Tonight I checked that I could hit the Plymouth 444.375 (N0FWG) repeater from Brooklyn Park, and I could easily. I also hit the Maple Grove 442.400 (KE0L) repeater, and the .325 HandiHam UHF repeater out by the airport. No luck with the .125 TCFM (W0EF) repeater out by Southdale, or with the new UHF repeater in Becker from that same location -- 63rd and 81 in Brooklyn Park by the Park n Ride.
This is all using my new antenna set-up on the car. I have a Browning NMO trunk lip mount and a Browning dual-band antenna on the trunk as far back as I can and still keep it vertical. On both VHF and UHF, the lower frequencies have a somewhat better match, so maybe I can tweak it in. MURS and marine show bad SWR. GMRS is a good match, but the transmitter on the PX-888K has lower output the higher you go in frequency. GMRS is down to 2 watts on the RF meter. For whatever reason, the 146.52 simplex frequency shows a fairly ugly 2:1 SWR.
I think that I can improve this arrangement, but I don't think that any of those adjustments will be the difference between a repeater kerchunking or not. And please note: I am giving my callsign on every transmission to these repeaters. I know that the people who operate repeaters hate it when you don't ID.
What else? I could hit the WINET 442.075 repeater from Brooklyn Park, but that's not surprising.
Tomorrow I pick up my 13-foot mast/tripod combo from UPS. I figure that I can use it with my 6 meter J-pole for portable operation at the park so that I don't irritate my neighbours. I'm also considering another 10 meter "hamstick" for a horizontal dipole. But I'm more intrigued with the idea of a 70cm beam and trying UHF SSB or just hitting distant repeaters.
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