Leaderboard

Wow, my HOA approved my plan to put up not just one but TWO j-pole antennas! I’ll be mounting a tuned GMRS and a ham antenna shortly. This, in northern Virginia, no less. Cheers, Ken

You could build a far better repeater from commercial gear... cheaper, and be type accepted too...

The straight answer is: No, a longer antenna will NOT help. An antenna HIGHER UP IN THE AIR will help tremendously. Those guys walking around with a 19-24 inch long rubber antenna flopping around from the top of their walkie-talkies are on VHF ham bands, not GMRS. ...or else they are idiots. BTECH will gladly recommend that you buy anything that they sell, if it makes you happy.

This probably helped. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title15.2/chapter22/section15.2-2293.1/ Ken

Here is how I have my systems linked: You can use the Dingotel dongles with a radio that has vox. You need to make a custom cable for your application, what i do is unsolder the jack from the dongle and solder the cables directly to the dongle then connect to the radio. Works great. It works good with Baofeng UV5's for example. As for software, Team Speak 3, hands down. You need to set up your own server though and forward your ports. If you have a netgear router you can get a free static address with no-ip. Here is a link to my personal web page which explains about my linked system: http://scan-stg.wixsite.com/live/wqxc747-gmrs-intertie If you wish you could link up with my server, if you wish to be separate from my links I could set you up your own channel on my server. if you want the ultimate combo (in my uneducated opinion) here is what I run for gate radios: Computer: HP thin client with Team Speak 3. Interface: Signalink USB. GMRS RADIO: Kenwood TK-862G series radio (Simplex) or repeater of choice. That will make for a rock solid setup. If you want to know more our GMRS facebook group can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/stgscanner/?ref=bookmarks I hope this helps you out, there seems to be little information out there about this topic. it's well worth pursuing our system is tons of fun! Good, Luck and let me know, if I can help any further, Martin