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Try it before you say it won't work. I tried it with several antennas and it made a difference on all of them including the antenna that was better than the rest. I would say that it made the worst antenna work as well as the best did without it.

ihere are some install pics. My wallet will prove it did happen.

And a little off topic on solar but here is my home repeater built off (2) cdm1550. This repeater is on 24/7 and another repeater I put and my brothers house both are identical

this is how it all started picture shows (2) 12v 9ah batteries but I upgraded them right away

Got my call sign this morning. Crazy, on a Saturday? Took the test at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday. Payed the fee early after noon on Friday. License granted early Saturday morning. And I made my first contacts today with two friends of mine. Then one of those friends paid me a visit with some gifts. A Yaesu FT-2800M, a SamlexPower power supply, a brand new 2m J-pole in the box from KB9VBR Antennas, and enough coax to connect it all. Dude almost made me cry in front of his son. Please give my friend a look on his YouTube page. It's the least I can do for such wonderful gifts. https://www.youtube.com/@RadioGeek

I just passed my exam. I took it remotely with VE from Ham Radio Crash Course. I don't mean to boast. I'm just really happy that I accomplished a goal, and wanted to share it. Thank you @SteveShannon for your support.

The very first post was about him thinking it wasn't programmed right because when he changed channels he didn't see the frequency on the ANI display window. " my issue is when i check the repeater the only thing being displayed and changed is the channel numbers so in other words uf i send 16 channels to repeater all 16 will go in and i can use the up and down button on repeater to scroll through them but nothing displayed on screen as in alpha"

Sometimes resurrecting a nine year dead thread brings interesting new perspectives.

This is an excerpt from the U.S. Marine Corps Antenna Handbook: https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/MCRP 3-40.3C With Erratum z.pdf Vegetated Areas VHF and UHF communications through a dense forest over dis- tances of more than a few kilometers can often be very difficult. In many tropical regions, trees and underbrush absorb VHF and UHF radio energy. In addition to the ordinary free space loss between transmitting and receiving antennas, a radio wave passing through a forest undergoes an additional loss that is measured in dBs per km. This extra loss increases rapidly as the transmission frequency increases. Near the ground (i.e., antenna heights of less than 3 meters) vertical polarization is preferred. However, if it is possible to elevate both receiving and transmitting antennas as much as 10 to 20 meters, horizontal polarization is preferable to vertical polarization. Con- siderable reduction in total path loss results if either or both the transmitting and receiving antennas can be placed above the tree level through which communications must be made. Increasing antenna gain may provide an improved signal strength that exceeds the added antenna gain by reducing the number of multipath reflections from trees along the propagation path. The higher gain antenna exhibits a much narrower radiation pattern which includes fewer trees in its beam. Generally, this effect is most noticeable with antenna gains higher than 15 dB or azimuthal half- power beam of less than 35°. Communications through heavily forested areas over distances greater than 10 kms may require a transmitter power of at least 10 watts and antenna gains of 10 dB or more, depending on antenna height, terrain features, type of trees, moisture content, and numer- ous other factors. If communication is required over distances exceeding 30 kms, it may be necessary to use high-angle iono- spheric propagation in the 3 to 10 MHz frequency range (i.e., HF) to obtain a reliable circuit.

Ugh.....it's because my RX Group List names didn't match....OK, DMR up and running now.

My Solar Powered repeater consist of 8 210W Solar Panels, 8 100A Battleborn Lithium batteries, 2 80A Outback Charge Controllers, 1 Victron Multipluss-II 3000W Charge/Inverter. With the left over power I can run everything in my RV including one AC for a few hours.

Congrats, now you can use all those HAM Repeaters which will open up a whole new world of frequencies for you.

Please let us know either way if you get it working or not. Good luck.

That’s a great friend!!! A friend of mine dropped off a Christmas present to me today, a little Meshtastic node.

I agree that you shouldn’t disassemble it. Checking the pins in the RJ jacks can be done visually after unplugging the cable. And I also agree that your voltage is good if it transmits and receives. So, the problem is most likely either the cable or the head end unit but it could be the radio. If it’s in warranty I would send it in. Buy Two Way Radios sells a replacement head unit for $69.95 on eBay.

Messing around with it some more I've found that the radio does actually work to send/receive. It appears to be stuck on channel 5 though. The channel selector knob does not work. However, the volume knob does work. I've looked over the cable and the cable ports, they appear to be in excellent condition. I no longer have the shorter cable so I can't swap them out at all. I did reach out to BuyTwoWayRadios again and asked if they would be able to send out a replacement. I'm not too comfortable with taking the entire unit apart and looking inside right now. But if the replacement cable doesn't work then I guess that will be my next step to try. As far as checking volts, that's above my pay grade. I don't know how to do all that. I actually paid someone to install the whole thing for me and connect the unit to the Jeep's batteries and run/hide all the cables perfectly. But I'm guessing the voltage must be correct if it powers up and I can send/receive? Thanks everyone for your replies. I'll keep you posted.

We all know the human body acts as a capacitance ground for hand held transceivers. In other words your body is part of the antenna systems. The tiger tail thingy may work as stated providing enough of a ground plane but I have no idea. I don't think the tiger tail would be an improvement.. Playing with different HT antennas would probably get better results.

That’s the power consumption, not the RF output.

I have a Solar powered GMRS Repeater set up for off grid communications in UP Michigan. Items included - powmr 45amp MPPT solar charge controller -$50 ebay 4 - 100watt eco worthy solar panels -$50 each =$200 total ebay Retevis RT97S - $350 amazon Raspberry pi /case -$50 amazon Att 4g Hotspot - $50 ebay 4g service not included Retevis GMRS Base Antenna -$70 amazon 12v 100ah self heating Lifepo4 Battery -$220 amazon say $1000 -$1200 when your all done with wires and brackets to set up everything comms will cover 5-10 miles easy runs 24/7 365 8watts in stand by - 25watts tx low power - 35watts tx high power (raspberry pi and hotspot are optional for controller) you only need the solar charge controller, repeater, antenna, battery, and solar panels to make it work with this set up it will use this many watts per hour 3watts in stand by 20watts tx low power 30 watts tx high power