SteveShannon

In which band do you want it to transmit?

You can run a straight piece of coax through several ferrite beads or you can make several loops of the coax through a ferrite toroid. I don't know that one is better than the other. If you're having difficulties looping the LMR=400 maybe you're trying to make the diameter of the loops too small. Every coax has a minimum bend radius which you should never go under. If you bend coax sharper than that the inner conductor and shield can migrate towards each other and even eventually short against each other. If you don't like the large loops you get with LMR-400, then the ferrite beads would seem to be preferable. The best thing I can tell you to do is to read and possibly re-read the document at Palomar Engineering that I linked above. I'll link it here again. Notice that unun type 2 is what we're talking about and the pictures that accompany this example show both ferrite beads and coax looped through a ferrite toroid: https://palomar-engineers.com/wp-content/uploads/Choosing-a-Feedline-Choke-RFI-Tip-Sheet-RC-1-by-AK6R.pdf

How do you do what? Make a choke? Just loop the antenna end of your coax through a ferrite several times right where it connects to the antenna.

Train drivers? ?

I’m an engineer too, but for some reason I got both the spelling gene and the pedantry gene.

The word is actually balun, which stands for balanced to unbalanced. It would probably be better just to refer to that as a feedline choke rather than speculating whether it’s a balun or an unun. Coax is unbalanced feedline and a j-pole has elements of both unbalanced and balanced antennas. The short section of the j-pole is a stub match so a balun or unun isn’t truly needed, but having a choke can help with common mode interference. https://palomar-engineers.com/wp-content/uploads/Choosing-a-Feedline-Choke-RFI-Tip-Sheet-RC-1-by-AK6R.pdf

Alt-Printscreen will allow you to capture screenshots without having to take pictures with your phone.

No, if your radio has an SMA male (female threads surrounding a male inner pin) then your adapter needs to be SMA female to BNC female. That’s the one LScott linked above. If your radio has an SMA female connector (male threads surrounding a small female socket) then your adapter will need to be SMA male to BNC female (the cable on the antenna you thought you’d get has a BNC male.

And if that doesn’t help drop it down to the same height you had the previous antenna. I agree that probably doesn’t make sense; I’m just looking at the things you changed.

Excellent advice!

For something you plan to connect and disconnect frequently I would recommend BNC. You’ll simply need an SMA to BNC adapter in the appropriate genders. SMA to BNC is a pretty popular adapter for handheld radios.

The Midland MXTA26 has a good reputation and is on sale for ~$40 right now. It’s an NMO mount antenna, but you also need to buy a base and cable for it. Probably the most common base folks get for it is a magnetic mount. I got the MXTA12 from Midland for that. I think it’s about $30, but it was a Christmas gift, so I’m not certain.

At the very top of the screen shot at the top of this thread, you pasted a screenshot of the configuration software. The first two values are “DTMF PAUSE CODE” and “(DTMF) PAUSE TIME” Pause time is set to 2 seconds but the code is set to 0. Try putting a character in there. The hints at the bottom of the screenshot show what characters are acceptable. Then, I assume, put that same character into your DTMF string.

One thing I might suggest is to practice sending DTMF using one of your BTech mobiles or your Midland mxt500. Then make the 2200 sound like that.

Not from me. Sorry.

There are some very inexpensive sets of SMA adapters at Amazon that will work for many different combinations.

Most handheld charging cradles are not intended to be used as power adapters, allowing you to receive while charging. They frequently have a lot of ripple current and use unfiltered switching power supplies. The manuals that accompanied my more expensive radios explain the distinction, but none of the manuals for my less expensive radios do.

Then you’re on the wrong frequency or you more likely have a receive tone set that doesn’t match the FRS radio transmit frequency. Try clearing the receive tone first. Or your radio is just really not very sensitive. How close are the FRS radios? If you kerchunk the Midland on that same channel do you hear it on your GMRS V2? (I’m assuming simplex because FRS doesn’t use repeaters)

Did you ever get it? How did it work?

It’s very good in direct sunlight.

I think it was @MichaelLAX who has a post on using a 3 inch test plug with the radio bolted to it. He just sets it in his cup holder. Correction: it was @Newb

Did you remove and replace the battery?

Just curious, since you’re logged in as a guest. Do you have a GMRS license?

We’re out here. After your resume in your first post I was a little intimidated. I didn’t realize you were having problems. ? Unfortunately, I have no advice to offer. Obviously you already know how to troubleshoot network problems so it sounds like the problem might be on the other end.

Very cool! 500 watts, but that’s only 20 dB more than my GMRS HT! ?