[syntaxerrorsix]

If you mount it to fiberglass you will need to ground it to the chassis.

The best way to mount an antenna is drilling a hole and installing NMO mounts.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Here's my NMO mounted ants.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Yes.



They wouldn't be able to hit the repeaters that way. We have separate vhf and uhf radios. Then i also have one to talk to border patrol up here. Then the unit for the MDT to get signal as well.

Like riding around in a Farady cage. Even digital needs a good antenna to reliably work. Maybe even more so with digital as you are going to get everything or nothing. At least with analog radios you might get part of the message if you turned your squelch off.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

I think the smart phone has replaced most all of it. The CB is full of garbage. My experience (granted it was 20 years ago) with 2m and 440 was on the total other end of the spectrum. Completely stuffy and being a young adult I felt totally un welcomed. Let my license expire long ago.


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The cell phone never replaced CB for early warning and conditions. It's still quite viable here in Florida though you are correct in that you have to deal with a fair amount of idiots.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

My one digital capable VHF can work both analog and digital, but for true digital through a repeater, the repeater must be digital as well.

Yep. mine as well. I'm guessing the folks using 800mhz and P25 are single band, digital only. Much like my EF Johnson.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

People running 800mhz are government agencies with very deep pockets and their repeaters and sites are connected into fiber optics or internet so they can talk across the state or where ever. Problem is, they have few sites so there are alot of dead zones, but one digital repeater in a dense populated city does very well.

We've got a lot of repeaters in Polk County and my EFJ 800mhz P25 struggles when indoors, they all require LOS to a repeater.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Not necessarily LOS, I have seven VHF repeaters and monitor other repeaters that are not LOS from me to base or mobile site. Some of the locations are in deep cayons and 25miles from repeater. On second reading, if you were talking 800mhz needing LOS, then yes, I agree

Beyond exotic propagation all UHF and VHF is LOS, UHF more so than VHF. That doesn't mean it just stops at the horizon. You can still work non-line of sight stations but it will be a reduced signal.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

I guess the halcyon days of sharing road intel with other drivers in order to avoid bad situations up ahead, a-la Smokey and the Bandit, are pretty much over. Too bad. Over decades on the road I've avoided many predicaments, and helped others do the same.

Around here, no one has a radio until things start backing up. Then everyone has a radio.