gortex2

Find a local 2 way radio shop. They should be able to do it on a VNA in less than an hours labor. Yes you will spend about the same as you paid for it but it will be done correctly.

Duplexer needs tuned. No way around it. Its not on the frequency you are trying to use.

Really depends on what your going to MOAB for. But if your going out on the trails I found more activity on CB than GMRS. Being EJS this year used CB for all trails rides still it will be some time before you see all going to GMRS. At this point even Jeep Jamboree has said they are switched to GMRS but last fall only about half our group had GMRS. I'm curious to see if this year they will be more strict on the GMRS front or not. Have our first ride in 2 weeks.

OK. So I looked at your files. You have problems. RX Radio - Currently is set for 457.550. That needs to be 467.550 for GMRS. The RX PL/DPL is 265N. In your portable you need to set Encode to DPL/DCS and 265N TX Radio - Currently is set for 452.550. This also needs to be changed to 462.550 for GMRS. The PL/DPL is the same (265N) on the TX Radio. Your Portable would use 265N also. So change frequencies, Tune Duplexer and have fun. The CY121 Repeater is a nice little box and ideal for home repeater use.

You should be fine. Not sure why the radio would show that...but its a CCR.

Was just in MOAB in July. I found no GMRS repeaters, but I also didn't spend a ton of time trying to find them. Very little GMRS/FRS when I was there. I heard more on my CB (CH4, 14, 19, 24) of trail guides. I heard one trail guide on GMRS 462.600 on one day while in Arches but never heard any of the users he was talking to so not sure his location. He was definitely talking to a group and explaining the obstacles before they got there. We had GMRS in our camper also and stayed at KOA. Only heard some kids on FRS1 first night. No other traffic for the 2 nights we were there.

Is not CH 1 a low power channel. Should only be 5w max. If your seeing 3.4 with a 10% deviation in a meter I would say its fairly accurate.

SWR before duplexer should be very low if the duplexer is tuned properly. What model duplexer, tester and radios are we dealing with ? Who tuned the duplexer.

True but on UHF your line of sight. In the SAR stuff we do we have trouble with a mile between some teams on VHF and UHF unless we have a repeater. APRS has the benefit of many Digi's so it can help move that traffic. I agree having it available is a benefit but in SAR we have tried pretty much everything and it rarely works on our own systems. We do use the APX to send location data but normally only command will get it.

@mikevman I agree the i20 fit the box well. The only other box that will fit in there is the RICK but that doesn't do CW ID, nor tone panel. I think the CommSpec would fit although tight. They made a "table top" version of it. If it didn't fit in the box it would fit nicely on top of it. I looked in my storage and dont have any at the moment but a quick scan of ebay shows a trident controller which will work well - Trident I used the Trident in our LTR Trunking system. It was nice as it also did community panel so we could migrate customers over to LTR slowly and let them use their legacy conventional radios until they could replace all of them. I still have 2 of the older Trident (Pre Raider) in service on GMRS repeaters. Mainly so I can have both the traveler tone (non listed) and my own PL/DPL tone in the repeater.

So the message he showed is not an APRS message but looks more like a modified version which would make sense being it would need licensed to baojunk. APRS works well in the ham band and works for what it is. Again someone is trying to bring more ham radio into GMRS. I just dont get that fascination. In reality APRS uses a huge network of digipeaters so having a simplex UHF channel sending APRS is about useless.

Really. He said it was channel 17 or 17R. That's pretty obvious and no need to know which radio it is. He even posted the frequencies. Go back to your basement now.

AS said which repeaters ? And how do you know you cannot communicate ? Orlando 650 and 700 are the ones I know of looking at the mygmrs map. Whats on RR is most likely inaccurate, but anyway we need more info.

Lots of guys on youtube like that...and even on this forum...

