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@25' 400 cable will be fine. you could go to FSJ 2 or 4 though but they are a little more fragile in terms of oops factor

I have an Arrow portable "take down" beam antenna intended for 440MHx/70cm ham radio. I bought this antenna for my ham radios, before I had GMRS. Mine is the dual band version with a second set of elements for 2M but otherwise identical to the link below. http://www.arrowantennas.com/arrowii/440-7ii.html I finally got around to checking the SWR with my Wouxun 805G. It was very good - like darned near a perfect 1:1. My output power was actually a bit higher than with other antennas I've tested so somehow this antenna seems to "tickle" the 805G just right. Maybe the 805G is not a perfect 50 ohm output but this antenna is a near reciprocal match???? I'm just reporting the data. I did not talk to anyone on it but triggered the repeater 15 miles away. So I know it was transmitting. That repeater is hard to hit on a simple 1/4 wave antenna with 5W. My meter is an MFJ-842 set on the 10W range. I had about 6' of RG-58 coax in the path. Hams use RG-58 awith BNC connectors for short runs all the time on 440Mhz. Vince

BIG BIG BIG thanks to Jack for fixing my bricked 805G.

Hey Scott, I'm a little less of a newbie than you, but picked up a Astron RS-35M for a base station set-up (& whatever future endeavors) from Ham Radio Outlet and have been very satisfied with it. Plenty of power for two radios, in case you ever decide to put up a repeater. Seems to be recommended by a lot of HAMs. https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-016694 Regards, Dan

MozartMan, this happen to me over the Christmas holiday and could not get help from BTWR as they where closed... So being an computer guy, I just took the saved CHIRP file I made before making any changes... It fixed it and then reprogramed and all is working... Send me a PM with you email address and I will send you a virgin factory CHIRP config file for you to upload (send) to your 805G... Jack

Hello learfixer. Welcome to myGMRS. Go to this site and enter the coordinates of the repeater and your proposed antenna. https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ Do your best to enter realistic antenna elevations as well. If it shows that there is no earth between your antenna and the repeater antenna, and your antenna is above the surrounding tree line, you have reasonable chance of hitting that repeater. I have one 50 miles away I can hit with my antenna at 56’ using just a 5 watt HT, but this is an exceptional condition. I also have a repeater 8 miles away that I cannot get in to, even at 50 watts and my high antenna. I cannot bet into the latter because the repeater antenna is so low (30-40’ AGL), is about 150’ lower in elevation than me and there is not clear line of sight (lots of earth) between us. Earth and other obstacles between your antennas are your enemy. Antenna and antenna height are more important than radio. I have done all my communication experimentation with a lower power HTs connected to various external antennas and at various elevations. Focusing on what it takes to achieve good communication with lower power has been incredibly sobering and valuable. I highly recommend it. Good luck with your project. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

You could always run the coax thru the soffit.

Well it is official they accepted my late payment (application was in on time). I get to keep my call sign and I can turn the repeater back on. 70$. Maybe I better hurry and take my AE exam before they raise that one up!

Why not just set up a decent antenna on the house with a base inside. I get not wanting to drill holes but you would only need one hole for your coax. I just build a wooden shelf inside my kitchen cabinet. The power supply sits on the bottom then my base is on the top portion with a 2.5" hole directly under the speaker. I actually installed an electrical box and just made a hole in a blank faceplate but thats really not necessarily, you could just make a line size hole straight through and use silicone around it. If you own the house why not customize it to your liking. My antenna is attached to the side of the house and sits at around 30', this allowed me to use a 30' run of lmr400 to minimize signal loss.

Simplex repeater appears not to be allowed. There are words about "store and forward" not being allowed in all Part 95. However, I actually have and I use Argent Data simplex repeater. I only use it in the mountains, never in the urban area. The ADS-SR1 can be configured in a smart way: it will not automatically blurt out anything it hears. It will record and sit quietly, until it hears DTMF "0", only then it repeats the last recorded message. So usage mode is this: we talk on simplex with HTs, while ADS-SR1 quietly sits in the car, parked in good spot (or any available spot), connected to 40W TK-880 and efficient antenna. It does not repeat anything. Then I find myself far from the others where HTs are not picking signal. I call and wait for sufficient time to answer (say 1 minute), and then I send DTMF "0". Simplex repeater hears it and shouts out the last call (supposedly mine) with all 40W out of efficient antenna. I hear it myself, I know that now it reached recipients, most likely. This scheme works like a charm. You do not pollute the waves until really needed.

