Repeater Options for New Club

[mbne08]

Hey Guys, 

I am part of a new group of guys that is forming in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma GMRS Club. you can find us here : http://okgmrs.club. We are looking into setting up a mesh of GMRS repeaters through out our state and linking into the MYGMRS Network. I was wondering What equipment y'all are using for your Repeaters, Antenna's, Coax, etc.

 

And how you linked them up to the MYGMRS network, also interested in creating a HUB node for the GMRS network that all of our remote sites can connect to and effectively cover the entire area. Also any tips or tricks on Antenna Access would be highly advantageous, we don't have many mountains around us so it takes a few more repeaters to cover a decent base area. 

 

 

 

 

[WRAK968]

There are going to be so many opinions here, unfortunately, each site has different requirements and what may work well for one site may not be so good for another.

For me, I run two Motorola GR1225 repeaters. The nice part is that these repeaters are plug and play ready for network interfacing, so if you aren't too good with building custom connectors or soldering, this may be a better option. The 1225 is 100% continuous as long as you run it on low power (25W) which is reasonable enough. (Personally I have seen little difference in range between 25W and 45W.) Purchasing a Rim-Lite with the 16 pin motorola plug, you just plug in to the back of the radio, plug into the pi, adjust your audio in/out and your all set.

 

You'll definitely want a good BP/BR duplexer. I started off with a flat pack but after switching, I cant see myself using flatpacks outside of mobile repeaters ever again

For feedline, I use LMR600. I live in a salt air environment being less than a mile from the ocean and bay and never had issues. Others have said they had issues with water getting into the feedline and corroding the jacket and core however I believe this is because those persons were using junk LMR. I go to https://mpddigital.us/ for mine, nice part is they have a lifetime warranty, so if anything happens to the coax short of a lightning strike, they will repair it without question. If you are building it in a high RF area or a very long run of coax, you may want to consider 1/2" -1" heliax.

For an antenna, I use a Comet CA-712EFC which is a high gain omni-directional antenna. It seems to work fine for me.

[Extreme]

Nice... 

 

I'm considering approaching a local repeater owner about linking to the GMRS Network.  I've looked at the "Linking Bundle" but that's as far as I've taken it.  I'd like to be a lot more informed about the requirements, benefits, cost, etc. before I approach him, including information I need from him about his equipment, etc. that I'll need.

 

I know I'll need to know his repeater setup, which make/model radios, etc.  What else?

 

He's also working on adding another mountain-top repeater in the area so maybe that would be a good time to consider linking.

 

I'm also totally unclear on how to use the network.  I see it's required to have 'access' to a linked repeater but not sure what that entails.. do I have to be within radio range of the linked repeater, i.e. in Las Vegas to access the linked LV repeater?

 

Thanks.