SteveShannon

Extend the power cable.

The addition of coax typically reduces the measured reflected power, resulting in a lower observed SWR.

1. Yes, theoretically, but you’re really asking about how well the various body parts are bonded. If you have enough impedance between where you connect the black wire of your radio and the negative post on your battery, you’ll see a voltage drop to the radio, worse at high current. 2. Yes Your chassis ground is a DC ground used as the return for the car’s electrical system. Your ground plane does not need to be connected to your chassis ground. You could use a sheet of metal completely isolated from your vehicle as your ground plane, but your radio requires a good low impedance path for its dc power source.

Look up their address from their call sign and send them snail mail if they aren’t a member here.

Most people do not approach GMRS as a hobby to itself. They’re not really interested in making and logging QSOs. I use GMRS as a communication tool while pursuing my other hobbies. But, there’s nothing wrong with what you suggest. Just don’t expect QSO cards or log verifications like you get on QRZ.com A friend of mine uses a composition book for logging his ham QSOs. I use the logbook built into HRD for my ham QSOs. I used to just use QRZ.com ARRL makes a nice compact paper booklet for logging. Amazon has it for about $8.

He may consider that a challenge. Don’t encourage him.

Is there room under your back seats? It actually looks like there’s room under your console. You might find that by separating the body from the face of the radio you have more flexibility.

Email.

Some repeater controllers ID using Morse Code. The 70 cm repeater we use as a ham repeater does this. However, my understanding is that it does its identification without CTCSS. That helps in two related ways. The users of the repeater who have CTCSS set for receive don’t hear the ID, but anyone listening without CTCSS will hear the Morse code.

It’s a csv file formatted to work in chirp. Because it’s a csv file you should be able to manipulate it however you want.

Please tell us more.

What? Hopefully none. Now if you intended to ask: Are there any repeaters in ME? (Maine) We might be able to show you how to find them on the repeater pages of this site.

Program a radio to listen using the repeater input frequency and CTCSS tone. Can you hear the other radio transmit?

Program one radio to listen on the repeater input frequency and CTCSS code. Can you hear your transmission?

Don’t try to pet the big black fluffy things!

This! The answer voted highest will be the first one a person sees after reading the question.

Maybe this will help: When it comes to antennas, gain is a measure of concentrated RF emissions. Antenna gain does not increase the power of the radio, but it focuses it so that it’s directed where you need it. But there must be a reference of some sort. The most basic reference is an isentropic antenna. Think of a bare bulb which shines evenly in every direction. That’s what an isentropic antenna represents, a theoretical reference antenna reduced to a single point that radiates RF in all directions evenly. By definition, radiating in all directions adds nothing extra to any direction and so the gain in any direction is said to be 0 dB. That 0 dB value is something that all other antennas can be compared against. When other antennas are compared to that reference point, their gain values are listed in units of dBi, or decibel isentropic. But nobody makes an isentropic antenna. It’s really hard to make a geometric point radiate. The next simplest antenna design is a dipole, two equal length pieces of wire that are each a quarter wavelength long. So, for a 2 meter wavelength radio, each pole would theoretically be 1/2 meter. A dipole radiates RF in a toroidal shape that surrounds the wire. In the direction of greatest concentration it has 2.15 dBi of gain. Towards the ends of the dipole the RF is much lower and sometimes nearly nil. The gain has to come from somewhere. Because they are very common and exist in reality, the gain of a dipole is sometimes also used as a reference, called dBd, or decibel dipole. dBd and dBi are mathematically tied together by the following equation: 2.15 dBi = 0 dBd. You can convert from one to the other by simply adding or subtracting 2.15 dB. So now here’s my beef. Many vendors advertise gain as dB, without specifying dBi or dBd. Without knowing which it is, you have no way of knowing if you’re comparing apples to apples or oranges. Midland advertises their MXTA-26 as 6 dB gain, but that’s a meaningless, possibly even misleading figure. If that’s 6 db of gain referenced to the theoretical isentropic antenna, it’s really only 3.85 dB gain compared to a wire dipole. You’re probably sorry you even commented on my previous post and @OffRoaderX now has one more example of a sad ham going into way too much detail, but I’m one of those people that thinks this stuff matters.

It’s not uncommon for antennas with less gain to work better over a wider variety of locations than a high gain antenna.

It is true for anything, but unfortunately many people don’t understand it and compare the price of American made goods to Chinese made goods and use the price comparison alone as proof of comparative value. That’s a trap that people should steer clear of. There absolutely is a difference in quality between some things made in America and some things made overseas, and that can result in an even greater price difference, but the myth about all Chinese radios coming out of the same factory, of universally poor quality, with only the label differing, is nonsense. Sixty years ago Americans felt the same about Japanese products and became complacent about quality and innovation. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake.

Not that I know of. There are only a few GMRS repeaters in the entire state of Montana with the biggest share near Billings and Wyoming probably has fewer. There are ham radio repeaters though.

I looked at several different sites that sell the antenna. I found only one (https://www.tessco.com/product/450-470-mirage-antenna-black-68593) that actually gives the antenna gain using meaningful units. All the others said either “unity gain” which means the effective power is multiplied by one, which is mathematically the same as 0 dB added, or simply said 2 dB, which has no reference and is thus completely ambiguous. Tessco properly expressed the gain referenced to an isentropic antenna (dBi). They list the Larsen as having 2.15 dBi, which is exactly the same as 0 dBd (decibel referenced to a dipole), meaning it has the same gain as a dipole. A dipole always has 2.15 dBi. Gain dBi (dBi) 2.15 dBi

Can you please explain how that works? I agree that a single large coil will have an inductance, but how does that draw lightning?

Unfortunately, price isn’t always a great determiner of value. A highly skilled engineer working in a country where wages are a fraction of another country is capable of designing a high quality radio for much less than an equally skilled engineer in one of the countries where engineers are highly paid. American engineers don’t have a monopoly on scientific knowledge. Statistically speaking, taking two competing products, both designed in the same economic area, the one that has a greater dedication of resources (for design, manufacturing, QC, and support) will generally reflect a higher customer satisfaction and have a higher price. Sales price for mass produced items will be largely dependent on the cost of production and after sales support, once the sunk cost of design has been covered. Despite our national pride, very high quality items can and are produced in countries with low labor costs. So, unfortunately, price isn’t an easy predictor of quality. A company’s (recent) reputation is a more reliable predictor.

It’s the code number that user WhiskyCharlie described in the post dated May 20.

No, it’s very easy. 1. Google “GMRS lookup” 2. Or simply use this FCC site: https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchGmrs.jsp 3. Enter the GMRS callsign. 4. Hit enter. 5. Wait a little while. 6. If you want more, click on the callsign.