Bande1

Also ask if they're properly masked.

I always say "breaker 575 anybody got their ears on out there"

despite what everyone on the internet says the slim jim antenna is just a half wave ~3dbi antenna and isnt that good. Its really no different in performance than a $10 abbree 42". You already bought a radio but height means a lot more than power. buy this antenna next and some KMR400 off amazon. If you have a tree hang the antenna in the tree 35-65ft up. https://www2.randl.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_1500&products_id=69428 every 3dbi you add it effectively doubles your power. 6dbi quadruples power. This antenna will give you +8.5dbi in UHF over the N9TAX. Its big at 17.3ft in length but its economically priced and very good. Coax power loss goes up as you increase frequency. At GMRS freq with say RG-8X you're losing about 2% per foot of cable. 100ft of RG-8X will lose -8.5dbi. You should buy LMR400 or knockoff KMR400. Which will lose 2.7dbi per 100ft. This antenna and coax combo would make your HT the same radiated power as the DB-25G while having far more receive capability. Get the antenna as high as you possibly can

yeah I couldnt stand that length either. I went through the phase of 1/4 wave 2m antennas and went to a little comet SMA503. I also went through the whole nagoya/amazon brand phase and despite being very cheap Ive learned when it comes to antennas just buy "real" ham brands. They're one of those things that actually are worth paying a little more for.

theres 2 different ones. a GMRS and a dual band. if it says 72G its the GMRS version. THIS antenna is the absolute best dual band I have found that isn't ridiculously tall. It beats the living snot out of a UT-72 for not much more and makes the Nagoya look like a toy from walmart. (it does in fact tune up to 467mhz decently) https://www2.randl.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_1200&products_id=38572 if height or cost isn't an issue go with this https://www2.randl.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_1200&products_id=30318 attached is the Jetstream antenna next to a diamond MR-77 (same size as UT-72) to see how much taller it is.

oh ok. my apologies.

Im getting a forum "ackchyually" vibe here. Are you being intentionally obtuse asking what's being measured? Its power loss. The entire point of this thread. On specific measured frequencies, in this case 145mhz, KMR400 has less loss than the LMR400 calculator according to my surecom meter. Whether thats accurate IDK. Its close enough to make it worth buying to me. why am I measuring at 25ft? because thats the length of coax I have to measure.

Mines been out in the elements few months now doing awesome. Just made it through -20f windchills last week.

I had a table showing LMR400 8% at 25ft. KMR400 is doing 7%. But even still its less than a $1 a foot, thats pretty hard to beat.

KMR400 the knockoff LMR400 on Amazon, I measured the loss at 3% per 10ft on VHF. That's like, IDK, about 1.8dbi @ 100ft. Which is slightly better than real LMR400. Ive been very pleased with it. I don't exactly have a lab quality SWR meter though.

Repeater offsets are already done for you with a GMRS radio. You only program them when you have a ham radio/UV-5R. You just need to put in the CTCSS transmit tones. Usually there's no recieve tone.

You can also use radioddity GA-510

replying to wrtq652 my btech amp was in fact ran with an SWR meter. it generally drove the swr up from 1.01:1 to maybe 1.3:1 or there about. I read my first post again let me clarify the amp vs mobile. the mobile heard a repeater when the handheld + amp did not on same antennas. I would key up a repeater with the amp and hear nothing. but the mobile would hear the repeater tone. I hit the repeater but heard absolutely nothing back through the radio. It was as if my handheld was deaf. but really easy and close repeaters would come through. like ones under 10 miles away. I also tested the amp with a simplex and found some difference, very marginal. I would radio check with amp off, then radio check with amp on. It gave me maybe a 10-15% difference at the edge of range.

one of the things is the UT-72 is a dual band ham antenna. its going to be less good on UHF than a dedicated UHF antenna. I have that antenna and Ive ditched it for a used diamond MR-77 I found for $10. I bought one of those amps and the first one just quit working. sent it back got and the second one worked but I could barely tell a difference in performance. next to my 50w mobile radio the amp and handheld combined was a FAR cry. I sent the amp back. I have also gone back to only running my stock rubber ducky on my radio. frankly it outperforms every aftermarket I ever bought BESIDES a motorola someone gave me. That thing is phenominal. I hear comet makes a 9" antenna thats good. another thing Ive realized is all these amazon brands are like cheap toys. look at real ham brands. comet, hustler, diamond, larson, etc. except for the abbree on VHF those are actually pretty good. my advice is to send the amp back and get a 25w mobile radio. better yet get a crossband radio that will link your handheld in U-U like a TYT TH-9800, Alinco DR-735T, Wouxon KG-UV920, etc and you can go into stores and whatnot, transmit out to your vehicle, and then to a repeater.

I cant recommend enough an air cannon. This little $40 project changed everything. First shot, first try got my line 100ft over the exact branch I was aiming for. antenna at about 80'-85' vs 25'-35' is a massive difference. lv_0_20221216141102.mp4