SteveShannon

You really don’t have to buy another antenna. An SWR of 2.5 isn’t really very high and isn’t going to cost you much. Most people don’t understand how little an SWR of 2.5 means. As an example, the SWR in your cell phone may be around 4 or 5. Just try your antenna and see if it works for you. At an SWR of 2.5 82% of your power goes out of the antenna without being reflected, but that other 18% is reflected back to the transmitter where it’s reflected back to the antenna again. Then 82% of that portion is radiated and 18% of the reflected power is reflected again. That happens over and over until all the power goes out the antenna or is absorbed as loss by the coax cable.

Yes; it’s just fine to put a Yagi on a metal mast.

Yeah, nothing is ever perfect, but as a relatively new ham I’ve been more impressed than I feared after hearing the negative comments.

Although GMRS is in the name of the site, the site also caters to ham radio interests. Radio is radio. If you’re so up-tight that the inclusion of helpful information about a radio triggers you, then you probably aren’t getting much enjoyment out of anything. Learn to ignore posts about non-GMRS radios.

That might be true for some of the technician class hams, but most of the people I know who progress to General (and all of the ones who progress to Amateur Extra) work hard at understanding how everything works, propagation, etc.

First, why do you think you want a repeater instead of just a base station? In either case any modifications you make while building will work well for either. If it’s going to be a long run of feedline, consider using hardline to minimize cable losses. Second, this is such a great opportunity to include structural and electrical support for an antenna, lighting protection, and proper bonding for your radio electronics. If you go on to become a ham you’ll be set. Third, closely review your HOA agreement and state and county laws to see what they say about antennas. Not all HOAs ban ham radio antennas and some government entities prohibit HOAs from infringing on certain types of antennas. Also the ARRL is constantly supporting legislation that restores some level of antenna freedom to people affected by HOA restrictions. Although I agree in principle with your disdain for HOAs banning antennas, you are victim blaming. He said he’s a noob to GMRS and asked us to take it easy. He might not have known that someday he would want an antenna. Lately some of your answers have been way out on the superior judgmental horse’s ass end of the spectrum.

Fixed it for you:

Nice job documenting the problem. Ignore the naysayers. They’re just upset because you’re smarter than they are.

Yes, and having many zip ties like the photo shows definitely reduces the need to tighten each zip tie individually and reduces risk.

Nice video. 10 meters from Death Valley to Ohio is pretty impressive. That’s the potential of HF radio propagation.

(As I’m sure you know) The problem with zip ties like that is a zip tie concentrates too much force in a small area which can crush the foam dielectric, resulting in impedance issues and SWR problems. A cable grip is a better choice: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/tmv-hg-400t?rrec=true

He has definitely made a business out of it. I heard that the reason the questions/answers are now public is because he sued to get them. He uses them to assemble his books. A new edition must be released every three years when the questions change. And he has a school for the purpose of training hams to upgrade. And now ARRL is his publisher. He has done an excellent job of vertical integration.

I would agree with a slight clarification. Good quality cables are available at Amazon if you know what you are looking for. A person can buy Times-Microwave or M&P cables there, but you pay considerably more than you pay for the same cables from DX Engineering, Gigaparts, or Ham Radio Outlet.

I didn’t phrase my statement very clearly. Gordon West doesn’t compile the test questions for the amateur radio exams; he compiles his books using the test questions and answers.

You would probably be the person I would guess is most likely to have to deal with stalkers. I think you were right to change your fcc license address from your physical location in California to the mailbox service. Based on some of the unhinged comments you’ve pinned on your YouTube videos it’s obvious that there are some frighteningly irrational people out there and California has had its share of celebrity stalking. In any case I’m glad you have not had problems.

Just search Amazon for Amateur Radio License Exam Question Pool. I think they’re compiled by Gordon West. Or download the questions and answers for free from https://www.ncvec.org But as a volunteer examiner I will tell you that the gnashing of teeth from people like wrkc935, incensed over the availability of the question pool is wasted gnashing. The pools are large (hundreds) with respect to actual number of questions on the tests and in my opinion it would be difficult to memorize 300 questions and answers without learning something about the concepts. Almost all the people I have administered tests to have had questions about the concepts if they have incorrect answers. Only one has not and he repeatedly fails on the amateur extra examination. I’ve offered to go over the questions and answers with him and I’ve offered to explain concepts but so far he hasn’t taken me up on the offer.

The vast majority of people might not, but it doesn’t matter. It only takes one to ruin your life.

It depends. If you mount them on the same mast with one vertically above the other they can be just a 14 inches (a half wavelength) or so apart. If you place them on the same level then the transmissions from one antenna are much more likely to affect the other. The signal strength goes down by 10 db (a factor of 10) for every foot of horizontal separation. A foot of vertical separation is worth about ten feet of horizontal separation.

Often you can tell whether a transmission came from a repeater because repeaters stay open for a brief time. You leave the receiver tone off until you know your transmissions are getting into the repeater. That way you’re only fighting one problem at a time.

Wait a second. The output tone for a repeater is the receive tone for your radio and honestly you should probably leave it out at first. The Input tone for the repeater is the transmit tone for a radio trying to use the repeater.

Good job!

Download and read the manual for the Bridgecom repeater to see how easy it is to change channels. Do the channels on the receiver side change when you change the channel on the transmitter side? I suspect the repeater will be inconvenient to use as a base station. I think you’re right that the duplexer will limit you to the channel pair it’s tuned to, which will severely attenuate reception on the simplex channels. I would simply get a cheap (but generally liked) mobile radio like the db20g and connect it directly to the antenna when you want to have a base station.

Actually, @MarkInTampa asked if you were using the correct port on the radio six minutes after you first posted your question.

Here’s what the regulations say. It’s certainly not limited to families. People can use GMRS talk about many different things. There is a longer list of prohibited uses, but talking about radios isn’t in there. 95.1731 Permissible GMRS uses. The operator of a GMRS station may use that station for two-way plain language voice communications with other GMRS stations and with FRS units concerning personal or business activities.

The FTM-6000 isn’t listed as one of the ATAS interface radios. I think the hypothetical answer should be no.