tcp2525

Good points. I'm finding the VX-4207 radios are well isolated and shielded. I bumped power up to 20w for testing and still getting good range without affecting recieve. This is with a Tram 1486 on the side of the tower at 30' above ground fed with 50" 1/2" Heliax. If I get my antenna situation optimized where I can some altitude then I will just buy a commercial made repeater.

Same situation as you. But I bit the bullet and used an NMO lip mount on the passenger side front hood. Didn't affect signal in any noticeable way.

Just a thought. Are you going to be transmitting on both radios at the very same time all the time? It's good practice to have each radio on it's own rated circuit, but for the temporary install in your Lincoln. But... the best way to handle this situation if you want to do it 100% right is to get a fused power distribution box and run your heavy duty cable directly to the battery. You can run as many radios as you want on each of their own fused circuit.

You might want to consider mounting the control head in the sunglass holder. I have my head mounted there and close it when the radio is not in use for concealment. This is in both my Lincoln and F150.

This is by far the best advice one can get! I've been playing with a low budget build here that is working out really nicely. Got two Vertex VX-4207 radios for $75 each. Picked up an RFS duplexer for $15 at a hamfest. And an assembled ID-O-Matic controller for about $80 shipped. And few more bucks for 15-pin connectors. I'm in the testing phase right now and at low power (10 Watts) into the duplexer and 8 watts into the antenna I'm averaging 5-7 air miles of reliable communications. I'm only 50' above sea level and antenna is about 30' above ground. Once I get all the equipment mounted in a case with proper cooling I should be able to run 25 watts safely on long transmissions. Since I have my own spectrum analyzer w/TG, I will spend more time fine tuning the duplexer for optimum performance when everything is permanently mounted. All that said, I am very pleased with the progress I made so far and everything is working great considering the topography of the area . Just need more altitude!!!!!!!!!

I don't recall if mine were painted. Seems like they might have ran out of the good black ones and sent an employee to Home Depot to pick up a couple boxes to get them through the day.

Midland and shipped from Amazon.

Nice! I take it that the set screws on yours are stainless steel?

I purchased this antenna from Amazon July 13th, 2023 since it was highly recommended. I have exclusively used Larsen antennas for the past 30 years and never had any build quality issues. First thing that caught my eye was the the two rusted set screws. Really? Not stainless steel? Oxidizing coating on the whip. Is the whip stainless steel? For comparison, my Larsen NMO2/70B has been on the truck since 2013 and doesn't look this bad. This leads me to wonder if Midland's quality is really this bad or did I get a counterfeit? And no, the antenna isn't mounted there. I just took it off the roof and placed it there for the pic. At the very least, I will buy some stainless steel set screws and ride it out till I get the Larsen replacement. I wish I would have noticed this in the first 30-days so I could have returned it.

I cut mine to 467 as I mostly use repeaters. Perfect SWR on 467 and 1.3:1 on 462. I used a NanoVNA to sweep it. Of course, I double checked with the old Bird when done. Simply perfect.

I just want to give you guys an update. I received my ID-O-Matic Saturday. I also spent some time studying the schematic as Pin 7 wasn't the right one for this task. What I found was, though the manual states Pin 13 and 14 aren't used, the circuitry is in the schematic and the parts are on the board. I got my meter out and checked the test points and nothing. So, I went into the software and turned on PTT and nothing. Amazing when I turned on "AF Mute" I got my 5v when the carrier broke PL!! Everything is together and working perfect. The ID-O-Matic is powered from the receiver's DC OUT Pin 4. No mods to the radio, just I nice neat cable and box going between the two radios.

I had some to play with this while waiting for my ID-O-Matic to arrive and hit a roadblock. Pin 7: TRX doesn't have the specified voltage as described (See Pic). I can't seem to find out how to turn it on in software either. Any ideas? I was able to find and turn on Pin 6: EXT PTT and that works, but I'm going to need to get TRX working in the receiver. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks guys! The ID-O-Matic looks like what I'm looking for. This should be simple and keep me compliant. The radio is Part 90 & 95 compliant as well. I just ordered my 15-pin DSUB connectors to make the harness, so I'm making progress. I'm hoping this will be a fun project. Again, the help is so much appreciated.

Thanks. I do have the service manual and noticed the pinout and do see the TX/RX audio circuit as well switching. It would be nice to not need a controller. I assumed I would need one for timeout timer and ID to be legal?

For a portable repeater setup. I plan on using two Vertex VBX-4207 radios. Got the radios and duplexer, just need to hook this stuff up. What would be the best way to go on controllers?

Look at it this way, a Nigerian scammer sends out thousands of e-mails a day knowing that he will get a small percentage of bites from suckers. Same way with the Chinese, very little outlay with cheap labor and Americans happily buying cheap goods making the ROI very high. Flood the market with millions of these information gathering devices that phone home to a server that has the right algorithm to find what they want. Of course, a small percentage of these devices will find their way into an information rich environment. Time and the odds are on their side. I'm with you on the astronomically small chance that a Baofeng will be phoning home. Below is an example of cheap Chinese CCTV cameras that were phoning home. And yes, this company manufactures and rebrands the cameras. https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/25/23478132/fcc-china-huawei-zte-hikvision-camera-telecom-authorization-ban

Those boneheads should be more worried about some of the Chinese apps they put on their smartphones.

Definitely agree with what you say about hardline. I've installed enough hardline connectors to see how they are precisionly machined. No solder required. Like you, I've seen many cheap "aftermarket" crimp connectors on the end of coax, even on RG-400. I rather spend the money on good coax and terminate it with good connectors. I hate doing things twice.

Good point. You gotta know your limitations as well as the tools you're using. If you want to make a great coax collinear use 3/8"Heliax. RG-8X really isn't a good choice for that. I've made many coax collinear antennas that came out great and are still up and running to this day. Here's what it looks like prior to soldering.

That's nice. I've always used the silver plated connectors that require soldering the center pin and have been extremely happy with the results. I have yet to use a solderless crimp connector, but I've seen them used in the field.

Doesn't anyone solder any more? I'm old school and still solder.

I'm going to go against the grain and say probably not. I'm assuming it is an RG-58 or equivalent? If so, and is of decent quality, it probably has a solid dielectric which can sustain a moderate amount of abuse and bending. Foam dielectric isn't as forgiving. I'd be more worried about pinched coax with trunk lip installations or coax being pinched my the door for magnetic mounts.

Gortex2 gives great advice on antennas. For a few dollars more you can get the Tram 1486-B antenna that will give you a bit more gain. I have one on the side of my tower and it performs really well for its small size. https://www.amazon.com/TRAM-1486-B-Tunable-Black-Antenna/dp/B092DWP4NG/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2ZYF5H8KAOIT2&keywords=tram+1486&qid=1678122509&sprefix=tram+1486%2Caps%2C72&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc

Just looking at the extremely tight tolerance of the line section speaks volumes of the type of gear the Bird is.