tcp2525

Yep, nothing beats a great well thought out install. I won't tell you how many whips I went through on the F150 due to low indoor parking, even took out a few fluorescent tubes as well and no sheetmetal distortion!? A bit off topic, but here's what I did for the two motorcycles I have. The red 2018 Goldwing has Larsen NMO2/70B and NMO27 on a custom antenna mount that I fabricated. The blue 2014 Goldwing Valkyrie just has a Larsen NMO2/70B on a custom mount. Both bikes have a Kenwood V71a running full output with good SWR. Here's what one of the mounts I made looks like prior to installation. Coax for both antennas is RG400 with N connectors. And the V71a head mounted in custom mount that allows me to slide the head in and out when I'm away from the bike.

NICE!!! I love it!!!

Best way to go! A couple things to keep in mind before you start. Do you have a power moonroof? My 2013 Limited has one and putting it in the center of the roof wasn't an option due to the tracks for the glass panel to slide on, so I opted to do the third brake light area. I put the hole in there and added extra reinforcement by putting a thin fender washer on the inside to distribute and force that might impact the antenna. As for electrical performance, it has been great on both UHF and VHF. Even though my goal of putting it center roof wasn't met, I feel the performance would be close to equal. If you can put it center roof, hopefully you have a flat support brace so you can go through two sheets of aluminum. If not, definitely add the fender washer for added strength so you can use larger antenna antenna without worry. Here's what my ham install looks like. FTM-400XDR control head installed in sunglass holder for stealth. Folds up when not in use and looks totally stock with no radio in vehicle. Microphone plugged into jack installed in console.

That should never be an issue if one observes proper weather sealing of all connections. Moisture in ANY connection is a no-no, so do it properly with any cable and never worry.

Interesting. I know the repeater I use only uses two, one for the group and 141.3 as a travel tone. I don't think, with modern radios, booting someone via PL would be a useful too as it will be circumvented in minutes. I just find all these available tones strange and not useful.

I remember those days and thought they were long gone, but it makes sense.

I've been noticing some repeaters in my area have up to eight different PL tones to get into it. What gives with this? Is there a legitimate reason or is this sloppy programming?

Now that is some pretty cool looking innards. Electrically I would guess this is equivalent to a rubber duck with about as much gain. I'll stick with the 1/4 wave.

On a different note, did anyone every crack one of these antennas open to see what's inside? I would be curious to see what they did to get that "3dB" gain they claim.

Agree! I'm kind of disappointed that he didn't, intentionally or not, include the basic 1/4 wave in that video as it's unity gain and a baseline for measurement. I'm sure there would be a negligible difference electrically between all the antennas tested and the 1/4 wave would be the perfect choice for most installs, especially for rough service. I would hate to have a ghost antenna drilled into the center of my roof and have a low hanging tree branch catch it as there's no play like a stainless steel whip. Just bend the whip back to vertical and move on.

As the old saying goes, there's no replacement for displacement. Gotta get more metal in the air if ya wanna get out and be heard.

Nice!! Definitely will need to collect some 5w slugs up to 2.7GHz Like I said, once you start, there's no end to it.

The only problem with Bird meters is you can't have just one. It started out innocent enough, but I just been finding sweet deals on them and now I have five of them. The one in the pic is hooked up top my GMRS radio pushing 47 watts. I won't even tell you about my slug and dummy load collection.

One other suggestion. Start going to local hamfests when they pop up in your area as you will always find some deals there. Plus, you can always find other stuff radio related stuff you never new you needed and want.

As others have said, commercial radios are really nice, but you have a learning curve. Finding equipment dirt cheap is relatively easy if you take your time. I was able to snag two brand new in the box Vertex VX-4207s for next to nothing. Nice 45w radios with over 500 channels loaded with features. Well built with lots of heat sink that keeps it cool when you get long winded. The software took getting used to and at first had to roll back the computer date so I could program wide band. After playing with the software I was able to get into "developer mode" and no longer have to screw with the computer clock. I was even able to extend the frequency range into the 70CM ham band and program in a bunch of repeaters as well. Just take your time and have fun with it. Oh, and buy a Radiodity DB-20 for less than $100 new and have fun with that till you snag some commercial gear.

Here's a pic of the old overcrowded tower. The GMRS antenna, a Tram 1486-B, is on the left rear side standoff. It's time to get the second tower up if ever I get off my lazy butt to do it. One day it will go up. Nothing worse than leaving 120' of tower unused and unloved.

One has to use the right tool for the job. Is the Baofeng a piece of crap? Yes, but you have to put things into perspective. The merc has a job to do and is given a set of tools to get that job done. The Feng will get the job done just as long as you don't put an external antenna with decent gain on it in a congested urban setting. It's all about the numbers, give the mercs a sub-$50 radio or a $500+ only to be trashed or captured. Igor is getting a Feng!!

Nothing wrong with a Baofeng. I have to say my old UV82 is leaps and bounds better than any of the HTs the big three put out in the amateur market.

Yep, I remember those days. It's the beginning of dumbing down America.

You guys worry too much! The Russians are smarter than you think. We had code talkers back in the day and the Russians have hired inner-city youth to speak ebonics.

That is correct.

Yes, I figured that, but I had to ask to rule out stupidity on my part as I've been known for high levels of it.? I'm now totally bewildered at why they would even put in an export feature when I already have my frequencies typed and/or written down. I know the backup file holds everything including the settings, so I'll just rely on that like I have always done. Thanks again for the help.

I know this is going to sound like a really dumb question, but since this program has an "export" function I'm assuming it also has a way to import this data as well? I see no options to import CSV data. Am I overlooking something or is there a convoluted way to import. I'm hoping someone with more experience using Vertex software has a solution as it's easier to do all my editing in Excel and import. Thanks.

Just want to give you guys an update. I had time to go through the radio and did confirm it was a bad ceramic filter. I ordered new filters and just changed them today. It doesn't get any better than this, a $3.00 fix and 30 minutes to rip the radio down and hit it with the desoldering station. All working great and the recieve is hot. Thanks, guys, for all your help as it is much appreciated.

EME on GMRS will be a fun challenge with only 50w. Gonna have to build one hell.of an antenna array.