SteveShannon

So you’ve had a GMRS license for about two weeks. Why did you cave in and get it?

Even if they cannot access your repeater, someone on the same frequency will disrupt your communications if their signal is stronger than others.

1. Picket fencing while moving is not uncommon. Does it stop when you are stationary? 2. If you don’t know what that screw is there’s absolutely no reason to think that it is related to your picket fencing problem. 3. My radio picket fences while moving too. I pull over to use it. In my case it affects my transmissions, not my reception.

Oh, well. Can’t blame me for trying. I’d welcome you!

@offroaderx Affirmative! Get the license so we have more happy hams! 73 de AI7KS <beep>

It still is. In an actual widespread emergency people will be desperate for information. My generation was alway reminded to keep an AM radio with extra batteries available. Of course AM radio worked well because it can receive signals across literally thousands of miles at night, so even if only a few stations survived a person might hear something. The only “grid” was our public utilities (electricity, gas, sewer, and water). Now, people are more likely to listen to FM, satellite radio, or internet radio. Cell phone service is nearly ubiquitous and getting better. The “grid” has expanded to encompass all of the above. People have been conditioned to expect two way voice, video, and data communications wherever they go, but most wouldn’t have a clue what to do if the grid now goes down. So don’t give up on the idea of coordinating last mile communications and don’t get discouraged when people ask pointed questions or make critical comments. Get involved with local emcomm groups. This is what they do and they almost always need people who are motivated.

Backup power and type might be interesting data to add to repeater listings.

Rely on ham radio for the distance comms and work to establish a “last 10 miles” delivery. It simply doesn’t make sense to use FRS for the distance work.

This is definitely an HF type of task. In fact, that’s where the word Relay came from in the ARRL (American Radio Relay League). There are relay nets that practice daily. The National Traffic System is one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Traffic_System

Most are pretty similar in terms of loss/length, but some have a solid center conductor and some have stranded. The solid conductor cables are stiffer and cannot be bent as sharply. Some have copper clad aluminum center conductors that are lightweight. For the most part these details are not terribly important but depending on your circumstances they might be. Sorry to possibly add confusion.

That’s probably a loss of nearly 90%.

That’s a good point. A difference in elevation can also make a huge difference.

Truly there’s nothing wrong with 1.9:1 SWR. I would not worry about it. Plus the short length of most cables attached to magnetic mounts means that the losses are usually low. You wouldn’t enjoy having LMR-400 as the feed line going through your door and over your roof.

One of the settings in Chirp is “Squelch Mode.” To begin with, set it to Tone, not TSQL. That way you’ll hear everything transmitted on the frequency your radio is set to receive.

You probably don’t even need the software to configure it for one repeater. You should be able to do it all from the front panel. However, the repeater that opens up when I click on your link is not a GMRS repeater. It’s a 2 meter ham repeater. The “uplink” frequency is what you set your radio to transmit on. “Downlink” is your receiver frequency That’s usually done automatically as long as the direction of the offset is correct. Then make sure you have the CTCSS tone set to 100.0 Hz

You probably already did this but just in case: Before the cable is plugged in, and before you run the software, you must install the driver for the cable. Then plug in the cable and look in Device Manager and make sure that the driver is attached to a virtual serial port. Then open the CPS software and assign that serial port to the software.

That’s true, but really, nobody was talking about doing NVIS on GMRS frequencies.

I don’t know the exact cause, but here’s an experiment you can try: Disconnect your radio from the coax at your house and disconnect his radio from the coax at his house and swap radios temporarily. The object is to see whether the weak reception follows your radio or continues at your house. If it follows your radio then you know it’s the radio. Otherwise you know it’s something with the combination of the coax and antenna. If it’s something with the antenna and coax, swap it temporarily. See if the isssue follows the antenna. By doing this one component at a time you should be able to figure out what the cause is. You may find that it just happens to be your location. RF is not guaranteed to be symmetrical. Just because he hears you well is no guarantee that you can hear him well. But you’ll find many posts on this forum that talk about how important a good receiver is and that the difference between 15 watts and 40 watts really doesn’t make much difference. It might be as simple as the Midland having a less sensitive receiver.

@Reclusiarch - Welcome!

I’m interested too. The military 2259 antenna is a great model to follow. That’s a crossed dipole with a 15 foot central pole At its simplest a NVIS antenna is a dipole that’s placed low rather than high so propagation goes nearly vertically. Heres a good summary with interesting links: https://practicalantennas.com/applications/nvis/as2259/

All coax has attenuation (RF electricities fall out) that’s related to the length. It’s entirely possible to lose 75% or more of your signal strength (RF power ) in your coax before it reaches the antenna. SWR is calculated from the ratio of reflected power compared to forward power. An SWR meter placed near the radio measures power before it has been attenuated but it measures the reflected power after it has been attenuated in two different directions, when it is weakest. That results in a low SWR that doesn’t accurately predict how efficient your antenna truly is. TL;DR. Randy nailed it.

There’s nothing wrong with 1.9:1. Check it on different channels and you might see the SWR change. Also, a perfect SWR does not mean it is a good or bad antenna. A dummy load will get you 1.0:1. A very lossy cable will improve your SWR at the expense of signal strength.

This can work during daylight hours. It does require lower frequencies. It’s what the military uses for nearby communications. No repeater necessary and a dipole at 1/10 wavelength above the ground is all that’s needed for an antenna, but a horizontal loop on top of a vehicle works okay also (Caution: I have read!! I am just starting to try this myself.)

Here in Montana 70 cm is well used by a network of linked digital repeaters, connected to the Brandmeister. I hear local conversations frequently between hams in Helena, Belgrade, Bozeman, and Butte as well as Montana Statewide Net checkins from Alabama, New Mexico and several from Montana. If a band seems underutilized, find some way to use it.

Welcome to the forums!