dosw

That one is listed at 12v, not 13.8. I never find 13.8v power supplies in 20A or more for less than $79

I appreciate the ruggedness. For a NGP antenna I have a Laird TE B4505CN (N for no ground plane). It's on my window air conditioner right now but next time I get the RV out it's going on the RV's roof rack.

Entirely possible. I meant to say "this weekend I noticed..." Not "I noticed that this weekend they added..."

For a few years there were four options in the Midland antenna lineup: MXTA13 - 2.1dB, All-in-one magnetic mount, often bundled with MXT105, 115, and 275. $19.99 MXTA51 - 2.1dB, NMO with included NMO magnetic mount. Often bundled with MXT500 and 575. $44.99 MXTA25 - 3dB, NMO, "Ghost" antenna. $49 MXTA26 - 6dB, NMO, Whip antenna, $59. The one to beat, for mobile GMRS. I noticed this weekend they've added a few more to their lineup. (edit: I mean to say this weekend I noticed, not I noticed that this weekend they've added.) MXAT01VP - 7.5dB, Fiberglass at $159 MXAT03 - 3dB, Spring mount Bullbar, $179 MXAT04 - 6.6dB, Heavy Duty Bullbar, $189 MXAT04VP - 6.6dB, Heavy Duty Spring Bullbar with mount and coax, $259 MXAT05 - 3dB, Heavy Duty Bullbar, $159 MXAT05VP - 3dB, Heavy Duty spring mount with coax Bullbar, $229 The prices seem a little out there to me; none of my mobile antennas cost more than $80, and none of my mounts were over $30. Their new MXTA48 heavy duty spring base is listed at $99 (included with several of the antennas above). Seems like some hype. If I thought I might be trashing a whip antenna or its mount offroad, I'd buy a spare set of a more reasonably priced antenna and mount, and still be under $100. ...Ok, I'll admit it, I already have a few backup options in the garage. What's the appeal of bullbar antennas? I saw a Reddit thread where the consensus seemed to be putting the antenna on the bumper was a step backwards in performance: (https://www.reddit.com/r/gmrs/comments/1cbbi0u/finally_bullbar_antennas_in_us/) Is this fashion over function? https://midlandusa.com/blogs/blog/gmrs-antennas-and-understanding-db - The Midland lineup $159-259 seems a lot to spend on an antenna and mount. I see something from HYS listed as 6.5dBi for $120 that appears to be pretty sturdy, and with a spring mount and cable. I'm not in the market for *yet another* mobile antenna, but it's interesting to see what's out there and what drives the pricing.

Kids were too young for cell phones, and we did a lot of skiing together at six different ski resorts. Plus they were getting old enough to visit neighbor friends as I worked from home. GMRS was a good way to find each other if we ended up at different lift bases, or took some wrong turn skiing. It was a good way to be able to say, "time to come home", it was great around the campsite, backing up to the trailer, that sort of thing. They're older and have cell phones now but we still use them skiing, hiking, camping, backing up to the trailer, at outdoors events and parks. We use them where cell service is unpredictable, or predictably absent. And now it's sort of a fun hobby, and probably a gateway to amateur for us.

That's unfortunate. Id be surprised if Retevis didn't swap it out for you pronto. Do you happen to know that its antenna and coax are healthy? And the battery connection is in good shape? If those two things check out, it sounds like a straightforward warranty claim. I sold electronics in college and despite my best efforts to recommend the brands that I believed had the best defect ratios I was always embarrassed when someone would come back the next day with a dead on arrival device. I suspect these radios, at these prices aren't the lowest defect rates around but they'll probably take care of you, and in the end they're a fantastic value.

Nobody NEEDS some technology that could save them trouble. All you really need overlanding is a backpack full of water, map, compass, and some nonperishable food, along with good hiking boots so you can walk out for help. As for GMRS vs cell, one will reach whoever is listening, which may be nobody, and one will reach the party you call if there's a cell tower in range. In both cases getting to high ground can help. GMRS isn't the only safety communication option, and in a given situation it may not even be the best option. But it has a lot of uses in group activities, and the added benefit of possibly allowing you to call for help. Or you can try smoke signals.

It seems apparent that the custodian of that repeater had a friendly/professional relationship with someone who warned him, take it down because if you don't the FCC is going to crack down. If the FCC also asked for call signs, the custodian is unlikely to be in a position of pushing back against such a request, because of that friendly/professional relationship. So, by now the repeater has been taken down, and most likely, call signs have been shared. I guess the moral of the story is stay away from hard-linked repeaters (it sounds like gmrs to gmrs links are still ok?). The problem for end users is it's hard to know what sort of linking may or may not be implemented beyond their view. But also, we haven't see any evidence of individual licencees having action taken against them for using a repeater in good faith. And I doubt we will. This isn't gmrsageddon. Probably what it is, is the end of repeaters being linked to the Internet or to non-GMRS networks.

