no distance

YES!!! I would change the coax. Make positive sure you have the correct type (IE 50 ohms single, 75 ohms dual). Other possibilities include:

Poor antenna placement... getting blocked.
Did you use the same mic? If it's got a short and sets are electronically switched this could be an issue.

Have you checked your SWR on transmit? High SWR can indicate a bad coax. It's a reach BUT back in the day if someone wanted to give you headaches, they might "pin" your coax. This involved pushing a straight pin through your coax and cutting off the ends. Causes all sorts of problems. Shorts shield to center wire. I think antenna placement is the most likely. Can your temporarily borrow a magnetic mount? Place it as high as possible and away from metal that would block signal. If you suddenly grow ears, reposition the antenna.

 

I second the coax! Another thing to check, I recently encountered a problem similiar to you and it turned out the antenna mounting stud was shorted between the antenna mast and ground. Oddly enough the SWR wasn't through the roof. My guess is your coax has a break somewhere in the center conductor.

 

I would get good coax, ditch one antenna and stick to just one.

 

One is better get a good coax like the mini 8 and check your swrs make sure you have a good ground if yoyr swrs are high say 3to1 on all channels you have a ground problem.

 

Turn your SQL all the way to the left. Turn the RF gain all the way to the right and let the static rain. A lot of people adjust these so they hear no noise problem is you cut out a lot of signals and they wonder why they can't hear. Trust me you will get use to the noise and you will like your radio a lot more.

 

My impression from talking to radio techs is that 2 antennas can be too close together,and actually sort of fight each other!
i run Gallaxy 88 with a single Wilson 2000 and have good results .
sometimes it can be atmospheric conditions that cause problems,not your radio!
i had issues one time with mine,where a guy a few miles away lost me,but I talked to a guy 2000 miles away on skip a few minutes later and he heard me fine!
a few days later it was fine with no adjustments!

 

They really don't fight each other but the accepted minimum distance between dual antennas is 8 feet. Less than that will see no gain over a single. and remember your gain, if properly spaced is only front and back. Sometimes, depending on setup, you may lose a little bit side to side. Many years ago I had two Shakespeare Big Sticks co-phased on the roof of my house. Set apart about 16 feet. Worked great. I had thought of mounting on a boom, with a cheap rotor for a beam but never got around to it.

 

The reason for the 8' has to do with the phasing of the two antennas. Change the phase and different spacing will work. Many commercial antennas use less spacing. A good example is AM broadcasting antennas most of them use spacing much less than a 1/4 wavelength.

leon