SteveShannon

Welcome! Look for YouTube videos on the Notarubicon channel. His channel has presented more GMRS information than any other that I know of. Hopefully, some members from your area will comment also.

Here’s a link to the video:

It really depends on what is meant by SHTF. In my opinion if the shit truly has hit the fan, no infrastructure will be available. The billing department will be the least of your worries. If infrastructure is still available, shit hasn’t truly hit the fan.

Then the other thing to try is to connect a handheld to the antenna cable and see how the antenna works without the repeater and duplexer. I would just keep eliminating things until you eliminate the problem. Is the antenna even with the heavy part of the tree canopy? Maybe it’s just being blocked. Try putting your antenna lower again. Vegetation will definitely block UHF.

Thanks. My mistake. I read poorly.

1. Yes the mount will work. 2. My mistake. I read the question incorrectly. I don’t know.

I doubt that the duplexer has slipped, but that is confusing. It should be easy enough to check the duplexer. Bypass it and have your wife transmit from the HT. How does it work on receiving with the duplexer bypassed? If you don’t want to fiddle around with the connections to the duplexer I understand. Try hooking a handheld to your MA-09 to see if the antenna works any better.

It’s definitely not a j-pole, but it might have some coils and capacitors that could look like a DC short. Or you might just have a loose fitting that’s giving you problems with the wind.

First, see if that piece of cable acts the same way when you hook up to it with your meter. If it doesn’t, then yes, you’re going to have to take down your antenna so you can diagnose the problem. Right now you don’t know if the problem is with your antenna or the feed line. Or decide it’s not enough to worry about and leave it alone.

Do you have a different piece of coax to try?

Yes, measuring resistance should indicate open with no antenna, but I assume you’re using a multimeter which only measures DC resistance. With an antenna like a j-pole you would see a dead short at DC. The problems you’re experiencing are with ultra high frequency AC. A multimeter is useful to detect an electrical short, but really won’t tell you much about problems that appear at UHF. For that you need an antenna analyzer or VNA.

CB is HF and much, much, much less affected by atmospheric moisture than UHF. The tube at the bottom of your antenna that surrounds the connection should have provided a measure of protection. PL-259 connectors are not waterproof so rain can get into your coax cable dielectric. Once it does, the only thing you can do is cut off the end of the cable to get rid of the portion of cable that moisture has infiltrated. The cables used “in the CB days” were a completely different type and perhaps didn’t allow moisture to enter the dielectric or the lower frequencies weren’t affected as much by moisture. The radials on your antenna serve as the ground plane. Having the mast grounded should have no effect on RF, but is helpful to reduce interference and protect against static electricity.

I have a similar sense of being lost whenever I work on my wife’s Mac.

Device Manager.

Check squelch and tones. If you have tone squelch set when there isn’t one being transmitted you’ll never hear the transmission. If you have no tone set, but your squelch is set too high, you’ll never hear anything that’s not strong signal.

Here’s the site for GMRS lookups: https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchGmrs.jsp Here’s the link to ham license lookups: https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchAmateur.jsp

Yes.

Welcome to the forums. Let me make sure I understand. I think you meant to say that you can’t activate any local repeaters on 2 meters and 440 MHz (70 cm) but you have no trouble receiving them. Do you have the GMRS or ham radio version of the TDH3? Does the red transmit light come on when you push the PTT? Are you able to activate GMRS repeaters?

That’s what I do, simply click on either the bell to see the notifications or click on Unread Content. I only see what’s new.

As @gortex2 mentioned: HF ham radio. 40 meters would probably be easiest. You really don’t need a high powered transmitter. Get your technician license and use Morse code or your general license if you want to use voice, start attending swap meets, and learn all you can about antennas.

This is an interesting technical question. An antenna over salt water which is just about the perfect ground plane. For one thing, propagation isn’t strictly determined as perpendicular to the radiator; the angle of the ground plane also affects it, albeit less so at UHF than HF. You might be able to simply raise a wire alongside your mast. If I knew more about how to simulate this using one of the antenna simulation software programs I think it would help. Do you know someone who does that sort of thing? I just don’t know much about it. What type of antennas are typically used for marine band?

There’s a difference between privacy and secrecy. Secrecy is when people don’t know what you’re doing. Privacy is often used to mean that, but can also mean that you reduce the chances of being disturbed or interrupted. The way the question was answered in the “test” makes it obvious that’s the meaning the OP intended. That’s why there’s a classification level of “Top Secret“ but not “Top Private.”

That happens if you haven’t installed the correct driver before plugging in the USB cable.

Premium users see no ads and are able to download lists of repeaters. The site is run by one person who has to pay for everything out of his own pocket and then spend time and money to support it. He can either do that with advertising or with our donations.

Yes, it’s part of my profile, but purchasing a ham radio is not restricted by any regulations. I wouldn’t deal with a company that thinks it’s their business to act as gatekeepers.