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That is the result of a phenomenon called "knife-edge diffraction," where a signal is diffracted from a sharp edge (such as a tall building or mountain. I take advantage of this with a yagi antenna I use to reach a repeater in the far north of Chicago. The NSEA repeater is located in Parkridge, Illinois and is 47 line of sight miles from my house. By careful aim of the yagi, I'm refracting signals off the 'sharp edge' of the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower).

The body of the vehicle affects the lobes of the signal leaving the antenna, which why the center of the roof is the best choice. Having the antenna mounted on the right rear means that the major lobe will be focused on the right rear of the vehicle.

The 701G is factory tuned for GMRS frequecies (462 - 457) The 701C is fractory tuned for commercial UHF frequencies (which includes the 70cm ham band as well).

It's useful only if you have a real need to monitor two separate frequencies simultaneously, which I definitely must have. With "dual watch" if one frequency is in use, it will stop the "dual watch" and you very well could miss any traffic on the other frequency. With "dual band" on the other hand, you will never miss any traffic on either frequency, although you might need to quickly lower volume on the receiver you don't need to listen to!

The reality is that there are no "fixed stations" in the GMRS world. Period. Oh, I suppose there might be an instance where two GMRS licencees might only communicate with each other on a simplex channel from house to house, but how realistic is that? To even imagine that they would never talk even once to someone else is too much of a stretch!

All commercial radios support an "off hook" feature that will place the radio in "monitor mode" instantly whenever the microphone is picked up. This helps prevent doubling on top of ongoing communications.

Radio Mobile Online https://www.ve2dbe.com/rmonline_s.asp

That would make you the third, John. I am the fourth! In my professional career owning a GE Service Station, we only used 1/4 wavelength 'stingers' for both VHF and UHF roof-mouned antennas.

I forgot to mention that I have installed a power monitor in line with the + (red) power wire from my battery. It monitors the voltage and will automatically shut off the power to my radio gear when the voltage drops to 12 vdc in case I forget to shut anything down...

A man was living in the most seriously affected part of the building (where the wall literally does not exist any more), and reports are he is a smoker, it is he who was taken to the hospital with serious burns. I doubt it was caused by a dropped cigarette though, because they put chemicals that will cause the burning tobacco to extinguish itself if one doesn't draw on it for a minute or thereabouts.

CHIRP also comes in Mac OS version: https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Download https://puu.sh/HeZEh.png

Whereas the battery in my little four-banger engined Toyota Camry is larger and higher cranking amps that my previous Mercury Grand Marquis!

I've had the same problem but in my case the GPS was OFF! It seems that even when off the Garmin GPS still consumes a trickle of power keeping the internal battery charged... ...so after a few weeks it's drained enough to keep the engine from starting. Fortunately I carry a battery booster in my car so I can pop the hood, connect it up and start the car. It's especially bad during the sub-zero temperatures we've been having here in NW Indiana!

Around the Chicagoland area it seems that most GMRS operators are "Chatty Kens" and "Chatty Cathys."

One person came out of the building just as the FD arrived and was taken to the hospital. He was unidentified in the NWI Times, but it was likely either Tom or "Stitch." I'll find out more as soon as I can talk to my handyman, who knows both of them quite well.

An early morning fire destroyed a proposed site for a new GMRS repeater on Sunday. The Hammond, IN fire department was deployed at 2am yesterday and spent 14+ hours battling the blaze. Remains of the 120' tower that was on the top of the building was going to be provided rent free for a local resident's GMRS repeater. Had this happened a few weeks from yesterday, all of the equipment would have been destroyed in the conflagration and subsequent collapse of the building. Two of my friends also lost their businesses due to the tragedy. Tom, the owner of the thrift store and "Stitch" who owned a custom automotive upholstery business. The cars stored in the rear of the building were in the process of being re-upholstered by "Stitch." Don will have to start his search for a tower all over again... Picture source: https://www.nwitimes.com/news/watch-now-1-hospitalized-after-early-morning-hammond-blaze/article_6efae688-a1c8-592b-8d27-c4441ff96823.html#utm_source=nwitimes.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fnews-alert&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_content=4b83434283a50de2cacd01389e5c5e61071d2a11

This is from the November 2020 issue of The Repeater, a monthly newsletter from NSEA, one of the oldest GMRS groups in the U.S. having been founded in 1962. https://puu.sh/HezyK.png What is important however are the increasing numbers of new licencees each month! For the past 14 months, they have been averaging nearly 4,000 every month nationwide.

It's also always advisable to ensure that your AC/DC can supply a regulated 13.8 vdc...

I have a really neat trick that will change wine into water!

NSEA's primary repeater is located in Parkridge, IL on top of the Lutheran General Hospital, and was the very first GMRS repeater in the nation. It's been around a very long time...

Welcome to GMRS! You might wish to visit the North Shore Emergency Association: http://nsea.com ...

While you can use Chirp for many radios, "any" is simply incorrect. In fact, there are far more radios that Chirp cannot support than there are radios that it can! It is however an excellent freeware program that can program many of the most popular radios that folks here and elsewhere use.

Welcome! What part of NW Indiana? I live in North Hammond just about .5 mile south of the Tollroad as it crosses Calumet Avenue.

For a repeater you really should use at a minimum 1/2" heliax. The reason being that you want the lowest possible loss in your signal, particularly on receive. I'll try to keep this as simple as possible... You will see the term decibel mentioned frequently. For purposes of this explanation, the only thing to understand is that a 3db "loss" represents losing 50% of your signal. So if your repeater is putting out 50 watts into a cable to the antenna, the antenna would only get ~25 watts. Also, every connector and adapter you have to use adds their own small losses since the db loss is cumulative. Let's just assume for simplicity that these connectors and adapters will add around 0.5db additional loss to the entire system. Using the charts at this link will provide you the losses for most every type of antenna cable available: http://rfcec.com/RFCEC/Section-3%20-%20Fundamentals%20of%20RF%20Communication-Electronics/11%20-%20EQUIPMENT%20COMPARISON%20CHARTS/Comparison%20Chart%20-%20Coaxial%20Cable%20Types%20&%20Specifications%20(By%20Larry%20E.%20Gugle%20K4RFE).pdf For a total run of <100' I recommend LDF4-50A, which is a 1/2' OD flex, which allows tighter bends than anything larger. It specs out to have 1.447 dB loss per 100', so around 22% power loss. That is certainly better than 50% total loss! Connectors run around $19.95 each. The drawback to heliax is that it does require a special tool to prepare the cable ends for the solderless, compression connectors. You can check with a local land mobile shop to see if they have a tool you can borrow, or perhaps prepare the cable ends for you.

In addition, at the topmost level, amateur operators will be using Winlink VARA HF and/or VARA FM 2m/70cm to send/receive email over radio.