tweiss3

Very interesting. I wonder if your shielding fabric on the cable will help.

Isn't the 6666 FM only? Kinda missing the point of modding for 11m, right?

https://www.tinysa.org/wiki/ Its like the NanoVNA, but its a spectrum analyzer. I have one, and its a pretty neat tool. You can buy it from R&L: http://www.randl.com/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=75243&osCsid=ds1r4m541l1jqb3o0g37bvcoi7

No, removing the antenna just means the radio is receiving the signal, and it's not due to a direct contact on the coax. If you had a TinySA, you could remove the antenna from the receive port and start getting it closer to spots around/on the head unit to see where the signal is radiating from.

You need the Kenwood software KPG-99D (v1.55), which works on windows 7 and 10. The cable needs to be an FTDI USB to RJ-45 8 pin cable, look up bluemax49er on ebay, that's where I got mine.

I've never heard of them, but the reviews on eHam are pretty good: https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=7842 For $65 and a weekend project the SWM3-1018 doesn't seem like a looser by any means.

If it is a common mode RF, all the grounding you did of the radio may be feeding RF into the chassis.

It appears that radio has a iDatalink which is a CAN bus link to the OEM body controls and information. See if you can turn that off completely.

Well, that just makes the GMRS radio deaf. How close is this antenna to the FM antenna? What antenna are you using for GMRS? What is the model number for the Pioneer unit? I wonder if there is feedback up the FM antenna of some kind. I'd be interested to do some research on the model.

Jeeps/Dodge in general are notorious excessive RFI across the board. Yes, cheap power transformers for usb power do usually cause RFI as well.

CH. 2 is shared with FRS, and is perfectly ok for business use.

I think he is asking if you used guy wires to secure the mast, and ensure the guy wires are all below the antenna. I would also suggest making sure any clamps and the mast pole are within the bottom 10" (clamp area). See if you can adjust it to be only 8" or so from the bottom. Also, check the N connectors, that pins are not bent and they are all tight.

In testing the DMR theory, I grammes my 878, turned it on, tuned to the frequency, turned on the digi monitor, and it recognizes there is a signal, but does not decode it as DMR.

When you ordered, did you tell him it is for GMRS? His jpole is wonderful, but it is only for 10MHz bandwidth. Outside of that tuned 10MHz, bandwidth spikes pretty quickly.

I was bored on the way home from work (scanner was slow), so I flipped over to GMRS. On channel 20, I kept hearing a approximately 3s burst come across the radio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zzv_86znSQPPI0RYIFJiZ7p20m9VUyHM/view?usp=sharing This repeated every minute for the 10+ minutes I had left to get home, so I recorded it. I jumped on the FCC to do a search for this frequency, and got zero results with location and radius of 50 miles. Any idea what it is?

Yes, you will need a DMR radio and either a local repeater that is on the TGIF network, or a hotspot (like the MMDVM). You then need to register your call sign for a DMR ID.

Does it when you switch it to the back 259 port? I figured it did on the front BNC because that is designed for the rubber duck in the box.

So I will end with a few questions, then say what I would consider fully prepared (if it were me making the plans). 1) What is YOUR GMRS equipment? Are you on a HT, or a mobile with magmount? Which transceiver do you have? I ask because some of the dual watch and/or NOAA weather capabilities are in many now. 2) How do you handle the extended power outage with your radio equipment? What would I do? This is a tough call, but is a mixture of equipment I already have, what I know of your area (and based on information available) and my understanding of hurricane evacuations. Do NOT take this as a list of what you must have, as obviously, you have more experience and history with these situations. Also, note, I have my General license and privileges. I would consider your preparations to be a continually shifting plan of attack. 1) First and foremost, as you probably have phased evacuation plans, make a written plan for each evacuation zone. If that means there are 3 different places you could evacuate to, research all three places (local radio systems, first responders systems, is GMRS available on local repeaters, what digital modes are used, etc.). You will never be able to get that information on the go, count on cell phones/internet to go down. 2) KEEP your current GMRS plan, improve when possible. A GMRS HT that can also listen to NOAA weather is helpful. 3) Install a 50W mobile dual band radio in the car, even if it means using a mag-mount antenna. This will double your communication capabilities. Me, I would just use my CS800D (DMR and Analog). In addition to my local repeater frequencies, I would have a zone of analog frequencies for each spot I could end up, plus each DMR repeater will have its own zone. I will also have 146.52 & 446.00 simplex in the radio as well. 4) FT-817 connected to mag mount CB antenna to listen to hurricane net. 817 will come inside with me when arriving, and I would have antennas for HF in addition to the rubber ducky that works on 2M/70cm/6m. I have two end fed half wave antenna (40m-10m & 80m-10m) plus a GRA-1899T telescoping vertical. 5) I would have a way to monitor local power company, police, ems, public works and DOT. This gets complicated, but I have a Uniden SDS100 scanner that would handle your area. It also has a GPS, so when evacuating, it could jump systems in the database to listen to the local PD when I would get into the area. I could expand more if you want in PM to not muck up this thread with scanner information, but based on your area: Duke Energy uses a 900MHz Moto Smartnet Type II trunking radio system Pinellas County has their own 800MHz P25 Phase 1 system FL has a statewide 800MHz EDACS system Other inland counties have 700/800MHz P25 or EDACS systems All of these above systems can be scanned with a SDS100 or SDS200. 6) Keep car chargers and wall chargers for all radios in the radio back ready to go. Again, thats just what I would do. It does seem overboard when I type it out, but then again, I do have all that equipment laying around, and absolutely does not mean you should go out and buy a bunch of stuff right now. I only posted it to get you thinking. Again, study for the test, you should go for it.

