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+1 on this. I have found many people that do not even seem to realize there is a difference, Japanese made Yaesu FT-8900 series radios, versus Chinese copy of that radio. Quality is very much an issue, and I have found many of these in state Emergency Operations Centers, often as spares or replacement for the original Yaesu. One person even told me that for the price, they expect them to fail and will replace them with another Chinese knockoff, as they can afford it. (Never mind the time to get another radio, supply chain, procurement, and so on adding to lost time as downtime).

RG-213 on the charts I have seen shows 5.2 dB loss per 100 feet. at 45 feet it should be a bit less than half that. https://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html Additional connectors do have issues with the potential for water intrusion and corrosion. For a temporary installation it is not much of an issue, but for permanent installations the better practice is to have a single run.

Ahh, well, that kills the deal for me. I'll just stick with Wouxun then. Thanks

I almost bought one. I cancelled because there were no accessories for it. Secondary concern was company owner is on the liberal left side politically.

You can use a PO box, or even cheaper, a service that hides your info.

You wouldn’t put your repeater antenna in your driveway, would you? Height is might.

We mounted a 25' telescoping flag pole to the front tongue of our travel trailer. It collapses to about 5' and the pole mounts in a stub that stays permanently attached to the trailer frame. Takes less than five minutes to install and extend the flag pole for setup or tear down. I'm considering installing an NMO antenna mount at the top of the pole for GMRS comms. When traveling the flag pole stows in the bed of the truck. In my case the coax will stow under my propane storage cover when not in use.

The people who are dead set against CCRs will never acknowledge anything right with them, but the fact is that they are a large reason why a lot of people get into playing with radios. And once you learn about radios, if you can afford it, chances are you’ll get something better.

My suggestion is that if there are no repeaters in your area, be a pillar of the community and put one up for you and everyone to use!

If it works, it works. Nothing wrong with using what you have.

I personally know two people who use their business addresses on FCC records. At least they're reasonably sure no one will show up at their house. I agree though, the FCC posting your street address with your license isn't the best idea.

So do like Randy suggested and sign up with HamRegistry. Here’s the official response to your concerns: https://www.fcc.gov/managing-director/privacy-transparency/privacy-act-information

I'm a fan of need-to-know. The FCC and law enforcement need to know, obviously, but the public does not.

I have the local DPS channels programed into my radio to monitor and I also have an app called FlightRadar24 on my phone and sometimes I can catch a Police Helio on FR24 and hear the radio traffic on my radio. It's pretty cool to "see" the helicopter AND hear what there doing. If you get bored give it a try sometime.

My wife and I have used FR24 to watch the flights of our kids and grandkids fly in. We've actually followed the radar to the point where we can go outside and see the plane fly by.

Nothing extra needed. They use analog audio.

You do not need additional hardware. They use analog audio and they are accessed using your analog radio.

You always want your base antenna as high as you ca get it. As mentioned - height is might. When I was talking about being in my driveway, I was talking about using a hand held radio or the radio in my car and SxS to talk on the repeater. Repeater antennas will normally be installed on a tower or tall building to get the best coverage. I do have an advantage when it comes to our local repeater. The repeater antennas are on a local radio station tower at 400 feet above ground level. Our 2m repeater antennas are on the same tower at 900 feet. @WRZX542 in your case, you will want your repeater/base antenna above your roof. And when I say above your roof, you want the base of your antenna above the roof. Again the higher the better.

I am in 100% agreement with you. But the OP is new to radio in general and I wasn't gonna go into all that. You certainly can do coverage mapping with a $40K service monitor and calibrated antenna for talk out. The service monitor I have will do it and put the plots on a map if you choose to put a map in it and setup the scale for it. The monitor does it with GPS location even. And then you can park the monitor at the receive site and do talk in testing. I did say that you would need the antenna you were going to use for the repeater at it's expected installed height. But we are talking about GMRS here. Not everyone is gonna do it at our level. There are a few of us on here, you included, that do all this stuff at public safety levels of design, install and support. We run battery plants or systems on our gear and the sites have generators, or other means of long term backup. And while i would like to see every repeater on a 200 foot tower, with miles of coverage, it's not a realistic idea. Some guys are gonna park an antenna on the eve of their roof and strap two mobiles together with a cheap eBay duplexer and run with it. And in some cases that is gonna be enough. But the guy putting a repeater on a shelf in his garage and supporting his antenna with an old TV tower or pipe mast isn't gonna have that luxury. This sort of testing can give him some idea how it will work and where it will work. Certainly NOT a high tech test. And using a cheap radio on the mobile / portable end is going to give a more realistic test as Joe Average isn't gonna go grab an APX 8000 off eBay to use to chat it up on a community repeater.

This method of testing coverage is only as accurate as the receiver used, along with the height of the receiving unit's antenna. Drive tests are often used to test cellular coverage, as their ability to get into the "nooks and crannies" directly translates into revenue for the site. They are also used by public safety agencies to test their coverage areas for the same reasons, using the same equipment from the repeater supplier.

Each connector adds approximately 0.1db of loss. Other than the fact that at 50' you already have 4.4db of loss (64%) in power and sensitivity, the connector not a concern.

@Lscott it's really just a trash copy of the Yaesu FT-8900r. I think they sold a ton of them after Yaesu stopped making the 8900, based on Yaesu's reputation instead of their own.

It goes without saying that my "shitty" Wouxun receivers also receive just as well as the Motorola's.