WRQC527

If you haven't done so already, and if you haven't already thrown it away, cut the old coax into a bunch of useless pieces so you will never be tempted to "save it for some other project down the line" and five years later forget why you replaced it in the first place.

Looping excess coax may lead to problems. Coiled coax acts as a choke, which is good in some situations if the coil is a specific diameter and number of turns, but it's probably better to have little or no excess. I would suggest getting as close to the length you need and don't try to shorten it or cut off factory-installed connectors. There's nothing wrong with doing that but it opens up opportunities for things to go wrong, like short or open circuits.

Your best bet is to possibly search notarubicon's youtube channel. He's reviewed this radio.

No I get it. Just poking back.

Welcome! With a GMRS license and a new radio, you are well on your way!

The more I hear, the more it sounds like your coax is somehow jacked up and your antenna is now possibly too short. Antennas that are slightly too short or too long, (which is unlikely with an out-of-the-box MXTA26), shouldn't generate a 10:1 SWR reading. Bad coax, bad grounds, even one tiny wire from the braid or center conductor shorting out at the connector will jack up your SWR that much. If you can take the coax completely out so it is not connected to anything, there should be no continuity between the center pin and the outer shell of the connector on either end of the coax. It should be an open circuit.

I don't know that much about him other than I think he runs a YouTube channel, but my Spidey Sense tells me that I seriously doubt he has a link to it.

Google is your friend here. Although it may not be the kind of search you want in your search history.

Because arguing about it here generates over 20 responses in 5 hours. You can't get action like that from the FCC.

I suppose that's one way to interpret what he said. I'll wait until he clarifies.

Not sure why "good continuity" is a good thing between the center pin and the outer shell of the connector. Scrap the coax. Start over. Don't cut the antenna. Hopefully you haven’t cut to much of it already.

I've said this before. As much as sending text messages over GMRS sounds like a neato idea, (which it kinda is), it's yet another example of trying to make GMRS something it was never intended to be. As much as amateur radio gets maligned on this site, the list of ways GMRS wants to be like amateur radio keeps growing. Linked repeaters carrying transmissions into other states, internet setups like Zello, and texting apps like Ribbit. The problem is that GMRS has a very limited 5 mhz slice of the UHF band, and it's channelized. Cramming more and more into it is eventually going to overload it. I'm a bit of a purist, so in my humble opinion, leave it alone and use it for, as the sum of all human knowledge, Wikipedia, says, (I say that with tongue firmly planted in cheek), "short-range two-way voice communication and authorized under part 95 of the US FCC code".

There's several open repeaters in the general Phoenix area. You can find them listed on this site. I would suggest setting them up in your radio, and throw your call sign out there and ask for a signal report, or just say you're listening. It's a very conversational system, no silly jargon. Generally speaking, there aren't many non-stop conversations going on, but people may be listening, and might just come back to you.

I would suggest a couple of things. First, make sure your coax is intact with no kinks, breaks, pinches, etc. Also use a digital multimeter to make sure of three things. That there is not a short between the center conductor and the outer shield, that there is continuity between both ends of the center conductor, and continuity from the shield from end to end. Make sure your antenna mount is grounded as well. All this can be checked with a $5 digital multimeter. Many high-swr problems are due to shorts and bad grounding. It's highly unlikely you damaged the coax with 15 watts. No doubt others will chime in with ideas as well.

I think the mistake was made early on that there are not already frequencies that are exclusive to repeaters. The amateur radio band plans contain repeater frequencies and offsets, which are already built into radios and attempt to minimize interference between simplex and repeater users. The idea that simplex frequencies overlap GMRS repeater frequencies in seems odd. Just my two cents, which adjusted for inflation works out to not much.

Well I'm pretty much bored and done with her. Off to the ignore list. I had a good time though.

Generally speaking, where I'm from, 88s are male-on-female hugs and kisses. As a result, my friends and I use 85s, which are closed-fist bro hugs. Why she wants to hug me is anyone's guess.

Precisely.

I'm also actually starting to think he's a she.

Part of me wants to put him on the ignore list, but part of me wants to see what he says next.

My boss: "What are you doing, Steve?" Me: "Watching an internet forum fight." My boss: "You should be working."

I haven't seen this many punches thrown since last night's 49ers-Giants game.

I can see a lot of usefulness for it, since it gives you a "written record", so to speak, of information instead of relying on voice. I've done work tracking runners in 50k trail runs with no cell service, and it would be very useful to "text" runner numbers back to race control rather than dictate them over the air and have someone try to hear and write them.

Someone started a thread about this a couple weeks ago. Personally, I thought it sounded pretty cool. I don't really have a use for it, but it sounded better than messaging through APRS, which I found to be a PITA. But predictably, quite a few folks here immediately found fault with it and discussed its uselessness.

What you are demanding is to prove to you that something that is not against any known rules is allowed, like making a u-turn where there is no sign or ordinance prohibiting it. There are countless linked GMRS repeaters across the country. Ask them.