[Repeater antenna recommendation]

For what it's worth. I'm not sure what size setup you are looking at. For a small to medium coverage area setup. There is a ham guy who makes some outstanding jpole antennas. I just bought this one http://www.jpole-antenna.com/shop/462-mhz-land-mobile-gmrs-j-pole-antenna/

 

My systems is small. My antenna is only up about 15ft. I'm running the repeater at 25 watts and am covering a good 5-7 miles solid with just that setup. If I could test with the antenna higher, I'm sure the performance would easily increase to a comparable $200 antenna. I am very impressed on the performance of this antenna.

 

*Edit*

 

I'm also using LMR400 with it, but planning to upgrade to some hardline. Feedline is just as important as the antenna. Keep that in mind

[Motorola GR1225 UHF Repeater]

I have one of these in service now and I love it. From what I understand the low power setting is 25 watts and the high is 45 watts. If I wanted to dial the high down to 33 watts as mentioned in the previous post, that can be done through the RSS correct? I'm assuming I'll also need a watt meter for this as well. I might even only dial it down to 40 watts high since the repeater is not very active. 

[Kenwood SERIAL program cable for TK-863G]

PG - I was able to get a hold of my friend who services Kenwoods in Milwaukee and he said that cable should work for you.

[Antenna Recommendation]

The LP450NMO  from Larsen I must say I am very impressed with this antenna. I am able to reach repeaters that are 20 plus miles away from me. There's still areas in Appleton where it's hard to reach the repeaters (downtown with tall buildings, etc) but considering the distance from Appleton to both those locations and this being a low profile antenna, I gotta say it was worth the money for me. You can find them through many suppliers but here's tessco's listing:

 

http://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=68593

[Duplexer Jumpers]

Thanks JohnE. I was hoping someone would say LMR 195. That's what I got. Ordered them in 1 foot lengths. 

[Duplexer Jumpers]

Thanks PG. Yeah Motorola was trying to be proprietary but just made things more complicated . Too bad you can't just swap out the mini connector on the back of the radio and put an N connector on.

[Duplexer Jumpers]

For my repeater setup I'm running 2 maxtrac radios which have the mini uhf connectors. My duplexer has N connectors. Looking for recommendations on jumpers to go from the radios to the duplexer.

[Blue Line on Map]

I knew asterisk was used on the Amateur side of linking but never knew it was possible to do something like this in GMRS. So far everything works and sounds great. It sounds like the NJ repeaters are locally right there with me. I agree you Linus. Would be cool to see some more linkage in GMRS. Especially if you own multiple repeaters throughout a state, it would be very nice to be able to link them together to help keep in touch.

[Antenna Recommendation]

Thanks Gary. Too add to antenna recommendations the Larson LP450NMO Mirage antenna is suppose to be really good too. Have that one on order.

[Blue Line on Map]

Here is the original posting about this linking. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/138-650-repeater-in-nj/?hl=linking&do=findComment&comment=1382

[Blue Line on Map]

The line you see is me testing a linking system with Rich WQEJ577, who runs this site, using asterisk to see how that kind of linking works in the GMRS world. Others who maybe interested should contact Rich too. Right now there are only 3 nodes.

[Repeater Power and Duplexer]

Thanks guys. Yeah I ended up going with a Cellwave. Free tuning off of ebay buyer too.

[Repeater Power and Duplexer]

This is a two part question about GMRS repeaters. According to what I've been reading online and what I'm seeing in the FCC rules. For a fixed or base station there is a output limit of 15w. Is this correct or am I reading into this wrong?

 

Second part is any recommendations for duplexers you've had good luck with as far as little to no tuning? I see several options on ebay, many offer to tune the duplexer for you.

[Lakes Area GMRS Group [LAGGROUP] UPDATE, Dec. 27, 2013]

Thanks for the update PG!

[New to GMRS]

Hi PastorGary. That's great! No I'm use to it. It's Wisconsin . The pack has just had a bad year with these injuries. Will always be a fan no matter what.

 

I've been trying to reach the owner of the Edward repeater up here. Ild like to use it. If you know the owner could you pass my info along?

[New to GMRS]

Hey Jeremy, 

 

I know this post is a little bit older, but just got my GMRS license and wanted to comment on the AT5888-UV. I got mine about 2 months ago and it's considered their "2nd" generation one. They made some improvements with the receive and I gotta say I am really happy with this unit. The receive is great. The stock audio on the radio is kind of tinny a bit but not horrible. I have an external speaker hooked up and it sounds amazing. It is pretty straight forward for entering in frequencies directly on the radio, but the programming software is really good and quick. Anyways just wanted put in a comment incase your were still thinking about this radio.

 

Jake