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I deal with BTWR a lot and they always go out of their way to keep their customers happy.. They arent perfect, and they cant make everyone happy, but they try, and do much better than many other places.

When I first read this thread, I thought it was about a radio vendor that pings on me often, to purchase RCA radios that appears like Motorola XPR7550e knockoffs. They sometimes send this link to showcase their rugged radios. However, it is Discount Two-Way Radios that sends this to me. As for Bridgecom Systems, I look elsewhere as they blow up my email often as well trying to alert me to my 4% completion in the Bridgecom University training series.....even after stating that I administer many DMR radio networks tied together across the nation. Always good to give some credit to those vendors that do a good job. Often the good ones get lost in the weeds and forest of the bad ones.

I've examined all of my gear with the three spectrum analyzers I own, and they are all clean as a whistle.

A ground rod for installation in ground just before cable enters the house. Your suppressor will connect to this. A 6AWG bonding conductor for interconnection between your new ground rod and your existing main electrical ground rod. Ground clamps for connecting the bonding conductor to both ground rods. Waterproof rubber tape to use for sealing all coaxial connectors outdoors. Coax in two lengths, one to go between ground-plane kit and the suppressor, the other to go between suppressor and radio. So make sure you either buy pre-made cables of the correct length, or purchase connectors and tools for terminating the cable yourself. A bracket or other means of attaching the suppressor directly too the ground bar. DX Engineering has these. An antenna analyzer or SWR meter so you confirm all performs well before, during and after the installation. Don’t wait to check SWR until after installation. Check things in steps. Antenna on ground plane mount, antenna on ground plane with first coax, antenna on ground plane with first coax and suppressor, then complete system. Do it in stages, before, during and after installation to catch issues early to avoid having to take it down just to troubleshoot your issues. Get your antenna as high as you can practically get it. The greater its height, the deeper into the woods it will reach, but expect the trees to retard your signal. Test your range HT to HT early by getting up on the roof and conducting tests with your wife in the woods now so you can get a sense of what to expect later. The point at which the two of you can just barely hear one another should become clear with a good base antenna installation. Good luck. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

$400 for a featureless radio. I'm good, thanks.

Here are the sweeps of my GP6 off a freshly calibrated VNA. GMRS band is tolerable. Not as bad as I recalling. Good luck. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Wanted to take time to give an Atta Boy to Buy Two Way Radios.com. Being a Noob, I ordered the wrong thing. Figured it out at the last second, and sent them a message to cancel my order. Just about then, I got an email that my order was ready to ship. NUTS! But, lo and behold, they intercepted the shipment, canceled the order, and credited me my purchase. Good customer service is hard to find now a days, so when it happens, I think its worth sharing.

Best of all, BTWR doesn't pester you with an email every doggone day, unlike Bridgecom!

I wouldn't totally count it out, to be honest, but it'll depend on LOS and elevation, and what terms the owner(s) want for membership. I'm able to use the Central 1 machine (west of Coalinga...have to enable "stale repeaters" to see it) from a bit more than 60 miles out on a basic little 5/8 wave in the top of a closet.

Intermod (it's a username on this forum) is an owner, you can send PM to him. They turned me down few years ago, but you may try, maybe their hearts softened over 5 years. It may be possible to hit it from Manteca, repeater is roughly at 1800', while Altamont pass is at about 1000'. The 70cm repeater at the same location is easily reachable from Tri Valley, from every place, and has a good coverage over Bay Area proper, except the mountain shadow in North San Jose, and in Fremont. And this is with reduced power, as far as I understand, because of PAVE PAWS radar site. GMRS frequencies do not fall under military control, so coverage supposed to be same or better.

The math presented appears correct to me. 1% of 65cm is approximately ¼". Just a WAG, but I would present that the data provided suggests that either both SWR readings are showing a slightly longer than optimal antenna or possible difference in accuracy of the meter with different power output. OP did not confirm that readings were taken with the same output. This is one of the advantages of the nanoNVA tool vs a transmitter and wattmeter. Without an analyzer, cut and see if the 1.3 goes up more than the 2.0 goes down, or if both go down. 2.0 SWR isn't going to hurt anything on GMRS, propagation will vary more with where you are standing, how straight up you hold the antenna (polarization is real) and how well charged your battery is.

Don't worry, all the spurious emissions from the CCR will simulate that SSB effect lol G.

A used Part 90 repeater is a better investment. Units from Motorola, GE, or others are proven, solid units. Amateur units from Kenwood, Icom or Yeasu are also good candidates. The key piece for a repeater is the antenna. It needs both height above ground and gain. Gain increases the effective radiated power and improves reception. Gain is reported in either dBi or dBd. Dbi is imaginary while dBd is real gain as you subtract 2.1 from the dBi figure to obtain the real power increase of dBd for an antenna. Repeater life is measured by the duty cycle which is the amount of time the repeater is in use. Low cost units have a duty cycle or time spent actually on-air of about 20% or working about 12 minutes per hour. Part 90 units and amateur units will start with a 50% duty cycle and go up to a 100% duty cycle which means constant use.

The report can be found here. Side-by-Side Range Comparison (KG-805G vs Part 90) - The Findings https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?share_fid=112680&share_tid=2536&url=https://forums.mygmrs.com/index.php?/topic/2536-Side-by-Side-Range-Comparison-%28KG-805G-vs-Part-90%29---The-Findings&share_type=t&link_source=app Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Exactly what happened to me... I spent a ton of money and things didn't perform to my expectations... and 2 mobiles and velcro.. yep,. that sounds like a good plan to me! don't forget the cable! G.

Have 2 operating now, very impressed with coverage. Using Comet CA-712EFC antennas, short runs of lmr 400. These are listed on mygmrs.com, Ranch 650, and Copano Bay 675. The Ranch 650 runs off batteries and solar. located on a hill, antenna at 65 ft. Copano antenna only at 25 ft.

Everyone in your immediate family would all use the same call sign. You all have to ID with the call sign every 15 minutes of conversation and at the end of the conversation, regardless of the duration. You can add additional identifiers if you would like. An example would be, everyone in my family would use ABCD123, but I may ID my station as ABCD123-ALPHA. My wife would ID as ABCD123-OMEGA. My son could be ABCD123-BETA. Again, the add-on ID is optional... but legal. For what it's worth, no one in my family uses add-ons. We all just use ABCD123 and call each other by name.