tcp2525

Probably one of the biggest misconception is people assume that just because they go to an "established" brick and mortar car stereo shop they will get a two-way radio installed properly. Do they even have an SWR meter? You'll possibly burn more time and stomach lining dealing with these shops to even get the job remotely done correctly. My suggestion for you is to Google commercial two-way radio installers in your neighborhood. They will probably be more expensive than a car stereo shop, but your chances of getting quality work in a timely fashion is greatly increased. Of course, if you DIY you might find out your install will most likely be better than a stereo shop's.

Sweet!! Looks like you have some unused real estate that can accommodate 5 more.

Agree, but this is why I follow up with a nice thin fender washer on the inside of the roof to distribute the force more evenly when the antenna hits something. I never had any bent sheet metal or antennas ripped out of the roof.

Damn, you made it 6 days without punching a hole in it? That's got to be a new worlds record for having the willpower. You're going to drill, so get it out of your system now.

LOL! Just a little. But it did show an increase in gain. Was it due to the material or the the way the antenna was constructed. It could have been atmospheric conditions changing in the short time it took me to switch antennas. It was a fun experiment that I did when I was bored. Either way, I didn't notice a decrease in performance that would make me to not want to use it for an antenna. Other than cost, if I had to buy it at retail price, it would make for a decent corrosion resistant material that would be perfect for salt water locations. I'm not sure if I would see any performance difference in a double-blind test.

Well, I did the experiment many years back as I acquired a surplus 30' coil of the stuff and did the old 1/4 wave SO-239 test on 70cm. I did notice a substantial increase in signal strength using the old Seat-O-Pants meter. Unfortunately, the old meter, and I mean old, didn't have an RS-485 data acquisition port. That being said, one could argue that I was suffering from the old placebo effect and it was just a figment of my imagination. Either way, it was a fun experiment and what I got for the remainder of the coil on eBay I will stick with copper.

I'm glad you figured it out. The new setup will make you very happy. One piece of advice. Do the work in the most hostile weather possible and make sure you draw some blood. That way you are assured of having a perfect install.

Copper is so old school and outdated, especially on UHF. We now use platinum plated titanium rod. The performance is amazing compared to copper. A 1/4 wave copper ground plane yields unity gain while the same dimension antenna is 1.5db.

You might just want to remove the lightning arrester and toss in a barrel connector and see if it rules out the problem. Much quicker than screwing with it, unless you're doing it this way for a science experiment. Doubtful it's the arrester acting this way as it is either working or not unless water got inside. If you do find it to be the arrester, open it up like you're shucking oysters as we're all curious.

Here's a power divider with N connectors that are sealed by soldering then in place. All possible ways for water to get in are soldered. I can put this on the bottom of the Mariana Trench without wrapping and no water will get in. Let's see you do that with SO-239s. Even Marconi wouldn't use PL-259s

Yep, always good to adhere to proper weatherproofing/waterproofing techniques so you don't have to do the job twice.

And you'll find in Comet's instructions is to seal around that plastic fitting. My 712 is well sealed.

And if you install the heat shrink tubing that has hot melt glue inside it is 100% waterproof. Quality connectors come supplied with a piece of heat shrink. I always keep in stock several hundred feet of heat shrink just in case.

Yep! One can't dispute that. Also, I always follow my connector installs with a high quality heat shrink tubing with hot melt adhesive inside. Water never gets in my coax.

I think wrapping connectors is totally and utterly foolish when a healthy dab of bacon grease makes all my connections waterproof to 100m.

Interesting. I'm perplexed as I don't understand why the manufacturers wasted all the effort and materials to put a gasket that seals the two mating connectors. Had I known they lied to me and charged me more for an N connector I would have just made a Western Union splice in my coax and called it a day..

Have you ever seen an N connector? If not, you might want to reevaluate that statement. I'll take a properly installed naked N connector over a totally wrapped PL-259/SO-239 any day of the week in the harshest weather.

Understand. As others have mentioned, the SO-239 isn't sealed like the N connector. And no matter good a job you think you did with weatherproofing, it is still very vulnerable to water. In my opinion, if a UHF antenna has an SO-239 it is crap. I would be curious to as what you find when you pull it down and inspect. Good luck with it. Oh, and I never did find out what antenna you're using. It's possible the antenna radome is compromised.

Not worth the effort. Toss the antenna if it has an SO-239, and like you said, use hardline with a N connector. Buy an antenna with an N connector and use proper install and weatherproofing techniques and forget about it. Too much wasted energy and time screwing with the stuff you have now.

What model antenna are you using? I think that your only solution is to pull the antenna and coax down for a thorough inspection instead of speculating. Either way, the problem is going to need some physical intervention to rectify.

I have no problem with the CPS for the 878. I've built massive code plugs via exporting and using Excell to edit and build, then import back into the CPS. This saved many hours of work. Once you learn a routine, it's fast. It's easy to load every Brandmeister talk group.

Nothing is over your paygrade, it's about finding what you enjoy the most. Do some research and ask questions and you would be amazed at how much you can do with little money and effort. Buy used gear and learn how to make your own antennas and you'll get addicted to learning more and more. There's way too many avenues to take within ham and GMRS.

Did I read somebody mentioning 6m? I used to love 6m before digital came along. Nobody talks on 6m anymore. I did a grand total of 15-minutes of FT8 on it and moved on. Lets get back to using phone again.

I don't think you are wrong as, if I remember correctly, it is a component of the FlDigi suite. I don't think FlDigi could run without it. It's been years since I played with and I think I have a mild case of old timers disease.

Yep, one our local 2m repeater does this as well. They even send basic messages. I monitored it a few times and quickly got bored with it. It's definitely neat stuff.