JohnE

If it's a read only you "should " be able to over write w/new code plug. I would have to verify that as its been a while.

ON THE MAIN SCREEN click >> under more(opens widow to channel edit) and set "squelch mode to CTCSS/DCS and that should take care of it.

my professional and personal machines are mostly set to 2 seconds in real time depending on brand and if there is an "over" beep. I never saw a reason for a 6 or 7 second hang time. Most leave it at the default setting. You may also want to look at the time out timer. Default is 60 second IIRC. Again most of mine are set to 3 minutes.

Its none of those. in General settings call hang time , the last one on the bottom. default is 3 seconds yes and no yes it can repeat on any channel it is programed for but it will only do so if it is in the number 1 slot meaning it can only be on 1 channel at a time. In order to change it it must be reprogrammed. this will not work in analog mode. it is built off the M trbo software and was designed to link DMR machines as a network. JE

for that price you could have bought a couple of used Kenwoods

I was assuming a 2 story house , pitched roof and 10' pipe and the antenna over that not a tower. The cable is not hard to cut and the connector can be done w/razor knife and a couple of wrenches. Its not hard you just need to be meticulous. The 404 is a professional site antenna the others I would consider base or control station antennas. I cheaped out when I did one of my sites and used a Comtelco. What I should have done was a DB 408(6dBd) , 411(9dBd) or a Commander 201 or 1150(both 5dBd), all not cheap antennas. It all depends on your budget and what you are willing to spend for the coverage you want. again just my thoughts

yes are we talking C-band or dish, big difference. If its dish I wouldn't trust it w/anything bigger than a 4603 on a 5' aluminum 1" pipe. Those thing fold or tear out of the roof w/o too much effort. Have seen that too many times.

50' LMR and a "mobile" duplexer will have a rough net loss of ~2.5-3 dB. A quick prop map shows that you'll be pretty good north but hindered to the south based on 3db losses and 5 dBd antenna w/50W and 40' of height assuming you clear the trees that should be pretty close. If you don't clear the trees your range will be significantly less. Again just an observation.

just remember there is a 2.1 dB difference between dBi and dBd . The Laird is rated in dBd that being said you have to compare apples to apples in terms of gain. I tend to use 5 to 6 dBd antennas as that splits the difference and has a smaller cone or umbrella effect if you will.

I went Kenwood as they did what I needed out of the box and I work for an M shop. Could have a 5700 for cost but I would need an external controller to be able to do the same a K out of the box and ~800 bucks less. As to antennas a medium gain professional antenna is the way to go (db 408/411 or comescope PD201) Half inch Hard line for anything 50' -100' , 7/8 100'-200' Duplexers IMO are a matter of site location, big noisy tower site nice professional filter, small stand alone roof/hill top w/not a thing for miles a small Celwave "mobile" one will do. Height , it determines everything you are going to hear and how far you are going to talk. I you are going to put something on your roof in a pine grove don't expect much out of it. you will need to clear the tree tops at a minimum. just my thoughts JE

used them all the time. they did have some issues a few yrs ago w/radome separation from the support pipe. other than that they are an OK light duty antenna.

read this https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/cdm1550-repeater-build.355197/

Lets address your BIL house first. How far is he from this 100' ridge and is he the hole in the donut or level/above it, that will make a vast difference as to weather it will work. My suggestion is to do a plot on Google earth and look at the elevation profile between the 2 points. Seeing where he is in relation to you It will also give you a compass bearing as to where to point the yagi if you go that route. was that done w/portable? Are you planning to put a base in? there is a vast difference from potable to "base" w/fixed antenna in terms of TX and rx abilities. the fact that you can hear and I assume hit the repeater in question is a plus. This IMO says that you should have no real trouble TX/RX wise w/repeater w/base radio. Now to the yagi question, the higher the gain of the yagi the narrower the beam width. A 3 element (7.1 dBd gain) as suggested above should give you 60to almost 70 degrees of beam width. A 6 element ~10.2 at 50-60 degrees BW. Now w/that being said no amount of gain is going to overcome an obstical/height problem. The mountain can not bow to the wind.

Then you should be good to go

A little off topic but what is the roof itself shingle or metal, also does any of the insulating material have a foil back. Metal roof or foil back is going to be reflective just putting that out there.

Height and noise floor will be everything IMO If this is going in a private location and is not near any big RF "sites" it shouldn't be a problem for GM's/CDM's

I will echo what Gotex and Gman have said. At 100' 1/2" heliax at the minimum and would have a 1.5 dB loss. seeing as you have the radios already I would do a propagation map to see what your coverage might look like. link https://www.ve2dbe.com/rmonline_s.asp when you do the map here are a few thing you need to know in order to make it accurate antenna gain 4.5 TX power 25W TX line loss 4.5 db required reliability 85% I think you can figure out the rest just my thoughts

just a few of the ones I have used

I would be curious to see what that looks like on my tracking gen, just for s's and g's and a little eye candy

yeah Mini makes some nice stuff. have a RLB from them for my tracking gen

there was no IP3 spec here is the current spec sheet for it. mine is 12 or 15 yrs old and has a different configuration when he was still in NJ. http://01895fa.netsolhost.com/PDF/l-lna.PDF I really miss Chip from Angle linear he made some great stuff but he retired a few yrs ago wow his spec page is still up http://www.anglelinear.com/gaasfet/phemt.pdf

17dB w/0.5 noise figure. forgot to mention there is a pre selector in front of the LNA w/1dB insertion loss. duplexer is 0.9 loss. the net gain w/cable and insertion losses is ~11.5dB. its a little hot.

my over all loss at my remote site is ~2.5db. here is the breakdown, Pa into a celwave bp/br duplexer -.8, Connecticut microwave isolator -.4, 5' FSJ4 (1/2" superflex), polyphaser mounted on a ground bar and 95' of LDF5 50A -.8. It was initially tested w/100W PA that gave me ~75W at the antenna port. once the antenna was up it was checked w/site master and showed an SWR of 1.35 and a return loss IIRC was ~16. power reading was 75W FWD/1.5W REF. There is also a DEI LNA on the Rx side w/3db pad.

I have a couple of these and have been pretty happy w/them. https://www.mobilemark.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?juwpfisadmin=false&action=wpfd&task=file.download&wpfd_category_id=2041&wpfd_file_id=6997&token=&preview=1

I posted this a few yrs ago. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/252-cable-types-and-losses