gortex2

I run the Laird on many public safety applications and have never had an antenna break. I dont believe the antenna you mentioned was a laird antenna. The FG series is a rock solid LMR antenna and is used on towers as well as control stations. I have the FG4605 on my base. I also use the FG4500 on a ton of locations. The FG4603 is a great control station antenna. 2 of my repeaters use the FG4607 on towers in the northeast and are almost 8 years old with no issues with snow, wind and ice. I did not want those but tower loading eliminated the DB408 I had planned so had to use those. I used the FG4500 on my motorhome repeater for multiple years as well and a few times forgot to pull it off the ladder and dragged tree branches thru it and it never broke off. They run between $100 and $300. I agree a $1500 antenna is not needed at a house or low level repeater. The 4603 is a $200 antenna max. https://theantennafarm.com/shop-by-categories/antennas-mounts/base-antennas/gmrs-base-antennas/gmrs-omni-directional-base-antennas/8028-laird-connectivity-fg4603-detail

If your going to use a pole barn, put the repeater as close to the antenna as possiblee to limit cable loss. thats the cool part about the midland and RT97. Just run a power cord to it. A decent antenna and a 3' piece of cable terminated with proper connectors will go along way.

I had one on my fathers house. It worked ok but was only on the side of the house. I normally run the Laird antenna as I think they are better built but its twice the price for a comperable antenna.

Or just spend a bit more on a real antenna.

For GMRS I use a mix of Motorola LMR gear and Midland for the KISS method. Ham is mostly on Motorola gear but APRS is on the TMD700 and FTM400 in my vehicles. Work truck is only MSI gear so use it for all.

Ive never had issue but all my gear is commercial LMR other than my HAM radio. I run a TMD700 in the wifes JK and for 10 years in upstate NY had not one issue.

This is an ideal situation for the RT97 repeater. Add a battery and a little antenna and it will sit and tick away.

Or just buy a base station antenna

We have migrated to this mount over time on our SAR team. Its held up the best out of anything we have used. Both in true NMO mount fasion (in a roof) as well as on fender mounts and other not normal installs. The enclosed cable on the bottom of the mount keeps water out and we found it worked better in fringe areas on simplex. I still use the standard NMO from MSI/Larsen/Laird/PCTel on our UHF TLMR stuff but anything VHF is the Larsen one now. When possible I use them on all mounts. My new work truck as 6 mounts and all are the same.

Larsen NMOKHFCX is probably the best mount out there right now. Any Larsen, Laird, PCTEL, Motorola mounts are good.

So it only happens when Jeep is on ? Alot of folks add aftermarket LED lights to jeeps that casue a ton of interfearance. If its only when key is on or running I'd check to see what turns on with the key. If its present regardless then its a radio issue.

Over the years there have been different thoughts on listing repeaters on this site. In the past it was thought if its listed then at least folks know where it is. I had my repeaters listed for years as CLOSED repeaters. I still got messages over and over. I finally removed them from this site so I did not get requests from folks. Others just ignore the emails or lets face it could be in spam or other places.

Normally when the 7/8 hardline enters the building/shelter it goes to a polyphaser on the bulkhead. From there you would use 1/2" superflex to the N on the kenwood. 7/8" is the feedline for the tower only.

A true non profit can get a part 90 license pretty easy and depending on the organization pay no fees to the FCC. The issue in the end is people dont want to put in the work. CB, HAM, FRS, and MURs is more than most really need to be honest. CERT can easiliy be a non profit or work under a county umbrella to get licesenced. I guess it really depends on the organizational needs but the other simple mode is VOIP apps. Zello or other apps are jsut as good as radio comms 95% of the time. Using a combination of FRS and voip for an application can work well.

Power issue. Yo udont have enough current for the radio to stay on. What kind of battey are you using and is it a good battery ?

What you show in the screen is correct.

Just as reference the Laird and the Hustler are not identical. The Laird is a 5db antenna and the Huslter is listed as 6db. Granted 1db should not be the deciding factor but coupld possibly be enough. Feedline could also change the antenna performance. Granted your in CA where everyone talks way more miles than you will on the east coast but I use the antenna for contorl points and never had an issue hitting our repeaters or simplex. I also use the Laird unity gain for control stations as well but those are intended to talk to the repeater mostly. As for the PVC part of the rebuild. I know the Ed Fong antenna lists a certain PVC thats supposed to be better for antenna than the standard PVC thicker material. I've only use a single Ed fong antenna and promply tossed it in a can after so dont know what each PVC pipe difference is other than thickness. I have fixed fiberglass radomes on antennas in the past if they are structurally OK. Not sure how bad the one on your huster was but may be worth trying. Most anything fiberglass does take a beating from the sun. I have 30 year old station masters in use still. A few I have taken down to move and they were all fiberglass hairs and no gell coat left. I wrapped them all in a thin layer of fiberglass matt with resin and put back up after drying. None changed SWR or any other sweep data. Personally I prefere folded dipoles for durability but the fiberglass stick is a good option some areas.

Encryption normally only is done on the subscriber end, or console not the repeater in the P25 world. I would assumei ts the same for DMR but I dont play with it nor have any radios that work on DMR.

uh...what kinda spliter ? A RF switch ? If ypou just used a T you will damage the other radio. Please explain what you were doing. Also I dont recall seeing what cabl you are using and how long it is.

If you have Quantars you just need a SAM Module (Station Access Module). It requires software and will allow you to create a user list of approed users. Works well. Hard to find but they pop up online now and then.

Using MDC equiped equipment a user will not hear the MDC if setup properly. Yes others with non MDC capable radios would hear that. I never hear MDC on my repeater or console, just see the ID on my screen.

Larsen is the best commercial antenna now. Since ASP dropped the line thats our go to antenna for those applications.

MDC isn't forbidden on Amateur Radio or GMRS. I use it on both. Done properly a user wouldn't even know its being used. And its great to keep CCRS off my sites.

Even in commercial LMR you wont find a 12db antenna in UHF. I think the best you will find is 10. And that will cost you in the ballpark of $5000 just for the antenna. And even more for the mount. A hobby antenna as Steve pointed out in 6-7 db range is about all you will find for cheap. This is an antenna I just used on a project....its 10db but also weighs 80#'s. Mount cost about $1500.

The RT97 and Midland MXR10 are ideal applications for this. Short piece of feedline and the antenna on the tower. Small wind load. The issue you will have is dependingo n tower size and box size is windload.