mbrun

No issue whatsoever. Just make sure the radio is off when you are not in the vehicle so it does not drain your battery. During the past year I had my little GPS plugged in and left it one when I parked car during this covid crisis. I did not drive it for two weeks. When I went to get in, battery was dead dead. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

A agree with keeping the coax as short as practical. The longer the run the higher the performance of the coax you will need. Here is a picture of me within the last 30 days having my own field day with the push-up mast for my home. Antenna is 56’ in the air. From a step ladder the antenna can be raised to full height and the coax secured to the mast in just a few minutes. It can be lowered in the same same amount of time. The mast will soon move to its permanent home immediately next to the house where it will secured and guyed. I was amazed how plumb this unit remained at full extension, even without guys. Here is the unit I am using. https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dxe-tfk46-hd Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

The following website will help you determine if there are an hills (elevation changes) that could contribute to coverage differences between one direction and another. It is worth experimenting with. https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ Recently, after raising my antenna to 56’, I discovered that I still could not reach one particular repeater in town. I used the above tool to get a sense of why. It became immediately obvious. The tool showed there are two consequential hills between my home and the repeater. I now know that the repeater is not one I will ever be able to work reliably unless I am mobile and in a different part of town BTW, I do not know if the tool takes into account earth curvature. If not, the blockage is even worse. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

JeepAndy. The first ‘external’ antenna I purchased was for my vehicle. I purchased the mag-mount NMO style and I use it constantly with the HT while mobile. BUT, when I first received it, I experimented with it in and around the home. Once on just a metal trash can lid, an another on the bottom of a metal trash, another on a cookie sheet. And yes, experimenting even included putting them up on my roof. Good thing my home is set way back from the road. [emoji3] Why do I mention this? In my case I purchased something I know I needed for one purpose, then leveraged that purchase for educational purposes which helped me learn and decide what I really wanted to do on the home. Learning is a wonderful thing. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Good day, and welcome to GMRS. Last question first. No, I can’t recommend a cheaper starter radio than what you have. So on the Antenna issue. In GMRS, antenna height is absolutely the most import ingredient in achieving radio range. Height is important for two reasons. First, the higher the antenna the further the signal can travel before it is blocked by the horizon of the earth. Second, because every obstacle (tree, pole, building, hill, etc...) that is between your antenna and other person’s antenna degrades usable range, and typically quite dramatically at that. I have and have regularly used the Ed Fong rollup J-Pole antenna, designed mostly for portable use. He also makes one for permanent installation. They are simple and very flexible antennas. The latter could be a good one to mount on the railing of your apartment. If you could give it some height, you would even be better off. If you have repeaters that you can access with your HT right now from your balcony, these antennas will definitely represent a marked improvement for you. Just about any antenna made for portable use could be adapted as well for your application. A mobile mag-mount antenna sitting on a pizza pan or other flat metal service outside (or inside). The pizza pan in this examples satisfies the need for a ground plane that many/most mobile antennas require to perform per manufacture specs. Some folks, even just put a mobile antenna on top of their refrigerator. There are even some after market ground plan kits available for use with NMO mobile antennas which may open up mounting options for you. Knowing what I know, and if I were in your shoes, I would choose one of the Ed-Fong antenna due to their simplicity, ability to make them inconspicuous and ease at which they could be further elevated on a pole on your balcony, perhaps without drawing unnecessary attention. One thing is for absolute sure. Any working external antenna you add to your radio is going to be an improvement over the stock rubber duck antenna that came with your radio. So there you have it. One man’s opinion to get you started. Again, Welcome. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Yes, you will always need a power supply rated a least equal to what the equipment is rated to draw. You are very wise to upsize. Most generally speaking, the closer you approach the maximum rated output of your power supply the more the voltage on the power supply will dip. Good practice to add 25-50% or more extra capacity IMO. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

