wayoverthere

You guys did me right with the recommendation for the Comet SBB-1. I finally got around to putting it through its paces. It was spot-on all the way up and down the 2m and 70cm bands. The highest SWR I got was 1.3:1 with most of them being 1.0:1. It even did well on the GMRS frequencies, which are technically "out of band" for this antenna, but I'm not going to argue with those numbers. It's on a mag mount in the middle of my roof, which is probably a factor, but the Nagoya was too, and its performance was okay, but not impressive.

My guess the coverage should be at least Fresno to Bakersfield and then some and I wouldn't be surprised if it covered Madera to the foot of the Tehachapies and the Ridge Route.
Mt Lemmon 725 overlooking Tucson is about the same elevation as Park Ridge 7500+ and will communicate up to South Phoenix which is over 100 miles. The Towers 575 in Crown King is also the same elevation of Park Ridge and Mt Lemmon which is over looking Prescott will look towards the south I believe to Casa Grande and maybe a little beyond which should be about 125 miles.

It will die down in a couple weeks. My neighborhood is with all the kids having fun with their new toys.

The latest update fixed it for me, so everything moved over nicely. Now when I update it’s much easier for both.

Good to know...I have RT for my 2730, and I've been eyeing the id50/52 (not that I really need more radios, but the near repeater thing would be nice)

I’m also a fan of RT Systems software. While there may be occasional bugs, the company does work with the customer to resolve issues promptly when you contact them.

I had a code plug I like for the Icom 2730 and when I picked up the ID-50 I found issues when pushing that code plug to the handheld. RT claims the fields should populate to correct fields, but I didn’t find that to be so. A quick call to RT and a couple revisions over the next day, and problem solved.

Nothing is perfect but I’m a definitely planning on using them moving forward.

You're on the right track with repeaters, for the most part. With linking declared "not allowed", you and the other station would both need to be in range of the same repeater. Previously, it was allowed to connect repeaters to each other across the internet; if you were in Maine in range of a repeater that was connected to another repeater in PA, you could talk to someone in range of the PA repeater and vice versa.
On your tones, you'll want to set the tone mode for that repeater to 'tone' rather than 'tone sql'. That way you send the tone on transmit, but the radio isn't expecting to receive one back (opening the squelch).
Think of tones as a filter.  Tone squelch only lets through signals with the right tone, be that hearing your buddy across the field, or that other station over the hill via the repeater. If the sender doesn't use the tone the receiving radio is expecting, it doesn't get past the filter.
In the same vein, even for the reoeaters that do have an output tone, you can choose to run without a receive tone (known as "carrier squelch). You'll hear all signals on the frequency above whatever threshold your squelch is set to, since you effectively have no filter in place. If there's no other traffic on that frequency, no issue, but it can be nice to sell which signals are simplex traffic and which are from the repeater, since the repeater output frequencies are also simplex channel frequencies.
 
(Sorry that turned out longer than intended, hope it helps.)

The only ones I'm aware of that's similar, dual band, and good quality, are the CompacTenna
Laird does make single band phantom antennas, but not dual band, as far as I know.

Merry Christmas! With the right adapter it could be even shorter  

Ok, so I dug the mag mount antenna out and tested that as well as retesting the others. Here's what I got this morning:
Mag Mount: SWR 1.19, 45 Watts
Ghost: SWR 1.36, 50 Watts
MXTA26: SWR 1.10, 46 Watts
So apparently it was the meter or operator error 😜. Needless to say I am both pleased with this morning's results and a bit embarrassed by my panic.
I certainly appreciate you guys helping me sort this out, as well as your patience!

I was thinking the same...back to the ground plane and no mount, and see if the swr goes back to the high 3's.  if so, it would seem like the mount is the issue, in some way.  if not, that would point to something is awry with the meter.

