JB007Rules

I located another climber that's going to do the work but we can't do anything as we are about to get a blizzard up here and even worse terrible cold weather. We'll update as we can. Thanks, ROB

Quick update. Just got a text from the tower climber and they are backing out AGAIN so as of now it does not appear this repeater will be put back on the air tomorrow as it should have been. Thanks!

PM sent to the OP.

I just talked to Buddy this morning on the phone and as of right now, the DB420 antenna and new feedline are scheduled to be strung up the new tower on Saturday, 12/3/2022. it's about 12 miles south / southeast of the previous tower but the height will be about 100' taller as well around 400' or so. Final height is TBD. Knowing what I know about this project and with my experience putting up big repeaters myself and by being in close communication with Buddy, if I had to guess it'll take 4 - 8 hours to get this done. Weather permitting, I'd keep your ears tuned to .725 the evening of Saturday the 3rd. If something changes or it rains, that would get pushed back further. I'll try to update you guys if I remember but I don't check in here very often. Thanks, ROB

Read my reply here: and here:

Well I will say this. I have an extremely tall house. In addition to having a tall house when you go all the way up to the peak where the pitch is which is where the antenna is mounted it's another 10 ft gained. The base of my db408 is at about 37 ft with the tip extending up to about 47 ft. I am in a fairly new subdivision as well where there are not many trees but I could tell you right now that I could see out for miles. I could see out far further from the roof of my house then the neighbor's house because of how tall it is so height is might. I'm almost wondering if the comet antenna was performing better to the gentleman that had it at 20 to 25 ft tall because you're not getting above the tree line or your neighbor's houses. I'm not an RF expert by any means but in my circumstance where I'm at here in Illinois a compscope (Andrews is who invented it) with folded dipole antennas run circles around pretty much all of the fiberglass ones I've used. That's not the only antenna I have on the roof of my house. I also have a very cheap $60 fiberglass stick (Tram BR-6140) just to get a connection back to my main repeater which is only 10 miles away so for that logic there as a link radio, I wasn't going to spend a ton of money on another high-end antenna when I only needed it to go 10 miles. Certainly everybody's circumstances are different and I don't blame you for not wanting to spend $1,000 on this antenna at this point. I only paid about $750 for mine far before inflation and this country went down the drain. Hell, I was paying $1193 for DB420's before bidenflation and they are $1475 now so I get it, trust me. My furthest contact was down in Louisville Kentucky about a month ago and I got into the KARS repeater... that's about 300 miles or so from me and i did it on 5W so to me, it's worth it. Ohh and I'm at about 100' run for both antennas. I am using LMR400 for the baby link antenna and using 5W. I measured the power on the roof and it was at 2.3W so IMO LMR is junk period. I will concede though that it does have its place on this Earth and that it is far easier to work with. Obviously I'm doing what I need to do with only 2.3 watts all day so no need to spend money on the better line there either. And in my opinion at 100 ft LMR is just absolutely abysmal. It's literally over 50% loss at 100' I built all of my infrastructure for emergency use so if anything were to happen I have communications. So for me it would be a matter of life and death even though I hope that that is not the case ever for me or my children but I'm ready and when me, my wife, or one of my children hits the button to talk it's going to freaking work. Buy once cry once. I appreciate the other replies too BTW. Internet forums can sometimes be silly with people saying stupid things but I think every single person that's replied to this thread so far has been absolutely great in offering opinions and comments!! Kudos to you all! Randy from Notarubicon would be proud of you all ?

I have a DB408 on my house, a 408 on my Rugged 575 TX antenna and a DB420 on my Crete 600 repeater tower and I can say 2 things for certain: 1) A DB408 will run CIRCLES around any amateur/consumer grade antenna. END OF STORY, it's like comparing a Neon to a Lambo for speed. Folded dipoles are far superior to any fiberglass stick. This is the same reason all our public safety systems use them too. Also why you see VHF dipoles facing all the same way to send RF up and down a long railroad track. 2) LMR400 is garbage compared to actual hard line and is a a *VERY* high loss line at these lengths. at 50', not even including connectors you are losing at the minimum of 25% of your power. At 100' of course it's 50%. Yes, you read that correct. The correct way to do it would be to put actual 1/2" hard line in. Yes, it's *SLIGHTLY* more money and you have to know how to put it together but for $200 you can get a correct tool to do this termination. I also own this tool and I have some spare line I wouldn't mind helping you over a video call. If you're going to go big with a DB404 or 408 and use junky LMR400 that would be like getting a 1,000HP diesel truck and putting a transmission from a smart car in it. Send me a PM if you want to chat on the phone. I'm not a 100/100 when it comes to this stuff but I do have a bit of experience in putting in high profile repeaters and this is all we use here in the Midwest. Even if you went with a DB404 you will be SHOCKED at what you can do with it but that LMR *HAS* to go if you're going to a big boy antenna! Thanks!

