WRYZ926

I have used a magnet mount on top of a small 9" x 20" tool box inside the house and it worked fine. Getting the antenna outside of the house will definitely work better. While the antenna worked on the tool box inside, things vastly improved once I moved that antenna outside. I used a couple of shelf brackets and an old 9x13 cookie sheet to set the antenna on. I did not have a rubber mat onto of my toolbox to deal with. Try it with or without the rubber mat to see how it does. I did this with both a dual band 2m/70cm antenna and a GMRS antenna. Using a mobile mag mount antenna is fine for a temporary setup. You will want to eventually get a base antenna up for a permanent base setup.

You are looking at 38 inch or longer antennas to cover 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. Most of the stubby antennas won't work that well for all three bands. I can vouch for the Comet 2x4SR-NMO being a good antenna. The highest SWR I have across 2m, 70cm, and GMRS is 1.8. I run that antenna on my SxS with a TYT TH-8600 dual band radio. I have also used the same antenna with my Wouxun KG-XS20 G radio with great results. I am running a Comet SBB1 NMO mount on my Ford Escape due to height restrictions. It does well for 2m and 70cm and is passible on GMRS with a SWR of 2.0.

I fixed it for you. Yes according to the FCC, channels 8-14 are restricted to hand held radios only. Most mobile radios will only go down to 5 watts. This can cause interference on the repeater channels if one uses 5 watts or more on channels 8-14. That being said. Some 20 watt mobile radios can definitely transmit on those channels if set to low power and narrow band. It is not suggested to do so for the reason stated above.

Use self fusing tape at each joint and the coax connection. It is also highly suggested to wrap the self fusing tape with a good electrical tape. The self fusing tape is not UV resistant. Self fusing tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K5GW67O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I'm using a Lido seat bolt mount for my two radios. That was about the best solution I could come up with for my 2023 Ford Escape.

I have had less trouble with the FTDI chips when using Windows 10/11, MacOS, and Linux. Any drivers you find for the Prolific chip sets will be old and outdated.

Tell him to stick with the cable with the FTDI chip. The Prolific chip doesn't play well with Windows 11.

I have to agree that this horses has been beaten so much it should be minced meat by now. I read the statement on the gmrslive website and that is just one person's opinion on the matter.

I am going to suggest using a satellite j mount and get the entire antenna above the roof if at all possible. J mounts can be found on Amazon pretty cheap. I use ones that are 44 inches tall for several antennas. As others have said, use a good quality LMR400 or equivalent coax cable.

First, I was not criticizing the DB20G or its software. The software I did not have any luck with was for the different Baofeng radios. I double checked my most up to date version of CHIRP NEXT and it still does not support the DB20-G. And it was others stating they were having issues with the programming software for the DB20-G

Really????? I guess Yaesu and Icom radios must not be real radios according to your statement. I have changed the startup to show my call sign on every single Icom and Yaesu radio I own. @WQZV555 I can't help much since I never had much luck with the manufacturer/model specific software from Radioddity for any of my radios. And too bad your radio isn't supported by CHIRP (that I can find). I know you can change the welcome screen in CHIRP easily.

Yes foliage will affect UHF frequencies. Pine and cedar trees are the worst. A higher gain antenna won't help all that much to punch through the foliage. Yes you might see a small improvement. But your best solution is to get both antennas above the trees for a more clear line of sight. The route I take regularly has a lot of eastern red cedars close to the road. I have dead zones with UHF, both 70cm and GMRS, where the cedar trees are tall and close to the edge of the road. The GMRS repeater antennas are at 400 feet and the 70cm repeater antennas are at 900 feet. I am using a 20" Tram antenna tuned for GMRS and a Comet SBB-1 dual band for 2m/70cm. The radios I am using are a TYT TH-7800 and Wouxun KG-1000G, both are 50 watt radios. While I do get some static in the same area when on 2m, I can still be clearly heard on the repeater. All repeater antennas are on the same 900 foot tower. Line of sight is king when it comes to UHF.

Also makes sure that the cable is plugged into the radio all of the way. My Baofeng GT-5R gave me fits until I realized I didn't have the cable plugged in all of the way. I couldn't tell just by looking at it. Also make sure your cable has the preferred FTDI chip instead of the older Prolific chip.

Like others have said, contact Midland to see what they have to say. I'm not familiar with the MXT275, but one would think that it would keep repeater mode active once turned on. I know the MXT500 and MXT575 will keep repeater mode enabled. Hopefully a firmware update will fix your radio. unfortunate the radios with everything in the mic have to go Midland for that since they don't have a USB port for programming. My brother was disappointed when he found that out with his MXT575.

