gortex2

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 ?

We ran a NMO mount in the hood on our old grass truck for 30 years. Was a rag top on an old military truck and the hood worked just fine.

What makes you think all repeaters have activity. If you listen to mine they are quiet 99% of the time. Unless the wife or parent want me it sits idle. Not all repeaters are put in for chatter. They are a tool.

I run all 6 of my repeaters in narrow band. As said a true built out repeater will not work better or worse than a wideband. I'm sure someone will jump on and give us data to prove different but thousands of systems are narrowband and work just fine. All our SAR stuff went from wideband to narrow and did not loose coverage that was noticable to the end user. Anyway yes most GMRS is wideband but there are narrowband repeates out there.

Your best bet is to drop a NMO mount center of the roof. One hole. Throw a UHF 1/4 wave on it and enjoy scanning your DPS stuff and use it for GMRS. Simple effective and cheap.

When installing an NMO you want the outside ring the same height or a bit lower than the center. On a standard mount thats how it should be. With a 3/8" style mount you want the center slightly above the brass ring.

In all my years of LMR work Hardline is preferred. The only time I've used LMR600 is when we had to pull some thru a conduit between two buildings. LMR400 all the time in the control station environment. Even my house has LD4-50A run to my antenna's. In my work environment we use up to 1 7/8" hardline. Connectors for hardline can cost more than your radio and antenna system combined....

Have used GMRS for over 3 decades. Alwasy used as a family communications system. Few years back started using it for some off road events. Now its either GMRS or CB for all the off road events I go to. Still use it primarily for private communications. Not to sound rude but if someone was on my repeater thant not my user I wont answer answer them and neither will my users. Thats my decision. In a disaster I doubt GMRs would be much use no matter how many claim it will be.

Why worry about it. If it works further than map shows thats a plus.

Way back when our county linked the RACES ham repeater to the StasteWide system (all RF days no internet) one had to use a different PL to activate the link. After x amount of time with no traffic local the link would drop. think it was 15 minutes back then. Maybe 30. The goal of the link was to give us outside area help on an event when needed but not to have daily qso on the channel. It worked great for years. Then they linked via internet and since its been non stop chatter from the other end of the state. So basically no one uses the repeater. Thats been my issue with the GMRS repeaters I have come across that are linked. I have no cares in the world about stuff 300 miles from where I am. In a disaster its different. But not for every day life. If you need long distance traffic use zello or something else to talk on. WE do the samei n the SAR world. We have multiple repeaters across an area but none are linked full time. If there is a need for an incident then they can be patched. If you want to listen to one or the other you go to your zello app and listen in. As said earlier resource allocation is more of the issue. On top of that is the limited amoutn of repeaters. I have been in areas where I can hear 3 repeaters and its all the same traffic as they are all linked. There is no reason for that. Pick one channel and link it. If you need more coverage build out that repeater site.

Linking may have its place but I dont believe GMRS is it. I'm in the same boat of listening to long drawn out ragchewing from guys states away. Ive heard the same on ham. Heck there are times I hear thesame conversation 2 hour apart on ahn or GMRS. I never got into GMRS for contacts or to make a statewide system. I prefer my small repeaters, and use them for a purpose. With a good repeater setup there is no reason a town, county can't have good coverage. As of late I use my Part 90 stuff more and more. GMRS was once a great family/friend service. Linking, nets and all the ham radio stuff is not what GMRS started as. I know things change but you asked for opinions.

Sounds like FRS, CB or MURS is better suited for you and not a licensed service.

Yup. Biggest issue with the 300 and 500 is the display. Kinda small for APRS in a vehicle. If you only want a tracker I guess its fine.

The issue is the CCR market has kileld the Amatuer Radio market and good gear costs more. Before CCR hit the world many of us paid alot for radios. My first Kenwood APRS mobile and Portable cost more than my truck payment. Now stuff costs even more as folks dont buy it. Hams are now cheap. If they could buy CCR HF rigs they would. My last rig was a FTM400XDR that was over $500. Its what I wanted for the application I needed so I grabbed it. Now they are discontinued. Is what it is.

So if your just hiking or biking use low power and dont worry about call signs. Toss them a FRS radio and be done.

LMR 400 for 35' feet. RG58 - Loss per 100 - 10.6db LMR400 - Loss per 100 - 2.7 So at 35' of RG58 you are loosing almost 4db which is over 50% of signal loss and power.

You need the radials. Id swap out the coax for a better cable. I did very similar on our campers for years and do the same for SAR on VHF every summer. A fiberglass painters pole works so much better and is lighter. We have a 30' aluminum mast for our SAR repeater but most of the check points use the fiberglass poles. They go up about 15' (ones we have) and work excellent for the antenna. I'd go to lowes or home depot and check out the poles they have. For our motorhome we had a 25' fiberglass flag pole that went in a mount. I tried our GMRS antenna (FG4600) once on it and while it worked it din't gain me any range so went back to the ladder mount. The ladder put it at 12' high already and in the environment the loss in cable didn't help with the height I gained.