n4gix

Rich, I'm getting 8 watts output on my RT-97. My frequency pair is 447.975/442.975.

404 error on that link Michael...

One of my major pet peeves are those who say "over and out." Logically one can be either "over" or "out", but never both at the same time! ?

Honestly, if you stop talking that generally means they can begin talking again. OTOH, simply saying "over" or "back to you" will accomplish the task easily. ?

Odd question now or not, I have had mine up on the roof @42' for the past six years. It has performed wonderfully for me. I did run 1/2' heliax cable from the antenna to the polyphase arrestor, which was then bonded to my ground system.

It's a moot issue now since Rich has removed the display of callsigns from the forum software... ?

GMRS was originally Class A business band. So there are still some business that have kept their original license active, so the above applies only to them and their equipment. Frankly there aren't all that many of these "grandfathered" licensee still in operation these days.

As ham licensees, we are not restricted by anything other than Part 15 (receiver specs) and band/frequency and power regulations. GMRS equipment however is governed by Part 15a and/or Part 15e. So any radio that meets the requirement of Part 15a/e and also will allow operation in the ham (note the small "h") is allowable provided one is licensed as both a ham and GMRS operator.

Why not use that flat space just forward of the center console? That appears to be prime real estate for radios.

The so-called "38-mile" range is nothing more than sheer fantasy. It assumes one is on top of a 4,000' mountain talking with someone else down in the valley. Seriously! The best one can expect is nearly always less than 1 mile.

Oh, I see now. We are all "Newbies" since this has just been recently implemented! ?

I have made 777 posts since I joined back in 2015, but an still Ranked as a "Newbie?" Sheesh!?

It's important to keep in mind that rubber duck antennas are actually a coiled wire, and not a straight length of wire. Because of this, attempting to "trim for best SWR" is not really possible.

Radials and bonded grounding are two unrelated concepts.

A piece of wood, four screw eye hooks and two bungy cords... ?

This is why professional duplexers used in both ham and GMRS repeaters are so expensive!

Looking good!

Wow, that's terrific performance for ~5 watts! It certainly proves the claim that "height make right..."

Yes, as he wrote...

I am a member of the Hamfesters ARC now. They have ~150 active members, so there are plenty of bodies to accomplish great things! We are planning our Field Day deployments, as well as a resumption of the annual "Hamfesters Hamfest" in Peotone, IL on Sunday, August 1, 2021. We expect both events to draw good attendance.

Now that's some serious stock of antennas!

Here in the U.S. for the second year in a row the annual "Dayton Hamvention" that would have been this weekend was cancelled. Actually, it was cancelled back in mid-February because of the uncertainty about the condition of the world regarding Covid-19. For starters, it costs the sponsoring amateur radio club at least $2 million to rent the Xenia Fairgrounds for the four day weekend, print tickets, arrange for electric scooters, renting > 300 golf carts, et cetera. Average attendance at Hamvention has been around a half-million per year over the past ten years, with over 40% of them from overseas. Vendor's logistical costs can run well into the tens of thousands of dollars, depending on their travel distance. Shoot, it cost me just over a thousand dollars each year I worked as a volunteer as one of the golf cart pilots! So yeah, it's pretty disappointing but fully understandable they decided to cancel the event this year!

I would use these for my feed through connections. https://www.wiredco.com/UHF-BULKHEAD-Adapter-connector-through-wall-so239-p/uhfbulkhead1.htm:

You got the acronym correct, but not the actual use. VFO mode allows one to set a frequency from the keyboard, and use the Menu function to set a PL tone, etc. For a real example, last Saturday morning our District 1 ARES team was called upon to assist in locating a 12 year old autistic boy who'd wandered away from the hotel where he and his parents were staying while visiting relatives in the area. Since the search area was so large, we chose to use an extremely wide-area 2m repeater, and I do mean WIDE area! It covers six counties in NW Indiana and a very large part of the Chicagoland area via two additional linked repeaters in Illinois. As I did not have the N9IAA repeater programmed into my AT-D868UV portable, it took less than 2 minutes for me to tap in the frequency, and set the PL tone needed. After a quick radio check, I was prepared for the search. I was assigned to one of the 12 person teams to provide communications between the team leader and the incident command center. Sadly, we did not manage to locate the boy, and they are continuing the search now along the Little Calumet River thinking he may have fallen in and drowned.