Logan5

Exactly.  Think of cell phones.  They use a voting system to help keep your call uninterrupted. 

Not really. The term “voting system” usually refers to a repeater with multiple receivers and the ability to select the receiver (vote) with the strongest input signal. The receivers are typically geographically diverse and linked back to the repeater.

Yes.

The "no encoding" was the main reason I did not buy Midland. I enjoy listening. I did not know about mixed tones back then. Another good reason to chose another radio. Our local repeater used mixed tones. CTCSS/PLL tone to open the repeater and DCS TX.

No split tones on the Midland stuff.  Can't even do transmit encoding with no decoding.  You are limited to repeaters with the same in/out tones unless you get another radio.

the repeater you describe employs split tones. I think Midland is incapable of operating in split or mixed tone. But I only have knowledge of this second hand. You may try to set it up with the input tone prog,d into CTCSS/DCS TX and the output tone prog'd into CTCSS/DCS RX. I am sure others with more direct knowledge will chime in. Best of luck with it.

You have to quadruple your power to impact a reciever by 1 S Unit. The one watt is not the issue. I would be more prone to think that your friend either didn't have a connector screwed on correctly, was near an object that adversely impacted his signal via absorption, or he was not on a 4 watt scale as believed.

Edit - forgot to mention, Baofeng radios are terrible. It could be that your receive or his transmit are simply not within proper spec.

Yes.

It could be a programming issue, or it could be a "privacy" issue. Most of the CCR "radios on a chip" don't have all the extras that Motorola puts into their radios, like Basic or Enhanced Privacy.
 
If the Police have certain departments or talkgroups that are using the Privacy function, you would have trouble picking up those transmissions in the clear. 
 
You could also be experiencing a CCR moment, where for no good reason, the radio just decides to stop decoding. If turning the radio off, and turning it back on during one of those missing conversations, gets you decoding the same DMR datastream, you can pretty much blame your radio firmware.
 
I can also tell you that the receive selectivity on most of the CCR radios is nowhere near what most commercial Part 90 radios from Kenwood or Motorola would give you. In other words, expect that the CCR will stop receiving as soon as another decently strong transmitting unit on any nearby frequency keys up. That could be another portable in your immediate vicinity, or a high powered base radio even a half mile away.

Yep, it starts to get real complicated after that. lol, I'm out.

Yeah they are on DCS125 and they are harmless. they might even be operating legally according to the new rules. I do not here them on the input, so they are off my radar so to speak.

My furthest was contact was 100 miles. Dallas, Texas all the way to Waco, Texas down south. It was a really clear night and I was able to hit repeaters on all of the repeater pairs using the 141.3 tone. I was talking to an operator down in Waco on the Waco repeater, I can't remember his callsign but I did write it down somewhere. 
 
I was using my Motorola PM400 on 25 watts with a 1/4 wave drilled on the center roof of my car. I was really impressed. We have a 600 and 675 repeater in downtown Dallas and other repeaters on 600 and 675 were doubling with eachother when I keyed up so I couldn't even hear my local repeaters, the band must've been really open that night..

Wish I'd have read this post before I ran off 'half-cocked' *like I always do!

Why does every new license holder want to setup a repeater? I would like to shed a little light on some of the important things to consider if you recently got your GMRS license and now want your own repeater.
 
First thing to consider, are there any open well placed repeaters in your area that you are able to use? I can assure you most repeater owners want people to use there repeater. Owning several repeaters I can assure you all are welcome and encouraged to use my machines.
 
Do you have access to a location to host your repeater? If your answer is your garage roof you should reconsider. Your garage roof will give you about the same coverage as simplex. Unless you’re on top of a mountain and all your users are at the bottom you will never be happy with this setup.
 
GMRS is not as popular as one would like to think, unless your repeater covers 20 miles or more you may find you only have 1 or 2 users in the area. Unless you already have a group of friends together you may want to consider this before spending money on a decent well positioned site to install your repeater.
 
So you found a nice high site and the price is right, all you need to do is get the repeater installed, sounds simple right? Some thigs to consider first and foremost are the costs because they can add up quickly. Are you on a commercial tower that requires a license and bonded climber? If so this could be by far your largest expense depending on your area. I have spent $600 to $1200 on a climber; I have had quotes as high as $2500 depending on the amount of work and heights involved.  Keep in mind commercial sites require certified mounts, hard line cable, cable clamps, engineered grounding solutions and commercial grade antennas. No tower owner is going to let you install a comet antenna and 200’ of braided shield coax.
 