Ok, give me a toy.. Here's the path from my 'spot' on top to Boise State U. Zoomed in on myGMRS and see it's a Network Hub. So theoretically I could get on the Net Sunday nights from my hunting spot and shoot the breeze. Gonna get back up there when the weather warms and give it a shot if I can get the access and permission required. Long shot with 25w but man is it clear sailing. Perch: 8182' approx. Boise: 2732' approx. 127mi/205km How's that for elevating the antenna? Feel bad for you flatlanders

For this to work you would have to set the repeater radio to REVERSE the TX and RX frequencies. Ham radios all have this but I don't think GMRS radios generally do unless you program them through a computer. I don't see any advantage in using it this way because you'd still have big delays and no real way of knowing what's up. Using it simplex you'd maybe here some noise while the other person is talking before hearing the clear repeated message. So maybe you'd have a hint when the other party is talking an know to wait. I think for many situations a "human repeater" would actually work better. You get "Bob" to park up on a hill and when you can't get through to "Dave" directly you get "Bob" to relay to him. This way you have an "intelligent" simplex repeater that only repeats when necessary..... as long as Bob doesn't mind sitting up on the hill all day. Vince

There are hundreds of posts on this forum with pro and con on all of them. Do a search of what your looking for and you will find it.

There's nothing wrong about a J-Pole. They work, and work well but there are better options with other antennas that offer gain which a J-Pole doesn't.

YOu didn't mention the height of the tower. The elevation of the tower above average terrain, or the expected coverage footprint of a UHF repeater at the tower. If the site is of reasonable height and the terrain height is good you may well pull a 20 or better mile radius of coverage from that tower. If that is the case, why tie up two frequencies by linking two repeaters. You would be far better off to just put your repeater on that tower and be done with it. Your coverage would increase and you would not be tying up two freqs with the same audio.

What radio? And how far away?

There are a lot of factors to consider. Let’s start with the basics. How much power does the repeater actually draw when transmitting. Although it is rated at 5 watt output, it may very well draw 12-15 watts or more power. You will want to confirm this as this identifies your worst case load load scenario. You need to know how much power it draws when sitting idle, while powered on but doing nothing. This establishes your best case scenario. How much time do you estimate the repeater will actually be transmitting per day? This value combined with the numbers above will then help you establish how much power is needed to keep you operational for 24 hours. If you were packing in battery packs as your sole means of power, the amount of power needed per day can easily be used to calculate how much usable battery capacity to carry in. Now, if you are going to use solar to recharge the batteries, you need to establish how long you anticipate (worst case) that you might be without useful sun for solar charging. This number of days multiplied by the watt hours of power needed to run the radios per day then helps you determine the minimum usable capacity of battery packs you need to bring in. Now, the type of battery pack you go with will also be a factor. Lead acid batteries should not typically be deep cycled routinely, although they can in a pinch. When designning a system that uses them it is pretty common to assume you would only ever use 50% of their capacity so you would want twice the needed capacity as its rated capacity. On the other hand, if you use one of the various lithium chemistries you will be able to leverage more of the batteries rated capacity before you must recharge. OK, now that you know how much battery capacity you may need, now you turn to sizing your solar panels. You need solar panels that can deliver enough power during daylight hours to operate your repeater, with plenty of extra capacity to recharge the batteries from the previous night or past several rainy days. So since all of the above factor in and we don’t yet know any more particulars, let’s start simply. Let’s say your repeater actually consumes 15 watts. Let us be absurd and assume it would transmitting all day long. For the whole day the repeater would consume a total of 360 watt hours of power (15w x 24hr) or approx 30 Ah (1.25A * 24 Hr) of 12vdc power. A deep cycle battery with a REAL usable capacity of 100Ah has about 1200 watt hours +/- of potential energy. From the above your can see that if you truly had 100Ah of usable capacity, with a 15w continuous load you could perhaps run just over three days on this battery. Now, if you drop your repeater transmission time to say only 5-10% of the day, then your battery will last you quite a bit longer. Finally. If 360 watt hours is the worst case operating scenario, then solar panels capable of replenish this 360 watts daily, plus more for charging the batteries is in order. But, if your worst case daily usage is only on the order of say 50 watt hours, then you need much less in the way of solar panels. Now it is all about the numbers. What is the specific scenario you are trying to satisfy? I think you will be able to do the math from here. Hope this helps. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I think it comes down to the low bar to entry; since there's no knowledge requirement for a gmrs license, this is the FCC's way of giving a user with zero knowledge a way to know they're using compliant equipment, and (in theory) not throwing spurious emissions all over the spectrum. Ham, on the other hand, has some level of knowledge required, so they allow more freedom on equipment, with the burden on the operator to ensure the quality of their own equipment.

