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Why does every new license holder want to setup a repeater? I would like to shed a little light on some of the important things to consider if you recently got your GMRS license and now want your own repeater. First thing to consider, are there any open well placed repeaters in your area that you are able to use? I can assure you most repeater owners want people to use there repeater. Owning several repeaters I can assure you all are welcome and encouraged to use my machines. Do you have access to a location to host your repeater? If your answer is your garage roof you should reconsider. Your garage roof will give you about the same coverage as simplex. Unless you’re on top of a mountain and all your users are at the bottom you will never be happy with this setup. GMRS is not as popular as one would like to think, unless your repeater covers 20 miles or more you may find you only have 1 or 2 users in the area. Unless you already have a group of friends together you may want to consider this before spending money on a decent well positioned site to install your repeater. So you found a nice high site and the price is right, all you need to do is get the repeater installed, sounds simple right? Some thigs to consider first and foremost are the costs because they can add up quickly. Are you on a commercial tower that requires a license and bonded climber? If so this could be by far your largest expense depending on your area. I have spent $600 to $1200 on a climber; I have had quotes as high as $2500 depending on the amount of work and heights involved. Keep in mind commercial sites require certified mounts, hard line cable, cable clamps, engineered grounding solutions and commercial grade antennas. No tower owner is going to let you install a comet antenna and 200’ of braided shield coax. This brings me to my next point, the antenna. Because of the costs involved with climbers you will want to expend your budget on the antenna. Remember a $2000 repeater on a $200 antenna is going to work about as good as a $200 repeater. Whereas a $200 repeater on a $2000 antenna is going to work like a $2000 repeater. On my first repeater I was gifted use of a 150’ tower, I installed a DB-420 on the top and 160’ of 7/8 hardline. Total cost of equipment for the antenna install was $2500, with the climbers labor coming in at an additional $800. This left me with enough to purchase an old Motorola R100 repeater running at 25W. To my surprise it had 30 miles of coverage, all due to the cash spent on the antenna and waiting for a decent spot. Things happen, more so if you have an antenna 200’ in the air with a conductive cable connected to sensitive electronics. Antenna issues, feedline issues, repeater issues all cost money and I promise at some point you will have issues that need repair and require your money! It is my opinion that the GMRS community does not need another 2 to 5 miles repeater as it just becomes background noise. What use is a public listed repeater if somebody in a mobile can’t use it 5 miles away while moving or the portable coverage is only a mile? If after reading this you are still going to build a repeater for your garage more power to you, just don’t expect 20 people to show up if it only reaches a mile. As the owner of several GMRS and Commercial repeaters I can attest to the amount of money and effort go into my repeaters. I have only touched on the basics, if you add in any kind of testing services, duplexer tuning, addition of a combiner channel to an existing tower system, RF engineering, rent and insurance your costs can sky rocket. The best advice I can give any new licensee is to try and use the available systems in the area. Take the time to learn a little about what you’re doing and to assess the usability of the service before investing in a repeater for the sole reason of saying you own one.

There's a 1/4 wave dual-band whip on my car, even that simple construction cuts off right at 450 MHz. Most of those dual band antennas are based on 70cm being around the third harmonic of 2m, and 467 MHz is quite some distance from the third harmonic of 148 MHz. Most of those multi-band ham antennas are designed to give good SWR inside 144-148 and 440-450, and SWR will rise very quickly above 450 MHz. As a good rule of thumb, higher gain antennas are narrower-bandwidth than lower gain antennas.

Amen, Corey.

I got into GMRS because I needed another layer of communication with my family. I also understood the limitations of FRS, and discovered the possibility of repeaters for GMRS. I stumbled into a working repeater, which will be programmed this week. There are no other repeaters that get into the country I typically venture into. I was just on a mountain top this morning, and am starting the process of the application for a solar site on that mountain with the BLM. I tested my V-1 radios to the house HT to HT and had clear communication at about 15 miles with a friend who lives 4 miles south of me. This repeater, will give an incredible amount of coverage to where I spend about 80% of my time in the hills. Add to that, cell phones and SPOT, and I am set quite well communication wise.

I am fortunate that a local amateur radio operator has a repeater available. It is done properly on a 400 ft tower. The repeater covers the entire county and portions of adjacent counties. My initial itch for my own repeater was because I live in a low lying area and needed help getting over a hump to reach my wife’s mobile when she is at work. Once I discovered the local amateur radio club, I joined and got access to the repeater. It eliminated all desire to set up my own repeater. Like you mention, GMRS is not wildly popular. For the most part it is only we two who use it, with the occasional visit from one of the hams. If the repeater owner ever decides to stop maintaining the repeater, I may very well become interested in building my own again. Fortunately, my coverage needs are modest, about 10 miles. We probably could blast through most of that distance on 40 Watt simplex, except for the hump right in the middle.

Check out these two Comet antennas, CA-2x4SR & CA-2x4SRNMO. 1.5:1 or less SWR: 144-148/440-450MHz 2:1 or less SWR: 140-160/435-465MHz Gain: 3.8/6.2dBi

I have not had or seen anybody have good luck running a dual band ham antenna on GMRS, In my personal experience the trusty NMO UHF 1/4 wave has given me the best performance for repeaters and hwy simplex use and most will cover 440 to 480. No issue with repeaters 30 miles away and regularly see 10 miles simplex on the hwy.

New to all these.I just received my GMRS licensed and got me a pair of midland GXT1000 . purpose for this device is for , in case of emergency, bug-out situation .The license covers family members . So my wife and I can use these radios ? do I need to register these radios to FCC?

This radio is NOT Part-90 certified as applies to GMRS. For UHF 406.1-480.0 the radio is approved for 5K21F3E (5.21kHz) and, as Axorlov noted, 10K4F3E (10.4 kHz). These correspond to Narrow (6.25kHz) and Wide (12.5) band FM. So, it would, at first, seem this radio might be ok on GMRS. However, In their cover letter BTECH states The Mobile Radio with FCC ID: 2AGNDUV50X3 was designed to operate in the frequency bands 400-480MHz&136-174MHz. To aid equipment authorization in other countries which accept the United States FCC Grant for certification, BTECH (BaoFeng Tech) is requesting that the FCC lists the frequencies 400-480MHz136-174MHz, under FCC Rules Parts 90 on the FCC Grant. BTECH (BaoFeng Tech) attests that the repeater will not be marketed to USA users with the frequency band which is not allowed by the rule part 90. Per the FCC’s KDB634817 guidance, as an alternative to listing the exact frequencies, we acknowledge that it’s a violation of the FCC Rules if this device operates on unauthorized frequencies. Then, in the frequency table attached to that letter UHF: 400-480MHz Frequency Range(MHz) FCC Rule Part 400-406 MHz For Federal 406.1-450 MHz FCC Part 90 450-454 MHz FCC Part 90 456-460MHz FCC Part 90 460-462.5375MHz FCC Part 90 462.7375-467.5375MHz FCC Part 90 467.7357-470MHz FCC Part 90 470-480MHz FCC Part 90 Note, they explicitly exclude GMRS: 462.5500 - 462.7250 & 467.5500 - 467.7250 So, while the UV-50X3 may be freely used on the Ham bands and in Part-90 service on the stated bands, it cannot be used as either a Part-95 radio or a Part-90 radio on GMRS. So, Corey's postulate on Part-90 radios on GMRS would not apply.

My repeater is open to all licensed operators who operate according to the laws governing GMRS. Users don't have to email and ask permission; however I appreciate those that do, as it gives me a chance to get to know the users of my machine. It's just a courtesy thing.

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