DownEastNC
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Posts posted by DownEastNC
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54 minutes ago, n9zb said:
I have a Comet GP-3 that was my base antenna for ham radio 2m/70cm bands.
It does ok on GMRS frequencies, so guess what I'm using it for now?
Your link takes me to Nowheresville. It says I'm forbidden, which is pretty much the story of my whole life
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2 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:
Rereading his original comment, I suspect the convo 118 miles away was through a repeater...
Yeah, no doubt. There was some back and forth on antenna selections and I was curious what was chosen. I'm in the market for a couple of antennas. I think you're in my other thread on the subject.
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I have found a base station version of this antenna. So, in my application of a mobile and a base station, and the radios that I will be using which both have RX VHF frequencies then it sounds like I won't be hurting myself by going this route. I don't believe that I will ever be transmitting VHF on these sticks. It's mostly for listening in on some emergency services, Marine band, and any other entertaining thing I can find in that frequency spectrum. Otherwise I'll be using GMRS more and more as time goes on and as I can get more folks interested in the medium. Currently I live in GMRS no man's land and it's rather quiet out here.
Comet GP-6NC 153-157/460-470MHz Base/Repeater Antenna
VHF/UHF Dual Band Antenna 1.5:1 or less
SWR: 153-157/460-470MHz
Gain: 6.5/9.0dBi
Max power: 200 watts
Length: 10 ft 2 inches
Weight: 3 lb 8 oz
Connector: N-female
Construction: Two-piece white fiberglass
Max wind speed: 112MPH
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Many GMRS radios come with VHF receive only and of course the standard RX/TX GMRS channels. My KG-935G can receive VHF 136-174.995 MHz. My question is, does a dual band antenna buy me anything for receiving VHF frequencies or is it better to just stick with a UHF GMRS specific antenna?
I've been looking at the Comet FC-54NMO;
VHF/UHF Dual Band Antenna1.5:1 or less
SWR:153-157/460-470MHz
Gain: 2.15/5.0dBi
Max Power: 50 watts
Length: 36 inches
Connector: NMO Fold-over hinge includedThe VHF portion of the antenna doesn't accommodate the full spread of frequencies that my radio does but it's in the ballpark. Thoughts?
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On 8/21/2021 at 11:12 PM, Bishop said:
so after a month of fiddeling with the kg-1000G I finally got it hooked up and running was able to have a convo with someone 118 mils away
So which antenna did you end up with?
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Ok, thanks for the ping back. I'm not a Chrome user but I'll see if Firefox has a comparable add-in.
Edit: I just installed this; https://darkreader.org/help/en/
and it turned the site dark and very readable. Looks to be easy to toggle modes, contrast and brightness. Sweet!
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20 hours ago, OldRadioGuy said:
We have a Uniden VHF with FRS.
Maybe they still make these since FRS does not require a license.
The VHF in ours works pretty well but we've never tried the FRS band on them.
That would be a possibility. I went to the Cobra FB page and the last mention of anything FRS was back in 2015, so I dunno
I'll check into Uniden.
Edit: Update; Same thing with Uniden. The last mention of the dual radio was back in 2016. It was their 'Atlantis' line.
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14 hours ago, mbrun said:
FCC rules changed disallowing the sale of multi-service radios like that. I interpret the FCC intent is to require use of separate physical radios for each communication service.
Well that explains why I'm chasing ghosts here
You would be surprised at the number of websites that still have these radios listed, but with no stock or "discontinued". Thanks for the explanation. It looks like I'll be buying separate radios, one for water and the other for terrain.
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I'm looking for a reliable handheld radio that supports RX/TX for both Marine VHF and GMRS. the unit must be waterproof and floats. So far I have found a Cobra MR-HH450 Dual and a Uniden Atlantis 290. The Amazon reviews for the Cobra unit are by majority just awful. The Uniden unit appears to be discontinued and unavailable. Was this dual VHF/GMRS concept just a flash in the pan that didn't "pan" out? This type of radio really appeals to me and my lifestyle. Any suggestions or contrary information about these units?
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On 9/29/2021 at 10:04 PM, WRKC935 said:
A repeater is required to ID unless YOU and those under YOUR license are the only ones using the repeater. The minute that other license holders are allowed to use the repeater, it needs to ID itself.
Can you double check this statement? According to this topic and some other sources on the internet, it doesn't sound like a repeater id is necessary as long as everyone using the repeater self identifies with their call sign.
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31 minutes ago, wqpn591 said:
How will you feed the coax into the center at the bottom without drilling a hole in the side of the mast? Assuming this goes into the ground a bit for stability, the coax would need to be direct burial if its in the ground.
Short term the mast will be attached to my storage shed and the bottom of the mast will be elevated off the ground. I'll use flat bar brackets and right angle pipe clamps for that. Long term I'll set a utility pole in the yard and mount the mast on top of that with some sort of gin pole contraption to be able to fold and stand up the mast from the ground.
Edit: For those that want to set the mast on a concrete footing, you could stub a piece of PVC electrical conduit and a 90 degree fitting beneath the concrete into the mast ground sleeve. Of course you would have to come up with a way to have some slack in the coax if you wanted to disassemble the mast. It's your option if you want to continue the conduit to its destination or just direct bury it. I personally would opt for the conduit to avoid having to dig up wire if there were a need to replace / upgrade it.
