AdmiralCochrane

On my MXT400 narrow works just fine on the repeaters near me

Just FCC requirement. There are many old hams and ex military that can read it that fast. Its also legal for you to use prerecorded/digital Morse Code as your station ID.

Yes using the calculator linked, I see the same length ~19" That the antenna mentioned is dual band explains the extra length; I didn't see that in the original mention. I think Ed makes single band antennas too, so without the dual band mention, I didn't know why a longer one was mentioned.

These answers don't directly answer my question. 65cm (the wavelength of the GMRS band) is ~25 inches. A half wave antenna would be ~12 inches. My home made Slim JIM (which gives me swr's below 1.17) is about 19 inches overall including the lower loop. Wouldn't a properly tuned J pole for GMRS will be about the same size?

Why would one use a 5 ft antenna on a 65cm band radio?

I used an old piece of RG8 between my 400 and my swr/power meter and it ate up 45% of the power output. Changed to direct connection at the back of the radio and now measure 40 watts. UHF is very easy to leak out of coax and any bad or weak connectors are signal killers

Midland still has the MSRP at $249.99, but all the common sales locations bumped them to $299.99 I got mine for $229.00 from Northern Tools, because I had a $20 off coupon Lowes no longer shows the kit, only the 400 alone at MSRP

I use Chirp for all my other Baofengs, but there isn't a Chirp version for the Mini

CCR's are the free samples of crack of the radio world. I bought a 70cm Baofeng Mini when they were on sale for about $10 shipped not realizing to get it programmed the way I wanted it would cost more for the programming cable than I paid for the radio. Then the programming software wouldn't run on my Mac and I had to program it from the Dell laptop I use at work. I have several of the local 70cm repeaters programmed into it but have never had the opertunity to try it close enough to hit any of them. It does receive if you are line of sight to the towers at least 5 miles away, I have done that with it; its almost worth the $10 for that alone.

Ditto

TerraWave TWS-400 has the same rated db loss and moisture resistance for about 80 cents per foot from The Antenna Farm. They cut custom lengths and will put whatever connectors you want (or none) on either or both ends at a reasonalbe price.

Looking at similar equipment on eBay, I noticed one seller noting that some of his resale items may be password protected that might take extra work to brick and reset. Buying from a seller like Used-Radios.com is going to get you a guaranteed ready to use machine; worth an extra few bucks in my book.

We had ducting in MD last week ahead of the weather front and got full signals from upstate NY and central MA. A guy in MA looked up our local repeater PL and joined our morning net; sounded better than some of the locals.

Companders are what make cell phones sound like 'regular' phones and not the cheap wireless junk that was first on the market. In olden times, you could tell when someone was on a wire at home or holding a cordless. Back in the stone-age of cell phones, Fujitsu was the first handheld using a compander. People where shocked when they called my number and discovered I was on a cell because the voice quality didn't give it away. Yeah, I rode dinosaurs too.

Did anyone else notice that the MXT-400 price seems to have jumped $50 everywhere during the past 2 or 3 weeks?

After my wife figured out I had the com cable driver and Midland software on different ports, I got my MXT400 programed as I want it. Confirmed you can program the blank channels to something new and that the radio recieves 70cm HAM just fine if you program it to receive it. I have 8-14 programed to monitor nearby 70cm repeaters as a convenience. When I first turned my radio on after programming and went thru the channels with the dial or hit scan, it only went up to 22, but when I pressed the up button on the mic, it went all the way thru all 30 channels and now always sees the repeater channels. May have needed to be cycled on and off again or something like that. Still waiting on 65 ft of LMR 400 to do my permenant antenna mount above my roof line.

It took me several tries, but Facebook finally showed me the posts from mid-May. It really was a lot to search thru the way Facebook presents itself to my browser and computer. My wife almost always sees things a day ahead of me, even when I click most recent. Thanks again for the help (and the picky details).

Could you point out the rude part of my comment? I asked for secondary help, no sarcasm or rudeness in the text. I truly wanted to know how far down to scroll. Thanks for the detail I was hoping to find. Is there a time limit on how far back the search feature works on? I really used it and came up blank.

I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and I used the search feature. Came up completely blank. I don't ask for help unless its just not visable at all, I didn't ask just because it wasn't in the top 10 posts, I couldn't find it all.

Has anyone tried programing the blanked out unused FRS center numbered channels to monitor 70cm HAM repeaters? Waiting for my programing cable, already wrote it into my software.

I see the data port, but the Midland plug does not seem to be that type. The generic cord on Amazon is an octopus. How would I know which of the 3 or 4 that have the correct plug diameter is the correct one if it is this port?

How far down? I looked thru it and its like saying you will find the answer in the newspaper.

Clarification question: Does the MXT400 program thru the microphone port? The Midland programming cable appears to have an 8 pin rj45 and its one of the octopus ends on the generic cable on Amazon.

Many thanks to all who have chimed in on this thread. I guess I better get on this. I am attempting to make a Slim JIM for the repeater part of the band, having it attached to an actual functional radio should make a difference.