docholliday666

For me, it wasn't about the size. It was that all those floppy, thin whips just annoyed me for no real gains. The Smiley is nice-n-thick, short at around 6", and reached out better than the whips did. I tossed the TIDRadio antennas into a draw immediately. They vary too much to be reliable. I also had the Nagoyas and the Melowave - returned them all. The Signal Stick sucked pretty bad until I snipped it down to tune for GMRS. I still hated it since every time I turned around, the damn thing wanted to stab me in the eye. So I tossed it into a drawer somewhere. All my HTs are converted for BNC, so if I needed the range (like when in the trucks), I'd just pop off the Smiley antenna and jack into the vehicle antenna. At home, the Smiley does plenty good for receiving and sometimes transmitting to the closest repeater. If it didn't work, I'd just jack into the "real" antenna and add the Kenwood 45 handpiece so I didn't have to go outside.

I pretty much gave up on all those dual/multi band super long antennas for HTs. Since I'm only using the HT in UHF and not MURS, I got tired of the janky, unweildy whips that don't really do much better than each other and settled on a 5/8 Smiley tuned for GMRS. It goes the same distance or further, and I get much clearer signal reports back. Where I'm at in the country, the nearest major repeater is some 30-40 miles away and nothing would reach it inside. Stepping outside, I can it it easily without issue. I'll take the short Smiley over those horribly whippy things anyday, even if it was losing range.

Mine was through GTE-Mobilenet (now Verizon). Cellular One was who I switched to later and that also was a switch to the bar phone. Does anybody remember when Ma Bell actually charged monthly to add touch tones (DTMF dialing) to the home phone? Funny part is that I'm not as old as you'd think...we just always had some of the newest tech around.

But back in the early days of cell when I had my bag phone, it was $99/month with 60 minutes. Then, you'd pay $10/month for "unlimited nights" (9p-6a), another for $10/month for "unlimited weekends", and voicemail was $5/month. That was after paying $1000 for the bag phone kit. Roaming was like another $3/min on top of the minutes you were burning. No such thing as SMS/MMS or data. But, you could take the antenna off the transceiver, put it on a 30' cable, tape it to a long stick, then stand on top of the car out in the woods to get staticy call out. Worst part was the battery was good for 4-6 hours max and the bag had a cigarette lighter plug in it so that you could plug it in the second you got in a car.

Can you get any simplex calls to work right on them at any distance? I'm not far from you if you're in Muncie - I'm over towards Anderson and can reach the WRAM repeater without any problem on an HT. But, with all the snow and ice around here, range has definitely been reduced this last week. A few times I can only get to it near a window or outside when I could do it inside before all the snow arrived. I did hear somebody trying to connect to it last week a few times, can't remember what day though. It was in the evening and I heard some 5-8s transmissions, but they had no audio and were just silence + repeater tail.

They're all simple to program. It's the janky hardware and cheap(est) components inside that I didn't care for. I actually get the best performance out of BF-F8HP Pros and 5RM Plus/Pro GPS units (especially the v1.0.4 hardware).

The one I had did. I was probably in VFO mode on it. I hate TIDradios, so I didn't have it long, but I remember having to set both direction and offset.

Did you set the offset and direction in the menu? I think it's 23 and 24 that sets these. You'll want an offset of 5.00MHz with a direction of "+" in order to reach the repeater.

Not for a living, but I usually do my own work instead of sending computers, test gear, etc out for service. Can't trust these companies to do anything right and I also don't want to wait weeks to get something back.

Don't trust everything you Google...but you can believe that all you want. I'll read the manufacturer specs and even then, that assumes that the plug is inserted perfectly straight with no shear or stress. Plus, the hundreds of plugs I've changed out in the last 4 years says otherwise. However, the higher end new-gen USB-C connectors (designed for USB 3-4 or TB) do have some 10-30K cycles. They were designed to do so as they are expected to replace all other types.

The typical connector, including the PL/SO 259, BNC, and TNC are usually limited to around 500 cycles before they are considered worn out of spec. Most people also don't know that USB (including USB-C) is typically only around 200-300 cycles before the plastic insert separator starts to get worn and causes contact tension errors. BTW, you do know that the PL259 (even the nicest Amphenol ones) are frequency limited to somewhere in the 100-350Mhz range before they start causing reflections and other errors in the connection, right? They may be fine for CB and hammers, but are not good for anything in GMRS if you are wanting to reduce error points and get the most out of your signal. I don't even want to know what the knockoff, barely-in-spec Amazon connectors rate. Some of them are out-of-spec when you get them and can actually cause damage to the good connector it's mating with (overspreading spring-loaded contacts, ablating insulators, paint/coatings too thick causing wear, coatings causing resistance, etc). I've just fixed a laptop that somebody shoved a cheap Amazon HDMI cable into - the plastic moulding was too small and shoved the whole HDMI insert out the back of the plug, ripping every trace off the motherboard. That's what happens with the knockoff stuff. I'll use a CCR anyday, but I'll replace plugs, mics, and other components that are pure trash first. TNC, BNC, SMA, and MMC were all created for the higher frequencies, hence why you'll never find a PL/SO connector on any high-end diag gear.

Amphenol makes IP67 rated BNCs. They're pretty much all I use for BNC work.

I tend to avoid cotton bags as they hold moisture and can mold. I usually use things that can be dessicated or are polymer based to avoid the moisture. As far as the antennas go, I'd suggest getting some drill bit tubes (McMaster: https://www.mcmaster.com/products/drill-bit-tubes/). They slide open/closed with notches to stop. They'll 1) keep the antennas from being banged or bent, 2) keep the connectors free from lint or dirt, and 3) makes it easier to find smaller antennas so they don't disappear into the bottom of a bag.

All connectors have a mating cycle rating by the manufacturer. Some connectors are designed to last longer (usually nickel plated), others are more limited (gold plated). Spring connector points (like the center pin in BNC) will get weak from excessive cycles and that can cause slight resistance changes, usually when under high current loads. For low power, you'd probably never notice. But for higher power, you may see some arcing or surface burns if the contact gets a weak point. Also, the plating wears off and that can induce oxidation on the base metal. Slight burrs in the manufacturing can cause premature wear too. Nickel connectors actually have a harder plating so they typically last longer. However, the issue is that nickel also oxidizes easier so gold plating was added to consumer electronic connectors to prevent this. In the pro audio world (not audiofools), nickel is the preferred plating. However, it also requires a cleaning discipline to wipe connectors often. The best thing to do is to be sure that the connector points are lubricated if you plan on doing a lot of connection/disconnection. In the electronics/sound world, DeOxit Red works great to preventing premature wear and galling of the plating surface which also reduces oxidation in moist environments and makes the connectors last longer. Sacrificial connector/adapters are also nice, but add length to the stack. Some antennas, like Smileys, have the replaceable connector end, so that makes for a serviceable assembly if the connector started getting worn or loose.

And then you get the people who drill out the hole, going too deep, right into the diaphragm on the capsule. I've had to fix dozens of handsets, both in the audio and radio world for people because of their attempts to do this heavy handedly. It's usually best to open it up, pull the board, then drill. Sometimes, simply using a countersinker and putting a bevel on the soundhole entrance does better than enlarging the hole. And for some of these radios, it's not actually the hole *size*, but that the cheap plastic castings are out of alignment with the capsule entrance hole. I took all the KMC-21a and KMC-45d handpieces and replaced the Kenwood mic elements with Panasonic WM series for higher sensitivity and resolution. Use the elements that Pana makes for multi-track voice recorders or high-res capture handhelds and it sounds 1000x better.