daschnoz

Yes, I plan to strengthen the anchor points. And no, I do not plan to use dry wall screws (the all-purpose screw of home improvement). Using the math above (thank you 968), I worked out the following: * P = the total pole length you plan to use for the support mast * M = Mast -- the length of P that is above the top support bracket * A = Antenna height * C = 2ft (or equivalent in your selected unit of measure) Use the same unit of measure for all values. You need any 2 of the 3 above unknown values to solve for the 3rd. P = M + C + ((M + A) * 0.1) Distance between the mounting brackets = P - M If you find yourself getting negative values, something in your plan is either too long or too short. The solver function on my TI-85 calculator is super helpful for something like this. I'm going to use a 10' length of EMT conduit for the support pole (P), with a 16' antenna (A). I worked out 5.7' for the mast portion (M), leaving 4.3' between the brackets (P - M). I'll round it and go with a 60/40 split, with 4' between the mounting brackets.

I'm setting up the shack. I'm planning to mount the antenna on the gable end of the garage. The specifics: * Mounting brackets - Skywalker 32812 (4" stand-off) * Mast - chain link fence top rail (or similar), length to be determined * Antenna - Tram 1481 So the question - How much distance should I have between the upper and lower mounting brackets? Is there some general "rule of thumb", like 25% of the mast height above the top mounting bracket (ex. 8ft mast above = 2ft in the mounting brackets)? Or do I take my best guess, mount it, and see if it pulls the side off of my garage?

I'm using a Nagoya 72 on a Midland NMO mag mount. The mount came with RG-58C cable. The mount and cable aren't great, but they work for now. Cable and mount upgrades are planned for spring 2021.

I've been on a few hobby specific web sites. They all have their brand snobs. Whether it's firearms, outdoor power equipment, model railroad, and now radio... if it's not some preferred brand, it's garbage. I've learned to ignore it, but to many noobs this attitude is a turn off. They ask the question, 'on my $xx budget, what should I buy', then look at the products suggested by the brand snob, look at the price, then seek another hobby. I see threads and hear discussions about amateur radio (in all its forms) slowly becoming extinct because of expanding cell phone coverage. Making the newly interested feel that what they can afford is not welcome in the hobby does not make for 'good business'. Ok, so the Chineese radios are not great, but don't knock them. They are the entry point for many, because for only slightly more than $100 you can have a radio and a GMRS license. If you don't like it, you're only out around $100. If you do enjoy the hobby, you can drop the coin and upgrade to a better radio. These "CCRs" are my entry point and I am enjoying this hobby. I expect that I will upgrade to better equipment at some point, but at the moment, I'm running what I can afford; what I can afford to lose if I don't like it.

If that repeater uses an input offset, that would explain why your buddy couldn't get into it. Those handheld FRS radios don't do offsets.

I just put an AnyTone AT-778UV in my truck about 2 weeks ago. This radio is also sold as a Midland DBR2500 and Retevis RT95. The programming software looks the same for all 3 radios, only the picture on the program splash screen is different. The software is also clunky as all hell, but until CHIRP fully supports this radio, that's the tool that I have to use. No complaints about the radio itself thus far.

I'm using a Nagoya 72 on my truck for GMRS. It's technically 2M/70cm, so I did need to trim about 5/16" off of it to center tune it for GMRS. I used a NanoVNA and it worked quite well. I went with the NMO mount so I can easily change it if I decide to, but I honestly don't think I will need to. It's on a magnet NMO mount at the moment, but I do plan to do something a bit more permanent in the future.

Other than that recently introduced small 5 watt Retevis, show me a repeater that is type-certified for GMRS use. hint: there are none

UPDATE::: I'm planning to use SO239/PL259 connectors for all of the external connections, which means that the metal ammo cans will share the radio ground. It's a good thing that I checked the grounding on the solar system. The solar controller is positive ground, so everything between the panel and the battery output will need to be isolated from the radio ground. That means that I will NOT be able to put the solar controller in the box with the duplexer. Instead, I will mount the controller on the panel and run the battery line from the controller directly to the can which contains the battery (12aH SLA), so I will no longer need to put DC voltage on the RX cable. Sure, I could use a TRS (T and R only) or XLR connector, but then I need a dedicated cable type (believe it or not, cabling is the part that I planned to keep simple from the start - it's all using the same connector).

I may do that. I'll figure that out once I get my hands on the duplexer and measure it. As usual, the spec for this project is evolving as the project moves forward.

OK, change of plans..... (I do this often - over-complicating things only to end up landing on a much more simple solution) I've had a duplexer on my wish list for a while, and just pulled the trigger on it this morning after reading your previous post. I will put the duplexer in the same box with the solar controller, and run 3 short jumpers between the 2 boxes - RX,TX, and 12V power. This will be family comms while we are camping where there is no cell signal. I'm trying to keep this a 2 box project in case I need to hike up the mountain for a good repeater site. If the camp site is centrally located, the repeater will be there. I suspect this will seldom be the case though. I can think of at least 4 parks we plan to visit again where I will be humping this thing into the woods. I did try the simplex repeater thing, but the kids could not get the hang of waiting for the roger beep and would constantly step on the re-transmitted signal.

Isolation - Vertical and horizontal offset, which is why I want to keep the connections to a minimum so I only need to run 1 cable. Caps and coils are cheap compared to 50 or more feet of a 2nd cable. I'm not too concerned about having a perfect system. I'm using a BF-888 for the RX radio. A two pack hurts you for a whopping $20, so if I blow up the RX circuit, I'm not going to be too heart broken.

I'm setting up a full duplex ammo can repeater with solar power. One of the things that I noticed about others who did this is that they had trouble with the TX radio messing up the solar controller, so they wrapped one, the other, or both in foil. My plan involves using 2 ammo cans. Can #1 will contain the RX and TX radios and a battery. Can #2 will have another battery and solar controller in it. The RX antenna will sit on this can. To keep the connections between the cans to a minimum, I'm planning to send the DC voltage from can #2 to can #1 on the same cable that carries the RX signal to the RX radio. I will use some coils to keep the RF signal out of the batteries, and a cap to keep the DC voltage out of the RX circuit on the RX radio. Do I need to have a cap on the antenna end of the RX line? In other words, is it harmful or detrimental to have the antenna sitting at 12VDC?