NCRick

I felt I knew about the functionality of the amplification of lower input sounds to a microphone and the compression or the louder sounds all to maximize the modulation density. I never heard of that needing to be "unwound" on the receiving radio for the benefit to be realized. I'd love to hear more on this subject as it is a learning opportunity for me.

I think the KG1000 is receive only outside of the GMRS band. That being the case, you will be fine with the antenna you have as it should pick up just fine if not being absolutely optimum. I would personally put the effort into putting your existing antenna up as high as I could get it.

Alex, I very much appreciate your reply! It is quite thought provoking. As an uneducated new guy, I was picturing a resonant whip with standing waves. The fact is, I really don't know what I even have, the Midland antenna being described as a "5/8 wave, coliniar antenna" and I don't know it is impedance matched by some coil or capacitance in the base or if the "colinear" bit is from the coils near the mid point. I have much to learn. It's something I'm not good at but am interested in. I guess you are saying I am on the right track by adjusting to a minimum reflected power assuming I have no control of other factors besides "good practices". I was thinking I would only "tune" by sliding the antenna wire in the spring mount. A motivator for the purchase is to check a friends 275 installation which isn't apparently working as well as mine. I see now this may not be so meaningful of a data point. If I learned something, that likely worth it right there. Thank you! It is very hard teaching this "old dog" any new tricks. Won't stop me from trying tho...

I ordered a cross needle Daiwa meter. Not sure if that was the correct choice but power and reflected power should be a decent relative indicator I'm hoping. If I'm off base, I'd like to understand why. I'm a newbie here. I have a Laird NMO mount, I am running the shortest coax run I could make (about 8 ft of RG58u) with smooth radius bends and no pinching. I'm running an MXTA26 antenna and an getting seemingly good range and performance. other than antenna grounding and placement, how could I change my installation impedance? How much difference in impedance is likely by moving the antenna location? I'm running a kind of lip mount off the hood which places the antenna near the windshield ("A" pillar) similar to many stock automotive am/fm broadcast radio antennas are mounted. I understand it would be better mid-roof but I was unwilling to mess with airbag and headliner manipulation to allow that installation as well as not wanting the antenna broken while pushing under brush and branches with the 4wd pickup. Am I wrong in thinking a simple indication of forward and reflected power should be a good way to check the antenna resonance and later compare different antennas?

Nice work on the Video Chris! I started with part 3. I'll go back and check out the rest. Thanks for sharing.

Please report if you do try one. Because of a changed mounting location we can't attribute the performance completely to the Laird Phantom but there was a decrease in communication distance once installed on my friend's vehicle compared to the tiny mag mount his mxt275 came with. The MNO mount make it an easy swap when the wife isn't looking...

Unsolicited comment: midland sells a heck of a lot of radios so it is likely they have quite a lot of influence over whoever is manufacturing the radios for them. There is at least a chance, that they own or have some kind of stake in such a business and some other radios are offshoots of their efforts or directions. I'm thinking that we, the people on this forum may not totally be in the mainstream when wanting to connect a computer to the GMRS radio in our Jeep or whatever. If I was Midland, having to certify, market and support these types of radios I doubt customer low-level programming is something I would find advantageous. I'd want a fool-proof, reliable radio with compatible accessories. having said that, I want programming access to my MXT400 but to be sure, I have not run into real limitations with it yet. I'm going to guess it is transmitting in the wide band mode on repeaters just because it sounds strong. With my suboptimally mounted Midland 6db whip antenna, yesterday I reached a repeater 40+ miles away. im not bashing commercial radios but I'm not dissatisfied in having purchased a nice clean new radio from Midland directly with super fast service vs me having to dig the Cooties out of some icky old taxi cab radio. sorry for the rant but sometimes a different point of view can be worth considering.

I didn't mean to say my Ghost is bad. It is short and strong, the attributes I wanted it for. My mounting is at the hood-fender lip and near the "a" pillar. Antenna propagation is changed based on a lot of factors. In my location much of the antenna is shaded by parts of the vehicle. Antenna height counts for a lot. I also "think" which is different from know... that at unity gain a coiled 1/4 wave antenna can't perform as well as a 1/4 wave straight whip (1/4 wave and gain for purpose of example). I like the Ghost, it has low observability, is relatively immune to branches and other things and hopefully will be up to the task of vehicle to vehicle communication in a "convoy" type situation. The ghost antenna may be perfect for many applications.

Any input on the Daiwa double needle units?

JAS, thanks for sharing! In a far less organized way, I have been making some comparisons of the same. I have been using the Ghost "pepper shaker" as an NMO place keeper when off-road in brush and when not planning to use the radio. The 6db whip gets screwed on when I plan to use the radio and need more distance.

I never could find any repeater frequencies on my 805. I did the YouTube thing and stopped short of calling the place I purchased it from. I bought the recommended cable and down loaded Wouxsun's software. I'm happy now, super easy to program and name separate channels with all the specific parameters needed. I don't think the repeater channels were preprogrammed into my radio. There were none labeled RPT nor any spaces beyond ch22.

@gman1971 thanks for your post. I have always been a fan of Motorola. With the radio mentioned, am I able to program this via the keypad or through inexpensive easy to get software? I found your information helpful and concise.