You can figure that the continuous power output is between 75% and 80% of the advertised peak output. This will differ from one manufacturer to another. Some are 75% while others are 80%.

To quote Larry Potterfield from Midway USA " And that's the way it is" The request button is there no matter what. I setup our repeater as open and still have had a few people request permission to use it. I appreciate when people request permission but it is not required.

Most magnet mounts come with 12 or 16 foot of coax. I used the kv5r coax loss calculator that @SteveShannon linked above. For 16 feet of coax with a 50 watt radio, SWR at 1.5 with a 3db gain antenna you will get the following results for ERP I used 467 MHz for the frequency. RG8 - 83.7 watts RG8X - 72.5 watts RG-58 - 70.8 watts Here are the same ERP numbers but with 20 feet of coax: RG-8 - 80.1 watts RG-8X - 67 watts RG-58 - 64.9 watts As you can see there is not much of a difference between the three types of coax. RG-8X and RG-58 will be smaller and easier to deal with than RG-8. With RG-8X and RG-58 and at least 3 dB of gain from your antenna, you are still getting over 50 watts ERP output with a 50 watt radio. Of course keeping the coax as short as possible will help. But I would not worry too much about the loss of RG-8X or RG-58 in a 20 foot or less run.

I am running a R&L Electronics 30 Amp power supply for my GMRS and dual band radios and a Tel-Power 50 amp power supply for my 100 watt HF radio and LDG auto tuner. I leave both set at a constant 13.8 V output. The 30 Amp power supply is fine for both 50 watt radios since I never transmit on both radios at the same time. I had to go with the 50 amp power supply for my HF setup. I was running a n Astron 30 amp power supply but it wasn't enough for the radio and auto tuner and would go into protection mode. For those looking at getting a power supply, remember that most manufacturers rate them at the maximum amp draw and not the constant amp draw. So a 30 Amp power supply will really only give you between 22 and 24 amps of continuous power. I would like to switch to linear power supplies but they are definitely more expensive.

Connecting the positive radio wire directly to the positive battery terminal and the negative radio wire to chassis ground is the best option. I get a whine on a rare occasion in my 2023 Ford Escape. I use to get it more often before installing clamp on ferrites and also redoing my ground wires from the radios. I put small clamp on ferrites on the positive and negative wires to both radios. I also put two ferrites on the cable connecting my alternator to the battery, one on each end of the cable. Make sure to tape up the clamp on ferrites with a good electrical tape so they won't fall off. Another thing you can try is run an extra ground wire/strap directly from the alternator to a good chassis ground. Also double check your coax cable where it comes inside the cabin. You want to make sure it isn't getting pinched. Modern vehicles can be noisy due to all the computers and LED lights. Aftermarket LED lights can be worse than OEM LED lights.

I can confirm that he is good to go. Our club bought a Motorola VHF repeater and controller from him. He is knowledgable and will answer all your questions. What we bought looks brand new. He goes through everything before selling.

I will echo what @SteveShannon said. Yes you can make a repeater from two mobile rails but there are some issues that can/will pop up. @OffRoaderX built a repeater using two Wouxun KG-1000G radios and ran into problems. He went with an actual repeater instead. Now if you don't need a very wide coverage area, say 10 miles or less, then the Retevis or Motorola repeaters will work just fine as long as the antenna is up high and you use good coax cable. If you want a purpose built ready to go out of the box repeater, then the Bridgecom repeater is the way to go. They will have it all programmed and ready to go for you. My local club is using a Bridgecom GMRS repeater and it has been very solid and reliable. Another option is to find an old Motorola UHF repeater and have it reprogrammed for GMRS.

You should be good to go.

A higher gain antenna will have a flatter radiation pattern. A 6 dB antenna works well in hilly areas while a 9dB or greater works better in flatter areas with its flatter radiation pattern. I am running the Comet CA-712EFC and the base is 22 feet above the ground. There are some hills and valley around me and my signal shoots right over the valleys. I get a range of 50-55 miles with the local terrain and forested areas with my antenna setup. I'm running a 30 ft section of LMR400 to the outside wall and a LMR400 jumper from the inside of the wall to my radio.

Some articles said the radios were Icom's and at least one said they were a clone of discontinued Icom radios.

I will have to see if I can find the article again about the radios. They were evidently clones of a discontinued Icom radio.