Leaderboard

Before anyone spends any money on an antenna you should really try a simple 1/4 wave dipole. They are cheap to buy, and easy to make on your own (lots of instructions online). The simple fact is that as a Line-of-Sight service, GMRS/UHF doesn't go very far anyway. It makes no sense to spend money for gain to create a signal that will not travel any further. Of course, there are many cases where a gain antenna (uni or multi directional) makes sense. But, the vast majority of applications can be well met with the most basic of antennas.

Why not get an appropriately long copper rod, drive it into the ground as close to the base of your existing pole as possible. and bond the two together? But first, are there stations, mobiles or repeaters you think you could reach with a higher antenna that you cannot reach from your attic antenna? If the answer is no, you are done.

That look correct to me. ...and yes, with Tone Squelch you would be set to hear only traffic from the repeater, not everything on that frequency.

You need to look at the National Electric Code (NEC) and meet those requirements at a minimum.

All P1225s are repeater capable.

NO! ...do not use lightning rod cables to ground your antenna. Very bad idea. Where is the electrical service entrance to your home? Grounding to the electrical system's ground rod would be the much better place to ground your antenna system.

I was going to toss this out on the air!