This brings me to my next point, the antenna. Because of the costs involved with climbers you will want to expend your budget on the antenna. Remember a $2000 repeater on a $200 antenna is going to work about as good as a $200 repeater.  Whereas a $200 repeater on a $2000 antenna is going to work like a $2000 repeater. On my first repeater I was gifted use of a 150’ tower, I installed a DB-420 on the top and 160’ of 7/8 hardline. Total cost of equipment for the antenna install was $2500, with the climbers labor coming in at an additional $800. This left me with enough to purchase an old Motorola R100 repeater running at 25W. To my surprise it had 30 miles of coverage, all due to the cash spent on the antenna and waiting for a decent spot.
 
Things happen, more so if you have an antenna 200’ in the air with a conductive cable connected to sensitive electronics. Antenna issues, feedline issues, repeater issues all cost money and I promise at some point you will have issues that need repair and require your money!
 
It is my opinion that the GMRS community does not need another 2 to 5 miles repeater as it just becomes background noise. What use is a public listed repeater if somebody in a mobile can’t use it 5 miles away while moving or the portable coverage is only a mile? If after reading this you are still going to build a repeater for your garage more power to you, just don’t expect 20 people to show up if it only reaches a mile.
 
As the owner of several GMRS and Commercial repeaters I can attest to the amount of money and effort go into my repeaters. I have only touched on the basics, if you add in any kind of testing services, duplexer tuning, addition of a combiner channel to an existing tower system, RF engineering, rent and insurance your costs can sky rocket. The best advice I can give any new licensee is to try and use the available systems in the area. Take the time to learn a little about what you’re doing and to assess the usability of the service before investing in a repeater for the sole reason of saying you own one.

Possibly you are hearing the Grundy 700 repeater as it has approximately 80 mile radius: https://mygmrs.com/view?id=529
 
It is located at 500' on the WBEZ tower using a 16-bay folded dipole (Andrew DB420), Hardline 1-5/8 (Andrew) and a Motorola Quantar HighPower, 50w out the 6-Cavity (RFS CP450-422).

GMRS requires a user license, FRS does not. FRS "Rules" are generally non enforceable.
 
 'FRS is licensed by rule. This means an individual license is not required to operate an FRS radio provide you comply with the rules. You may operate an FRS radio regardless of your age, and for personal or for business use if you are not a representative of a foreign government.'
 
And you are right...businesses need to be on MURS if they want cheap comms. 
 
Maybe the good thing is that most of the cheap radios that people buy from a "store" are good for 2 watts at best. Really what was done with the rules was to make what people were (uneducated about radio) doing illegally with store bought radios that did GMRS and FRS in being legal. The fcc should have never allowed combo radios to begin with. 
 

By "coring", if you mean removal of part of the inner foam dielectric to get the connector on, It's a pain, but it can be done by hand with a carpet knife or other razor knife if you are very careful.  I've installed LDF4-50 type N connectors before with nothing but a hacksaw, box-cutter, needle nosed pliers, soldering gun, and a pair of wrenches.  ..and you need a very skinny, or thin wrench to get on the body of the connector.  A high quality Craftsman or Snap-On wrench won't fit.

He may have left but I’m still getting value from this post

Sounds like a void to be filled for an aspiring repeater owner. Get it 200' up and you can easily get a 50 mile radius. I have a duplex in Hollywood that I am on my way to. Stopping in St. Petersburg first, but I'll do some testing to see if I can find d anything when I'm here.

The repeater in plantation is a local repeater only, maybe a mile or two. I live in east lauderdale and with a 5 watt radio at 62' and directional antenna, I am unable to hit it. I have been west of 441 and south of sunrise with truck antenna and nothing. I am the sysop for FTL600 and we are prepping for a hardline upgrade, you may have better luck with FTL600 after the upgrade.

The attic install is less than ideal. Roof line install is a much better situation. Lightning is much less of an issue if your mast is grounded and you have a grounded inline lighting arrestor. I have a 55' tower 6 years and no strike. Go with the chimney mount and ground, you will be much happier.

I completely forgot about this post. The repeater was sold for the asking price and is now sitting on a mountain top tower in Oregon...

I recently tried lmr240 instead of rg8x.
Works great, better weather protection and shielding.
Also less db loss than 8x on the TIMES MICROWAVE coax comparison chart for uhf...
Just a bit thicker but still pretty flexible. My snap on ferrites fit the same as on rg8x.
Also I went with N connectors instead of UHF.
 
good luck
301

at 225 feet your losses wold be roughly
1dB for the 1 5/8 spec  0.44/100' loss
1.8 for the 7/8  spec 0.8/100' loss
assuming 50W into the cable here is what you would have at the other side
39-40 W  1 5/8
33-34 W  7/8
again these are book specs your mileage may vary.

In addition to the issues noted above, I would expect the battery configuration was chosen to reflect the allowed power. If power was raised (if it even could be) to the degree it would make a practical difference, battery life would be likely to suffer dramatically.