gman1971

Thanks. Happy new year to you too!

LOL, cigar box... Cavities seem to work well for repeater operation, but not for general purpose b/c as you said, they require tuning... Might be worth just on the RX side for the stuff, on the 467 side, since the stuff that listens would be portables with a small portable antenna, which seems to be more forgiving than a high gain base antenna... G.

Wow, that is small indeed. Insertion loss is rather low considering it provides 70+ dB attenuation for out of band signals.. Yeah, I will be calling tomorrow to see how much for a GMRS filter. Wondering if I should get one just for the 467 or the 462? or one for each? Since there is a whole 5 mhz of noise making RF spectrum between the GMRS frequencies. G.

I recommissioned an old rusted TRAM antenna using Deoxit and by purchasing a thin PVC pipe/cap that was used as a sleeve/radome for the entire antenna, so nothing in the antenna is exposed now. (required a slight tuning adjustment to account for the radome velocity factor) but never had any issues with that antenna ever again. Tape and all that other stuff is just a mess that can, and will fail over time, plus it looks really cheap. A PVC pipe covering the antenna will require a hurricane to damage and will look like a professionally made antenna.... For exposed UHF connectors I used to use STUF dielectric grease. Unfortunately, UHF(SO239/PL259) connectors only seem viable if you live in the desert, in my case all those developed a lot of corrosion in WI weather, and now I am all about N connectors, the connection section is sealed both ways, and I went with either made out of tri-metal or silver plated... which seem to hold up on rough weather way better than the cheap nickel plated stuff (which given my current RFI situation, those are PIM generators too) G.

Wow, those look super nice. Thank you, Jones! Looks like those could be the answer for a mobile environment too!! G.

Location... lol... the location aint bad, that is why the put the darn tower here... hahaha... I've considered moving out of here at some point, but since we just moved in 3 years ago, looks like I might be stuck for a couple more years at the very least... and moving will require more like moving half state away... b/c the tower is still visible line of sight from 30 miles away. I can see its red beacons 30 miles when coming from Milwaukee... Oh well. G.

Like WRAF stated. No type acceptance, don't use it. That thing Is on CCR class on its own, with too much power, spurious emissions off the charts... and a piss poor receiver. Its classified as an UCCR (or Ultra Cheap Chinese Radio) Just like VHF, UHF, etc you have CCR, VCCR, UCCR, RSCCR, etc... you get the idea. Don't use those on high power near valuable electronics, like monitors, as it will damage them. Don't ask me how I know. Oh, and the neighbor's Superbowl game might (or might not) catch all kinds of static/digital artifacts when you operate that thing nearby with a giant antenna... G.

Ouch, sorry to hear. Kenwood sounds like a good option then. I would look into Motorola gear too and Icom could be another option. As for Vertex Standard, they used to be Yaesu before they were acquired by Moto, but Moto took the LMR division Vertex Standard and gave up the Ham radio division, Yaesu, which is not a part of Motorola, nor shares anything with them. Vertex Standard is no more. G.

Alinco radios are CCRs, made by Anytone... so avoid those. My recommendation would be to get a Vertex Standard VX-5500, the 450-490 MHz model. That radio has a very tight receiver and its a phenomenal radio. G.

I would go with a Vertex VX-2200 and avoid the Baofeng CCR. G.

That is a new level of misrepresentation.... who knew...

Welcome! G.

Anytone, some of their latest stuff is certainly better, but TYT (and their clones), in my experience, they are the worst of the CCRs, even crappier than the UV5R, their front ends lacks of any filtering and just desenses. G.

Yup, I live less than 2 miles away from that tower, and the VHF side is nothing to sneeze at either.... welcome to the jungle...

These are not the droids you're looking for...

LMAO, Marc, less polite? not really, still pretty nice response.... and the 5 cent version? What about the nickel version? is a nickel 10 cents? G.

