WRQC527

Dang it looks like he had to close down due to poor health.

There's a company called Ventenna that makes such a thing for evading the HOA secret police. I imagine your solution was much cheaper and just as effective.

In my experience, these stubby antennas are a major compromise if they work at all. The one I tried, a Browning GMRS unit, was so far off resonance that it was unusable for GMRS. Some folks have good luck with them. I stick with 1/4 wave VHF and 1/2 or 5/8 wave UHF antennas. Even with them on top of my van I can still fit in the garage and I can easily hit repeaters.

Yep, and what's worse is that the original post was a simple question about the effect a rubber cover had on the performance of a magnetic base antenna, and that question was satisfactorily addressed early on.

Some folks say putting a "no ground plane" 1/2 wave over a ground plane works better. In my case, my Rugged Radios 1/2 wave doesn't work any different on my van than a quarter wave or 5/8 wave.

Repeater courtesy tones, like roger beeps on simplex, are a good thing. They let everyone know when someone unkeys so there are fewer "doubles". The disdain comes from folks using roger beeps on repeaters. Once you use a repeater with a courtesy tone, you miss it when it doesn't work, like on my club's repeater.

That's true, that's true. Baofengs are notoriously slow scanners, but if you kind of know where to scan, you can save a few hryvnias and spend them on some Khortysta Platinum for an after-action bunker celebration.

Especially since being an FM analog HT, a cheap Uniden handheld scanner can listen in.

Here's a video from a few months ago discussing the sinking of the Moskva by Ukraine. From the 57 second mark, check out the Baofeng UV-5R. In other news, I've seen images and video over the years of various combatants on Middle East battlefields with mag-mount CB antennas on their Toyota battle trucks. Russian warship 'Moskva' sinks in Black Sea: What does it mean? | DW News - YouTube

Because people respond to him instead of putting him on their "Ignore User" list like I did the first time he tried to sucker me in to an argument. Believe me, the forums are much more enjoyable that way.

Yes, the sensors are hard-wired but they are triggered by electrical pulses generated by a Hall-effect slotted ring on the wheel hubs. My guess is that these electrical pulses break the squelch on the radios, which is very annoying. It doesn't happen on all my radios, and not in all my vehicles.

My van doesn't have tire pressure monitors. It uses the ABS wheel sensors to monitor the rotating speed of each tire. If a wheel is rotating faster than the rest, as it would be when the tire has lower pressure and therefore a smaller diameter than the others, it triggers the low tire pressure warning light. Very effective system. And it only works when the van is moving. Another possibility is the vehicle speed sensor or its associated electronics.

As an unashamed ham/GMRS user, one thing I hear a lot that clearly differentiates ham radio from GMRS is the idea that old hams will make it a point of updating everyone, whether it's on HF or VHF/UHF repeaters, about their health status and that of their spouses. Strokes, heart attacks, oozing wounds, various surgeries, the entire spectrum of medical issues, are covered ad nauseum. GMRS doesn't normally include that kind of conversation. It can get depressing.

In my experience, some of the hash I hear on my radios is due to poor receiver filtering. I have a Wouxun HT and a QYT KT-8900 mobile that are unusable in the car, but other radios, like my Baofengs, worked fine. Something with the wheel speed sensors as far as I can tell because it only happens when I'm moving. My Yaesu FTM7250 mobile works fine until an Orange County Transit bus pulls up and overloads the receiver with some kind of RF.

I myself have a collection of decent HTs, mobiles and HF radios that weren't cheap. And I have been known to McGuyver antennas out of coat hangers, wire salvaged from old extension cords, and PVC sprinkler pipe to save a few bucks.

Great idea. I have a couple of mag mounts myself I need to re-mylar. I don't use mag mounts much anymore except when I go hamming or GMRSing in my beater Ranger.

Bear in mind that once you peel off the Mylar, it might be tricky to put it back on. It also might be a problem getting it off without damaging it. Hence my suggestion to try returning it if you can.

If there was ever a place for the old Venn Diagrams we learned when we were kids, this would be the place. It would be fascinating to have everyone here draw their own diagram of GMRS, Ham, FRS, CB and MURS.

In theory, nothing in the base should be loose, but to determine the problem, you might need to peel off the Mylar film. It could be some kind of glue holding the magnet, or maybe the antenna mount itself secures the magnet. Or both. Or if you can, send it back and get one that didn't fail quality control.

My two cents, which adjusted for inflation has dropped to a penny, is that roger beeps can get annoying, especially if they're loud. A lot of repeaters have courtesy tones, so if you add in roger beeps, it can get more annoying. The courtesy tone is not working on the ham repeater I use, so you need to listen for the repeater to drop or watch your S-meter. So in those cases, maybe a roger beep would help. Same with simplex. But using a roger beep on a repeater with a courtesy tone may ruffle some feathers. Especially if it's a loud one. Personally, I don't really care, and I've never heard of roger beeps damaging equipment.

Turn off the receive tone completely and see if that changes anything.

You might try taking off the receive tone. Maybe they don't use it, or it's not the correct one. Just a shot in the dark. And no, you're not an idiot.

No wrist straps for me. It's either on my belt or a side pocket on my backpack with a speaker microphone.

You mean like my Pofung UV-82's that self-identify as ham, GMRS and MURS?

As far as GMRS vs MURS for hiking goes, I would definitely go with GMRS because of repeaters. MURS has decent-enough range for simplex, but that's it. Simplex only. From a safety standpoint, access to repeaters is a major advantage, whether it's GMRS or ham. In a real emergency, whether a repeater is paid or not is irrelevant, so load up that radio with every repeater you can. Just don't use them unless it's a real emergency. My ham friends and I use 2 meter HTs with both simplex and repeaters, because we are often blocked from the repeater or each other by terrain. On those same hikes, I reach my wife through a GMRS repeater. While it's good to have multiple services available, I would kick MURS to the curb and keep ham and GMRS with me. And that is indeed what I do. On another note, we sometimes practice by giving our coordinates as displayed on our phones with no cell service on Google Maps by radio through a repeater to the folks back home so they can pinpoint us on the map. Huge plus when God forbid SAR is looking for us.