SteveShannon

Whatever surge suppressor has the correct connections that match your heliax and coax. Typically you want the surge suppressor as close as possible to where the feedline enters your house. This is a good concise guide to the requirements: https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf

Welcome! Only you can answer those questions. Things to consider: whom do you want to talk to? Have you heard them on the radio? For myself I wouldn’t put an antenna on the house unless I was certain there were people who I would be talking to. Spend some time with the radio and see what you’re lacking before spending money.

Because it’s a GMRS radio you may only transmit on predefined GMRS channels. As I recall from previous threads Baofeng enforces that by preventing transmissions while in vfo mode. Edited to add: the manual shows that the 22 GMRS channels and 8 GMRS repeater channels are modifiable and RX and TX capable, but they specify that the RF ranges are receive channels. Nothing in the manual indicates that you can transmit in VFO mode.

The frequency limits in his picture were obviously not the problem. People here would need a lot more information to understand what your problem might be. Something showing how you have it programmed in the 935G would help.

Using the wrong port is the most common error. Unplug the radio and start Device Manager. Then, while watching the list of ports to see what new ones are created, plug the radio in. That’s the correct port. If a port isn’t created make sure you have the correct driver installed. If the software has settings for baud rate etc, make sure they match the settings in Device Manager.

Don’t worry about it. Someone will always have an opinion about how you should word something. I’ve done it myself. Just be yourself.

The FCC regulations define 22 specific frequencies with power and bandwidth limits as numbered channels for FRS. The FCC regulations also establish limits on those same 22 frequencies for GMRS and add eight more for transmitting to repeaters. Read the regulations. Then consult the manuals for your radios to see how the manufacturers refer to them.

So do most people!

Exactly right. Buying a radio and putting it away in case you need it someday is no smarter than buying a gun and failing to learn how to use it.

I have no idea what that sound may be, but a couple people have experienced something similar in the Radioddity db20g. Do you think the problem is with the repeater or your radio? Do you have receive tones (CTCSS or DCS) set in the UV25?

Just for the sake of correctness. It is not + .5 MHz ; it’s + 5.0 MHz. That’s a big difference. Some repeaters continue to transmit for a short period of time after a person lets up on the PTT. You might be hearing that.

Same mast. No fancy calculations needed, just increase the distance if you detect interference.

Hi Frank, What is your call sign? Sometimes it takes a few days, but I have also seen where people read and input their call sign incorrectly and go for weeks or even months before figuring it out. All GMRS call signs issued in the past several years are four letters followed by three numbers: waaa000 to wzzz999. One person had a call sign that ended in I776 and he kept trying to enter it as 1776, not i776, getting more and more frustrated when the system failed to recognize it in spite of the amount of time since issuance. Most people using GMRS do so to have family communications while doing family activities. That’s what the licensing favors, but there’s nothing wrong with random contacts with people you introduce yourself to online. As you have seen a few people get their panties in a wad over that. Ignoring them is easiest.

Antenna physics are fascinating but I’ve just barely started learning. Every so often I receive an inch thick densely printed periodical called Proceedings of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society. Most of it is so far over my head that it’s indecipherable. The majority of it deals with microwave and higher frequencies up to around 10-11 gigahertz. Almost none of it is written for the frequencies of ham radio, although recently a couple of ELF articles appeared. I struggle to even skim through it. I mean it’s so far over my head that I don’t even know where to start, but there are people who actually understand this stuff!

That one is especially nice because it shorts all of the unused center conductors to the shield (which is typically grounded) and it provides surge suppression for the center conductor of the selected antenna.

Absolutely! Mounting one above the other would help immensely.

Both will affect the propagation pattern of the other. Also, there’s always the possibility of desensing one receiver when the other radio transmits. Other than that no problem.

I sold guns for over 40 years as a side gig, I’ve been an NRA member for 52 years, and once in a while I carried a gun. I think the idea of arming people must be approached carefully. I think it really depends on your neighborhood and the type of risk you might encounter. For many places sending a bunch of untrained armed people out is just an invitation to tragedy. Often times having a gun gives a person false courage that leads to walking towards bad situations rather than calling someone who is better trained.

Great examples!

But @WRTC928, if you do use a coax switch you must keep in mind that one or the other radio (repeater or base) will be transmitting into a very high SWR if activated when the other radio is connected to the antenna. So, when you set the switch to connect the base station to the antenna, I would want to temporarily disable transmit on the repeater. Although it’s unlikely to be activated by a weak signal from another station, it could still attempt to transmit an ID if it was recently in use or perhaps even in response to the use of the base station.

By “Network” do you mean a simplex sched? A radio meeting where people who are available check in at a specific time, either as directed according to a roll call read by a net controller or perhaps in response to a call form net controller for check-ins? If so, there are no rules that prohibit such an activity. Many times such things are done using a repeater for greater range, but the FRS radios wouldn’t be able to.

Exactly right, that’s the natural consequence of constantly complaining. It’s the “Peter and the Wolf syndrome”. There’s no way to know whether they’re just complaining as usual, which is exhausting to listen to and affects all who hear it negatively, or if this complaint is one that’s valid. Those people are far worse to have around than the ones who are quiet when something works the way it should.

Yes, but they differ in two ways. They’re 50 ohms instead of 75 and the better ones ground the center conductors of any antennas that are not selected for use.

There are variants of the 1486, including the -B variant: https://www.amazon.com/200-Watt-Pretuned-Fiberglass-Antenna-Connector/dp/B092DWP4NG Edited to add: I haven’t found a dual band Tram 1486. All that I have found in a quick google search have been a tunable single band (UHF not VHF) antenna that comes with a tuning guide for whatever frequency you wish to use.

Here are the two actual rules: § 95.1733 Prohibited GMRS uses. (a) In addition to the prohibited uses outlined in § 95.333 of this chapter, GMRS stations must not communicate: (8) Messages which are both conveyed by a wireline control link and transmitted by a GMRS station; § 95.1749 GMRS network connection. Operation of a GMRS station with a telephone connection is prohibited, as in § 95.349. GMRS repeater, base and fixed stations, however, may be connected to the public switched network or other networks for the sole purpose of operation by remote control pursuant to § 95.1745. I know it’s not what you want, but “Staff Opinion” doesn’t seem to exceed the wording of the actual rules.