gman1971

Nope, no drilling -ever. But I have been searching under the hood near the windshield as suggested for an existing screw/bolt. There are one or two that might be a long-shot possibility. And there is room between the windshield and hood.

Nobody has asked the area where you live or where you plan to use the radio.
A properly designed and functioning Superheterodyne receiver circuit will out-perform a Direct Conversion (the typical inexpensive Radio on a Chip design) receiver in areas of high RF and competing signals. If you live out in the sticks, you would probably never notice the difference. A Direct Conversion receiver does tend to be a bit more sensitive - but isn't nearly as selective.
I'm a fan of using surplus Commercial Radios, but then again, I'm not spending your money. I've also got most of the software, and plenty of experience programming my own stuff. Most of the radios I use for GMRS cost me less than $50 - used.
Is Ed Fong still selling his antennas?  I haven't seen his stuff on Ebay since Covid hit.

To quote my teenage daughter: "What's a pager?" 
I used to see thousands of dollars in monthly income from paging companies.  Now I see zero.  I had an abandoned 900 MHz Glenayre cabinet for years that I kept around due to the 300 watt amplifier it had. Finally got a hammy to buy it for $75. Paging is dead. 

Hi there, those are the radio alignment parameters, and you'll need at least a signal generator for some, but the rest a service monitor will be required.
G.

Ditto. The only way I was thinking a lip mount was if there was a convenient existing bolt to use.

Do you have a screenshot of what kind of adjustments are available?
 

I would assume an EdFong antenna means some sort of base radio.
Superheterodyne can be poorly designed too, just be aware of that.
My recommendation for radio goes for the Vertex Standard VX-4207, which will not intermod, nor desense, and its part 95. @wayovertherehas experience using that radio. 
For antenna I would go with this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133810193897?epid=1941709490&hash=item1f27b585e9:g:Y5EAAOSwLCdgUyaI, which you can later upgrade to a 2-bay or 4-bay configuration for increased gain.
G.

Vertex Standard VX-4207.

Stico makes disguised antennas that mount underneath the molded bumper covers (either front or rear).  I've also done stuff for UHF where we just formed an angle bracket that used the license plate mount, and then ran a standard NMO off that. Works if the plate isn't recessed very far. Doesn't get the antenna up, but gets it out...
Just looking at the car, I'd be tempted to buy a replacement passenger side mirror, fab a mount for an NMO with a 6" hatpin into that mirror with some copper sheathing molded to the underside behind the mirror assembly for a ground plane - then run the coax down into the door and through the existing loom into the dash. Call it a day. Easy to return to stock when it's time, and should work well.

I ran this antenna for many years in a few specific vehicles. Its rated for 35 watts and works well as long as its in site. Don't stuff behind trim. Just 3M tape to the rear glass. 
https://www.amazon.com/Covert-SB450FME12-450-470mhz-Internal-Antenna/dp/B007JSDDFA
Mine was from Laird I think but doesn't come up on there site ant longer. Heck I may still have one in the parts box out in the barn. They made one for 800 that we used alot for volunteer fire chiefs when we were 800mhz. 
I would think this would work well for your application. 

Nice ride!!
Fiberglass is even worse than aluminum, at least aluminum is metal...  
G.
EDIT: Hope you are using Motorola APX radios in that ride... no excuse to buy a CCR... LOL

By the way, if you are planning on a super GMRS repeater, consider installing a JPS SNV-12 voter and two or three diversity antennas and receivers on site.

You can pick up 5 to 7 dB effective gain on the receive side this way.

Bear in mind, it is only practical for a single CTCSS tone unless you break out the tone path and use some transmission gates and logic to steer the tones to a community repeater panel. Your mileage may vary...

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

Hey folks.  I have had a small group of people ask me about tones and GMRS/FRS basics in the past week.  I figured I would take one of the conversations here and share it for people new to the service.  Hopefully it will help you understand Private Lines, Privacy Tones, sub-channels, tones and squelching methods, in general.  I am only covering the two most popular in GMRS and FRS, but there are many others available as you move into different radio services and technology. 
 
Before we get into what all that stuff is, lets talk about why it exists.  Per NOAA and the US Census Bureau, the lower 48 states is approximately 3.1 million square miles.  Also, 83% of Americans live on 10% of the total available square miles and 40% of all US citizens live on the east and west coast in counties touching oceans.
 
Following this logic, about 500,000+ licensed and unlicensed operators (estimated by me) are sharing FRS and GMRS radio space, in roughly 310,000 square miles.  So, how does 500,000 people in close proximity, sharing 22 channels, all use their radios at the same time without interfering with each other?  Motorola brings you PL tones!
 
Lets get this out of the way...  regardless of what the manufacturers may tell you or how they label their products, there is no privacy.  Period.  Private Lines (PL), Privacy Tones, Sub-channels and any other name for the same service, does not stop people from hearing you, it stops you from hearing them.  I know... seems like a day in Opposite World, but that's how it works. 
 
