warthog74

You could save a crap-ton of money and get one of these: https://www.jpole-antenna.com/shop/462-mhz-land-mobile-gmrs-j-pole-antenna/ It's what i use for my small 2 watt repeater attached to LMR-400 coax. At a measly 30 feet at 2 watts with 2-3db gain, it does 5-15 miles in town with tons of crap in the way. I am in a horrible spot honestly. At 60 feet i could probably double my range. Best $30 i ever spent.

House Base - Leixen VV898S Garage Base - TYT TH9800 F-150 - Leixen UV998 Escape - Kenwood TK880H Repeater - Ritron Liberty RLR-460 Not currently in use - Kenwood TK880 Handhelds - TYT TH-UVF9, Tidradio H6, Baofeng F22 (x2) Antenna's vary, but most are J-Poles, Slim Jims, or various Browning dual band NMO mounted mobiles. Units that don't apply to this thread - numerous 10/11 meter and VHF only rigs.

If you are planning on that repeater to cover more than 2 - 5 miles you’ll want to get the antenna up at least 50ft. Otherwise you may be disappointed with its lack of coverage area. You said you’re on a hill. Are you higher than most everything around you? If so, then 25ft might be enough. The higher you get that antenna, the better your coverage area will be. Plain and simple.

I love my TYT TH9800. Great radio for the money. However, rumor has it that the 2021 and newer models are locked down and will not TX on GMRS and MURS frequencies among others. You'd have to find a seller with new "old stock" pre 2021 build dates to actually get a good one. I bought mine 9-10 years ago and it came unlocked. Hate to see you buy one and get hosed with a frequency locked unit. If you're on a budget, these radios are worth the price, and aren't restricted at all. Small too. Barely bigger than a deck of cards. I own a few of them, work well for what they are, but do have some of same quirks other cheaper units do. Here's some reviews.

I'm no math wiz, but it's probably a wash. The connector with an extra 18 feet (totaling 68 feet) of coax will probably suffer the same loss that a solid 100 foot run would. Just make sure to seal that up good if the connector ends up outside.

I suspect the same. Battery not beefy enough to handle the load. If you want some ideas, here is the link to my simplex ammo can repeater that also uses an sr-112. I have no issue powering a 10w mobile radio, the sr-112, and a charge controller with a 6ah lifepo4 battery and a 10w solar panel.

Another vote for the KB9VBR J-Pole. Best $30 i ever spent. Not everything "cheap" is junk. I bet this antenna would easily outperform some $150+ antennas on the market.

Final update: The 102” whip with the slim jim was too cumbersome to be “portable”, so i moved the so-239 bulk head to the top of the case and i now use a Nagoya NL-R2 instead. Then i widened the hole where the so-239 use to be and installed a water proof cig plug socket for solar charging. This project is now complete.

Holy antenna farm Batman! My wife thought i had a lot of antennas on the garage. 102” whip for CB J-Pole for GMRS VHF whip for MURS Little scanner antenna.

In the house i use a dual band MURS/GMRS tuned N9TAX slim jim j-pole in the attic. I use a KB9VBR GMRS tuned j-pole out in the garage. (yes my cat likes to sit up there and chill) In the mobile i use a Browning BR-182.

It's an older ’06 F150 Lariat SuperCrew 4x4 with 237,000 miles on it. The rims are from a 2018 F150. Still runs like new.

Neat. Too much clutter for me personally. My dog would have drool splattered all over those electronics in the center console.

Slick. Sadly no sunglasses holder as this truck has a sunroof. I thought about detaching the face of my TYT TH9800 and putting it in the tray if this didn’t work out, but glad it did. I like keeping the TYT in the house as a base unit. If something happens to the Leixen it’s only a $70 loss. It’s basically a glorified Baofeng HT in a mobile form factor, but it works well enough and is capable of 25w if needed.

It will have to due. So far it seems fine in my brief testing this afternoon. Not many options on a truck with a bed liner and tonneau cover and your garage door is only 7’ tall. At least it looks better than a mag mount tossed in the center of the hood.

Browning MURS / GMRS tuned antenna i got about 9 years ago before my original GMRS license expired. It came with a mag mount. I’m guessing it uses the metal from the vehicle for a ground plane. Here’s the Ebay Link.

Lol. That’s Alissa White-Gluz.

Spent the afternoon ripping my dash apart. I had ordered an aftermarket stereo and mounting/wiring kit that arrived today. As i was putting the kit together i noticed the tray under the stereo looked tall enough and deep enough for my Leixen VV998 dual band radio. Sure enough, it fit nice and snug. I drilled out the back of the tray to run the coax and power cable, and made a few more holes for venting. The radio has a setting to use the microphone as a speaker so i didn't have to worry that i covered the internal speaker or find room to mount an external speaker. I think it looks good, and it sits flush with the stereo face plate. While i was at it i got rid of the mag mount, and finally installed the NMO hood mount.

You could save some money and use a lower powered radio. Wont need as big of a battery or a higher wattage solar panel. For instance my recent simplex repeater build has been running for a few weeks now on a measly 6ah battery and 10 watt solar panel. However my radio only draws 1.5 amps at 10 watts while transmitting, and .3 amps when idle. Here is the link if you want to see what i used and how it turned out. Might help give you some ideas.

Not sure if it’ll help, but i downloaded the rt97s software and drivers without issue from retevis’s official site, and put them on my google drive. Here’s the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WbdCZIB1ilz64gNe8QtS6NG1gLHcsg-0?usp=sharing

How big is the ranch? One centrally located repeater with an antenna at 30’ or higher should easily cover 3-5 miles. If there is no power available in the middle of the ranch you could always set up a small solar powered repeater relatively cheap.

Not to be THAT guy, but hardly anybody is using a “legal” radio. I bet at least 65% or more of licensed GMRS users are using “illegal” rigs. Like it matters. The FCC botched it when they allowed bubble pack FRS radios to include GMRS freqs. It is now basically a free for all, or CB 2.0. They should be happy some of us even pay for a license.

I hit 2 repeaters at 34 miles and 55 miles that were both south of me using a n9tax slim jim antenna hung 30-40 feet up a tree a few years back. I’ve since moved a few miles west of where i was and can no longer hit them unfortunately.

It really didn’t take long to toss together once i had everything. Waiting for some of the parts to arrive from ebay / amazon took the longest and slowed the build down.

Update: The Anderson connectors worked out fine. Fit nice and snug and easy to connect / disconnect. I also managed to fit the solar controller, microphone, programming cable, and manuals so that the lid closes with everything i need inside. I used velcro to secure a zip lock bag to hold the manuals and programming cable to the lid. I also had an old fiberglass 102’ whip from my CB days laying around along with an old mirror mount, so i used its guts which got mounted to the lid. Then i zip tied my n9tax slim jim to the 102. Now wherever i put the ammo can repeater, the antenna is a “minimum” 9 feet off the ground. If i stick it on the roof of my truck, then 16-17 feet off the ground. All thats left is an external charging port for the solar panel and it’s done. Pretty happy with the result.

Thanks. I think i might have some of those laying around somewhere. Will have to do some digging.