That's cool! Thanks folks. I guess it's time for me to think about a tech license or something. I'm finding it all interesting.

Interesting read for a new person such as I. I'll comment that as a Bow-fang, MXT400 and Wouxun 805g owner, the feature-set of the 805g is perfect for what I want. With the software and cable I have, the radio was super easy to configure for me and is set for all the normal channels (including repeater channels) and several other "extra" channels I customized as copies of the repeater channels but with the tones I want and a corespondent NAME label which is intuitively recognized by me. Separate tones are easy as can be. There is nothing confusing nor anything exotic. Once programmed for our use, my wife or anyone else can pick it up and use it. If my midland MXT400 had that functionality it would be fantastic. The other CCR has way to many bells, whistles and associated buttons, displays and who-haas for me to remember when I'm doing anything. I just don't like it but it's fine I suppose (it's a "part 0" radio anyhow). I'll be checking into the midland software. If it is certified for one company it should be certifiable for another.

Hope I am not thread jacking but I'm wondering if the 20 foot above "structure or tree to which it is mounted " rule i though I understood comes into play with repeaters? Is there separate rules or is a tower considered a structure? Thanks! Repeaters are really cool and I'm totally curious.

I am also new, attracted to this thread mostly because I too don't know the answer. On the hand held options, I have the 5r CCR, a 805g CCR and used the older top end Midland blister pack CC radios I bought for my son in law. By far, I like the Wouxun. Next I like the midlands which while limited by settings and antenna choices but for use in the 4wd convoy scenario for spotters and such, simple, cheap, rugged along decent performance gets it done. Both a high power (2 W) and low power (0.5 W) PTT buttons are a nice feature. The Ni-mH Midland batteries are junk so AA cells are what we used. I want some kind of commercial quality HT. Not because I need one and maybe just because of what I read here. I'm not a fan of futzing around with various computer software packages but I likely can do that. I used the Wouxun software which is simple as could be but it is my only experience. I love the idea of a dual band GMRS -MURS radio but I'm not smart enough to know if that is truly possible under the rules. If I play nice and keep everything else inside the rules it might be just be fine but as an inexperienced user that sounds like a dance I might screw up. I'm susceptible to scrutiny from all our "officials". Always have been , teachers, principals, police etc. I am a worry wort. So clearly above board is where I'm attracted. I want the GMRS radios as a tool that I can use with out worrying. as a note: where we live I can count on a 1/4 mile range. Terrain is the single biggest range factor in simplex (radio to radio) operations. Mobile to mobile in a flatter terrain, local suburban situation, 2 miles maybe. Repeaters? Fantastic!

Yours sir is one of the best posts I have read on this forum! Thank you. I purchased an MXT400 before totally understanding the full utility of the GMRS band. My long sleeping interest has been rekindled. Reading on this forum and others, I feel quite badly for having "inferior" equipment. I don't particularly like buying Chinese products since I have too many already and I enjoy good quality enough to be willing to pay a premium. A used radio would be okay if I was sure I could use it and not run afoul of the rules. I value a good receiver section and have some experience with electronics and radios to at least partly understand impedance, cable losses and frequency matching of the antenna. Soldering a pl239 was like learning all over again but I still had a silver plated Motorola one in my junk drawer. what's a guy to do? A lot of criticism is thrown around on any of the commercial GMRS radios I can find to purchase. With an unlimited budget what should I buy that is new and legal? I have owned Icom and Standard Marine and Air Band radios. I am not trying to be a cheapskate and I want good equipment that I can use , enjoy and even be proud to own. What are my choices? I hate to admit having purchased an Wouxun HT and the programing cable. It wasn't expensive and functions well but it isn't a Motorola or even a Kenwood. I am all ears on recommendations and I'll suffer the ridicule of my junkie radios until they can be replaced. Mean while, I'll be getting back to Midland for the programming cable and software because you just addressed many of my bigger concerns. So far I seem to be getting decent performance from the equipment I own but I will always want better.

Okay, it's a crime to use my radio to commit a crime. Got it. Worth knowing. I do my best to not commit crimes and if that wasn't the case I'd likely be equally impressed.

Sorry if I am being dumb, I'm new. I'm questioning the 400 vs 275 (a choice I faced) range assumptions. Is it not possible that the 400 has a better receiver performance which might also explain the one party "hearing" and not the other? It seems to me that receiving performance is of equal or even more importance?

As a new owner of an MXT400 which I ordered directly from midland (super fast great service!) I have a perhaps silly question: once the software is downloaded, is it able to be used by you for as long as you own your radio? im happy the radio has less than billions of features, I just need the basic ones but am hoping I also got a better receiver spec than some of their smaller and lower cost models. thanks for sharing! Rick

Hi folks, im new to GMRS and all this radio stuff. I was in the "HAM" club in high school but just was too dumb or uncommitted to learn the morse code... that was prolly a long time ago too, like getting on 50 years... anyhow, I'm interested in this stuff and appreciate the knowledge that exists of this forum. I hope to learn and become a good citizen in the community. My son hopes to do his ham tech or even general and I have been doing some 4 wheeling with friends. This seems like a good band for me. I'd like to learn about repeaters and perhaps members local to me (asheville, nc area). thank you for all the great contributions I have been reading, that is what inspired my joining. Rick