SteveShannon

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.

That hotspot was designed for digital modes, ham radio. I don’t know if or how it can be used for GMRS.

10-4!

This! I agree wholeheartedly. I’ve gotten to the point where I stop telling people this because for many of them they start by saying they already bought the radios they intended to use.

You’re right. Many of us don’t care. Other than mild curiosity I don’t buy radios just to listen to other people’s conversations on an internet feed. Perhaps few of us do, perhaps there’s very little traffic, and perhaps that’s why it’s not high on the priorities of the one person who maintains this site. But that just conjecture on my part. What I know is that it costs money to maintain features like that. Vote with your dollars by becoming a premium member. (Thank you @UpperBucks!)

Less than you might think. Plus that does nothing to extend your receive range. The limit on GMRS range is almost never due strictly to power, but relies on the factors LeoG mentioned.

Actually, you might even consider that the repeater may extend your range by the distance it will receive plus the distance it will transmit. Of course LeoG is right that the antenna and topology have a great effect, but I think you already considered those effects when you said “the distance the radios transmit.”

Yes

If it’s so you can feed the smaller cable into your vehicle, don’t put a connector part way. Take the connector at the end off and replace it with a new one with the cable only as long as necessary.