gortex2

Just as reference the Laird and the Hustler are not identical. The Laird is a 5db antenna and the Huslter is listed as 6db. Granted 1db should not be the deciding factor but coupld possibly be enough. Feedline could also change the antenna performance. Granted your in CA where everyone talks way more miles than you will on the east coast but I use the antenna for contorl points and never had an issue hitting our repeaters or simplex. I also use the Laird unity gain for control stations as well but those are intended to talk to the repeater mostly. As for the PVC part of the rebuild. I know the Ed Fong antenna lists a certain PVC thats supposed to be better for antenna than the standard PVC thicker material. I've only use a single Ed fong antenna and promply tossed it in a can after so dont know what each PVC pipe difference is other than thickness. I have fixed fiberglass radomes on antennas in the past if they are structurally OK. Not sure how bad the one on your huster was but may be worth trying. Most anything fiberglass does take a beating from the sun. I have 30 year old station masters in use still. A few I have taken down to move and they were all fiberglass hairs and no gell coat left. I wrapped them all in a thin layer of fiberglass matt with resin and put back up after drying. None changed SWR or any other sweep data. Personally I prefere folded dipoles for durability but the fiberglass stick is a good option some areas.

Encryption normally only is done on the subscriber end, or console not the repeater in the P25 world. I would assumei ts the same for DMR but I dont play with it nor have any radios that work on DMR.

uh...what kinda spliter ? A RF switch ? If ypou just used a T you will damage the other radio. Please explain what you were doing. Also I dont recall seeing what cabl you are using and how long it is.

If you have Quantars you just need a SAM Module (Station Access Module). It requires software and will allow you to create a user list of approed users. Works well. Hard to find but they pop up online now and then.

Using MDC equiped equipment a user will not hear the MDC if setup properly. Yes others with non MDC capable radios would hear that. I never hear MDC on my repeater or console, just see the ID on my screen.

Larsen is the best commercial antenna now. Since ASP dropped the line thats our go to antenna for those applications.

MDC isn't forbidden on Amateur Radio or GMRS. I use it on both. Done properly a user wouldn't even know its being used. And its great to keep CCRS off my sites.

Even in commercial LMR you wont find a 12db antenna in UHF. I think the best you will find is 10. And that will cost you in the ballpark of $5000 just for the antenna. And even more for the mount. A hobby antenna as Steve pointed out in 6-7 db range is about all you will find for cheap. This is an antenna I just used on a project....its 10db but also weighs 80#'s. Mount cost about $1500.

The RT97 and Midland MXR10 are ideal applications for this. Short piece of feedline and the antenna on the tower. Small wind load. The issue you will have is dependingo n tower size and box size is windload.

BTW...The midland 20% off code for off road is - OFFROAD20

Let us know. I'll be in Uwharrie a few times this coming year. I have the annual pass on our jeeps. Need to get a 2025 one for the new jeep when they come up. For Jeep Jamborees we booked, Tennesee Mtns (Windrock) for spring, Coal Mountain in the summer and Cumberland and Uhwarrie for the fall. Most likely will do Greenbriar as well but thats 3 weekends in a row of trips. We also plan to do the SFWD events in the sping (Coalmont TN) and fall (Windrock). Be a fun summer. I know most on this forum despise midland but I just grabbed another 275 for the new jeep. With the "offroad promo code" it was $132. That made more sense than ripping the old one out of the other JK. Plus I'd like to keep the old JK anyway. Only other radio planned will be a FTM400 which I already have in a box. I had picked it up used for the other JK and never got to it. No APX in this JK...at least yet. I normally just grab my APX Next anyway now so no need for a mobile.

Nice we looked at a nice LJ that was actually automatic, but with my time on the road didn't think I'd have time to get everything done before April so a 3/4 done jeep was what we got. Luckily one we found was a one owner 100% mall crawler (whinch doesnt even have power cables to it). We plan to remove all the mall stuff and put some real stuff on it. Just ordered new BFG MT last night for all the way around. Going to miss the old school MT...

Well I guess when I told wife we need to do multiple repairs on the JK she decided a new one was better...so picking up a 2018 Rubicon later this week. So instead of axles, lockers, its just radios and wrap...My kinda work for winter months !

I use a multicoupler on soime but the basic ones just use a T. If you have really good signal that works ok. The ones with marginal coverage go thru the splitters.

Looks like lots more jeeping next year on my horizon. Wife just signed up for 4 JJUSA events. So on top of other events we do we will be doing more of the JJUSA stuff. Guess I got alot of work to do on the rig this winter.