I would happen to agree, though, part of his situation is a little different. Here is why I agree with his sentiment. In any SHTF situation, you cannot, and should not, rely on others yo udo not personally know. You can only rely on you and your party, and what you have prepared for. You currently have a GMRS communication plan. GREAT!!! Do not deviate from that. I think its great, and it allows all family members, old or young, participate. I think you have a huge part hurdle figured out there. I say stick with it, unless you can get every member of your convoy licensed on ham (I really doubt it). But here is the other point, and the reason I say still go for you ham license. Its not that hard to get tech, and even general is marginally more information to remember. In the event of evacuation, besides communication with your party, INFORMATION is the next most important thing. While you shouldn't count on other ham operators to save you, there listening may provide plenty of benefit. Listening to 146.52 and 446.00, as well as local repeaters can provide invaluable information from others evacuating. Beyond that, there is other information from emergency response that can be heard on HF: 14.325MHz USB and 7.268MHz LSB (main) for hurricane net information 3.815MHz LSB is marritime mobile/waterway net 3.950MHZ LSB (N. FL) & 3.945MHz LSB (S. FL) is the Caribbean Net 14.265MHz USB is Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network Get the amateur radio license, expand your knowledge, and make a plan. Don't think you can make it up on the go. True. Like I said above, his situation is a bit different than the usual SHTF prepper, as his situation relies on evacuation, not bunker down and protect the family. See, your GMRS plan worked. Amateur radio can help expand that. Your last problem is power, as you noted. That is something you can work on improving. The tail of the dragon. I must go back soon. I haven't yet traveled while licensed, but plan on changing that this summer, besides vacation, I'm planning on SOTA and PTOA activations this year.

Yaesu FT-818 or FT-817, will do down to 1/2watt and has a standard 259 plug on the back.

APRS is a viable option with the few exceptions: 1) Need an active gateway to receive the signals during the entire trip. 2) Every radio must have a ham licensed operator, already stated is a problem 3) It does rely on the internet, could be spotty at times 4) Doesn't mean a lot to someone receiving if they don't know what they are looking at. If APRS is desired, the Kenwood D74A is really good at APRS, I love mine. I'm still taking my 817 on vacation instead of the Kenwood.

True. I have an 817, and its supposed to be MARS/CAP, but I haven't tried it. I was assuming he already has GMRS equipment, and this would be an additional unit. Besides, he will get better information on 14.325MHz during a hurricane than the NOAA weather (which he will likely have on his GMRS HT).

Agreed. Have an 817/818 to test it with?

Looking at your county (https://repeaterbook.com/repeaters/Display_SS.php?state_id=12&band=4&loc=%&call=%&use=%) you have only two digital modes available, DMR & D-Star. DMR is available on used commercial equipment and plenty of ham options (Anytone, ConnectSystems, etc.). D-Star is Icom & Kenwood radios YSF (Yaesu System Fusion) is Yaesu only. If you want digital, you want to get equipment that is backed by your local repeaters. Personally, I'd look into DMR, only because its wide availability across the nation. When the hurricane hits, how far do you travel? If just inland FL, there are plenty of DMR repeaters around: https://repeaterbook.com/repeaters/feature_search.php?state_id=12&type=DMR including a linked DMR system in Tampa https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=8844 . If you are going further north, there is a very large linked system. I run DMR radios in my cars, Connect Systems CS800D, and use them mostly for analog, but DMR is nice when its late and nobody is on the analog repeaters. It's also a Part 90 commercial radio, for what its worth to you. I would look at reputable radio shops like Universal Radio (RIP, but site is still in tact), DX Engineering, R&L Radio, Ham Radio Outlet. I would take a look reading reviews of the available radios online. I understand the challenges of not drilling, but you could certainly get a full power mobile rig in your car without drilling. The antenna could be mag mounted, or even trunk/hatch lip mounted a Comptenna, which I hear works well on the corner of a car/trunk. Then you could get 50W of power, but the radio will be suck to that car. If you are concerned about keeping GMRS, keep in mind ham radios will not transmit on GMRS frequencies (or MURS). They are all locked out. Part 90 radios would be the closest you would get to compliance, without buying a really expensive dual deck mobile and expensive programming equipment to get Part 90/95 radios. If you are still insistent on a portable radio, don't sleep on the Yaesu FT818. It is a portable base-like radio that will do 6W of power on all modes (FM, SSB, CW & Packet Digital) on 70cm, 2m, 6m and all of HF (10m-160m). As a technician, you have access to all of 6m and a portion of 10m SSB. One of the best features, with just the rubber ducky that comes in the box, you can use it on 2m, 70cm and 6m. Don't sleep on 6m. There are a number of things to think about: 1) How much radio stuff are you going to take with you (either mounted in the car, or go bag of portables). 2) Power when on the go, batteries will wear out, how will you charge on the go. 3) Where do you usually evacuate, and what systems are in place there and on the way. 4) How much are you willing to spend? 5) How do you intend to keep GMRS in operation? 6) Do you plan on going beyond Tech to General or Extra? I hope I didn't give you too much to think about, but I do hope I helped. I'd be happy to answer any of your additional questions too.

A few days late to this thread, but I would put money on the HT being the radiator. The HD is designed to be the counterpoise/ground plane for the rubber ducky, and therefore would probably radiate more so than the dummy load. I would be interested to see this test done with a mobile unit, where it's designed with shielding to direct all RF to the coax.