SteveShannon

You might want to read this relatively short document on grounding. https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf 14 ga. is too light for ground wire. 8 ga. or larger is required. You might not need a ground rod, but if you use one it must be connected to your service ground. I don’t know where you plan to mount a lightning rod, but a lightning arrester where the coax enters the house is a good idea. It needs to be grounded to the same ground as everything else to prevent current from flowing through your antenna shield conductor.

Chain link top rail is relatively inexpensive and you could put two together for 20 feet but I don’t think you would want to use it to go higher. Several radio equipment companies make good masts if you don’t mind spending a little more. The Rohn R50 is good. I have a friend who uses it to elevate his dipole.

It’s 10 feet 5 inches long. https://rwantennastore.com/comet-ca-712efc-vertical-uhf-base-460-470-mhz-200-w-n-type-female-connector-10-50-ft-fiberglass/

Just about any mobile antenna would work for that. If it needs a ground plane then mount it to a steel (if it’s magnetic) cookie sheet.

If I were you I would report it to the fcc.

Thank you, and I hope you have safe travels and a good Thanksgiving.

A good choice for a mobile gmrs radio that’s small and about 20 watts is the Radioddity db20g.

There’s no need to snap. Depending on how the answers are sorted the “previous picture” is completely out of context. A type 500 error is a problem that only the person responsible for the website can diagnose. My friend @WRUU653 is exactly right that you have done everything that was requested. I would suggest that you send a PM to the owner of the repeater and let him know about the type 500 error and let him (or her) know you intend to occasionally use the repeater. Then get on the repeater and if the owner shows up mention the website error to them.

Congratulations

Here’s a thread that’s not too old that concentrates on antennas:

The specs for that power/SWR meter say it goes up to 144 MHz. GMRS uses 462 and 467 MHz channels. I suspect if you compare the readings you’ll find that it isn’t accurate on UHF.

The Comet 2x4 is rated as usable good up to 465 MHz. It’s an antenna that many Search and Rescue units use because of the wide bandwidth it covers, but it’s really not designed for GMRS. If you intend to transmit to a repeater you’ll be transmitting at 467 MHz. Unless you absolutely need an antenna that’s capable of 2 meters, 70 centimeters, and the bottom frequencies of GMRS, I would recommend getting a GMRS antenna. I use a Midland MXTA-26 which would screw onto an NMO mount. It’s specifically built for GMRS. There are literally hundreds of posts on the forum that recommend various antenna.

I don’t know how long of a coax you need, but RG-8 mini will cost you a lot of signal strength in the UHF frequencies if you’re going very far. It would work great for AM broadcast frequencies because they’re medium frequency (MF). I would use LMR-400 at least. You can get by with smaller cable for mobile use because the lengths are much shorter. I don’t have an opinion about the Laird mount. I have no experience with them (my lack of experience, not to imply anything negative towards Laird). I know that some of the radio professionals here like Laird.

Don’t worry about grounding the antenna at the mast end. A j-pole like that is already in contact with the mast (although clamps would be better than tape). Just run a ground wire at the bottom of the mast to your ground system. Then, where the coax enters the house, install a lightning arrester and run its ground to the same ground system. The Reeve document I posted above does a pretty good job of explaining the requirements. Here is a link to it: https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf

For a similar price,but without the UHF capability, look at the Yaesu FT-2980: https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=13633 A few people get on our repeater using these. From 50 miles away they come through with full quieting. If you must have UHF, consider the Yaesu FTM-6000. I don’t know anyone who owns it but the reviews I’ve read have been positive, a nice, simple, and reliable two band ham radio. https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=15198 Both of these are currently in production.

Fortunately I’ve had the same good experiences.

I haven’t watched it yet but I’m really looking forward to it. We’re at my daughter’s house and spending time with her and her husband and our grandkids.

I bought two of them. They’re decent little radios for the price.

I went back and edited it to say why.

2, because in #1 your antenna is blocked and adding 10 feet of LMR400 will only cost you about 0.3 dB.

I don’t know which radio you have or what software you’re using so I’ll give you a generic answer: Some software has a field called Squelch Mode. The usual three choices are: 1. TSQL, for Tone Squelch. In this mode the radio sends a tone and requires one to open squelch. 2. TONE, which sends the tone or DCS code, but doesn’t check for one on receive. or 3. NONE which neither sends nor expects a tone. Sometimes repeaters use split tones which can be either two different CTCSS tones or two different DCS codes. Once in a very long while a repeater owner will even use DCS for either transmit or receive and CTCSS for the other.

According to the manual: https://www.ameradio.com/doc/Maxon-TM-2000-TM-8000-user-manual.pdf There are alert tones that sound when the programmed emergency button is pressed or when the TOT expires. It sounds as though that’s what the symbol represents. There’s also a horn alert that can be wired to a vehicle horn for notifications of particular calls.

Does it beep as an acknowledgement tone? My guess would be that’s the “alert”

CTCSS is a sub audible tone (it’s really not sub-audible; it’s removed by filtering in the receiver) that causes squelch to open. It’s also referred to by some as PL, Which stands for Private Line. Don’t be fooled; there’s nothing private about it. Anyone with no tones set can hear everything transmitted on that frequency. DPL is a digital code that serves the same purpose. It’s also called DCS or DTCSS. Same warning, expect no privacy.