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Keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to keep the lightening outside of the living space. And while you are doing that, don't introduce any ground loops.

I might have over did things in my setup. The service ground is in between my mast and where the coax cables enter the house. I put a ground rod at the base of the mast and another right below where the coax bulk head is. I tied both grounds rods to my service ground with 6 gauge wire. All of the ADU's are grounded to the rod at the entry point. I made my own bulkhead using metal plates and long bulkheads (to get through the wall) along with a piece of 1/4" 20 all thread for grounding. I ran grounds from all my radios and my tuner to the all thread which is also connected to the ground rod just outside.

Background: A friend has a 10,000 acre ranch in the middle of nowhere. Cell phone reception is spotty at best. We were looking for a reliable way to be able to communicate while at the ranch for quick status updates and for emergencies. About 2/3rds of the land is fairly flat with the other 1/3rd being draws and ridges that limit line of site. The challenge was threefold; 1) to find a location that allowed "line-of-sight" to as much of the ranch as possible, 2) to have a repeater located at said spot to "see" down the draws, and 3) to limit costs for an occasional use system. Equipment: Red's Engineering Simplex Repeater - $61.00 Boafeng UV-5R GMRS radios - $31.00 (2pk) A 15' pool cleaning pole - already had from previous project The Red's Engineering Simplex Repeater features from the website: Web based configuration via cell phone Works with the Baofeng UV-5R radio DTMF detection, enable disable repeater Fox Hunt Transmitter Mode Periodic Station ID 45 second message record time Station Identification (Morse Code generation) LED Indicators show current status Shield type enclosure design USB Power / Charging Open source software OTA Firmware Updates (WiFi) Long battery life, ~12 hours talk time, ~10 month active standby Set-up After charging the repeater and radio, the set-up was straight forward and is easily done through the app. You plug in the supplied cable to the repeater and radio. On the initial startup you must press the reset button. Turn on the radio and wait a few seconds, turn on the repeater, set the volume to about 50%, and you're ready. Within just a few minutes I had the repeater programmed, connected to the radio, and bench tested. In the app you can change the record time, toggle remote enable/disable function, program callsign and ID transmission, and a few other things. Since we are very remote and the likelihood that anyone else would ever find the repeater is slim to none, I didn't go through some of the whistles and bells. They may come into use later but I left most everything pretty basic. Real-world testing - Home After scouring Google Earth, Radio Mobile Online, and SCADACore line of sight generator I determined what I thought was going to be the optimum location for the "tower". The furthest we would need to transmit and receive would be about 5 miles. I unceremoniously duct taped the radio and repeater to a telescoping pool pole, ratchet-strapped it to the fence corner post at home and drove just over 7 miles LOS. I transmitted on channel 5 and heard the repeater, well, repeat back my message. Since 7 miles was well outside of the limits I needed I felt it was a good test and waited until the next trip to the ranch. The radio was wearing the Abree AR-771 antenna that came with the radios. Real-world testing - Ranch In a couple of weeks we went to the ranch. Still using the high-tech duct tape and pool pole, I found the location I had identified and set up the repeater. Over the course of two days, we tested the repeater at all the blinds we had around the ranch and routes along the way. We found that the repeater worked as expected and better, hitting one blind that we were skeptical of hitting. The repeater and radio were left up overnight and the batteries lasted both days. We were not carrying on conversations, mainly just checking the repeater function and checking in with each other occasionally. If we had 15 minutes of total talk time I would be surprised. I was very impressed by the simplistic, but reliable, function of the repeater. Take Aways This is a simplex repeater. You must accept that you will, at minimum hear your own message repeated back to you. In some cases, if you are in simplex range of the other radio, you may hear the original message and repeater message of both yourself and who you are talking to. While some find this cumbersome, it is just the fact of a simplex repeater and if you know it is going to happen you learn to deal with it. Personally, I didn't find it to be a problem for what we were trying to accomplish. For about $100 I don't think it can be beat for what we wanted to accomplish, basic communication for status checks and emergencies. We also accept that there may still be locations that simply cannot be reached due to terrain. That is why we stress that we let everyone know where we are going and when, within reason, to expect us back. No amount of technology should replace a simple "flight plan". Future plans I am now in the process of piecing together a weatherproof housing and solar backup. The internal batteries will last about three days (not using any of the power-saving functions) at our communication frequency, maybe more. In the event we are down there for more than a couple of days, solar will allow the batteries to remain topped off. Additionally, I am looking at "tower" options that allow us to put the repeater up and down when we come and go. I'm heavily leaning towards a 30' telescoping flag pole (staying with the limiting cost theme). That will allow us to have a permanent location that is easy to run up and down. All in I think I'm probably looking at about $300, radio, repeater, pole, solar, and bits and pieces. While I tinker with a lot of things, this is my first foray into repeaters, albeit very limited. The Red's Engineering gets my initial thumbs up. I hope to be back with updates soon.

It's better to have a ground rod right there (but it must be bonded to the service ground) and that's certainly what the ARRL would recommend, but there's no requirement to do so. Remember, electricity takes the path of least resistance (but it divides itself amongst all paths). If you have a short wire going to your house and a long wire going to your service ground, a portion of the energy could easily go towards the house. So, I would, but it's really up to you.

I've nearly talked the HOA into putting up a repeater to be used post-hurricane, but some aren't convinced it would be worth the money. This is perfect for a dirt-cheap proof-of-concept demonstration. And I already have a pool-cleaning pole.

