WRTC928

I guy I follow on YouTube likes to say, "That's my opinion, and I'm an expert on my opinion."

As I see it, the biggest advantage to a repeater in your situation would be so anyone with a GMRS license could get out a message to everyone whether GMRS or FRS due to the repeater's power and (hopefully) elevation. As I commented in my previous post, you could accomplish the same thing with a good base unit, but it would have to be monitored, and you might have to relay something from a lower-powered unit. GMRS is not intended for "broadcasting", but as I read the rules, transmitting a warning message (i.e; "The NWS has issued a tornado warning for our area." or "There's a fire southwest of us moving our way.") would be perfectly permissible.

That's probably true, but I think I'd install a base unit with an antenna as high as I could get it. There may be some fringe areas where users can communicate with the base but can't necessarily reach all the other people in the neighborhood. For general announcements, it would be nice to have a unit that you know can reach everyone.

Thanks. That's good to know.

Now that I know such a thing exists, it appears they're not prohibitively expensive. here and here $50 seems cheap enough to avoid blowing up my house.

That's what I wanted to know. Thank you. Off-grid solar/battery arrays apparently typically have some sophisticated circuitry associated with them and it probably balances the voltages. 50 Ah will probably give me plenty of standby capability. Certainly enough to go swap the battery. I have damaged shoulders, and I prefer not to deal with the weight of a 100 Ah battery, especially if I want to take it somewhere else. I can always buy one later if I change my mind.

And a follow up question... Is there any reason I can't hook two 50 Ah lifePO4 batteries in parallel to provide 100 Ah like you can with lead-acid batteries? I think some solar charging systems do something similar, but I'm not sure. I can't think of a reason why it would be a problem, but this is uncharted territory for me.

As I said, I don't know much about these batteries, and it gets confusing to read the info on the sales sites. They never say whether the thing will safely act like a trickle charger or not.

My father had burn scars on his chest from a bit of WP spray he got in the Korean War. I never thought to ask him if the grenade was Chinese or American. Speaking of destroying equipment, in 1978, US troops on the listening posts in Iran had to pull out in a hurry and leave their highly classified comm equipment behind. They applied something that looked like fruit roll-ups and lit it. In fairly short order, it reduced millions of dollars' worth of equipment to slag. I don't know what that stuff was, but I'll bet I could have some fun with it.

All the ones I use much now have BNC connectors installed. I can use any antenna on any radio, and I don't worry about breaking the SMA connector.

I guess if you can afford it, you "need" as many repeaters as you want. I can imagine if someone travels a regular route, it would be nice to have access to repeaters all along the way. I can't afford that myself, but I am soon going to put one up in Purcell to cover the empty air from the one in Pauls Valley to the one in Moore.

True, but the male thread/male center pin and female thread/female center socket don't seem to be used much, at least not on inexpensive Chinese HTs.

Ask away! Most of the knowledgeable people here are extremely helpful. There's no place on the internet which doesn't have some jerks, but there are fewer here than in most places.

Yeah, I had a lot of false starts before I got it figured out. I figured I'd try to make it simpler for others. I don't know if your radio has a male SMA connector (like a Baofeng) or a female one (like a Retevis). Be sure you order the right adapter. Either way, you want to change it to a female BNC connector.

Just today, I heard a guy use his ham callsign on a GMRS repeater. I told him the FCC will take away his dessert tonight.

That's good to know. I was not aware of that.

I know very little about lifePO4 batteries except that they don't weigh much and they're popular with off-grid preppers who use solar chargers. I understand they're subject to overcharging which can damage the battery. The charger I see recommended most is a "hybrid inverter" charger which is an AC and solar charger with a built-in charge controller, but they're really expensive and I don't need the solar charging feature. I want to put a battery backup on my repeater and keep it charged from the house AC. I'd also like to have a battery I can grab and go if I think I may be using my vehicle radio a lot on a particular day to avoid running down the vehicle battery. Is there a charge controller for the PO4 that will keep it topped off similar to what the "float charger" does for a lead-acid battery? Something that I can just leave hooked up and plugged in without worrying about it? I've done a search for them, but I can't find one that specifically addresses this use case.

