MarkInTampa

I just did a flag pole for my antenna (Comet GP-6 GMRS/MURS) yesterday, see the thread I posted earlier today if it helps you any.

Didn't think about the zip ties being UV rated, I'll take care of that. The cable actually runs low through a doggie door next to the antenna and back up into a window right next to it. I did put a loop per manufactures (Comet) instructions at the antenna mount.

I wanted a 30ft or so antenna mast/pole but didn't want any guy wires if I could help it. In walking the neighborhood with the doggo I saw a few neighbors that have flag poles and thought to myself that would make a great antenna mast. So I ordered up a 30ft telescoping aluminum flag pole from Home Depot for $160 and it came in yesterday but was kinda bummed that they shipped me a sectional flag pole and not telescoping that I ordered. It's a mixed blessing I suppose. I'd assume the telescoping pole and every section being a smaller diameter tube as it goes up is going to be a bit weaker than a sectional pole that has all the same size of tube but the telescoping would have been much easier to work with. Also with the telescoping pole there is a chance of water intrusion between each section of pole and on the sectional pole there is not. I used expanding fence post foam for the pole base sleeve, used it before when building a fence and it held up a 6ft tall and 4ft wide wood gate so figured it should work in this case and I'm to lazy to use concrete. I also decided to clamp it to the side of the house even though it could be used free standing. It made it a lot easier to level the pole when pouring in the foam for the base sleeve. Also figured it would make the pole a bit stronger and easier to work with. If I want to lower the pole, just loosen up the clamps and remove sections as needed. Not as easy as a telescoping pole would have been though like I planned. Overall I think it came out decent, just have to wait for a windy day to see how much it sways in the wind. I can guy it if I have to but time will tell.

Out of curiosity, what makes a repeater go into the stale status? A new GMRS user in my area was asking why our #1 by far repeater for the area wasn't on the MyGMRS map when I know it was there last month. It is off the map but now shows as a stale repeater when it is not. It's still a public use repeater using travel tone and the webpage for it also invites public use. It does show last updated "a year ago". Does the owner of the repeater have to check in ever now and then to keep the status up?

But you must not have known about the Tera TR-505 dual band GMRS radio with "Optional (MURS) VHF license free channels" if you buy the programming cable (obviously sarcasm).... https://powerwerx.com/tera-tr505-gmrs-recreational-handheld-radio

Mine has a 16ft pigtail with a SMA connector on it. I never ran a SWR sweep on it for MURS until just now - it is actually quite good!

I did a SWR scan on my N9TAX GMRS Slim Jim as well, a bit different than yours. Overall I'd say it's a decent antenna for what it is and the price point. Much, much better than using a Nagoya 771G on a HT but sucks compared to my Comet GP-6 that cost 5x as much. After getting the Comet I relegated the Slim Jim as a scanner antenna for my SDR setup and it actually does a wonderful job for that. I bought a MFJ Discone antenna to replace it with but the Slim Jim actually performs better than the discone on receive, go figure...

How about a grounding question. I've got a spool of 14AWG sold and a spool of 12AWG stranded green ground wire laying around, don't know if that's good enough. Would you suggest grounding just the pole, run the wire up with the coax and ground just the antenna, do both or isolate the antenna from the pole using something like a PVC sleeve and ground just the antenna?

I just ordered one up. We shall see. Pole will be located 2ft away from radios on the other side of the wall, plan on digging a hole a few inches next to the house for the sleeve the pole inserts into as well as clamping it (even thought it should not need it) on the house around the 7ft or so mark. It will never be used for a flag (in the back of the house) just for radio antenna. Cinderblock wall is only 8ft or so from the ground with a flat roof. There is a old abandoned CATV ground block and intact ground rod 6 inches away from where the pole would be. There is also another ground rod 6ft away for the AC unit I can tie into as well. I want a 30ft or so pole that I don't have to mess with guy wires for a reasonable price ($150-170 depending on color). Rohn, MFJ and other 30-40ft poles sell for well over $299, require guy wires and a lot effort. I'm not in a HOA and can use anything I want but don't want to spend 4X the price of the antenna just on a mast. I used Sika expanding fence post foam a few years ago when I replaced a fence at the old place and it worked GREAT! Didn't have to mix concrete, 1 bag equals 100 pounds of concrete. Sets up in 5 minutes or so. Thinking of using it for the flagpole sleeve instead of concrete. I was doing hurricane traffic signal repair and watched the power company plant poles with this kind of stuff instead of concrete. Any thoughts?

I was on Home Depots web site and stumbled upon 30ft aluminum telescopic flag poles yesterday. Figured if they can handle the wind loading of a 3'X5' flag without guy wires it should handle my GP-6 antenna also without guy wires. I also live in Florida where we have these things called hurricanes and would like the option to be able to be able to drop the height of the antenna if need be. Anybody try one of these?

Thanks. The company I'm doing some contract work for is a bonding company that took over a now defunct multi site DOT contractor that went under. Once we finish up some existing jobs the doors will be closed in 18 months or so. There is a onsite 120ft tower that had a 15 mile or so point to point microwave doing T1 service to a old remote office as well as having a repeater on 452.xxx. The microwave stuff is still there but hasn't been used in 10+ years and the remote site is long gone and they haven't put a radio in a vehicle in 5+ years. I turned the repeater off 3 months ago and nobody has even noticed or complained that I'm aware of. Thought it would be cool to take it over or convert to GMRS but I know time on the tower is limited so figured it's just not worth the effort.

