gortex2

As discussed in other posts, by the time you buy 2 KG1000 radios, cat 5 jumper cable, mobile duplexer you are at the price of a good used specific built repeater and reviews have not been that great on them.

The repeater is listed for operating temperatures - -30°C~ +60°C. There are some guy using them in solar situations also and have them outside. I have not seen major concerns of this but YMMV Yes an attic can probably get close to that but may be a good option still. 10' wont make much of a difference with LMR400 so if that's all you can do then try it. Just know the closer to the antenna the better it will work.

I use the Bird 43 at home. I also have the Telwave 44 that I'll use once in a while. I like the Telwave as I don't need to swap elements, however I find the Bird is more accurate with the proper element. Both were retired from work but I still send them for calibrations every 5 years. For work I use a rohde-schwarz NRT-Z14. When doing hobby work my Bird is whats on my bench 99% of the time.

The XPR series is two mobiles in a box. Many of them online used have a blown PA on one of the radios and most likely swapped between RX and TX. If your going to go mobile just get CDM. If you want a true repeater stay away from the XPR. If you can get a better duplexer do so. No sense in getting mobile flat pack if you goal is to move it to a tower site. Sinclair, DB and others make good UHF repeaters. Keep an eye out on ebay and you will find a decent one, normally cheaper then a new flat pack. I've picked up UHF LMR DB spectra duplexers for $75.00

No clue how you think that's remotely possible. I have had all of the above repeaters apart on a bench and can say in 100% none use a mobile radio board in them. Even a quick look in a service manual you would see that. Feel free to research this and explain where these boards are incorporated in any of the repeaters I listed. I think the product engineers for those series would also be pretty confident with how they are built.

First issue is the cable. That 5.5db of loss per 100' so at 50' your loosing almost 50% of power and receive. The RT97 is about 5-8 watts out of the connector so by the time you hit the antenna your probably less that 4 watts. The nice thing about the RT97 is its small and you can do stuff you cant do with other repeaters. First suggestion I would give is get a 3' piece of LMR400 and put the repeater 3' from the antenna. You can run a power cord to the repeater. Secondly that antenna is listed as a ham radio antenna. I dont find any directions on tuning it but I would suspect that to be part of your issue. Getting a 462mhz single band antenna will work better. If there was directions on tuning the antenna like cutting the rod or something then make sure all thats been done. Remember your using a portable radio on the end of the cable. If you can get a good antenna and cable the RT will work well for your use. Yes getting antenna outside will help.

I can assure you other than the XPR all the MSI repeaters are not mobile radios. I dont know what series he worked on but the Quantar, MTR2000, MTR3000, SLR and GTR8000 are all purpose built repeaters. Yes the XPR is a two mobiles in a box but since the GR500 thats the last built that way. Your friend needs to do some research as those are the only slect few repeaters that used mobile radios in the last 20+ years.

Many repeater support repeat enable and disable but many only support that via wireline connection. Some will support DTMF commands but most that require that will use an external controller for the enable disable. Use of a different input tone that output is a way some try to eliminate the use. DPL/DCS on input is a good way to do it with PL/CTCSS on output. Personally I find not advertising them on this site and other places keeps alot of the riff raff off the air.

I went just behind the brace that goes from B pilalr to B pillar for one pair of mounts. I would stay just behind or just in front and not thru the brace. You really dont need to go thru the brace and deal with the extra hassle of getting it mounted. This is a 2019 and I have no dimples or metal distortion and travel a lot (178K on it so far) so they get wind.

Funny story that no one normally sees. The front left puck is actually a GPS antenna for my APX mobile (one of 4 on the truck) but I mounted it exactly the same as the one on the right that's the sirus xm antenna. When this was installed the front 2 "pepper shakers" were 800 mhz but have since been changed to UHF 1/4 wave black antenex whips. The rear mounts still run a laird LTE on the passenger and a Larsen NMO27 for CB on driver side. All mounts are labled next to the NMO and match the labels inside. Wifi and other GPS are all glass mount in rear window and center of windshield.