As a bonus, a simple magnetic mount antenna on the roof will give you significantly -- sometimes dramatically -- improved range and clarity over using a stock antenna inside the vehicle (aka Faraday cage). However, if you're going to regularly use the radio with an external antenna, I recommend you get a BNC adapter to reduce strain on the SMA connector. You'll also need a BNC to SO239 adapter to attach the radio to the antenna. SMA connectors weren't designed to have antennas screwed and unscrewed too many times and they can break with frequent use. BNC connectors were made specifically for a great many antenna swaps. I have BNC adapters on all the radios I use frequently so I can quickly change the antenna according to the mission. For example, most of the time, I can use my favorite repeater with an 8" antenna, but if I'm going to be a little further away, I change to a 15" whip. There's a 1.25 meter repeater in Oklahoma City, but I can't reach it from my usual places, although I do go there sometimes. I don't want to have a 17" antenna on my HT all the time, so I can quickly swap the shorter antenna for a tri-band when I'm near the city.

It was pretty much impossible to get a good ground plane on my truck unless I mounted the antenna right on top of the cab, but I didn't want to use a mag mount. After going through a lot of antennas, I settled on the Nagoya HDG and it worked beautifully on a Breedlove bed rail mount right behind the cab. It's about 1/25" diameter, 48" long, and rigid, so it may not be for you, but I'm happy with it.

Yeah, but mountain lions require a special license.

Call signs work very well in amateur radio where each user has an individual call sign, but I can imagine that with 3-4 families with 3-4 members each using a GMRS repeater, it could get a bit confusing.

For an average-height adult, the horizon would be about 3 miles away if the earth were perfectly spherical and smooth. UHF waves aren't 100% line of sight; they do bend slightly due to the earth's electromagnetic field, but it wouldn't add much. So, maybe 3.5 miles if the earth were smooth. Barring anything else, that is the practical limit of a UHF radio. However, the earth isn't smooth and even a little difference in elevation can alter the line of sight substantially. From my house, I can't talk to the WalMart 2 miles to the southwest, but I have talked to another HT 15 miles away to the southeast, a GMRS repeater 25 miles to the northeast, and a 2 meter ham repeater 33 miles to the northeast. Two days ago, I had a conversation on a 2m repeater 20 miles to the north with 1 watt. The difference is elevation -- all the repeaters are on towers and my house is in a relatively high position. To my southwest, there is a hill about 30' higher than my house. I suppose there's some practical limit to how far you can communicate with 1 watt due to atmospheric and electromagnetic interference, but for any practical purposes, it's terrain that limits your range. From one mountaintop to another mountaintop with nothing higher between, 100 miles is attainable with an HT. Unfortunately, most of us aren't in that position.

My son who lives in Alaska carries one of those for bear protection. He loads it with Buffalo Bore hard-cast flat nose 320 grain .45 Colt magnum rounds. He also keeps it beside the bed, because nothing says "f*** you" like sending your engine block into orbit. Personally, I wouldn't choose a single-action, but he's a former national Mounted Pistol champion and he can work that action ridiculously fast. However, being armed won't keep someone from breaking into a car in a state as unfriendly to protection of self and property as California. The mopes aren't accustomed to thinking in terms of personal danger while committing a crime. The laws are much more homeowner-friendly where I live, so the miscreants are less likely to target a vehicle parked in front of a private property. They typically break into vehicles in parking lots in the city. I live on a dead-end driveway off a dead-end street in a town of 6,700 people. They probably figure (correctly) that I have every feature ranged. I have to be more careful if I'm leaving for a couple of days, although I have left power tools on the back deck while I was gone for more than a week and they weren't touched. In the city, I just pull the power head off and conceal it. I may also unscrew the antenna and toss it inside the car if I'm in a little more sketchy neighborhood. That's really about all I can do, so beyond that, I don't worry about it.

That's a helpful tip. Good to know.

Interesting thought. Have you done that?