wayoverthere

Bluemax49ers has been my source for cables for most of the LMR radios in my collection, and some of the software as well. It does look like he has a cable for those Icoms, too, with an option to add the software. https://bluemax49ers.com/product-explorer/icom-ic-f21gm-ftdi-programming-cable-opc-i478/

That was my thought as well. Curious what the pattern would be laid down, but in the end it boils down to folding and unfolding each time, or picking up a shorter whip. Personally, I'd park and measure at the lowest clearance point, and go from there to see what my options were for whip length. The ubiquitous 1/4 wave is around 6" and pretty inexpensive (not much over $10 last I looked), and a solid option of you have the ground plane for it, and the no ground plane 1/2 waves are around 12", iirc

I've had good results with multiple Midland mag mounts carrying a variety of antennas. Seen very few negative reports on the mxta26 antenna, and what I did see was related to potential used\damaged product received from Amazon. I had good results with a Browning br1713bs (similar to the mxta26 in size and configuration).n the other whip I have is NLA, so as an alternate smaller gain antenna I'd look at 1\2 or 5\8 wave Laird whips. Ground plane or not, depending on the mount. I want to say it'd be the 4502 for GMRS (450-470mhz)...have used the 430-450 model and it was great out of the package without tuning. Have had great results with the comet 2x4sr for ham, but the swr was a little high for GMRS, though not unusable (2.0:1 on 467, iirc)

https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/mobile-antenna-placement/ I forget if I alluded to it in this thread or another (or started to mention it and then deleted), but this page has the graphic that shows the relative loss for different mounting types and placements. Mag mount in the center is very close to the ideal (permanent hole/mount) loss-wise, evidently.

Truth be told, since I don't have much time to play radio, I don't remember all the limits either, even 3 years in. unless I'm doing something on a set frequency like ft8, I have a printed copy of the ARRL band chart near my "shack" (desk in the office) and a PDF copy on my phone and double check myself regularly.

Good luck on the radio search perhaps some can chime in with firsthand experiences with the kg-1000g. For the magnet, that's a good (and creative) idea as well. The other consideration with a mag mount is cable routing. While I've absolutely done it (mostly ran 2 till I moved one antenna to a fender mount), it does eventually take a toll on the paint at both the mount and wherever the cable runs on the body. In my case that was mostly where the cable tucked under the edge of the door seal at the top. On routing, I had a seal i could tuck under, follow the rear edge of the passenger door seal down, and loop up and in at the bottom (single cab compact truck, rarely had passengers). Current crew cab, the seals are tighter and don't hold the cable well, and all 4 doors get used regularly, so mag mounts are less optimal and mostly saved for when I'm running solo...have a comet 2x4sr on a fender mount for regular use.

No experience with that radio, but on antennas... If you're willing to drill a hole, doing a roof mounted nmo is optimal; if height/clearance is an issue, a 1/4 wave antenna is only 6ish inches tall, while a 1/2 or 5/8 wave will provide some gain without adding too much height (at around 12"). If clearance is no concern, Midland's mxta26 has lots of good reports but it's close to 3 ft tall. Alternately, there are 3rd brake light mounts (spendy) and fender mounting brackets as options; these may work better with a 1/2 wave "no ground plane" antenna....I haven't tried the mxta26 to say how it would do in that configuration. Truth be told, there's tons of antenna options out there, with gmrs sitting so close to some of the blocks of business and public safety

They've worked well (and hold well) for me, to the point that 4 of my 5 are Midland (between up to 3 at a time on the old truck, one stashed in the better half's car, and one used for a base (on sheet metal for a ground plane). The other is a browning, because I wanted to try one with rg-8x cable. No difference that I could tell , but it held well also. Comet have worked well for me on the ham side...the one diamond I tried, not so much (nr72b, if I remember right)

