gortex2

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Talk to Demlarva Communications in New Castle. They are a MSI shop and should be able to diagnose the issue pretty quickly. There is also Magmum in Dover area but never dealt with them.

Do you know what the repeater is ? You shouldn't hear that but it sounds like there is delay on the repeater for some reason.

My opinion is its a CCR. You get what you pay for.

464.550 is used a lot by business's and your most likely either hearing DMR or some other stuff on the channels. I can't count the amount of "building" repeaters I saw back in my shop days all on 464.550. It is an Itinerant frequency which means any business can license it. I suspect a repeater causing your noise. Put a PL/DPL tone on it and skip over it.

Put CB on top and GMRS just below it on a stand off bracket. At my last house I had that setup for 15 years.

You need to login to the site also. Not just the forum. Unless your logged in your can see details.

Remember not all groups want other folks on their repeaters. This isn't ham radio. Some folks install repeaters for themselves only. I actually removed all my repeaters from this site for that exact reason. If its listed as open then send the request and wait. There are folks who come here, register a repeater and never come back. Thats part of the issue. Its been an issue for years. Others just are busy. I see messages here and there asking if my stuff is still online and I try to reply when i can to say its closed but life happens and I am sure many get lost in email land Just wanted to share a repeater owners aspect.

More power isn't going to increase gain for the most part. If you only have a 4 watt portable just changing the repeater to a 25 watt from 5 watt isn't going t increase range.

What repeater ? What Radios ? What antenna ? What feedline ? Normally by the time you buy feed line to get the distance you spent more than a cheap duplexer. If you are doing sperate antennas you will need as much vertical separation as you can get. Most dual antenna systems use filtering on the RX side of the system to notch out the TX frequency.

True but for home repeaters I dont see that being an issue. The issue is normally height at a home repeater. I have a SAR site in UHF that we do run into this about a mile from the site. Site is at 2500' and has a DB409 as TX. When dropping down the mountain you loose all RX from the site until you get off the hill. But the goal was to cover 25 miles to the north and there it works great.

Height is key. The taller your antenna the better.

@WRFP399 is the guy who has it.

As said the best bang for the buck is the RT97. Start with that and as you feel its used then upgrade. Buy a good feedline and decent antenna and it will work well. As said height is king. Get antenna as high as you can. Nice thing about the RT97 is it is waterproof so you can mount outside as long as you seal up the antenna connections. Putting it in an attic just below the antenna with a 6' feed line will work way better than 100' of LMR. @Borage257 There is another thread of a guy in Alaska who uses one on a pole with solar power. Think thats the one your looking for.

While I agree someone could donate radios there is alot that can make it work or not work. Just something to think about. When I deploy as a team member in the field I have my backpack, Chest Harness (Dual Radio) with VHF SAR radio and UHF Trunking Radio, GPS, Compass, Map and if at night headlamp and flashlight. Once in the field we are navigating, listening to both operations and command on our radios and searching for a subject who may or may not be conscious. For me to have another radio talking in the background is a distraction. Our SOP actually states no ham radios on in the field. A member can carry it but they need to leave it in the backpack unless its needed for a backup to a backup to a backup. I sometimes have mine in the backpack with APRS running but volume off. There is alot going on in the woods for a SAR member. Add in K9 team, helo and trackers and its enough to just hear operations calling. I don't disagree with having that radio on hand but not sure how well it would work in some cases. To be honest I think a Talkabout in scan would be better than a baofeng when you think about the KISS method. The biggest issue is education as said. I dont ever see a nationwide education or decision to happen on FRS. Personally I like what Wyoming did. Even though many find fault with the channel and tone at least they published something. I guess its something other SAR groups should look at but I have trouble just getting folks to buy a part 90 radio ! With that said I still participate in some statewide meetings in the NE for SAR and I'll make it a point to at least float the idea at the next statewide meeting.

Remember a lot of SAR in the US are funded out of pocket by the SAR member. For them to buy another piece of gear is tough. I agree maybe a better approach on education can happen but when Wyoming did that there was pages of why they are doing it wrong on this forum and others. Some areas FRS is great, but I can say there are areas where an FRS bubble pack radio is useless due to terrain or just distance. If our 5 watt VHF radios can't talk to another crew 2 miles away a FRS unit wont help. I guess if its a hunter on a mountain and command in valley maybe its a fighting chance but I've yet to see it work. In my case our SAR command post has VHF radios for SAR, UHF radios for the county and a HAM radio. Yup we can add the FRS stuff to a scan list but it will get turned down as soon as someone hears a squelch burst. A scanner is a great idea but we are struggling with buying diesel fuel right now let alone a $200 scanner to get installed with an external antenna. I get what your saying but its not a reality in public safety. Maybe out west stuff is different but in the NE that's the reality. I don't think there is a perfect scenario out there.

Actually I do go in the woods alot. Been in SAR for almost 30 years this month. I still wont go in the woods without my Inreach and a portable radio. While I agree something is better than nothing relying on a GMRS radio is the last thing I would do. If I go in the woods I take my ham radio if I dont have SAR coverage in that area on our public safety stuff. I have a county park with a GMRS repeater that SAR put in decades ago. While its great to have no one listens to it. The issue with GMRS is there is no "hey this is the channel" If the Travel Channel had taken off I think it may be more useful but In the last 10 years of SAR missions I've asked numerous hunters what radio they had or what channel. Over half were baofengs on the preprogrammed channels from amazon (some in public safety actualy) and the others had FRS radios but had picked a channel up high with a tone. On a mission SAR can't check every tone and channel so its really of no use. The rest of the guys/gals have a cell phone and dont get why it doesn't work in the woods. As reference the GMRS repeater I mentioned is on the 675 frequency and travel tone. In 3 years the only person on it has been some of our SAR folks.

The 4503 is what you want with NMO. With that said manage your expectations. It will work ok on a repeater but is tuned closer to the 460 center channel. Simplex will vary on coverage. I run it on my work truck but only use it when i'm talking to the guy following me or on a trunked radio system. If you have a great repeater it will work better than an HT in the vehicle but again manage what you feel it will do. LAIRD

Your right didn't phrase that right did I ......I would never trust a GMRS system with my life. Its one thing to call in and say hey I'm heading out but if you need help its not reliable. I have a pretty good tower site and cover 50 miles around it but i still wouldn't rely on it for life safety. Same with ham.

Sorry but reliable communications and GMRS should not be in the same sentence. Yes GMRS is reliable however if this is for any emergency type help get a PLB. The cost of them are pretty cheap now and the safety plan is less than a mcdonalds lunch. The Garmin units are pretty rugged and reliable and you can also send a "im ok" text to a list of folks.

As reference the Motorola all band antenna for the APX series actually sweeps really well on 2M ham, 440 and GMRS. It suffers on 7/800 but I was surprised at how well it worked on 2M. I have since went to the Larsen and they work ok in ham bands but not as well as the MSI. PCTel is who makes the antenna - Here is the datasheet.

The 8500 comes in mid power and high power mobiles. The 8000 comes in 4/5 watt versions only. the XTVA with an amplifier will give you more power but only on one band. Most of the ones I see installed have no amp so they can use all bands. Most are on TLMR systems so really have no need for high power.

More like this with a 1/4 wave UHF NMO on it. The midland antenna is not that great.

That link goes to VHF not UHF But as said a 1/2 wave will work ok. To be honest a 1/4 wave on an L-bracket bolted to boat will most likely suffice unless your traying to talk 50 miles. We ran one on our fire boat for years and it was fine.

I personally do not listen to any HF on an SDR. With the limited filtering I can't imagine they are that good.