I have some Part 90 HTs, and many models of the "bubble-pack" radios, including some legacy Motorolas with repeater capability, as well as the KG-805g, and the GMRS-V1. The 805g is well worth the extra cost over any of the bubble-pack radios. The 805g beats the GMRS-V1 as well. The 805G is repeater compatible, and you can program many custom channels. The 805g can utilize better HT antennas, or external antennas. I do not have a service monitor, but field-testing leads to to believe that the 805g has a much better front end than most CCR and the bubblepacks. For those who are stickler's for FCC rule compliance, the 805g is type certified for GMRS. I do have some part 90/95A radios from Kenwood and Icom, but many of the Part 90 radios being used by GMRS operators are not part 95, and some may object to their use. I don't have a problem with anyone using them. The way I see it, the purpose of the FCC rules is to prevent harmful interference and to let as many people as possible use the spectrum. It makes no logical sense to limit someone's choices, as long as the operator does not misuse their equipment to the detriment of someone else (No Harm, No Foul). I really appreciate the efforts of the tester. More info is always good.

I purchased a pair of these last summer and upgraded both with the Nagoya 701G antenna. On 5 watts I have gotten good reception up to 14 miles. This distance was confirmed with Google Earth. I will attempt greater distances when time permits. My location is Northwest Montana in a valley with mountains on all sides. I do my best to have line of sight work to my advantage. Talking from one town to the next works well as long as I choose a location (elevation) that reduces building obstructions. These radios generally are not affected (in my experience) by trees, hills, etc. I did a lot of reading (research) before I purchased these and have been very happy with the decision.

The entry level Technicians exam is fairly easy, but I personally took (and still take) the examination process quite seriously. I wanted to get my ham ticket 40 years ago, but was put off by the CW portion of the exam. Only this past year did I learn it was no longer a subject that was tested on, so with this knowledge I finally decided to study for my license. I obtained both my Technician and the General Class upgrade. I now am actively working towards the Extra Class. For me, amateur radio is all about gaining knowledge, experimentation and then working and collaborating with others that share that passion. Some get into it just because they want to use the cool cheap walkie-talkies that are available now. Many folks I have heard say ‘just memorize the answers’. For me, that was the last thing I wanted to do. Yes, I wanted to pass, and I new I would given my nearly 40 years working in a branch of the communications field. However, I have always admired the hams and looked up to those that were took it seriously. I knew many that had some good solid technical chops. I was not going to sell myself short if I entered. I studied the books, went on lots of learning trails to fill in knowledge gaps, then took many practice tests and researched each topic when I got something wrong until finally I knew I could get every possible question right. You can feel pretty good about yourself and your accomplishments when you study, I know I did on test day. As I reflected on passing each exam, I realized that passing was truly nothing more than just earning my ticket, my permission to enter. I learned that the knowledge gained in the testing process was just a drop in the bucket compared to what there is know. There is still so much more to learn and so little time to learn it. I wish I had not waited. Don’t sell yourself short. Take it seriously, then get your ticket and enjoy the learning process which is the amateur radio hobby. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Radioguy If PLs only work when your are far from interference and other traffic then we never need them. If you believe in the 95-5-5% then we are already near zero. If we dont use PLs we will become CB. Wild west, If you are really worried, most radios have a "busy channel lockout". If someone is talking when you PTT you will get bonked. Businesses have using PLs to create "channels" for 50 years. That is how trunked radio got its inspiration. Kirk WRHS673

Hello Kirk, and welcome to the forum! I have been using FRS and GMRS off and on for nearly 20 years. This is the first time I have heard the suggestion of there being a ‘reluctance’ to use PL codes. You have me curious. What is the nature of the comments you’re hearing that give you this impression? My personal perspective follows. While I do use repeaters, my primary reason for having GMRS is simplex. There are times I operate both with and without PL codes. More often without them. I use codes only when I am in an area where there is heavy use of the frequencies and I want to leave my radios on for extended periods but only want to hear traffic from my group. After all that is the reason PL codes came into existence in the first place. They provided a way for different businesses and other groups to share a frequency without having to listen to with each other’s conversations. My personal experience has also shown that without codes, when in an area of low RF noise that the receiver will open squelch at a slightly greater distance without the code than with. Then there is the “real” interference thing. Two people cannot operate on the same frequency without adversely affecting the reception by the intended listeners residing within their shared coverage area. This is true no matter how many PL codes there are. The use of codes masks the presence and use of the frequency by others. A knowledgable and respectful two-way radio user knows not to transmit when the frequency is in use. When PL codes are active it is easy to overlook the fact that someone else might be talking and complacency will result in unintentional interfering transmissions. If no PL code was being used, it would be pretty obvious if someone else nearby was using the frequency. I hope this helps. I look forward to hearing more about the reluctance. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Buytwowayradios.com claims yes. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-805g.html?utm_source=mygmrs_topbanner&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=mygmrs

I think you have this backwards. UHF performs better in urban areas. Better penetration through buildings. NYPD remains on UHF for this reason. VHF is better in wooded, hilly terrain. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2008/09/uhf_or_vhf_which_is_right_for_you.html