Same story here with nagoya, solid HT antennas, but haven't used the mobiles. What I have used (mostly on midland's mag mounts): Tram 1181, sold as a wide coverage dual band. So-so results, but good on the swr. I was compromising for the lower height. Midland's old 3db whip (mxta10, base loaded 5/8 wave, according to BTWR). Worked well for its size. Browning br1713bs, double 5/8 wave uhf only antenna, rated for 410-480mhz, iirc. worked great, but larger size (32") akin to midland's mxta26. Laird 1/4 wave for 450-470mhz, decent performer; this would be my limited clearance go-to on the current truck, since even the 12" mxta10 is too much height for the work garage. On the old (smaller) truck, I ran the mxta10 for limited clearance, or the Browning when I wasn't limited. Comet 2x4SR, little higher swr than the uhf only, in trade for the wide coverage; ran this for a bit with 2 radios and a duplexer; it's currently doing ham duty on the truck on a comet bracket and Midland cable/nmo. On the ham side of things, I've also used Laird's base loaded 1/2 wave for UHF (tuned for 430-450 mhz, again on the Midland mag mounts), and it worked very well, and the reasonably small size (around 12") fit almost everywhere on my old truck. If I didn't have that Midland whip, I wouldn't hesitate to grab another Laird to cover GMRS (they have 450-470mhz versions in various sizes, with and without spring). I'd also have no qualms recommending that Browning, thought searching the model number showed sparse availability last I looked, so it may be discontinued like the mxta10).

The other nice aspect of that Midland cable is the adapter on the radio side, when mounting outside the cabin. I'm using that mount/cable on a fender bracket, and the ability to uncrew the pl259 end lets it slip through a firewall grommet more easily. Adding to this ...searched the antenna, not a fan of the phantom/stealth type...limited testing with a laird on a mag mount performed worse than a handheld with the stock rubber duck antenna. That said, I haven't heard complaints about lack of quality with that brand, so I don't think it's the source of this issue at this point

I like the Wouxun KG-805g as a very solid starter radio. Should come out of the box with all of the channels ready to go, both simplex and repeater, but has 100 or so slots for you to program more if you want. The software will keep you in-bounds for GMRS, though it's not the nicest application out there, and still lets you program monitoring channels elsewhere in the UHF band. it's also IP55 rated (water resistant) and $79. Alternately, there's the KG-905g, with a little nicer display and IP66 rating for not much more money ($99). they also have a 2 pack with a storage case and charging cables for $209. If you want to receive VHF as well, it's another step up to the KG-935g, which is still less than the midland ($149), and brings a color display and the same IP66 rating as the 905g. All three ring in less expensive than the midland, and there's lots of posts on the forum of users' experiences with these three Wouxun radios.

I'll bring up the theory that with modern gear more able to self-protect, high SWR is less of a danger than it used to be, especially with good quality gear. not long after i switched trucks, i moved my comet SBB5 ham antenna from a fender bracket on the ranger, to a fender bracket on the new Ram. it was great on the ranger, 1.1-1.3 across all of 2m and 70cm. few nights later, chiming in on the local linked repeater, and get a report that running mid (usual) or high power, i'm VERY scratchy, almost unreadable, even trying the other two other repeaters in the area (2 uhf & 1 vhf, which I can usually get into on a handheld with a rubber duck without issue). check SWR, and find 2.8 on UHF, and over 3 on VHF, which explains the poor signal. Hooking it up to the analyzer showed SWR is all out of whack on 2m and 70cm, but it was weirdly resonant on 220 (like 1.2 or so). Testing some other whips I had on the same mount, the 2x4SR is stellar, so I'm rolling with that. the only explanation i can see there is where the sbb5 sat fully above the hood on the Ranger, the shape of the hood on the Ram has the base sitting about an inch below the main "plane" of the hood; the radio (FTM500) has shown no ill effects after the fact. In the end, the 2x4 is the only one that reads good on that fender bracket on the Ram (though the 1/2 wave signal stalk didn't read good on the Ranger, either...tuning that is one of those ongoing to-do list items).

