Doctnj

I had to make a bracket to mount to roof top. Used coax seal tape. Damn good tape. Uv resistant etc. Don't know if you can see but there are several layers. If I have to take it down.... Basically never, I'll have to cut tape off. Tape wrapped around bracket and feed line in a figure eight and upside down figure eight.

I'm not educated on the topic but getting that way more every day. I watch a lot of videos and let's face it most hams are quite dry. I watched a video for an entire hour on just the differences in coax. And I thought biochem was boring. Asking about the two blocks of frequencies for gmrs. I came from cb background and some prc radios in military. I never had to figure out frequency. It is staggering to think about just how many different services that can be interlaced in such close proximity on a bandwidth. And yes the law book was nice personal touch. That's all.

Yes I am new. Thanks

Being new to all this, at first glance it would seem that GMRS would occupy a block of frequencies from the bottom, I. E. Channel 1 to top of repeater frequencies. And it is amazing that there is so much interlaced. As with my initial question, it seems like there isn't much space between the bottom gmrs block of frequencies and the top, but indeed it is a large stretch of space. There isn't just a whole lot of instruction with the process of using gmrs. It's like these are the channels / frequencies, and these are the tones... Have at it.

So what is status of frequencies 463,4,5,and 466?

The reason I was kicking this horse is exemplified in this video. Manufacturers taking part in bad info. You can jump to 4:00 for meat and potatoes.

I understand the difference in the terms just to get that out right off. This is probably deep in the weeds but maybe we can have a good conversation. I feel I have my base station and equipment taken care of pretty well. But I think what was perplexing was the difference in opinion of "shack" bonding/grounding. There is (code) written so there doesnt have to be opinion right? Not exactly. The one idea Ive heard and believe me when I say I have read and watched a ton of vids. I personally built half of my house, took 4 years in evenings. But even though I live in the country and didnt have to pull permits, I did every thing to code to include hiring a master electrician to inspect my rough outs. So again it was interesting to see different ideas about this topic. The one "idea" I am fairly closely following is interrupting the electrical ground at the outlet supply the radio equipment uses and instead tying it in to the bonding / grounding specific to the radio instead of allowing the ground to have to also travel back to breaker box then again travel to electrical ground. It isnt necessary. So to that degree I think I have it the way I want it but,,,, Here is my question. Do you use a surge protector, or conditioner between outlet and radio equip? Not lightning related but regular supply anomalies. And if so will they still work with out the ground feed?

Well then that's it. I'll have to keep using door dash because I can't go get lunch :). This antenna is so thin you almost don't even realize there is a top half. I tapped a branch on the way to my shooting range so I will have to remember. I live in the sticks so no parking garages. Besides when we go anywhere we take wife's car. Way more comfortable. Now I just need to get a mag mount and get it on there before she notices.

I just finished installing this antenna this past Sunday. I tried it down on bed cover but it didn't work there. The swr was way up and less signal than the HT with its own upgraded antenna. I finally moved it to the roof and could not get over the difference. I doubled my range to another HT at my house. When running trough swr it showed 1:1.01 from channel 1-22. Can't remember the last time I had my truck in parking garage. Although I did bounce antenna off a tree branch at my shooting range. The top half of antenna is so fine you almost don't see it. The inside of truck is not finished yet. Waiting to decide if I will go w an amp or not.

Antenna mount is complete. Going to wait on length and location of coax until I diced on radio configuration. Couldn't be happier at the moment. Bracket came out nice and with a dab of black on screw heads and it will disappear. To compensate for x threading antenna base to browning nmo mount. I altered the mount bracket angulation to bring antenna back straight and sealed up w an elastomeric polyvinyl filler then several rounds coax seal. Wife asked me if I might get a shorter antenna.... Hahaha

Now I need to get good weather proofing. Because apparently I had cross threaded between the copper ring and antenna base. I'll need to use rtv and seal it up really good.

Well I got it done today. I started with checking coax at entry point through gasket and it looked fine. But I was getting a 1:9 swr with it on bed cover close to cab. First thing I tried was using some aluminum brackets to see if setting up a ground plane would change things. The answer was no. Next I decided to try a new location up by luggage rack. I just wedged it in there and it was unbelievable what difference that made. Swr went down to 1:1.01 so antenna is fantastic. Could have had some signal cancelation bouncing off the cab in its previous location. So next I set out to fabricate a mounting bracket. Set out on a trip where I knew what signal would do w just an HT with 771 antenna in place of rubber duck. The results are double the coms distance. And actually wasn't really at its signal lost so who knows. But continuing down that highway wouldnt really test much because it's a slow down hill. And sprayed bed liner on my bracket so it will blend in. I hit our local repeater and line of sight was 30 km. So I the last picture shows terrain.