Stupid question.. is a LMR license transferrable to a new user? If a company I work for decided to ditch LMR for cellular could I take over the repeater and transfer the license to my name or maintain the current license and just set it up for me and my buddies?

I picked up the simplex repeater and decided to give my HT's a test for range this morning before installing the new mast to check how much height will weigh in once installed. I need to get my base antenna mounted higher, have a 35ft mast but haven't had a chance to put it up yet. Home setup KG1000+, Comet GP-6 antenna approx 13ft off the ground, Argent Data ADS-SR1 Simplex repeater. HT 1 is a Wouxun KG-935G (non plus, direct conversion) tested with the stock and a Nagoya NA-771G antenna HT 2 is a TYT MD-380 superhet with a kinda stubby and a NA-771 clone style antenna - both came in the box with the radio Also used a Wouxun hand mic for both the HT's Drove over to a park 1.2 miles away... Both radios worked fine with the shorter antennas so moved on Drove to another park 2.5 miles away with a bit of a hill between the base station and the park... The TYT with the longer antenna was a bit noisy but readable in the car, the Wouxun could key with the Nagoya but audio chopped in and out. Outside of the car on the picnic bench the KG-935 could key the repeater on the shorter antenna but no audio at all when held close to my head not using the hand mic. When held out at a distance with the hand mic audio would chop in and out. With the Nagoya near my head without a hand mic audio was dirty but readable. When held out a bit with the hand mic it was fine. The MD-380's short antenna worked but was dirty when near my head without a hand mic but when held out with a hand mic it was clean. The long antenna worked fine near the head without a hand mic or exteded with a hand mic. Strange results, I expected a bit better out of the 935G with it's longer factory antenna and a brand name hi gain one but it does to the job. I do have a 2nd 935G but didn't bring it with me for testing. I guess it could be the direct conversion vs superhet but don't know. It should be interesting to retest with the antenna up another 25ft at the base.

A few of the GMRS repeaters around here are XPR or Quantar's that are capable of DMR or P25 but the digital modes are off. I just thought it was a pretty cool little repeater that has ethernet port for IP multi-site connectivity, built in battery backup, etc. Being a new product, from a pretty reputable company with a lot of nice features but only 25/10 watts I'd still guess it sells for over $1500 but I can't find pricing. A bit pricy for GMRS and there are a lot of better options around. I was under the assumption when I replied to the post about it the OP thought it was DMR only ("Then I saw this and started to get excited but it's DMR") and just wanted to let him know it was capable of analog. Didn't mean to start a war, gortex2 has been the source of a lot of good info and value his opinion.

Who says you have to use or enable DMR if it supports analog?

That repeater looks pretty cool. Can't find anything about the price of it but did find this nugget of knowledge from the website.... The HR65X can operate in analog mode, DMR mode, or dynamic mixed digital/analog mode, which automatically switches between analog and digital based on the call it receives.

I was told by one vendor the FTM400 was discontinued because of the chip shortage. Another vendor told me it was discontinued because it was a "bit old" having come out in 2013 and they were getting ready to introduce a new model. This was a few months ago between the announcement of the FTM400 being discontinued and the FTM500 coming out. Guess it might have been a bit of both - hard to source chips for an existing model and easier chips to source for a new one.

Strange... I've got the same three radios

I'll assume it will become another tool (or toy depends on how you look at it) to play with. Kinda like my NanoVNA - great tool for the money to have around but only gets used every other month or so. The same will be probably be true for the simplex repeater but when I want to test something it would be nice to have around.

I'll run a PL tone but don't plan to leave it setup for more than a hour or two at a time. Main plan is to use it on the base station and drive over to the park and test my HT's. I've got three different brand of HT's and stubby, normal, clone Nagoya, real Nagoya, and N9TAX Slim Jim antenna's for them. Want to test them for range and audio quality then move to another park a bit further away until everything is out of range. Once done testing I'll remove it. Just wanted a way to test things in the field without assistance.

One of the repeaters near me also does this - but the ID/Announcement I timed to around 30 seconds. Starts off with a welcome message, followed by a message about their GMRS-Live website and then both are repeated in Spanish. Sorry, duplicate post. I can edit it but not delete.

One of the repeaters near me also does this - but the ID/Announcement I timed to around 30 seconds. Starts off with a welcome message, followed by a message about their GMRS-Live website and then both are repeated in Spanish.

It's a bit of a of a haul for you but Perry has a pretty active GMRS club and repeater with weekly nets on Thursday if I remember right. Don't know of any other clubs between Tampa and them. They do have a really strong repeater on 725 that I can tag every now and then from Brandon area 165 miles away when conditions are right. Bartow also has a pretty active informal GMRS group as well. As far as repeaters (not clubs) I'd assume the Tampa 575, 700 and maybe the Clearwater 600 repeaters should be accessible from Brooksville as I hear people from that area on them quite often. Brooksville is 40 miles as the crow flies from me so there may be others closer to you that I haven't heard but doesn't mean they don't exist.

Thanks for the info. Looks like a better simplex repeater than the Surecom, the reseller is in the states and they have the proper cable for my radio where the Surecom didn't and I'd have to make one. Just placed my order. Thanks again.

I'm looking at picking up a Surecom SR-112 simplex repeater controller (https://www.surecom.com.hk/product-page/surecom-sr-112-simplex-repeater-controller) just for giggles. Just wanted something that I can use to test my radio and antenna's range by myself by driving around between my base and mobile and this looks like it might do the trick. Anybody have one or can recommend something similar? Reviews on this one are all over the place.