MarkInTampa

I went to a local hamfest a few weeks ago and a few of us radio users that have never met decided to meet up. One of the guys said to find me, just "look for the odd ball, it will be me" but wouldn't say what to look for. He had a hat with a antenna kinda like yours, we found him.

The strongest GMRS repeater by far in my area runs analog and P25 and has been for years. It's not exactly a secret, the NAC is published on their web page. P25 is seldom used, maybe a few times a week but almost every time it is used I'll hear folks freaking out about "what that noise is", "isn't that illegal", "how do I block it", etc. It's not my repeater so I really don't care. We also had a repeater move frequency a month or so ago move due to somebody running encrypted DMR on the same frequency and causing interference with his repeater. That kinda sucks for me, now I have two repeaters (one 10 miles west, the other 35 miles southeast) pegging the S-meter on the same frequency but at least they are on different tones.

I've got a VGC VR-N7500 Bluetooth 50watt base radio that is totally controlled by a Android or iPhone app, doesn't even have a head on it. The Bluetooth works about 40ft, good enough that can sit on the back porch with my tablet or cellphone to use it but not on the other side of the house. However if I leave my tablet connected to the radio and on internet, I can run the app on my cellphone and access the radio anywhere over internet (kinda like Zello) and can control the frequency and tone of the radio remotely - but not scan or other features. It's a fun radio to play with but I hate the interface so it sits on the shelf most of the time.

Just want a nice clean desk. I have a remote head radio and keep the radio and power supply up and away from me to keep fan noise down a bit but also rules out the internal speaker. Right now I'm using a old TEAC desktop stereo speaker tucked behind the monitor. I needed to blow $20 at DX Engineering to get free shipping on a order and picked up one of their $20 external radio speakers. What a joke - my HT speaker sounds better. Guess you get what you pay for.

I'd like to run the amplified external speaker jack of my base station to my desktop computer just to mix in with the computer speakers. Has anybody got a recommendation on an adapter to drop the speaker out to line level or as a USB sound device?

One of the few radios that can be programmed without a computer.... Do a quick YouTube search for TK-880 front panel programming.

I was doing a job a few years ago and picked up 6 "Ozark Trail" FRS HT's from Walmart in two packs. Just found one of them in a box yesterday and it does have a default ctcss tone of 67.0 across 22 channels. Range sucks on them - we installed truck parking detectors at the interstate rest areas and had to validate and time stamp every truck that came in and out of the parking lot to make sure the system was working. They had a hard time trying to make it across the parking lot, had to sit outdoors in the middle of the lot to coordinate things. Battery life is excellent on them, one of the guys forgot to turn the radio off when he threw it in the back of my car. Every now and then for the better part of a month I'd hear a muffled voice when driving for a second and couldn't figure out where it was coming from before I found it (low battery chirps). At least it didn't interfere with the voices in my head.

Haven't tried Unitrunker. I thought you had to have at least two SDR receivers to track trunked systems. I just have one at the moment (DX Patrol) but looking at getting different as a 2nd SDR receiver - looking at a RSPduo but find it hard to stomach the $300.

SDR Sharp with Simple APCO (p25) and Simple DMR plugins most of the time. Simple point and click the waterfall for analog and most unencrypted DMR and P25 traffic. Kinda like HDSDR for the limited HF I listen too though. I'm a Windows guy and currently have HDSDR, SDR Console, SDR Sharp, SDR Uno, SDR++, SDR Trunk and SDR Angel installed. Spektrum is a pretty cool as well, makes your SDR dongle into a quick down and dirty spectrum analyzer and actually works pretty good.

A Hytera HR65X or HR106X repeater will link across internet out of the box.

There was one heck of a band opening this morning in Florida. My house in the Tampa area to Miami Dade 700 repeater full scale.

Two repeaters 24/7 at 30 miles. On rare occasion when the conditions are right there is a monster repeater 160 miles away. I am in Florida - not a lot of mountains.

Thanks for this! I downloaded the PC version of Zello from Zello yesterday (188mb) and couldn't get it to work right or even log in correctly with my existing account. The version you have is only 3.5mb and works like a champ.

Since I've started this thread I've switched over to SDR# with Simple APCO (P25) and Simple DMR free plugins. Doesn't do simulcast but works great for monitoring un-encrypted business and ham DMR and P25 with a simple point and click on the signal. Keep meaning to try out Fastlane, just haven't had a chance.

10-4. Right now it's not a problem and the cable feeds way low (through doggy door) and back up into a window so it's not a issue at the moment. However right next to the antenna mast base (see first picture) is a cut and orphaned CATV drop going through the wall. My radio sits directly behind the antenna and that hole. I plan on reusing the hole for the coax, just don't have a masonry bit for a hole large enough to pass a terminated coax through. Hate buying a bit for a one time use, need to bum one from somebody at work. But I will keep the drip loop in mind when I do it.

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?