kipandlee

Lower loss will require a larger duplexer. Most same size duplexers have about the same loss, in theory, that is
The Fumei at 1.5dB sounds about right for a small mobile duplexer.
I think the Fumei will be okay for now. (yes I said that!) 1.5 dB loss is not really much loss at all.
If more range is desired, raising the antenna 10 feet would have more profound impact in range than swapping duplexer.
G.

Guys lets get back to the Midland MTX500 stuff.
There is a section in the forums for arguing called Amateur Radio or Miscellaneous Topics

I only have one problem with this video. He said it doesn't receive as well because it's a ROC. Not only that, he went on the say that every other type approved radio is better than the Midland, but did nothing to demonstrate that.
 
I'm a little confused by this guy (and others I have seen) complaining about the Midland and others being a ROC instead of a superheterodyne.  There are ROC systems that outperform some superheterodyne systems all day long and cost as much as $10,000 for amateur transceivers. Flex SDR is a great example. 
 
There are POS superheterodynes and POS ROCs.  The style of tech shouldn't be automatically discounted as junk or awesome based on design style alone. 

Radio waves coming from the antenna are just like the light coming from a flashlight. If you light it up atop of a lighthouse, someone will be able to see your light from tens of miles away, now, if you light up the same flashlight at ground level, it won't be seen from very far away at all.
Repeaters are like lighthouses, they are placed high above the ground.
G.

Same here.  And the reality is if I really want to talk to someone and don't hear anyone, with only 8 high power channels, I can call for a contact on every channel in 2 minutes, and that's allowing 10 seconds or more per channel for someone to reply to me before I spin the dial.
 
Like I said, I'm not against the users agreeing to standardize among themselves... but I'm not holding my breath. Especially since ORI died off, and the was the closest to "coordination" I have seen on this service. 

With only 22 channels available for me I just scan them all. I even do that at home. If I hear something interesting I stop the scan.
It helps if the radio scans reasonably fast too. Some of the Chinese radios are really SLOW while scanning, if that matters to you.  That might be one thing to check before laying out your money.

This thread just made my week. You see, I, like OP here have done the exact same thing to a few radios over the years. Then, to make it even more interesting, I paused the movie I was watching, and took this picture. I watch this movie at times, as I began my professional career working on ICBM's and now have worked in radio for a long time. Just an interesting coincidence, but made me laugh. 
Easy solution for the other/better half, buy her another radio, now you have two that are freebanded, enjoy.

Its not really a 'hack' as much as it is putting the radio back to its natural state - the way Xenu intended.
The video that I watched has a warning about not being able to UNdo it, in the info/description.

The KG-1000G setup will have more output but a "real" repeater like the VXR7000 with only half the power, has much better (almost 2X) range - probably because the internal shielding which reduces desense, and the better/high-quality duplexer.. you COULD spend the extra money on a KG1000 setup for a better quality duplexer, but that gets costly.
The Retevis outputs far less power than either setup, but gets about the same range as the KG1000 setup..   Roughly 30-40 miles to a mobile radio, even further to a base-radio.

You are wrong. Just because you can't do it, does not mean nobody can.  Unless maybe my Wouxun($79), BTech ($49), and Baofeng($30) HTs don't  count as "CCR" radios - all of which talk 80 miles to a repeater.

I ROUINTINLY USE A STOCK KG935G TO CONTACT TOWERS MTN 575 IN CROWN KING AZ FROM INSIDE MY HOME IN NORTH GLENDALE AZ, AROUND  80 MI OR SO W/STRONG SIGNAL

Kaffee: That's not what you said. You said he was never going to be able to talk to a repeater 80 miles away using an HT. Jessup: That's correct. Kaffee: You said 80 miles away using an HT Jessup: I recall what I said. Kaffee: I could have the court reporter read back to you... Jessup: I know what I said! I don't have to have it read back to me, like I'm... Kaffee: Then why the two statements? Colonel? Jessup: Sometimes men use HTs that are POS CCRs. Kaffee: No, sir. You made it clear just a moment ago that your men never use cheap gear. Your men use quality equipment or people die. So the OP shouldn't have been in any danger at all, should he have, Colonel? Jessup: You snotty little bastard.   With apologies to Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Junior Grade Kaffee and Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan R Jessup in "A Few Good Men" written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Rob Reiner. ?

