Time to move on to GMRS

[ChaseTruck]

If you want NMO, Signal Stuff makes one that could be trimmed. I have one in a box waiting for me to drill a hole in my roof.

As for radio brands, of course use what you want. My Motorola's were a gift from a buddy who did the work to learn how to program them. I have a couple baofengs I bought for the very reasons you describe. But now that I have both I use the Motorola and hand the baofeng off to others.

This is a 2m 1/4 wave antenna, from SignalStuff, made from Nitinol wire, on the fender of my K5:

Worked well on 2m@50W (probably not ideal for that SMA mount…IIRC, SWR was 1.6-ish), including contacts ~45 miles away. And, main point for me, it has held up well on brushy AZ trails. Probably also not ideal to transmit at highway speed due to antenna deflection from headwind, but that’s ok.

I have the “SignalStalk” from the SignalStuff folks, with the NMO base, but haven’t gotten around to trying it (haven’t decided on the vehicle, either…). Cutting a hole in the roof isn’t in the cards in any case - the Chevy sheet metal is too flimsy for a hard-mounted antenna, and both the 80/LX are too nice. So it’ll have to be somewhere on the fender or bumper, we’ll see.

 

[Pskhaat]

VHF Motorola HTs (XV2600) in the 150s MHz. Could something like that be reprogrammable to other useful frequencies?

Almost certainly they could be programmed for MURS. MURS is basically the CB of 2-meter. License free. 5 channels. Only 2 watts though which is still reasonable.

 

[BurntToast]

Updating this thread, as it seems to be the main GMRS thread here.

I picked up and programmed a Kenwood TK-8180 and did a temp mount before my remote head unit kit arrives.

Mag mic mount

Also designed and got built by SendCutSend a nice stainless hood mount for my 1/4W EMWave antenna. https://www.emwaveinc.com/antennas/...2dbi-ground-plane-independent-antenna-460-mhz

SWR isnt tuned yet, but looking about 1.75-1.85. Ill work the antenna and see about improving it

 

[Pskhaat]

Updating this thread, as it seems to be the main GMRS thread here.

I picked up and programmed a Kenwood TK-8180 and did a temp mount before my remote head unit kit arrives.

View attachment 3994985

Mag mic mount

View attachment 3994989

Also designed and got built by SendCutSend a nice stainless hood mount for my 1/4W EMWave antenna. https://www.emwaveinc.com/antennas/...2dbi-ground-plane-independent-antenna-460-mhz

View attachment 3994986
View attachment 3994988

SWR isnt tuned yet, but looking about 1.75-1.85. Ill work the antenna and see about improving it

View attachment 3994994

1.75++ is quite high, given your setup. You are close to A pillar which is kinda not best but shouldn't be that badly reflected.

Thought about a narrow bandwidth and gmrs centered antenna instead?

 

[BurntToast]

1.75++ is quite high, given your setup. You are close to A pillar which is kinda not best but shouldn't be that badly reflected.

Thought about a narrow bandwidth and gmrs centered antenna instead?

Happy to take suggestions!

I got it down to 1.38 with trimming. Think that’s like 3% reflected power

 

[JLH]

1.38 is really very good.

 

[Pskhaat]

Happy to take suggestions!

I got it down to 1.38 with trimming. Think that’s like 3% reflected power

View attachment 3996263

Yeah you're in the zone now

Self serving, but humbly:.

GMRS is a small set of channels requiring really only +-5mhz bandwidth.

 

[reddog90]

Updating this thread, as it seems to be the main GMRS thread here.

I picked up and programmed a Kenwood TK-8180 and did a temp mount before my remote head unit kit arrives.

View attachment 3994985

Mag mic mount

View attachment 3994989

Also designed and got built by SendCutSend a nice stainless hood mount for my 1/4W EMWave antenna. https://www.emwaveinc.com/antennas/...2dbi-ground-plane-independent-antenna-460-mhz

View attachment 3994986
View attachment 3994988

SWR isnt tuned yet, but looking about 1.75-1.85. Ill work the antenna and see about improving it

View attachment 3994994

I really like that mount. Idk how SCS works, can I order a copy of it?

 

[BurntToast]

I really like that mount. Idk how SCS works, can I order a copy of it?

I have an extra, your’s for the price of shipping. Shoot me a PM

 

[Wildcat Walker]

Since I last posted in this thread I took my Amateur Technician exam and added the Technician bands to my toolbox. Currently running a Yaesu in the 70cm band at 30 watts, but can run 80watts once I hardwire into the trucks electrical system.

 

[ChaseTruck]

Not much if any trail time this years so far, but picking up again. The overall comms plan got stuck with the Nagoya UT-72G magnet mounts on both the 80 and the LX; haven’t stripped those off the roof, but also haven’t run tight trails in the trees, either. The Baofeng 50W is in the 80, and there’s a Baofeng 20W in the LX now. I velcroed that one to the back of the console, but need to build a mount since the glue on the Velcro strips predictably failed, and my wife doesn’t want holes drilled in the console. She’s using a cassette adapter to pipe the audio into the LX sound system - great when it works, but seems to cut out every now and then . Offers to install a dedicated a speaker were declined… I showed her a pic of the tuned GMRS antenna on the front bumper, and that also did not lead to a positive reaction.
We use Ch7 at 5W with a DTS code enabled when it’s just the two of us on the trail, and this has worked well for us. Otherwise we use whatever channel the group prefers, usually somewhere between 15 and 22.

 

[Pskhaat]

I showed her a pic of the tuned GMRS antenna on the front bumper, and that also did not lead to a positive reaction.

All the cool kids running that getup.