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Does anyone have any recommendation for a base antenna in attic with window view of the southwest. i have the lovely HOA issue in my life. Ideally I would like something that will work with GMRS and or a separate antenna to use for scanner. If I can use "one" that would be ideal. I think I need to have a gain of at least 5-10db with a 75’ run of cable.

At 12 miles out (level ground; the West TX Plains) to-and-from another SBB-7NMO antenna mounted 25ft in the air at my house, ... I made a Real-World Performance Test between the two antennas ... AND ... My OPINION is that the SBB-7NMO (without any modifications) performs better than the CA-2x4SR. I was using 5 Watts Transmission from a BTECH-GMRS-V1 and got clear transmits and receives ... The CA-2X4SR transmitted with some-static that the SBB-7NMO didn't have ... (Note: This test was made 3 times by switching-out both antennas to verify this difference). So, I decided to check the SWR on the SBB-7NMO antenna sitting in the middle of the roof of a 1999 2-Door Tahoe ... the results are as follows using the Low Power Setting with a BTech UV-50X2 ... (NOTE: BTech Specifications say 10watts; I'm showing 20watts on my SureCom SW102 Digital SWR Meter): ----------------------------- SBB-7NMO - No Modifications ----------------------------- 462.5500 GMRS 15 1.40 462.7250 GMRS 22 1.42 467.5500 REPT 15 2.00 467.7250 REPT 22 2.01 151.8200 MURS 01 2.09 151.8800 MURS 02 2.11 151.9400 MURS 03 2.13 154.5700 MURS BL 04 3.71 154.6000 MURS GR 05 3.73 146.5200 2M 1.10 446.0000 70CM 1.00 ----------------------------- I contacted a Comet Representative about what needed to be done to tune the SBB-7 Antenna for Dedicated GMRS use ... His reply was the following: I have 4 of these antennas and decided to take a chance of destroying one to find out IF some modificaton(s) would improve the SWRs. I found the following adjustments (or cuts) accomplished My Goal ... as follows: -------------------------------------------------------- SBB-7NMO - Rods Cut Lower-3/4" Middle-3/8" Upper-3/8" -------------------------------------------------------- 462.5500 GMRS 15 1.00 462.7250 GMRS 22 1.00 467.5500 REPT 15 1.15 467.7250 REPT 22 1.15 151.8200 MURS 01 1.45 151.8800 MURS 02 1.51 151.9400 MURS 03 1.54 154.5700 MURS BL 04 2.96 154.6000 MURS GR 05 2.99 146.5200 2M 1.54 446.0000 70CM 1.09 -------------------------------------------------------- - In conclusion, I have shopped around for quite some time looking for a High-Gain GMRS Mobile Antenna ... but ... without finding anything to my satisfaction ... BUT ... with THIS Modification, My Quest has Finally Ended !!! The GMRS Transceiver that I will be dedicating to this modified Comet SBB-7NMO Antenna is a BTech GMRS-50X1 which has 3 power settings 50 Watts, 20 Watts, and 5 Watts. Just for completeness, the Mag Mount that I am using with all of my antennas is the "TRAM 1267R 5 1/2" Magnet NMO Mounting with Rubber Boot" that I have purchased from Amazon. Happy GMRS'ing !!!, FWI .

Hello all! I’m new to radios in general but have poked around for a while gleaning what I can. From what I have gathered, co-phasing antennas increases gain. I am wondering if it is possible to co-phase puck style antennas? Not the 3+inch ghost antennas, more like the Larsen LP450NMO (1.5”). They are unity gain and I am hoping to achieve 3dB. I understand that whip antennas offer better performance, and there are those who detest non-whip antennas. I’m not trying to start a debate about whether I SHOULD use a puck antenna, but I am trying to go “super-ghost” if you will with my antenna install. I have a Jeep JKU (which I know is a difficult antenna platform) with a hard top. If co-phasing would give me 3dB I can mount them to my roll cage under the top. Unfortunately there is not enough room there for a standard ghost antenna, and I intend to avoid adding an antenna outside if it is at all possible. Thank you all in advance for any info you can provide!

