gear review all together.

[Doctnj]

I have posted about a lot of my set up but this weekend I got the last piece of the puzzle and it all works much better than expected I must say.

For my base station I have the Tram 1486 up around 25 ft to the bottom of antenna.  On a Rohn mast bracketed to the house and Rl400.  Inside I have power source and use a wouxun (sp?) 1000g radio.  Right from the start that seemed to be a pretty solid set up.  I have been talking to folks through a couple repeaters.  One over 50 miles away across a range of we like to call mountains in nw Arkansas.  Ive been able to listen to very clear conversations coming from that repeater and I talk to our "local" guys on a repeater in a town around 30 miles south.  They have always said I was strong and clear with little noise.  

Now in my truck.  I hadnt finished the installation because I wasnt sure of the final configuration.  Well now I absolutely am.  The radio is 805G.  I started with Nagoya 775 on the HT and driving around and seeing how far I could talk to my base.  From inside the truck it was right around 2.5 miles due to hills and trees.  I then upgraded to a nagoya 770g and made my own bracket to mount it to the top of my cab.  My entire truck body is fiberglass to the metal bracket I think helps w ground plane also.  When testing the swr with this set up it was basically the same on all frequencies.  I almost wrote channels, working on it.  1:1.04.  At this point I retested the distance with home base and it pretty much doubled with just this antenna on the outside of the truck.  Im sure many would do the exact same thing but this is my list none the less.

I didnt finish the inside installation until I knew how I would run it.  I dropped hints to the fam for a btech 25 watt amp for fathers day.  Well they came through!!  I hooked it up and started talking to one of the guys on our local repeater, 30 miles away.  What he described to me of how my radio sounded made me smile all day:)

So next was a distance and clarity around the town test.  I was really excited on how far I could be and clearly talk to home.  I made a loop into town and back home.  Normally I would get cut off about half way to town and never get picked back up.. This trip I never dropped even in dips.  Even on my end it sounded like I was still in the subdivision.  Still have some more testing to do but this will be the set up I am going to run as a mobile.  It gives me the ability to bring the battery and antenna and exit the truck and have an HT with me.  

I am working on getting a repeater up for use in our area on a mountain just outside town.  I dont think there will be many if any dead spots in and around town after that gets put up !!

Now that I have settled on this combination, my next step will be deciding how to mount everything in a more secure way.

 

[Doctnj]

One last thing. I was talking with a guy on a repeater about 50 miles to me.  I first started on my base and then out in the mobile. 

As expected I was able to talk on the base but we were pretty amazed when he could still make out what I was saying and I was on a mobile rig.  I give this gear two thumbs up. 

[mbrun]

I am so glad to hear that you have had such a great success. I feel your excitement. Feels pretty good when a plan comes together doesn’t it.

Welcome to GMRS, and enjoy!


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[Doctnj]

Yes Michael It is a lot of fun.  But just under the surface is also a desire to not be controlled by an outside company to rely on for communication.  And getting things together and seeing it work is great.  My father was a master electrician and dealt with the first cable company in our city.  Many times he had to build equipment because there were few things out there at the time.  When he was young he was a radio operator voice and Morse code on b 29.  I attempted code but I sucked so there goes that.  I can geek out with the best of them but having a self sustaining means of coms is the best reasons.  

I will get as much kick from making my own installation brackets that work the way I want them to work just as much as the radio equipment it self. 

[Doctnj]

Recent addition.  For fathers day I got the B-tech 25 watt amp to use with HT in my truck.  Was pretty pleased so far.  I have a better quality pigtail on the way.  And by that I mean a little thicker and hopefully will take a bit more wear and tear.  I was using a battery saver and toward the end of last week I started being cut off from transmitting and the radio would beep and act like it turned back on.  I thought it was TOT but it wasnt.  It wound up being the saver getting hot and cutting off.  Switched to back up saver and problem solved.  As far as amplification, my swr shows 24 watts output from amp.  It was advertised as producing some sort of multiplication of input wattage.  My HT puts out 4.8 so doesnt look like that is what is happening.