SteveShannon

A friend of mine wants to permanently mount a radio in the cab of his 2022 Tacoma. I know conventional wisdom says to run all the way to the battery to avoid engine noise, but testing with the radio connected to the power port in the cab hasn't resulted in any noise. So, do any of you know (first hand knowledge preferred) is there a convenient power point in the cabin already, perhaps connected to an unused fuse in the fuse-box?

Unfortunately i don’t know anyone in your area. I’m in Montana. A Yagi antenna gives you the greatest gain, but it’s very directional. With your situation of wanting to hit two different repeaters in different directions you would either need to rotate the antenna to change repeaters or have two antennas and an antenna switch. Are you allowed to have a tv antenna? Are you certain that you can’t receive from either repeater? I always suggest listening on the correct frequency with no tone, just to see if you can hear. Adding the tone at that stage just adds another variable that can confuse matters. If you can hear the repeaters your trees are not an insurmountable problem.

That’s right. In the forums a person can tag out if they need, for whatever reason. In a chat a person feels a greater sense of commitment which might not be welcomed.

A third vote for asking in the forum rather than direct chat. Questions in chat benefit one person only. Questions asked in the forum may benefit others. I guarantee you’re not the only person with these questions, whatever they are. Don’t worry about asking what you might consider a dumb question. As long as you ask it sincerely and honestly, someone will have the patience to help. Also, my experience, from asking questions a few years ago, is that people tend to forget any missteps anyway.

That’s pretty nice! I’ve been considering getting a flagpole anyway. One thing though, that RG-8x attenuates a lot of signal at GMRS frequencies. You might want to consider upgrading to LMR400 at some point.

I believe your reasoning is correct. Unfortunately, when I tried to look up any Canadian GMRS licenses I was unable to do so because only USA addresses are supported by the license search utility.

That’s more like it. The big one on the left in the picture is female N. The smaller one on the right is a male N. A local Elmer helps, but if you don’t mind us occasionally getting flustered we can help you learn some of the basics.

My problem is that i don’t get offered to become a premium member because i am one. But if you go to the repeater page and scroll all the way to the bottom, maybe the bottom ribbon has the link to become premium. It’s $50, which is about 2 1/2 times what I pay for other forums I want to support and I have urged Rich to offer something in the $20 range. I believe he would make up the difference in revenue because more people would be willing to pay the price. He has indicated an interest, but this isn’t his day job and it hasn’t happened yet.

And for the ability to extract data from the repeater database.

Maybe, since beginning to unlink the mygmrs network, Rich has decided not to sell subscriptions also. Try writing him. I haven’t met him personally, but I have corresponded with him and he always comes across as very reasonable.

Go to your account, click on manage subscriptions:

What Digi said is exactly right. Gain in one direction is stolen from somewhere else. What are you using the antenna for? Do you expect to turn it to point in a particular direction, such as pointing it at different stations? Or do you want to just receive every station in a circle around you? Wil they all be at the same level as you or will some be higher and some lower? Personally I’m satisfied with a 6 dBi gain antenna on my roof. The repeater that’s 3000 ft higher is still easy to reach.

It is possible to do a database extract from the mygmrs database as a text or CSV file if you’re a premium member. You would still probably need to manipulate the data columns to match whatever your software expects to see.

I haven’t, but is that gain dBi or dBd?

Well hell, I guess I’ll just throw away my GMRS and ham radios. GMRS is specifically geared towards family use.

I don't think you need a "more powerful antenna." 7.2 miles isn't terribly far. Any reasonable outdoor antenna up on your roof (maybe in an upstairs window even) should be able to do that. Try removing the tone squelch on receive on the repeater channel. Do you hear the repeater?

10*log(700/50) = 11.4612803568 dB So you would need an antenna with about 11.46 dB of gain. The problem is an antenna with that much gain in one direction is that it pays for it by reducing the ability to transmit and receive in other directions.

Usually you would only need one at the top of the cable to carry its weight. Then you would use cable staples or screw in clamps fastened loosely enough that it doesn’t crush the cable. At that tension they might not actually keep the cable from sliding through, but they keep it from flapping in a wind.

DX Engineering, Ham Radio Outlet, Gigaparts, Max Gain, R & L Electronics, and Amazon all have a wide variety of adapters. Until you gain more knowledge your surest option might be to go to a nearby radio dealer or amateur radio club with your radio, antenna, and transmission line and get some personalized help. Edited to add: no forgiveness is necessary for your lack of knowledge. We all started out with little or no knowledge at some point in time. I think what’s making this more challenging is that you are introducing several different extreme levels of technology at once, like expensive hardline and cheap NanoVNAs. You’re trying to determine whether hardline is good but without a background that would make it easier to discuss. We’re making it worse (unintentionally) by using jargon, or speaking in technical shorthand that probably is just word salad to you. We’re saying things that might end up costing you lots of money in tools you might not even need. When I was getting started I ended up buying a large assortment of SMA adapters from Amazon. I never used most of them, but because they were extremely cheap I didn’t care too much. So, let me back up a little: What tools do you actually have that might be helpful? Do you have a plain old electrical multimeter with an ohmmeter or continuity tester? The most important tests you can initially do for a used cable of unknown quality can be done with your eyeballs and an ohmmeter: First, visually inspect it to make sure it’s not skinned, pinched, crushed, kinked, or any other kind of obvious physical damage, Then use the ohmmeter to make sure the shield is continuous from one end to the other, Next, make sure the center conductor is continuous from one end to the other, and Finally, put one lead on the center and one lead on the shield and check to make sure that they are not shorted together. An ohmmeter will use DC for this test, so you should see a very high impedance, probably in the mega ohms range. Using a NanoVNA (or an antenna analyzer that covers the correct frequency range) will allow you to test more conclusively, but really, if you’ve passed the above basic test, hooking it up to a radio will tell you if it works or not. Next, let’s figure out that connectors that you included in the photograph. You actually have two connectors screwed together in that photo which appears below. The large connector on the bottom has been cut off the hardline. The small connector on top may be unused or may have been removed from a piece of smaller coax, possibly LMR400 or RG8, I can’t tell. The photo shows a finely knurled section. Unscrew the knurled collar from the piece immediately below it. They should be separated at the red line. Then show us what two connectors you really have. I think the upper, smaller, connector is probably N male and the hardline fitting should be N female.

Look, I had the same problem understanding your question that they did, so I simply ignored all the bullshit about radios and antennas and answered your hearing aid question (or at least what I interpreted as the question.) A wise person once told me "If you're not getting the answers you want, maybe look at how you asked the question." You included a bunch of confusing bullshit, whether as an attempt to be funny or perhaps you thought we would understand some analogy. You removed your antenna and inserted the symbolic 1500 foot mountain between you and us and now you’re upset that we cannot hear you. Don't take it out on this forum because you posted a bizarre unintelligible plea for help.

The easiest thing might be to simply create a new account for your new login, especially if you don't have very many posts or messages.

This sight (mygmrs.com) has a classified ads section for its premium members. I think everyone can see it, but only premium members can post ads.

Great! Thanks!

Some people hate to hear them. Many of us simply don’t care. We were able to diagnose one of our member’s microphone issues because we recognized his Roger beep. It’s your radio, as long as you’re following the rules operate how you want.

Is everyone alright?