They never came with N connectors but I know alot of guys who swapped them out to N but normally N(F) and not N(M) like yours shown. Look for voltage on the BNC, or Audio. May be a discriminator output for going to a meter. I have some BNC cables for my CDM to go to my service monitor while aligning simulcast. Could have been used for something like that. I guess the other thought is they broke RX and TX to separate lines. Not sure why but seen lots of modified stuff over the years. If it was used as a control station on a TX combiner and RX multicoupler I can see why.

I run the Larsen NMO 150/450/700/800 on my work trucks. Additionally the MSI Tri Band antenna sweeps pretty good on both 2M and 440 and GMRS. I'd use a commercial antenna before a HAM antenna most days. Just like the performance and quality better. JMHO

Correct code 25 is 156.7. Be advised that will be both TX and RX in the radio.

If they are included as RX only people would be on here asking why they can't transmit on them. None of the midland MTX mobiles have them either. Its not just this radio.

The i20r controller he had sent CW ID in CSQ mode. Only PL was on when the RX radio received the PL (tones). The Communications Specialist controller does the same thing. Its all how the controller is programed and radios are programmed. Built many of those repeaters when i was at the shop with the i20, zetron, comm spec and other controllers at the time. Most commercial controllers will accomplish what the user is looking for. A ham/hobby controller will not. @mikevman I'd search ebay for a CommSpec TP3200, CSI 32, Zetron CR-310 or any of the Trident controllers. They pop up on and off but finding one the size of the i20 may be challenging. Most are 19" rack mounted.

8-14 dont show up as its a mobile. Rules specifically specify those are portable frequencies only.

Because its a topic that comes up weekly thought I'd share of picture of Midlands Jeep mount from the show last weekend. Jeep runs a MTX575. Per the folks at the show the antenna location is the best they have found on the jeep. While I still hate the Ghost antenna for the use case they explained its fine. (Use case is following others on the trail). Yes your mileage may vary but wanted to share. Lots of folks on some of the FRS/GMRS channels out there last weekend, but mostly CH1-5 on my Midland was busy. The local GMRS repeater was useless as there are 2 old hams who use it non stop most of the day. Not just last weekend, but most weekends I'm there. Is what it is.

I have been saying this for 2 years. Every day its worse and worse. GMRS had a purpose and folks want to change it. I dont see folks screaming to add repeaters and P25 to MURS. Get over it and use GMRS for what it is.

APX 7500/700 series came in 2 bands depending on how it was ordered. Any of the 2 bands could be in the radio, including UHFR1 and UHFR2 (I have a mobile like this). Our SAR team ordered them with VHF/UHFR1 in the past. APX8500/8000 series can be purchased in all bands. All depends on flash code in radio. APX8K series can be upgraded to add bands not ordered originally but the flash is not cheap. The 7K series was a board swap and is not supported any longer in terms of upgrades of band changes. What you buy is what you get in that regard.

OK. First and foremost GMRS is not 70cm. Thats the HAM UHF band. Many commercial repeaters can be found in the UHF 460 Mhz range. They are cheap. LMR400 is not the best cable for duplex operations. Many posts on here about the shielding and issues you will find with duplex operation. Ed Fong antenna is also not a good antenna for a repeater. Again many posts on here but its basically a put together antenna made by a ham. You want a worthwhile repeater buy a antenna made for the use case. Duplexer jumpers should be a well shieled jumper with the proper connectors on each end. Short as possible to the radio. 12" are the standard most of the time. RG142 is a good cable to use. Again manage your expectations. The setup you are proposing may give you 5 miles. I guess if its on a 6000' mountain it may talk further. No idea. Do a search on the site. Many folks have started with cheap setups like this and found it didn't do what they want. Either they disappear or spend the funds to do it correctly.

As I say over and over the ghost antenna is about as good as a dummy load. If your goal is to talk to a guy in front of you on simplex use it. If you need distance a 1/4 wave is a better choice. A quick search on this site will give you hundreds of posts with the differences between the ghost and the gain from Midland. There are also many posts on the JT/JL/JK/TJ antenna mounting solutions.