Would like to know what radio you are using

[WRDJ205]

Slow start into GMRS last year with (2) Baofeng GM-15 pro.   Recently got a Xuoxun KG-XS20G with a Midland MXTA25.  Also, received a Baofeng GM-5RH.

just getting into using programming software to set channels/frequencies.   

[Hoppyjr]

In the Toyota 4Runner:

* Midland MTX575
* Until today I had the Midland “Ghost” 3db antenna mounted in the rear roof, but today I swapped it for the Larsen puck style NMO, which is shorter and seems to actually perform better here in the mountains. Model LP450NMO






In my son’s Jeep JK (next weekend)

* Midland MTX275
* Pulse-Larsen LP450NMO - mounted to the top of the central speaker bar. It will clear both hard & soft tops and work fine.

Handhelds:


I picked up the KG-UV9GX, but haven’t programmed it yet. It’s wearing the Smiley Slim Duck antenna

We have maybe six or seven Baofeng UV-9G radios and the gang charger. A couple wear Smiley Slim Duck antennas, the rest have Nagoya 701 or 771.

[WSAA254]

Base Station:  Wouxun kg-1000 plus

Software:  Chirp on  a mac m1

Antenna:  Compactenna Scan-III

Cable:  LMR 400 ultra flex

I use a antenna switch to switch from SDR to gmrs.

best of luck...

[dosw]

My primary vehicle: Retevis RA87, 40w with MXTA26 antenna.

Sailboat: MXT-275 with Laird B4505N (installation in progress).

Handhelds: Two Baofeng UV-5g with Nagoya 701 antennas, and two Midland GXT-1000s.

RV: MXT-275 (swapped with boat as needed), and HYS SDN1-T antenna.

I also have the MXTA25 3db Ghost antenna. I swap it around with the vehicle's MXTA26 6dbi antenna sometimes. If I'm camping with the RV I'll sometimes put the longer antenna on it, as that seems to make the most sense for base camp.

My primary reason for getting into GMRS in the first place was keeping track of my ski party; my two kids, and my brother, as we learned our way around a bunch of different ski resorts, particularly before the kids had phones. It's proven to be useful camping and hiking, too, and for drives that involve two or more vehicles. It's worked out well for those uses. Once I finish my sailboat installation I'll be able to reach between the boat and mobile from most of the vast Great Salt Lake, and across most of the Salt Lake valley.

 

But somewhere along the way GMRS also became a hobby because I enjoy tinkering.

[SvenMarbles]

My principal home radio is a simple Tidradio TD-H8 handheld that's turned up on wattage a bit (11 watts). LMR-400 to a 9db gain rotatable yagi about 15 feet high. It does better than most people's 50 watters lol.

[GP62]

Recent image of a group of college interns perfecting my new antenna....Comms will be crystal clear...And I'll be able to shoot down some of those pesky UFO's !.

Actually using Midland MXT275's with the stock magnetic antennas, pretty good comms (with repeaters) for my Lady and I....Upgrading to the MXTA26 antennas as soon as they arrive. 

[Lscott]

You need to stack a few Yagis up and dump that wimpy dish.

[GreggInFL]

On 3/27/2024 at 9:21 AM, WSAR441 said:

BTECH V2 HT, with j pole from the house.  The j pole is fabulous, SWR is 1.01, get it fromhttps://www.jpole-antenna.com.  Not advertising for the man, but it sure helped me hit multiple repeaters 

I've been told that HTs lose a large percentage of power pushing through the cable of an external antenna such as a j-pole.  I get that conceptually, but does the better antenna make up for the power loss?

(<-- New to this.)

[SteveShannon]

8 minutes ago, GreggInFL said:

I've been told that HTs lose a large percentage of power pushing through the cable of an external antenna such as a j-pole.  I get that conceptually, but does the better antenna make up for the power loss?

(<-- New to this.)

Not really because you still lose the power. If you lose 6 db in your cable you’ve lost 75%.  If you use a 6 db gain antenna it gets you back to where you started, but only in the direction of the 6 dB gain.
But you can reduce the loss through the cable by using a better cable. 
Welcome!

[GreggInFL]

6 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

Not really because you still lose the power. If you lose 6 db in your cable you’ve lost 75%.  If you use a 6 db gain antenna it gets you back to where you started, but only in the direction of the 6 dB gain.
But you can reduce the loss through the cable by using a better cable. 
Welcome!

Thanks Steve.  Makes sense.

I'm guessing I shouldn't use the 30 year-old coax which is conveniently attached to my now-unused DirecTV dish, right?

[WRQC527]

4 minutes ago, GreggInFL said:

I'm guessing I shouldn't use the 30 year-old coax which is conveniently attached to my now-unused DirecTV dish, right?

Believe it or not, there are people here who will tell you that you can use cable TV coax for GMRS. I've never tried it, and I'm not so sure about 30-year-old coax, but hey, what's the worst that coud happen? 

[WRDJ205]

36 minutes ago, WRQC527 said:

Believe it or not, there are people here who will tell you that you can use cable TV coax for GMRS. I've never tried it, and I'm not so sure about 30-year-old coax, but hey, what's the worst that coud happen? 

