wayoverthere

What kind of clearance do you need? If it will clear, I've had good results with midland's old 5/8 wave 3db whip mxta10, not the current ghost thing. It's a hair shorter than the 5/8 wave 70cm laird that I run for limited clearance situations, and it fits in the 7' clearance garage at work with a couple inches to spare, though my truck is smaller. Climbed up and measured just now and it's 13" from surface to tip, including the mag mount. Surface mounting would bring it down by about 3/4". It's discontinued, though sportsman's warehouse shows having some in stock and relatively inexpensive: https://www.sportsmans.com/hunting-gear-supplies/radios-and-weather-stations/handheld-2-way-radios/midland-micromobile-mxta10-3db-gain-antenna/p/1476042 I will say, though, that it's a relatively stiff whip, so not something you'd want to tap/drag on an obstruction.

Agreed...I went down a rabbit hole a bit ago on a weather resistant dual band yaesu I found on hamestate, had me looking at ngp antennas, but no idea where to put a mount on mine.

This may be what you're after: https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/2282-john-fogery-cant-help-me-what-the-heck-is-ccr/?do=findComment&comment=20648&_rid=2738

I believe the thinking is the BNC is more geared toward/built for the repetitive on/off cycles compared to the sma connectors...shifting that burden to adapters lets you wear out the adapter rather than a connector on the radio as well. I have some from a big variety pack of adapters; when I was able to run without in the past, I went without, sma-m cable to sma-f radio. Current setup in the backup car, I may run sma-m or sma-f radio, so I put the adapters I have to use, and got the other bnc-f adapter I needed, so either type can plug into the bnc-m on the antenna cable.

The 805g (in 2/2020) was my first repeater capable gmrs handheld as well, falling between the mxt115 (and it's limitations, in 1/2020) and the btech 50x1 (with more capability and other limitations in 3/2020). At that time, I believe the options for mobiles were basically Midland, BTech, or diving into lmr gear; lmr gear was a plunge I wasn't quite ready for, and btech seemed the better option of the two. However, as the field grows, it shows where they kind of cut corners on the programming/firmware side to get a unit on the market when their only off the shelf competition was midland. I do wonder, given the growth of gmrs and the introduction of uv5r based part 95 radios, if they'll find it worth the investment to at least build some more flexibility into the 50x1; the display and menus are serviceable, better than the 50x2, but that programming limitation. Heck, if they could do a certified version of the 50x3, they might have a genuine contender to wouxun/bwtr's kg1000, even if they bumped up the price to around the same.

Nah, that would be the logical first try, and they don't show up. I even tried "barn system gmrs" and they're nowhere in the first page on that either. I think I was originally aware of them from this site, as I'm just on the edge of coverage for one of those planned systems, and do get up to the bay periodically. As a clarification, what I meant with the Google search is that searching "barn gmrs" turns up that fcc filing on the first page, (though that document does have their website address on it). Here is the document: https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsEntry/attachments/attachmentView.jsp%3FapplType%3Dsearch%26fileKey%3D1471639256%26attachmentKey%3D18870264%26attachmentInd%3DapplAttach&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiTofLsztz1AhXiD0QIHdxLCTEQFnoECAMQAg&usg=AOvVaw2w9K3JCUU5IXYj2RKrBcE-

Probably wasn't a high bar at one point, though I may be a little cynical. Reading what they wrote to FCC on of their filings was interesting, along that line. (I googled "barn gmrs" and it was one of the first page results).

The short version is they've had all those repeaters "in planning phase" posted for awhile; pretty much since I took an active interest in going beyond bubblepacks (~2 years now). The one repeater in the SF Bay area is supposedly active and has good coverage, though the group behind them is apparently in money troubles at the moment, based on the updates on the repeater descriptions. http://barnsys.org/home.html one of the principals for BARN is an admin for one of the "GMRS Only" facebook groups as well.

I haven't had much luck finding it again, but I ran across something once that implied that limiting the user configurable transmit channels (a la Btech) made for quicker certification. That, combined with what @Lscott mentioned about manufacturers repurposing other hardware to meet minimum requirements (both user and certification) with minimal time invested, and here we are. It does seem that some manufacturers are responsive to user input (retevis comes to mind), while others build to vendor specifications, and input from knowledgeable vendors is priceless (wouxun, via buytwowayradios and bettersaferradio).

I'm reminded of a story I saw recently of someone leaving Alexa to babysit their kid, for the most part, with the kid amused to ask Alexa to 'give me a challenge'. Too soon, Alexa strayed into the dregs of the internet and brought up something akin to "try to fit a fork in the electrical socket", with mom blaming Amazon for the content, and "I thought it was safe".