I can't find pictures of my 2018 F150 but I ran dual antennas on that truck also. One Larsen NMO27 and one VHF 3db gain whip antenna. Traded in truck for my JT in 2020 and roof had no distortion or anything. Just popped 2 NMO Black caps on and dropped it at the dealer.

OK. I guess so but I've never needed a manual to do anything in my midland. I dont see anything other than the "wide band" that the midland downs show on the display. I think the mic on the midland is also a bit more conforming to the hand but sure they will sell some to the CCR world.

Just use a quality mount and you'll be fine. I have 6 NMO in the roof of my work truck with no issues.

GR1225 is not a continuous duty repeater. The Motorola Quantar and MTR2000, GTR8000 are. I had created a post with some new out of box repeaters but only a few I would rely on for 100% continuous duty. I think you need to determine 100% continuous duty or q quality reliable repeater. A repeater than can stay keyed 24/7 is a step up from a good quality mid use repeater. Most repeaters sold are what I call mid duty. They may claim 100% but I've seen some keyed for a day and burn up a PA. Then there are home built ones out of mobiles that are not reliable to put at a tower site. Good for a garage home site.

I use Comscope/Andrews Hardline (LDF4-50A) for mine but many can't afford it. If you want ebay and other places short chunks go on sale randomly. Some have had OK luck with LMR400. Keep it short and make sure you seal all connections from water and it would be a good start. I run the DB404 at minimum on all my repeaters. The Laird FG series is a nice starter antenna if funds are short. I do carry one in my camp stuff for my camp repeater.

Here is a perfect mount for your radio. Just add a PL259 to Mini UHF adapter and be done. https://theantennafarm.com/shop-by-categories/shop-all/mobile-antenna-mounts/nmo-mobile-antenna-mounts/266-permanent-hole-mounts/283-nmo-3-4-hole-mounts-mini-uhf/12818-larsen-nmokhfcxmpl-detail Antenna Farm is a great place for decent quality mounts for the hobbyist.

Your using a CCR mobile and your worried about a few watts. Power isn't everything in UHF. Throw an NMO Mount in and hook it up to the radio and use it. That 5 watts will do nothing noticable.

I dont see much different in the display to be honest. What is really better ? CH ? Tone ?

CCR radio with poor shielding. A quality LMR radio would not do that. There is a reason many commercial repeaters are not cheap. Filtering and shielding in repeaters is very important. You could have grabbed a GR1225 or VXR7000 repeater cheaper that you spent on the 2 mobiles.

You are way over thinking this. A standard quality NMO mount will be fine for the vehicle. The Laid mount that has been linked in other posts is perfect for your use and will cost less and perform just as well. There is absolutely no reason to use LMR in a vehicle install. Even in our command posts with many radios we dont run LMR. Its all quality NMO mounts. They are made to go above the headliner and take about 5 minutes to install in most new vehicles.

No Balun needed. No loops needed. As said use it. If you find you are having trouble with coverage upgrade your cable to LMR400. LMR240 is about 5.25db loss per hundred so you have maybe 2.6 db of loss. Should not be noticeable for our current situation. LMR would effectively cut that in half. I would not worry about grounds in the attic. I have a few antenna's in the attic and they work fine.

In the past it was referred to community repeater. I still use multiple tones on my repeaters for specific reasons. One tone is for normal chit chat and another is to call my parents base radio. They dont want to hear all sorts of traffic all hours of the day and just want to hear if myself or a certain person wants them. I did the same in the past for my control station at home. We had a good repeater in a county park that used the travel tone for hikers to use. We used another PL for SAR folks and a third for another user group. It basically allows certain users to only hear the user group they want to hear. Yes there is training involved in a community repeater but they are still used in the LMR world.

The 8500 comes in mid power and high power. All of mine are mid power (45 watts) as there really isn't a need for high power on anything I use. My radios are used for work to some extent but alot of public safety also. Been doing SAR work for over 25 years and have been involved in the communications and command side for many of them. They are great radios but most will never own one due to the cost factor and availability at this time.

It would still be considered a repeater in the rules and is not allowed. They are different services. If you want stuff like this go to ham where you have much more choice on what channels link to what channels.

You can not mix MURS and GMRS. Different rules.