gortex2

What are you using for Cable ? Although I consider the comet/tram a hobby antenna you should be able to hear the repeater unless the repeater isn't a quality unit, or something crazy wrong with your setup. The Laird 4603 is a solid antenna. But I'd be curious to know why yours is not working.

On the same page you asked the same question there is details - https://mygmrs.com/repeater/4223 "Please visit https://www.texasgmrs.net for more information." Appears if you go to site mentioned above and click on Join there are multiple options at "Free, $24 yearly and $100 lifetime membership" levels.

I wanted to throw out of post of good commercial antenna's that work great for GMRS as well as other LMR applications. Every antenna listed I have used for home and on towers and have had little if any issues with. Laird - Laird FG Series is a great antenna for home use and limited tower site use. Great for a home repeater when a tower is not available. Mostly omni. FG4500 - Unity Gain Fiberglass Antenna N Female 100W 450-470mhz - Cost around $125 FG4603 - 3db Gain Fiberglass Antenna N female 100W 460-470 - Cost around $140 FG4605 - 7db Gain Fiberglass Antenna N Female 100W 460-470 - Cost around $200 You can get more specifications from Laird here - FG Series Antennas I get most of my hobby antennas from The Antenna Farm The next step up is the dipole antenna and is normally the base antenna I'll install on a tower site. The DB aka CommScope Dipole is a rock solid performer and works well in long term use. I have used these in the ADK park on mountains caked in ice to towers in SE VA and other than physical damage never replaced one. DB404 - 3.8db Gain Dipole Antenna - N Male 250W 450-470mhz - Cost around $500 DB408 - 6.6db Gain Dipole Antenna - N Make 250W 450-470mhz - Cost around $1000 You can get more specifications from CommScope here - CommScope I use various vendors for CommScope gear. Antenna Farm linked above does carry the DB404 as does MyGMRS. MyGMRS would be my first choice as it helps support the site and forum. His price is comparable to what I get it for from Tessco. When looking at an antenna also remember the cable to the antenna to be almost as important as the antenna. Putting a DB408 on a tower isn't going to perform as expected when you run LMR400 to it. It should be LDF. In reality if its on a tower it should be LDF anyway. Some real case uses of antenna''s above for me. My 38' Motorhome has a GMRS repeater. for years I ran the GR1225 and since have switch to the RT97. I run the FG4500 on my ladder and it works perfect for camgrounds/race track use. I have used the FG4605 for years on a repeater at my fathers house. He had a small mast system and it was a great match. I ran 1/2 LDF up the mast and to the antenna. The DB404 is my favorite. Thats what I have at home on a 1 1/4" Pipe on my roof. I run the DB408 at the tower with 7/8" LDF down to the combiner/duplexers. Just wanted to get some info out there on better antennas and options. TRAM, Comet, Ed Fong are all that. They are hobby antenna's and may not meet expectations. Some even cost the same.

"Ed Fong antenna and a better radio." Ed Fong and better radio should not be in the same sentence. Antenna is everything especially in GMRS. The Ed Fong antenna is like buying the bottom of the barrel Baofeng. If you want a good radio get a real antenna. You dont need to spend $500 on a good antenna, but spending $50 on a home brewed antenna isn't the best. Manage expectations.

I had setup one years ago for our SAR team, until group licenses where dropped. At that time we moved to VHF to meet the industry standard. We still have the site and repeater on the air but only licensed users are allowed on it. We mainly left it as it was at a county park and was used by others on the park.

It can be done but not cheap. We had a similar setup at a tower site. EMS Med system (462.xxx) with a 451.xxx channel. It was a mix of duplexer and combiner. No the cheap flatpacks. Basically 462/467 was on one duplexer (TX/RX 6" cavity) and 451/456 on another duplexer. Both antenna leads came into another TX/RX duplexer with notch/pass filters. It was very tight and 451-456 was about 80db out of the 462-467 channels. This was all custom built by TX/RX. No clue what it cost but just the 6" cavities (6 per duplexer), can't be cheap. Although it worked ok, the antenna swept about 460 so worked better on the 462 channel. I would think the bigger issue with your idea is getting an antenna to tune up good on 462 and 440. Thats a pretty big split.

I ran this antenna for many years in a few specific vehicles. Its rated for 35 watts and works well as long as its in site. Don't stuff behind trim. Just 3M tape to the rear glass. https://www.amazon.com/Covert-SB450FME12-450-470mhz-Internal-Antenna/dp/B007JSDDFA Mine was from Laird I think but doesn't come up on there site ant longer. Heck I may still have one in the parts box out in the barn. They made one for 800 that we used alot for volunteer fire chiefs when we were 800mhz. I would think this would work well for your application.

don't forget your jumper from TX to the duplexer has loss. If you use a cheap jumper I have seen some with almost another DB of loss. Did the duplexer get tuned for the channel you are using ?

Appears same as the TRAM 1481 and most likely made by the same china company. Most of the multi piece trams fall apart after a few years. Basically a hoppy antenna. Mine last 2 months in NY before it snapped in the wind. Since them I only use commercial LMR antennas made by reputable companies.

being you dont list frequencies its hard for us to guess. If one channel is 144 nd one is 151 that can explain issues. VCO unlock can happen if the radio was retuned for a specific band. More info can help.

That appears to be the 160 Ch so should be the proper one. I don't have my programming PC in front of me to check a code plug with that model. Some good info in this post from before also - CDM1550LS+

If you want an LMR style rig look for a M1225 or CM300. the other great GMRS radio is the CDM1250/1550 but watch the 1550. There are a few models and one only has limited conventional support. The 1250 is a rock solid unit and can be had for under $100 if you shop around.

