SteveShannon

M&P makes good cable. They make about three different kinds for each type of cable, one with solid copper center conductor (Broadpro?), one with stranded copper center conductor (Ultraflex?), and one with copper clad aluminum center conductor (their lightweight “Airborne” coax.) On the M&P cables I have, the shielding consists of copper foil and copper braid, which should reduce the chances of intermodulation that people sometimes claim for cables that have aluminum foil and copper braid.

Although it’s not my preference, my friend with a Jackery 500 really likes his. He uses it with a 100 watt ham transceiver which draws 23 amps on xmit. They are convenient.

Is the other end still connected to the tv?

My assumption is that they’re just using it like a base station, transmitting and receiving in simplex on the 462 frequency.

When you have the TX and RX frequencies set the same, is the repeater disabled from repeating?

No, I would feel too guilty putting it up before I get the cabin main floor finished. Yesterday was a good day though. I made headway on the bathroom. I don’t see myself putting up the tower until next year sometime.

Good equipment, good planning, and Kenny has experience and understands the basics. He chose a good repeater, duplexer, and antenna. He used good quality coax. He used Amphenol connectors and he even tried to use all N connectors instead of PL259/SO239 connectors.

Absolutely! I would never argue against something that’s up and working! Ask Kenny if he would do anything differently.

I don’t feel like GMRS is lower than ham and I enjoy the people here.

I’m active in amateur rocketry and we use GMRS radios to keep track of each other when we’re recovering rockets. My GMRS radios are a Garmin Rhino 700, a couple of old Motorola FRS/GMRS handhelds, a couple Midland combo units, and one of the two DB20G radios that I have. My other one has been configured as a dual band ham radio. During the pandemic I started watching videos (too much) and I found those of Notarubicon enjoyable and interesting. Unlike some I enjoyed his dry humor. So I got my GMRS license. I had been planning to anyway, but never got around to it. That led to an awakened interest in radios in general which led me to get my ham license. I don’t really remember how I found this forum but I’ve enjoyed it. I’m not active on any ham radio forums. I haven’t even visited any other than a couple group.io pages specific to my radios. Radio is radio and I find it fascinating.

There’s no GMRS community (or GMRS repeaters) here (Butte, MT) but I’m active on 2 meter and 70 cm using a Radioddity DB20G. I am also active on HF using a Yaesu FTDX10 (160-6 meters @ 100 watts), with a short RG213 (HF has far less losses than UHF) running to my SWR/Wattmeter, then a six foot ABR400 jumper to a window pass-thru, which would really be bad in UHF). From the other side of the pass-thru is a 15 foot jumper to the 49:1 unun which is connected to my 66 foot wire which is 30 feet up on a Spiderbeam fiberglass mast. My BS and MS are in Engineering Science with an emphasis on controls, my PE (engineering license) is in electronic engineering but I worked on a section crew for Burlington Northern one summer.

I don’t have a repeater. I’m just a retired engineer and a ham.

https://www.polyphaser.com/2-ft-uhf-to-uhf-m-m-400-series-low-loss-cable-jumper?creative=&keyword=&matchtype=&network=x&device=m&gad=1&gbraid=0AAAAADuUXEAGe1sTFWw7lLUNDWSUXIcEz&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhL6pBhDjARIsAGx8D595HSFQtqWtHdumnNhUeir3UBZn6TIUWo0dQy9Ai3Wpm9FzVL1A7ocaAkCVEALw_wcB

Watch this to see the problem with 90° connectors (except silver plated amphenol ones).

Me

I’m going to go work on my cabin. I’ll check in later. I wouldn’t get too hung up on SWR until you have the cable losses figured out. A dummy load has a perfect SWR. Super lossy system will also result in a very low SWR because the reflected power is so low. So SWR in this case is meaningless. Power measurements at each transition is the real test.

Could be. Could also be the cable construction or too tight of a bend. But losing 30 watts in two feet is an extremely high loss. I would go buy a piece of real LMR400 with good connectors already installed at the very least.

No, possibly just a bad cable. You have 48 watts coming out of the radio. Two feet later you should still see 48 watts, unless it’s a type (what type is it?) that has super high attenuation.

None of the measurements you have provided indicate a problem with the duplexer, but they do indicate extremely high losses in the cables, especially for that length.

Although you told us the brand, you didn’t really say what the actual length and type of the cable, such as KMR400. I really like M&P cables which are made in Italy and ABR cables which are made in the USA and Times-Microwave by MPD which are also made in the USA.

I hope nothing I said made you change your mind.

Some switch-mode power supplies may, with the addition of a few components, be used to keep a battery fully charged with the radio connected to the battery.

A car’s electrical system puts out approximately 13.8 volts while the engine is running. The charging voltage can be somewhat higher, even up to 14+ volts. That drops to about 12.5 when the car is turned off. Mobile radios must be able to accept all of these different voltages, but they are usually optimized for 13.8 volts.

Since you know for sure the CTCSS frequency, push the Menu button and step through the menus until you get to menu 13, which is where you set CTCSS for transmitting. Step through the tones until you get to the right tone. Test it with one of your buddies. Then do the same thing for menu 11 which is CTCSS for receive. This video shows how to set the codes, but it also shows how to setup for a repeater. Just learn about the codes for now.

The problem is that many (most?) of the inexpensive radios have a few extra CTCSS codes. That’s true for both FRS and GMRS. That upsets the numbering. What brand of radios do they use? It sounds like you’re using simplex anyway and the UV5R does have the ability to scan for CTCSS so just do that. In the meantime leave the tone out on the receive side and you’ll still hear your colleagues.