Wisconsin area events, parking lot parties and social gatherings

Gee, I work a 12+ hour day and now there are too many posts to even quote!

I'm in for the 10th, and will be bringing the wife. She's excited to go, maybe I'll even let her drive part of the trails!
Also down with camping if anyplace is open. The searching I did it looked like most were closed until May.

I ordered some parts to mount a firestick CB antenna after seeing @theJCKRBBT 's setup. Anybody in the MKE or Racine area have a SWR meter and willing to help me tune it in?

Speaking of radios has anyone thought of going the HAM route?

 

I have ham. As does @BEAR_KNIFE_FIGHT

 

I feel you. I have constant FOMO when I read the forum, assuming I JUST missed something cool.

I have yet to solder my connector and will need to tune mine as well.

 

My dad was a Ham and I've kicked around the idea of getting my license. That may be a future mod down the road..

 

It will be good to see you guys again! I haven't confirmed it, but I believe Wyalusing is open year round. I'll have to figure out if that includes camping, and possibly look for alternative locations.

I don't have an SWR meter, otherwise I would give you a hand.

I would skip HAM and look into GMSR. I think that's what we're all going to have eventually.

 

It’s super easy.. I took the class but it’s seriously just going through the question bank and memorizing answers to get the tech license. We spent the day going through a PowerPoint of all the test questions lol

https://hamexam.org/

 

Let's be honest... on 90% of the TWAT, we could use the Discord app on our phones. That said, I did look up some research for CB vs. GMRS and (aside from the $70 license) it seems like an easier install than CB. We're splitting our client base across three different radios types, though. For now I'm plenty happy with a CB and a phone with offline GPS maps.

https://www.therangerstation.com/overlanding-and-off-road/cb-radio-vs-gmrs-radio/

 

^^^^Ok, I lied... Sort of.

 

LOL! The reason I was looking up GMRS was to see if the setup would cost me more than a decent SWR meter off Amazon.

 

Really it depends on where you are and who you are traveling with. Around here it probably doesn’t really make a difference but if you go out west you can run into issues with too many others being on the same cb channel. GMRS and HAM you get way more channel options plus sub channels / filters / etc. In addition to repeaters and way more range.

 

I think I will pick up a GMRS setup this year or next. I'll keep the CB as long as most of us are still using them.

 

Looks like a driveway beers tuning sesh needs to happen soon!

 

I'm down! But, we need to find a flat area without power lines, trees, etc.

 

Any parking lot will do.

Didn't @BookieBob say that his neighbor had a meter?

 

I have an SWR meter that you can use and/or borrow.

 

If I’m too far away to come help with the SWR I can mail it to anyone who needs to use it.

 

I somehow got the idea that you need a larger space. I think the main thing was to not be too close to anything tall.

I ended up ordering one. It was cheap and I was ordering antenna stuff anyway.

But, thank you for offering!

 

You can come park in the field by my house

 

your tuning the ant to the cb nothing else, getting away from power lines is about all you have to worry about the goal is to get the meter at or below 1:5 on channel 1, 20, 40, or most guys just use channel 1, 40.

 

What’s the etiquette on these sorts of events? Am I allowed to invite myself or is it sort of a friends outing I’d be crashing? I’m new around here but would love to meet some like minded folks