wayoverthere

An inch for the mount is a good buffer...I want to say mine are about 3/4". On wind noise, mine isn't the best vehicle to judge this, since it has an aftermarket exhaust (not all that quiet). That said, I've only ever noticed minor differences in noise between the antennas in the windiest conditions...the comet and Browning have tight springs like that 2nd you linked, but they're also both in the neighborhood of 3' tall, with phasing coils along the way. I've run the 70cm tuned version of that first laird and never noticed any noise, and wouldn't expect a difference from that tight spring on the 2nd...good performance too.

Agreed...I have Midland and browning nmo mag mounts on my truck that have hosted a variety of nmo antennas, including a laird 5/8 wave, Midland 3db whip, laird and Midland 1/4 waves, a couple different comets, a signal stalk, a tram, and a pctel for 6 meter. On the length question, I agree with Marc....need more info to say for sure. One possibility is measurements of the whip alone compared to the whip+loading coil base.

For what it's worth, my 50x1 does the same. Alinco DM-30 psu set to 13.8v, and the 50x1 shows 14.1 or 14.2. The icom 2730 that has since moved to the truck displayed spot on 13.8v. The btech also showed a bit higher than a voltmeter connected to a couple lantern batteries in series (was going some testing)..I chalked it up to margin of error with the btech.

I was cleaning this weekend and stumbled on an older set of uniden ecotrek FRS radios. The fcc id isnt even showing in the OET database now ?

I won't call it money wasted, like another poster did, more a cost of learning. I look at it similar to Bob...They all served a purpose, from the gxt handhelds, mxt115, onwards...i just wanted more than they offer, and didn't do enough research before diving in. I will give the gxt's the nod for least favorite for how limited they are, though. No repeaters, all narrowband, no removable antenna, and the tone<>code scheme Midland uses.

Good info on that repeater. Up here, i do have to use receive tones on .575, as there's 2 repeaters in range, plus a hotel using bubble packs for their housekeeping staff.

Encode is your input tone (encoding so the repeater recognizes your signal), decode is the output. For DPL, ive seen it stated that polarity is assumed (N)ormal, unless otherwise stated as (I)nverted.

Mxta26. I wish they still sold their 3db whip rather than the ghost, that worked well without being too tall. This. I've had very good results out of a single band Laird for 70cm.

I'll have to recheck mine, but I want to say it was 1.4 or less everywhere I tested. I have the spring kit, and it's mag mounted dead center on the roof of a single cab compact truck, so decent ground plane. I also remembered I have a small diamond (nr72b, maybe?) that's advertised as dual band...grabbed it for it's small size (trying to to find a better performing dual band/limited clearance option than the Comet SBB1), and it's near 1:1 on uhf, and maybe 1.3 on gmrs. I say "advertised", because it's like 2.5-3 on 2m on the truck, but decent on a piece of sheet metal indoors. Haven't gone back out to see if it likes an "edge" in the ground plane like the compactennas apparently like, still waiting for a break from triple digit highs (they're saying 115 on Tuesday ?)

Yes...some antennas are more forgiving (wider range covered) than others. One example is the comet 2x4sr. Covers 2m, MURS, 70cm, and GMRS. On the downside, it's ~36" long. Still available, as far as I know, in both nmo and uhf bases. (I'm partial to nmo for its wide availability, so I can swap whips at will.)

it appears not, someone tried and got denied.

That's one of my favorite references as well. There's also a bit of info toward the bottom on https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_CHIRP.php#guides If you need help translating some of the terms, the group here can definitely help.

From the bit I can see it looks like it may be the first block is all narrowband (frs) and the second (gmrs) would be wideband on all except the 467 interstitial channels.

I mistyped above... should have been "misusing", not "missing", as in misusing the "flatpack" moniker. I've always thought of the dUplexers as being for in band stuff, and the dIplexers as being for splitting or combining 2 bands (the "di" part), though I know the terms get used interchangeably. I'm running one of the latter in my ham base setup to feed 2 single band vertex decks into one dual band comet antenna.

I've always seen them referred to by that term, maybe I'm missing it. Here is one of the first results from a quick Google: https://www.amazon.com/Fumei-400-470MHz-Duplexer-Frequency-connectors/dp/B07FGFX6Q4

i know it throws out the "one box" nature of the RT97, but i wonder if one would see any improvement bypassing the built in duplexer in favor of one of the cheap flat pack "mobile" duplexers

Well, I've managed to get some successful spots on the map with aprsdroid on an old cellphone (no sim, wifi off), mobilinkd tnc3, and a uv5r...if that helps at all

Yeah, given that it takes the 868 code plugs rather than 878, I wonder which the btech really split off from. I'll give that article a look when I make it onto the computer.

BTech DMR6x2, for example (which I've been tempted by, mostly for the APRS). Itll even use code plugs for the anytone 868. I'm noticing the description only refers to transmitting APRS data, though, and not receiving.

Do you have access to a programming cable and computer? With what you describe, my first thought would be to look at whether it did something wonky with the Rx tone settings (are the tone and type what you thought they should be?), or the squelch levels.

You bet! Alternately, what about just losing the glass fuses and going to ATC fuses with something like this? The yaesu harness I got from DXE uses blade fuses rather than glass, btw. https://www.autozone.com/starting-charging-and-miscellaneous-electrical/fuse-holder/p/bussmann-atc-fuse-holder/32415_0_0 Edit: just saw the same suggestion was made in the other thread

Thanks...I was trying to think of what it was called, and couldn't go look in the app at the time

I went for the Repeaterbook app...the proximity search based on your location is kinda nice, but I don't have anything it can push the presets to over Bluetooth (I think there's just a couple models that can). I've also programmed common stuff in the common areas/routes i travel. I do have the luxury of time, though, since I don't travel all that much. With the LMR radios, I have banks of out of town stuff by region (sf bay, slo coast, coast p25, etc)

At least for the FT4X, Yaesu's software isn't bad..there's a couple things that could be improved, but miles ahead of any of the wouxun, radioddity, or anytone software I've used. I wondered the same about the menu layout on my Icom 2730...To some extent things are at least grouped well, but I can't discern any particular order, or why some things are hidden in an extended menu. That one, i bought the RT Systems software for, so I haven't used Icom's software for that one. It also ended up coming in handy later when I picked up a vx7r from ebay, which came with an old version of RT for that radio, along with a serial cable and adapter to the particular headphone port the vx7 uses. Had no luck getting the serial cable working on my win10 stick pc and usb port replicator, but the RT systems usb cable from the Icom, paired with the yaesu adapter, worked great, and works with the VX7 Commander software as well (which allows MARS mod via software instead of messing with physical components on the board.)

Unsurprisingly, that looks like the same antenna as came with my ft4x. Mine is opened up as well, but I haven't tested power output out of band...I think I've seen the same info as @kidphcon the ft5dr's lower output on gmrs. Have done FPP on the ft4x, and it's not the top of the list of things I want to do. Not much ahead of a baofeng...again, unsurprisingly. Both are doable with some practice, for that occasional new repeater you might want to add, but not something I'd want to do from scratch with a massive list.