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I did a lot of reading on the forum from different posters and watched all the YouTube vids that I could find. And despite most people saying it wasn't worth the effort, I was still hoping that this would be a good project to work on with my kids-get them off the screens and find more interest in something tangible-ish. I know that the choice in budget HT's is not ideal, but this would be used only for family communications at a rural property very intermittently. We don't quite get full coverage so the idea would be to take this suitcase repeater out to a hill, hook up an antenna and use it while we're out and about. However, it didn't take long before I hit a roadblock. I wanted to test out the new 50W duplexer tuned for the 462.725/467.725 pair with a couple of HTs that I originally planned to use in the build. The first issue I had was the mic jack on one of the radios is damaged and wouldn't transmit to the receiving radio on the mic to speaker cord. So that radio will be moved to the handheld function and not connected to the duplexer. The input / output tones and frequencies were all checked, and everything worked well without using the duplexer (see pic "Function w-o Duplexer"). Yes, there was a significant amount of desense as expected. I turned the power to low on the receiving radio. I tried the vox at 1 and a 9 without noticing much difference. I did have to put the volume down very low on the receiving radio to minimize feedback. Next, I hooked both radios to the duplexer and immediately, the transmit radio (on right) began transmitting as shown with the red light (pic "Connection Transmit"). Initially, I thought it was caused by something in the duplexer recognizing that there was something to transmit. The indicator light was on for several seconds, then flashes a couple of times and then the radio goes into normal standby. With same two radios used on the non-duplexer test, one set to 467.725 and the other to 462.725, I tried to transmit. I get the green receiving light on the left side receive radio (467.725) but nothing coming out of the transmit radio on the right side (see pic "No go w Duplexer"). The radios are the GMR-5RH which seem to be a re-badged UV-5G. The menu is almost identical to the AR-5RM (that's the one with the broken mic jack). I've gone through the menu's multiple times on the transmit radio and while there are a couple of different settings that seem to relate to the repeater function, they seem to be related to squelch tail. I did try changing some of the settings but I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Is the issue radio setting related - receive or transmit? Duplexer related? Radio function in general related? Thanks in advance.

I was out and about the other morning and while waiting on someone I turned on my KG-Q10H. The last time I had used it I had it set to TDR monitoring the local Sheriff’s frequency and a local 2m repeater. When I turned the radio on all was as I had left it except the speaker icon on both areas had a line through it. I was not receiving any signal in either area. No signal strength bar and no green light indicating the radio was receiving. I normally have my KG-935G in the car with me so I turned it on and was receiving traffic on both of those same frequencies. I went through the menu settings and nothing was muted. I was able to go through both menus and could select any saved channel and still no receive. When I tried to transmit to the 2m repeater nothing happened, no red LED no signal bar. I moved to a simplex frequency and tried to transmit with the same result. While sitting there I went ahead and did a factory reset through the menu option 48 and when the radio restarted the line though the speaker icon was gone. I was able to punch in the SO frequency and the 2m repeater frequency and received traffic on both. I was able to transmit to the repeater and on simplex. When I got home I reprogrammed the Q10H via the Wouxun software and all is good. I have checked it daily since that happened and the glitch has not occurred again. Just thought I would share the experience in case this happens to anyone else. The KGQ10H replaced an 18 year old Yaesu VX-6R that up and died on me a while back. The Q10H is a great radio and this is the first issue I have had with it. In the 18 years I had and used the Yaesu I had turned it on several times and found that the memory was wiped, so weird things happen.

I realize that and as stated above I have tried to register here on the forum multiple times.

Forum and main site are different. You need to register here as well.

The configuration you pasted definitely has tones set: 67.0 Hz for both encode (TX) and decode (RX). Did you have the same tone set on the UV5R for transmit? If you were transmitting from the UV5R with no tones that would explain why you didn’t hear it

Using compander adds some audio elements that are not always pleasant. Some refer to the sound as resembling loud breathing or pumping. I started with it on but didn’t like. I have turned it off now.

