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In my mind I was thinking of those rolls of LEDs that you lay out. In reality he probably meant a shop light style fixture with LED lights in it which would mean the driver is surrounded by metal already. The cheap power supplies that drive LEDs are usually noisy and get pretty hot when driven to max. Whenever I build with them I like to make sure there's a few amps in reserve basically to keep the driver from putting out max current keeping it cool and it's life longer. Putting it in a metal container might make the heating worse.

Thanks so much! Ordering it now.

I believe Leo was recommending enclosing the driver/power supply for the LED lights, not replacing the wooden mount for the radio that you made.

I was in our electronics lab once working on a project. Some mention was made about drunks on the street. I referred to them as "Stumble Bums." Well I got one of those "WTF is that" looks. Makes you feel old.

Yes

So the Messi and Paoloni UltraFlex 10 Coax Cable Should work great for me?

In my home system I run the M&P Hyperflex13 out to the lightning arrester and then 1/2" Heliax up to the antenna. At the shop I run my repeater and that has TMW LMR400. I'm getting a nearly perfect SWR with the M&P/Heliax with a CA712ECF antenna while at the shop with the LMR400 and a Retevis MA09 antenna I'm getting a 1.76 SWR. I think that has been going up since I put it in. I pretty much have zero water protection on that system, just the aluminum tube that surrounds the fitting of the antenna for protection. Water infiltration is a possibility.

Gig dose not have 50' available but buytwoway has Messi & Paoloni Ultraflex 10 Premium .400" Pre-assembled Coax - UHF Male (PL259) Connectors. Is this what I should get? I want it to work well. Thanks so much for your help. Sig

Connecticut.

I suppose I could fabricate a metal enclosure vs the thrown together wood mount i did. The wood mount was made with just left of materials i had which was part of the fun, and fits surprisingly perfect.

Yeah I will do that next. I very rarely use these ditch lights anymore, so I am not concerned with running them at the same time. Considered even taking them off, but since they are already wired up, i left them on.

I swapped the Stainless steel washer from the bottom to the top of the mount. Tightened it down as tight as it will go. Teeth are closer, but not digging in to the bracket. Looks like the teeth are not pointed up, they are more pointed out. Perhaps without the stainless steel washer i can get closer, but I am needing to use a stainless steel washer because the mount i received has a .7" hole vs a 3/8" required for the NMO mount. Ran test again with this setup and no visible changes in swr. I can explore getting a bracket designed specifically wiith a 3/8" (midland sells one but its like $25 vs the $8 i spent), but i am not sure if i will see any changes in swr.

I've been messaging with Eddie for the last couple of days on this site. I had no idea a repeater was being planned. A buddy of mine called me up and let me know about it. I haven't really used it yet, but it sounds pretty good. At 1.5 miles away, you could work it with 1/4 watt. LOL

If those were the only two choices and money were no object, I would go with Times-Microwave, every time. The Times-Microwave LMR-400 is the original which created the standard. All other companies that make a 0.400 inch diameter cable called something like it (such as BR-400) are insinuating that their coax is equivalent. Some actually make cables that test as good while selling for less. They will be sold by companies that are not Amazon. Nothing wrong with Amazon, but the buyer has to bring some expertise. However, there are some concerns about LMR-400: First, the original has a single solid center conductor that makes it stiff. Times-Microwave solved that by manufacturing a cable that has a stranded center conductor called LMR-400 UF (for Ultra Flexible). Second, some people have concerns about the mixture of metals in the shielding, especially for repeater use. They claim the contact points of the different metals in the different layers of shielding create thousands of tiny semiconductor junctions. I have never seen proof of that, but other companies make coax that use pure copper for every layer of shielding. One of the best known is an Italian company named Messi & Poloni. They make a cable (M&P Hyperflex 10) that tests every bit as well as LMR-400, and sells for about the same price as LMR-400. But there are others as well. ABR400, DX400, etc. The list of high quality 0.400 cables that are reasonable alternatives to the original LMR-400 is long. I have never heard that BR400 listed as one of them. I also would stay away from KMR400 as sold on Amazon. Personally, I have several lengths of M&P and a few of ABR-400. I bought my M&P from Gigaparts, but one of the online vendors that sells mostly Chinese radios also sells it for a decent price, maybe Buytwowayradios.com? Or you can order it direct from Italy. They’ll put it together to your specs and ship it very quickly directly to you. I’m sure this probably adds even more to your uncertainty. Asking which is the best cable is like taking a philosophy course in college. Here’s a link to the Gigaparts web page for Hyperflex 10: https://www.gigaparts.com/messi-and-paoloni-hyperflex-10-coax-cable.html#close

I foget your in Maine ? Where abouts ?

So what is the better on to go with? The Browning BR-400 or Times Microwave Low Loss Coaxial Cable - LMR-400? Thanks for your help.