Ah, from my phone I got a "Page doesn't exist", from the computer I see more information, including the link you mentioned. Thanks.

Page doesn't exist. Post contains no commentary. Is there a point?

What radio are you using, what software, and what means of trying to program it are you using? Do you have access to the manual?

The license applies to you and your family. All of you can use it without any different restrictions than you, as the license owner, would have. They can talk to people on repeaters just like you can. When you and your family members are using the same, public repeater, it's often courteous to identify with some suffix to help make it clear who's talking: WSDG735 A, B, C, or WSDG735 Home, Mobile, Cabin, Boat, whatever. That's not required. It's just a courtesy. The minimum requirement is that each operator identify initially and every fifteen minutes thereafter, and you can all identify with the same license number.

Got it. Larry H Miller Ford dealership / service department in Draper. Some of the names he called out are people who are listed on the dealership's website. That puts him almost centrally located at 5 miles from my home, and 7 miles from Herriman. To be getting out with that amount of power he can't be using FRS. The call-outs are probably coming from that booth in front.

You're just on the other side of the Valley from me. Set a radio to 18 with CTCSS of 127.3 and see if you hear this guy. It's 3 to 10 such calls per hour so you may have to be a little patient.

Earlier I attributed this to a school's drop-off line, but I just hadn't listened carefully enough. It's a mechanic: mechanic.mp3 This goes on all day, from a few minutes before 8am, until around 4pm. Channel 18. It's probably a PepBoys (3.1 miles). I hear them from my kids' school, too. That's over 3 miles in a different direction. I suppose it's possible that it's not even handheld, in which case it could be any one of hundreds of mechanics across the valley. Too bad they're using channel 18. My guess is they could do this all over 500mw on channel 8, and not muddy up a repeater output frequency with this. On the other hand, I wish everyone were so enthusiastic about their work!

You probably mean MXTA26, which is still my primary antenna on the vehicle. I'm using the Comet in a different application where I wanted dual-band without compromising tooooo much in GMRS. It's the first one that gets my antenna count in this application down to one. If I had to rank the antennas I've tried on GMRS performance I would go with Midland MXTA26 (6dbi) > Laird TE B4505CN (5dbi, NGP) > Comet CA-2X4SR-NMO (6.2dbi) > HYS SDN1-T (3dbi) > Midland MXTA25 (3dbi) > Midland MXTA13 (2.1dbi). But that's just ranking how I sound from 3-miles away on simplex as well as some signal reports from distant repeater users. Each of these have their own strengths. The MXTA26 is just a good solid antenna, 32 inches tall. The B4505CN is a pretty solid "no ground plane" antena. Good signal reports, good SWR without a ground plane. The 2X4SR is not bad at GMRS, and also good in MURS and Marine VHF ranges. The SDN1-T is only 17.7 inches long, and works pretty good for closer-in repeaters, not great over longer distances across the city. The MXTA25 is so compact and doesn't draw much attention, still working alright given its form factor, and the MXTA13 is perfect to keep in the glovebox or put on the packing list in case of an NMO mount failure. Lightweight, it travels easy.

Well, for that to go anywhere it would be a year or so of petitions, a couple years of hearings, and a couple years before manufacturers start making radios with the new pairs (of course those with chirp or proprietary software for programming will not need to wait). But even with new pairs, and software, a lot of radios aren't going to transmit outside of today's GMRS frequencies. They're not supposed to be easily modifiable, right?

Mine arrived today. I tested it on my vehicle; at 462.xxxx and 467.xxxx it produced SWRs between 1.1-1.35:1. It was better than expected. Mounted on a magnetic mount on my super-sketchy window air conditioner it produced SWRs between 1.01 and 1.3:1 in the 462&467 range, and 1.01-1.5:1 in the VHF range. I haven't tested fars yet, but really I don't need to. It's going to be just fine for my needs. It's so true that this is a big, heavy, ugly antenna, by some definitions of ugly. I don't mind it. I also tested it on both MURS and GMRS frequencies mounted on a camera tripod with a GPK-01 ground plane kit. With the kit its SWR at MURS frequencies was still 1.1-1.3;1. And at GMRS frequencies things got a little worse, like 1.7-1.8:1. Without the GPK-01 ground plane kit, mounted on a camera tripod, it was more like 1.7-1.8:1 in the VHF range, and 2.4:1 in the GMRS range. Great antenna. I'm glad I got it. At some point I'd like to do a shootout of the antennas I've collected: MXTA13, MXTA25, MXTA26, HYS SDN1-T, Laird TE B4505CN, and this CA-2X4SR-NMO antenna. If anyone has parameters or methodologies they'd like to see, let me know. I can toss the GPK-01 ground plane kit into the mix as well, if we want. For mounts, I have that kit, plus a hood lip mount (positioned such that I have at least seven inches of vehicle body steel all around), and a magnetic mount.