I have been on mygmrs.com before, registered my callsign and have requested some repeater access in the past. When trying to login here on the forum I am greeted with a red box saying that I have not signed in before and need to create and account. I have tried several times over the past few months to register an account here on the forum and after I put in my callsign to verify, it comes up and says my callsign is already registered and shows me a green squared window with all my information in it. Underneath the block where you verify the callsign it states in red that my callsign is already registered to my callsign. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Screen shots can be provided if needed.

Oh hell no. I may be an amateur in some aspects, but I will never be an Amateur Radio Operator. Although, some Hams are cool and happy dudes, I just don't want to hang or be associated with the "Sad Hams". Not my style. My ID interval could be 15 minutes. It has been quite some time since I've been in the repeater's program. Even if it is 10 minutes, I still meet the requirement and with other stations IDing on the same freq nearby, I'm sure no body listens since my ID is polite and does not transmit with the DPL code.

That is how we have our repeater controllers set. The Arcom RC-210 will lower the volume of the voice and CW id if someone is transmitting at the same time. We will have the RC-210 set the same way except for every 15 minutes iso there is traffic for our GMRS repeater. The main complaint about the Bridgecom repeater is how it will interrupt and cutoff anyone that happens to be transmitting at the same time.

agree on traffic only (busy) is your Repeater Ham? GMRS requires 15 min id'ing

I run regular NMO mounts on my mini-van and they hold up perfectly fine. One thing to note however is that with some car washes, the sensors that control the rollers may see your antenna regardless of whether or not it is hard mounted or mag mount and will lift that roller right up over the vehicle as if something is blocking it. I run 2 1/4wave VHF antennas (about 18-19in) and the roller wont even wash the top or back of the vehicle because of it. Other than that, they definitely can take a beating. I have had 49" antennas with no spring on my vehicle before (NMO mounted) and would whack certain trees at a job I worked and they would still be intact and working fine.

My repeater ID feature stays idle until there is traffic and it will ID after that every 10 minutes as long as there is traffic, and it won't interrupt or interfere with the traffic.

I only run the larsen NMO now and for the price you can't beat the mount. Spend a few bucks more and get a quality mount. If you plan to keep a vehicle this mount will outlast most. https://theantennafarm.com/shop-by-categories/antennas-mounts/mobile-antenna-mounts/nmo-mobile-antenna-mounts/266-permanent-hole-mounts/291-nmo-3-4-hole-mount-high-frequency/1126-larsen-nmokhfudfme-detail Center of roof on truck will be great with a 1/4 wave

That sounds like a bit of a problem... since fire departments tend to be surrounded by a lot of heat and water.

yup,, setting to busy only is the key and most of the cheaper controlllers don't offer this flexibility.. . I alwys laugh with i hear a repeater id every 15 mins.. rminds me of a dog p*ssing on car tires

Btech will send you one for free. You just have to email them that you need it and send them a picture of your repeaters serial number. Took it about 3 days to get to me. The new setups come with the cord.

I agree.

I'm not sure if I have that cord. I'll have to look.

I wish I could provide some help, but that question is out of my wheelhouse. I sure hope some folks that have much more technical knowledge than I can help you figure out your rx and/or tx issue at the affected location. I hope to learn something in the process, as well.

Nothing worse than a repeater id’ing every 10 minutes with zero traffic ever.

Just talked with Btech and the 1.010R is a minor bug fix. If you've put the 1.008R update in there you're good to go as far as updates go. If you are still on 1.003R then do the update, it's fairly straight forward if you have the RJ45 connector. It's just a straight cord with a USB-A and an RJ45, no chip.

Thanks! I'll update it tomorrow and see if it changes anything.

There is an update to the repeater 1.008R that should allow you to operate the input with no tone. There is also a squelch function with the new version. Mine was defaulted to 5 and interferred with low signals. I dropped it to 1. I see that they have a new update of 1.010R now.

You're right. I was testy because I was frustrated. I apologize. I do appreciate it when people are willing to help, but sometimes when things aren't going my way, I become a dick. I'll try to do better.

We had the SINCGARS radios when I was in. They came out shortly after Desert Storm. We were not allowed to use them in Germany at that time since the constant frequency hopping messed with German civilian communications and broadcast stations.