wayoverthere

short version, dual band NR72b...tested on 3 different mag mounts, roof, cowl, bed corner, and on the trunk of the car, both center and edge. all close to 2:1 swr on 70cm, and 3ish on 2m. Then found a little slip of paper in the package mentioning "direct grounding required", so i ordered a fender bolt mount and matching cable..that got 1.5ish on 70cm, and still 2.5ish on 2m, so off it came. later decided to order a different comet (sbb5) to go on that mount, but haven't gotten around to putting the mount back on and finding an actual good path to route the cable into the cab. the one thing that diamond has worked okay on is mag mounted on an 8"x12" piece of sheet metal..2m still sucked, but 70cm was like 1.05:1 edit: also tried it on a midland nmo mount (so239 to nmo), with a nagoya ground plane kit (both short and long radials...no better there either.

I won't say it's the end all-be all, but center roof mag mounts have worked well for me in almost all cases, both on ham and gmrs. good ground plane doesn't hurt either. I think the lip mounts are more common to have the mixed cable with a short run of something thin to pass the seal, and something with less loss for the rest of the run. I also have a fender bolt mount I'm planning to try, so I can run a bigger antenna without being an overhead height issue. I have one diamond (dual band ham) antenna that wasn't happy on anything, though...wish I'd left the fender mount on when I was testing that, as it's on my to-do list to put that back on so i can run a little more antenna without overhead clearance issues.

Through hole or mag? This one is a hole mount, rg8x cable: https://www.arcantenna.com/products/laird-antenex-mab8xp-3-8-thru-hole-nmo-mount-vehicular-nmo-antenna-roof-mount-17-ft-rg8x-cable-pl-259-connector-included This one is a mag mount with rg8x cable: https://theantennafarm.com/shop-by-categories/shop-all/mobile-antenna-mounts/nmo-mobile-antenna-mounts/265-magnetic-mounts/278-nmo-magnet-mounts-no-connector/7556-laird-connectivity-gb8x-detail I have a Browning mag mount that's also rg8x cable, but I can't for the life of me remember where I got it...I thought antenna farm but I don't see it listed. Arcadian also has one listed with "low loss 195" cable, too.

65° and sunny over here ?

Nice!

That's one nice thing ill mention for the xpr6500's I have...the port cover is one screw, but it has a loop around the antenna on the other end, to keep it from getting lost (hopefully)

Mine are a mix as well...the yaesu and vertex vx, and the wouxun uv7d are sma-f on the radio; the ft4x, wouxun kg805g, and the baofengs are sma-m. The vertex evx and the moto xpr's are similar to a sma-m, but don't have the channel around the edge for the "lip" on the standard sma-f comnector...their version of sma-f has the inner part flat with the end of the threads. BTech stock antenna (sma-f) on the left, vertex evx stock on the right https://i.imgur.com/q1X5Bqg.png

I wonder if it's a leftover from their older firmware's/configurations that didn't allow split tones. That way, repeater 15 could have the tone filter, and simplex 15 heard everything else that didn't have the matching tone.

That, 100% agreed. Reading the definition of a control station almost sounds like what we'd commonly think of as a base ?

With the definition in 95.303 (the "other fixed stations only" part, I picture it as an rf link to tie two repeaters together. A base, on the other hand, might talk to mobile.or.portable users.

The spendy option is the bulletproof diesel 3rd brake light mount, which slots in between the light and the body, and gives one or two nmo mounts. They run in the 350-500 range, depending on 1 or 2, and truck. https://bulletproofdiesel.com/collections/antenna-mounts At the more reasonable end are geotool.com and breedlove, primarily stake pocket mounts. Geotool does require drilling in some, in the bottom of the stake pocket only. Afaik, both options ring in under $100. https://breedlovemounts.com/store/ols/categories/stake-pocket-bracket https://www.geotool.com/antmount.htm On the inexpensive end are the bracket mounts that go on one of the fender bolts and sit in the gap between hood and fender. Both generic and model specific options exist, and range from $15 to 40 or so. https://www.amazon.com/Laird-Technologies-Shaped-Antenna-Bracket/dp/B004Z8RT3O (this one is $17.50...going to be switching one of my mag mounts to this shortly, actually) american radio supply has a few ford specific brackets: https://www.americanradiosupply.com/2015-2020-ford-no-hole-antenna-fender-mounting-bracket-am-412/ valley enterprises also has a wide variety of specific and generic fender mounts https://www.valley-ent.com/store/brackets/

Yes, the mxt500 (and 575) are repeater capable. The information you saw that only mentioned the 400 may predate the introduction of the 500 & 575, as those were introduced somewhat recently compared to the 400.