I suppose the first thing to do is explain what the PL tones really are, what the more common types are and what each of them do.  A traditional squelch is a signal level squelch.  Meaning, no audio will come out of the speaker until a strong enough signal is received.  Then there are also user squelch types.  With analog radios, the most common type of user squelch uses encoding called Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System or CTCSS.  This feature is defined as being used to reduce the annoyance of listening to other users on a shared two-way radio channel.  So, as mentioned above, its not that you as a person speaking have any type of privacy, but rather you don't have to listen to everyone on the same frequency.  Hopefully the third time is a charm.
 
Many GMRS and FRS radios only have simple CTCSS functions called Tone Squelch, often displayed as TSQL on the screen when enabled.  This means two things.  One is, regardless of what you do with your squelch knob or set your RF squelch to, no audio will come out of the speaker unless the tone you selected is embedded in the signal you are receiving.  The other thing it does is, when you transmit, what ever tone frequency you have programed gets transmitted with/in your signal to unlock or open the squelch of other radios configured the same way.
 
There is another method of CTCSS called "split tone".  This means that you can use one tone when you transmit and another for your receive.  This comes in handy when repeater owners are trying to limit who can access the repeater, as higher cost radios typically have split tone capability, compared to poorly built and inexpensive radios that would be problematic on a repeater do not.  Also, this makes it a bit more difficult to "discover" the input tone by using scanning tools.
 
Another function of split tone CTCSS is that you can also set your radio to transmit a tone to unlock a repeater or other radio, but leave your receive tone set to null (nothing).  When this mode is enabled, there is typically a display on the radio that either reads TN or TONE.  That means you can bring up a repeater or unlock a radio squelch, but also hear everyone else regardless of what tones they are running, if any at all.  This is actually a great feature for GMRS radios since Repeater Channels share FRS frequencies and GMRS simplex frequencies.  So you can tell if the frequency is in use as well as being able to talk to others who many not be using the repeater.
 
CTCSS is an analog squelching system.  There is also a digital squelching system called Digital-Code Squelch or DCS.  It has similar use cases as CTCSS, but it is sending digitally embedded numeric codes instead of a sub-audible tone.
 
I apologize in advance, but this next portion may get a little confusing.  If you have questions, just ask and myself or one of the other knowledgeable members will be able to help.  All of the numbers below are simply random samples I selected for example.  Last I checked, there are 38 standard tones and an additional 13 expanded tones (not available on every radio) for a total possible 51 tones and 83 DCS codes.
 
Along with the use examples above, you can get creative with DCS, because we are dealing with binary numbers instead of a tone.  You can have the numbers used in a bunch of different combinations.  For example, the number 411 in binary is 00110100 00110001 00110001.  The reverse of this would be 11001011 11001011 11001110.  So we are swapping the meaning of a 1 and a 0.  So the combinations could be as follows:
Normal-Normal = Transmit sends 411 and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in the standard format 00110100 00110001 00110001.
Reverse-Reverse = Transmit sends 411 reversed (or bit swapped) and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 reversed, meaning 11001011 11001011 11001110.
Normal-Reverse = Transmit sends 411 standard binary format and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in a reversed binary format.
Reverse-Normal = Transmit sends 411 in a reversed binary format and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in a standard format.
Unfortunately, I am unaware of any radio's that have a DCS option to leave your user squelch open while transmitting a DCS code.  If DCS is enabled, you cannot hear anyone else unless they are using the same DCS number and binary combination.
 
CTCSS tones can also be "reversed".  CTCSS tones, since its analog, we have a phase reversal, often called "reverse burst" when it is only reversed at the end of the transmission.  (Something to Google in your spare time.)
 
On some high-end radios, squelching can get really exotic.  You may be able to create your own custom tone instead of using one of the standard tones.  You may also be able to combine CTCSS tones and DCS codes.  For example:
User-CTCSS = Transmit 2600Hz tone, squelch opens with 2600Hz tone. (random number example)
T-DCS = Transmit 141.3 tone, squelch opens with 411 code.
DCS-T = Transmit 411 code, squelch opens with 141.3 tone.
T-rDCS = Transmit 141.3 tone, squelch opens with 411 bit swapped code.
rDCS-T = Transmit 411 bit swapped code, squelch opens with 141.3 tone.
 
Now, here is the kind of disappointing part.  Some manufactures try to make their equipment sound like something its not.  They will use things like there own custom number code to identify a traditional CTCSS code.  For example, Midland uses code number 22 (also known as a sub-channel) to indicate the tone 141.3.  This makes coordination on tone selection a bit cumbersome between some brands.  It also means that if your radio doesn't display the actual CTCSS tone or DCS code, you need to keep your owner's manual handy for reference. 
 
So... I don't know if that explanation made things better or worse.  LOL  Anyway, some companies use verbiage like "Privacy Tones" which adds to the confusion for some people.  If you are using a true full CTCSS, it just means you are limited to whom you can hear, but everyone can still hear you.
 