I will second this recommendation; have the 805g, along with some ham versions of the uv5r series, and some commercial stuff. The menu structure is reasonably simple for the new user, while also being flexible enough for the experienced user, and performance seems to be a step up from the uv5r, it's more durable (had the battery hook break off one of the baofengs from a 18" drop from the coffee table), and seems a bit more resistant to desense; this is one of those things that it's hard to predict when reading reviews...One user may have a massive FM or TV tower next door that blows away their receiver, while the glowing review may be a rural user with little to no competing signals anywhere nearby. Software wise, while the software isn't the greatest, it's not the worst i've seen, and will keep you in bounds for GMRS. they aren't officially supported by CHIRP, but it's possible to use profiles for a couple other radios to do so, but it's a "do at your own risk kind of thing"....if you go that route, it's EXTREMELY important to download a profile from the radio first, save a backup copy, then save a second working copy to program to. That said, put side by side with the Motorola (i have a couple of XPRs) or Vertex (some vx and evx handhelds), it's definitely not quite on that level, and i do get some interference in my office on the wouxun that the vertex don't even notice (RFI from the work monitor). Haven't gotten my hands on any of the high level Kenwood stuff, but I'd imagine it to be up there with Moto.

If the repeater needs an input tone (which many do), you'll need to set a tx tone on your radio. Rx tone is optional, but can be used to filter out other/simplex traffic if the repeater has an output tone

I'll also add ...the little testing I've done with a ghost-type antenna (a laird phantom for 70cm ham) was less than stellar...needed the full 15 watts on the little anytone mobile to get into a repeater that's no problem on the 5 watt handheld outside the car. Others may be able to share experiences with Midland 's specifically, though.

It's a matter of getting the signal outside of potential barriers of the cabin. The metal of the pillars and roof, as well as thermal/UV barriers in the glass in many vehicles. If you want to bump things up another notch, look at 1/2 or 5/8 wave antennas, which tend to be around 12". Even a 6" 1/4 wave mounted outside the cabin will likely be an improvement, given sufficient metal (ground plane) around it, and they're inexpensive...I see $10-15 for tram or laird variations, depending on the vendor

If the PSU in question can supply enough current, most likely yes. The 25x2 is likely needing 5-6 amps on high.i have a pyramid 10a PSU I use occasionally with the lower power radios that I got from woot for $50ish.

GE are the earliest walkie talkies I remember having too, but it was these https://www.ebay.com/itm/266679045699 On radio shack, I have a CB from there from sometime in the late 90's, and it IS branded radio shack. The mag mount antenna, as far as I know, never had any logos, and definitely doesn't now, though tje connectors have gotten a little corroded.

https://m.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/43107 Here is the link for W4HTP, and yeah, they're on and relaying as I type this.

One other option that comes to mind is the tram 1181, which is rated to cover both services, plus MURS ranges (140-170 & 430-470 MHz) and is on the less expensive side (under $25). Some members have reported good results. My experience showed reasonable SWR numbers (1.3 or so), but in terms of "getting out" it didn't seem to work so well for me.

Pretty much...it was acting like it wasn't posting I do wish we had the ability to delete our own posts.

It really comes down to your use case. If the cheap radio has the features you want, and isn't having desense issues, (or it's less of an issue and you want less expensive handouts ), you're golden. If not, time to upgrade. I have a good mix of radios (from the uv5r to vertex and Motorola), and played with some real world testing along the way. Sitting in the same spot, be it on the windowsill or on the mountain by the repeater sites) I've seen hands on where one is receiving while the the other is not, be it poor sensitivity in one case, or desense in the other. On the mountain (in the vicinity of tv, FM radio, and repeater sites), the uv-5r was receiving nothing, while the little yaesu ft4x was still able to use the close by repeater. When harbor freight will do the job, it may not be necessary to spend the extra money on snap-on.

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