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Thanks Michael,
I didn't know if there were going to be any signal radiation / degradation problems by running the coax in a metal pipe. So it sounds like a go and yes the appearance will be much better with the wires hidden, which is why I want to do this in the first place. I'm going to come up with some sort of system to be able to fold the mast over and re-erect it with a means to prevent the coax from getting stressed. I'll have to get the mast system in front of me before I can engineer that option. I'm looking forward to this as I desperately need to get an antenna up in the air.
I have a follow up question; If I were to run another coax, say for an off the air TV antenna in that conduit, do you think there would be any crossover problems, the radio interfering with the TV and so on? I would mount the OTA antenna at a different vertical elevation of course.
Thanks
Mike / WRNV336
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I'm considering getting a sectional mast system, actually a flag pole, and running the coax inside the pole and mounting the antenna at the top. Is there anything inherently wrong with this approach? It's an 11 gauge 6005 aluminum. Here's a link to the mast system; https://oldgloryflagpole.com/sale-page1
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22 hours ago, Guest kmonroe99 said:
So what do I start with - just scan frequencies and see what I pick up? Try to contact a repeater? Thanks
As a rank newbie myself, that's exactly what I did. I've scanned the GMRS channels for hours and hit on the nearest repeater to see if I could make the trip. As WyoJoe said,
QuoteIf you are looking for people to chat with outside of your immediate family or close friends, you may be disappointed with GMRS. Unlike ham radio, there generally aren't a lot of GMRS users just sitting by the radio waiting for someone to chat with.
I can attest to that as I've had nothing but dead silence on the GMRS channels. I live near a couple of RV campgrounds and I thought at least I could pick up some FRS chatter, but that hasn't been the case. Anyway, the next option for me, and perhaps you, is to get some metal in the air to see if that helps on the reception side. I'm trying to persuade a few neighbors to hop on board and maybe the word will get out and we can develop a community of GMRS users out here. In the interim I'm entertaining myself with the county sheriff and fire department dispatch broadcasts.
Edit: BTW, this is a very popular YouTube Channel and it has helped me much with my education;
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I know with some forum software it's a fairly easy thing to implement, but I was wondering if you have considered implementing an optional "Dark Mode" for those of us with weak eyes that have difficulty reading a low contrast font against a white background?
Here's a link to one of my forums for an example; https://forums.thinbluesmoke.com/
The option is in the upper right, directly below the search box.
Thank you for your consideration.
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Wouxun KG-935G
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15 hours ago, tweiss3 said:
I remember a local club did a dual band J-Pole project. Presentation/directions: https://w8wky.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Building-Simple-J-Pole.pdf Plans: https://w8wky.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Dual-Band-J-Pole.pdf
For GMRS, shorten the "middle" rod in small increments until the SWR bottoms out.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! That's what I'm looking for.
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As I dig into this further the more confused I get. It's an Internet thing I reckon. Some are saying that this particular antenna is not a J-Pole but some deviation thereof. Some folks are saying that Ed Fong is selling snake oil.
Regardless of those debates I have found some useful information.
Here's one link; http://www.arrowantennas.com/inst/OSJ152-462.pdf
and another more informative link; http://w8usa.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Aluminum_J-Pole_Build.pdf
Now, there seems to be a huge number of 2 meter / 70cm antennas out there and a few MURS/GMRS in the stub configuration, which get me closer. I have found a couple of calculators that define the element length and the spacing but that's based on a single frequency. My next question is when someone refers to a 440 antenna for example, would that be in the middle of the frequency spread of interest? And if so, since GMRS is between 462.550 and 467.725 should I use 465 MHz to calculate element length since that's essentially in the middle of the GMRS frequency spread?
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2 hours ago, tweiss3 said:
Ed Fong has documented how to build a dual band J-Pole here: https://edsantennas.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/3/5/29358461/dbj-1_qst.pdf
That should get you started in the correct direction, but it's going to be a build and test, tweak, update, test again.
Thanks! I have no problem with the experimentation as long as I have good instructions.
Addendum: That article essentially describes twin lead construction. He did mention the copper pipe and the open stub designs had mixed results. None the less it doesn't help achieve my goals which is an open stub configuration.
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I've spent hours searching for the plans on a dual band open stub J-Pole GMRS antenna and I'm coming up with not much to work with. I'm reaching out to the community here at MyGMRS to see if someone can point me in the right direction. I need plans and specifications for this build with respect to the below frequencies. I'm not really interested in the 1/2" copper pipe build but would prefer solid round aluminum, copper stock or perhaps plated 5/8" grounding rod.
Transmit Power 50W
* Receive (RX) Frequency Range:
136-174.995 MHz VHF
400-479.995 MHz UHF
▪ Transmit (TX) Frequency Range:
462.550-462.725MHz (GMRS Channels 1-7 and 15-22)
467.550-467.725MHz (GMRS Channels 8-14 & Repeater 23-30) -
I just happened to be on BTWR's site about the moment they posted the 935G for sale so I jumped on it. Two days later the unit was on back order. It's my very first GMRS radio and it appealed to me because of the weather alerts (NOAA), FM commercial radio, and some other VHF frequencies such as Marine. I was able to get a radio check via a repeater 29 miles away, so I'm happy. I'm having a few issues with programming that I'll see if can be addressed in the technical section. Overall, as a noob, this radio works well for me. I wouldn't put it in the GF's hands though as simpler is better with her so I'll be shopping for a radio with less buttons.
VHF/UHF Antennas for GMRS
in Technical Discussion
Posted
I get a 403 Error from Google with the 'Forbidden' warning.