The examples I provided above for DCS are not what actually gets transmitted, but rather a conceptual process to help understand at a very basic level of what occurs, simply to understand the difference.  DCS adds a 134.4 bps bitstream to the transmitted audio. To move past concept to the weeds, this video does a great job.

Glad I could help,
Yes, you probably don't want to run the anaconda heliax to the radio. Sorry for leaving this important bit out... what I do is run the Heliax up to the main ground plate, where all the N bulkhead connectors are (this plate is usually grounded), and on the other side of the bulkhead N connector I run short 4-feet patch cables of RG-400 with silver N-connectors to the filters, and then another 3-4 feet RG-400 from the filters to the radio/repeater.
G.

Lower loss will require a larger duplexer. Most same size duplexers have about the same loss, in theory, that is
The Fumei at 1.5dB sounds about right for a small mobile duplexer.
I think the Fumei will be okay for now. (yes I said that!) 1.5 dB loss is not really much loss at all.
If more range is desired, raising the antenna 10 feet would have more profound impact in range than swapping duplexer.
G.

What does “duty cycle” mean?
 
I bring up duty cycle every time I hear somebody talking about making a repeater out of cheap Chinese mobiles and worse any type of handhelds. Duty cycle is the maximum time an amplifier may transmit within a five minute interval, expressed as a percentage, to avoid overheating. Suppose a mobile amplifier is rated at 30% duty cycle. This means that it may transmit for no longer than 1.5 minutes and must remain off for not less than 3.5 minutes. Some people forget that a repeater is transmitting for 2 or more people, duty cycle will be reached quickly if you get into conversation. More people in the conversation just amplifies the issue.
 
Once a radio reaches it's thermal design limits it will no longer be able to adequately cool the output transistors. Even if a radio is not hot to the touch the transistors are, in part because of the inefficient transfer of heat to the units housing or internal heat sink. The longer you exceed the duty cycle the more heat builds on the transistors, surrounding electronics and heat sink effecting it's ability to remain on frequency without spurious emissions. Exceed duty cycle long enough and you will need a new transmitter or radio.
 
I have tested a few Baofang and TYT radios on my service monitor without great results. All of the radios started deviating outside of the allotted channel bandwidth after simulated conversation at 50% duty cycle, the longer I allowed this the worse if got. Testing was done using an Aeroflex 2975 IFR recently back from the calibration lab. 
 
GMRS is a tiny sliver of spectrum surrounded by the commercial land mobile part 90 service. It is important that any repeaters that are built or re-purposed are held to the highest standards and operated as to not cause any interference inside or outside of our allocated spectrum. I wont get into the part 90/95 debate but i do stand firm that non certified import equipment has no place on GMRS. 

IIRC, one is based in China, the other is the US based division - As I understand it, all the hardware comes from the same child slave-labor camp in the China desert. But I do recall reading that the slave-labor camp is now more child-friendly and every new piece of hardware is made with 25% fewer beatings.
 
BTW - I do have an RT97 and its a great little box.

Thanks to everyone that replied and offered suggestions.
 
considering this thread closed

don't forget your jumper from TX to the duplexer has loss. If you use a cheap jumper I have seen some with almost another DB of loss. Did the duplexer get tuned for the channel you are using ? 
 

I could do that if you want to ship to the west coast. That is if they are equivalent to XPR-4xxx/5xxx/e mobiles. I have TDMA Trbo Autotune. Might be a bit pricey on shipping though right now. My newest Vertex are a handful of VX-3200's analog only, back when Motorola first bought the company. My 3920 does seem to clean up some of the Sunny Comm XPR4550's people buy in this area. (I like the XPR4550 over the XPR5550e as people get into the menu and mess things up on the XPR5550e. Great radio, but too easy for end users to change settings and then get lost in the menu tree.)

Could not agree more! 

Say what you want about dipole arrays being 'old school', but the reality is they work, and work well.  Very low angle of radiation (<10 degrees in most cases), last for years in the crappiest conditions and, none of the issues found in the cheap multi-section verticals, all of which as noted, eventually suffer from 'water ingestion'.

Few years is more like few months. They develop water ingestion and the foam inside soaks water so things corrode real fast. 
Verticals tend to shoot out with a vertical takeoff angle, so it will reach very far, but up on the clouds... instead of a gigantic (and usually ineffective) antenna, I would get this for UHF:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133927735178?epid=1941709490&hash=item1f2eb70f8a:g:yowAAOSwIytgUyhQ
G.

Few years is more like few months. They develop water ingestion and the foam inside soaks water so things corrode real fast. 
Verticals tend to shoot out with a vertical takeoff angle, so it will reach very far, but up on the clouds... instead of a gigantic (and usually ineffective) antenna, I would get this for UHF:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133927735178?epid=1941709490&hash=item1f2eb70f8a:g:yowAAOSwIytgUyhQ
G.

Sometimes is not that they ignore your calls, but because they have set some PL tones, your call won't even open their squelch.

Sometimes is not that they ignore your calls, but because they have set some PL tones, your call won't even open their squelch.