WSBT338

I did. But he just did what I asked him to do. I guess the only thing outside of his scope was where I put the lightening arrestor - which was really the only place I could put it without splicing one of the 25’ coax. He did a great job. Guess I was just showing off a bit, too. Love how it turned out. I can reach my entire neighborhood now and have a B-Tech RPT50 Repeater inside. The mess in my close-up photo that consists of the orange and black wires (with white paint) aren’t on me. That’s Comcast I think

Thanks for the advice to you both. I not only upgraded my mast ground wire to 6AWG, I also stepped up the coax to LMR400 (from RG8X). It took two 25’ cables to reach from my antenna to my repeater which is in the bedroom on the other side of the wall. I put the lightening arrestor between. That and the mast are attached to the ground rod. Am I good?

Had the first visitor on my GMRS RPT-50 this morning. A Paramedic that lives in my neighborhood. I can’t think of a better contact to have Also, integrated a Sony Digital Voice Recorder into my mix. It plugs straight into one of my BTech GMRS Pro’s and only records when there’s activity. Photo of my “shack” attached. @OffRoaderX I hope some day you have another opportunity to look at this repeater. Maybe we can get BTech to send you one. You already did the pay to play option. If they want to sell more units they need to go the extra mile here.

Will be picking up one of these this afternoon. Much more elegant solution. It has Audio Line-In and Sound Activated Recording. Starts when over a specified level then pauses when below. That’ll work.

It was temporary. Just to test. I didn’t want to deal with running the wires and connecting to the battery.

I can't believe my MacBook Pro's audio port does not work for Line-In. I had Audacity setup and my BTech GMRS Pro plugged in and ready to rock. Nothing I suppose I could fire up my Windows 11 gaming PC just to try it. [UPDATE] Audacity works great for recording repeater activity on my Windows 11 gaming PC I press Record and it sits there until it hears something. Then it records and stops then starts again when necessary. Perfect! I just need something super small form factor that can be the Windows 11 host that has Line-In. Maybe a Tablet? I could put it next to my repeater...

I already have a BTech APRS-K1 Audio cable. I’ll look into this option as well. Does the UV5G do Repeaters better than the UV5R? I had issues with that radio remembering RX and TX with an offset. Definitely operator error.

Fantastic. Thanks for the lead!

My repeater just went live this week and I've been looking around to see if there is a way to monitor or even log the traffic. Just out of curiosity primarily. Is anyone doing this?

About 45’ above terrain. My mast starts at 14’ above.

My GMRS-RPT50 is live https://mygmrs.com/repeater/9233 Limited range, but off the grid.

FYI, Katy at BTech allowed me to overclock my RPT50 to 12.8V, but last night while testing I was experiencing a hum while talking to my wife from the driveway over the repeater. Spoke again with Katy this morning and she suspects it’s due to the higher voltage. I’ll back it down to 12.5V tonight. I should still be north or 40W at that setting and do desire clarity during conversation Hopefully the hum issue will be behind me. [UPDATE] My hum problem is gone after I backed the voltage down to 12.5V. I also tested my antenna and got great results! I can’t do the distance test yet, though. The inverter I bought for my car won’t power the DuraComm LPX-14 / Midland MXT500.

Agreed. As mentioned, I’m at about 44’ above street level which is as high as I’ll be able to go. We’ll see if I can get through the treetops. BTW, LMR400 is bad ass. I had no idea. Replaced my 50’ run yesterday. Will be testing longer distance than the driveway to my wife in the house very soon

I appreciate the expert opinions, and I did order LMR400 to replace my RG-8X. That being said, with my existing coax I clearly spoke with someone on a repeater 40 miles away.

Never saw that I'll see how my existing setup works, and if it doesn't perform, I'll look into changing it up. Thanks. And hope the OP can figure his situation out too. I'd be experimenting with other channels right away per suggestion above.