gortex2

Use your cellphone and download zello. have family download zello. talk on zello.

Thanks @Sshannon I missed that in the firt post. So I guess my original statement stands. An antenna 10' off the gorund with a 5 watt UHF repeater into 50' of LMRish cable and an antenna isn't going to cover too far. I think many have this misconception that they can buy stuff throw it up and talk 50 miles casue other talk about that on the forum. Throwing an Midland/RT97 on a silo thats 150' in the air and field all around will cover better than the earlier one. I posted once previously about my Motorhome experiences. With 15' of cable and a good Laird antenna I got difference coverage depending on where I parked.

The top brass nut is what I meant. If its not recessed on the bottom to accept the plastic ring I'm not sure what the spacer is for. A normal 3/8" mount is pictured below and you can see the recess in the brass nut. A standard NMO wouldl ook like this

I dont see where you specified cable for the antenna eiither. For the RT shortest antenna cable the better. Better antenna and height. How heigh is the antenna now ? It needs to be up in the air.

Is the top nut flat on the bottom ? you didn't show that. You need the teeth on the bottom of the mount up against the steel bracket as well as the top nut.

Ah more ham crap on the air....ok then...

As said forget the repeater. Just use simplex. IF you are going to use it when you get someplace else using the travel tone would be prudent.

Why do you need a controller ? The MTR is a good unit and has built in functions.

It was alwasy common to test in the middle when we used CB and think GMRS would be the same. With that said repeaters are 467.xxx and simplex is 462. If you use simplex 99% of the time I'd test on a middle 462.xxx channel. For instance a 1/4 wave should work fine across the board. It realyl depends on useage. For my SAR stuff we always use the National SAR channel for tunign as thats the most important channel we use. Other channels are repeaters and a portable works fine so worring about a great single from the mobile is less concerning. Granted we are all in the VHF side and most folks run a quarter wave to eliminate then eed to tune to a certain frequency.

Not sure what kind of radio you showed Steve, but here are repeater settings for my stuff - GR1225 Calls it Hang Time MTR2000 Calls it Drop out Delay Icom Calls it Hang Time I dont have my Quantar or GTR8000 software on my home PC so can't show those.

You should also look at some radio propagation programs. I live in rural area. I have a DB408 on my house 40' in the air which is on a hill. 14 miles away I cannot talk to the repeater with a mobile at all. I loose the house about 6-8 miles away. My area isn't perfectly flat its rolling hills. My APRS barely makes it 14 miles on VHF with a gain antenna to a mobile 5/8 wave antenna. Yes some guys talk about 50-100 miles on a repeater but most are in a high location with nothing in between you and the repeater (LOS). If you can stand on your house and see the other house you will be good but I think 20 miles is stretching's it on GMRS for simplex operations. YMMV.

Normally in multiple repeaters you use a combiner on TX and a multicoupler on RX. The issue is the GMRS repeaters are pretty close and it takes a good combiner to make it work right. I have our SAR repeater (453.xxx) and a GMRS repeater in my combiner with 3 repeaters using a receive multicoupler. The 3rd SAR repeater uses its own TX antenna.

That also depends on if the repeater has the internal duplxer or internal. Mine is internal and the TX RX Port is the TX RX Port. The manual shows the modification. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/867444/Icom-Ic-Fr3000-Series.html?page=24#manual

Maybe. My repeaters are closed. I originally did it to try to eliminate those users as most are using a CCR. While some may still key it normally doesn't open my base and doesn't bother me as much as hearing the hang with no traffic.

I have my hang time set to 0 on all my repeaters except 1. The 1 repeater is set for 2 seconds hang time but no PL on the tail. Hopefully this year I can swap that repeater out also so none of them have any hang time. No need for it. In the old days with tubes you wanted the repeater to stay on the air in between transmissions. No need for it any longer. For SAR all my repeaters have 2 second hang time but no PL also.

Under the repeater you want to use should be a "request" button if it requires permission. Thats on the main mygmrs page.

Id go with the Kenwood. Will work much better than the ICOM modified radio as its built for the frequencies you want.

I laugh at all the complaints on here about loosing linking. If that's the only reason you use GMRS you need another hobby. As has been said many times over and over GMRS was never intended to be a social gathering place. It was meant for local communications for families and friends. All linking has done is ruin this in many areas. Use GMRS for what it was intended and its fine. I operate 6+ repeaters. I've never needed nor wanted any linking. Each one is for a purpose. If I need to chat with someone 100 miles away I pick up the cell phone. Personally I hope this is the start by the FCC to do something. Maybe they will, maybe they wont. But if those that are linking decide they dont want to deal with it and dropped there links its up to them as the owners of the equipment. To many folks get on hear and complain about the way a repeater works, covers or operates. There is also the expectation that repeaters are up for you and your family. If you didn't purchase it, install and maintain it then you need to rethink.

Sounds about common to me. What kind antenna system are you using on the RT97 ? Also what radios are you using ? Are they programmed to use the repeater ?

Since REACT no and that was all on CB. Never used GMRS for anything like that.

Make sure the jacket can handle being in water. Unless you use steel threaded conduit and seal connections you will most likely get water in it. We use Rigid at tower sites to eliminate this and still can get some water in it. I have helped a few SAR users with small control stations where we actually used PEX pipe in a short distance and worked well.

GMRS wasn't intended for what you are looking for. If I heard a call I'd change channel or not answer.

These are theo nly frequencies your license covers https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs

Are all your emplyees getting there GMRS licence ? While GMRS is valid for business use ever emplyee must have a license....

Well to start is there even a local repeater to you ? And if so do you have permission to use or is it an open repeater ?