SteveShannon

When I signed up, I thought I had to create two different profiles. Now I just changed my profile name and it changed for both. It looked like I could change my GMRS callsign also. Try editing your profile and see if it fixes the problem.

They are two related accounts. I have reported your issue to Rich. He can help.

Try it. Have a friend give you reception reports. I think you’ll discover that being on the roof will work about the same as being on the roof rack.

Thanks, Amaff!! I’ll try that.

I think you have done everything you could. And kudos to you for being considerate.

I have it set to 12.5 everywhere. That’s the lowest it goes, as far as I can tell. But if you know where it can be set lower, or even to 20k, please let me know.

I have a question for the Radioddity DB20G (not a typo). I tried to tune it to 146.520, the National Calling Frequency, VFO mode, entering the frequency from the microphone buttons (14652000 ). It wouldn't accept it. It "adjusted" the frequency to 146.52500. Using the Up and Down buttons I can step between 146.5000 to 146.52500, so it appears the step size is 25 KHz. I have Step size set to 12.5 KHz everywhere I found it mentioned. With the CPS I was able to program 146.520, but not from the front panel/microphone. What am I doing wrong? @WRYS709 - I'm counting on you. You've dug into this radio more than anyone else still around.

Your Laird antenna coupled with your lip mount should be just fine. Even though the mount increases the distance above the metal, it still RF couples to the metal to allow the metal to act as a ground plane.

Turn it off. Fun + 8, unless they have a typo.

I don’t understand why you would. Run it to a ground rod. Then bond that ground rod to you utility service ground.

I enjoy the magazines so I’ll renew.

I have never read the entire thing, so I’m in the most people category (when I’m not busy being “some people” (credit to @OffRoaderX).

Not quickly. But it is the reference manual for building a nearly lightning proof repeater station. When you think of all the repeaters that are on Forest Service or BLM land and the fact that people don’t unplug their coaxial cables and put them into jars every time a storm is forecast, this manual is why. But it’s long. Too much for most people.

Well, they don’t manufacture handhelds in the U.S., so there’s that. Yaesu made the VX-7, which does 6 meters, 2 meters, 220 MHz, and 70 cm. They’re still around and very durable. Some of the CB radios can be unlocked for 10 meters. One mobile I read about yesterday simply has a jumper to choose 10 or 11 meters. It’s very possible that company makes a similar handheld. It might have been Alinco.

467 MHz interstitial channels. The effective radiated power (ERP) of hand-held portable units transmitting on the 467 MHz interstitial channels must not exceed 0.5 Watt. Each GMRS transmitter type capable of transmitting on these channels must be designed such that the ERP does not exceed 0.5 Watt.

If you’re grounding an antenna ground it outside. Don’t invite lightning into your house. Here’s the best short document on antenna grounding that I know of: https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf

If it only happens when it has been turned off, then moved some distance before being turned back on, it's acquiring a new almanac, data which shows it where to look for satellites.

I bet you wish you hadn’t opened that can of worms, huh? Talking about others in a public forum never seems to end well. I’ve done it too.

Unfortunately, as we get older and our hearing changes, even exaggerated sibilance sounds like a lisp.

No, I has none.

But if you looked at his picture it clearly showed GMRS22. That's not RPT22. Second, he didn't say he was getting "blown away by static." In fact what we hear sounds like someone is transmitting digitally on the channel. And finally there's no reason for squelch to not work on an SOC radio.

22 isn’t a repeater channel. It doesn’t transmit on 467 MHz main channels. Go to 23-30 (or 22RP if that’s how your radio shows it.

You might not be on a repeater channel. 1-22 are simplex channels, which transmit on the same frequency they receive. But there are eight repeater channels which allow the repeater to transmit while simultaneously receiving. Doing both at the same time is called Duplex. Different manufacturers denote those channels differently. Some continue the numbering scheme and refer to them as channels 23-30, others repeat the 15-22 numbers but prepend or append RP to the channel, like 15RP, to indicate that they are repeater channels. Repeaters receive on the 467 MHz main frequencies and transmit at exactly the same time on the 462 MHz main channels. That’s referred to as an offset and it is generally exactly 5.000 MHz for UHF channels (in ham radio also). They need an offset to be able to transmit while receiving. So, in your radio there should be eight repeater channels which are programmed to receive on exactly the same 462.xxx frequencies as 15-22, but which transmit on the main 467.xxx frequencies, where xxx is typically the same for both. You need to use one of those.

You’d need to look at the specs, but often devices that make measurements become non-linear at the extreme end of a measurement and with an already low SWR the reflected power will be a very low percentage of a very low forward power so it might not measure accurately.

One likely reason is that your swr/power meter does a poor job of detecting the much lower reflected power level of the five watt radio.