gortex2

Keep us posted on your results. Being one of the few Part 95 repeaters I am sure others would like to know the performance and quality moving forward.

Depends on what you want. If you plan is basic GMRS and GMRS only with no other stuff go midland. Simple and basic. If you plan to get into HAM or other stuff there are other radios to look at. My 70 year old father likes the midland cause its simple.

http://www.n2mo.org/

Still sounds like desence. What jumpers do you have between each radio and the duplexer ? What RF line goes to the antenna ? What power source are you using ? As said in the past the price your going to spend piecing parts together yo could have bought a commercial repeater. First test I would try it one mobile to the antenna and test to a known location with your portable. Next hook the duplexer inline and do same test. If TX from one radio to another is fine then most likely its desence and without real equipment you can do proper testing.

Most Maine public safety is on the state wide P25 trunked system. There are also alot of conventional use in Maine.

As stated its a club license. Our SAR team has one that is used on our APRS stuff. Still need to be a licensed HAM to get the club license.

Bad analogy around me ! I live in the middle of Amish community. Its horse and buggies all day long around my house

As was stated most users of GMRS/FRS use the radio to talk to there friends family etc. Very few buy a radio to talk to others unless its for a specific thing, like Jeep clubs etc. I'll be the first to say all my radios have DPL/PL enabled and if i do hear someone on my selected PL and channel I change channels. I dont use GMRS for chat chat with others. Never was intended for it originally. Sounds like what you want is more of ham radio. Hate to sound bad about this but I travel 1000 miles a week and my radios are in scan all the time and rarely do i hear folks.

So first thing I would try to do is get your antenna cable alot shorter than 100' between antenna and repeater. Unless its going up a tower the closest is the best. Even LMR will have almost 3dblossi n 100'. That just took your 25 watt repeater to 12.5 and that no duplexer. You will have loss there also. The duplexer is a good unit. Get it tuned professionally and a home repeater should not have issues. Im not a fan of the antenna you picked but I prefer quality. the DB404 would be ideal but know folks dont like the look of it or the price. If you want a small fiberglass stick look at the Laird FG series in the other links on the page. You will find them a much better build than a put together antenna. Manage expectations. I know you want 20 miles. If you can talk that simplex then your repeater may play nice. The GM300 is a good little radio. Built many repeaters in my shop days out of the same parts you mentioned and many are still in service today. The GM is not a continuous duty radio so make sure you have a fan on it also.

To view repeater information you need to login to the MyGMRS site not the forum. - https://mygmrs.com/

Thanks for the real world experience from a repeater owner. When some folks talk about spending good funds on doing it right it gets over shadowed by the do it cheap crowd. I ran very similar equipment for SAR up until last year more because we can only afford what we can afford. 2 sites had the Kenwood TKR850 (VHF). All sites got replaced with Quantars and also went simulcast. Granted its night and day with simulcast but the biggest advantage is the sound quality in my book. It sounds like a radio. Good luck with your site.

I still use the Bird 43 at home and most of my hobby stuff. for work we use the R&S®NRT-Z Power Sensors. Its slick but not cheap.

I have found no GMRS repeaters in DE from Middletown to Sussex Co line while working there.

If you got it today try tomorrow. Site has to pull the database from FCC.

Depends on what your looking for. I run the Larsen all band on all 4 of my 8500's. They sweep better on 800 than the MSI all band. Most of the commercial antenna manufacturers make good antenna's. Larsen, Laird, PCTel all are decent.

Under 2 watts they don't need a license as stated with a FRS radio.

Guess I saw nothing valuable in the articles. VOIP and solar has been around in LMR since then.

How far do you think its going to talk ? Did you run any propagation studies on this ? I would think an antenna 25' off the ground is only going to give you maybe 10 miles unless its on a mountain top. As said above really sounds like desense.

So one 8 year old article and one 20 year old article....yup...garbage... Again my Opinion. But I guess we aren't allowed to differ than other online. There are alot of publications by the ARRL and many other organizations in the radio field. Each has a following and each is what the end user wants to read. If Amateur radio was respected in the areas I live more then it may be different but its a hobby to them. None are involved in county aspects nor have any interest in that. I guess maybe QSL to should just have articles on how to program your Baofeng and HotSpot as that seems to be the fad of the day for many hams. Linking repeaters via internet, hot spots and zello from a cell phone is not what I got into ham radio for. Where is the amateur's microwave guys to help link repeaters and put voters on a system ? Ghosts. Just buy a cheap hotspot and drop it on your fusion or Trbo repeater and walk away.

My guess is the F-18 is no longer on the air or never was. One issue with the map is its entered by users and no way to verify if the info is actually correct. Anyone can add a repeater and never put the repeater on the air. Lots of dreams come in GMRS but when they realize the expense and time of setting up a repeater they dont go forward and never go back and delete the repeater. Expectations are high in GMRS but not always met with the low cost equipment people purchase.

Nope. I send my money to a local SAR team. They do more than ARRL will ever do for the county. SAR gets no money from the county nor state so all fundraising supports them mission. SAR also has a better radio system than any of the local Amateurs so its a win for the county. As for QST the last magazine I got was over half ads and little to no real content. Again ARRL is not for me and that's my opinion. There are many other valuable organizations out there doing real work for communities.

Depends on what you want out of them. I was a member for 2 years long time ago. They did nothing for me other than charge money. ARRL is not what it used to be. I wouldn't spend my money on the membership unless there is a specific reason you are joining.

These are the ones I use. Pipe-Pipe Clamp If you have a mobile not sure why you would want the repeater also.

My FG4500 is mounted on my aluminum ladder on the back of the MH. I normally take it off but have forgot and drove home 100 miles with it there and it was fine. In real life I wouldn't run down the road with it. There are better antenna's for a vehicle. If its in a vehicle just drop an NMO in the center of the roof with a 1/4 wave and it will be fine. As reference there are adapter plates to mount to a 3" pipe but it will cost as much as the antenna. You could probably build a mount yourself if needed but again I'd just use a NMO on the vehicle. I have installed many on fire trucks and ambulances with a 1/4 wave on UHF.

Im not sure where the repeater in Greensboro is but I have trouble on 29 with a mobile radio....No clue where or what the F18 repeater is.