I've been listening to Ed(?) test the repeater over the last 2 weeks. His transmissions are pegging my meter (I'm only 1.5 miles from the repeater ). He published the repeater to the myGMRS database: https://mygmrs.com/repeater/10670

wait tell you find pet skunk in your kids bedroom

Hey, Peter! Great questions. BTW... if you hear us chatting, you are always welcome to join in! I appreciate the interest. We talked about it a little at our last get-together, but just touched on it. So, I'm happy to give more details. I am a volunteer radio operator with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). I serve on a few teams supporting DHS/FEMA, US Marine Corps Quantico (MCCS/MCM), Loudoun County, Prince William County and the Virginia state EOC in Richmond. ARES is a nation-wide group attached to the American Radio Radio League. Our organization has formal MOUs with local, state and federal agencies across the nation. Our team provides a full spectrum of auxiliary (and on occasion, primary) communications support for the aforementioned agencies. That would include, but not limited to, voice traffic, independent email services, wireless LAN/WAN both in an affected area and relayed outside the impact zone, video, GPS and signal tracking, and much, much more. We have had great success in drills and real-world service for more decades than I have been alive, and I am happy to be apart of the organization. These relationships have afforded our teams some special privileges in the radio world. Hospitals, government agencies, and private business all appreciate the services we provide to the community, and to help us provide the best possible services, these agencies/businesses have allowed our groups to install VHF and UHF repeaters on there buildings, commercial radio towers, and on high-elevation properties. We even have repeaters and towers installed in national parks for areas known to frequently need our support. I mention all of this because it is relevant to what is happening with the proposed GMRS repeater. The Prince William County government is allowing us to install a new amateur radio VHF and UHF repeater on a county radio tower. The intent is to have the amateur radio equipment available to all licensed amateurs, while ensuring priority use for ARES supporting the county, state and federal government. Since we are going to have both a VHF and a UHF antenna, we figured we would gang a GMRS repeater on the UHF antenna, having it support both systems. I proposed the use of the GMRS repeater to the county under the same assumptions as the amateur radio repeaters... they will be open to all licensed users, with the county and other served agencies traffic taking priority during drills and emergencies, and the county EC agreed. Keep in mind, we are in the early stages of planning. We need to design the system, acquire hardware, and coordinate frequency use. What we are planning is subject to change... but the proposed details are as fallows. The availability date is currently TBD. As mentioned, we are still gathering parts and the facility is currently in the end stages of renovations. We cannot build until construction is complete. The tower is in the south-eastern part of Prince William County. The base of the tower is about 155 feet above average terrain. The arm the antennas will be on is about 300 feet above ground. We are going to use high-gain folded dipole antennas for all repeaters. We are planning on legal limit for the power output on GMRS (and 100w for the amateur repeaters). The channel is TBD, pending coordination. This will be a publicly accessible repeater, open to all licensed operators. Again, if the repeater is needed for emergency use, we will terminate public access until the emergency need is over. We hope that amateur gear will be sufficient so local families/residents can use the GMRS repeater in a local communications outage. We have not settled on a tone yet, but it will be CTCSS. We will ask local users to use whatever the primary tone we select for day-to-day use, but we will also have 141.3 for emergency/traveler use. The coverage area is theoretical at this point, but below is a projected coverage map showing 99.9% reliability. As we drop down to 70% reliability, the coverage increases dramatically.

Sitting downtown in a railway station

I was checking repeaters today to see which ones I could hit and got into a repeater net gathering. The controller was a nice guy and very welcoming. There was a few of us on and we played a game of "Appliance Operator or HAM?" where we were given a scenario and ask if it was something an Appliance Operator would do or a HAM. Anyway, that was my first contact on HAM and it was fun. Just wanted to share with ya'll.

Sweet Jesus ...

GMRS isn't ham radio. They are different services on different bands. I might be in Kent County MD on Saturday and Sunday, but too far west for any DE contacts

[Thursday, 7 Aug 2025] Group, In recent days I have heard chatter on Blue Mountain '600 and Warrenton '725 re. a new repeater to soon be commissioned. Purportedly, such repeater will have a significant RF footprint. Can anyone add more info on this news, particularly: • What County it will reside in? • Projected commissioning date? • Availability: Public / Private? • Planned channel? • Planned PL or DCS code? • Predicted coverage (rough)? • Etcetera ... ? ___________ Thanks & regards, Peter | WSIC582 | NWDC

I think it largely depends upon the repeater. Most are maintained by an individual or group. Ascertain from the owners what the their terms of usage are. If it is a repeater listed here, contact information can be found by clicking on the repeater. The more, I suppose, unpopular answer is that you really don't need permission. Certainly civil behavior might imply that you should obtain it, but there's an equally salient argument that "mUh fReE aiRwAvEs" or something.