While you boys are debating the finer points of grammar and lexicology, let us not forget that the OP is attempting real world communication from his home in Milwaukee to a repeater 80 miles away.
I assumed he meant a repeater in Wisconsin when I suggested he was trying to reach Madison.  
But continued thought about his problem reminded me of a post on this forum that claims to hit a repeater in Evanston IL from Northern Wisconsin, 230 miles away using a Wouxun 905g.  And the reason for the success of that contact was that it was primarily line of sight over the waters of Lake Michigan.
So in remembering that Milwaukee also resides next to Lake Michigan, perhaps he is attempting to hit a 700 repeater in Chicago IL or Grand Rapids MI.
We'll just have to wait for the OP to return and give us more facts.

With many organizations and entities using radios, as the price come down, and availability goes up......analog radio, and features that used to be marketed as options have become the norm. Sub-audible tones, Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System (CTSCC) and Private Line (PL) as marketed by Motorola is now on almost all radios. Since many hobby users do not wish to spend large amounts of money on Radio Service Monitors, they are thousands to tens of thousands of dollars (Hewlett Packard 8920, and newer Aeroflex 3920 for example), I have often recommended the Surecom SF401 Plus tester. 
This small tester shows frequency and tones in use, if used, on analog radios. This, along with the Surecom SW102 wattmeter have become common items I have used when not working in public safety radio, or when I do not want to carry a large and heavy test set to check a radio that may not be as tight of spec as digital radios. I also tend to use Surecom gear when dealing with older analog only radios, as shown in the picture, working with Motorola EX600XLS handhelds that were shipped from a remote site, to my remote site at that time. I had no room for larger and heavier, and more expensive test equipment. I was given no information besides the radios, and what was shown on their display. There was no printout of the codeplug, no programming computer at the site, and no cable to read the radio. So, the Surecom tester worked well in this case. They are decent for hobby use, and cheap enough to afford if you do not working radio professionally.

It's worth repeating.
If you're running a compact "flat pack" duplexer - and you're pumping out over 20 watts, there's a real good chance that your system's measured desense is 1.5 to 2 dB.  Seems like a small amount, right?  However, if you can improve your receiver performance by 3dB -you have effectively doubled the area of coverage that your portables can talk back in from.
One of my first Ah-Ha! moments in 2-way radio was when an old timer took me out to a tower site where a customer on the repeater system was complaining about poor coverage with their hand-held portables. When we got on site, he spent a bunch of time setting up his test equipment and taking measurements. He already knew what he was going to do, but he took the time to educate me. He showed me the performance of the system as it was and showed me the measured desense. He let me listen in to "weak" portables that were operating on the edge of the system.
The customer had been sold a brand new high power 100 watt "high performance" repeater, but was running it all through an existing flat pack 6 cavity notch duplexer. They spent their money on more POWER, not on the duplexer - they already had one of those.  Long story short, after showing me the system performance as it was - he turned the power down to 10 watts. Suddenly, the units "on the edge" were coming in much more clearly, and users that had not been able to get in at all were now using the system, but still were scratchy.  He then added a tuned bandpass cavity between the duplexer and the repeater's receiver, and WOW, now they ALL sounded good. Then he went back and showed me what zero desense looked like. Couldn't even see a difference in the noise floor when the transmitter was keyed up locally. Now the repeater had good ears - an ability to listen that matched it's ability to talk out. Balance.

Thanks for sharing that .  My RT97 is mounted in a box on the side of it's tower in the Texas sun .  I tested it buy talking to a motormouth that lives in the next town 15 miles away  in 105 deg summer heat . He talks nonstop sometimes for 9 to 12 minutes without unkeying .  I did put an air vent in it's box made from pvc pipe that came out top and turned down to keep the rain out .  It's been up and working fine for 2 years now with no problems .  It is at 70' with a 30 mile range to a mobile .  I am well pleased with it . 

