tweiss3

This. I used a hammer the first time, was too much effort. Looking to drive another one soon, so I bought a hammer drill (keep saying I need one for various projects), I'm not doing one by hand again.

Good deal. Enjoy it, thanks for the pictures.

I would suggest you contact Oklahoma State Department of Homeland Security, which is who those interop frequencies are licensed to. It should also be noted, you likely won't get anyone on those frequencies. Looking at the license, the emissions designator is for P25, and considering the state has gone to P25 for OMACS there is likely not a single soul that will be listening to analog NFM to even pick up your call for help.

True, though how many analog repeaters are dead silent day in and day out. The point of digital in my opinion is to have options to reach further than the local RF footprint. I often have a good 5-10 minute qso from people in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati or even Toledo, all of which wouldn't ever be in range (with the exception of 1 repeater than manages to reach Canada and WV on a good propagation day). My real point is poor internet connections kill the DMR exprience, and lets be honest, the local use (RF to RF) is non existent. Look at this repeaters last used: And it's coverage is pretty massive. It's also been offline 95% of the time due to internet connection issues.

I would agree, the property setup stuff sounds great. Even further, a Moto or Hunters DMR repeater is hard to setup badly out of the box. We have a handful of the multimode repeater that sound good, but the technical team that maintains these those are really good and have the proper equipment. The biggest problem with DMR repeaters appears to be maintaining a good reliable internet connection. The Anytone sounds like junk no matter what, but it's loud, which is what many people like. Sound quality is exceptional on the XPR and SL radios, even on a hotspot. I even bought an SL7550 just for at home hotspot use, and it's always on the Ohio talkgroups 247. My CS800Ds do sound good, not as good as the Motos but much better than the trash Anytone.

I do it all the time. And not just by the bumper sticker, I do it via APRS as well, and I can call them out via call sign directly then, as I also have a distance between me and them too.

Well since there are so many limitations on what is not permitted on GMRS, I am guessing the only use for fixed stations in GMRS would be RF Links between repeater. Essentially use another repeater on the same site at 15 watts max on a different pair with a Yagi pointed at the other repeater site, creating a wide area repeater network without IP or any other infrastructure.

eCFR Title 47, Chapter I, Subchapter D, 95.303: Definitions "Fixed station. A station at a fixed location that directly communicates with other fixed stations only."

Is this simplex or via repeater? What does it sound like, just an open microphone, or is it a heterodyne sound like a perfect double between two stations? Could it be a station on a close frequency that may be overmodulated?

I have the Larsen NMO2/70sh with the spring base, it's commercial partner is the NMO150/450/758 (is also on the roof for my scanner) which would be the one tuned better for GMRS. Both get wacked off the parking deck at the hospital often, and even get beat up by the car wash without any issues.

That depends entirely on antenna height, and I would guess it is 250'+ in the air. Typically a home station is 50' or less, and short of going higher, I personally think it's better to take out losses that aren't necessary to every day operations.

If it was me, I'd leave it out. I was tuning up my repeater this weekend, verifying operation/programming/power/alignment before I move on to getting it on the air, and the little 2' N to PL259 jumper and one PL259 to N cable was worth 0.5db, add in the 0.3 for the meter, and that is on its way to significant loss.

I do not either. I do check occasionally, but I don't see it necessary. I'm assuming you are talking the SW102, which does have 0.3db insertion loss, plus adapters/connectors, so leaving it inline isn't "free", but it's not that much loss. Up to you. Do you have your cables terminated directly in N connectors, or are you using adapters?

@liahju What makes you think it needs adjustment? I'm assuming you have the tools/software to program it, correct? I guess, what are the symptoms you are having? Or is it more/less you think it might need adjustment? pull the duplexer cable off the transmit side and put a power meter on it. Verify frequency accuracy and power, it may not need anything. There is a great resource called Repeater Builder, and they have a whole section on that series of Motorola radios/repeaters: https://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/r1225/r1225-overview.html

This is different, as its still the same "service".

Linear in wavelength, not linear in effect on the antenna SWR, especially many mobile antennas that have coils/capacitance in the bases.

The term "backup" has many stages, and isn't quite limited to just one method. I have enough batteries for my primary to last about a week, I have a small fleet of radios that could last about a week with limited usage, and that's just the handhelds. I also have the vehicular radios, then there are options for HF radio as well.

http://mpe.motorolasolutions.com/?loc=US-EN&country=US&_ga=2.102775686.727244065.1641473426-771743660.1635522308 Those are all the PA dealers for Motorola, 2 are in Philadelphia.

That really isn't bad at all, actually quite comparable to the commercial UHF antenna I have. Actually looks similar to the Tram1480 I have for my base station. Thanks for the input. Anyone have the X300a they could sweep?

If I remember, the stick itself is plug and play, there wasn't a driver required (that may be wrong, its been a few years). Problem with the RTL-SDR is it can only see 3.4MHz width at a time. For listening/logging, I use SDRTrunk software.

What are you attempting to do with the RTL-SDR? I have a handful of them that I use from time to time.

Thanks. Both cut off their claimed performance at the edge of the band. I suspect the X300a would be better, as the dip on the GP6 looked pretty sharp.

Does anyone have sweeps of the Diamond X300a or the Comet GP6? I'm in need of a 10' dual band antenna that will handle GMRS + VHF ham, and unfortunately I can't get a hold of a DB-315.

Congrats. I only skimmed above, so if I am repeating things, sorry. The 9800 is a ccr copy of Yaesus 8900. While it's still cheaper, it's probably a good start. It will do 2m, 70cm, 6m and 10m, bit FM only. You do have all of 6m to use as well as a tech, and there are tribband 2/70/6 antennas available. As for SSB, there isn't much, if any, traffic on 2m, and barely any on 6m, so you won't be missing much.

Can you post a sweep of the X50A through 462-468?