8nannyfoe

So I have a simple Midland MXt 105 as my base station radio. It has a 5 amp DC power supply. Just a simple 5 watt jobby. Anyway, I ran a stock motorola 6 meter cable with 90 degree NMO adapter and a Midland 6db stock antenna. I had the antenna sitting on top of a 5' fan. (extremely basic setup) I was able to talk about 2.8 miles and received a repeater beacon that was 90 miles away running this simple setup. I decided to drop a significant amount of cash on the set up (my experiment) because it eventually will be at my cabin in the mountains. I purchased 40' of LMR400 with Times connectors. (UHF and type N) I also purchased a Laird Technologies FG4605 antenna (also type N) 5db gain. I temp mounted this antenna in the center of a round patio table (glass top that has a hole for an umbrella) The frame of the table is aluminum, but none of the cable or antenna is anywhere near the aluminum. So I expected to see a significant improvement over my old antenna, however, I think I may have wasted my money. It performs quite comparable to the stock Midland setup. Maybe a couple hundred yards further talk. My question is....will my performance improve with a ground plane on this new antenna setup?

So my wife and I live off grid with no cell service. We purchased a pair of Motorola T800s. They have a really nice feature that allows location to be transmitted at the push of a button in an emergency. The problem is they are a bit weak and need a range boost. I then purchased a Wouxon 805 that easily covers the area we want, but the location safety feature found on the Motorola is not on the Wouxon. I was thinking of using a repeater but didn't realize the step issue needed for the repeater would put it on the FRS channel at .5 watts which would alleviate the repeater. Looking for solutions.

Hmmm