Hey everyone, I'm hoping to get some help with a bit of a head-scratcher. I recently installed a Btech 50 watt radio with a Tram 1181 antenna on an MNO mount. I've double-checked that everything is grounded properly, and while the radio transmits just fine, the reception is absolutely plagued with noise. Here's the weird part: if I completely remove the antenna from the MNO mount (but leave the mount itself attached to the bracket), reception improves dramatically! It's still not perfect, but it's a world of difference compared to having the antenna screwed on normally. In its normal configuration, the reception quality is worse than my handheld radio, and the range is definitely suffering too. I'm at a loss here. Any ideas what could be causing this? I am thinking antenna but I am not sure. VID-20240417-WA0019.mp4

Hey all, I had purchased a pair of Bingfu mag-mount antennas with the typically long name in the Amazon listing for use with my GMRS radios. Amazon currently lists this as "Bingfu Dual Band VHF UHF 136-174MHz 400-470MHz Ham Radio Magnetic Base Antenna Handheld Two Way Radio SMA Male Antenna for Ham Radio Walkie Talkie Icom Yaesu Vertex Standard Horizon Marine VHF Radio", on that package as-delivered it was listed as "Bingfu Dual Band VHF UHF 136-174MHz 400-470" and it has a barcode X002PKBG57. The Amazon listing is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08N9W5GPV Anyway, When I first got the radios and these antennas I did some testing, we managed 3200' in suburbia with the antennas that came with the HTs while sitting inside of the vehicles, but we only managed around 2000' with these mag-mounts. Subsequent to that test I've acquired an SWR meter and some miscellaneous connectors so I was finally able to hook a radio, meter, and antenna with as few adapters as possible. SWR on one antenna was 2.66, and on the other was 2.83. Suffice it to say, no good for GMRS, despite the frequencies advertised in the listing. Since I have a 2m HT I may test SWR with that, just to see if they're any good at all on 144MHz, but I do not have high hopes.

Good Morning! I purchased an N9TAX dual band slim jim antenna for Murs/GMRS/FRS used from a guy. I bought it because I had tried making them and I am having a hard time getting them to resonate with the online calculators. I have been using this one indoors (my hobby room) and outoors (in my shop) and it receives really well, I think it transmits well, I am unsure as I have no repeater in my area and only hear FRS traffic. Once in a while I chat with people. I do use it to monitor scanner frequencies as well, and it works great! Let me know if you use these and what you think! WRMQ982

I was looking at the signalstuff.com site and was wondering which antenna to get. Single/dual band? Connector? Using mainly for hiking in dense forest areas of the Olympic Peninsula in WA.

Hey guys, I just received my SWR meter and ran some tests to check my antennas and triple check a good mounting location etc. My 6db antenna and the little 2.4db antenna included in the MXT500 box are both good at 1.00 to 1.01 across all frequencies. Now my midland ghost antenna, which I planned on being my primary antenna is showing 1.67 to sometimes 2.00 on some frequencies which is bad. Also noted the watts being higher. Is this a bad ghost antenna? pics included for reference. Thanks in advance.

Installed my new 50 mobile as a base station on a 5 db Ed Fong antenna 25' up tuned for GMRS. Purchased a 20" UT-72G 3.5 db magnetic for the vehicle attached to the HT. I honestly did not tell the difference at all in distance between the roof mount antenna and my Whip for the HT. I am in a rural area with plenty of trees. I think the best I got was a mile. I am wondering if the HT at the house on the higher Antenna and the mobile in the vehicle would increase the range? Slowly acquiring more equipment as fast as the $ will grow on the tree out back. I know its line of sight and the higher I can get is better. THis is what I am experimenting with as how high I need to go for promising communication. Then I can purchase/build the height I need. OR I need another mobile for the vehicle.

I am a newbie working on setting up my ribbon slim jim inside my apartment as I cannot mount an outside antenna. Everyone talks about keeping it away from metal objects but how far away? I need to use the antenna in my kitchen which of course has a refrigerator and range that are curiously made of metal. I also would like to know which part of the antenna radiates. The top or the bottom?

