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By the time you buy 2 KG1000 radios and cable you can purchase a good used repeater on line. You still need a duplexer and feedline and antenna. Those will most likely cost more than the repeater. a 35' tower will require around 50' of feedline depending on how close you can put repeater to your tower. Grounding of said tower, cable and repeater. Just things to think about.

Part of the fun collecting used HT's is trying to figure out who the previous owner/user was of the radio. Most of the time all you get is some frequencies listed, maybe the radio has provisions for a display so that might help. The Kenwoods I collect typically have an entry for 2 lines of 32 character data each that you can only see when reading the radio. Those are normally blank, but a few had something entered. A TK-3212 I acquired only had 14 frequencies in it along with the display names for each channel, nothing else was found in the code plug when the radio was read. After doing some detective work, a lot of searching through the FCC's database, I found an entry where "NMP" corresponded to the first 3 words in the company name, one letter each. The license it fell under was WPTP616. https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=2363642 https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/licenseLocSum.jsp?licKey=2363642 The frequencies also seem to match up. As you can see there is a unit 1 and a unit 2 in the FCC database, and in the code plug you see "U1 OPS", "U12 OPS", "NMP RAD", "NMP ADM" etc. Things looked like they all sort of made sense. NMP -> 9 Mile Point (Nine Mile Point) RAD -> Research and Development (For a nuke station you would figure something this would be going on) ADM -> Administration T/A A -> Talk Around Channel "A" The radio I got used off of eBay apparently was previously used at a nuclear power station. I joked with a few fellow radio buddies that I should check it with a Geiger Counter to see if anything happens. When companies dump used radios I'm surprised they don't get the code plug wiped clean. At lest in the above case it likely would have been advisable. Just enough info was there, some lucky guesses and detective work, and I'm fairly sure about where the radio came from.

Depending in your local codes, 35’ may be close to the max allowed. My village is 40’. Before spending any money on a taller tower, I’d use the 35’ one first and study the results. Get decent coax and connectors, too.

Part 90 went narrow band several years ago. It may be that there is no wide band certifications anymore. I do not know for sure, just a guessing.

I theorize a similar same effect as reflector or director in a yagi with the diameter of the shield playing role. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I just find it strange that you said that the issue started after running the software through to make repeater channel updates. If it was me, I would troubleshoot by resetting the radio to stock. Further information can be found on the attached .pdf If after running the reset procedure and it still open squelch on channel 5 and channel 5 only, then well...I don't know! I am learning. Since my background is in technology, I jumped to the conclusion that it could possibly be software based at some level due what you mentioned. MXT400-Owners-Manual.pdf

Finally, got my Ultimax DX Extreme 72' Random Wire Antenna up. Mounted the transformer/unun to the bottom of a bird feeder with RG58 and counterpoise wire down bird feeder pole. In a vain attempt to hide it a bit from the HOA. The other end is tied to 50Lb Mono filament that I was fortunate to hook around the LNB of a satellite dish mounted to the chimney. This took several attempts, one attempt resulted in a cut monofilament when I hooked the angle adjuster. One attempt nearly end my day as I started to slide off the roof. Resulting in a lot of pulled muscles, burns from the hot shingles. *** it was a lot steeper then I thought originally. I do not recommend climbing the roof. Hire someone. The RG58 runs down the pole, I have yet to trench the RG213 from the DX Engineering NEMEA box which I had finally got installed and grounded the previous weekend. Sadly, now waiting on RG400 for the patch lines into the shack. Now I am contemplating switching from LMR400 to RG400 for the feed line to the 2m/70cm antenna in the attic. The bird feeder antenna in all it's glory. Photo is before the antenna was pulled and counterpoise was buried.

Folks, There's a new talkgroup on the TGIF DMR (digital mobile radio) network that represents the Tucson GMRS Association for dual GMRS/Ham licensees - it's on talkgroup 527. Anyone with a amateur license is welcome to tune in and pipe up - you're welcome! If you're itching to get into digital mobile radio - we can help. This talkgroup is only being carried on the prime.tgif.network (beta) and not the older (soon to be disabled) tgif.network. You need a DMR id of course, and you'll need to sign up at https://prime.tgif.network. TGIF is a newer DMR network, smaller, and runs very clean - no packet loss or congestion like the bigger DMR networks. We're quite impressed. There are instructions at https://prime.tgif.network on how to sign up for TGIF and how to configure a pi-star hotspot for DMR on the prime.tgif.network. If you need help, or have questions on how to setup a pi-star hotspot for the Prime TGIF network, you can catch me on this thread or you can email: SuperG@arrl.net