SteveShannon

It’s not a bad idea. I think every state should designate an emergency channel. But it would possibly be more useful if it were a common channel everywhere and if there were no privacy code. In an emergency the last thing you want is for a message to be missed because somebody couldn’t set the tone correctly. Just look at how many people on this forum, which is dedicated to GMRS, ask how tones work. And those are people who are interested in GMRS.

For the clamp style connectors the center pin can even be crimped instead of soldered.

A ground plane is not the same as grounding the antenna post. Conduction is not necessary. A 30 foot mast is way more than adequate as a ground plane for a 68 centimeter wavelength anyway.

That’s correct. Aluminum oxidizes immediately and aluminum oxide is not a conductor. Having an aluminum pole in the ground doesn’t ground it.

But it’s still an inadequate solution for the reasons often repeated. That something has been discussed before without resolving the inherent problems is no reason not to discuss it again. The horse isn’t dead.

Dress it up with a wiring grommet. https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-10562-00-Cable-grommet/dp/B000T13DBS?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Hopefully they monitor without the tone. I agree with you. I suspect they were just taking advantage of the mnemonic.

No

What about snail mail?

Thanks for the reminder, but the Garmin radios don’t transmit GPS data on the repeater channels. Also, because they are capable of sending GPS data they have molded in antennas that cannot be changed.

Make sure you have it set to show stale and inactive repeaters.

You either need a duplexer or two antennas with lots of distance between them. The signal transmitted by a repeater must be isolated from the receiver in order for the receiver to simultaneously receive.

If you can live with a monochrome map, they have a model that you could afford to buy two of. I love how they share the location of each handheld. All the senior members of our rocket club carry them so we can keep track of each other.

Okay, so let me tell you one thing that some people here would object to. The channels on mine (and I suspect all others ?) are all preset. By that I mean there’s a simple choice of 30 channels. You cannot have six different channels set up and ready to go to cover the six repeaters in your state that all use 462.700. You just have to change the tones for that channel depending on where you are. They’re really ideally set up for communications between people where you want to know where each other are. And, mine at least, is well made in Taiwan, not communist China.

Do you have a call sign for the repeater? Typically it’s announced during the net. The only repeater listed for Plymouth in the directory here is on 700. I presume you know about that one. There are seven repeaters listed for 462.600 in Massachusetts. A few have unlisted tones and MassNet seems to own most of them. As soon as I edit out their tones I’ll post a picture.

Do you have a call sign for the repeater? Typically it’s announced during the net.

On the Rino the repeater channels don’t appear by default, but once you enable it for repeater use they do. They are excellent. I don’t have the 750, but I have one a bit older. 675 maybe? No camera built in, but it does have the ability to send and receive pictures. It’s rugged, super visible in bright sunshine, and very easy to change tones.

I don’t disagree with the others, but there should be a way to discover who owns it. Does the repeater ever identify itself? This site (mygmrs.com) and the FCC have the ability to look up the licensee.

I don’t have a UV9G so I cannot provide step by step instructions, but I can provide the basics: 1. Tune to the correct channel. There are a limited number of repeater channels and they are pre-programmed into the UV9G. 2. Set that channel’s squelch type to “Tone” rather than “Tone Squelch” which is commonly shown as TSQL. 3. Set the transmit tone to match the UPLINK tone the repeater requires. 4. Do not set program a receive tone, at least at first. That and step #2 will leave your receiver accessible to any transmissions. That’s it. Your instruction manual should have step by step instructions for each of the above steps. Welcome to the forums! Best wishes!

Literally books have been written about this exact subject. The gold standard is a book that Motorola put together and which is found on the BLM site. Here it is: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/Lands_ROW_Motorola_R56_2005_manual.pdf But for most of us this next article is more easily understandable and do-able: https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf Also, if you’re a ham and a member of ARRL there’s an excellent (albeit somewhat technical) article in the latest QST magazine by an engineer whose brother started lightning protection company Polyphasor. I cannot link to it, but it does a great job of explaining why timing is everything and why everything must be grounded to a single ground at some point to prevent damaging voltage differentials.

It’s certainly worth trying. Flagpoles like this are one way hams get around HOA rules. I like the fact that it doesn’t require a couple yards of concrete like a self supporting truss type tower does. I might try one. I get occasional 10% off coupons from Home Depot too.

Both of the above methods require soldering the center conductor but at least the M&P literature discusses that the variability of soldering was something that affected SWR and that their evolution series of connectors is intended to minimize that by making the amount of solder more consistent.

I agree. I must have been feeling churlish the other day. The document is an excellent and concise reference to the regulations. I apologize for not being more positive.

But maybe a crimper and the whole preparation kit just isn’t necessary. I really kind of like the clamp style of connector that @WRCQ487 linked in his post above. I actually purchased some similarly installed PL-259 connectors based on advice from one of the other members here and they look good. As a refresher here is a similar N connector from Messi and Paoloni (same video as linked above)