WRXE946 Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 Hello all , I’m new to the radio hobby so go ahead and bust my chops, I have big shoulders. I recently purchased the Mxt500 to use as a base station but I don’t understand why I don’t get any traffic on any channels even repeater channels. I’m using the antenna that came with it and I set it up on a galvanized garbage can in my yard on top of a table to basically simulate a car roof . I believe the repeater channels are open, I followed the book . But I get no traffic on any channel at all . Could it be the way my antenna is setup ?? Quote
back4more70 Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 It's also possible no one is talking. I live in the capitol city of my state and I never hear GMRS traffic. SteveShannon and WRXB215 2 Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 2 minutes ago, WRXE946 said: Hello all , I’m new to the radio hobby so go ahead and bust my chops, I have big shoulders. I recently purchased the Mxt500 to use as a base station but I don’t understand why I don’t get any traffic on any channels even repeater channels. I’m using the antenna that came with it and I set it up on a galvanized garbage can in my yard on top of a table to basically simulate a car roof . I believe the repeater channels are open, I followed the book . But I get no traffic on any channel at all . Could it be the way my antenna is setup ?? No chop-busting needed. Welcome here! Are you sure there’s anything to receive? In some places there’s just not a lot of traffic. Are you scanning? If you have any tones set on Receive get rid of them so you hear everything. Yes, it’s possible that your antenna isn’t optimum, but it should work well enough. WRXB215 1 Quote
WRXE946 Posted January 22 Author Report Posted January 22 22 minutes ago, back4more70 said: It's also possible no one is talking. I live in the capitol city of my state and I never hear GMRS traffic. Yea guess it’s possible. I do get a lot of traffic on my cab radio I have setup . I just figured I would get something on my GMRS Quote
WRWE456 Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 Welcome! Also elevating your antenna as high as possible will help. As a new to radio person one of the best lessons to learn is that antenna's work best when they are in the clear. Radio waves in the UHF/VHF range (GMRS is UHF) are line of sight mostly. Thus the less obstacles in the way the better. If you can get it up over the roof of the near by buildings it will make a big difference. Lots of good folks here to help. WRXE946 1 Quote
WRXE946 Posted January 22 Author Report Posted January 22 24 minutes ago, Sshannon said: No chop-busting needed. Welcome here! Are you sure there’s anything to receive? In some places there’s just not a lot of traffic. Are you scanning? If you have any tones set on Receive get rid of them so you hear everything. Yes, it’s possible that your antenna isn’t optimum, but it should work well enough. Yes I have tried to scan as well and nothing. I also looked to see if my tones are off and they are . I get traffic on my cb set up the same way . I just figured I should be getting some traffic on GMRS . I’m going to purchase another antenna and place it high up off my roof hopefully this will help . Quote
WRXE946 Posted January 22 Author Report Posted January 22 4 minutes ago, WRWE456 said: Welcome! Also elevating your antenna as high as possible will help. As a new to radio person one of the best lessons to learn is that antenna's work best when they are in the clear. Radio waves in the UHF/VHF range (GMRS is UHF) are line of sight mostly. Thus the less obstacles in the way the better. If you can get it up over the roof of the near by buildings it will make a big difference. Lots of good folks here to help. I will be getting another antenna soon to install up on my roof hopefully this will help . I just figured I get a lot of traffic on my cb radio setup , I finished would get traffic on my GMRS Quote
WRWE456 Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 Be sure and learn about the right kind of antenna's and cable. Proper cable and keeping it short is important with GMRS. WRXE946 1 Quote
Guest Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 2 minutes ago, WRXE946 said: I will be getting another antenna soon to install up on my roof hopefully this will help . I just figured I get a lot of traffic on my cb radio setup , I finished would get traffic on my GMRS Get that new antenna as high as possible. If you haven’t purchased an antenna yet I’d highly suggest a comet712 I get 200miles from mine with a 20w base station But I’m way up on the side of a hill with zero obstructions. The 712wfc is pretuned to gmrs and works amazing even with a 5w hand held. Quote
WRWE456 Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 As mentioned there may not always be traffic. I have my radio on for many hours a day and only here sporadic traffic. Depends where you are. Urban locations can have quite a bit and rural can be few and far between. Quote
WRXE946 Posted January 22 Author Report Posted January 22 17 minutes ago, WRXP381 said: Get that new antenna as high as possible. If you haven’t purchased an antenna yet I’d highly suggest a comet712 I get 200miles from mine with a 20w base station But I’m way up on the side of a hill with zero obstructions. The 712wfc is pretuned to gmrs and works amazing even with a 5w hand held. Will I have to tune this antenna?? Also where can I purchase?? Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 Be careful of the trap of spending more and more money chasing traffic that just doesn’t exist. Ham radio might be a better service for you if you are interested in making contacts with others on the radio. Many of us here do both. I could leave my GMRS radio running all the time and pick up very little, but I can hear transmissions from both people near and far on ham radio. AdmiralCochrane, WRXE946, kirk5056 and 1 other 4 Quote
WRWE456 Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 Sshannon makes a good point. Your current set up should at least let you hear if there is much going on around you. Maybe just get the antenna up as high as you can with the stock cable. WRXE946 1 Quote
WRXE946 Posted January 22 Author Report Posted January 22 26 minutes ago, Sshannon said: Be careful of the trap of spending more and more money chasing traffic that just doesn’t exist. Ham radio might be a better service for you if you are interested in making contacts with others on the radio. Many of us here do both. I could leave my GMRS radio running all the time and pick up very little, but I can hear transmissions from both people near and far on ham radio. Yea I’m working on getting my Ham as well SteveShannon and AdmiralCochrane 2 Quote
WRYZ926 Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 Good for you for getting your amateur license too. To answer your question about the Comet CA-712. It comes tuned for GMRS and is an excellent base antenna. I have one mounted to a satellite dish type j mount at the peak of my roof and am using LMR400 cable from it to my radio. Quote
Guest Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 1 hour ago, WRYZ926 said: Good for you for getting your amateur license too. To answer your question about the Comet CA-712. It comes tuned for GMRS and is an excellent base antenna. I have one mounted to a satellite dish type j mount at the peak of my roof and am using LMR400 cable from it to my radio. That’s exactly how I have my 712 mounted. I had an old unused satellite dish on the house when I purchased it. I just took the dish off and put my 712 on it with some lm400. Works great. Quote
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