LeoG

Well in general repeaters are put in places of advantage. High hills, tall masts, higher gain antennas. With UHF power isn't really everything, height is. If you are going to use a unity gain antenna 10' off the ground with the repeater then it will act more or less like another HT. But if you can put it on a 50 foot hill with a 20' mast and a 7dBi gain antenna then it will perform much better than the HT ever could. More power to punch through some kinds of obstacles such as a line of trees, some buildings is always helpful if they are there. But if you have a mountain in the way no amount of power is going to help you.

That's my antenna of choice also. I also have the Smiley Rubber Duck antenna and it's a good 2nd for it's size. I usually put the HT in my back pocket so the antenna doesn't really bother me that much.

5 mile range may be optimistic. Always depends on antenna height and the surrounding territory. Otherwise sounds like a plan

It's made in the US, so that something. Found this hilarious when I was searching it. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/phelps_dod_duplexer_638.html

Looks as though it could be tuned to GMRS frequencies. It's a flatpak duplexer and you could probably get a new one for about the same price, a bit more likely, and have it tuned for the correct frequency. This might be the instruction manual for it. It'll download a PDF file into you device. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.repeater-builder.com/antenna/phelps-dodge/pd-638-509-6.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjH4NTd28WSAxUiMWIAHRqkArgQFnoECBYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3LnA40L4KWPjTDecHV6Ce_

Yup, maybe they sent you the wrong end. It's made in chyna so it's possible you got sent the otherworldly connection instead of the US compatible connection.

I've dealt with 3 of the MA09 antennas and all 3 of them were just standard UHF connectors. SO239 connector on the antenna requiring a PL259 end on the coax. I went to the Retevis site and it does say it's a SL16 connector. I got my antenna when I ordered a RT97S repeater. It had a SO239 connector on the repeater and antenna. The coax they gave me with my order had PL259 connectors. Possible the new version has the new connector.

He's always hysterical on his reviews. Buy that man a new pencil.

I can also see that this is probably the most confuckulating to use GMRS radio I have ever seen.

No, Voice DMR is not allowed.

Oh Yay, we're going to argue this again

Only that people don't always listen the the eff sea seas.

Messi & Peloni cable connected to a lightning arrestor and then 1/2" Andrews Heliax to the Comet CA-712EFC. When I had my Retevis antenna up I had another length of M&P after the lightning arrestor and had issues and the SWR moved around quite a bit with the temperature going above and below freezing.

You pay your 35 bucks and get a GMRS license that the whole family can use. You buy inexpensive radios to test the waters while you are working on your ham license. That way you can toy with the radios and have real life experience with them by the time you get your ham license. Myself I'm not even interested in the ham license as the GMRS does what I need it to do. Short to mid range communications with the family.

My Comet is 1.01:1 with 47 watt pushing out the back end of the KG1000G. And during rain or snow I've only seen it go as high as 1.05:1. And it's not like it's only on once channel, it's across quite a bit of them. I double checked with another meter because I couldn't believe it, same results. And yet my Retevis antenna is at 1.7:1, so I know it'll read something else and not just fake fantastic results.