swt9779

The repeater doesn’t have to be fancy. Plenty of commercial LMR radios built into repeaters using little controllers and pair of cables. Duplexer can be anything from the common cheaper “flat pack” notch type. Or the nicer (and much more expensive) lower loss band pass/reject can-style duplexers. The can-style usually pass a bit more juice through em. Coax and antenna are extremely important to get right. Don’t use coax with an aluminum shield. Ask how I know.. (Will cause problems and troubleshooting headaches later, google intermodal distortion) If possible grab a chunk of LDF4-50 or similar hardline. It’s expensive but buy once cry once. Use an antenna best suited for your terrain. Higher gain isn’t as important as the RF pattern. Taller pattern antennas usually have a more desirable coverage in hilly areas or more ground clutter. But no antenna at GMRS frequencies will eliminate the need for a clear path. Height… nothing is as important as getting that sucker up as high as possible. 5 watts at 100ft will go twice as far as 50watts at 25ft. And the most important thing with repeaters is to have a stress management plan. Beer usually does the trick.