I'll throw a vote for the 805g as well. The one issue is a LCD monitor on my desk that throws enough RFI to break the squelch in scan, but it's been solid otherwise. The programming software is about as simple as it gets, though it comes with a full set of simplex and repeater channels already loaded...computer programming isn't necessary before you use it. You can set tones right from the menu.

Not familiar with all the shapes involved with the rack...would it be possible to take the bars and end caps off, and route the cable inside the rack, and bring it out near your entry point? Alternately, would offsetting the antenna further back make using the hatch feasible? (Gmrs frequencies don't need a huge ground plane). If I wanted to clean it up that much, I might even grab an inline connector and another piece of cable if that would make the hatch workable. Lmr240 or rg8x pigtails in the 6' aren't horribly expensive, though more cable means a little more loss. I might also try to find some white electric tape and wrap the portion of the cable outside, too.

It's definitely not a clean look on my truck. For the Patriot, is it possible to park it inside the rails toward the back, to minimize the amount of cable run on the roof? Thinking there should be enough room to keep it from being too close to the bars and cause issues On the car, I put it just off center on the trunk toward the drivers' side, and tucked as much as I could along the trunk edge outside the seal, to bring it up and across the seal at the bottom. Tempted to move it further off center, throw a big antenna on, and just hide it in the trunk when not in use (that's the beater car, and I just take a handheld along)

I know, the shuffle definitely muddies things. The wording in the current 95e seems to leave it open that 95e and 90 certification IS still possible, though I can't really see it making financial sense to the mfgs. I can't see the price of new lmr gear selling much in the gmrs market to justify the cost of certifying, and cutting price to sell more kind of undercuts the lmr side. Probably the only ones still remaining are the ones that certified under 95a that have been able to maintain production under that certification (I believe it's been mentioned Kenwood has at least one, though I haven't gone searching for it.

This. Where possible I'll try to be out and about different places...try to get in with a handheld on the early check in, and if it's no go, come in at regular check in on the mobile. The local club also has a trivia type question or discussion topic a couple times a month...how'd a contest go, or do you know this bit of history.

It's too bad 47 cfr 95.2761 and 95.561 disallow dual certification, because given the wording in 95.1761, it seems like that would be allowed from the gmrs side. Or am I reading the FRS/MURS parts wrong?

It can be, though a speaker mic definitely helps. I picked up a short cable (18", I believe) from amazon that has so239 on one end, and sma-m on the other (I use a sma-f adapter from signal stuff as needed). This has been working well with a mag mount nmo, on both the truck previously, and now on the beater car for ham. Edit: This is the one from my Amazon history, though check the major radio retailers (DX engineering,antenna farm, etc) as they may have better connector options (depending if your radio wants sma-m or sma-f). I tried ordering the little DHT 2 pack twice....disappeared en route both times, 3rd try was what I have: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CPVF1GG/

Not so much a product suggestion as a source...I've been checking out hamestate dot com, and they have some seemingly decent deals on some astron linear power supplies...I'm tempted. There's a triband alinco HT tempting me too, but I don't really have a use for 1.2ghz

Glad to help. ?

It's still there....you'll have to hit the "gear" button at the top left of the map, and toggle the option for "show stale repeaters" or "show offline".

To be fair, from what @over2u showed, it's presented both in terms of the raw tone, and the corresponding code number that's used by one of the more common manufacturers. it does also tie with what @lscott mentioned about setting things up ahead of time.l, rather than trying to fumble through it in the time of need. It also does mention it's not intended as a 911-type channel, more for SAR to be able to contact the person they're looking for.

Yep, one of the limitations of btech's method of locking down for 95e certification...the gmrs 50x1 has the same limitation.

Google turned up this doc, which may match up with the tones on the Motorola. You could put the code number on the Motorola, and the corresponding tone on the btech, and see if it gets through still. https://www.cert-la.com/downloads/radio/FRS-GMRS-Frequency-Chart.pdf

It should be possible My first thought is there is a PL tone set on the Motorola, so it's expecting a tone the btech isn't sending. The btech, onthe other hand, is listening with no filter, so it hears the Motorola. If you can't find the tone settings in the Moto menu, I believe v1 can scan for the code (I'll try to dig up the manual later on the computer, if someone doesn't beat me to it)

One of those "reporting difference between dbi and dbd" things maybe? marketing reporting vs actual, kind of like the Midland "up to 35 mile range" labeling.