Overview

Hey Frank, I'm battling the trees in my area of Stafford as well. I setup a home brew repeater in Vista Woods. I've been slowly building on it, improving as I can. But, the foliage is so dense and there are a lot of rolling hills and homes to get through/around. I haven't figure out the best configuration yet. Was thinking about moving it to my Deck to get a few more feet of elevation but that would mean a longer feedline which has it's own drawbacks. My antenna is 10ft tall on top of a 25ft mast but I can't get more than 5 or 6 miles of readable coverage. It's even spotty within that on some roads. I'm thinking an antenna around here might need 70+ feet to clear all the obstacles. I read posts from folks out west in the low flat areas with supreme line of sight getting 20-30 miles or more... even with handhelds lol. So jealous. I assume they can't all be full of it. But I have to ask myself, are some of these repeaters transmitting over 50Watts? And nets don't count IMO. Best of luck. WSDH649 - Barry

Hello everyone I hope you are all well. My wife and I are relocating to Tennessee this leaves two options for the repeater. Someone in this group can buy it and set it up, or I take it with me. If you are interested you can reach out to me directly. Thanks.

I don't have a problem with any licensed radio op accessing the repeater. But at 60' in a bunch of trees the coverage is not that good.

Hi Frank...though I would piggyback off of Barry's question. I live in Fawn Lake, have a 50 watt BS with a Nagoya model NMO-200C antenna located on my second floor (not allowed to stick it outside). Has anyone in the Fawn Lake area or nearby had any success using this repeater? If so, if you don't mind, how did they solve the crazy amount of trees we have around here? Very best, Steve

Thank you Frank. I'll give it a try next time I'm at Curtis Park or in the area. Might wait until the weather's a little better though, hehe. Barry

Hi Barry, the repeater is low level and works better in the area of west Fredericksburg towards Chancelorville. It would be nice to get on a commercial tower with some altitude to it but it is what it is. Frank

Hey All, Just wanted to check in and see what's going on. I've tried to use the repeater but not having much success. I'm in the Vista Woods area of Stafford. I am new to GMRS so was hoping to get in touch with some folks that might have more knowledge/experience. WSDH649 - Barry