In the Jeep I have the Wouxun KG-1000G with Midland MXTA24 cable routed to a home-made aluminum mount that is attached to an aluminum Rhino rack that bolts to a backbone frame which in turn bolts to the body tub (all painted/finished connection points). I'm running the Midland MXTA26 6db antenna. I also carry a Radioddity GM-30 HT for jumping out and spotting, etc.
On a recent outing to Panamint Valley, I headed back to camp early and left the rest of my group as they headed up a new trail a few thousand feet in elevation above camp and about 5 air miles away. They then climbed higher and farther back into a canyon, but crossed a few ridges during their trip. They ended up a good 10-12 miles from me and deep back in a canyon.
From camp I was monitoring them from both my fixed and HT radios. I was able to talk to them almost the entire time from the Wouxun radio but there were MANY times when I did not pick up their comms on the Wouxun but I did on the HT (clearly enough to understand them). I dropped the squelch on the Wouxun all the way down to "1" and it made no difference. The Wouxun seemed to be overly selective and did not open the squelch. I did not have a chance to turn the squelch off entirely to see the difference.
It was not consistent - sometimes the Wouxun would pick up traffic that the HT did not, but it was usually the other way around. I found this extremely puzzling.
Should I be re-thinking my in-Jeep setup after convincing myself that I had "the best" setup using the highest quality gear? Could it just be that the antenna is not grounded properly? Or is it just that the Wouxun is overly selective?
I definitely found it disconcerting that a $30 HT was essentially outperforming my $600 setup in the Jeep in a "real world" scenario!
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Sbsyncro
In the Jeep I have the Wouxun KG-1000G with Midland MXTA24 cable routed to a home-made aluminum mount that is attached to an aluminum Rhino rack that bolts to a backbone frame which in turn bolts to the body tub (all painted/finished connection points). I'm running the Midland MXTA26 6db antenna. I also carry a Radioddity GM-30 HT for jumping out and spotting, etc.
On a recent outing to Panamint Valley, I headed back to camp early and left the rest of my group as they headed up a new trail a few thousand feet in elevation above camp and about 5 air miles away. They then climbed higher and farther back into a canyon, but crossed a few ridges during their trip. They ended up a good 10-12 miles from me and deep back in a canyon.
From camp I was monitoring them from both my fixed and HT radios. I was able to talk to them almost the entire time from the Wouxun radio but there were MANY times when I did not pick up their comms on the Wouxun but I did on the HT (clearly enough to understand them). I dropped the squelch on the Wouxun all the way down to "1" and it made no difference. The Wouxun seemed to be overly selective and did not open the squelch. I did not have a chance to turn the squelch off entirely to see the difference.
It was not consistent - sometimes the Wouxun would pick up traffic that the HT did not, but it was usually the other way around. I found this extremely puzzling.
Should I be re-thinking my in-Jeep setup after convincing myself that I had "the best" setup using the highest quality gear? Could it just be that the antenna is not grounded properly? Or is it just that the Wouxun is overly selective?
I definitely found it disconcerting that a $30 HT was essentially outperforming my $600 setup in the Jeep in a "real world" scenario!
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