To the OP: it's possible you're hearing multiple repeaters with the same audio coming through because you're located in Katy, TX where there are several linked repeaters: https://mygmrs.network/map

My first GMRS radio ever was a beat up, used Kenwood NX300 K4 (400 - 470MHz). I still have it and it works fine. My current EDC radio is a new (not new now lol) Kenwood NX300 K4. I've tried LOTS of radios (Including Motorola commercials) and I keep going back to my trusty NX300 because it's an absolute unit and is insane reliable. The only upgrades I've done to it are the larger 4500mah pouch cell battery (Fatter) and upgraded to a Panorama 450 - 470MHz antenna!

I have a DB408-b on my Rugged 575 machine and a DB420 on my Crete 600 machine and they are absolute screamers!! In my neck of the woods (Northern IL), we typically all use folded dipoles and we find they run smoke around fiberglass sticks! Just my 2 cents Ohh and my base antenna on my house is also a DB408 but it's only up 50'. But even at only 50' it talks like no mans business.

Here is some more information I found in my Excel sheet database that I think will help show how much better vertical separation is VS horizontal separation: In short you achieve the same level of separation at 50' vertically VS basically 1,000' horizontally. Most 4 cavity Band Bass / Band Reject duplexers offer about 80 - 85 db of isolation VS 6 cavity BP/BR duplexers are about 100 db of isolation. Note that the chart below is for dipole antennas, not fiberglass sticks which are far worse with radiation going up into space and down into the earth. 450MHz Channel - Vertical Separation - Dipole Antennas 450MHz Channel - Horizontal Separation - Dipole Antennas 2.5' = 25db 10' = 32db 3' = 28db 20' = 38db 4' = 33db 30' = 42db 5' = 38db 40' = 44db 10' = 48db 80' = 50db 20' = 60db 200' = 58db 30' = 65db 300' = 61db 50' = 70db 500' = 66db 800' = 70db 1000' = 71db

50' of vertical separation is the standard here in Illinois using UHF and 2M VHF. Some taller towers (figure 500' tall) have 100' of vertical separation for even better RX/TX isolation with RX ALWAYS being on the top. Many simply invert antennas and that isn't enough in my testing. It helps to have a folded dipole antenna, NOT a fiberglass stick as they radiate power up into space and down into the earth VS folded dipoles radiate 995% of the power along the horizon and work far better than fiberglass sticks as such and work even better when isolated as mentioned below: For the commercial towers that my systems are on for the one I use 2 separate antennas with no duplexer. The sites master RX antennas are at the VERY TOP - 300' and extend upwards to 310 - 320' up depending on the length of them. All transmit antennas have 50' of vertical separation between the bottom of the RX antenna and the top of the TX antenna. Breakdown below: 300 - 320' = RX DB420 TX is 20' long so it would be mounted at 230' extending up to 250' = 50' between the top of it to the bottom of RX DB408 TX antenna is 10' long so it is mounted at 240' extending up to 250' = 50' between the top of it to the bottom of RX Hope this helps!

Thanks!!!

I found the first half which I use currently with the fuse on it. Link here for reference: https://www.ebay.com/itm/284153915679 I need the other end of it which the P/N is 3084989T03 As see here: https://www.nriparts.com/products/motorola-3084989t03-cordset-cables/403184 Do anyone have the other half of this repeater DC power cable? I just need 1 unit. The one that actually goes into the repeater itself. Has a blue plug that goes into the listing above and the other end is the white Molex plug that goes into the Quantar. I could also use those stupid proprietary screws that hold the white Molex cable in too. Say a dozen of those screws would be nice lol. DM me if anyone has any! Thanks! ROB

The linking map is here: https://mygmrs.network/map/ At this time of posting it's not linked to any other repeaters so that would explain why you aren't hearing traffic from any other systems. The owner would have to link it to some other system to make that happen. If it's not linked it should act as a stand-alone system. If you click the green bubble on the link above it shows it was last keyed 15 hours ago so someone was keying it Thanks, ROB

Sweet! I'll cya there David!