That is most unfortunate to hear, so therefore these should also be added in the CCR category and avoided as well. I think Motorola (Vertex Standard), Icom and Kenwood are probably the only few brands I would consider at this point. In the end, buying a nice EVX-539 with dotmatrix display UHF G7 model will save you a lot of trouble in the long run, plus those radios are pretty well built and will survive pretty much anything you throw at them. But that is just me. G.

I had no idea Midland was made in China... so if that is the case then perhaps it falls in the EVX category? Designed in another country and built in China? Or are Midland radios just rebadged TYT stuff? G.

Yes, however, I suspect that a lot of the cheap radios used for GMRS are not even type accepted, and they put out spurious RFI emissions off the charts. For example, I can hear my cheapie GD77ss like 1000 channels away when operating on DMR.... now you crank the power of that CCR with one of those CCPA (cheap Chinese power amplifier) like the BTech one, up to 50W, and now you have spurious RFI crap and IMD all over the band. I have a similar situation (not caused by 50W CCR, but kilowatt TV stations and whatever crap is on the giant tower) and I am certainly not a happy camper... but I've taken extensive measures with cavities and LNAs to get the situation somewhat under control. While its not as good as a remote location with little RFI, or noise, but its certainly better than 3 miles on receive with a triple collinear 5/8 over 5/8, when I know that antenna was easily capable of 20+ before... Again, its also about using the proper equipment, and unfortunately for us, licensed operators, not everybody cares, and the CCRs, for all their virtues to help people get in the hobby, they also have a lot of downsides. Most new folks (like I did) just want the darn thing to work reliable as a cellphone, and when they can't reach 5 miles with 50W they immediately assume they need to run 500W, or more power until the dang thing works (or smokes). Radio range, as explained by marcspaz is not about more power, is about location, antenna and feedline + filtering. G.

Maybe it should be we, the users, who propose the rules. Manufacturers usually don't care about anything else but revenue... G.

My EVX-5300 radios are made in China and branded as Vertex Standard, I know these don't desense as bad as the CCRs do... so its just the C. part of the acronym what I think there should be some awareness. The Vertex Standard radios made in Japan seem, in paper at least, a lot better than the ones made in China. I haven't tinkered with Hytera radios and probably never will... Motorola radios AFAIK are made in Malaysia, not really China, but yeah... I understand the point. G.

Here it is... Madison Candelabra Tower... aka, RFI fire breathing from hell... http://www.sbe24.org/Techdocs/tower/candmar2017/candel-south.asp Yeah, CCRs don't hear squat near the tower... the better antenna you use, the worse the problem gets... Nearly all LMR400 is gone from my base setup (just one patch cable left). I run heliax 1/2 only. Nearly all my connectors are trimetal too... still a couple of UHF nickel plated, antenna and radio connector... I don't understand why Motorola went with the mini-UHF connectors... such a hassle to deal with those instead of N connectors. G. G.

Well, sure, these radios worked much better at our previous house, but since moving to this new house (near the giant antenna) these things aren't cutting it anymore and I never really knew why... That is why I felt cheated from those radios, once I started to get serious I realized I really threw my money away, as some of those radios I got for 40 dollars are now 9 and no option to ditch them... and then considering the fact that some of the commercial gear available is so cheap, it almost makes no sense to take the bait of the flashy screens, and bells and whistles when these lack in the most important aspect, the RF performance. I own a ton of CCRs myself, from cheap BF-888S for house intercom to DJ-MD5, GD77s, etc; yes, they work, and these are what got me back into radios... just don't expect much from those once you really want to reach far. G.

I understand that, and that is good, b/c living in this kind of area sucks for radio comms. G.

I used the wrong words, sorry. I usually call noise, wrongly, to anything that doesn't let me hear the signals I need. And Having a giant 1400 foot tall tower 2 miles away from my house, with 8 different TV stations, NOAA radios, police dispatch, and who knows what other fire breathing RFIs coming out of it... the cavities did indeed help with the receiver being swamped with garbage from all over the spectrum. G.