I am new to GMRS and trying to get back into the ham hobby. I was involved with CB overseas for many years but when I came back to the U.S. everything has changed including my memory. ? I am living in an association and or course antennas are not permitted. (Let's leave it at that). I am up in Farmington MN and there is a repeater about 2 miles as the crow flies in an open direction on the side of my house that my deck is on. I currently have a Wouxun KG-805G that won't reach the repeater from my basement window even though its a straight shot to the repeater. I just ordered a Midland MXT-400 for my truck but would like to base-station it until I can get my hands on a KG-1000G. I want to try and put up an antenna, on my deck, that is so low to the rail that it is very hard to see so that the association won't complain. I was thinking of a small yagi antenna to point at the repeater and would like to hear your opinions please. I chose the yagi for the gain and small size. Also, If I had to run 50 foot of cable what would be your recommendation for cable. Many thanks! WRMG216.

So I see that Nagoya now has a 701G HT antenna that is supposed to be tuned to GMRS frequencies only. Anybody got ahold of one yet?

Greetings, New GMRS license holder here. I belong to a number of jeep and offroading groups who are going more and more to GMRS radios along with CB. Toyed with the Baofeng UV-5R for trails until I read up on it. Decided to go legal with a proper radio. My choice is one of the Midland MXT275 MicroMobile. The radio is the easy part as I have a good location for the head unit. The question I have is the antenna location, I'd like to use one of the X-Clamps Mounted on the right rear Sport bar using the 3db Ghost antenna. Since the roof itself is fiberglass and I run with it on during the winter and with a soft top in the summer or top down I was wondering if this would be a good location and not cause a problem with reception over a longer distance.

I have a Comet Ss460sbnmo on a Nagoya RB-50 base. I was told to get this setup. But now someone mentioned it may not be suitable for GMRS and may damage my radios. I don't have an SWR meter yet. Can anyone enlighten me if this is a safe setup? And if not what NMO antenna should I get? Thanks in advance

Greetings everyone, Ok, I don’t claim to understand everything associated with RF. Heck, there’s a lot of it that’s just plain over my head (pun intended). But this particular surprise has me totally baffled. I was several new dual commercial band antennas that I just received in case any tuning was needed and since my mind was set to “dual band” mode I grabbed this inexpensive, lightweight, low power antenna and connected it to one of the Dakota Alert MURS 2 watt base units and decided I should check it also. I don’t mind telling you I couldn’t have been happier with my SWR reading, 1.0-1.1 right out of the package. I had a HUGE smile and thought perfectly, finally found an antenna that needed no tuning, not even a frogs hair amount needed to be trimmed off. I went back to testing the other dual band commercial antennas with several different mobile radios and it wasn’t until I finished and started putting my meters, adapters and various odds and ends away that I realized what I had done. I had connected a UHF only (433 MHz specific) antenna to a VHF transceiver, not only that but I got a picture perfect SWR & power level reading using it n a MURS channel (154.570). My radio tech ALWAYS stressed that I should only use band specific antennas for the band they were designed for and by using a VHF on UHF and visa versa, So, why is this UHF antenna working spot on with a VHF frequency ? I have included a pic of the antenna I’m referring to.

Hi all, This is my first post so please be gentle. I decided the family needed an alternative means of communication and started reading about the options, deciding on GMRS. I'm a total newb - bought the Midland GXT1000 3 pack and the MXT115 for my car (and just got my GMRS license). I'm doing tons of reading to learn about how GMRS works and this forum is awesome... but I'm having trouble here and on the web/youtube finding something that shows how to do a clean radio install for an automobile, more specifically, the antenna cable. Since I'm seeing the cable and antenna for the MXT115 aren't that good, I'll certainly be replacing them before doing anything destructive to my car, but are there any tips for doing this and/or good links that walk through it? I'm mechanically inclined so should be able to do this myself but if the answer is "take to a radio shop" I'm open to that too because what I don't want is to end up with rattles and noise because I didn't put panels back in right (though I do find sometimes that the care I take for doing various jobs is better than the pros because I do lots of research and *care*). That's a lot of words to ask about an antenna (oh, any recommendations on the antenna are also welcome) but figured I'd introduce myself too. Thanks all, Bob