[WRYJ977]

I only own HTs right now but for GMRS I have (4) Baofeng GMRS 9Rs & a Wouxan KG-UV9GX. I have other non GMRS HT that I programmed GMRS channels and repeaters into also. I have a Nagoya UT-72G on our SUV, have a KB9VBR jpole 30 ft up in a tree running 50ft of RG8X which works very well. Have a Nagoya 771G for every HT. I have a Smiley Super Stick and a Smiley Slim Duck antenna.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, GreggInFL said:

Thanks Steve.  Makes sense.

I'm guessing I shouldn't use the 30 year-old coax which is conveniently attached to my now-unused DirecTV dish, right?

Well probably not.

But maybe you can use it to pull in some LMR-400. What length?

[WRYZ926]

I definitely would not use cable/satellite TV coax for UHF frequencies to include GMRS. Most satellite TV installations use RG6 cable. RG6 will have more loss than RG8. RG8/RG213 is generally used for the HF bands and not suitable for UHF.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/252-cable-types-and-losses/page/5/#comment-69960

[GreggInFL]

15 hours ago, Sshannon said:

Well probably not.

But maybe you can use it to pull in some LMR-400. What length?

Probably 100' total.

[Lscott]

54 minutes ago, GreggInFL said:

Probably 100' total.

You might want to consider up-sizing the coax to LMR-600 for that long length.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, GreggInFL said:

Probably 100' total.

You have three problems that team up to cause you problems. Length, resistive losses, and mismatched impedance.

First, RG6 is the wrong impedance. It’s 75 ohm, which matches television equipment but not two way radio equipment.  For very low loss cable that would not automatically be a problem but as WRYZ926 pointed out you’re working with UHF here which leads to:
Second, it has high resistive losses. The losses for 100 feet of RG6 are a little more than 6 dB. That’s 75% of your signal that would be converted into heat by your cable. So if you’re using a 50 watt radio the antenna would only ever see 12.5 watts. That’s on transmit. The same thing happens on receive. Your antenna is acted upon by a certain number of micro volts of RF but only 25% of that reaches your receiver. 
A mismatched impedance alone isn’t a kiss of death but combined with a lossy cable it is.

I absolutely agree with LScott that you should use at least LM400 or a high quality similar cable like M&P 10 mm Ultraflex. Either of those will “only” cost you 2.7 dB of the signal, or just under half. 
And I agree with LScott that LMR600 (or its 13 mm equivalent from M&P) would be much better. 

[GreggInFL]

Thanks everyone.  Time for Plan B.

BTW, I have the ubiquitous UV-5R and a couple of GM-15Pros.

[GP62]

Received and installed my MXTA26's on both Jeeps and hit 40 miles on a radio check through urban terrain via Lakewood repeater. 

[WRZD727]

Retevis RA86. Works great for a plug and play radio. 

[WRXB215]

13 hours ago, WRZD727 said:

Retevis RA86. Works great for a plug and play radio.

I was really close to buying that radio. I like the control mic. Programmability wasn't quite what I wanted so I ended up with an AnyTone AT-778UV. Still like the idea of the RA86. Retevis has it on sale for $92.99 right now.

[Hoppyjr]

In the Toyota 4Runner:

* Midland MTX575
* Until today I had the Midland “Ghost” 3db antenna mounted in the rear roof, but today I swapped it for the Larsen puck style NMO, which is shorter and seems to actually perform better here in the mountains. Model LP450NMO






In my son’s Jeep JK (next weekend)

* Midland MTX275
* Pulse-Larsen LP450NMO - mounted to the top of the central speaker bar. It will clear both hard & soft tops and work fine.

Handhelds:


I picked up the KG-UV9GX, but haven’t programmed it yet. It’s wearing the Smiley Slim Duck antenna

We have maybe six or seven Baofeng UV-9G radios and the gang charger. A couple wear Smiley Slim Duck antennas, the rest have Nagoya 701 or 771.

Update:

The 4Runner now has the Icom 2730a, with the Mars/Cap mod done by HRO. Great guys to deal with and I really like the radio. 4R still has the Pulse-Larsen LP450NMO puck style antenna mounted on the rear roof and it’s working great.

I programmed all the PNW repeaters into the Icom using the RT Systems software. Super easy and user friendly. Most of the repeaters are open, the others kindly granted permission. [edit: this morning I hit a repeater 70+ miles away, in the trees & hills of Western Washington State. I’m beyond impressed with this setup!]

I’ll add a good dual-band antenna once I do the research, then likely move forward with the HAM ticket so I’ll have the option to use if desired.

The Jeep got the Midland MTX575 that formerly lived in the 4R. It also has the LP450NMO antenna, this time mounted in the removable cowl area on passenger side. It’s nicely low profile, but has a surprisingly good signal. It blends in well, eliminates the need for accessory mounts, and I think looks great.


Here’s the exterior of the Jeep antenna.

[warthog74]

House Base - Leixen VV898S

Garage Base - TYT TH9800

F-150 - Leixen UV998

Escape - Kenwood TK880H

Repeater - Ritron Liberty RLR-460

Not currently in use - Kenwood TK880

Handhelds - TYT TH-UVF9, Tidradio H6, Baofeng F22 (x2)

Antenna's vary, but most are J-Poles, Slim Jims, or various Browning dual band NMO mounted mobiles.

Units that don't apply to this thread - numerous 10/11 meter and VHF only rigs.

[n2877]

I feel way overdone by everyone here. I just rock the Baofeng UV-9G for all my GMRS and there UV-5R for all my Ham use. One day soon I will upgrade both HT's as well as put a base station in my house and set up a mobile option in my work truck.