When it comes right down to it, price and size both matter. The Comet antennas will both have similar build quality, but the size of the Comet CA-712EFC results in better performance and higher price. It’s also higher gain, which should not be confused with better performance, but should be considered more focused. If the stations you wish to contact are more or less horizontally aligned with your station, contacts with them will be easier, but if they’re vastly different in elevation (angularity) horizontal gain might actually result in less signal reaching them or coming from them. The CA-GMRS is a nice size for use in an attic, but you must recognize that its smaller size will result in different performance compared to the 712EFC. It’s lower gain, so stations that are at a higher or lower angle may be heard better. I have several Comet and Diamond antennas. They are well built and perform well for my purposes. If I needed lower gain I would have no compunction about trying the CA-GMRS. If I wanted higher gain I would get the CA-712EFC. Both will do well if you mount them correctly and use appropriate feedline. Neither will overcome topography or otherwise bad circumstances. If you truly only want to do this once, bite the bullet and get the 712. The added height is often the determining factor.

I hae no experience with the CA-GMRS so I can't comment on it. I do have several Comet antennas and I have been very happy with all of them. I have a GP-9 and CA-712EFC base antennas along with a SBB-1 and 2x4SR mobile antennas. I don't think you will go wrong with the CA-GMRS if it is anything like the Comet antennas I have.

if the last 20 years of the FCC's record of enforcement is any indication, then, nothing will happen. But you keep hanging on to your fairy-tales and maybe someday you can marry a handsome prince!

@WRUU653 I will leave my setup as it is. All of my ADU ground go directly to the ground rod and I have a separate wire from the 1/4" 20 all thread to the ground rod. I was only thinking about keeping any lightening from coming in on the 1/4" 20 all thread the all of my stations are grounded to. The all thread goes thru the wall and then down to the ground rod.

It sounds like what you have is good if I'm understanding it. You don't want to fuse a ground because if energy can't go to the ground it will go somewhere and that may not be where you want it to go. Side story to illustrate this is people using surge suppressing plug strips and plugging them into an older non grounded outlet. The plug strip suppression goes to ground when it sees a surge and if the ground is not there the energy has to go somewhere and I have personally witnessed these plug strips having caught fire in a non grounded situation. Like @SteveShannon said electricity will take the path of least resistance which is why we want to help it go somewhere safer. I have a surge suppressor for my service panel as well as plugs throughout the house for the very reason that what may not be fully captured by one can be captured by another down stream.

You don't need a second rod. If the mast is mounted to the home I probably wouldn't have a second rod. If I had a tower that's another story. Each situation can be different depending on where and how your set up is so I try to avoid absolutes but the links @WRYZ926 included do a great job of covering different scenarios. You can find the relevant codes in the NEC 810.21, 250.52 and 250.70.

You can use one wire or two. All roads need to lead to the service ground though. As the video mentions you can't run to two separate and separated grounds, they need to be bonded. bonding is different than grounding, bonding all grounds together removes any potential between grounds. This is why you don't use one ground rod at the service and another at the mast without them being connected ("bonded") together.

What you’ll probably want to do is place a ground rod at the base of the mast. The coax will lead from the antenna feedpoint to the lead-in to the house where you will place an antenna discharge unit. A ground wire will lead back from the ADU to the mast where it and the wire running from the mast will be bonded to that ground rod using a three wire connector. The three wires are: the wire from the ADU, the wire from the mast, and the wire that then runs to the service ground which would be a single buried #6 or greater bare wire. I would make all of the ground rod connections using either crimp on Burndy style connectors or one-shot thermite connections. But I’m in Montana, unfamiliar with your local electrical inspectors, and with only a line drawing to work with. The only things I’m certain of are that your mast needs a ground rod, that ground rod must be bonded to the service ground, your ADU needs to be connected to your service ground, and I believe the NEC allows the wire from your ADU to be connected to the wire from the mast to the mast ground rod. @WRUU653 - what would you recommend?

Sacrilege! Bro! Do you even radio?

I made a PVC type "hanger" for my slim jim. Was supposed to be temporary, but it's been there for over a year now. It's the arrow in the photo (sorry, it's the only photo I had available, but you can see what I mean)

You do not need two separate parallel conductors. You’re allowed to bond them together where they physically intersect. Understand that bonding is required to be permanent, using connections that cannot be easily undone. Typical bonding methods include thermite copper welding or crimped connectors, not bolted cable clamps. The Mike Holt videos are very good. The Bible for comm site lightning protection is R56 from Motorola, but it’s very complicated and overkill for anyone other than a professional communications technician. I really like the succinct approach taken by the Reeve document. It agrees with the Holt videos well: https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf

No matter what someone posts, someone else is going come along and post the opposite- and both will decree that they are correct because they took a test and are therefore "experts". Good luck.

I think that those “altered elements” can be explained as notes that people made for themselves.

If only the biggest GMRS Radio YouTuber would make a video showing exactly how.. oh well, I guess we'll never know. EDIT: Since you never told us WHICH Baofeng radio you have nobody will be able to help you anyway.. Baofeng makes a LOT of radios.

My conclusion is, these radios are not very good as a base. For two reasons: 1) the fan is really loud if you're sitting in an office (shack?). 2) The variability in the volume from 0 to 1 is ridiculously high. It's either silent or loud, no in between. Neither of these are big issues in a mobile install where the radio is remotely mounted.