gortex2

LDF4-50A is standard 1/2" Hardline LDF4-50A AVA-50 is the 7/8" Hardline. Anything over 100' I run that. To be honest all my repeaters have 7/8" and some are only 50' up the tower. AVA-50

Few other options although you get what you pay for. Klein BT Mic Otto BT Mic

Antennafarm normally ships pretty quick. Don't think anything I have ordered took longer than a week.

You need a watt meter. They are like radios. Cheap China box to a good quality box. I prefer a Bird 43 but not everyone has one. There is a huge page on this HERE Read the linked post.

All depends on design. TXRX makes some great systems for filters and combiners. As said the frequencies were close enough but just far enough apart. And one frequency was out of the GMRS section. There are many places as TXRX and Filtronics that build this stuff but its costly to do right.

Your Motorola radio is using "Talkback Scan" In programming you define how long it will sit on that channel before it goes back to scan. Public Safety uses Priority Scan. Priority Scan goes to the Selected Channel regardless of the last transmission.

I can't answer the Bridgecomm info, but can answer on other devices. 1 - If the unit is advertised 450-470 it should allow programming anyplace in that band. Some repeaters need to have TX and RX in the close area. IE 462/467 works good but 451/456 may not. All about the tuning of the box. But yes you should be able to get a 450-470 repeater and get it on 462.467 2 - Lead time - That sometimes refers to how long before they can ship it. If they show it in stock it should ship soon. If it has a longer lead time they may stock a base model with no duplexer or something and need to get that in before shipping. 3 - Dont have one so no idea. I have found the LMR (Motorola, Kenwood, Vertex, ICOM to be solid units. I thought someone on the forum had one in the past. Do a search on the site.

I did a similar design in NY. All 3 repeaters were the same output, however all three used a different input PL. I called it a poor mans voting system. There are similar systems in public safety. Actually our SAR system started the same. Same TX/RX all over the area with different input PL tones. All TX was the same PL. Really need more info as said.

In 20+ years of GMRS we never had chatter of nets. It wasn't until the ham lite crown came over to GMRS. Remember GMRS used to be a service for a family and was never used in the ways it is now. Its not a bad thing just different than why I got into GMRS and many did in the early years. Been in public safety for 20+ years and have never heard a net on any public safety system either. It may happen but in the NE you wont hear it unless you scan the ham bands. I guess I look at the linking thing as a change also to GMRS thats not always good. HAM did alot of this and I know of repeaters that are now usesless as all you hear is ragchewing all day from half way across the US. Kinda killed some repeaters for local use.

From Post here - HERE @Flameout said - "The cablelowering it and all of a sudden I could pick up the repeater. I just had lots of noise, especially compared to the mag mount Nagoya about 3' off the ground. I really wouldn't mind buying another antenna if I knew it would work. Too bad there isn't a store that rents them is 50' of ABR Industries RG 8/U and the SWR is great (but then again, it is also great using a dummy load) I had the antenna up about 20' but experimenting one day, I was" @WROZ250 gave you some good info. For a base radio I'd use the best you can find. You said you are using 50'. Do you really need that much cable ? I would use the least amount as possible. I'll be honest I would not even entertain 50' of LMR myself but know not everyone can afford LDF cable. I would say if you can get down to 25' of cable you may find a much better experience. I will also suggest watching ebay for LDF. I have seen 50' chunks for around $100. You need to search and it may take some time but LDF is online and can be had reasonable.

Guys lets move this to another thread ? Think its a good discussion.

The ICOM 4008 base was the design of the soldier inter-comm for the US Army. We sold many of those when I was at a ICOM shop.

Nope. Sorry Im not a fan of nets. They should be on Ham radio in my opinion. A national net just ties up repeaters when no one is listening to them.

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.