WRTC928

Yeah, it can't really be both, can it?

I don't want to ask this question in an amateur radio forum because I'm afraid I couldn't get a straight answer, so I'll try it here. If I understand correctly, any "spurious emissions" will not be retransmitted by a repeater. It will pick up the strongest part of the signal and retransmit that on a different frequency. So, my question is, how much harm can spurious emissions from a 5 watt HT actually do? Yes, I understand about the possibility of creating interference in a frequency allocated to public safety or commercial radio, but realistically, how likely is that? Hams tend to think of these things from the standpoint of tall antennas and high wattage, and you likely could muck up stuff with a 50' antenna and 1,000 watts, but a 5 or even 10 watt HT doesn't seem to have much potential to cause trouble. Do commercial LMR and public safety radios have filters to eliminate the "fuzz" created by a low-power harmonic? I assume the technology exists, and if I were building a $1,200 radio for a police department, I'd certainly include it. I'm not arguing that a "cleaner" signal isn't better and more desirable, but I suspect the "dirty" signal from a cheap HT isn't going to actually matter to anyone. I already know @OffRoaderX's opinion but I'm curious what the rest of you think.

I can see that working okay, but it's certainly not cheap. For that price, you could come close to the new Retevis 25 watt repeater, which is almost certainly more rugged. It made sense when the only commercially available package options output 5 watts, but I'm not so sure it does now. Two radios designed for that purpose probably work pretty well, but the "two Baofengs in a can" stuff I've seen on YouTube is over-hyped.

About the only way to do that would be to carve off 8-10 frequencies from the 440 band, and hams would completely lose their s*** over that. I understand why. Once the camel's nose is under the tent, the rest will soon follow, and hams don't want to lose anything they have. I don't think there's any way the FCC will authorize new channels for GMRS. In this particular instance, it's not something they will consider at all, because the goal is to simplify rules, save money, and reduce regulatory burdens, and reallocating frequencies to GMRS won't do any of that. My prediction is that changes to amateur and GMRS regulations will be few or none. My reasoning is that ham and GMRS are already pretty lightly regulated and there's not much to be gained by changing anything. The only thing I could see happening is that other users could pressure the FCC to reallocate part of the amateur radio spectrum to give them more bandwidth, but again, at present that won't accomplish any of the FCCs goals. Indeed, it would make things more complicated since they'd have to write a whole new set of regulations. It may happen someday, but probably not under the present administration.

I've made an "ammo can" repeater, and it works...kinda. IME, you need about 30' of horizontal separation and 2' of vertical separation to get a result that's noticeably better than simplex. With a pair of UT-72 antennas I got pretty good results, but then it won't fit in an ammo can. They don't weigh much, so it's still packable, and if you're driving, it's no big deal at all. I've seen guys on YouTube claiming good results with antennas about 6" apart, but I haven't seen anyone actually demonstrating that. A pair of roll-up antennas should work, but you'd still need to carry a couple of 15' lengths of coax. The coax and roll-ups would fit in a large-ish ammo can with the other stuff, so it can be done, but it's not as easy, compact, or cheap as the YouTubers make it look. The range on the ammo can repeater didn't impress me either. Until now, the two common commercial ones were 10 watt units (actually probably ~5 out of the duplexer), which can still be useful if you position them advantageously, but vegetation definitely limits their range -- one of the few cases IMO in which adding more power is the solution. I've ordered one of the new 25 watt repeaters from Retevis and I'll be interested to see how it works. They claim 22 watts post-duplexer. We'll see.

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.