gortex2

The issue in the end is not money or lack there of. Its location. If your repeater is on a 5000' mountain then inferior equipment is made up for height. Most folks are installing a repeater on a garage or house in town. IF you look at the true loss of cables and adapters you will see noticeable differences and may sour the hobby taste. Very few folks are on sites that have LOS to hundreds of square miles but I guess on youtube anything is possible. The repeater in question is about 5-7 watts leaving the antenna port. 25' of LMR at 460 is about .75 db of loss. Now add .50db for each adapter you use. Your rapidly up to 3db which is about 1/2 your power. So when your repeater on your garage is only transmitting 2-3 watts then folks ask why they handheld inside the house can talk to another and not thru the repeater. But I digress I keep forgetting the hobby is about doing it as cheap as possible as hams do in this new age. BTW you can grab 1/2 LDF jumpers on ebay for under $50 if you do some searching. I just sold 6 1/2" commscope superflex jumpers for $30 each with N (M) on both ends. So you can find some decent stuff if you look.

Yes. CTCSS or DCS/DPL are the Input and Output tone you need in your subscriber.

There are many posts with the issues with LMR style cable and the interference it will cause in itself. In the end it performs poor. As someone who has been in the commercial/public safety world work for 30+ years I have seen it over and over. I try to help folks not spend funds on stuff that they will replace in the end. LMR is ideal for base stations and any simplex operation, but in duplex operation especially in the UHF band it will suffer. I run it on all my control stations at home but anything with a repeater I use different cables. The RT97has the advantage of a waterproof case. The best install is a short LDF jumper to to the antenna and mount the actual repeater on the mast. Run DC to the repeater. That is how 90% of the cell sites out there as the radio is within a foot or 2 of the panel antenna. A 2' piece of LDF40-50 would be ideal. Just another option.

@MozartManNone of them you listed are GMRS radios. If thye can TX on any other frequency they are not certified GMRS radios. Those are all ham CCR radios that can be modified to use on GMRS. The only marketed radio in that format is the DB20-G. I can only assume the G is for GMRS. I'm sure all these hams will give you all sorts of reasons why buying any of the above is fine. Personally I think they are ruining the service.

Understand that LMR 400 is not good when it gets moisture in it for repeater use. If your going to use it make it as short as physically possible and make sure to seal properly the connections. Many thread on duplex use of LMR and why not to use it. If this is for a temporary situation it can work OK.

I have a thread here with various antenna solutions - Remember you get what you pay for. Manage expectations. A cheap antenna and poor feedline will sour your taste in GMRS and waste funds.

Not alot to be honest. If you look at the maps there is one near Kerr Lake however from 85 I can't get into it. I am west of that area and my travels across 58 are normally pretty quiet. If your looking to use the radio to chat with folks you may of picked the wrong service. https://mygmrs.com/repeater/6282

The DB20G is the GMRS version as stated on the sites. It specifically states is is a scanner on VHF and UHF. But forgot CA guy do what ever they want.

As reference that piece is plastic where his antenna is mounted. There is metal behind it but the cover is plastic. In the jeep world many antenna's are mounted in that location and work ok. Remember the ghost antenna is like a dummy load. Works fine for close by or a proper repeater but not much more. Its not uncommon to not hear boo on GMRS. GMRS is not ham. Its for short private comms. On the trail it will work great with other users on the trail. I live in the country. I have a DB404 on a 60' pole and scan all the GMRS main channels. I hear nothing except a hunter or two now and then.

I would just put it on the hood and be done.

The DB20G is a GMRS radio and not rated for anything in MURS, Marine, or HAM. Buy a certified radio to use in those bands.

Well just because you can hear the repeater doesn't mean you can always get back to it. Most repeaters are not balanced as they should be in the GMRS or ham world. I would get closer with a radio and test locally to the repeater before you can determine if its your setup.

Cheap LED bars are our issue. Replace the bar with a quality unit and it should be fine or keep it on a switch. Common issue with cheap stuff.

Yet its used all the time as it is in GMRS. This is what keep bringing up. The only thing GMRS users can control is those who want to follow the rules. Half of this forum talks about using non part 95 radios (CCR HAM stuff) and how to modify this or that or how to get out of the rules. If we concentrated on promoting the proper use of GMRS radios the hobby could be better. We can't control stuff people are doing who are not on this forum. Oh and was at a ham fest Sunday in NJ. 146.580 was used and encrypted as it was blinking on my APX. No clue who but it happens all the time.

Yup. I still use an older version of procomm to one of my controllers as it supported the phone modem. Yes they are still out there. I use Putty for everythign else.

So I'm all for reading the rules but GMRS is a mess now. Even if it is totally illegal and the FCC puts out a report and order or rulemaking paper saying it can't happen that will change nothing as there is no enforcement. Its no different than DMR, P25 and other modes being used on GMRS daily. All we can do is help make GMRS useable. To be honest I'm hoping this is a fad and all these CCR Linking folks will loose interest and go away....Sadly I dont think that will happen.

Just drill a hole and drop a 1/4 wave on it. 99% of the time that will outperform what you need and not require removing it daily t go in a garage.

No all the Trident, CommSpec and CSI models are programmed with a terminal session. They were designed for modems from a site to turn on a PL/DPL or turn it off. So any serial emulator will work fine. Putty and Procomm are the go to most of the time.

No. Its essentially a dummy load. A standard 1/4 wave will work way better than the Ghost.

Which ? The roof rack ? If so yes goes around windshield to the top tray then to the rear of the jeep.

Why use chirp when you can download the Yaesu software from the website.

First of all you cannot transmit on any UHF channel you want. 454.200 is a licensed channel. Secondly as we have said multiple times the duplexer MUST be tuned to the working frequency. Until it is tuned to a GMRS channel you will see bad VSWR and power issues. Take the duplexer to a shop and have it tuned. I'm not sure what your trying to accomplish but multiple folks have told you the duplexer is tuned wrong.

I would not. Buy a real antenna and cable. The antenna is the most important part of a repeater. Manage expectations. You wont talk 50 miles with a JPole (well unless your at 5000'). Remember the RT is low power =/- 5 watts. Shorted antenna line and antenna they better.

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.