gortex2

Depending on the type of the duplexer it should work fine on 462.625 with no issues. I tune my "mobile duplexers" to the middle (650) and have all three frequencies in my GR1225 in my Motor home. That way when i get someplace I can change if there is interference on the channel.

I had some in storage. I can't get there until the weekend but will try to dig one out.

I know this topic comes up every couple of months. I have a group of friends who are radio guys. In the past we used MURs, then GMRS, and even some public safety stuff. Most of them are hams also but not all. Solution. Get a UHF Land Mobile frequency and do what we want on it. Yes coordination can be a pain, but most of the frequency coordinators can give you a good idea of frequency use in your area. I think all in all we spent around $500 but they got a license, do DMR and used the same repeater site they had for the GMRS stuff. Bonus was as guys want ot come online they no longer have to get a GMRS license. I know this isn't the goal here, but if your set on a DMR radio go this way. We still use multiple GMRS repeaters.

When i was in area in the spring at the NASCAR races I heard chatter on a few GMRS channels. For the October race only had my HT so didn't hear much. I have a .650 repeater in my Motor home when i am on track in Spring.

I would caution the use of LMR400 on the antenna cable. Lots of issues for folks with the foil covered braid.

Your address shows watervliet ny so I would start with the 2 local MSS Pittsfield and Wells. I believe both get over $75.00 an hour. Your not talking a cheap project as was stated above. Just a single repeater (depending on what you have) install could cost well over $1000. If you need equipment keep adding. Shops are in the business of making money as they should....

A bad antenna and coax can cause headaches for GMRS (or UHF in general). I have multiple repeater at tower sites that have great coverage but are installed properly with 1/2" or 7/8" heliax and a real base station antenna. I have removed one of them for a temp repeater in the past doing similar to what you are doing. Never have i gotten decent coverage. LMR400 as others said is not the best for this. I have found 1/2" andrews superflex has been good for a temp setup. I run it on a 25' mast with a DB404 antenna and get decent coverage.

So it really depends on the location and the subscribers being used. I actually have a low power GR1225 GMRS repeater in my motorhome. I hit the antenna at 5 watts. Being this is run on batteries for days while on the road I can't draw alot of power. When I use this system i am only using 4 watt portables, so if i can't talk in there is no reason to have the repeater transmitting 25 watts. Back when i worked at a MSS this was one of the ways we would balance radio systems in factories and buildings also. You could reuse the frequencies in an area as alot of times the channel would not make it outside of the building. Every repeater should be balanced. I tried to explain this to a local ham club who is a "i need 100 watts out" when all they have is HT's ......

UHF Motorola Maxtrac 16 Pin radios are all over now. The PA wasn't the worst of the bunch and the last 2 I picked up were under $50 each. Being GMRS is wide band and most folks can't use these for much else they make great GMRS repeaters. I have 4 set up in different area's and while none are used alot they all function and are easy to setup and build. MY last unit cost jsut under $300 for 2 MAXTRACS, a mobile duplexer and a power supply.

The ICOM F4TR was a LTR trunking radio from ICOM. Ironically I sold all of mine programmed on GMRS also to people. The cable is like $10 and you should be able to locate the software pretty easy although it is in DOS and will not run on most new computers. I programmed the buttons pretty simple on the ones i sold (scan, talk around and power level)

Are you looking ot change the website or the forums ? I think there is a real need for the website to be able to be updated with inaccurate info (old repeater sites). As for the forum I think its good. I'll be honest I come here for GMRS only. I go to RR for ham or commercial stuff. Keeping somewhat on a single topis is good and think there is good balance here.

Its a really slick mast kit. Sometime we only use a few poles and other times use all of them. For a fast deployment with not all the poles we don't even run guy ropes out and it works fine. We have a small VHF dipole antenna that is pretty light so it rarely moves the mast.

For hard line some radio shops will sell scrap (under 50') for a reasonable price. I have picked up 35-40' chunks for under $50.00. The smaller the shop the more likely they are to sell it.

How big of a mast are you looking to use ? Our SAR team purchased the mast here on ebay - http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTENNA-TRIPOD-29FT-ALUMINUM-PORTABLE-TOWER-MAST-KIT-NEW/361384099911?_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982&_trkparms=aid%3D888007%26algo%3DDISC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131227121020%26meid%3Dc8638571b9a64db4b78809ad1b1b3bc3%26pid%3D100009%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26sd%3D360908000786 It works awesome and is light enough to carry up a trail. As for cable I tried various options from RG213 to 1/2" superflex. When all said and done we had the best luck with RG142. The loss for 30' is not enough difference than the 1/4" superflex hard line and holds up much better. I liked the 1/2" and 1/4" hard line but after both were kinked in half on the first deployment i knew they wouldn't work.

It can be done but gets tricky with the frequencies we have to work with. I have 2 GMRS repeaters about 10 miles apart. Both TX on the same channel, but i do use different RX PL tones. On one end i do dump the RX audio into a gm300 on another channel and send it to the other site (utilize RICKS on both ends). This essentially lets me talk on both repeaters in a poor mans simulcast. I try not to use it often as there are some issues but its great to make a "call" to someone then we switch channels. The issue is if you are between both repeaters you will hear simulcast distortion, and really rough. I have played around with switching the TX on one of the sites, but the nice thing is I can hear someone calling where ever i am. I am lucky and have a 60' tower at one site so have plenty of seperation for the yagi. I also run filters on it, although its not the best. Remember we are talking within 1 MHz. Its not ideal but can be done. My next phase is actually siwtching out to a comparator and voting the audio.

