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You can also test as you go. For example, install the antenna and test it, then install the coax and test it, then, if you have adapters, lightning arresters, or anything else to add, install those and test again. The purpose of doing this would be to ensure nothing you add to your antenna system causes any problems along the way. Your most important reading, though, will be the final one, where the antenna system connects to the radio. If you had any flaky readings along the way, hopefully you would have made any necessary corrections, so the final reading should be good (or the last thing you added could be causing a problem). Overall, though, you want to check the antenna system as a whole. The test as you go suggestion is mostly to help rule out problems as you're building the antenna system.

Update: Programming Cable received and chirp software loaded! Once I bypassed Apple security (which the instructions clearly addressed), loading Chirp on Mac was pretty straight forward using the instructions from BlueMax49ers and their chirp link. Uploading it to my Btech V1 was also easy. I have now heard from at least 2 of the repeaters I entered. One was GMRS so I was able to talk. The other was VHF so I was able to listen. Just good to know I’m making some progress although there is still a lot to learn, even with GMRS. It’s clear BlueMax49ers was/is the way to go. Mark sent me a note and assured me he was also available to assist if any problems. I told him of the sites informal approval of my choice and his apparent positive reputation! ? One question: I actually have 2 Btechs V1s (one for my wife). I’m hoping I can now just connect the second one and upload to that device the same data. Just wondering if software will recognize that it’s a new device and require something more complicated. Otherwise, I think I am on my way. I’ve heard and read a lot about how supportive this community is. I appreciate all of your responses, (most especially you Michael). As I learn, I hope to be able to pay it forward. Thanks. ?

Correct. The SWR has to be checked with antenna and coax in their installed configuration. Otherwise you may get an inaccurate measurement.

Ex electrician here. I would cut in a box in the wall at the same height as your electrical outlets and route the cable through the box. When done use a blank outlet plate with a hole in it big enough to accommodate the coax. They do make cover plates with holes in them already if you know what you want. Otherwise do what the cable installers do which is go through the floor as close to the baseboard molding as possible. No offense to cable installers but they tend to do things as quick and as easy as possible so they can get the heck out of there.

Open the programming software on your computer, click on READ (from radio) and go to KEY SETTINGS. Replace KG-XS20G with your call sign and then click on WRITE (to radio).

Had several XPR8400 repeaters in use myself for a corporation that responded to oil spills. Worked well, but had an issue with the fan going full speed, often damaging the fan. This was able to be rectified and adjusted. They also allowed for mixed mode use, which was great for a corporation that planned to go to 2 slot TDMA Trbo in the future. As for MTR2000-MTR3000's, I have also had several power supplies fail on these models of repeaters in the past few months. Parts are hard to find, and Motorola is ending support soon of the MTR3000's. The MTR3000 is also a transition model that could do analog conventional and 2 slot TDMA, much like the XPR8400, which also came with that feature. If you never plan to use digital mode, the XPR8300 may be a cheaper and more available option. As others mentioned, the current SLR5700 (50 watts) and SLR8000 (100 watt) repeaters are a considerably better option, but at new prices. If it were me and digital was never expected to be used, I would look for a slightly used XPR8300 repeater for GMRS.

Metal roof racks will impact antennas, both electrically and physically. How much depends on the antenna, placement and construction of both the antenna and the roof rack. However, with some vehicles, such as aluminum skinned Ford F-150's, steel roof racks often help, increasing the ground plane for the antenna. However, real world.....unless you are trying to get the perfect signal out of your radio/antenna/vehicle combination, most people will not notice the impact of a roof rack. For UHF and GMRS, I would not worry about it too much. As for RF exposure, I try to meet the FCC guidance, keeping several feet between UHF antennas and people inside the vehicle. For that truck/SUV, putting an antenna near the back of that roof rack, or on the roof rack, above the rear light would be the most useful and least impacted by the roof rack. This also places the antenna at a high point, extending range. But, depending on length, may be an issue in garages and decked parking lots.

Recently bought a combination package of Radioddity DB20-G mobile with a GM-30 handheld GMRS radios. Both work as expected, as described but with terrible manuals, the need to download software from the Radioddity website, and get the correct drivers for the programming cable. However, the DB20-G does actually put out 20 Watts, as checked with both a Bird/Thruline wattmeter and a Surecom dual band wattmeter. The GM-30 is very similar to many other Chinese made handheld radios of the past decade, and looks a lot like my Anytone 878 handheld. However, the DB20-G fits perfectly in an old Honda Civic dash cubby hole, looks like it came with the car. A Tram dual band antenna went on the trunk. The TYT, Anytone,Radioddity radios appear to work well. I may do as a previous poster mentioned, and buy more DB20-G radios for use in other vehicles, and as base radios where I do not want a larger power supply and Motorola CDM or XPR series mobile dominating the desk space.

