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"Tape measure" Yagis have been a thing for a while. They are extremely directional, in that they send all your radiated RF in the direction they are pointing. They work very well, especially when paired with handheld radios that have very limited power, such as a 5 watts or less radio. It...

Getting good AM broadcast reception in a vehicle is a tricky thing. First, here is the physics. Radio waves have a length. This length is dependent on the frequency at which the radio wave is transmitted. The length of an efficient transmission or receive antenna is also dependent on the length...

Given that dB of gain is a ratio, with what are you using as your comparison? If the shorter MXTA25 is 3dBi (vs the isotropic antenna), or even 3dBd (vs the halfwave dipole) then you have discovered something amazing that allows you to rewrite our understanding of RF physics. I know "all"...

@craig333: You can use a longer antenna in the same location for good results. I have the same placement for my 2m/70cm antenna on the driver's side cowl. A 1/4 wave antenna really does not work well in this location, but a 1/2 wave and a 5/8ths wave works well.

Do you have a video or document showing the process to deploy/fold the top?

It is a Tarheel 100 bolted to the tool box using Tarheel's mount with a custom bent aluminum guard to protect the coil. The box is grounded to the frame through the powder coat. The whip is a MFJ 1979. The whip is long enough to be a real 1/4wave vertical groundplane on 20 meters, and 1/8 wave...

I'm considering a mount in my '18 2500. My local stereo shop recommended using the center channel speaker on the dash as a communication speaker. They said that this speaker really does not help the sound from the stereo. The process would be to snip the speaker wires across this speaker, and...

Has anyone put one of these on a Powerwagon? I've gotten myself a new one, and I'm considering my options for the bed. A Powerwagon is a ram 2500 with a ~6.5 foot bed, a factory winch, front and rear lockers, and coil springs on the rear axle. This top looks interesting as it stays flat when...

GMRS is a lot easier then CB to get working for folks that have little understanding of radio. The shorter wavelengths allow greater bandwidth on the same antenna, so you don't need to mess with SWR meters, tuning, etc. Also the GMRS FM signals generally sound better then AM on CB. I agree...

So... What's the most technical trail everyone has taken their Socal teardrop across? I don't mean to take the trailer nearby and use as a base camp, but I really mean across. For me, it's the Mojave Road, but other then the drop into the Watson Wash, it wasn't really technical at all. I'm...

Airing down the trailer tires will also significantly reduce vibration of the trailer when you are offroad. Make sure your bring a spare tire for your trailer.

How much space do you have? I put up a steel tent over it.

Get a larger then needed 3" foam mattress topper. Use a kitchen electric knife to cut it to size. It worked on my 459, although I didn't need to cut much since my bed is basically a "full".

What type of communications do you plan to do over the mesh network? I don't usually bring enough digital devices along to make a data network interesting enough, so I'm really curious as to your use case.

As far as using marine band radios on land... I could link to the FCC regs, but these guys got it right and it's easier to read: http://www.mcminnarc.com/marine.html In short, marine radios are "liscense by rule", which means the equipment must have a liscense and you have to follow the rules...

Unlocking the radio is legal, but not useful except for edge cases. The problem with your group isn't one that should be solved by unlocking the radio. You group needed to use a legal frequency between 144.1Mhz-148Mhz. Using an out of band frequency means you might have other legitimate users...

I've added a 3" topper to the mattress from Treeline. I use a "full", but I have a 4.5x9 body. You'll need a different size for a 5x10. I wouldn't want to pull my 459 krawler with my JK without trailer brakes. The Kascade/FJ is about the same size as my Krawler/JK. It does not cost much to...

This. Works great!

There are a few radios on the market with Geo-tagging of repeaters built in. The icom ID-51+ (and +2), the 5100, and the 4100 all have a "DR" memory mode where you can tag a slot with a gps coordinate. They have the ability to scan through the 20 slots that are closest to your current location...

Longer antennas are easier to tune then shorter ones. I'd get a tunable tip fiberglass antenna and a seperate mag base. You can get the mag base from MFJ. You can get a flexible antenna if you are going to be in the forest. https://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-335BT (base...