As Steve pointed out you need a license for pretty much any frequency. As a Public Safety agency you need to pay for coordination fees. Expect to pay around $300+ to get a VHF pair coordinated. The other this that was mentioned was talk to a local radio dealer. When our team started out with radios we got free air time on a local LTR trunk system donated. We had to purchase our own radios but the shop gave us a great deal on some lease and rentals that where in poor shape. It got us thru until we could get repeater sites, frequencies and equipment. In another county we operate we actually found a school district that had a VHF repeater system. They allowed us to use the channel on off school hours. Being 95% of our calls where on weekends and night it worked great until we could get our own site.

Most SAR teams utilize VHF for this exact reason. Our SAR team assists with multiple trail runs thruout the year and VHF is the only way we can cover the terrain effectively. We have access to UHF, VHF and 800 and by far the best bang is VHF. Depending on the amount of territory a VHF repeater is a bit more involved to set up and use but will be easier once complete. We run on Public Safety frequencies (have about 12 channels licensed to us) which allows any one on our team use a radio. The issue we had with GMRS was people not wanting to pay for another item. We still use MURS randomly for close by stuff but rarely as we have a car-car channel. MURS will not allow repeaters but depending on distance may be ok for your adventures.

There are many ways to "extend" a system but all involve money and technological know how. There is voting systems that would allow for receive input to be better and simulcast but thats gets pretty expensive pretty quick. I have a similar issue in my area and solved it via the "poor" mans voter system. I use the same repeater pair on the second repeater, however the receive input PL is different. This way I can still hear both repeaters and if i can't get to one i switch channels and try the other. As long as someone is in range of both it will work well. Some LEO's in the state used a similar system with a North and South repeater but used the same transmit so if they forget to change "zones" they still hear dispatch. This is definately a user training issue but is probably the cheapest way to do what you want to do. I guess you could also install a tower tall enough to get into those canyons but i doubt the cost would benefit the advantages.

They do and I have tried. a couple got it when the fees dropped but thats it. A few have also went for there HAM ticket instead. I guess part of the issue is our VHF and UHF Public Safety repeaters work so well in addition to the P25 trunking system we use folks dont understand the benefit. In addition being all volunteer and buys all our gear ourselfs already costs a member upwards of $1000.00. I'll keep hinting to them all about it and hope someday more will jump on the boat. Until then I'll just keep installing repeaters until i run out of frequencies !

How do you get operators to spend the money on a licence. Our SAR team has had GMRS repeaters for almost 20 years and i struggle to get more than 4 of us to buy the license. I would love to use the channel more but dont want folks using it unlicensed. We have a mix mash of VHF and UHF public safety channels we use for normal operations but keep the GMRS for the chat channels. We actually handle comms for some large races and would love to use GMRS instead of our PS channels.

If there is a current repeater on that Frequency I would pick another pair. Even though you plan to use a different PL/DPL tone you still could cause interference to each other. If your area is using all channels available then you may talk to one of the repeater owners and see if he offers any other tones. MY repeaters have multi-pl controllers and I can allow certain tones for certain people. This is how I allow the "travel" tone yet dont have to listen to people chat away on my base radio. Although this eliminates the "noise" the repeater is still in use and cannot be used at that point. Pro and Cons to all situations. On the same topic if the repeaters are streatched out or coverage is weak co-channel may be able to be worked around. I have 2 low power repeaters about 20 miles apart. Neither one can hear each other so i use the same tones just for ease of changing channels.

This topic is an interesting one for the reason I operate multiple GMRS and Part 90 VHF and UHF repeaters for our regional SAR Teams. Sometimes something as this can also be a learning tool and educational. Many SAR teams have no clue about radios and buy what a "friend" tells them and its normally a CCR. On my team we have multiple members who have a GMRS license and one of my repeaters is hosted by the team. Team members with the license use this to chat when they want. The repeater is also at a large recreational area and is open to the public. Every radio our team owns has the channel in case of a civilian calling for an emergency. Being we operate on multiple formats in our area the repeater is quiet most of the time. I have found internally the repeater has actually been a good way to get folks to buy the GMRS license as a way to talk to the other members who use it. Lastly as others have said what the sense of having a repeater up with all the costs of a proper install at a tower site just to sit idle. I have invested thousands of dollars on the gear and hope it gets used. If i want privacy we I go to one of my P25 repeaters and run secure if its really important.

There is no speaker on the O3

I use MDC on all my repeaters and gear. Being I also have VHF public safety repeaters for Search and Rescue I used the same ID structure for all. Anyone on my team that also gets GMRS uses there ID also. Mine are all 4 digit now as we are migrating to P25 also so wanted to stay the same.

Haven't seen one of those in years. Used to have one with a HTX-202 from Radio Shack on it ! It was a solid little amp and was great to run in the vehicle with a mag mount and speaker mic.