In my area, there is a fair amount of public safety stuff in the 450-465 range, and also around 150-155.

The current photos of the mxt115 show it with the lighter plug, and the older one I have in a box does a well. Can't find it in the photos, but the "in the box" for the 275 references it including a 12v adapter as well. https://midlandusa.com/products/mxt115-micromobile-2-way-radio

sorry to rain on that point, but I can at least speak to the 805g...Wouxun's unmodified software will allow you to combine any of the GMRS RX frequencies with ANY of the in-bounds transmit frequencies...the lockdown for part 95 certification is strictly software based (as i've alluded to elsewhere), it only gives you in bounds frequencies to choose from the drop-down that is the TX frequency column. I have a couple screenshots (that successfully loaded to the radio) with 462.550 as the RX, and both 467.725 and 467.7125 as associated TX frequencies. I also grabbed one showing the drop-down for the TX frequency column.

Sounds like the perfect use case for the anytone at779uv/radioddity db20-g/retevis ra25 triplets. 20 watts on high, small package. The btech gmrs 20v2 would fit the bill, though being a newer model, there isn't a ton of feedback out yet. The anytone/radioddity, on the other hand, has a fair bit of exposure, including among the membership here. (I have 2 of the anytone's, actually...1 in the truck for gmrs, and a 2nd in the beater unlocked for ham use). The Midland options (mxt115, mxt275) are there as well, if their limited feature set meets your needs.

There was a push in the past for channel 20, but that's kind of gotten lost since, and there isn't really one solid answer. As @wruu653 alludes to, there been a fair amount of discussion on it on the forum.

I had the 70cm version (the BB4303), and was able to hear fairly clearly and just barely break squelch on a repeater 90ish miles away. Definitely impressed. If I didn't already have that Midland 1/2 wave for gmrs, that 4503 is probably what I'd be running. The only reason it's not still on the truck is I switched from a single band (vertex, 70cm+gmrs) radio to a dual bander (icom, 2m+70cm) with a separate radio for gmrs.

I don't see COS in the diagram, but it does have a low level analog audio output on pin 2. https://www.manualsdir.com/manuals/218466/vertex-standard-vx-4200-vx-4100.html?page=3 I've been poking at something mildly similar with a signalink and echolink, not so successful so far but I need to mess with the programming for that connector before I decide the jumpers and/or cable need rewiring...

Here's the passenger seat view of my 2730 head on the panavise mount. While the face is held on by magnets, there isn't a lot of room to hit the faceplate from behind without also hitting the plate it's stuck to, and cable routing may also help mitigate it's tendency to become a projectile, should the airbag spread too much to the side.

I'll try to get a better straight on look at mine when i get out of work....they say the mounts are made not to interfere with airbags, but I don't know if they take the width of a control head into account. My 2730 control head should be an okay approximation of width, if not necessarily height, compared to the 5100.

Panavise does make a mount for the liberty https://www.panavise.com/pdf_indash/751052008.pdf They have the f350 covered as well, at least for a remote head mount

Think in terms of driver and passenger/navigator in off road racing or similar...loud environment, hearing protection, probably helmets. Intercom lets them talk within the vehicle without needing to yell, and also allows interfacing headsets (hearing protective or not, with or without helmet) with the radio to communicate with a base, crew, or chase vehicle.

Not sure about that 45 watt mobile radio offhand...with the lack of feedback and delays, I wonder if it's fairly new hardware. The one in the 25 watt kit looks very similar to the retevis rb86 (which is also water resistant and on sale for $111). The handheld looks like a radioddity gm30 (which run around $40). The cable with nmo is usually $30ish for name brand, and rugged actually has a laird 1/2 wave on sale for $24, which is a good price. On the mount, it looks nicely made...the mounting location in some of the pics (and proximity to adjacent metal parts gives me pause, but I'll let those with experience speak to if that's actually an issue (as I don't have a jeep and haven't used their mount). Overall, probably not bad gear, but they're charging a premium for name and the convenience of a kit. Whether it's justified is up to the buyer.

Neither I can think of are base station antennas, but the comet 2x4sr is one of not many wideband antennas covering all 4. Can't speak to MURS for transmit (though it lists covering 140-170), but the tram 1181 is another low key and wide band mobile. Like @gortex2i tend to either stay band specific (uhf only on the beater) or split up ham and gmrs due to type acceptance of the radios (2 antennas on the truck, ham and gmrs separate).