WRUE538

Oddly, nobody's come out with a base charger for the GM-30 or GM-15 pro, other than the 6 unit charger offered by Radioddty. I have grown very fond of the GM15's, as I'm getting up to 28 mile range to my repeater. I needed a way to stand radio upright and scan while charging. I took an old Baofeng low front style base (contacts on square base aren't high enough) and removed the 2 inside alignment tabs. Inside, swapped the 2 contact pins (you need to remove 2 screws, run wires through the 2 slots in the PC board to reach opposing sides). The charging values are identical. The polarity only needs swapped. Works perfectly. Hope someone can use this info.

I believe they are nearly identical radios. I like the color choice and antenna better on the Baofeng, and it's a better point. The 2 pack comes with extra whip antennas too which are actually decent antennas. I don't mind spending more for a better radio, but I think they're hard to beat. Hopefully they'll both be added to CHIRP soon.

You'll hear differing views on repeaters. "Made for HD use" used Motorola's, don't waste money on a cheap setup, etc. Initially, I hoped I could use 2 KT-8900's for light duty with a homemade jumper. Naysayers were correct. They work crossband decently, not well in band. I'm at 6800' with optimal conditions. Mostly reaching areas 500' lower. I only needed 28' of LMR400 to the antenna, $100 Harvest 5/8 wave. $125 50w duplexer. The key, I believe besides short high quality coax was fine tuning the duplexer with a nanoVNA. You not only want the lowest notch possible, but also ensure you aren't pulling the passing frequencies down. Bottom line, I have VERY clean transmission using a stock Baofeng GM-15pro in a car 20+ miles out. Which is only 4.7w. I haven't really tested further distance yet. Obviously my Nagoya 771G antenna would do even better, or a mobile unit far better. It's a shame to use the KG-1000G's only as a repeater, as they are nice radios. But they are amazing for my use. They stay very cool in continuous use. The generic China 50w repeater is great, once dialed in. The threads are a little touchy but attention to detail makes all the difference. I'm probably most impressed with the Baofeng GMRS radios. Same as the GM30 radioddty but I like these better. Was sure others would want to know about a setup that actually worked well. According to propagation software I ran and plugged in the values, a good mobile should get me out around 75 miles in good line of sight areas. We'll see as we experiment. But thus far, this setup has worked excellent for me.

Greatly appreciated input guys. I've learned a lot. LMR400 not a good choice if using a Single input/receive. I'd read ? at least 3 meters spread was sufficient. Apparently not the case. As marcspaz has witnessed. The Wouxuns come with a 25' pairing cable. I'm guessing using some of that distance also would help with desense, according to Randy (notarubicon) I love his common sense approach and "some" of his humor. Leaning towards a Fumei 50W dup, and taking the time to tune well. I've heard nothing but good about that one, nothing but bad about the 30w version. Currently building hamo cans w/Wouxun KG-XS20G. We'll probably have repeater issues thought thru before winter. Thanks again!

70cm was simply the closest chart I could find to 462-470 to find cable loss. According to anything I could find, LMR400 had the least loss. It's much less flexible (roughly .400") but more suitable for our rough sunlight than RG142. I looked for a better 50w solution than twin Wouxons. I only found 1 used Motorola unit around $350 which is an old end of life product. Yes, I'm around 6800' https://www.data-alliance.net/blog/lmr400-coax-specifications-characteristics-lowest-signal-loss-in-its-class/

No commercial rent problem, already have the high ground and facility. Another 20' LM400 w/ connectors (will already need one) is $65, $49 for a Fong kit. Also less 2 jumpers to duplexer should be cheaper? I'll certainly look into the repeater being cheaper. I know there's used Motorola's in racks around but not sure about 70cm bandwidth. Thank you for your reply

I'm an old Navy METCAL tech, YouTube expert with zero GMRS knowledge. I've researched Dr. Fong antennas, Fumei 50w duplexer, notch duplexer tuning, using NANO vnaH4, etc. Building a 50w repeater using 2 Wouxun KG1000's. I can locate 2 vertical antennas 20' apart on a conex container. My question is why would I rather even want a duplexer with no loss other than good cables and gain from antennas? Thanks from Pryor, Colorado