I’m thinking of a new base antenna. The ones that I have in mind are as follow. If you know anything of them let me know I will mount on a 40 foot pole. I’m only doing GMRS. They range from $190 to $900. Do you own any? I live in Wisconsin so I can pick up the first two but the third I would have to pay shipping. https://www.shopwiscomm.com/DB404-B-Commscope-Omni-Exposed-Dipole-Antenna-450-470-Mhz-59-db-P5783211.aspx https://www.shopwiscomm.com/MFB4605-PCTEL-MAXRAD-Fiberglass-Base-Omni-Antenna-UHF-460-470-Mhz-5db-P2179087.aspx https://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=1151-4n

Greetings folks. I'm new here and to GMRS in general, but I'm glad I found out about GMRS. I'm trying to set up emergency back-up communications between myself and my wife, for those times when power, internet, and cellular are out especially. Yes, not often, but it has happened. (We're in Virginia and have lived through 36+ hour power outages due to hurricanes, etc.) My goal is to work towards simplex communications with my wife, but for now, I'll settle for a local GMRS repeater. Her office is about 3 miles away, and the terrain is fairly flat suburban area. I'm working (for now) primarily with handheld radios. BaoFeng UV-5Rs. I plan to upgrade to at least having a base transceiver at home. (One that does 2M and 0.7M HAM as well.) But, for now, handhelds. I have a GMRS license (WRFC813) and am sitting for my technician class ham license in a couple weeks. (I will NEVER get my wife to go ham, so don't go there. Hence, GMRS for the two of us, but ham for my own hobbyist fun.) So, that in mind, here's my issue... I can communicate with a nearby repeater just fine. That is, just fine from one of the handhelds when I'm outside my house. I also have a mag mount antenna on my car roof and can hit the repeater pretty much anywhere in my area. But, when I step inside the house, I often can't quite get there. I tried the car antenna (Nagoya UT-72) inside the house, and it doesn't seem better than the whips (NA-771). Then again, inside the house, I do not have a good ground plane steel plate on which to mount the UT-72... I literally step out the front door or back door onto my deck and I can talk with the repeater. Inside, not so much. Suggestions for a home antenna rig that will improve this? I'm in a HOA, so I really don't want to bother with trying to get permission from the crown to install an outdoor antenna. I have an attic crawl space, but if I'm going to go that route, I want to be pretty certain it'll work. My preference is something that can sit here in my living room and still be enough improvement of the NA-771 that I'll be happy. Perhaps better mounting for a UT-72? Suggestions? Thanks. Cheers, Ken (WRFC813)

I think I've found 2 viable candidates for an antenna that will suit my needs (attic configuration due to HOA): - Comet GP-1 - Diamond X50A Any first-hand experiences here with either, good, bad, or otherwise? Price is similar. Diamond is a little longer. Both seem to get excellent reviews. One other deployment option is to run either antenna outdoors on my deck using a pole I can extend during emergencies. If I keep it low, but still outdoors, the HOA won't be able to see it and I won't need to worry about them. (To recap, I'm in northern Virginia in a fairly suburban setting. Terrain is largely flat with a few rolling hills. Primary goal is to be able to reliably hit a repeater in Alexandria, but my secondary goal is to be able to communicate in simplex to my wife at her office, roughly 3 miles from home. I can reach her now via repeater only. I can reach the repeater from home, especially if I step outside. Hoping to improve indoor coverage as well as simplex to wife.) Thanks. Cheers, Ken van Wyk

Hey guys and gals! I've got a big pile of 90s vintage Spirits and Talkabout Distances. The antennas have all gone brittle, and are exceeding the point of effective duct tape repairs. There's a mixture of Spirits, model SV-22, running on MURS in blue and green dot, and Talkabout Distance and Distance DPS units. The antennas are all going, and the decay is accelerating. I like handing these out to nontechnical family members, because there's not anything they can screw up other than changing the channel unintentionally. But RF burns are a bad thing, so ... Help me pick out some antennae, please! Ideally, they'll be visually distinctive; Motorola's latest ones are stamped with UHF and VHF, which is nice, but I'm open to third-party ones and have a mild preference for silicone jacketing. Thanks!

