SteveShannon

It can be tested that way. First, put the sw-102 right at the radio and see what your power output is. Then move it to the end of the coax and see what the power output is. The difference is the loss. Another thing to consider is how close your roof antenna is to the roof. It should be up above the high point of the roof at least half of a wavelength or about 15 inches or so, more if possible.

Either the feedline or the antenna on your house is not as good as the one in your car. The first thing I would suggest is that your coax might be attenuating the signal. What kind of coax is it?

It’s something you’re overthinking. Checking SWR on handheld radios is simply not accurately accomplished and unnecessary.

As I recall, there may have been an issue with some GM-30 radios not transmitting on certain channels. A firmware update solved it. But it may simply be the transmitting on that channel is inhibited in the settings. Check that first using whatever method you used to configure the GM-30. One other thing to check is that the channel is allowed to be set as a repeater channel. I don’t know how the regulations are enforced by the GM-30 but there are LOTS of posts in this forum where people were attempting to program a repeater channel where the radio would not allow.

Get better soon!

It’s possible that the GM-30 simply isn’t transmitting on 467.7250. Listen with your other two radios set to receive on that frequency with no tones and separate them from the GM-30 by 50 feet or so to make sure they aren’t desensed.

Welcome! We have all been new at things. It’s intimidating isn’t it. Sometimes you don’t really even know what to ask. So I hope that you’ll read this before posting your question. First, no matter what you post read it all the way through, maybe twice, maybe even more, before hitting “Submit”. Posting a question that isn’t easily understood will do nobody any good. Recently we have seen several questions that were totally incoherent. Second, tell us everything about how you have configured your radio: what frequency you’re transmitting on, the tone or DCS you’re transmitting. If you need help with the radio, tell us what the model is. All the numbers and letters are needed. Don't just say "It's a boofwang" and expect us to leap into action. Tell us the repeater name, the city, and the state the repeater is in. If possible, provide a link to information about the repeater. Be careful not to disclose tones for a private repeater though (assume most are). PL and CTCSS are just different names for tones. We know not all the manufacturers use the same numbers; use frequencies in Hertz instead. Yes, we all know the tones don't protect conversations from being overheard. They can help keep you from being interrupted though. DPL and DCS mean the same as DTCSS and an N after the code stands for Normal, I means inverted; use N unless it’s called out as inverted. No, that roll of RG6 that fell off the cable TV truck isn’t really useful for GMRS. Neither are long runs of RG58 or anything else that's tiny in diameter. Plan to learn about coax losses at GMRS frequencies. No, GMRS isn’t ham radio. Don’t say CQ CQ CQ unless you like being the temporary object of possibly negative attention. Psst: It really is temporary unless you double down; then you get down votes for months. Yes, Notarubicon videos do have useful information, even if you don’t understand the Queen’s humor. No, that’s not related to homophobia. If you just got your call sign from the FCC but you’re unable to sign up here yet, give it a few days. The call sign lookup uses a periodic database dump from the FCC rather than a realtime verification. As such it can take up to a week. And if you still can’t register, double check your call sign. On more than one occasion people have mistakenly entered 1 instead of capital I, or 0 instead of O. GMRS call signs are four letters followed by three numerals. The first letter is W and will be for some time. So WAAA001 through WZZZ999. Also, look over the many posts, use the search function, keep your search terms short and find one of the 5000 other threads where someone asked the same thing before posting the 5001st question about a topic. Really, if you’re a beginner and having a problem, chances are many of us had the same problem when we were beginners and we posted the 3001st or 4001st repeat question. Finally, if any of the above stumps you, don’t even start asking about setting up your own repeater, yet. But when you’ve gotten to the point where you might know enough to ask about setting up a repeater there’s lots of helpful information here. Again, welcome.

First, where is Angleton? It’s meaningless to me and possibly people in 48 other states. Without saying a state you’re less likely to get local assistance. What’s the call sign of the repeater that you’re trying to use? Second, what frequency are you transmitting on and receiving on? Third, what tones are you using for transmitting?

That’s a good idea.

Well, that’s not going to happen.

Sometimes people drill out the mic hole on external microphones.

I agree with you. The actual relationships allowed to use a license are very specifically defined in the regulations, as is the requirement that the licensee/owner of the radio be able to access and control the use of the radio at all times. But humans being humans, people will always look for ways to stretch regulations or complain about the government’s regulatory authority. A conversation like this will never be settled.

I only have a mag mount, so my first thought is that you’re talking about the pad on the bottom of the mag mount. Isn’t the rubber pad on the bottom of the mount, rather than the base of the antenna? I haven’t removed the rubber pad to see how the metal portion of the mount is constructed above the rubber pad. In any case having a better seal there certainly shouldn’t hurt. It might keep grit from getting in there and possibly damaging your vehicle’s finish. A friend of mine bought a new truck and had a layer of protective film applied to the portion of the roof where the mag mount attaches.

As @BoxCar said, Vaseline has been used for years, and for most modern o-rings it’s okay (same as dielectric grease), but plumbing shops sell a silicone grease specifically designed for lubricating o-rings and gaskets. Soap can even be used. But I’m not really convinced that any kind of grease should be used there anyways. If the gasket or o-ring is in good shape and the surfaces of the mating parts on the base and mount are clean, using a dry o-ring might help to avoid the buildup of grit that might otherwise stick to grease. Once the parts have been assembled they shouldn’t be moving against each other much like an o-ring against a hydraulic ram The problem I experienced was caused by water coming in from the top of the antenna. I’m guessing water ran down the whip, into the base. Small amounts might also have entered via the set screw hole. Because the base seals tightly against the NMO mount, the water was able to build up. I think @WRXP381 has the right idea, to seal around the top of the base where the whip enters the shaft with some black RTV or silicone rubber. Although a person might be able to use grease there, the combined effects of wind and heat would eventually deplete that and dirt would stick to it. I was just surprised that Midland didn’t have the socket for the whip sealed off from the base somehow.

I agree.

Since the base of the antenna contained water that escaped when I unscrewed it, that obviously wasn’t the problem, but I would recommend o-ring grease because it won’t attack the rubber o-ring. Perhaps dielectric grease is safe for o-rings but none of the qualities necessary for dielectric grease benefit an RF connection.

Yes, and it’s even more clearly spelled out in 95.1705(f): (f) Cooperative use of GMRS stations. GMRS licensees may share the use of their stations with other persons eligible in the GMRS, subject to the conditions and limitations in this paragraph. (1) The GMRS station to be shared must be individually owned by the licensee, jointly owned by the participants and the licensee, leased individually by the licensee, or leased jointly by the participants and the licensee. (2) The licensee must maintain access to and control over all stations authorized under its license.

That’s why I often disable dual watch.

Last week I decided to put my dual band DB20G radio into my 4Runner instead of the one I keep dedicated to GMRS. I have a Midland magnetic NMO mount on the roof with an MXTA26 antenna for use on GMRS. I already know the MXTA26 is worthless for 2 meters so I unscrewed the MXTA26 from the NMO mount where it has been. Although i intended to use it for GMRS, the need simply never materialized and so for the past eight months or so the dedicated GMRS radio has been out of the 4Runner. The antenna has been in place without being disturbed for two years. Apparently the seal for the NMO mount works really well, because even though it has been hot(ish) and very dry here for the past month, trapped water gushed out under the gasket at the base of the antenna as soon as I broke the seal. It was surprising. There was probably a tablespoon or two of water trapped in the base of the antenna. My theory is that over the winters and rainy springs water travelled down the whip into the base. I expected that there would be some kind of seal to prevent water from entering the cavities of the base, but if so it didn’t work. I have a second MXTA26 antenna that I mounted briefly but replaced with a Comet SBB5 that I can always use, but I’ll put the antenna analyzer on this one to see what it looks like. I’ll compare the two, the nearly unused one vs. the one that was waterlogged. So, because the much discussed format of this forum expects a question and allows us to vote the answers up or down, have any of you experienced this kind of water ingress with the Midland MXTA26 or another NMO mount antenna? If so, do you just drain them and let them drip dry every so often?

Yeah, but you have a life.

The difference between digital codes that end in N or I is that N is the normal code and I is the inverse of the same code. If it doesn’t specify I, use N.

I have an end fed half wave that has good SWR on 40, 30, 20, 15, and 10 meters. 17 can be tuned using the internal tuner in my FTDX10, but I built an automatic tuner from a kit that’ll tune to 10:1 so I can pick up 80, 60, and 12 meters. With the beautiful waterfall on the radio I can almost always find someone to listen to. I only have 100 watts but I usually don’t turn it up beyond 45 watts and sometimes only 15-20.

Yes

If you really think that simply changing the element will work go to an auto parts store and pick out a replacement automotive antenna whip. Last time I checked they were $10. But the base of the antenna probably has a coil and a capacitor that were chosen for the whip you want to replace so you’re kind of working bass-backwards.

I guess we have differing expectations of hf and differing definitions of reliability. It sounds like you want the instant gratification of a VHF handheld, the addressable nature of a cell phone, and the long distance of hf. That would be wonderful, but it’s just not realistic. As I’ve mentioned probably too often I always get through to the 40 meter net on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ve simply never failed at it and from Butte, MT to Keyport, WA the distance isn’t short. And that’s on SSB phone which is one of the most sensitive to noise. That doesn’t mean I can hear every person who checks in. As you say, atmospheric conditions sometimes make it difficult to hear some people. But what it does mean is that I know which paths work reliably, which modes I can fall back to (text or email style messaging via weak-signal modes are particularly useful, but the original CW is a skill I want to develop), and whom I can count on to relay a message if I must get a message delivered. Now that’s not as convenient as a cell phone. I cannot say that I can talk to any other person on hf whenever I want, but I can rely on a network of hams to get messages through, and in an emergency that’s what’s important.