ASRM

Could I ask what RAT stands for?

Agreed, that is a nice repeater, kudo's on the panel.

At 40 feet and no hills you should get any easy 20 miles, we are 40 feet on a bluff, even with hills and dips between our mobiles we are easy 10 miles, LOS NW on our system is 25+ miles in spots, that is with a 6DB/9DBi Comet. We used 1/2 Heliax with a Vertex repeater tuned down to 30 watts or so. I did have my duplexer checked by a local shop. The 1 mile range is troublesome. Have you at least tried to bypass the duplexer and see if you can hear a unit 5 or more miles out or transmit the same? Nice setup and congrats.

Count another Saber lover, Astro Saber's are my LTL weapon, they are built like a brick.

We run ours as permission based, I would like to know who wants on the network, though we really have hardly any GMRS users on the air. We have 4 other repeaters in my area, all are dead quite, some are open, some are permission based, there is one private repeater. We will use the other repeaters as needed to cover the holes ours doesn't reach. I think my family is the only souls using theirs and ours. As others have stated, it is an investment and as such each person has every right to decide the level of access. If shenanigans started to become a problem I would probably change it to a private and use either MDC or pop for a commercial license (we run a non-profit rescue) and do as Zap and move towards DMR or P25...

We run MDC on all our units, each unit has it's own ID, the lone Vertex 210A is without MDC (I need to see if Vertex or someone makes a module we can install. We do post-ptt on our units. Zap turned me on to the Alias setup so each radio has all the aliases in them, example, my wife's mobile has a 4 digit ID of 1956 which shows as David 56. Oddly my Astro Saber's seem to not have the chirp sound on unkey of my other radios. We run Astro Saber's and PM400's on the system. We are also using 2 tone QC on the radios.

I should snap some pics of the old gear at my local shop, I mean OLD...

You can swing by Peoria IL and drop that bad boy off

Nice, that is a name from the past! I am currently working with a radio shop doing inventory on all his unsold, traded in radio gear, plus a slew of UHF mobi and base antennas to sell off on eBay. Walking through the warehouse was like going through a museum, I love seeing old gear get new life.

n4gix. don't feel bad, we are doing a similar setup, eave mount at 15' and a 30 foot channel master pipe with a 6dbd/9dbi Comet antenna. We get 15 miles mobile for the most part and we have lots of hills and gullys in the way. If I had that 150 foot monster I would rule the world

Colin, I like that analog/digital idea (for down the road type of look The shop I deal with has a Vertex he is playing with that does digital and analog. That iCom price is not bad at all!

Post your progress, always interesting to see how others setup and what coverage we get.

This is why I decided to not list tones, instead a person can contact us via myGMRS or part of the local GMRS community that have repeaters up in the area. I am seriously toying with doing MDC1200 as the way to access the repeater if it ever becomes a problem, or just go Part 90, I have a Non-profit I own/run that would qualify if need be.

I just put up a system recently at my homestead, I went with 1/2 inch hardline/heliax for a 50 foot run, N connectors, used a Comet 172EFC (I think that's the model number) just to get up and going, only 6DBd and just 40 foot up on a mast mounted on the eave of a dormer, the hardline with connectors ran me around $200-250, antenna was cheap at around $110 from Antenna Farm (I would suggest a more professional antenna though and new you are looking at $600 to $1000 for a decent antenna, I went low cost to get on the air, looking at a used AS or Phelps Dodge and tearing apart and repairing if needed for a much more long term prospect, local radio shop has a garage full of commercial duty 9-12DBi antennas they took down years ago I did invest in a Vertex 7000 repeater with duplexer, set me back around $750 tuned and delivered. So you might be able to get by at around your price point minus the antenna. Others will tell you, don't skimp on antenna (like I did) and antenna feed. Buy once, cry once as they say. I am getting 10-15 miles mobile (40 watt units with 3DB mag mounts), half that on portable with lots of ridges in my way, some spots I am doing 30+ miles mobile and 20 portable. I sit on the top of a valley over looking the metro area (about 200 feet up about 5 miles away) and do get some shadows from gullies and dips as well as some big buildings in my way. Still usable for my needs. And FUN! Kudos on putting up a repeater

What is the model number on those Unidens?

Ugh! More terms to learn and Google

Steve I did much like you, I wanted a system that would cover mobile from home to my place of work (parking lot) and the wife's (driveway of law office) as well as where we go for shopping and family visits. I haven't made it to the range, but hoping it works there. Portable wise I get 5 miles, I know what you mean on line of sight, I see hills between the repeater and my location, something I noticed is that next to the hill I will lose or be much in the noise, move about 1/2 a mile out and the signal then reaches (theres a name for the over shadow but it escapes me). I am only 40 feet up with a Comet 172 and a Vertex repeater pushing about 38 watts past the duplexer with 1/2 heliax. Hoping summer will bring a tower (60-100 foot-have a plan on an old 100 foot Rohn free standing and a DB408 sitting unused at a concrete company) and fill in some holes and push the range an extra mile. Kudos on your setup, having decent 2-way and get away from cell service was my goal, and the setup has been a dream of mine going on 3 years.

Matty What are you trying to achieve, a portable repeater or a home repeater for you and family or a community rig? Without knowing a price point, I was able to get setup with a complete system, portables, mobiles, base, and repeater with antenna and associated hardware for less than $3K (back in the 80's I spent that much just for the repeater setup). While not a blow your socks off, I am able to get 10-15 mile radius on mobile and decent 5-8 miles with portables. I am only 40 feet up. YMMV though.

I would echo Ken's post, lot's of decent folks, great info. Ken I have spent a lot of time at Radio Reference's forums, as well as for ham qrz.com hamsexy.com and eham.net. For technical/geeky stuff like posted radio reference, batlabs (what a place), repeater builder and communications.support, though more geared towards /\/\otorola gear (my new addiction).

You just answered my question on MPL that I PM'd you

I will second that the car will really kill the signal on a handheld, even at 40 feet up on a little base/repeater, our portables at 4 watts only get about 4-5 miles, can only imagine car to car would be drastically cut in effective range.

As others stated, go with hardline/heliax. Depending on the length, have you tried a local radio shop? Lengths under 100-75 feet can be had pretty cheaply. I was told to steer away from LMF on another site, was some of the sagest advice I got

50 watts on any radio (includes repeaters) except a control radio if I read that right, they are at 5 watts?

You have some nice gear!

You are licensed for all 16 GMRS channels, the input 467 channels and outputs/simplex 462 channels. I want to say the split freqs between those channels at 4 watts as well, others can better address that though. They used to ask number of base, control, repeaters, mobiles but don't anymore. You can set a repeater on any of the 462 channels .550 to .725 They never did freq assignments even when Class A in the 80's Welcome and good luck. I just put a system online, covers our area well, always want more