n4gix

I use similar filters for HF on Field Day and Parks on the Air events. If I'm going to work 20m I put a 20m passband filter in-line and the other guys on different bands don't swamp my 20m reception. They average -40db rejection outside of the band they are designed for. They aren't inexpensive ($84/each), so the club has a single set of 1/each for every ham band. https://www.dunestar.com/product/single-band-bandpass-filters/

Odd then Marc that the founder of NSEA is the listed owner of three repeaters in northern Chicagoland, and none of them id themselves. He is also a licensed communications attorney who's frequently in contact with the local FCC field office.

Good grief! That is one awesome - but rather overpopulated - tower. I'm happy to have nothing that obscene anywhere near me!

As long as everyone using it is licensed and states their call sign clearly, there no reason it needs to be a "family only" repeater. The repeater itself doesn't need to 'id' itself.

Look for the NWI GMRS Zello channel. When authenticated by the moderators, all traffic is linked to the RF network of 8 repeaters in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Sioux Falls South Dakota. A weekly net is held every Sunday evening at 9pm EST, 8pm CST, etc.

Oh my! Was the unit still under warranty or do you have to eat the repair costs?

I used glue-filled heat shrink myself. My Comet CA-712EFC antenna has been up now for five years and still checks out just fine.

Put up a UHF Yagi as high as possible and pointed in the direction of the closest repeater and/or base station. I use a yagi here in NW Indiana to reach several repeaters on the north side of Chicago (about 43 airline miles) reliably.

Do you have any idea why the FT-857D caught fire? I have one installed in my Toyota Camry and that report of a fire now has me as nervous as a cat trapped on a front porch surrounded by rocking grannies!

With the limited bandwidth allocated to GMRS, and no repeater coordination at all, it would cause all sorts of grief. Analog and any form of digital simply cannot co-exist within the current 8 channel landscape.

Unfortunately I haven't found a source for the specific buttons to hold down while powering the radio on. The above information was found at this site: https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2019/03/how-to-unlock-tyt-dmr-radios.html

I think it wouldn't fly too well to force 1500+ repeater owners to replace their legacy Wideband FM repeaters with a shiny new DMR repeater, no matter the circumstances.

It also requires that one have a 'smart phone' they don't mind being dedicated to act as the control panel for the radio...

"KI5GXD. KI5GXD. this is N4GIX calling"

The usual practice is to call the other station first, then give your call sign. "WRAK523 this is WQWU626 calling."

I still have and use a Diamond dual-band antenna that has been exposed to 22 NW Indiana winters and is still working just fine. I also have a Laird UHF that's survived 13 NW Indiana winters so far. SWR on both antennas remains < 1.2:1 which I consider acceptable.

The main purpose of having up to 23 different tones is so that the repeater owner can offer "customers" their own tone pairs and thus not have to listen to other "customers." Of course this is mostly used by commercial repeater owners. It has no practical use for GMRS unless it's a totally closed repeater group.

If they have run P25, I've never heard it. The other repeater owners in the NWI GMRS network would be marching towards the owner of Grundy with torches and pitchforks!

I was fixing to say he was actually hearing "intermod." Even some of my professional radios suffer from intermod while near downtown Chicago.

Possibly you are hearing the Grundy 700 repeater as it has approximately 80 mile radius: https://mygmrs.com/view?id=529 It is located at 500' on the WBEZ tower using a 16-bay folded dipole (Andrew DB420), Hardline 1-5/8 (Andrew) and a Motorola Quantar HighPower, 50w out the 6-Cavity (RFS CP450-422).

You are right! AVA7-50 is not the same quality as LDF7-50... ...it is better!

I completely forgot about this post. The repeater was sold for the asking price and is now sitting on a mountain top tower in Oregon...

Commscope recommends this as a direct replacement for what you seek: Replaced By: AVA7-50 AVA7-50, HELIAX® Andrew Virtual Air™ Coaxial Cable, corrugated copper, 1-5/8 in, black PE jacket (Halogen free jacketing non-fire-retardant) https://www.commscope.com/catalog/cables/product_details.aspx?id=1309 It's certainly not inexpensive most places, but this company is selling it brand new for $3.95/ft That would be $888.75 + shipping. http://www.surplusserver.com/products/Antennas-Coax/246/Andrew_AVA7-50_Heliax_Coax_Cable.html

Ian, I have only reports from a few people who have ordered and received +5 MHz split, with the correct Rx/Tx frequencies programmed and tuned. I did point out to Retevis directly that there was absolutely no reason why they couldn't tune their repeater to use our convention of Tx low, Rx high. Since they never replied to me directly, I can only assume that from the reports I've read that Retevis at least took my comments to heart. It was from suggestions and comments made to them that they now offer 5 MHz split now. In any case, as soon as I can free up $400 I'm going to order one. If I have to put it on my bench and re-tune it with my service monitor, so be it...

2) repeater. I thought duplex repeaters were only for HAM licenses? I really hate the thought of that 90 sec transmission fiasco with using a simplex repeater, but what other duplexer unit can a GMRS licensee (me) use? Repeaters are permitted on eight channel pairs in the GMRS allocation. They have up to 50watt output, and their antennas must not be higher than 20' above their mounting structure (building, tower, etc.)... If you truly want something portable, you might consider the new Retevis RT-97 portable repeater. Despite some confusing language, they are in fact able to program them for the correct repeater +5MHz split, 467.xxx receive and 462.xxx transmit. A pair of hams in England* did a range test with the repeater running off a parked car's battery and using the antenna on the car. They easily got 7 miles range from their hand held radios. More range of course could be achieved by hoisting an antenna into a tree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZEAo_HkLv8 The RT-97 is not simply "two portables in a box" but instead is a properly designed transmitter and receiver in a custom aluminum housing providing very robust shielding between them. https://www.retevis.com/rt97-portable-repeater-power-amplifier-uhf?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9pKL_ffB5AIVhp-fCh2GQAfNEAQYASABEgIJwvD_BwE