gortex2

Finding a good location in that area for a repeater will be your issue. None of the public safety towers will allow it, so its either pay american tower or one of the large tower companies or find a tall building and get something up there. Both will require lots of leg work and most likely funding. Then a good repeater will be required. Im in SW VA and I have a repeater on my house and get about 4-5 miles from the house. Then there is nothing for miles.

2 Reasons. Some folks list a repeater and never put it on the air. Also some people have great ambitions but in the end buy insufficient stuff and it doesn't work as they envisioned.

102" and your right. I used to grab them at RS for $20 now they want $75-100 on ebay for them. I kick myself as when I left one of my old shops we put piles of them in the dumpster along with the 54" ones for lowband. You think the whip is hard to find try to find a Motorola Ball and Spring. They are gold when found.

I wont lie Ive seen those antennas on rigs over seas and looked into one at one point but it was stupid money. First one I've seen paired with a GMRS rig. Hard to tell in picture what the antenna is.

Back when CB was more popular I was a member of REACT. We monitored CH9, did community events and our group put in a GMRS repeater on the at time emergency channel of 462.675. After REACT went defunct in that area SAR took over the repeater. Its been upgraded a few times and now has the travel tone but in the years it was monitored heavily the only folks on it were the REACT folks and there significant others. We talked about dropping it last year but its in a decent site and has an antenna. I still tend to monitor CH9 when I travel in my personal or work trucks and with scan on CB's now I can listen to other stuff if I so choose.

Other than training none of our teams use FRS/GMRS. We have one GMRS repeater in a county park and if we know someone is on it we will monitor but 99% of the time we are on TLMR or VSAR16 per policy. Our team actually has a policy that they can only carry one radio and must monitor operations channels.

Add Syracuse NY to that list. I said in the past I don't know what the desire is to have a "road channel" I use GMRS for GMRS not as a chat channel like ham or CB. If I'm on a channel and someone calls and its not my group I don't listen nor reply. GMRS and FRS was for in group use case. Over the years its turned into the ham lite of sorts. I travel about 1000 miles a week. I scan all 8 GMRS channels (none of the FRS crap, just main channels) and rarely hear a conversation. When I do it sounds like a ham repeater of 2 old guys babbling about nothing. Never do I hear "hey honey I'm running late" or what not. When in our MH I would scan on my midland. 99% of the traffic was channel 1 or 2 and was car to car, move lanes etc stuff. I've been doing alot more with JJUSA and the events I've attended all have designated channels per trail. Rarely does someone move from that channel even at night when going to grab food or what not. Last point is this thread was started in the GMRS NET heading. Not sure it should be here but its better than ham nets.

Use a ton of the laird antenna's Never had one go bad other than physical damage. Seal up connector and forget about it.

SDRTrunk and AirSpy Mini's is what I run when I need them. Use them for work and play.

Software will run on W10 and you can get the USB version of the cable (OPC-1122U). I use the ICOM version of the cable. We have many of the 5021 VHF radios in SAR.

Ton of information on line. In the end you need PTT/COR TX Audio and RX audio. All can be had on the rear amphonal connector (J17) J17 P1/26 RX Audio +/- P5 - TX Audio P22/47 PTT +/- Lot of information at Repeater Builder. https://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/quantar/quantar-index.html

I see no need to list temporary repeaters. As said they are temporary setup today gone tomorrow. I used to do the same at nascar tracks with my motorhome. Some races we would be on site for a week and other 3 days. Some folks knew if I was on site the repeater was there but prior to the last few years it was used for a purpose and not like it is now.

Was out there last summer for a weekend. Had my mobile on the entire time and never heard a peep. When I went back to the mainland on the ferry there was one group of cars talking on ch1 waiting on the ferry.

As said cut connector off. Install new PL259. Or return mount drill hole and install a NMO in roof.

Not sure where I said Ed Fong was good at all. All I've done on this forum is promote commercially made antennas from the LMR world. I would never suggest a Ed Fong antenna as they are junk. But hams seem to love them because they are cheap. I steer folks to the Laird and DB404. the Laird FG (Unity and gain) are a much better antenna and will last way longer as they are designed and built by antenna manufacturers. For repeater use the DB404/408 are my go to antenna's. The only time I've used the FG is on my motorhome as the ladder mount wont handle the Laird. For that application it works ideal.

Repeater is more power out than your handheld puts out. Very few systems are balanced. As said drive closer. You may be surprised how close you need to be to use your radio.

Doesn't mean the repeater really has the coverage you think. drive closer and see when it works reliably

And this is why I wish threads would lock over time.....

Not to sound critical but your using junk to accomplish something. With those USB power adapters, adapter for power on radio, absolutely no shielding in a $25 radio all jammed in a box im not surprised at all. Also not knowing where the "antenna" is or what it is may also be causing the issue. First thing I would do is get all the stuff laid on a table or bench and let it cook for a couple days.

That's funny right there....There are way better antenna's than Ed Fong

The only P25 repeaters I use are VHF. There was one UHF I used in Northern VA but last time I went thru it appeared off line. Around my area DMR is mostly on UHF.

Sorry I rained on your ham lite parade. Maybe go back to ham and leave GMRS ? Your on a public forum. You complain about repeaters yet when asked about funding one you throw out comments such as this. This is the issue with folks, they dont realize stuff costs money.

Sure if you want to pony up a couple thousand dollars someone would be inclined to do so. Its not cheap to keep a good repeater online.

Not to rain on your parade but not all the "repeater" coverage circles are correct. Until you use it you wont know.