We have a 40w Motorola repeater and I've got an ANLI-100 antenna about 15' over the house, connected with 50' of LMR400 cable. It's on a metal roof, the house is at about 3000' ASL. In the immediate valley, pretty much with 'line of sight' - but with dense foliage, they're around 2200'. I haven't measured SWR, do not have a SWR meter, but I think it should be close enough to work even considering the line loss and slightly out-of-band from ham dual band VHF/UHF antenna. When I first got repeater, in the winter time, without leaves on most trees, It worked well and as expected. I could go about 4-5 miles away... Now, in the summer, with very dense foliage, I can hardly make it a few hundred feet away! There is both a very steep elevation change, as this location is in mountainous area, and very very dense foliage. In my research, it seems that a "circular polarized omnidirectional" antenna has been tested and used successfully by Motorola - a long time ago - with use in UHF frequencies. I'm looking to see if anyone has experience building an antenna like one of these "cycloid dipole" antennas for the GMRS frequencies? https://ka7oei.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-circularly-polarized-omnidirectional.html http://www.wa7x.com/cycloid_info.html Anyone have helpful thoughts on if this would improve reception for me, in the foliage?

I have a repeater, Motorola 50 watt, cellwave 6 cavity band pass notch duplexer - 38 watt output after duplexer. My brother now has a repeater 50 watt Motorola with vertex standard 6 cavity notch duplexer. Our frequencies will be about 14mhz apart. mine - 462's and his - 448's I use dx 400 max coax with a slim jim He will use lmr 400 not sure about antenna??? Looking for some opinions about antenna spacing??? I have a vertical 20' pole mount on the 20' roof Should we flip a coin and see who will be low man on a vertical split totem pole???? and how far apart? or can we go horizontal with another mount??? I've heard of two repeaters sharing an antenna... but commercial repeaters set ups by bridgecom... Any recommendations??? thank you 301

I am sure that this has been asked a hundred times before, but now it's my turn. I need communication in a 50 to 60 mile radius from my base. Terrain is piedmont/upstate area of South Carolina, so mainly flat with some hills and small towns. I think GMRS will do what I need, but I need suggestions on equipment, tower height, etc. Looking at a budget of around $3,000.00 to $4,000.00 with 4 or 5 mobile radios. Thanks for your help.

Hi guys, I'm a newbie when it comes to 2 way radios in general, I've done a lot of reading educating myself and I have learned a lot, The first thing I did was to get my GMRS license, here is the deal... I have a pair of vertex 160u that I use to communicate with my daughters (too little for cellphone plus is more fun) when I go to the grocery store or to my uncle's house located about 1.50 miles away from my house, the radios work well. I just bought a Kenwood 805d to get a little more range but I need help choosing an antenna , power supply and any connector and cable I may need, if you guys could help me with some advice I would greatly appreciated. I know is not going to be easy, that is what makes it fun. Thank you. William.

Hi all. Need some help. New to the forums and i am thinking this is a good place to get some guidance. I have a Kenwood TKR-820 repeater that has been set up and tuned for GMRS 462.550/467.550. It is a turn key system and does not need any configuring by me. I also have a Comtelco BS450XL antenna that has been tuned for GMRS with a center frequency of 465.550. http://www.comtelcoantennas.com/PDF/BS450XL3.PDF Now to bring this altogether i need some solid guidance on what kind of feedline to use to connect this to the repeater. I need to know what kind of lightening surpressor i might need to use. I need to know anything that would help me successfuly mate the antenna and repeater together for a reliable station. The antenna will be mounted on the side of my house on a mast. It will be 26 feet above the ground. The antenna height is what it is and can not change. The feedline length between the repeater and the antenna is no more that 40ft and probably closer to 30 feet. I live in FL so its pretty flat. Not a Rocky Mountain in sight. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated. Regards, Kris