MSnow

Yes, you can do this. Highest tree you can find in the middle of everyone. I used a 40' telescoping flag pole attached to my RV ladder to the roof and this was able to overcome our issues being able to talk simplex. I used the rt97s the 10W version and it worked great.

Maybe look into the Radtel 880-G, if you really want the APRS tho I think the Kenwood HT and Yeasu are considered best, but those are 5 times the price your wanting to pay.

Just remember a Youtubers job is to get you to buy things. Especially with their Affiliate links below. As the other gent said as long as your holding the HT your body does the work of the counterpoise. But hey If you like collecting stuff and have no issues spending the money I would say buy and try it out for yourself, part of the fun of it all really.

just buy the midland nmo mag mount it comes with a very robust rubber cup around the magnet so it won't scratch anything.

I don't think adding a duplexer is going to give you what your trying to do. I think I understand your logic, but even the open unused receive port on the duplexer would still receive the TX signal from the other antenna. you either have to get the antenna's farther apart, or you can run one antenna on the duplexer, and that for sure solves your problems. As for the loss through a duplexer you can get some that have lower loss, I run a Sinclair Q3220E which factory spec says around .8db loss you can tune it and get it a bit better I think I got mine down to .6. Going with a duplexer you will have to get a good SA or VNA to tune it, and you'll want to tune it on site. The Rigol dsa815-tg is a common one due to it being somewhat affordable. Still not going to get full 25 watts if that's your repeaters output power because your getting loss in all the cables, adapters, splices, and lightning arrestors as well. Best bet would be to start with more power so that after all your loss you end up with 25watts at the antenna. Toronto Surplus is a good place to pick up duplexers that are used for a decent price FWIW.

The Retevis portable repeaters are pretty nice. I have the RT97S 10W version and it works well for what it is. I use it when camping and I put the antenna up around 40ft on a push up flag pole off the top of my 5th wheel. If you don't need or want the portable aspect however your best bet is to get some retired commercial grade stuff. Most of it will still have quite a bit of life left it it, but you will need some things extra. you can ebay an Icom fr4000-3 for around 500, then get a sinclair q3220e duplexer for 400. you will need to rent or make friends with someone with a good vna or at least sa to tune it. If the duplexer is tuned well you won't loose half your wattage, more like 15-20% ish.

turn the volume on the radio all the way up, like you did with your text.

I bought 2 GMRS Pros from Btech website, both came in nice sealed boxes and every part inside was individually bagged. including the antennas that were not affixed from the factory. beyond charging them and programming them they haven't been used much, maybe 10 to 15 mins. not a fan of them personally.

Yeah that looks way different. When I try to cut anything from this list is just does nothing and just reverts back to this stock look.This is the CPS from B2wr where I bought the unit. Of course anything past ch30 I can put anything I want with no issues. Perhaps the OG poster was using same software and creating issues. I think Chirp or RT systems might allow such edits.

Interesting, I have several Wouxon HT's & my KG1000g+ and the only ones that allow me to change any of the first 30 are the Ham versions. All of the GMRS type accepted radios I cannot change any of the channels if I try the CPS software reverts it back or gives and error stating out of band. Maybe I should try Chirp or RT systems to program. Now the Boofwangs allow pretty much anything I want in chirp.

No need to over complicate things. Instead of spending an additional 600$ repeater, buy a better antenna and a taller mast to put antenna up higher and that repeater will go 10 miles. I had an RT97S 10W version on a Comet CAF712EFC around 40ft up or roughly 282ft above sea level and had no problems getting into it with an HT from 5-10miles away in the Piney woods of Texas with 80Ft tall pine trees everywhere.

it's literally the same stuff from the same Chinese manufacturing facility. Just buy one and be happy.

For future reference, typically on GMRS radios they are type accepted meaning the first 30 channels can't be changed. if you copy pasta one of those channels to memory 31 you can change adjust add tones as you please with now issues. they are just required to lockout those first 30 for fcc approvals.

Maybe change your post title to New to Interwebs message boards?

Closest thing you could get to what your looking for is a Repeater and run it in base station mode. Btech makes one and I think retivis. But with that said all they are is a mobile radio with a power supply crammed into a box. In fact if your being technical almost every electronic runs off dc voltage so when you plug it into AC its converting it to DC it just has the power supply built into the device. So the answer is buy something like a Wouxon KG1000G Plus and get a Power supply and enjoy, because its the same thing as any other base.

https://www.retevis.com/products/rt97-power-adapter-power-cord-us This is about the only thing I find, you might call them directly to purchase.

I'd like to see it, but i don't trust your files to not have a virus.

This makes me cringe. I worked in 12v industry for so many years and running anything beyond a phone charge out of the cig plug is questionable at best. Even Garmin's and radar detectors we would 100% of the time hardwire them into better circuits then the lighter plug. Remember your voltage effects your power output as well. My kg1000g+ puts out the full 50 at 14.4 @ 9.7 amps if i pump up the voltage to 15 it puts out 51ish watts at 8amps. Most vehicles while running will have around 13.8v to 14.4v.

I have tons of radios, when I caught the bug i started getting everything that came out and seemed awesome. Unfortunately most of that is marketing. Here is what I found. When it comes to GMRS radios none of them are as good as the Wouxon radios, for mobile the KG1000g plus. The MXTA25 is one of the best if not the best antenna you can get it really is amazing. With that said if your not mounting it with a ground plane like the middle of the roof you would be better off getting a ground independent antenna. Comet has the GI series coming out they are primarily designed for vehicles that are not made of steel, but will work well for fender mounts. The other options that are good are to get old commercial radios like Kenwood, Motorola, or iCom. Hope it helps.

Sounds like you might just be to far away. Especially on a handheld even if your in the estimated distance of the repeater you might need to walk around and see if you can find a spot. Best way you will know this is if you cannot hear people talking on the repeater then you won't be able to open it either. Find a place where the traffic is coming in perfectly clear then try again. If still no then program it on the radio and not chirp, and ensure you have the correct offset as well. Good Luck Have fun its always a learning process.

Assuming your creating a node only network and talking over DVswitch or Zello only, I would think the network admin would be able to help more then someone on here since most here is just RF related. With that said with my limited knowledge of nodes I would say it sounds like you have a config issue, that your node number is not registered or approved for the network. In which case again you would need to contact your network admin.

An alternative option would be to build a Allstar node with a RasberryPi, then connect the node to a URIxB, and then make the db25 to db25 cable to the FR4000. Make sure to push the remote button so that the green light is lit for the remote on the front of the FR4000. The node can be programmed however you want for CWID and time. This would also allow you to change to ham frequencies and link your repeater in the future if you decide to change over to ham from GMRS.

Buy an SDR, problem solved.

I have made it 460 miles with tropospheric ducting Montgomery, TX to Mobile, AL this was on may15th 2025 on 700. The whole coast line from Texas over to Alabama was white. The majority of the Gulf of America was white hot as well. You can use https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html to find out if your ever in a good opening and try for some farZ contacts.

Mine came with them in the bag. Maybe email them and let them know they were missing and see if they will send you new ones.