Hey everyone! For those that are local to Illinois, I am hosting a meet n greet on Saturday, July 30th at Shabbona Lake State Park in Shabbona, IL. For more info on this state park please see here: https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/Parks/Pages/ShabbonaLake.aspx . Also see attached for a map of the camp area I'll be in. Many may know about this as we've been chatting about it on the Rugged 575 repeater on the Monday Meltdown NET at 9PM for a couple weeks now but obviously the internet is also a good place to post this. I don't partake in commie-Book so I'm posting it here! I will be camping out the night of Saturday, July 30th, going home Sunday the 31st. I have a camp site booked in the lower right circle called "Merganser Circle". At the time of this posting there are still 10 more camp sites available and they are electric sites if others want to camp out overnight. Cost is $31. If anyone wants to camp out that's fine but don't feel obligated! Come for the day on Saturday if you'd like; we'll be there! There are many meeting areas so we'll figure it out when we get there but there is plenty of room in the actual camp area so that's probably what it'll be. This camp site is covered by the Rugged 575 repeater and has HT access. The Grundy 700 and the Joliet 550 also cover this camp-ground as well. I'll be on Rugged though for sure! Thanks, ROB - WRDU235

You said you're hearing it but you didn't state which frequency you're hearing it on? AFAIK there is a Skywarn repeater on 675 (Channel 20). I was there about 2 years ago and I talked into 1 good repeater there but haven't been there since. I think there are 2 good GMRS systems there but I don't remember fully. Can you confirm the frequency you heard the CW ID on?

It's not. It's been down for a long time. It was never updated on the repeater listings. Sorry for the confusion

I'd also like to point out that you can get a hand winch for $50 or less from Harbor freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=hand winch

For that kind of money you can get an Andrews (Commscope now) DB-404-b and it would run circles around that Laird based on my experience. Folded dipoles are better for the most part than fiberglass units for tower/repeater use. Thanks!

I'll bite on this one so you can get a realistic idea how much money it costs to put a super high end tall repeater in. Here is a copy/paste from my costs for my system. It's argued that if I went with the correct repeater (Motorola Quantar) from the get go I could have saved $806 ($365 + $200 re-tune on the used Kenwood TKR-850 + the $150 preamp).... SO say $7989.77 total.... I couldn't afford it and didn't want to deal with it out of the gate to be honest. These costs are obviously not including any radios or monthly tower rent. Nor does it include the correct test equipment (Dummy loads, antenna analyzer, etc etc). I also don't have a duplexer any more but when I did that was an additional $800 for a good 4 cavity EMR corp Band pass/band reject unit. These costs DO include 66.6 hours of run time on dual 12V batteries at stand-by / 15.38 hours of talk time at 25W (half power). + charger. Note that the charger isn't very big because the Quantar also charges the batteries when power is restored. That is in addition to however long the 1500VA APC will run it at full power on AC which isn't tested but looking at the LCD screen of the battery it shows about 2 hours stand-by on that and keyed at 50W of power, about 30 min of talk time. You don't *NEED* Northcomm cables or all the backup stuff so if you consider a Quantar out of the gate and you subtract the other items you'd be closer to $7215.47. It's also worth noting that you don't need a pre-amp with a quantar so that saves you a bit since a quantar's receive is insane good. Every site is different and I'm on a receiver multi-coupler that has a pre-amp built into it. Numbers below: Item: Cost: Part Numbers: Notes: DB408 $952.50 DB-408B Feed Line $1,327.20 AVA7-50 x 280' @ $4.74/foot 6' Stand Off Bracket $0.00 S-600 Got as part of the tower climb Clamps $108.28 MS-SB50 Grounding kits x 2 $30.38 SG158-12B2U ($15.19/each) Repeater $395.00 TKR-850 Tower Climbers $1,700.00 9AM - 6PM 1-5/8" Female N Connectors $227.36 158EZNF - 2 @ $113.68/each 105AH Lead acid battery $267.00 Installing week of 6/14/21 Noco G3500 3.5A charger $63.70 G3500 Bought 11/23/2019 1500VA APC Battery Backup $178.60 BX1500M Repeater re-tuning $200.00 Pre-AMP $150.00 Northcomm Cables $200.00 Polyphaser VHF50HN $120.00 105AH Lead acid battery $332.00 Installed 2/16/2022 Quantar $1,328.13 DC Cable 3084989T03 $71.76 DC Cable TRN5155A $67.27 Quantar Tuning - Northcomm + Cables + Controller $899.20 Freight for Quntar $86.39 TOTAL: $8,704.77 Hope this helps!

Sorry I might have sent you 3 messages. Not sure how this messaging system works lol. Anyways the last message I sent you should be what you need.

Check your PM's WRMS528

It's also worth noting that 99% of the time a GMRS call sign will be a "WRxx123" or a "WQxx123".... However there are 1% (or less in fact) of users (Here in the midwest there quite a few of them actually) that have the "old school" call signs which are 4 letters, followed by 3 numbers. For anonymity reasons I'm not going to put any active calls out there but you can go to the FCC database and search by type - ZA for GMRS, hit "active" and hit the search button. With this same/old school GMRS call signs, you'll also see businesses registered as well. Dow Chemical is one for example. Back in the day the FCC used to offer valid GMRS call signs for companies. This isn't the case any more but as long as whoever has that call sign has renewed it year after year after year and pays those fees, it's still active and valid. Thanks!