Logan5

"Fact is I have found little difference in how well commercial grade and the evil bubble pack radios transmit and receive in most circumstances."
 
I have to disagree. I have a Baofeng UV5R, and while somewhat "versatile" it is quirky, and certainly not built tough enough for any commercial duty I have ever seen radios in. As a ham rig, a scanner, a light duty GMRS radio...it's ok, but not great...but I didn't expect much for $42. There is not way any of these cheap chinese knock offs hold a candle to a Motorola or other real radio. There is a WORLD of difference in quality, all around operation, etc in this stuff and Motorola portable, of which I have several. The UV5R is very prone to noise, and other "trash" that degrades it's receive. The TX is rated at 4 watts, and I find it does 1.5 to 2 in hi power mode. I also have some Audiovox GMRS/FRS radios I have kept around for a number of years. They are supposed to do 3 watts in high power mode and I beleive they are close. I use them on vacation for car - to - car comms, and if I lose one, I am not out much. The UV5R I consider an intermediate "toy", and normally keep it at home just to listen on, but I only expect so much out of it. When the real work is done, I carry a Motorola. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, this is mine.
 
I guess in summary.....just because a 1/2 Ton V6 Pickup can hitch to a big trailer, that doesn't mean you can pull it and don't need a 3/4 Ton Diesel!  
 
(Above mention of Motorola is in reference to Commercial/Professional Motorola radios - If I didn't make that clear).  

WB725NY is up and running.  On my meter I have 25 Watts to the antenna, better than what I had hoped for.  I didn't want to say anything prior to this out of fear that I may jynx myself but I have to send praise to the Ritron folks.
 
They took in my machine after I had tried to align it and broke a VCO adjustment Pot.  So I sent the entire radio to them for alignment, tuning of the duplexer and to have it set back to wide band.    The technician at Ritron replaced the pot as an upgrade, they replaced the noisy fan with a very quiet new one, tuned the duplexer and set the transmit from 12 Watts to 25 (he said 20 so I will say my meter may be off).  As of now it is running and sounding great for a total of $92.75 which includes the cost of shipping back to me.  Good Job Ritron.   Nice to see a company such as this. 
 
I will start some propogation testing as time allows and adjust the maping on this site accordingly.  Bill
 
 
And just if anyone is looking for a innexpensive repeater, with this work I am $325 into it.   That doesn't count JohnE's time which is priceless. 

they are more or less "toys" for the most part.  half watt, 12.5 Kc's and the molded antenna doesn't help.
just my thoughts

These are the radios I have.  So far the only complaint is that they only charge in the stand, and I would like to be able to charge in the truck.  I'll be taking them on a canoe trip next week, so the waterproof-ness may get a good test.

+100 

Got an update from Ritron today about the repeater.  I is all alligned and tuned.  They replaced the fan that I thought was too noisey, appartently it was on its way out.  The tech was able to get 20 Watts out of the duplexer which he said should give me a little better than 65% duty cycle.  It needed a few upgrades that they do automatically upon service which was nice.  So hopefully I will get a package in the mail next week and be up and running. 

NICE!

After i sent an e-mail to the Hotel group this morning:
I was just contacted by telephone by a female "General manager" of the hotel group in question, she and her group are ready to make the changes necessary to the repeater to become FCC compliant. I spent about 10 min's with her explaining how I and my group had paid for FCC licenses for the Freq. they are on and she agreed that it needed to be fixed. I told her. i had not filed a compliant with the FCC and would not as long as they made appropriate changes in a timely fashion. I also informed her that my group may not be the only compliant with the FCC and that I had no control of any other party or group. She seemed to understand the magnitude of the situation and I told her to call if she had any further questions, but that I could not offer any technical assistance.

BTW I am no newbie as the site says I have been on this site for several years but newbie makes me feel like a rookie again...lol

Logan5 - there were 7 posts identical to the one above over a time span of 40 minutes.  I removed 6 of them because they all contained the same text.
 
The forum takes a little time to process new posts - especially when the server hosting the forum is working hard on it's tasks, so give it a little time when you hit the "Add Reply" button.  Thanks. 

Most everyone on the planet finds Part 95 for GMRS confusing including the people who wrote the statutes.
 
In any event, as long as you have a GMRS license you can put up a repeater system with a 50 watt max output. The ERP is not covered under FCC reg's, so high gain antennas are allowed.  No system ID is required in code but EACH USER must ID with call sign at the beginning and end of their transmission string to comply.
 
You can go to 199.9  feet from ground level to tip of antenna without lighting or alternating paint on the tower, but IF you are within the direct landing or take off pattern of an airport, in some cases you will need to follow FAA marking regulations. [ CFR 95.51 ]
 
You can get to any statute by following the menu here:  http://www.ecfr.gov
I'll repost that part of the statute here:
 
 
[ A repeater system is NOT a small base or control station station.]

The Baofeng UV5R types are Part 90 accepted.  They will power down to 2 watts and will cover both UHF and VHF (MURS).  Easy to program with Baofeng downloaded software and cheap cable.  They will cover the GMRS bands as well.   Good radios for the $50 price tag.  Extra batteries are $15.   Something to look at. 

We have seen that the Google, Bing, Ask and other search engine spybots are camped out here reading new posts. Just a word to the wise... use your discretion in posting personal or sensative information that could possibly compromise your personal safety, security, lead to identity theft, or give non-licensed individuals a way to access your radio systems.

Thanks Gary, I do the same with all my radios after killing an HT that was transmitting from my workbag.  Darn nice HT I killed.  But like you say, It is not me that I am concerned about.   I don't think the factory 3 minutes is a bad number, if you cannot say it in 3 minutes your going to have to let it drop.  The programming cable did not come today, just the Ritron mic.  So needless to say I just got done playing with that, works good, audio is very nice so far.  Bill