SteveShannon

I assume that like many people you’re testing by transmitting on one of the radios while the other is close nearby so you can hear it. Transmitting on one while listening on another that’s close by can cause something called “desense”. What happens is that the listening radio goes deaf to the repeater because it’s overwhelmed by the RF power of the nearby transmitter. Try giving the receiving radio to someone at the other end of the house (or even further).

Look at masts at DXEngineering.com. If you were only going 10 feet I would look at top rail for chain link fence. It’s available up to 20 feet long. However, if you have a rotator you really need to stay under the weight limit of your thrust bearing. I don’t have any idea what that is. You might be back to your stand-off idea. You too could end up with a tower like this:

It’s probably not a problem. Test the continuity between the outer shell of the pl-259 and the flange of the so-239. It should be 0 or very close to 0.

How is your TV antenna attached? Do you have it on a mast which is mounted to the center of the top section of the antenna? If so, simply consider replacing that mast with a longer one that extends through the TV antenna and up to the level you want your radio antenna. That could save you getting standoffs. Edited to add: don’t forget that placing your antenna on a tall mast will drastically increase the torque on the tower as a result of wind loads.

And you’re sure it’s the same repeater? It’s possible (unlikely, but possible) that you’re trying to use a repeater that splits itself to receive on 467.575 and transmits on 462.675. I don’t know why it would, but maybe you can program the Wouxun to transmit on 467.575 and receive on 462.675.

I guess I don’t understand why you keep talking about “both channels.” What do you mean by that?

No, the aluminum panels are fine disconnected from the metal frame.

Why don’t you answer?

Are you certain the repeater is transmitting on 462.550? Here are the channel numbers according to the MXT575 manual:

You should be able to simply set the MXT575 to RP15, which is 462.550 MHz receive and 467.550 MHz transmit. For the KG1000g that might be listed as something similar or possibly even channel 23. Look in the manual to be sure. Then, for both radios just make sure to transmit with the right tone.

I don’t see how. If you’re tuned to the correct repeater frequency and no tone and it receives the same on two different radios, the issue sounds like a problem with the transmitter.

It may be that you’re doing nothing wrong but something changed with the repeater.

I haven’t watched this video, yet, but Josh usually does a decent job of explaining things. See if it helps:

Talk around sets the radio to transmit on 462 and receive on 467. You could use a radio on talk around to talk to a radio set to the appropriate repeater channel. Testing on 467 is allowed.

Either the frequency is wrong or you set the receive tone wrong. Or you have a bad antenna or coax. Or you have a bad receiver. You can eliminate the tone question by clearing out the receive tone. Connecting the Baofeng to the coax and antenna will tell you whether there’s a problem there.

So are you trying to do simplex on 467? That’s not allowed except for Fixed Stations (don’t ask; there’s an entire thread on the topic.) According to the regulations, transmitting on 467 main frequencies by a mobile station is only permitted when transmitting through a repeater, which would require receiving on 462 MHz. Maybe the baked in rules don’t allow trying to communicate on 467 simplex. I’d be surprised, but not shocked.

Transmit on 467.xxx? Correct tone for transmit? Receive on 462.xxx? Same xxx as transmit. You must have the transmit frequency 5 MHz higher than the receive frequency. Correct tone or no tone for receive?

I doubt that it’s a coincidence. I suspect you don’t have the correct CTCSS tone set. Some repeaters have different transmit tones than receive tones. The pre-programmed Repeater channels have the 5 MHz offset programmed in. I would always start with one of those and then just set the transmit tones. You can even leave the receiver tones blank. You’ll hear everything then.

Are you transmitting on the repeater frequencies? They’re 5 MHz (467 MHz range) above the 462 MHz frequency that you receive from the repeater.

You can measure it in at least two different ways. The easiest is to place a wattmeter at each end of the cable and transmit. Then compare the readings on the two meters. (Or take two measurements with a single meter at each end of the cable). If using this method you must have the cable terminated when measuring before the cable, ideally with a 50 ohm dummy load. When measuring at the far end of the cable you would have a dummy load attached to the antenna output on the wattmeter. The other way is with a two port RF network/antenna analyzer. Connect the cable between the two ports and measure the insertion loss. In YouTube search for measuring coax loss. Here’s one video: https://youtu.be/YnT1MA1wbSQ?si=ehBaLDnNKwg62xJ1

Here’s a guide to losses expressed in dB: Losses: -1.5 dB = 25% loss of power -3 dB = 50% loss of power -6 dB = 75% loss of power -9 dB = 87.5% loss of power -10 dB = 90% loss of power -20 dB = 99% loss of power -30 dB = 99.9% loss of power.

It could go either way. If it’s much too long I would cut it off. If it’s just a few feet I would live with it, which is what I do with the few extra feet of cable on the floor behind the passenger seat now.

It’s great to have thin, flexible cable, but it’s sure lossy. We’re only saved by having very short runs. Now imagine the poor person who decides to reuse an existing 50 foot piece of coax for their cell phone booster!

Everything you say is true, but I’ve never seen an NMO mount (that comes with a cable) that only has 3.8 dB loss at 467 MHz. Most come with much lossier cable. For instance, the following Laird magnetic NMO mount comes with a cable that would have 12.5 dB loss if it were 100 feet. It’s only a 12 foot cable so it loses about 1.5 dB for that distance. https://www.arcantenna.com/products/laird-antenex-gb8t-magnetic-nmo-mount-vehicular-nmo-antenna-roof-mount-12-ft-rg-58a-u-cable-tnc-male-connector-included?variant=32297030811779&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjOunBhB4EiwA94JWsNBrxPjgMgjWlB56LSL_hmzYUfMLDg2FMcehTYdnfrryxVeyNCFQOhoCk0EQAvD_BwE

DPL is a digital code rather than the analog tone used in CTCSS. On many radios it’s called DTCSS or DCS. Almost every radio supports it but some companies have included some non-standard codes. The Motorola version of CTCSS is simply called PL, not DPL.