SteveShannon

I don’t have a UV9G so I cannot provide step by step instructions, but I can provide the basics: 1. Tune to the correct channel. There are a limited number of repeater channels and they are pre-programmed into the UV9G. 2. Set that channel’s squelch type to “Tone” rather than “Tone Squelch” which is commonly shown as TSQL. 3. Set the transmit tone to match the UPLINK tone the repeater requires. 4. Do not set program a receive tone, at least at first. That and step #2 will leave your receiver accessible to any transmissions. That’s it. Your instruction manual should have step by step instructions for each of the above steps. Welcome to the forums! Best wishes!

Literally books have been written about this exact subject. The gold standard is a book that Motorola put together and which is found on the BLM site. Here it is: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/Lands_ROW_Motorola_R56_2005_manual.pdf But for most of us this next article is more easily understandable and do-able: https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf Also, if you’re a ham and a member of ARRL there’s an excellent (albeit somewhat technical) article in the latest QST magazine by an engineer whose brother started lightning protection company Polyphasor. I cannot link to it, but it does a great job of explaining why timing is everything and why everything must be grounded to a single ground at some point to prevent damaging voltage differentials.

It’s certainly worth trying. Flagpoles like this are one way hams get around HOA rules. I like the fact that it doesn’t require a couple yards of concrete like a self supporting truss type tower does. I might try one. I get occasional 10% off coupons from Home Depot too.

Both of the above methods require soldering the center conductor but at least the M&P literature discusses that the variability of soldering was something that affected SWR and that their evolution series of connectors is intended to minimize that by making the amount of solder more consistent.

I agree. I must have been feeling churlish the other day. The document is an excellent and concise reference to the regulations. I apologize for not being more positive.

But maybe a crimper and the whole preparation kit just isn’t necessary. I really kind of like the clamp style of connector that @WRCQ487 linked in his post above. I actually purchased some similarly installed PL-259 connectors based on advice from one of the other members here and they look good. As a refresher here is a similar N connector from Messi and Paoloni (same video as linked above)

That’s a great crimper set which appears to include a lot of extra dies, including PowerPole dies. It doesn’t include the handy little cable prep tool that the Times-Microwave tool has, but like @Gortex2 said that’s more useful if you’re going into production.

If you want the genuine one endorsed by TM, $456: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/tmv-tk-400ez But Amazon has kits starting at $48: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BBQQ7TQZ/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B0BBQQ7TQZ&pd_rd_w=Gjiv6&content-id=amzn1.sym.3309c9d3-bf37-499a-888c-9ce693c3483f&pf_rd_p=3309c9d3-bf37-499a-888c-9ce693c3483f&pf_rd_r=CF3AV5C5C0YQ273T4Q68&pd_rd_wg=5yXv9&pd_rd_r=44e711e0-584c-4851-800d-6614b41cd816&s=hi&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExOVhMMkVKWDg5NDlOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNzQ1NDYxNU5XN0U5N0RYU1cwJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTEwMTk2MTUxMFZXOTRMMUdBQjlBJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsX3RoZW1hdGljJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1 I have no experience with either and I am not endorsing either. For myself I plan to just buy the crimp dies to fit the crimper handle I have.

Think about that a little bit. You would have to transmit on one frequency to the handheld and the mobile would have to transmit on the repeater frequency. Then, the repeater would transmit any response back to your mobile. How would you handle that? Do yo intend the mobile to transmit to the repeater and the repeater to respond to the handheld side of the relay? In that instance it would be immediately retransmitted back to the repeater, causing problems. Or, do you expect the mobile side of the relay to receive the repeater transmission and then relay it to the transmitter in the handheld side of the relay. That would require two "relay systems", right? And you certainly couldn't build this to be full duplex. What you propose can be done. Professional radios in EMS vehicles sometimes provide a relay function to nearby handhelds, but it's not likely it can be easily done for cheap.

Technically and very generically, yes. You would connect both radios to the same antenna through the duplexer and to each other through a repeater controller. The repeater controller doesn’t care as long as it gets the signals it needs. But you may discover that you have wasted your money. You might find that your receiver desenses or becomes deaf to RF whenever the transmitter is transmitting.

You’ve obviously gone to a lot of effort. I commend you for that. Personally, though, I just refer to the actual regulations here: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95 Or for just GMRS: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95#subpart-E

I’ve done it also. You’re right; it feels odd.

Have you clicked on “report” to report your post so Rich sees the information? I don’t think he notices when he’s tagged.

I knew nothing about it other than that it was the highest power advertised crap imported radio directly ordered from China. Just a couple posts later I pointed out that I wasn’t recommending it. My post was intended to be a humorous response to an unrealistic question. I’m sorry you ordered it.

Here’s a list of the repeaters listed here:

I have a plum tree that’s neither tall nor particularly large. It’s probably only 17 feet to the highest leaves. I wouldn’t put an antenna in it, but if I did I would expect some attenuation. I have no idea the dB amount but it would be absolutely miserable to have to get up in the tree to remove it. Not only that but for UHF you want the shortest feed line possible. Instead I would put an antenna on my house.

No, not for GMRS. There are 70 cm and 2 m repeaters but not GMRS.

The only GMRS repeaters that I know of in Montana are in Billings and maybe one up in the Flathead.

The MyGMRS forum is free, unless you want to become a premium member which is $50/year. If the club has a private forum I didn’t find it. I would recommend asking what the benefits are for a club prior to joining. I haven’t always followed my own advice.

Look at the list of members of the club and write to the owner. But $30/year x 7 members doesn’t begin to cover the cost of four repeaters. I’m not sure what you expected.

If they're touching, an ohmmeter will show continuity between the shield and center conductor. But once you straighten out the coax the short might no longer exist. If your installation puts the coax in danger of getting bent consider using a right angle coax adaptor:

Hi Dutch, Welcome! I’m from Butte, so nearer to you than most on the list. I bought a couple Radioddity DB20G mobile radios. They’re probably about 17 watts and type certified for GMRS, plus they are affordable at less than $100 each. Also they’re very small. They’d make great pack radios. They’re not fancy, but they seem to work just fine. I have a coupon for $15 off if you or anyone else wants it. I get something for sharing it also. Hopefully it’s not expired. I should probably say affiliate link below but Randy does it much better: http://portal.referralcandy.com/5VJR4T3/share_redirect?location=reminder_email&message_id=1104859301&type=referral_link_email_click

Maybe. Some coax cables have dielectric that will allow the center conductor to contact the shield. If that happened you’ll probably need to cut the bad spot out and reterminate.

Unfortunately, not all radios have all digital codes. DPL 246 is not standard to Motorola. This page shows some others.: https://www.repeater-builder.com/tech-info/pl+dpl/pl+dpl.html

Motorola called CTCSS PL, for Private Line (their marketing term) even though it doesn’t truly provide “privacy” in the sense of preventing being overheard. Thus, the digital ones were called DPL. The digital codes can also be inverted. When entering in Chirp you could see NN or NI or IN or II meaning uplink and downlink codes are “Normal, Normal”, “Normal, Inverted”, “Inverted, Normal”, and finally both inverted. There are a number of terms for these, but don’t let that fool you. Many manufacturers even provide a simple number to the tone, but they are not standardized. My Garmin says tone #7 is 82.5, which Motorola calls PL #6. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on them: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Tone-Coded_Squelch_System As Marc pointed out, all of the CTCSS tones are expressed in terms of Hz with a single decimal value. DCS are always whole numbers and sometimes people include some letters.