Ok so help me sort this out. Before I start drilling and cutting. I have a proper adapter on the way for retest.

And antenna

Ok so not real sure what the problem is. Although there could be a few at the same time. This is where I had in mind to mount antenna. It's a hummer so front hood folds out and then most of back cover comes up. My old hummer had cover on bed w skin of aluminum. This is all fiber so zero ground plane. Now on to potential problem 2. I brought the coax in via the gap between the fold down back wall the separates bed and cab. I feel like it's not impinged but it's could be. Trying not to drill a hole after seeing how thick the pillars are. I serpentine the remaining coax side to side then into the HT. Now possible problem 3. About to hook radio up when I noticed I needed an adapter I didn't have. Thought I had it covered. Ok so no problem I'll get my handy swr meter and it will bridge the gap. Now that is probably a big signal loss I would imagine. The coax could be damaged in a pinch and the antenna is partly blocked and no ground plane. This particular antenna is supposed to come perfectly tuned for gmrs. So when I turned on swr and transmitted, I was a bit surprised to see such a big swing in numbers. On the same channel and no other physical issue changed. I got as good as 1:1, then 1:4 then 1:10. I'm not even sure these numbers mean anything with this set up either. 20210529_170834_05.mp4

Hey if you guys get a super tall tower there are some folks in north part of the state. It was kind of a build it and they will come deal. I got into it. Found a repeater just for fun hit it. Talked to the guy that built it by asking for radio check. Now we have at least 3 that talk pretty regularly. In the erra of text it puts me outside my developed comfort zone. A conversation takes effort.

Well I started the truck install today. The antenna mount is browning br-1258. Routing the coax was the challenge I wasn't sure about. I have 08 h2 sut with bed cover. There is flat spot in front of part of bed cover that hinges up. I drilled the hole for the nmo part to pass through. But the cover is about quarter inch thick so mount won't come through enough. Have to hollow out some of fiberglass to get it through enough to screw on antenna. The wall dividing bed and cab folds down and RG - 58 coax passes through the gasket without much pressure. So hard part is mostly over for now.

May very well be. I was talking to a guy the other night with my HT in my house across the repeater that is 25 km away.

Getting it done all the way will take a little bit. Im giving the family some hints for fathers day like links to a couple different amplifiers. Initially Ill use my HT hooked up to antenna and see what coverage I get around town. Its really crazy, I live on top of a pretty good plateau and are higher up than most repeaters. There is a mountain just a few miles down the road that really goes up there. Now when I say mountain remember Im talking ozark.

Im going to start the process of install in my truck. My first impression was to move the mobile back and forth between the house and car. But after seeing what an amplifier is capable of and not capable of Ill be doing some testing to decide the best approach. Here is my question. Would it be a bad idea to install radio or amp inside a large center console? It almost seems a perfect place in my truck. Its oversized, and has a power outlet. My worries are overheating. But everything in a car gets super hot when you have the windows up on a summer day. I dont see it getting a huge amount of use at least currently. I would mainly just be using the scan feature for majority of time. I could always open the console if I start to get into a long convo. So tell me how bad of an idea this is.

Thank you for your answer. Ive read several posts and that whole network thing seems confusing at the moment. However, I was given a link to an online tool for determining line of sight calculations. That app is fantastic although its very hard to pull off on a phone and would be super simple if you were going in armed with long / lat coordinates. Looking at the repeaters in my area there are no long/lat numbers so I have just zoomed in and picked a spot. I was thinking this would be good tool on the road to see where you may need to get to to get a signal out past simplex. Although if its grid down you couldnt use the app anyhow lol

Ok so I was contemplating getting another mobile and down the road probably will. But another option is the amplifier with a handheld or just handheld with adapter so I can use the 295 connect to antenna. I drive an h2 pickup. Yeah I know but this is my 4th one. It has a bed cover that lifts up. But about 6" the cab there is a section that doesn't move. My thoughts are to mount it there. With no way to route cable with a huge adapter on it so I'm going to cut it off then after I see how much coax I need to get to future home of new mobile, I'll cut it to that length. I can attach an HT right to the antenna to start with then try using an Amp with HT. Then possibly switch to another mobile. One thing at a time

Quick question. Do the repeater's shown on the map with mygmrs logo have connection to the U.S. Network?

Wow that's a great tool!!