The adapter for type F allows you to use house tv cable to get from your radio to the antenna. It’s 75 ohm so inorder to work with the 50ohm radio, you need to cut the length of the cable in odd quarter wavelengths of the frequency you are using. Then just match the connection position on the J pole for best noise.
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These here?
Ok so learning some things here. The SMA types are common for radio and the F-type is your typical coax connector for TV.
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It’s now legal to transmit in response to skip from beyond 150 miles with a legal 4watt CB. A 4watt cb is transmitting AM. You can get older models or high end new ones that transmit on upper or lower side band at 12watts (legally). Seeing as it’s 11meter wavelength, the quarter wavelengths are around 9 feet, so a dipole would be 18ft long…
11 meters is tough because of all the lids transmitting with 10000watt linear amps. They can’t hear you, but they drown out all the local legal skip.
CB is worth setting up for because it helps one learn about antennas.
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Yep, then get free coax from your cable buddies. 75ohm coax is free, but is not matched to your radio. So you have use a specific length of it to match the frequency you are transmitting on.
the VHF television band occupies frequencies between 54 and 216 MHz, so now just attach the boafeng to the adapter and attach it to the antenna cable and you will be able to listen to a lot farther stations and probably the ham bands as well (146-147vhf), with a TV antenna.
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At some point you guys are going to have to dumb some of this down so electro morons like me can make something useable. Sort of like how to build a simple gasifier.
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Ill be getting those on order along with the B Tech 40 watt booster. I was planning a tuned GMRS antenna as well. But these RV antennas do very well for a TV. But I need to learn about the cable length. So what I am gathering the TV coax will need to be longer than the radio type to increase the ohms?
So could I test a radio cable and then the TV coax and try to match them or dont it work that way?
Yeah they didnt train us much on these types of things in the sevice. I was in the guard and they switched my MOS to new technology at the time. I was trained on Satellite communications and the new Syngars radios with frequency hopping technology. I never saw any of equipment ever again after I left the signal corps in Georgia. I get to my unit here Mi and they gave me a PRC77. Im like what the hell is that?? Then they had these remote units to bring the radio signals away never trained on any of that stuff. Everything was pretty standardized so I dont think they went into to much depth on that stuff. They just wanted us to know how to perform basic repairs and com procedures.
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Im right there with you 
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Sadly, Tom, there is no radio for dummies kind of thing. Radio doesn’t have to be a horrifying mystery though either.
If you like I am happy to send you a short wave receiver. There is no license required for listening. There is a lot to learn building the right antenna to receive shortwave too.
K8YSZ gave me this nice realistic receiver when I was getting started and I should pay it forward. It runs on 12v as well as house current.
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Matt, what you need is an SWR Meter. Standing Wave Ratio. This is the simple tool for matching cable. Let me dig around and find one in my stash for the VHF frequencies, and low power.
If you already have 50ohm cable then just buy the adapter for that.
The Ohm number is not the same as DC. This is AC characteristic impedence. The interesting feature about this is the impedance varies as the wave travels down the cable so at some point the resistance or impedance is 0 and that other places it is approaching Infinity, and goes back and forth. So what we’re trying to do is find the spot where it’s 50 ohms. Fortunately you can find that spot knowing the wavelength that you want to transmit on, and judicious use of a tape measure. The reason I like 75 ohm cable is because anybody can attach the terminations to it. When you use 50 ohm cable you have to do soldering, and measuring, and it’s slightly a p i t a. The advantage of 50 ohm cable is that you can hook it up at any length to your radio and your antenna and you don’t need anything special. The problem is it’s expensive and when you’re talking about a quarter watt transmitter having a cable that’s capable of handling 1500 watts is a little bit Overkill.
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Great info thank you. Ok then Ill be getting one those on order lol.
If you want to buy a new one, remember to get a VHF/UHF unit if it’s for the boafeng/amp. Try to get one the does 5 watts and 100watts. A CB swr meter will work in the sense that the needle will swing but the numbers won’t be accurate. Your GMRS frequency is 150~ish megaherz, while a CB is 27 megahertz. The cb swr meter has diodes that cannot react fast enough for 150 megahertz.
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If you want I have extra swr meters, and extra shortwave recievers. Let me know and I can send you a care package.
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Thanks for the offer Bruce. I’ll let you know. A time may come when information will become very valuable. I am thinking that if there were some way to communicate between people even a few hundred miles apart that a network could be established point to point between members. Even smoke signals were important to some people at one time. To sit in isolation wondering what is going on in the rest of the country during times of crisis is very troubling to me. Supposedly Musk’s skylink has been designed to circumvent information control by the PTB but personally I don’t trust the guy and I don’t understand the internet. Doesn’t it rely on huge server farms that draw a lot of power to function? Anyway I think all this is important.
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Tune to 437.800 MHz FM as the ISS flys over head and listen to the repeater traffic. You can receive that on the baofeng with a rubber ducky.
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Well I just dropped another 400 plus bucks on this stuff lol. I have the 40 watt booster, Nagoya antenna, a second base and yeah I got another radio. lol
This thing is kinda cool, you can send text messaging off grid with this via a cell phone app. You can also operate via blue tooth from your cell phone. So if this is hooked to the amp I can leave that in the corner where that is set up and use my cell free of wires.
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I just realized you three folks are within GMRS radio distance of each other…
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I could reach the Grand rapids area on 75-80 meters (HF) just before dark from here. I could reach Cedar with the same. 70 cm UHF is limited to line of sight. UHF is able to punch through the ionization layer of the atmosphere and consequently is not reflected back. It doesn’t skip like CB or lower frequencies.
This is the current MUF map for 10:02am 5aug 2022. It shows that over Michigan the maximum usable frequency is 17Mhz. So I can bounce signals off the ionization layer using frequencies lower then 17Mhz. Later today as the solar winds start really ionizing the atmosphere, the MUF will go up over 27Mhz. This will be high enough for CB skip to reach out beyond 150 miles. So later today I might be able to call the boys down below the bridges with a CB, or a ham rig set on 20meters (14Mhz).
Also, when the MUF is high I can use a NVIS (near vertical incidence skywave) antenna, to transmit straight up and bounce straight back down to contact people in valleys (I could call my wife in Hancock).
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And you are talking about people responding back and forth, right? Very interesting.
Matt is north of GR, and Tom is up by TC so they are in range. Im in lansing, so Im out of range without skips, which that was a really nice description of how skipping works. Radio isn’t my thing because you have to pay attention to it all the time. However, I am increasingly having to learn a lot more about them as time goes on.
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Yeah the more I get into it the more I realize how little I know. lol. @ tom just keep watching videos and the post here. We will both take in little pieces at time, eventually we will get there.
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