The rigid 20’ rule was removed in the 2017 (current) version of the Part 95 rules, either accidentally or on purpose. Paragraph 95.1741 now covers antenna height. That paragraph redirects to 95.317 where it is described that antenna structures of 200’ or more may require FAA registration and where restrictions on antenna heights near airports are described. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Welcome to myGMRS. We all look forward to your participation in the knowledge share. Regards Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Hello Don. I do not believe that ‘most, if not all users are talking through repeaters linked to the internet’. I believe that is a misconception. I do not have any way to know what percentage are actually connected to the internet, but my best guess it is lower single digit percentage. There is both utility and novelty to linked repeaters. It has its place. In the event of a national or regional emergency and telecommunications where interrupted then yes, linked repeaters would loose their ability to communicate with linked repeaters. Those repeaters however would still retain their utilitarian local communication capability which is huge. Also, in a grid-down scenario the local repeaters can still serve their purpose if the owner prepared for this eventuality. I would venture a guess (and that is all it is) that perhaps less than 10% of all are equipped for grid-down scenarios lasting more than 1/2 day. Hams in general would not be crippled. Amateur radio operators have many means of communication available to them. If power and internet both went down, either locally or country wide, properly equipped hams can still communication locally, nationally and internationally. Yes, they may loose the ability to use what linked repeaters or reflectors that are accustomed to, but they can just switch to a different mode of amateur communications. Many can and do communicate radio to radio around the world regularly. Many can relay emails from one radio to another. Many practice sending, receiving and delivery of ‘radiograms’ daily. The more diverse the amateur is the more opportunities exist to them, and the more we will all rely on them in a time of crisis. Regards, Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I personally use only N-connectors on my antennas (where available) and on my primary runs of coax between radio and antenna. I do and will use adapters or adapter cables at the radio end as necessary. I have no compelling reason to undergo the hassle of changing a connector out on a radio before or until the connector fails. There simply is no meaningful benefit to me to justify the effort. Would I consider switching to N on the radio if it needed to be replaced? Maybe. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Hello Mike. The primary reason I have my GMRS license is as means for family communications. Mobile to mobile, mobile to home, around home and more. It also serves as source of emergency communications for and with the family and neighborhood. Basically it serves as a utility service for me. Yes, I do use it to communicate with other GMRS’r too, mostly while mobile, occasionally from home. I have my ham license for a variety of reasons. As a hobby and means to experiment and learn. As a means to connect with others in a fun way, both local and world wide. As a means to help with civic events and perhaps be prepared to help the community during a time of natural disaster or other local or national emergency. It also serves as a means to connect with others with like interests. No one in the family has interest in amateur radio. The have not the interest to study for it, invest in it, nor interest in ‘talking radio’ with others. Both work for me exactly the way I want them too. GMRS is utility. Ham is hobby and personal interest. Hope that helps. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Good Morning. Honestly, I do not believe you would able to tell the difference in range between the two models, assuming both are properly installed and working correctly and both are mounted at the same elevation. Something you should know is that VHF and UHF frequencies are what are called ‘line of sight’ frequencies. This means that if two antennas operating on these frequencies can see one another, odds are great the radios connected to them can communicate with one another, even with minimum power. But in reality every tree, plant, tower, building, pole, hill or hump you put between the two antennas reduces effective range. To determine your theoretical best case scenario you start by calculating the radio horizon distance for the two radios that you wish to communicate with one another. Below are some links for you to play with. These calculators assume the earth is a perfectly smooth sphere. As you will see, the higher the Tx and Rx antennas are, the greater the theoretical distance. For two antennas located at 6’ each, the maximum theoretical distance is a mere 6 miles. For the case where one antenna is 35’ and the other is 6’, the maximum theoretical is 11 miles. Both antennas at 35’ and the maximum increases to 16 miles. But since the earth is not smooth (has hills and valleys) and has natural and man-made obstacles (trees and buildings) range is nearly always dramatically reduced. In far fewer cases it goes way up (consider radios on two different mountain tops). You may ask what is the radio horizon. The radio horizon is the point at which (in any horizontal direction) the radio wave is blocked by the surface of the earth. It is nearly the same as your eyes. Go out on a boat on smooth ocean waters. If your eyes are at 6’ above the water, the horizon you see is only a mere 3 miles away. The higher you are above the earth surface, the further away the horizon is that you see. It is the presence of this blocking horizon that prevents the signal from traveling further around the earth. https://www.qsl.net/w4sat/horizon.htm https://www.everythingrf.com/rf-calculators/line-of-sight-calculator https://www.southwestantennas.com/calculator/line-of-sight Hope this helps. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Do you have an SWR meter, an antenna analyzer, or a NanoVNA? The antenna system is the first thing to check in my view. The antenna system includes everything from the connector that connects the feed-line to the radio all the way to the tip of the antenna. You need to know that that is working correctly. Checking the SWR is the simplest thing to check. Case in point. Over the last 6 weeks I have been doing quite a bit of testing. One day I was talking 50 miles with nice clear, clean signal. The next day I could barely reach 5. What changed? I was using the same antenna, adapters, radio, location, power, etc. Something had to change. Yep, one of the connector-to-coax connections had failed. Yes, the connectors were still on the cable and looked fine, but when I hooked up the antenna analyzer in place of the radio it told a different story. There it was plain as day, a super high (off the chart) SWR. Fiddled around, took a gamble on which connector I thought it might have been, replaced it, checked cable again and all is good with the world. And the cable was a high-priced pre-manufactured one. For all my subsequent tests I started the day by hooking up my analyzer first. If you do not have at least an SWR meter, I recommend obtaining one. More times that not, it is the simple things. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

