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If the tower has available space for their shared antennas, your mobile duplexer would become a door stop as it wouldn't be used at all.

I knew without ever having met Randy that he was a practicing attorney, as his was one of the most cogent and articulate private filings I've ever read, as were all of his responses. In person he is a very warm and caring little fellow maybe a dozen years older than myself, and his wife is likewise a very charming lady. She certainly wasn't shy about asking me after the meeting if I'd be willing to provide help at the "2016 Tour de Farms" on June 25th and 26th! This is an annual two day bike ride for MS. Since it's such a worthy cause I will volunteer even though I live in Northwest Indiana, and have to navigate through downtown Chicago's traffic each way! People sometimes ask me how long such a drive might be. I reply "Anywhere from forty-five minutes to four hours depending on the traffic!

You must have run into a bad lot. We currently have 382 MD-380s here on the Hoosier DMR Network, and not a single bad one in the lot thus far. Okay, the first one I bought had the speaker blow in the first week, but a speaker replacement by the company I bought from got that sorted quickly. All of ours came from him as he's a very active ham operator himself and his company is in Russiaville, IN... I currently own and use an MD-380, two CS800 (one base, the other mobile) and an XPR7550 (eXpensive Personal Radio)

The "members of your family" do not have to share your residence.

Night before last I drove to the far north side of Chicago to the town of Glenview, IL to attend the bi-monthly meeting of the NSEA (North Shore Emergency Association), a GMRS organization that was founded in 1966 (that's 50 years!) by P. Randal Knowles, a practicing attorney who is still very much active today. He has long been a champion for GMRS and has authored many cogent and factual submissions to the FCC's various NPRM's that threaten GMRS licensees. I invite interested parties to read them closely at this link: http://www.nsea.com/fcc/WHAT'S%20COOKING.htm I have to add that I was very impressed with the professionalism of NSEA and hope to visit with them as often as possible. They have graciously offered to assist me in my attempt to promote such an association of GMRS licensees here in Northwest Indiana. I also met Marc Drazin who owns the two repeaters that were until last February located at the top of the Hancock building. He told me that he hopes to have them both back on the air within the next few months. The antennas are not located in the gallery, but are in fact on the roof.

May I inquire what the tower rent is? So far I've not had any luck finding a tower space around Northwest Indiana.

Oh, how very nice. I wish I had a nice spot like that on a tower that I could afford!

You are quite correct. I should know better about Part 97. In fact I do know better. Must be my alzheimer's kicking in again...

I have that exact antenna installed on my roof for my repeater. You can see it in the right picture below on the left side (closest to the front of the house). I installed 60' of 1/2" Heliax feedline to allow for future relocation to a taller building. There is a 12' copper ground rod driven into the ground near the service entrance in my front office. All feedlines from the antennas are terminated there into MFJ-270 lightning surge protectors mounted on a 12"x12" copper plate. This plate is bonded to the ground rod with solid copper wire. The entire assembly will be mounted in a weatherproof box similar to what you are planning to use. I have a Bridgecom BCR-40U repeater currently in use and am still in the process of tweaking the antenna system and transmit power to maximize receiving range and lower desense of the receiver's front end. http://puu.sh/nD77M.jpg

I am quite fully aware of the discussion at RR.com since I'm one of the participants. What particularly disturbs me at the moment though is the total silence from the nice folks at Bridgecom. They have always been very quick and responsive over the past few months, but now that I've asked a direct question and requested a written reply... ...total silence. What concerns me particularly is that they are advertising the BCR-40U as a commercial, amateur, and GMRS repeater. This give the appearance of "false advertising" since the official certification from the FCC stipulates only Part 90 compliance. Which means of course no Part 97 for ham use, and no Part 95(a) for GMRS use. I have two Ritron RRA-452 repeaters here in my shop that are both Part 90 and 95(a) certified, so I have ample evidence as to what the certification for the BCR-40U should look like, and it doesn't!

Rich, I was somewhat concerned that my new Bridgecom BCR-40U repeater only has a Part 95 tag on the rear of the cabinet. So I called the owner and spoke with him about my concern. He explained to me that when applying for certification, if one specifically request Part 90 certification, when granted it automatically carries additional certifications that do not have to be enumerated on the sticker. See: https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/EquipmentRulesList.cfm and scan through all the Parts for the class "TNB" Portables such as the BaoFeng UV-5R (all variants) that are Part 90 certified are listed as TNF type and carry similar concurrent and automatic certifications.

Height is very critical. W9CTO has a UHF DMR repeater in Gary, Indiana that has a solid 40 mile radius, but then his transmitting antenna it 480' off the side of his host's tower, with the receive antenna near the top at 520'. Input power at the duplexer port is set at 50 watts. His 2m and 220MHz repeaters are about the same height and get closer to 60 mile radius, but VHF propagates just a bit further than UHF.

