LeoG

I can regularly hit a repeater 17 miles away with my TD-H3 HT that outputs 4.7 watts.  My voice volume is definitely soft when receiving on another HT in the within the same couple of towns still 12-17 miles away from the repeater.  The repeater is 1000+ ft up on a mountain and I'm 62ft above sea level.
Yet going HT to HT is usually limited to about 2 miles or less depending on what is in the way.
 
I have another repeater that is 21 miles away on another mountain and that one is iffy when I can get in contact with it.  Quieting isn't good but I'm still understandable.  I pretty much figure that's the limit of range for my little HTs

Fantastic.  I wouldn't doubt it I searched through my junk piles I could find the CB unit.  But no antennas I bet.

Funny, he actually got back to me from my asking permission here.  I let him know I already got permission from him though facebook and he said he was far behind at getting his requests out because it's baseball season for his kids.  Busy man, and I can fully understand that.

Funny, he actually got back to me from my asking permission here.  I let him know I already got permission from him though facebook and he said he was far behind at getting his requests out because it's baseball season for his kids.  Busy man, and I can fully understand that.

Funny, he actually got back to me from my asking permission here.  I let him know I already got permission from him though facebook and he said he was far behind at getting his requests out because it's baseball season for his kids.  Busy man, and I can fully understand that.

Funny, he actually got back to me from my asking permission here.  I let him know I already got permission from him though facebook and he said he was far behind at getting his requests out because it's baseball season for his kids.  Busy man, and I can fully understand that.

I tried to get permission through here to a nearby repeater and didn't have any luck.  Waited 10 days.  It also said to contact on facebook, which is something I don't do.  But my wife does and I pestered her until she contacted the owner and he was glad to give me permission.  Also said he gets so much spam that he pretty much ignores what comes from here.  So it may be that.

I just did a real world test of some RG58/U cable.  Why? Because that's what I have kicking around unused LOL.
Using my little TD-H3 radio at 467.625MHz going into a 50ohm dummy load through my Mcbazel Surecom SW-102 SWR/Power meter.  The 1st connection is an SMA-F to PL259F and then a PL259M-M, 1 ft RG58 jumper cable to the meter.
The output on the meter was 4.69 watts
I then switched out the RG58 jumper cable for 50' of RG58/U cable (Retevis) and checked the output and it was 1.48 watts.  Pretty significant.

I am assuming he means you aren't getting more actual "watts" from gain which is true.  That's why it's called "Effective" Radiated Power and not True Radiated Power.

Gain does not increase power would be correct.  Gain does increase where the power goes.  Zero gain is an antenna that radiates equally in a 360º sphere.  Most antennas don't do that.  An "Omni directional" antenna is really a lie, but in a good way.  It still radiates in a horizontal circle (approx) but the beam of energy radiating from the antenna is cut off on the top and bottom so that power is all included in a beam that is 20 or 30 or whatever degrees in the vertical thereby increasing the effective power in that area.  You aren't wasting it going straight up or down.  It is being put to better use in the horizontal plane that it will be received in "effectively" giving you the result of more radiated watts.
Gain doesn't multiply your radiated power, it directs it to a more useful area.
 
Better?

I play solar all the time.  I have a system in my truck I use to power tools and if needed I can power my house.  Depending on what you can keep the temperature of the battery at when you put it into a hole you might consider a LiFePO4 battery.  They also have self heating batteries that will make sure the battery will stay warm enough to allow charging.
  Not sure if you are limited by size of funds but if I were to do this I would use a 50 or 100Ah battery with a Victron 10 or 15 Amp controller and a 100 watt solar panel.  Or possible a pair of 50s in parallel to try to avoid shadows from killing power output.  One of the main issues with a LiFePO4 battery is it's low temperature charging.  Usually 32ºF is the low limit, which is why I suggested a self heating.  It will deliver power until the temp gets to -4ºF but won't charge until 32ºF.  Or you could stick with the AGM battery, but make it much larger so it can hold more power so it doesn't get to a low enough discharge that it stops producing power for the repeater.

Love how they say "Yes, people still use these"

Love how they say "Yes, people still use these"

The only reason for me not to play with the internals is the warranty.  If it was out of warranty I'd be in there like nothing.  And I do agree that it's unlikely that the duplexer has slipped.  And what I mean by that is one of the adjusting screws got loose during shipping and has been slowly moving taking the duplexer out of tune and bringing the receive/transmit ratio out of whack. 
This repeater shouldn't be able to output 8.5 watts from the duplexer.  And the wattage shouldn't have increased since I tested it at the beginning.  I've double checked with a couple of HT which I marked their output wattage on the inside of the battery compartment when I got them, and they are the same as before.  Tells me the power meter is still working right.

Measured the cable with no antenna and it's a total open, which it should be.  Ya, I think it's gonna have to come down.  Maybe I'll email Retevis and see what they have to say about how their antenna might react to a dc ohm test and other such related questions.  Because after doing the 1.5 mile test with the HTs, I don't think this has been working right since the beginning.

It essentially doesn't work.  I can get 1/4 mile out.  I can get a mile and a half with the HTs with 4" antennas going through a forest and a highway embankment.  So I think their just might be a slight problem.....LOL

All of what you said are how I've based my thoughts, back from my knowledge of installing CB stuff.  Other than not realizing the RG8 cable was more waterproof than the LMR400.  I expected quite a bit of protection from the tube.  I made sure the coax was centered and had no contact with the tube also.  I thought it would be very difficult for water to actually get into the fittings with the setup they provided.  I thought maybe air moisture might be able to get in there eventually but not physical rain getting into the connector itself.
As for grounding my thought was it's mainly for lighting/static protection and not really an antenna ground.  That the ground plane provided what the antenna needed to function properly.

Bingo.
 
Thanks.

52, 53 and 54 allow you to use those frequencies when you are in the open mode (unlocked)
 
Not sure what the #32 is for.

Choose paper for English.  And yes, everyone gets this same question.  Not sure if they think it's funny.  But it is.
Can't wait to see the video that emerges from this LOL

Choose paper for English.  And yes, everyone gets this same question.  Not sure if they think it's funny.  But it is.
Can't wait to see the video that emerges from this LOL

The only difference between the tone and the digital was the digital didn't pretend to transmit.  But with either activated and zero squelch it wouldn't receive a signal and re-transmit it.  So squelch level 1 it is.

I had a very specific spot where it stopped responding to the HT.  I perceived that as range of the repeater.  I thought it should go farther but there's those trees.  And after seeing the squelch level default it occurred to me that the squelch setting might be what is limiting me and not the transmitter power and leaves. 
I'm at the shop right now and I'm going to set it to zero and see what happens.
 
Thanks Steve

Looks like it's too late for that.  Let'm have it LOL.

Reasoning that the weight of the cable can pull on the antenna or fitting and damaging either could have some merit.  But as a drip loop that seems silly.  Of course it will work as a drip loop.  But the whole assembly is in the rain and will get wet.  There is no reason to have the drip loop any place other than where the coax enters a building to keep water from penetrating.
As for the loop acting as an inductor and attracting lightning I find that a bit hard to fathom.  One loop of shielded wire isn't much of an inductor and the whole of the height of the antenna in the air is going to be the main attracter of lightning, in my opinion.
Grounding the antenna will attract lighting to as it puts the ground potential up in the air.  Again inconsequential because we are talking miles of distance and maybe 30-50' of rounded pole rising into the air.