What have you changed (or are doing different) between when you had 7 miles and now 3? Everything is suspect. Exact location of radios, antennas, plus cables, adapters, weather conditions are just some of the variables. I must admit that 7 sounds like a fluke, 3 sounds more realistic, but I do not know anything about your surroundings, environment and test conditions. Consider elaborating. Perhaps some ideas will come to mind. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

If you can obtain the FCC ID that is required to be on radio near the serial number, you can look that ID up on the FCC website to see what it is certified for. According to my local Kenwood rep (about 3-weeks ago) they no longer manufacturer a radio certified for GMRS. But I understand they used to. Although not technical legal, many folks prefer to use the high-quality more costly Part 90 certified radios as opposed to the lesser cost and quality ‘legal’ part 95e or 95a certified radios. I am sure one of the kenwood users on this forum will chime in. Welcome to the forum. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

If you are saying that the stock antenna that came with the MX105 is a 6dBi antenna, I believe that to be in error. At best, it may be 2dBi. The short little midland antenna does need a ground plan, where as some others can benefit from one, but do not need them to achieve acceptable performance. Midland does make a 6dBi version. I own one and find that it does quite well. Even mounted on top of a metal trashcan lid. I believe the Laird antenna you reference is similar. Height is King in GMRS. Get the antenna well above the tree line and you could find yourself achieving simplex distances of 20-50 miles and more. As the antenna elevation drops so too will your usable range. With an elevation of 4-6 off the ground your usable simplex distance could be down to 1/2 - 2 miles or so depending upon the obstacles between the transmitting and receiving antennas. I recently did some testing with a local ham and GMRS’r. I had a high-gain antenna at 56’ (still below tree tops) and could not communicate 8 miles to another location were we testing. Only thing significant between the two antennas was loads and loads of trees (no hills or tall buildings). Using same antenna, radio and power (5 watts) we reached a good 50 miles going a different direction where fewer trees and other obstacles existed between the antennas. Never under estimate the importance of height when it comes to GMRS distance. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I say it is not worth the wait. Get you license and be done with it so you can get on the air. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Welcome to the group Sal. Enjoy the forum. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Nagoya also makes a 771 version for GMRS, model is ‘NA-771G’. I own two of them. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Welcome to GMRS. Enjoy the forum. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Welcome to the forum. Enjoy. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

All radios are Motorola or Motorola/Vertex. VX-261 EVX-S24 EVX-534 XPR6550 XPR7550 Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

The fact that your radios are side by side is not an issue. A radio-enthusiast’s shack is full of radios, often times online at the same time but connected to different antennas. You are correct. A transceiver is both a transmitter and receiver, hence the name. Within a transceiver, the receiver is internally disconnected from the antenna when the transmitter is in use. If this was not done, yes the internal transmitter would/could fry the internal receiver, which by design is intended to pickup low level signals. If you have multiple transceivers in your radio shack, it is a certainty that when you are transmitting on one of them, this signal will have an impact on the performance of all transceivers that are currently listening. That is normal. However, the higher the quality the receiver, the better the quality of installation practice, the less of an issue this is Hope this helps. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Welcome to the forum. Welcome to GMRS. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Thanks you Radioguy, the radios have arrived. What a wonder opportunity. 7 radios, 5 different models. I will report back my findings to this group pending completion of my evaluation. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM