SteveShannon

While that’s all true, I’ve never seen someone refer to a brass component as “zinc alloy”. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, not a “zinc alloy”. If you think there’s no difference, go to a nearby scrapyard and ask what the difference is. Clean die cast zinc alloy scrap goes for just over $0.50/lb. where yellow brass is about $2.30 and red brass is nearly $3. This portion of a picture from Larsen makes it even clearer that the main body is a zinc alloy component which has been copper plated and then nickel plated (not a brass component). They understand the difference because they refer to the ring as brass. Does that make it substandard? Absolutely not, but as I said earlier, I have a personal (derived from my earlier bias towards zinc alloy frames used in cheap firearms and some machine tools) bias against zinc alloy components, especially when other materials are available. I have an old Atlas lathe that has Zamak change gears. There’s just something about zinc alloy that screams “cheap” to me. Laird, however makes a very similar NMO mount that is all brass. https://theantennafarm.com/shop-by-categories/antennas-mounts/mobile-antenna-mounts/nmo-mobile-antenna-mounts/266-permanent-hole-mounts/289-nmo-3-4-hole-mount-no-connector/1140-laird-connectivity-mb8-detail Based on @gortex2’s recommendation I might still get the Larsen, although I doubt I’ll need the additional 5 GHz of range.

I don’t think it’s interference (referring to the issue reported by @WSGJ919, not necessarily the OP’s issue). There have been other reports of the db20g not returning to a squelched state after transmitting. My friend Jack experiences that frequently, with squelch remaining open for four or more seconds until someone else transmits on the same channel. It’s interesting that it happens in wideband but not narrow, though. I’ll see if Jack’s radio has the same result when switched to narrow rather than wide..

I was very happy with the TYT UV380. It was closer to $80-$90 but it was easy to convert. When I have used it on analog a friend tells me it’s the best sounding transmissions out of all my radios. It’s also available in a waterproof version for $10 more as the UV390.

Good recommendation, thanks!

Nope, it has nothing to do with China. I’m thinking of Zamak and its past usage in machinery. The specifications for this mount specify copper, brass, and zinc alloy separately.

It’s probably just one of my own biases, but every time I consider the Larsen mount I shy away from their use of zinc alloy.

The Alinco MD5 is an 878 on the inside. That’s what I bought when I first got into DMR. It’s very slightly smaller and only has room for 500,000 contacts and 4000 channels, but if you can live with that it’s only $290 from the major ham radio companies. https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-018082

That’s defiantly true!

The kg1000g makes it pretty easy to adjust squelch. Just press the squelch hotkey on the mic and then use the up or down buttons to increase or decrease the squelch level. The db20g has a similar squelch adjustment, “fun” key, “1” key, then up or down buttons.

I don’t think you’re alone in wanting a more accessible squelch adjustment, but apparently I fall on the other end of the spectrum. I almost never adjust squelch. I set it once, when I first get a radio, and almost never have to go back in and change it, which makes me curious why some people adjust it frequently and others very seldom do.

I’ve seen bad earphone jacks cause that.

What did you have to do?

That would certainly make sense. Unfortunately it’s not what I experienced on our repeater. I wish it were because I could understand that.

@WSGL997 - I’ve had similar results where I have used a repeater and some people could hear me and others couldn’t. It didn’t seem logical to me because if the repeater was retransmitting my transmission shouldn’t everyone who hears other things on the repeater be able to hear mine? Or was I maybe transmitting on the wrong frequency? But it definitely happened. Radio isn’t always understandable.

Because repeaters are operated strictly under an individual’s license in GMRS, unlike ham or commercial radio, what’s welcome behavior on a GMRS repeater is entirely up to the wishes of the licensed operator subject to the rules of the FCC. Thus you’re apt to see GMRS repeaters that welcome rag-chewing and you’re also apt to see GMRS repeaters that prefer no reg-chewing. A significant number of GMRS users will tell you that GMRS is not intended for random conversations. Another bunch will happily participate in random conversations on GMRS frequencies. Enjoy the ride! Welcome to the forum!

Send the radio back. Or at least try a different radio to see if the problem persists.

Higher resistance also limits the current. I don’t believe that there have been many (if any) cigarette lighter plugs on db20g radios that have melted.

I’ve seen batteries that were stuck hard. Sometimes they’re swollen and sometimes they’re poorly manufactured and sometimes something has been spilled on them, basically gluing them in place. You might have to strong arm it somehow.

That helps. Does it only happen when the jeep is running or also when everything but the radio is turned off?

Here’s a video that very briefly shows it at about 30 seconds.

Are you operating from a vehicle or as a base station? You seem to be describing two different things: “static interference after releasing the PTT” and choppiness and poor quality audio while transmitting. Let’s take them one at a time. First, static interference. Do you mean that you hear static immediately after letting go of the PTT? How long does it continue? Static is always present to some extent. The squelch control turns off the audio when the signal strength is below a certain threshold. Turning up the squelch increases the threshold. Have you tried turning up the squelch?

Horseshit. There’s nothing wrong with people getting together in a club (or perhaps even a forum) to discuss, learn about, and share enjoyment of GMRS.

Exactly right. Almost every car comes with a power port that accepts the cigarette lighter plug. Although the cigarette lighter plug isn’t what many of us might eventually use, it’s the closest thing there is to being universally available and works well for these low power radios allowing them to be used immediately.

Not really. There is no QRZ for GMRS. You might be able to check to see if the repeater operator is also a ham (https://gmrs.app/?) and then look on QRZ, but email addresses there are only there voluntarily. But you could always look them up on the FCC site and send them snail mail.

Comet CA-GMRS https://www.gigaparts.com/comet-ca-gmrs-base-antenna.html?utm_term=sku-zcm-ca-gmrs&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_py5EKZQxij1cmldY7F8FS3Vn42&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyoi8BhDvARIsAO_CDsBPolyUSP6EAjfHgLTgAmTPj__UDbKhG2y8DMvRLwgdMx9xjiUbKR8aAgAQEALw_wcB