Guys lets get back to the Midland MTX500 stuff. There is a section in the forums for arguing called Amateur Radio or Miscellaneous Topics

You will spend more money on cable and connectors than the antenna many times. Spend more on the proper antenna. As gman1971 said terminate the cable where it breaches the building and ground with proper lightening protection (again $$) then run a smaller cable. If a short cable (under 10') is needed RG142 or similar could be used to the mobile/base/portable. With all of this said manage expectations. Using ham grade home made antenna and RG8 cable will not give you the benefits you hope for in most cases. There will be those that claim its better but YMMV. Determine your use case. If this is a repeater or abase for simplex spend the funds and do it right. If its just a way to hit a local repeater then you may not need what you are looking for.

And also remember the cable cost. 60' mast means at minimum 75' of cable to get you in the house. RG/LMR is most likely not the best option here. You really want LDF hardline which will cost almost or more than your mast. As was stated earlier 60' is on the edge of a mast. I would start looking at tower sections. Rohn is solid performer and 50' with a 10' mast of aluminum would be ideal. Still needs guyed but will stay up much longer than pipe bolted together. Budget everything you need and decide if 60' is really what you need.

a better base antenna would help for simplex. Also you never mentioned what cable you use on the base radio.

All of those are chip radios that are used for HAM, GMRS and MURS along with some other services. Same radio same hardware, different firmware. None are specifically made for GMRS. That's the one issue with GMRS is there is only 1 or 2 manufacturers that build specific GMRs radios. All the rest are modified as above. I equate simple as less features so I guess that's the balance.

What lesser expensive GMRS built radios do this ? I have yet to find a GMRS mobile that was designed as a GMRS mobile other than Midland. All other are a CCR radio that has firmware to lock it in a band or frequency range. You can buy the same radio with different model numbers ie: DB-20=Anytone779, KG1000G=KG1000M=KGUV980.... Guess I don't understand the dual mode statement. Scan allows you to monitor other GMRs channels. If you meant other uses (Amatuer, MURS, Scanner) then it wouldn't be a GMRS radio. I have no need for a MTX500 as I already have the MTX275 so am not going to order one to run checks on my service monitor. When the new 575 comes out I may upgrade one of mine and run some tests to see what it shows. If I need 50 watts I'll use my APX, but have yet to find a reason to. I find it strange that people get all worked up over Midland charging a few $ more for a GMRS only radio but no one mentions Motorola T800 series that cost about $130 a pair and can't use repeater splits nor have removable antenna's. Walk around any campground or park this summer and you will find talkabouts all over....Its all about how folks use the radio. Many just push and talk. Simplex is the most likely the most used mode in GMRS so Midland, Motorola and other manufacturers will cater to that before they worry about the 300 users on mygmrs....

I watched the video as a user of GMRS and GMRS only. He made mentions of other channels he wants to listen to. The radio is a GMRS radio and GMRS only. Was never intended for other uses. I still go back to the fact that the Midlands are good basic mobiles and fit a market of a user who just wants to buy a radio and turn it on. Up until about 10 years ago GMRS was 90% Part 90 gear with a few other manufacturers making gear specific to GMRS. The CCR world has changed GMRS and in many parts Amateur Radio also. Some good but bad at the same time. As said in the past Midland will sell hundreds if not thousands of the radios and thats what makes the market grow.

I run the XTL5000 at home on both UHF and VHF for HAM stuff as well as public safety. Great receivers in them. If you do some online searching they can be found pretty reasonable especially in non P25 flavors. In my vehicles I run the APX. They will cost a bit more but 6500 analogs are out there as are 7500 but finding a APX 7500 VHF/URHR1 is challenging. Not many were made so it most likely will be an R2 which is out of the ham band and not useable.

Correct.

For LMR radios the APX7500 series can be had in V/U. What exactly are you planning to use the radio for ?

MURS is licensed by rule as is GMRS. Its a Part 95 service. https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/multi-use-radio-service-murs Agree with the use case. Lots of old part 90 radios for the cheap that will take the channels and work great for that use.

Engineering and testing costs go up as everything else does. Add in manufacturing costs, shipping and every other thing involved in communications. It all adds up. Competition does change the price model but for certain items all vendors are in the same ballpark. Its not just radios. Its every piece of gear a FF or LE/EMS unit use. Heart monitors, ambulances, weapons, air packs all cost more every year. Its the price of doing business in some aspect. I dont have the answer but I definitely agree you get what you pay for....in all things. Oh and our SAR team still uses HT1000's that are way obsolete but they do what we need. We do have a mix of APX and XTS also but the HT is the go to radio for a field team.

Well as I agree radios cost money so does every piece of equipment a FF or police officer wears doing there job. About 10 years ago I got a FEMA grant for radio for our FD. It was the most money the FD spent on radios in decades. In the end the radio cost less than my interior gear, air pack and tools. If I fall thru a basement I want a radio that works in those extreme locations. I have also had friends die in a large fire. OSHA reports show communications was a contributing cause (as most do). As an officer or friend I wouldn't want to be the one to tell there wife, kids, family that we bought a inferior radio to save a $. $10K for a radio is not even worth one life. Same goes for the mobile side. Buy $500,000 ladder truck....Putting a $5000 mobile in it shouldn't break the bank. @gman1971 thanks for the comparison.