New to the GMRS world.

[couger100101]

I'll be following this and similar conversations. I'm also in Maine, down in York County. Since the wind storm back in October, that knocked out the Internet and cellphones for a couple of days, I've been trying to talk my father and brother into getting into amateur radio so we can keep in touch during the next one. They don't have the time to study, and I found that GMRS was good for the family, so I've moved to pushing that agenda.

 

None of the repeaters on myGMRS for Southern Maine appear to be online these days. The channels are quiet and the fellow listed as owning the bulk of them hasn't responded to my inquiry. I do hear a morse code ID occasionally on 462.675, but I haven't caught it to record and translate it into a callsign I can lookup. I'd love to find out whose it is and ask to use it, as it seems to cover Sanford to Scarborough. In the meantime, I think I'm building my own.

 

I'm in Waterboro, Dad's in Limington and my brother in Poland. I think if I were to set up a repeater on a battery at the folks', we'd have the reach to cover the three houses and our commutes. I'm interested to see what you come up with, WRAV269. Good luck, and maybe we'll connect sometime when I'm in your neck of the woods again!

Yup, but we figured it out Bradley. 

[Elkhunter521]

Corey, hmm,Browning/ tram antennas are NOT junk! Using a Br450 tuned to gmrs freq with a ground plane kit to hit a repeater at 28 miles (garmin miles) with 3 watts (Btech gmrs v1] .

[berkinet]

Corey, hmm,Browning/ tram antennas are NOT junk! Using a Br450 tuned to gmrs freq with a ground plane kit to hit a repeater at 28 miles (garmin miles) with 3 watts (Btech gmrs v1] .

I can’t really comment on the specific antennas in question. But, what I can say is the measure of a good antenna is far more complex than the ability to reach a repeater with a good (full quieting) signal. Impedance and SWR at the desired frequency are important. But, even more important are the quality of materials and construction. Unfortunately, those last two attributes may not be immediately apparent. However, thanks to Murphy’s law, you will definitely observe them at the worst possible moment.

[Logan5]

Agreed, I also have no experience with said model of Browning antenna, but I love their Yagi's, All aluminum, simple single active element design, solid mast mount and wind survival in excess of 110mph. I though it was called stainless steel, because it would be stainless? lol

[coryb27]

Corey, hmm,Browning/ tram antennas are NOT junk! Using a Br450 tuned to gmrs freq with a ground plane kit to hit a repeater at 28 miles (garmin miles) with 3 watts (Btech gmrs v1] .

 

I was only speaking from experience, in no way am I trying to bash anybody's setup. The original poster asked for an opinion and I offered mine. I have 3 Tram/Browning omni sticks in the garage, all 3 are junk. If you connect them to a spectrum analyzer with a VSWR bridge to measure return loss and resonance in the GMRS spectrum you would see what I am talking about. Your analogy of how far you can talk with an HT connected to one is no true measure of its performance. Just for fun I connected my XPR HT to my DB-404 @ 30 feet and was able to work repeaters 35 to 45 miles away on just 2 watts of power, with coax and connector loss I figured less then 1W at the antenna. As an owner of several GMRS repeaters and a commercial UHF system I am speaking by real world experience. My best advice to anybody getting into this hobby is don't be cheap with the antenna or feed line as it is the number one factor excluding height that will effect your overall performance.

 

Corey

 

https://mwgmrs.com

[PastorGary]

Using a Laird 460-470   5.0 db  omni  base  antenna and 1/2 inch Andrew Hardline for nearly a decade. No issues ever.

 

 

https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/laird-technologies-fg4605-8029