gortex2

Not sure what kind of radio you showed Steve, but here are repeater settings for my stuff - GR1225 Calls it Hang Time MTR2000 Calls it Drop out Delay Icom Calls it Hang Time I dont have my Quantar or GTR8000 software on my home PC so can't show those.

You should also look at some radio propagation programs. I live in rural area. I have a DB408 on my house 40' in the air which is on a hill. 14 miles away I cannot talk to the repeater with a mobile at all. I loose the house about 6-8 miles away. My area isn't perfectly flat its rolling hills. My APRS barely makes it 14 miles on VHF with a gain antenna to a mobile 5/8 wave antenna. Yes some guys talk about 50-100 miles on a repeater but most are in a high location with nothing in between you and the repeater (LOS). If you can stand on your house and see the other house you will be good but I think 20 miles is stretching's it on GMRS for simplex operations. YMMV.

Normally in multiple repeaters you use a combiner on TX and a multicoupler on RX. The issue is the GMRS repeaters are pretty close and it takes a good combiner to make it work right. I have our SAR repeater (453.xxx) and a GMRS repeater in my combiner with 3 repeaters using a receive multicoupler. The 3rd SAR repeater uses its own TX antenna.

That also depends on if the repeater has the internal duplxer or internal. Mine is internal and the TX RX Port is the TX RX Port. The manual shows the modification. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/867444/Icom-Ic-Fr3000-Series.html?page=24#manual

Maybe. My repeaters are closed. I originally did it to try to eliminate those users as most are using a CCR. While some may still key it normally doesn't open my base and doesn't bother me as much as hearing the hang with no traffic.

I have my hang time set to 0 on all my repeaters except 1. The 1 repeater is set for 2 seconds hang time but no PL on the tail. Hopefully this year I can swap that repeater out also so none of them have any hang time. No need for it. In the old days with tubes you wanted the repeater to stay on the air in between transmissions. No need for it any longer. For SAR all my repeaters have 2 second hang time but no PL also.

Under the repeater you want to use should be a "request" button if it requires permission. Thats on the main mygmrs page.

Id go with the Kenwood. Will work much better than the ICOM modified radio as its built for the frequencies you want.

I laugh at all the complaints on here about loosing linking. If that's the only reason you use GMRS you need another hobby. As has been said many times over and over GMRS was never intended to be a social gathering place. It was meant for local communications for families and friends. All linking has done is ruin this in many areas. Use GMRS for what it was intended and its fine. I operate 6+ repeaters. I've never needed nor wanted any linking. Each one is for a purpose. If I need to chat with someone 100 miles away I pick up the cell phone. Personally I hope this is the start by the FCC to do something. Maybe they will, maybe they wont. But if those that are linking decide they dont want to deal with it and dropped there links its up to them as the owners of the equipment. To many folks get on hear and complain about the way a repeater works, covers or operates. There is also the expectation that repeaters are up for you and your family. If you didn't purchase it, install and maintain it then you need to rethink.

Sounds about common to me. What kind antenna system are you using on the RT97 ? Also what radios are you using ? Are they programmed to use the repeater ?

Since REACT no and that was all on CB. Never used GMRS for anything like that.

Make sure the jacket can handle being in water. Unless you use steel threaded conduit and seal connections you will most likely get water in it. We use Rigid at tower sites to eliminate this and still can get some water in it. I have helped a few SAR users with small control stations where we actually used PEX pipe in a short distance and worked well.

GMRS wasn't intended for what you are looking for. If I heard a call I'd change channel or not answer.

These are theo nly frequencies your license covers https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs

Are all your emplyees getting there GMRS licence ? While GMRS is valid for business use ever emplyee must have a license....

Well to start is there even a local repeater to you ? And if so do you have permission to use or is it an open repeater ?

We ran a NMO mount in the hood on our old grass truck for 30 years. Was a rag top on an old military truck and the hood worked just fine.

What makes you think all repeaters have activity. If you listen to mine they are quiet 99% of the time. Unless the wife or parent want me it sits idle. Not all repeaters are put in for chatter. They are a tool.

I run all 6 of my repeaters in narrow band. As said a true built out repeater will not work better or worse than a wideband. I'm sure someone will jump on and give us data to prove different but thousands of systems are narrowband and work just fine. All our SAR stuff went from wideband to narrow and did not loose coverage that was noticable to the end user. Anyway yes most GMRS is wideband but there are narrowband repeates out there.

Your best bet is to drop a NMO mount center of the roof. One hole. Throw a UHF 1/4 wave on it and enjoy scanning your DPS stuff and use it for GMRS. Simple effective and cheap.

When installing an NMO you want the outside ring the same height or a bit lower than the center. On a standard mount thats how it should be. With a 3/8" style mount you want the center slightly above the brass ring.

In all my years of LMR work Hardline is preferred. The only time I've used LMR600 is when we had to pull some thru a conduit between two buildings. LMR400 all the time in the control station environment. Even my house has LD4-50A run to my antenna's. In my work environment we use up to 1 7/8" hardline. Connectors for hardline can cost more than your radio and antenna system combined....

Have used GMRS for over 3 decades. Alwasy used as a family communications system. Few years back started using it for some off road events. Now its either GMRS or CB for all the off road events I go to. Still use it primarily for private communications. Not to sound rude but if someone was on my repeater thant not my user I wont answer answer them and neither will my users. Thats my decision. In a disaster I doubt GMRs would be much use no matter how many claim it will be.

Why worry about it. If it works further than map shows thats a plus.

Way back when our county linked the RACES ham repeater to the StasteWide system (all RF days no internet) one had to use a different PL to activate the link. After x amount of time with no traffic local the link would drop. think it was 15 minutes back then. Maybe 30. The goal of the link was to give us outside area help on an event when needed but not to have daily qso on the channel. It worked great for years. Then they linked via internet and since its been non stop chatter from the other end of the state. So basically no one uses the repeater. Thats been my issue with the GMRS repeaters I have come across that are linked. I have no cares in the world about stuff 300 miles from where I am. In a disaster its different. But not for every day life. If you need long distance traffic use zello or something else to talk on. WE do the samei n the SAR world. We have multiple repeaters across an area but none are linked full time. If there is a need for an incident then they can be patched. If you want to listen to one or the other you go to your zello app and listen in. As said earlier resource allocation is more of the issue. On top of that is the limited amoutn of repeaters. I have been in areas where I can hear 3 repeaters and its all the same traffic as they are all linked. There is no reason for that. Pick one channel and link it. If you need more coverage build out that repeater site.