VETCOMMS

Thank you all. I looked at the anytone 878uv as an option. Part of me hoped the 50 watt kg-1000g could be unlocked but that's from my old habits of thinking more wattage is better. I like to monitor marine bands but not talk since I'm not licensed and this radio wouldn't be in a boat. I will likely get my ham license one day but plan to monitor for now to see if it's something I want to get into. I like the idea of the Kenwood and Motorola mobiles but programming sounds tricky and even getting the programming software seems challenging. I'll have to look more into the Mars/Cap thing since this is all new to me but I'm hoping to monitor more frequencies and transmit on GMRS. Thanks for the help!

Question for those with more experience on this. I'm looking for a radio I can put in a vehicle or switch between vehicles that will tx and rx between 144 MHz on up to the Gmrs frequencies. Is there such an all in one radio?

Okay, I went back one day and think I'm up and running. Will connect to radio later. Thanks for the help! Much appreciated!

I'll wait a day and see if the next latest and greatest version will work. I loaded today's version and that's where I'm having issues. Thx and will keep trying. How do I download the older version? I see "Old no longer stable builds" and "Daily build archive" at the bottom of the download page. Which one do I try? I like stability in my life so that first one makes me worried.

I recently updated CHIRP and wanted to do a little programming on my boofwang GT3WP but I'm getting a pesky error message that won't allow me to open it. I sent an email to CHIRP but realized I'm not on their email list but thought, what the heck, you folks seem pretty helpful so here goes.... I uninstalled CHIRP and tried to re-install it. Windows Defender got ugly on me and I reassured the Defender it was okay and run the program anyway. When I go to open CHIRP I get the following message... the logfile 'C:\Program Files (x86)\CHIRP\chirpw.exe.log' could not be opened: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\CHIRP\\chirpw.exe.log' Any ideas or anyone else having this issue? Does it matter if I use Google Chrome browser vs Google Edge browser?

I'm still laughing that I used the brand name of an ice fishing sonar (Vexilar) instead of a repeater. Long day....

Thanks, I see there are used mototurbo repeaters as well as other brands that are fairly reasonable in price but thought I'd ask.

Is there a way to use the Retevis repeater with a UHF amplifier/linear to boost the power output to 50 watts? I was wondering if this would be a lower cost alternative to purchasing a GMRS repeater such as a Vexilar or Motorola?

Thanks for taking the time to explain things to a newbie.

Thanks for that. Yeah, drilling holes in roofs of cars doesn't fly with the other half. Hence the magnet. I am curious how 1/4 wave vs base loaded coil antennas differ. All I know is the 1/4 wave antennas are shorter so my limited knowledge makes me think they don't transmit or receive as well. I don't have ham knowledge so this may seem elementary to some but that's the extent of my antenna knowledge. But I'm here to learn.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I see there is mention about a "pull tab" on these NMO mounts. From what I can gather it involves the interface between the mount and the bottom of the antenna. I thought I saw something about needing to make sure the pull tab is open/out of the way when connecting the base and antenna? Anyone familiar with this? Again, thanks for the help!

Sounds like this is something I can do then. Here is a link to one of the antennas I was looking at. https://www.arcantenna.com/products/laird-bb4502n-12-5-inch-uhf-whip-antenna-with-black-nmo-base-450-470-mhz I just added the link below as this antenna looks to be shorter at 11 inches and would clear the garage opening unlike the link below. In your experiences is there increased road noise on antennas that use springs? They mention that in the Laird website. https://www.arcantenna.com/products/laird-antenex-bb4503s-450-470-mhz-mobile-base-coil-nmo-mount-antenna-with-spring-metalic-ground-plane-required To account for garage opening clearance I suppose I should add about an inch to the overall height to account for the height of the magnet mount off the top of the vehicle as well, correct?

I wanted to run this idea by the experienced antenna gurus to see if this would work. I'm looking at getting an NMO Laird UHF antenna that says it's 12.5 inches long, but then lower down in the specifications page it says it's 15 inches long. My idea is to have a Laird NMO magnetic mount on the car and be able to run the shorter Laird antenna on that but then purchase the Midland mxta26 whip that's about 32" long and when I'm using the truck I can remove the shorter Laird antenna, put the Laird mag mount on the truck and spin on the longer Midland antenna. Would this work since it's an NMO whip going on an NMO mag mount or would the brand difference between the Laird mag mount and the Midland whip be an issue?

Thanks for the help. When using the map function to see where repeaters are located in the state does it take a while to load with the image of the tower flashing on the screen? Or maybe that's just on my end.

Ok dumb question. I tried using the repeater search function but I get a red bar at the top saying, "user geolocation denied" or something like that. Is the a way I can just type in Illinois or Wisconsin too see all the GMRS repeaters in a particular state?

Ok, I have the radio geek tendencies and like that I can monitor more frequencies on the Wouxon. Performance wise and sound quality wise they are very similar?

It looks like the Midland MXT500 and the Wouxon kg-1000g are two of the higher quality mobile radio options out there. I understand the Wouxon can store multiple repeaters with different tones on the same channel. I don't have any repeaters near me but will travel and possibly encounter multiple repeaters on the same frequencies. Would the Midland do just as good as the Wouxon in areas of sparse repeater concentration? It seems one is a superheterodyne radio which I hear is a higher quality radio, am I correct on that? Does one radio have the ability to monitor a wider frequency range than the other? I guess I'm just trying to weigh the pros and cons of each radio and am hoping this who've used both can educate me. School is in session, I'm taking notes

Thanks for all the good antenna options. I think I'll stick with just the GMRS antenna like that Midland one with the 6db gain for now, I can't recall the model number. Once I get my HAM license I'll think about these dual band antennas you mention. Then again, I might be able to listen/monitor more frequencies with the dual band antennas as opposed to the Midland GMRS mobile antenna?

Ok, I think I saw a Bridgecom mag mount that covers it. I'll keep looking.

Is there such a thing for mobile radios? I know hams have the dual band antenna but do they have an antenna that covers 2m, 70cm AND GMRS?

I'll adhere to the K.I.S.S. method and see where this takes me. Thanks.

Thanks for the help. I was thinking if I went the route of Motorola and decided I wanted to add another repeater if I'm going to be traveling then I assume I'd either, 1. Know how to program that repeater in myself. Or, 2. Take it to the Motorola programmer guy/gal and have them do it. Am I thinking correctly on this? If so, then would a Wouxon mobile or, here we go with using Ham radios on GMRS frequencies, would it make more sense to get, say,a TYT th-7800 radio? Would those radios be much easier for a simpleton like me to program?

Ok. I have a call in to the local Motorola dealer so we will see if they will program one. Sounds like I'd better leave the programming to those with experience.

I don't care about girlfriends cheating and don't see how that pertains to this. I do appreciate the constructive advice though and will do my best to be a good boy in the GMRS world. Thanks for helping a newbie, seriously.

Thanks for that. I'll check it out.