VETCOMMS

I can always change out the bottom section with a shorter 7 foot section and see if the antenna performs just as well, i just thought the extra 3 feet would be a good thing. I like the idea of not guying the mast but it sounds dangerous and unwise not to do so. What, specifically do you use for guy wires? Do you anchor the wires to the edges of the roof near the gutters on the one side of the building and the roof peak on the opposite side of the building? I like the one guys idea of the telescoping mast that did well without guying. Will have to look into that.

Something like this? Or not sturdy enough https://servicefirstproducts.com/products/25-freedom-edition-telescoping-pole-black

I just put up a Laird Antenna on about 20 feet of chain link fence top rail (2 pieces). We had 27 mph winds today and i noticed a bit of sway in the upper pipe. Am I up too high above that upper bracket mounted to the building? I'd think ice & snow will make that sway worse. 20241121_122551.mp4

Question for those with Laird FG series antennas. It says not to block the drain holes on the bottom of the antenna near the connection. How do you wrap the coax/antenna connection when it's so close to the antenna? Just wrap right up to the base of the antenna? Originally I was going to wrap with waterproof tape up into the bottom of the antenna but that would block the drain holes. What do others do?

So many choices, thanks for the help! Now to get my waterproofing tapes for the connection at the antenna.

Thanks. I was looking at Gigaparts M&P but all I saw were PL-259 connections. Much appreciated!

So this is N- female on the antenna as well? If so I need coax with 2 N male ends right?

Am I correct that this is an N-type male connector on the repeater?

OK rookie question. I have this adapter on the back of my Vertex vxr-7000 repeater. I plan to get new coax, likely M&P ultraflex 10. Is it better to remove the adapter and have N connections on both ends of the coax to minimize loss or at 30 - 50 foot coax length will it matter?

I'm such a rookie. Figured out the problem. I didn't push the repeater button in on the Vertex so it was running in base mode. Putting out 33.8 watts with an SWR of 1.5 and transmit % of 95.98% on the temporary antenna. It's tuned for 462.625 and meter shows 462.623. Thanks for the help!

I think it's not transmitting because when I put my cheap Chinese swr meter in line and use my HT to tx to the repeater, the swr meter does not do anything. All zeros on the display. I have it on a little mag mount in the garage while I'm testing but it will be connected to a 6' omni when done. Not sure what you mean by subscriber.

Can someone please confirm I'm not doing something wrong. As you read at the beginning this repeater was doing a weird buzzing sound so I took it to a Motorola dealer and he tuned it on their Aeroflex service monitor. The tech said "it's running at 80 dbm which is really good." I don't know what that means. He said they found that the jumper running from the flat pack duplexer inside the repeater to the antenna connection on the outside of the repeater had a short in it. He said there was not much resistance but it had a "dead short." He said the repeater was putting out 28 watts after the duplexer. I got the repeater home, hooked it up, tried with with several different tones on tx and rx side, tried no courtesy blip, tried setting one channel with no tones on either TX or RX. I can hear my voice in the speaker on the repeater but it does not transmit. I hooked my SWR meter up to the coax and it is not transmitting. As I type this I'm thinking they didn't put the antenna connection on the back of the repeater on the part that is not hooked up to the duplexer. Seems like I did that when I first got this repeater. *edit* - I looked through the vent on the bottom of the repeater and the antenna is hooked up to the correct part of the duplexer. If it's not that, does anyone have any other ideas why it would receive and not transmit?

For sale 80 feet of Andrews Heliax LDF5 7/8" hardline. Thanks for the calculator and all the help. Much appreciated.

OK thanks. Now to switch gears and little. Some people think with such a short run that my hardline is overkill. Some people think LMR400 isn't good enough. What are your opinions on coax that is thinner and easier to work with for a gmrs repeater antenna that's only 30 feet up.

My understanding is that first layer is sticky side out which makes it easier to remove if/ when that time comes. The rubber tape would still be there along with another layer placed sticky side down, followed by UV resistant outdoor rated electrical tape to keep water out. It's something I saw years ago by a tower guy out west, Guerrillacomm is what we went by. Just continuing to learn from those more experienced than I.