Certainly, I should probably go to Linux, but I never did get around that. I have way too many things installed running on windows that at this point its just easier for me to stay on Win7 than move to anything else. I upgraded machine a year back, just to get the most powerful machine that still runs Win7 which should last me to the end of the decade...
I stopped purchasing new software because none of the new stuff has/does anything I really need... Word? Excel? Powerpoint? I still run my legal Office 2007 copy. Works perfect, doesn't dial home, allows me to type what I want, just like every other software I own, no dialing home, no BS. And since I only visit a few internet sites, so long a browser still works on Win7, I am good.
G.

Dude... Midland just completely punked out.  They said the specs are 42-50 watts.  They are trying to get out of it by saying it's close enough and my gear.
 
@gortex2  The 12 feet is the total length of the antenna transmission path.  I may have added too much information, causing some confusion with that statement.  There is only 3 feet of patch cable between the radio and the watt meter and the meter shows a perfect 50 Ohm load, so the rest of the path, after the meter should not be relevant, no?  
My loss meter is showing 0.102dB on the patch cable.  The watt meter is not reading at the end of the path, it’s the first item in the path (not including the cable).  Even if we get really picky and add the typical 0.019 dB per UHF connector, we are assuming a total of 0.204 dB of loss, not 1 dB.  That should be a total measured output power of 47.7 watts.  Would you agree?
I’m not trying to give anyone at Midland a hard time.  I am a life-long Midland customer, purchasing CB’s, FRS and GMRS handhelds and GMRS mobile radios.  I love the products.  The main reason why I am even complaining is because my MXT400 (siting right next to me) is putting out the exact same power (measured) as the MXT500, which is supposed to be more powerful.  So I hop people can understand my frustration.

Along with the power issues Micheal mentioned (causing damage by have the two antennas close), there is a chance you are building a two element vertical UHF beam and don't even realize it.
 
A full wave length of a GMRS signal is about 2 feet (61cm).  If the antennas are 2 feet apart or any correct segment of wave pattern within a couple of wavelengths, the passive vertical will act like a reflector and the slim jim will act like a driver... essentially creating a focused beam that hears better for a pattern 40 to 60 degrees forward and creates nulls (where you can't hear as well if at all) of about 40 to 60 degrees behind it.
 
So yeah, combine the possibility that you are fringe of the repeater making placement critical and you may have accidentally built a beam making it so it can't hear in the direction of the repeater, the terrain may be an issue and you are looking at almost 10 dB of line loss per hundred feet with both the LMR195 and the RG58, I'd say you need to make some changes.
 
Find a sweet spot on the roof using an HT (as mentioned above), ditch the PVC for fiberglass or wood, get 1 piece of LMR400 or better hooked up... you may make it work.

Well, again, I respect your opinion about what you believe "breaking and entering", etc, but just like I said on my previous post: "for every person who thinks something happened one way, two other people think it happened a different way, or that it didn't happen at all" 
Now, what I can state beyond any shadow of doubt is that legislation to send 1099s to the IRS after the ceiling was lowered from 20k to 600 dollars was passed last year.  That is the point of this thread.
G.

A fixed station is one that’s not broken; I usually work on breaking my fixed station 

Oh.. shit.
As it turns out, a AM as stupid as everyone says.  It is also entire possible that I have had too much NyQuil ..
Carry on.

Dude... I didn't test on 2m.  I used two distinctly different watt meters to confirm the numbers are correct.  See?  I tested on two meters, not 2m.

"Two Meters"?  I'm no ham, and it is entirely possible that I am totally confused, but isnt GMRS closer to 70cm?

Well, it's here....
 

 

 
 
After using a bunch of feature-rich radios I wasn't expecting much out of it, but this was pretty disappointing.  The only feature difference above the MXT400 is the split tone and (maybe) the weather resistance.
 
The biggest disappointment so far is they advertise this unit as 50w and its not.  I bench-tested it with two different watt meters and it maxed out at 38 watts on the 462 MHz channels and 32 watts on the 467 MHz frequencies.
 
I'm going to play with it for a few days and see if there are any other disappointments.  I'll let you all know what I think after I give it a fair shot.