SteveShannon

You’d be amazed how quickly deer will become complacent to a new structure. Shiny barb wire fences, busy highways, farm equipment - within a few days they completely tune them out.

I did and I put power poles on the plug end as well so I can still use the cigarette lighter power.

Jeep is owned by Stellantis, a Dutch corporation. So it’s literally a Dutch car company building Jeeps in Toledo, Ohio from 70% US parts and 30% foreign parts.

Apparently your radio always thinks that B is the sub-channel. Perhaps when dual watch is disabled that’s how it works?

Thanks! I will.

Just look at reliability figures for the 4Runner versus any Jeep.

Dual watch simply means both tuners are being monitored (watched). On my radios if I turn off dual watch only one tuner is shown and heard.

As long as it’s a 4Runner (or Sequoia or Land Cruiser).

That’s right; that’s what it does. You have two VFOs, A and B. Either can be the “main band.” The other is the “Sub Band.” If you don’t want to be interrupted by the Sub Band, you turn on Sub Band muting using one of the three options. If you choose RX/TX while in one band the other band will always say “Mute.”

Except ours has locked up twice in the winter in two years, requiring us to wait until the snow melts to power fail it.

Did you find it in the database and ask permission? They usually provide you with the tones if they approve your request. Actually it’s an open system and the tones are published right on the repeater information page: https://mygmrs.com/repeater/6174

And if you mess with the meteorological satellites how would the guvmint control the weather and send hurricanes at their foes?? (Joking!)

Not necessary. There’s no DC in your coax. In fact most people use a magnetic mount and the only “connection” to the metal roof is via capacitive coupling to allow the roof to be the ground plane. If you have a non-ground plane antenna you don’t need to worry about ground.

Welcome! Grounding an antenna is not the same as providing a ground plane. In order to provide a ground plane you need a metal plate, such as a metal roof or hood. In your case I would suggest buying an antenna that doesn’t require a ground plane. I doubt that you need any kind of a ground strap.

Welcome! Enjoy the perusal!

Start by clearing out all of the receiver tones on the repeaters you don’t hear. That way you’ll hear anything transmitted on those frequencies. If you still don’t hear the repeaters, you’re out of range or one the wrong frequency or the repeater are down. Then work on your transmitter configuration only. Get closer if you have to and ask others to listen for your transmission. Carrying two radios and hoping to hear yourself on one while transmitting on the other often fails because your strong transmitter deafens the receiver of the other handheld. That’s called desense. That may easily be why you hear the courtesy tones and squelch tails after you release the PTT. Others may be hearing your transmission. Ask them to respond.

If after doing this you are disappointed, there are also mounts for ground plane antennas that mount them to the fender. Although it’s not perfect, it does provide a ground plane and a lot of people get by with fender mounts just fine.

Dale, As others have commented you are transmitting on a frequency that isn’t a GMRS channel with a non-GMRS certified transmitter. Your license only grants you permission to transmit on the official GMRS channels and only when using GMRS certified transmitter. So, technically you’re violating the regulations and by publishing your question in a public forum you have increased your risk of being fined. The good news is that the FCC typically doesn’t do anything unless someone files a complaint and even then they send you a stern letter first demanding that you cease and desist and confirm in writing to them how you intend to avoid doing such a terrible thing ever again. Just delete that channel and use the established channels at the permitted power levels and go in peace.

No. I think you just make stuff up. It’s more likely to affect your eyes and your testes. RF is non-ionizing radiation, and although excessive RF exposure can have harmful effects the calculation is more complicated than just some arbitrary power level. It involves frequency, distance, cumulative time of exposure, antenna gain, and power output. ARRL makes a free calculator. https://www.arrl.org/rf-exposure-calculator

Nobody can answer that but you. There are always trade offs, such as definitely shortened battery life, probable shortened electronics’ life, slight possibility of battery rupturing and catching fire in a spectacular way, possibility of generating interference, and/or spurious emissions. Do you have test equipment to see what happens to the signal? Why didn’t the manufacturer do it?

The “sub-channels” are achieved by using CTCSS tones or DCS codes. Those are fairly standardized so you should be able to use them with any other FRS or GMRS radio. Just bear in mind that anyone listening without tones or codes set will be able to hear your conversations. It’s not secure. Nor will the 2 watts instead of 5 watts make a huge difference. The thing you can’t do is communicate through a repeater.

Yes, individuals just like you and I own the repeaters. They choose whether to allow others to use their repeaters. Most allow others to use them. The licensing is specifically for individuals, with the exception of a few grandfathered licenses. Channels are established by regulations: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E There is no organized coordination of channels. You are responsible for not interfering with others, just as others are responsible to not interfere with you. Nor does anyone own any of the frequencies. You’re free to use any established channel that’s not in use. The eight repeater frequency pairs are established by federal regulations and are the same everywhere in the United States. The frequency your radio receives from a repeater is also used as a simplex frequency, but the frequencies you transmit to the repeater are for the most part limited to repeaters. Note that a couple of frequencies may not be used above Line A, but that will only affect you if you are using your radio in the northern tier states. There’s a similar prohibition for folks who live near the eastern border of Alaska.

We had a person on the forum a few months ago who connected backwards to the duplexer and had a similar result. On the repeater the high frequency connection goes to the receiver side and the low frequency connection goes to the repeater transmitter. Your friend probably didn’t do that, but it wouldn’t be the first time. Second, I second Boxcar in suggesting that you strip away all of the tones at first. Once you know the repeater is working you can always reprogram them, ideally one at a time. If there are no tones and you are certain you’re transmitting to the repeater on the same frequency the repeater is receiving (one thing at a time) then make sure the repeater transmitter works. When you’re done you should be able to verify each of the following steps: handheld radio transmitting correctly repeater receives correctly repeater transmitter works handheld radio receives from repeater Then add an input tone to the repeater and the same output tone to your handheld and test again. Then add an output tone to the repeater and the same input tone to your handheld and test again.

Radioddity says that they have an expanded manual (250 pages) for this radio and two others and they provide a link to the download page, but I can’t find it.