My call is sufficient enough of a tongue-twister not to bother with phonetics... W Q W U 6 2 6 I have had a few folks ask me to say It slowly, because at my normal speed it sounds like WQW626. The bloody W and U soft of elide together!

The downside to the Motorola radios is that the 'expensive' model is 1.5 watts, and the other one is only 1.0 watts...

Irene's and Sandy's winds surely must have far exceeded the wind-loading design for those fiberglass antennas...

Well a simplex repeater is nothing more than a single radio with a "parrot" type controller. AFAIK, it is legal. A real repeater of course requires a receiver, a transmitter, a controller and a duplexer. No additional license is required for either method.

Sure! A $3000 spectrum analyzer with tracking generator and a VSWR bridge...

Some of us are licensed both as hams and GMRS operators. I try to be friendly and helpful to everyone. Welcome, and remember that the only stupid question is the one not asked! I do know what you mean though, I'm a member of a Motorola User's forum where the site owner and moderators are not at all "friendly" and welcoming...

Google can be your best friend. Go here to find information on your local ham club and license testing: http://www.kl7kc.com/

Unfortunately no. Your radio has 36 fixed frequencies and is not programmable at all, much less for repeater offsets.

Please try to put all your questions in one post... Regarding this question, see my previous reply with photos. The Laird mono-band antenna is excellent, once cut to frequency per the chart supplied. The Kenwood radios require programming software and cable. There are some USB/radio cables available but be certain to buy only the ones with a genuine FDTI chip. The clones will not work. The software is available free from a source on-line in the United Kingdom*, but will require an older computer to use. I keep a WinXP machine around for just this reason. * https://hamfiles.co.uk/index.php?page=start

I have two of those. One is still new in the box. The other was tested for several weeks. Honestly, they are just plain junk.

Mobile to mobile with radios such as the Kenwood TK-840-1 or TK880-1 would be around 10 to 15 miles depending on terrain and type of antenna used. These are the antennas I currently have on my car. The one on the left is a Diamond dual-band antenna on a fold-into-trunk mount. The one on the right is the new Laird UHF 5/8 over 5/8 antenna for the CS800 DMR radio. I will be adding a third antenna in the middle of the trunk for the TK-880 GMRS radio. http://puu.sh/nSiqF.jpg

You don't need to invest all that much into GMRS radios. Here for example is a Kenwood TK880-1 UHF radio I bought on eBay for $49.00 a few months ago. As you can see I have it programmed with the WQWU626 repeater (mine, which is now named "Hammond675" instead of my GMRS license. I'll be reprograming it in the near future and will update the "name" at the same time. If you decide to buy "gently used" always ask here first for advice! For example this model was also produced as -2, -3, and -4 versions, each of which covers a different part of the 70cm band. Only the -1 like I have can tune down to GMRS frequencies! You only need one radio per vehicle. The receiver and transmitter are in the same 'box' and may be programmed for simplex (same frequency) or for repeater (different frequency for transmit and receive). Repeaters are usually something someone else owns and makes available, as they can be quite expensive to buy and maintain. On the other hand, I'm in the process of building a "Portable Repeater" that I plan to sell that will allow the new owner to take it into the field, set it up at a base camp, and extend their radio operations for a 10 mile radius at least. http://puu.sh/nRqer.jpg

Look under the glove box on the right. See the silver colored box? That is the main radio for the left hand control head. The black box with the orange sticker is the main radio for the right hand control head. The left side is a Connect Systems CS800 UHF DMR radio. I currently have the 42 DMR repeaters of the Hoosier DMR network and another 21 DMR repeaters from the other two DMR networks in Indiana, as well as western Ohio, southern Michigan, eastern Illinois, and Kentucky programmed in, as well as all FRS/GMRS frequencies in a separate zone. This radio has three power levels: 5w, 20w, and 45w. The right side is a TYT TH-7800 amateur dual-band, dual-receive radio. Like the CS800, it has three power levels: 4w, 15w, and 40w. The antennas are a Diamond dual-band amateur antenna on a now-discontinued Diamond "fold-over" mount screwed to the trunk lip. What makes it nice is that I can pop open the trunk and fold the entire mount and antenna into the trunk to completely hide the antenna. That makes going through a car wash really easy! The new DMR radio is connected to a Laird 5/8 over 5/8 mono-band antenna cut for GMRS frequencies. It is mounted on an NMO trunk edge mount on the right side of the car. Unfortunately, I'll have to unscrew the antenna and install a NMO 'cap' whenever going through a car wash.