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.

Glad I could help. I had tried different things and was having trouble and when I plugged in our locations, the root problem became clear to me. Forums are my go to also

I'd start here https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ That should at least get you in the ball park to see if your antenna placement will be effective. I just went through a similar scenario and I had a hard time getting 3 miles simplex with my son. I ended up with a midland whip on a ground plane adapter kit in the attic.with LMR400 to my 40 watt mobile. I got my son a tram 1480 antenna outside about 20 feet high and we're able to talk, but some channels have lots of interference. We have 3 channels that are fine with a little bit of noise but no issues understanding every word. Good luck!

Ok. I installed a nagoya ground plane kit on my midland mobile 6db whip in the attic and ran 50 feet of LMR400. Installed a tram 1480 base antenna at my son's. It's approximately 22 feet off the ground, above his roof line, 50 feet LMR400. We can talk clearly on 3 GMRS channels. The others are very noisy. There is a noise floor on those three, but the voices are clear and legible. I was concerned about the Tram not being tuned for GMRS, but the SWR was low according to my cheap analyzer so I went for it. I'm glad I did, because this gets us talking and has him ready for amateur bands when we get our tech licenses. When we do, I'll swap the attic midland for a dual amateur band nmo mobile and we're all set. Also, I am able to hit some vhf and uhf repeaters in my area (within 10-15 miles) with my midland antenna on low power. I didn't try at his mom's but I suspect his set up will be much better as he's closer to downtown Columbus and his antenna has more gain. I'm liking these Retevis mobile radios. They're very easy to program with a tablet or phone. Once you get them programmed, you don't need them. You can change channel, volume right from the mic and the mic tells you the channel. The audio sounds fine to me. Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

At 400 smackers, it ought to perform

Update: just tested SWR of the tram 1480 on my little nanovna contraption from 460-470 MHz, highest SWR was around 1.7 at the top, got as low as 1.3 towards the bottom. So no radio kablooey We'll get her sealed up, mounted and grounded soon at my son's house and see what we've got.

Thanks. Hopefully the SWR is low enough to not make our Chinese radio go kaboom haha.

Update: bought a tram 1480 for my son's house. Going to get that sucker off the ground, probably 16-20 feet. Using this cable https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/DXE-400MAXDX050 on both our antennas. I'm mounting my midland whip on a ground plane kit in the attic. I hope the Tram does the job. We shall see

You've confused me on that one...

I'm only using midland antennas. I have Retevis RT-99's for the mobile radios.

Just spoke to a guy that I really respect and know is knowledgeable on the subject. Here's our game plan: 1. Ditch midlands on both sides. 2. Use my diamond dual band mobile whip in my attic. It has a better base with better cable than the midland base and I can tune it slightly for better results. 3. Buy my son an omni dual band that can be tuned, tune it, and get it above his roof line. I'll use 25 feet of RG8U or LMR400, ground antenna, and lightning arrester. 4. Test and hopefully enjoy good results Wish me luck!