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.

Sorry to hijack this thread If I were to look at another antenna to go with 50' of LMR400 what would you suggest?

Dave Duncan at DPD Productions makes a living on antenna's and disagrees with your assessment. He doesn't even sell LMR400.

Same repeater here, but haven’t tested it yet. Gonna drive away with my 50W Midland MXT500 but waiting for the MXTA26 6dB Gain Whip Antenna to arrive first. See photo for what will be plugged into the RPT50. It’s from DPD Productions and I’m using RG8X. It’s about 30’ up from 14’ elevation. I found a place on the map that gets to 40’ so I’ll probably head in that direction while my wife hangs out at the house. Will report back if you want, but it’ll be next week. Heading out of town tomorrow. Good luck to you!

You’re taking to a guy who increases the voltage on the motherboard of his PC to get 5 more frames per second in his racing sim. Thanks, but I’m good with where I am on the new repeater. Eager to get it connected to my antenna on the roof and test. Bringing my “shack” into the house instead of where I was before in the garage. Have some work to do regarding access, grounding, etc. Thankfully the mast and grounding rod are right on the other side of the wall from where this will live.

This is my first experience with all of this, so I am just shooting for the stars. I get 47W on my Midland MXT500. But it doesn't have a Duplexer. I was at 38W with the BTech. Now I'm at 45W. I'm thrilled as I initially wanted to send this back and now we got it to work without replacing anything. Just the twist of plastic screw on the Power Supply to increase the voltage.

I thought so.

Progress. Managed to get the case cover off. Went through a few screw drivers to find one that wouldn’t strip those little bitches. Power reading from the duplexer is still 38-40W. If I plug directly into the repeater look what I get Been working with Katy at BTech. They’re probably gonna send me a new Duplexer. [EDIT] The voltage was low. They had me turn it up from 12.2V to 12.5V (there’s a little white adjustment screw on the Power Supply). Now I’m getting 43W out of the Duplexer. I asked if I can turn it up a little more. Please hold. [UPDATE] They told me no higher than 12.8V. I’m hitting 45W now pretty consistently. They are concerned with 1.2 SWR. I would guess it’s my patch cable? Anyways, it’s not the Duplexer. I can live with 45W.

OMG The firmware update must have set me back to LOW power. Set it to HIGH and now I see 38, 39 and maybe a 40W. Mostly 38's. Pretty sure that's where you were and they told you it should be better. Ugh.

My dilemma is that the Surecom is plugged into the Duplexer port (TX/RX) and I don’t have another N Male to plug an antenna in to RX (until tomorrow). Probably not a good idea to run this without an antenna but I tried this anyways...

I thought that might be it! Muchas Gracias