I connected the SWR meter to a one-foot RG8X coax connected to the back of the radio. And the antenna side is connected to the MXTA26 with the hood mount NMO connector that comes with way too much of whatever cable Midland supplies with that hood lip mount. But again, near 40w at the 462+ range, and 27w on the 467+ range, the repeater inputs. Anyway, it barely matters, or doesn't matter. Just a weird thing. I'll need to test with a dummy load sometime.

Why does your poor quality video show a DC power supply, then? This is what is shown in the video: https://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-PS9KX-Universal-Regulated-Converter/dp/B0002BA570?th=1 That's a DC power supply, supplying DC power from the AC mains. But to respond to @WSBR383, that power supply is 13.8v, which is outside of the specs he showed us for the GMRS-RPT50. So something that @justin10 hasn't grokked yet is that he's powering the repeater 1.3v above its specified input voltage range. I rather doubt that matters so much, but it is one thing to consider. Does the problem go away if you hook it directly up to a 12v battery?

You get to decide whether you see chronological or vote-based sorting:

Reviews for this antenna seem to be generally very good. It comes in two versions: the PL-259 version, and the NMO version (CA-2X4SRNMO). Both versions are foldable. The antenna is marketed as broad multi-band, with a pretty wide VHF frequency range, and a wide UHF frequency range: Dualband: VHF and UHF 140-160 MHz / 435-465 MHz VSWR: Less than 2:1 / Gain: 3.8/6.2dBi / Max Power: 150W FM My question is how does it perform at 467.5500-467.7250. It's supposed to achieve <2:1 SWR at up to 465MHz, but 467.7250 is almost 3MHz outside of that spec. My MXTA26, mounted on my vehicle, gets a 1.4:1 SWR in the 462.xxxx range, and 1.1:1 SWR in the 467.xxxx range. So it's almost impossibly good for working repeaters, as far as mobile antennas go. How does the CA-2X4SR compare? https://www.amazon.com/Comet-Original-CA-2X4SR-140-160-435-465/dp/B00HVGQZ9G My Laird/TE B4505CN (5dbi) is in the 1.15-1.35:1 SWR range across the 426.xxxx and 467.xxxx range. And the HYS SDN1-T (3dbi) is in the 1.1-1.3 SWR range throughout the 462.xxxx and 467.xxxx frequencies, also when mounted on my vehicle.

Capital (15 miles) and Ogden (43 miles) are no problem for me. I'm a mile west of Wasatch near Little Cottonwood Road (near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon) at 5080 feet elevation. The Capital repeater is on Ensign Peak, so good elevation, and the Ogden repeater is on Mount Ogden -- also good elevation.

I tested today with my SWR meter again, and found the power output levels to be relatively higher than predicted in the software. CHIRP, for example, lists the levels as: L/L1: 5w L2: 10w L3: 15w M: 20w H: 40w In reality they came in at the following, on channels 15-22: L/L1: 4.9w L2: 10.8w L3: 18.5w M: 26.2w H: 38.4w That, with an SWR of <1.4 with my MXTA26 antenna. And that was with the vehicle shut off, so the input voltage was 12.5v, not 13.8. At "engine running" voltage (14.3v on my vehicle) it should be very close to 40w on high. However, when I switch over to repeater channels, the output power on high drops to 29w across the board. Something about the 467.xxxx range that the radio doesn't want to output close to its full 40w. But also, in the 467 range, the SWR with the MXTA26 drops to better than 1.1:1 in my installation. It probably doesn't much matter that I'm losing 10w transmitting on repeater inputs, but I'd still like to know why.

Anyway, that's not GMRS. On GMRS I enjoy when I hear traffic on the Promontory repeater, because I believe that's 63 miles from my house, and with the right $60 antenna, sounds like it's next door. That's on 462.700 / 21R. I've hit it with a UV5G with an external antenna, though I get a lot better signal report when I hit it with a mobile at a little higher power.