gortex2

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.

The bronco has the same issues us with jeeps have fought for years. Do some searching for jeep mounts and you will find ideas. While I run the 1/4 wave or smaller antennas for my use many on hear say the Midland MXTA26 to be a good comprimise for distance on a mount near the hood or spare tire. I dont have a use for distance as I either use my repeater or am talking to the jeep in front or behind me.

All the laird antenna's I use are wrapped to the base. Dont go around the antenna.

So first thing you need to do is get it on a antenna outside of your test room. Hook it up to an outside antenna. Your most likely desensing not only the radio but the repeater as well. Subscriber aka portable radio.

All my users on those repeaters use older Midland gear. Works very well for their useage. Even my APX stuff has both narrow and wideband to accomidate when needed. One of the repeaters has been like that for almost 15 years.

I just change as needed on my midlands. I find its a waste of time to preprogram stuff that may or may not even be there. KISS method for me.

How do you know its not transmitting ? What antenna system are you using ? What is your test procedure and what subscriber are you uising ?

In the LMR world we use 1/2" LDF for jumpers at the antenna regardless of size of feedline. Then from polyphaser to repeater/combiner/duplexer 1/2" superflex or 1/2 LDF depending on the PIM rating needed. My 7/8" feedline terminates with 7/8 din, then 1/2" LDF to the DB408 on one of my towers. Most antenna jumpers are 6' long but that all depends on the side arm needed on the tower. My DB408 is on top of tower so I use a 3' jumper.

I run 3 of my repeaters as narrowband repeaters. They are out there.

I have the exact duplexer on 2 of my repeater sites Yes each can is a PASS/REJECT. I am doing exactly what I said at one site with no decense or issues. RX antenna into duplexer. RX duplexer port to RX on Quantar. TX port on duplexer with dummy load. TX Antenna to TX port on Quantar. My seocnd site has 2 of the cavities on the RX side only (PASS 467, reject 462) with no issues. It a cavity. We use those same exact units in multicouplers all the time (in Public Safety). If you put the VNA into the antenna port on the duplexer you should see no change regardless of a transmitter or dummy load. If you do the duplexer isn't tuned correctly.

The issue is windows on mac. Do you have someone with a windows PC you can use to verify. I have no issues win W10 or 11 with programming on the MTX

Simpler solution is to move the new antenna to the duplexer and put a dummy load on your TX port. Then run your TX antenna directly to the repeater. You dont need the filter on the TX side and you also wont affect the RX foltering by just not using the TX side of the dulexer. Putting the dummy load on it will eliminate any interfearance. All of my GMRS repeaters are on multi couplers that just have bandpass filters and TX line direct to antenna.

As said your radio is narrowband and some users are on wideband hence making the voice lower. I've used the 275 in all my off road vehicles since they hit the market. Folks on this site complain about midland non stop but they are the only GMRS only radio in the market. All others are CCR with different firmware in them for GMRs, Ham or other services. And lets face it 90% of the GMRS users are not on this forum and use it on the trails, woods and farms all day every day and dont have issues. As suggested next time have yourr friend change to a narrowband only channel. Channels 1-7 shoudl be narrow band on all radios already and will work fine on your 275. The last JJ I was on we had 16 jeeps on our trail and 14 of them had midlands. 1 had a motorola T600 and the other user had a CCR. He was the only one who complained all day about communications. Not saying he was the issue but when majority of the users use the same gear and one or 2 dont it can casue issues. Day prior the channel given to us was a channel not in any mobiles. Most of the trail vehicles for that trail had mobiles so the trail guide found another channel. In the end its all how you need to use the radio. The MTX is an ideal radio for the Jeep or Bronco and trail ridiing. As for antenna and placements as you know on the Jeep they suck. Best placement is a hood lip mount with a decent antenna. I run a 1/4 wave on most of my jeeps and never had issues on the trails. I do have a "pepper" shaker on one of the jeeps but again never issues with the jeeps on the trail. If your looking to talk 50 miles then thats not the best option on the east coast. Roof is the best place for an antenna but fiberglass, or no top doesnt help. I di run a half wave in the summer on my roll bar as I dont run a top all summer. In winter its on a fender mount. Have no experience with the bronco but know alot of guys use a A pillar light mount with decent results. I sue midland for the KISS method. I use my APX for my radio hobby.

1 - Really depends on you plans. For most stuff at home I run the cheap RTL noolec dongles. Last one was $35.00 on jungle site. For work I run the Airspy as its a much better unit. But its over $100/ 2 - Nommally no cables come with the USB dongle. Lots of places sell a kit you can order but most have a SMA connector. So any SMA adapter to your antenna cable works fine. 3 - No software is included with many of them. Each manufacturer has some flavor of software. Depends on your use case. I use SDR TRunk at home for TLMR stuff as well as on the road. There are lots of software packages online. 4 - Any flavor of windows will work. I run stuff on PC's as far back as W7 to my current W11 PC. Even run a few application on a rasperry pi. All in all it really depends on what your plan is with an SDR. Most are narrow banded and can only pick up 2-3 mhz at a time. So for TLMR in VHF UHF a single dongle may not work for listening to more than control channel. I run 2 dongles on most of my TLMR applications. The air spy is a wider band and thats why I use it for work stuff. IF we knew what your looking to do it would be easier to give you ideas.

APRS DRoid will only take valid HAM call signs. And requires a passcode. It can also be used without internet as we do for some of our SAR stuff. Yes internet allows igates so users can see eachother on APRS.fi or other sites to monitro APRS but in 30 years of APRS use by myself nothign I have ever had used the internet to beacon locations, wx or messages. In its day it was a great tool and was used alot more than it is now. Now I can send a text on my phone in 2 seconds vs pulling over on the side of the road and typings on a querty keyboard to reply to a message.

Thisi s part of the reason none of my repeaters are listed. I ran into this in the north. Then we had a huge storm and the next week I got 100 emails of people complaining of coverage or no one answered them. I told many up front I do not answer and thats not why the repeaters were on the air. I finally removed them from listings and changed frequencies and DCS tones. Oncei n a while I'll get some one on one of them asking for radio checks. Normally I ignore and they go away. There is also a false understanding that repeaters are just therel ike cell sites and people must monitor the channels. Not how it works. Many here realize repeaters are done by volunttersd and not government but many dont realize that.

I run the MTX-275 in all my Jeeps for trail communications. Paired with 1/4 wave UHF whip on an NMO on all.

The F21GM was the UHF GMRS Version of the radio. When I was an ICOM dealer we sold a ton of them to hunters. It was firmware locked to GMRS/FRS. https://www.ameradio.com/doc/Icom_IC-F21GM_brochure.pdf