit on channels 8-14. Does yours transmit on 8-14? Does it transmit on channels 15-22?

How many different times are you going to ask this same question?

Yes, i have ideas all the time.

Indeed it is - i have burned out a couple of them even though i was transmitting well below the rated wattage.