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I found a TOPO map that is color graded to the height in meters. Lets to pick a spot and will tell the altitude for that spot. Red's are higher and blue's are lower. https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/maps/d3b/Oklahoma/ Looks like a good tool. WRCW870

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.

I don't believe this matter will truly be resolved until resolved by a recognized authority on this subject. The information posted above on the Radio Reference page is as close to a recognized authority as any other that I've seen, so rather than try to reinvent the wheel, I'll generally follow their recommendation of using channel 20 for traveling. I would place a sign in my back window for "GMRS Ch. 20" if I wanted to let other travelers know how to contact me. That's what a lot of CBers did back in the day to let others know what channel they were using, and what I've seen a few hams do also. If traveling off-highway with other vehicles, I do like the idea of using channel 16, since it is the product of 4x4. Years ago, we used CB channel 4 most of the time, since we were "4" wheeling. Whatever channel to use would be something that could be decided within the group, however, and could change due to other radio traffic, or if some users only had FRS radios.

One of my major pet peeves are those who say "over and out." Logically one can be either "over" or "out", but never both at the same time! ?

Not trying to be snipey here, but it's because there is no generally agreed upon channel. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against 20. I'm hoping it becomes the undisputed calling king of what turns out to be very busy GMRS airways. I'm just saying, by virtue of the fact so many people don't "know" and we are discussing it, don't you think it's still a bit of an unknown? Saying "I declare it so" or seeing it on some other forum from some guy who says so doesn't make it so. I was joking about 19, but I now officially support 20 for a "road" channel. I hope it succeeds.

It's because they think theirs is more round than yours. It's the NIH syndrome -Not Invented Here.

There is little difference in performance between the Laird phantom and their 1/4 wave wire stub. Actually, the wire stub is less noticeable than a black or white phantom on say a red car.

Not familiar with that antenna, but if you do get a longer antenna for when you are out of town, I recommend the Browning BR-176-S. I am having great results using it. It is a 3dBd gain 5/8 antenna that has an overall length of about 13".

I just did the KG-1000G repeater thing - it works great.. its not perfect, but works pretty darn well - with coverage in 30+ miles each direction, and we just made it available on Zello (search Zello for the channel "Notarubicon GMRS 700 Repeater" -.. anyone can listen, request access to talk) If you give a little info about what isnt working we can probably get you fixed up, or at least pointed in the right direction..

I have spent some time today investigating the pinouts and behavior of the RJ45 connections on the radio for the purpose of integrating with other things. I have also messaged BTWR to ask for the official information. I will post the results here in the near future. One think I discovered today is what I consider to be an error in the manual. The pin numbers used in the manual for the RJ45 (8P8C) connector are backwards from the standard. So if you make you own cable and reverse the conductors based on the standard pin numbers, the cable will be incorrect. If using the standard pin numbers, Pins 5 and 7 need to be reversed end to end, not 2 and 4 as indicated in the manual. However, if you follow the graphic in the manual you will be fine. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM Edit: Here are the current pinout findings.