Coms Setup & Location

Has anybody thought about mounting the Radio portion in your center console? My 2019 has 2 USB ports in the center console that I may be able to tap into for power and depending on how you mount it you can then use the USB port on the radio. From there you can run your antenna wire and, if you want the microphone to attach to an adapter in the dash, the CAT5E cable through the shifter tunnel.

 

I've been thinking of using this antenna for both SAR and GMRS use so I don't have to use multiple antennas. It's designed to work from the edges/corners of a vehicle. I'm currently using a modded anytone 878 handheld for both gmrs and ham/SAR use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8lWduMPz6w

 

Fine for close comms but for distance and audio quality best to run fused power all the way to battery to minimize radio frequency interference (RFI). Also research “balun” tactics to minimize RFI as needed.

 

Thats a sweet antenna! Now I am mad I just ordered the two midland ones

 

Return them and get that one instead

 

No good for SAR since this one cant handle the duty cycle or AZ heat

 

would it be good as just a dedicated GMRS. Not using it as a HAM as well?

 

Really? The max temp it can handle is 130 and where I live it only gets into the low hundreds maybe for a week in the summer, it's typically high 90s. 1 min of Tx time every 2 min is well over my normal usage when heading to a SAR mission in my experience.

 

I've never used it, so I can't say for certain.

 

My bad I thought he said 110 degrees in the vid! And the duty cycle just worries me personally if I had to bet a life on it.

 

If it was for use at the CP or something I'd share that concern, but usually on the drive up there we aren't on the radios much unless we're requesting updates on the way there or making fun of one of the team members. The Coordinators are the ones on the radio most telling us where to turn or feeding the rest of the team info as it's coming in. I appreciate your looking out though.

 

How does theduty cycle, SWR and overall performance compare to a GMRS specific antenna in the same price range?

 

Duty cycle has nothing to do with which band, only the threshold of the materials. An antenna tuned specifically to GMRS’s center frequency (464-465 MHz) will perform much better on GMRS than a wideband all things being equal. SWR depends on so many other factors to list.

 

Ok. I didn't say duty cycle had anything to do with band. I know what duty cycle means in a technical sense but I don't know how this wide band antenna that covers multiple radio frequency spectrums compares to similarly priced gmrs only antennas. Do you have any info on how this compares to other similar price gmrs only antennas?

 

Trying to find a spot for this MXT500 is kinda a PITA I have that TPAM mount and debating doing that. My only issue is idk where to route the wires from the top of the dash to engine bay? Any ideas

 

Did you get one? I'm looking at picking one up as well and trying to figure out where to mount it as well. Look forward to see what you end up with!

 

Simple and clean but that install creates huge blind spots for the antenna that will significantly reduce transmit and receive range in those directions.

 

I ended up mounting it on my TPAM and routing the wires through the dash

 

If I go for the MXT400 I'd run it just like this.

 

The dash seems to be the only real place for this model. And I don't have any TPAM thing which looks slick.