scottmckinney67

We're still tweaking. My antenna is approximately 27 feet off the ground. His around 15. He can hear me perfectly with very little noise. I can hear him legibly but with a good deal of noise. Going to raise his another 6 feet and verify the aim of my yagi, then probably call it a day with the GMRS setup. Nice thing is, we've found another GMRS buddy and can talk simplex so that's encouraging. We both hit him. We're getting tech licenses and will switch back to omni's on both sides and probably go VHF.

Little harsh... relax and be nice.

Update. Installed yagis on both ends. We can understand every word on every channel now. Next phase, raising both by 6 feet and make sure the aim from mine is good. I was actually out on the roof in my underwear re-aiming it just now haha. I did the map aim and drew a straight line but didn't have a vantage point for beyond my house, garage roof mount on existing dish antenna j mount with a piece of toprail that probably barely clears the apex of the main roof, and it may not, didn't get on main roof to look. I think I'm close to aimed but I don't think I can get much improvement with a little more height. Stay tuned

I've been using this for simple line of sight. https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ I like it. I'm sure the gmrs yagi is the way to go, I was just trying to save some time and money finding a dual band. The tram showed pretty low SWR for gmrs frequencies but the performance on gmrs is so so, I think. I did try to hit a standard uhf repeater in the area and was able to hit one about 25 miles away with it. If it stays sealed up, I think it's a keeper for a standard dual band omni.

I'll leave radio and compliance aside for now I was able to talk with the Tram and the little whip but I've since bought my son a pctel maxrad 5 element yagi that's resonant on gmrs. I used google maps, switched to satellite view and drew a line on the map between his house and mine. That was super helpful in getting it aimed. If someone knows an easier method, let me know. With that antenna, I was able to talk to my son almost all the way to my house with a baofeng hand held in my truck. That's more like it I went ahead and ordered another for my house and will aim them at each other and hopefully get good results. When I get some definitive results, I'll post them up for future reference. This is the antenna https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JSD5G2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It seems to be well made, welded elements and I like where the connection is compared to some others.

I hear ya. Good luck man.

I think the anytone dmr's now have it. Not cheap but not expensive for what they are, at least in my opinion. I assume they'd do ptt from a pc, but not sure. Then it's just remote desktop and you're done.

Do you know of a CCR that interfaces with a pc to do PTT? If so, remote desktop would get you what you need with no hassle. I have a retevis that does bluetooth PTT with android devices. I tried to run an android emulator on a PC and the android app wouldn't work right. Probably not much help, but figured Id throw it out there.

It can be a pain getting it to work initially, but worth it in my opinion. There are some nice tutorials on which cable to buy and how to get the driver loaded properly and then choose the com port. Good luck man.

My advice is to get the chirp software and a cable. Cables are cheap and the software's pretty easy to use.

I'd probably do one 10 foot section and call it a day. If you don't get the range you want, guy and another section of top rail. Good thing about top rail is you can just pop in another when you want with no hassle.

Here's the one I used. https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/

Cool stuff.

If it were my employee, I'd just get him the cheapest phone and plan available and call it a day. Good luck.