Great to see this information up front and on top. I have administered P25 radio networks for a very long time, and repeaters are not for the newcomers. I have built portable repeaters for use in the aftermath of hurricanes: Katrina, Rita, and Wilma,and for incidents such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (oil rig) explosion and resultant oil spill response. All of the advice given here is spot on. Repeaters are after you gain some experience running "barefoot"and simplex for a while.

Alternatively, use a piece of 4" diameter pvc pipe, with a 90º elbow outside. Fill the elbow with steel wool to keep the critters out!

If you won't have an issue with putting a connector on the coax, run it through a piece of PVC pipe. Fill the pipe with insulating foam leaving a drip loop on the exterior portion of the cable just before entering the pipe.

Thank you @mbrun for your excellent writeup! These two key points were settings that were unclear to me, but now make sense, and complete the picture. Also, thanks for the walk-thru on how to demonstrate these functions. I only have one 935, but I did try (and fail) to simulate it last weekend with another piece of equipment talking to the 935. Based on your example, and with the understanding of the ANI#DEST, and SP-Mute, I'll try my simulation again perhaps this weekend. And thank you all who've contributed to this thread! (BTW, I set my ANI as the last 3 digits of my callsign. BOT helps force me to wait a moment before speaking, and EOT is a bit of a "signature" Roger Beep. Currently they're set to BOTH. Not sure if I'll continue using them as such... I guess it depends on whether folks on repeaters I use raise a big stink over it or not.)

Received my GMRS-V1 on November 1st. Fully charged, so now it's ready for "go mode". I'm on the road for plenty of hours during the days (weekday work and weekend road rips). WROG839

Alright. Since I am the guy with the tens of thousands of dollars setup and the commercial install I believe I need to interject here. Never did I say that a small repeater system is useless. And there are COMMERCIAL repeaters available that ARE indeed two mobiles in a box with a controller between them. And those work find if that is all you need. My point was if you are going to put up a big commercial grade install that you need to NOT pull the crap of wanting fee's paid for access, as this level of install has a huge footprint that will interfere with other repeaters on the same frequency in that footprint. And the frequency resource is limited for repeaters. I am all for guys that want to put up a repeater on their roof or short TV tower and be able to talk 8 or 10 miles. This sort of thing SHOULD be encouraged. But you still need to be aware of others on the frequency and try to find a quiet pair to set your repeater up on. The other thing that needs to be said here is IF you are going to stick an antenna WAY up in the air and cover a 60 to 80 mile radius, you DO need to have good commercial equipment and not two portables with a back to back cable between them and a cheap duplexer. And here's the reason. If you are the only one that will be using it, and the usage is light, it don't matter. But with a big coverage footprint there is a good chance that it will see a lot of use and portable radios are NOT designed to be run at that duty cycle. The commercial repeaters I use for GMRS are 100% CCS (continuous commercial service) rated. This means they are designed to be transmitting up to 100% of the time, 27/7/365 and live. If you were to try that with the two back to back mobiles the transmitter would not survive the abuse, even with a fan and additional cooling. Now, my repeaters are only logging 30 to 45 minutes of use a day currently... but that number keeps increasing. And that's fine. I built it to run all the time, and offer it for free to all licensed users in the coverage area to use at their leisure. But I would hate to see someone put in inferior gear at some remote site and it die when it was needed. That situation is actually worse in my mind than it not being there at all. Because if it's needed and expected to be operational. And that operational repeater is part of someones emergency plan, then it needs to work as such.

I purchased one of these for my Jeep. I ordered the programming cable for it as well. Typical use for GMRS is off roading. We just did a trip up in the Cascades of WA, had 5 jeeps. It worked just fine. I like the many features and functions-much better than my MXT-400-that is now set up as a base station. The compact chasis and front facing buttons are a big plus, and it's easy to read the display. The only issue I had was dealing with disabling my anti virus program in order to run the Wouxun program. For a mobile setup with a decent antenna, it is just fine. I'm a Ham so if I need to do longer distance stuff I can use that platform. We only have one GMRS repeater in my general area but it has tremendous coverage and I can hit that from most places I travel locally. I'm very pleased with this radio. Wouxun makes a solid radio even though techincall it's in the "Chinese Radio" category. IMHO one of the best units available. Midland does have 2 options in this general power output range but not nearly the features, especially with the Wouxun's wide band TX/RX ability. I'd recommend this radio for sure.