AdmiralCochrane

If both devices are 100% accurate, the difference can be explained by the different load presented on both the coax and the antenna, more likely the coax. You haven't told us the type of coax or the length or the transmitting power. What you are seeing is likely cable loss - some power not getting to the antenna (being absorbed on the way up) and some power not reaching the SWR meter on reflection (some power being absorbed on the way back down). The skew of the readings agrees with this. (WOW, I got to use "skew" in a sentence!) Moving the SWR meter to the other end of the coax may or may not confirm this. Also possibly changing the transmit power. A way to help most people understand this is a dummy load on the end of the coax. The SWR of a dummy load (in ideal conditions) is exactly 1:1 because all of the energy is consumed at the dummy load end; NONE is reflected back. Some time back someone posted that they measured 1:1 SWR with a dummy load. As a joke, I posted "I hope so." Only a few people got it.

I think the critique was mostly regarding off-road rough trail driving. Mall crawling is a lot easier on antenna mounting.

In practice those readings are so close I would not have given it a second thought.

I'm less worried about my pole falling over than I am about the wind breaking my antenna. I may devise some scheme to lower it so I could put it back up after a storm.

That's not just frequencies, that's different assigned bands. Fine for SHTF operation, but completely contrary to regs before then. 156.5750 is in the marine band. FCC and USCG definitely monitor marine band and hunt down land based violators. Another exception is, a fairly narrow slice of spectrum like this is easily monitored by a very fast scanner that would hear it all.

SSTV is still a thing. There is a club near me that is big into it.

dosw nailed it. That's how radio works. /end thread

Yeah I was looking at that radio when it came out

Unless you drive a Jeep

Marc, I am going to get an FM CB sometime in the next year or two, but haven't decided how or where to mount it in my Jeep. Pretty sure we are only an hour or so apart (depending on traffic). We can probably both hit some of the same repeaters that are between us. I actually haven't tried them in a while

Don't confound government agency opinion with its actual regulations.

Uncle Charlie definitely frowns on people trying to own entire bands. Again, the actions of a few spoiling something that could benefit many.

What is the frequency Kenneth?

A 90-341 type relay is a 2 pole double throw relay with a 120v coil with each contact rated for 15 amps. If you use both poles you are 15x2 amps. It is the second most common relay in HVAC/R work ... the most common being the 90-340, same relay with 24v coil

I read in the first post he is using a 50w GMRS radio.

Reuters seems to know more about this than Massad

Emergency comms is not the focus of GMRS, nor is GMRS particularly useful for E comm; that is why it is little used as such. GMRS is good for what it is good for.

LMR 400 is perfect for 50 - 60 ft runs. Maybe even 100. If most of your 100 is up, the height gain will more than offset the power loss.

Follow the money

This is what I come here for.

In my experience those with use more than 10% of the time are usually used by people who won't let you get a word in edgewise and/or you don't want to listen to anyway.

Like Randy says if you need durability, stick with the Motorola XP 5000

A couple blocks in a residential neighborhood is normal range for GMRS handhelds. Other factors such as antenna polarization also come into play.

I'm starting a new secret society ... The Friends of Randy. We need a secret handshake and password.

There is also knife edge refraction.