If you have a multimeter, disconnect from the radio and antenna/mount and check continuity on the outer connectors end to end, the center pin end to end, and do the center to outer.  First 2 should have continuity, 3rd should not.
Same story connected to the mount...center pin on the mount to center on the cable, outer threaded to connector on cable.
I tried one of those Nagoya ground planes and didn't see good results, but that 19.99 is saying a broken connection or short to me too

I was thinking the same...back to the ground plane and no mount, and see if the swr goes back to the high 3's.  if so, it would seem like the mount is the issue, in some way.  if not, that would point to something is awry with the meter.

So, just the power up screen?  Maybe it is the meter. Try taking it all the way back to where you started. Do you have a local friend with a radio?
I'm going to bed. Maybe someone else can think of something to try. 

Could you show us a picture of your multimeter.
For an open circuit it should read something like OL.  Of course if you’ve got a probe in each hand it’s measuring the conductivity of your body and all bets are off. 😄
For a continuous conductor it should read in some tenths of an ohm. 
End to end - shield:


End to end - center:

 
center to shield - open circuit (my probe slipped while I was trying to hold it one handed to take the picture but you get the idea). It shows that it’s an open circuit (OL) and it is on the Megohm range:

If you have a multimeter, disconnect from the radio and antenna/mount and check continuity on the outer connectors end to end, the center pin end to end, and do the center to outer.  First 2 should have continuity, 3rd should not.
Same story connected to the mount...center pin on the mount to center on the cable, outer threaded to connector on cable.
I tried one of those Nagoya ground planes and didn't see good results, but that 19.99 is saying a broken connection or short to me too

If you have a multimeter, disconnect from the radio and antenna/mount and check continuity on the outer connectors end to end, the center pin end to end, and do the center to outer.  First 2 should have continuity, 3rd should not.
Same story connected to the mount...center pin on the mount to center on the cable, outer threaded to connector on cable.
I tried one of those Nagoya ground planes and didn't see good results, but that 19.99 is saying a broken connection or short to me too

Unfortunately, you cannot transfer a configuration file from a radio with one frequency selection to a radio with another.  Nor can you change the frequency selection on the radio you’re programming and then import a configuration file from the same radio when it had a different frequency selection, even if all of the frequencies are compatible.  That’s the most aggravating thing I’ve found about this radio.

There's a couple listed near Auberry, but you have to have the "show stale repeaters" toggle turned on (this is the case for the Park Ridge machines as well, which are both listed as open. 
Auberry 575 is listed as open, while Sierra 2 is listed as permission required. Both listings have the same frequency and tone, though, so I'm not sure if it changed hands and an old listing wasn't removed or what. I also found a new listing for the Joaquin Ridge machine with the "stale" option turned on.

@Frdbronco8
Like amaff said. You need to match model. I have AnyTone AT-779UV, but it basically the same as Radioddity.
Here is what I have in the radio and the software.
 

Be aware that the 'coverage map' on the mygmrs.com web site is NOT a generated heat map like the one displayed above.  It's a simple circle around the TX site that gives an average expected coverage based on path loss across flat ground.  Meaning, if you look at the map for Johnstown675 on here, it ain't right, or even close, depending on the direction you are from the repeater.  The map of my repeater (WRKC935 / Johnstown675) shows coverage in Pataskala, Newark, downtown Columbus, and several other area's that I have no coverage in.  Those coverage holes are caused by the topography of the area.  Case in point is the Granville ridge.  I have good coverage on 161 / St Rt16 going east right up to the point you cross where Granville is and St Rt 16 comes in from Pataskala.  After that the coverage stops for a time and then picks back up closer to Newark and continues out to St Rd 146 and further.  Same thing happens going West,  Works great until Little Turtle exit off 161.  Then falls off getting on the 270 outer belt.  But if you continue west on 161 it's good most of the way to St Rt 23 (High Street) in Worthington.  Then it falls off until you get west of Columbus and then picks up until you are out to St Rt56 on I-70.  I have talked from the Honda plant Northwest of Marysville, From Mechanicsburg, and from London (42 / I-70 ) from a portable.
So my point is that you should NOT have an expectation that all area's in the green circle are going to work based on the mygmrs.com maps.  And you are further limited due to using a handheld radio.  The power is lower and the antenna's do not have the gain that a mobile or a base station would have.  I say all this based on the programming that you have in your radio you posted the codeplug of.  If you have the Pataskala repeater programmed, I know that machine has limited coverage in that area due to antenna height.  If you are in the Pataskala area, and are having coverage issues getting into the Johnstown repeater, that's why you are having issues.  I can't talk to it from Pataskala with a 50 watt mobile.  The coverage just isn't there.
 

