SteveShannon

The Oklahoma GMRS Facebook group has 470 members and seems somewhat active. https://www.facebook.com/groups/338406913899977/?ref=share Also, Repeaterbook lists two GMRS repeaters in Tulsa: https://www.repeaterbook.com/gmrs/location_search.php?state_id=40&type=city&loc=Tulsa

Great point!

Congratulations! I think you’ll enjoy it. This thread by another forum user makes the Tram 1486 antenna sound good: It really depends on how you want to use your radios. If you only want to talk between work and your house, a directional antenna like a Yagi, on a mast at your house and pointed at your place of work might be just what you want. If you want to be able to travel in any direction around your house, you’ll want an omnidirectional antenna like the Tram. People even use magnetic mount vehicle antennas on steel pizza pans. Half the fun is figuring it all out.

When you use a transceiver at a fixed location to communicate to a mobile radio through a repeater, it is functioning as a control station. Please note that it “May also” be used to control the repeater. It’s not a requirement that a control station be able to fully control every function of the repeater and communicating through a repeater could be considered a level of control because you are causing the repeater to relay your transmissions. If you use that same transceiver to communicate directly to a mobile radio, it is functioning as a base station. The difference is in usage. Referring to a radio as a base station doesn’t prohibit it from being used to communicate through a repeater.

Be undepressed! I used the Advanced Search function and received 25 repeaters in Kentucky. You should be able to see what parameter I used from this screen shot. All I did was enter the name of the state. Only a few of them fit in the screen shot, but you can perform the same search. Only ten appear per page.

An overly technical wandering data dump like this does nothing to help the guy. Also, some jobs prohibit cell phones in order to minimize internet surfing, prevent photography, or control wifi devices. Although I’m curious what the situation is, the OP has no obligation to explain the reasons to me or you.

No. If you leave no tone set you’ll receive everything transmitted on that frequency. If you set a receive tone you’ll only hear things transmitted using that tone, but while you’re troubleshooting problems that’s not helpful.

I had to use the older version of the software on my Win7 computer. The update didn’t work. The duplexer doesn’t change the frequency of your signals if it’s not tuned correctly. You just don’t get enough filtering to prevent the very strong transmitter signal from entering the receiver section, so I wouldn’t classify it as interference.

I thought that was probably what that cylindrical socket was on the lower right of the panel. Let us know how the proof of concept works and what you might do differently on V2.0.

That looks like it would be very convenient. One reason mounting the panel on the end like that might not be popular is because that’s the end that gets beaten up if using the box as a portable power supply, but if you’re not moving it around that’s not a concern. How did you propose to connect the repeater to the power box? I would suggest Anderson Power Poles as a way to connect to the box.

Yes, both the Midland Mxt500 or the Wouxun KG1000 will work just fine with the KG905. Whether they can communicate over that distance is subject to a lot of different variables, like I mentioned earlier. Because I have no personal experience with base station antennas I cannot make a recommendation, but there are lots of threads here that discuss base station antennas. It sounds like you have two or more KG905 radios. If that’s true, have you tried them talking to each other to see what kind of range you get? Then, do some research to see what might exist for repeaters. I’ll post this and then go look at the repeater listing for San Antonio. Repeaters are usually set atop a hill or elsewhere with their antennas raised up where they can be “seen” from a wide area. If there’s a repeater in your area that you can reach from your workplace and from your home, that would possibly allow you to communicate without needing a base station or base station antenna. Of course that doesn’t mean you should not get a base station, but anything that makes communicating more reliable is a good thing. I’ll add whatever I find about repeaters here: It appears there’s a vibrant community of repeaters (at least five different repeaters) in your area. Here’s a website the community maintains: http://1510.node.gmrslive.com/supermon/ Best wishes as you learn about this.

You don’t say which model, but the Midland might work nearly as well as the Wouxun . It’s probably going to depend more on the base antenna and terrain and vegetation in those ten miles. Have you tried two handheld radios? Is there a repeater that you can use?

It sounds like you did everything right. It sounds like you’re transmitting on 467.700 MHz, with a transmit tone of 250.3 Hz, and no receiver tone. Try just monitoring on 462.700 with no receive tone for a long while to see if you can even hear the repeater. Once you are certain you can hear it, then try to transmit to it. If you cannot hear it, you’ll never know if you’re hitting it.

My state (Montana) publishes this interoperability guide for radio frequencies: https://media.dojmt.gov/wp-content/uploads/MA_Manual_2021_color_website.pdf Line A figures heavily in it.

The best advice I can give you is to download and use the free software: https://nanovna.com/?page_id=90

This guy looks at the characteristics of a duplexer using two different NanoVNAs in this video. In this next one he tunes a duplexer:

You’re best off tuning it for your transmission frequency. If that is strictly in the 467 range then tune to that. If it is divided between 467 and 462 then tuning to 465 works.