(i'll note i wrote most of this on sunday, but somehow forgot to hit "Post"...i think it mostly still works...)
 
Thanks for the screenshots.   Given the success with your Ch 10, the radio is working, and i went through most of the listings for the repeaters listed (except that last one), and it looks like your programming is pretty spot on with the listings.
Under normal usage, as @SteveShannon mentioned, you won't normally be listening on the 467.xxx to hear if you have  something coming back from the repeater. It IS a good way to at least confirm with another radio that your transmitting radio is indeed transmitting.
To rule out a tone issue, i'd probably switch all of them from tonesql to tone, and use transmit tones only, unless you're SURE there's another repeater in range that you'll want to filter out, then test again. 
From there, the other main possibility I can see is range.  I do see the bit of variance between the reported ranges of those repeaters, so i do wonder how accurate they all are...I know the mapping just draws a circle based on the range estimate entered, but real world sometimes varies.  @WRKC935 is quite active on here, and could likely say better than any of us what the actual range and pattern are like for that one. 
This map is an example from one of the ham systems here in CA, mapping signal strength through the region (in fairness, i'm not sure if this is modeled or on the ground tested), and note how signal strength varies based on obstructions.  there'll likely be a bit less variance in pattern in flatter regions of the country, but not usually a 100% circle.

 

(i'll note i wrote most of this on sunday, but somehow forgot to hit "Post"...i think it mostly still works...)
 
Thanks for the screenshots.   Given the success with your Ch 10, the radio is working, and i went through most of the listings for the repeaters listed (except that last one), and it looks like your programming is pretty spot on with the listings.
Under normal usage, as @SteveShannon mentioned, you won't normally be listening on the 467.xxx to hear if you have  something coming back from the repeater. It IS a good way to at least confirm with another radio that your transmitting radio is indeed transmitting.
To rule out a tone issue, i'd probably switch all of them from tonesql to tone, and use transmit tones only, unless you're SURE there's another repeater in range that you'll want to filter out, then test again. 
From there, the other main possibility I can see is range.  I do see the bit of variance between the reported ranges of those repeaters, so i do wonder how accurate they all are...I know the mapping just draws a circle based on the range estimate entered, but real world sometimes varies.  @WRKC935 is quite active on here, and could likely say better than any of us what the actual range and pattern are like for that one. 
This map is an example from one of the ham systems here in CA, mapping signal strength through the region (in fairness, i'm not sure if this is modeled or on the ground tested), and note how signal strength varies based on obstructions.  there'll likely be a bit less variance in pattern in flatter regions of the country, but not usually a 100% circle.

 

This.  You have to buy radios and use them or there is no traffic on the band.  Be one of the few - next thing you know, you will be one of some, then one of many.

Kind of a chicken and the egg...less use because of less equipment, but less equipment because of the double whammy of less traffic and NA being the only market for 220.
Edit: this gave me the nudge to go ahead and email BTWR about future availability of that UV920p. 🤓 Maybe if we can show some interest we'll get another run?
Edit#2:heard back from BTWR, indicating the 220 version is discontinued 😣 the remote head would be a big win. Too bad the uv980 can't trade 10m for 1.25