Here’s the sad tale copied and pasted to save a person a trip to Facebook: Hello Everyone... This is not a good-news post. Since we have not received the promised financial support (or further contact) from those that have pledged to us in the prior months, our trustees met last month and we had to make a very tough decision. BARN-R1 will be turning off for the last time in July. This was a heart-wrenching decision that was not made lightly. We just cannot afford the site costs, lack of support from our current users, and lack of effort by those who made promises to help us financially. The site is a key location as it's only one of three towers that covers both the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas without loss of signal from Point Reyes down to King City. We were grandfathered into the site from K-Comm (Howard Krawitz) to the now-current owners, K2 Towers, LLC. Howard and I met through a common friend back in 2008, and placed us up on Crystal Peak for a mere $85/month! He allowed us to put the antenna anywhere on the south tower, so as long as we weren't on someone elses side arm. So we chose the 120' level, hauled up a steel side arm, and placed our signal-winning 7.1 dB antenna on it. Our 1/2" 100' heliax hardline was donated to us then, along with its connectors and a few other cables needed to get into the compound building. Howard sadly passed in 2017, and his wife took over. Struggling to meet the demands of the wireless clients, she sold K-Comm to a company based on the east coast, and K2 Towers, LLC took over. They immediately assessed the current clients, raised rents, and now charged us $125/month. The new company also had strict requirements and expectations for their newly-aquired clients, and made it difficult to work with non-profit systems like us. Then Covid-19 hit, which caused us to spiral down financially. Our normal supporters couldn't float both the site as well as their own family during this time, so we had to let the bills pile up. This resulted in over $4,100 in backpay to date, and was the boulder that broke our back. We tried desperately to obtain financial help from the community, but it seems people would rather freeload than support (sadly). We've also offered to transfer the site to other existing groups that wanted to expand (including keeping the grandfathered rate in place vs the $450/mo current rate), but no one wanted it. We even went so far as to sell the entire system to anyone who would want it, but there just weren't any takers. So, by the end of July, 2022, we will be closing our R1 system down. We've been on-air since 2003 without any limitations, and are the longest-running open-use GMRS system to date. Our goal was to provide full coverage for both portable, mobile, and base station licensees without signal loss, and we did. We also exceeded the goal of providing our system for use by emergency organizations including The American Red Cross (ARC), Bay Area Emergency Radio (BAER), Blackberry REACT Chapter, San Jose CERT, and CalFire (CDF) during the Loma Fire. We've achieved so much, but now are fighting against a generation that lacks interest in this service with other users buiilding their own unregulated low-level system and cluttering the bandwaves in the bay areas with no coordination. It's time to step down and move onto other projects that don't cost us an arm/leg to operate. For those that have recently donated, your funds will still go directly to offset the rent backpay, and we thank you sincerely for your support during this time. There is a question that we've been getting asked constantly, and that is "if someone steps up and pays off the entire backpay, can R1 stay on the air?" Yes, absolutely! We would still pay the monthly rent, but K2 Towers, LLC is threatening to kick us out regardless if we don't pay the backpay in full. Despite the numerous emails and phone calls we've made to them to help them understand the economy struggle California still faces (as they live on the east coast), they seem to not care. So we are forced to shut down permanently. We want to thank each and every person and their families for your support, usage, and interest in BARN. We wouldn't be here without you. And while it will be a dead site without a full-coverage system for future users, you won't be forgotten. Thanks again for the 22+ years serving the Bay Areas! It was fun while it lasted! D. Ryan Seregow, WPUI299, N6BRN Founder/Owner John Bridgeman, WPYN438 Financial Trustee Laura Bridgeman, WPYN438 (WQMG760) Membership Trustee

Of course it’s a test. If there’s no reception whatsoever a person can rule out some things. It doesn’t test everything, but it helps rule out certain failure modes.

There are two different sets of credentials: those for the website and those for the forum. They don’t have to be the same, but frequently are. You must be logged in using the website credentials to use the repeater lookup. You must be logged into the forum to participate in the forum.

Good job troubleshooting! Thanks for letting us know.

The first test should be to see if you can receive anything. Did you try that? Although you say nothing has changed, it's obvious that something has changed that affects the radio. It's acting like the antenna is disconnected somewhere, causing high SWR and heating up the circuits. Since you say there's no visible physical damage, I would check for moisture damage. Test the antenna cable with a multimeter at the very least. You should see no continuity between the center conductor and the shield. You should see no or very low impedance between one end of the shield and the other. Same for the center conductor - continuity between ends. If you have another section of cable (and even another antenna) you could try it to see if the radio works with it. Again, check for reception before jumping right in and transmitting. If it cannot receive from a nearby handheld, there may be some hidden damage that transmitting would only exacerbate. Good luck!

How flexible/rigid does that top section seem, Marc? I bought a 40 foot Spiderbeam, which is great for portability, but the top section is so flexible that I would hesitate to use it for anything other than holding up a wire antenna. To support a small vertical antenna and keep it vertical, I would probably leave the top section telescoped down inside the next section.

Sounds like it’s pretty useful to road crews and construction people though. ?