RT97 Real World Output Power

[WRFP399]

Does anyone have an RT97 tuned for GMRS and an output meter?  I am curious as to what they actually output in terms of watts on high and low power. I know that they consume 28 watts on high power and 19 watts on low power. I know they are "rated" at 10 watts when on a 10mhz split and 5 watts on a 5mhz split...but that is just was Retevis claims.

I am curious for two reasons. One I just want to know. The second has to do with changing my antenna setup. Right now my backpackable repeater uses a N9TAX roll up SlimJim. It works well but I am going to try an Comet CA-72GF to see if giving it real collinear antenna will allow me to run low power and keep the same performance.  "Gain" should be around 3db from the N9TAX to the Comet from what I can tell.

Either way the antenna is already purchased and I am going to try it. I am just curious....

https://cometantenna.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CA-F72GF.pdf

 

 

[coopthink]

I didn't test low power; although I might do that tomorrow, but I recently bought a used RT-97 tuned for GMRS (462.550/467.550) and I got around 3.5 watts using the base antenna that came with the repeater. I didn't test with a dummy load because I didn't think I could key up the repeater. It's hard to find specs on the antenna that came with the repeater, but this is the package that I bought gently used on Ebay:

https://www.retevis.com/rt97-portable-gmrs-repeater-mobile-repeater#A9150CX1-C9196AX1-C9123AX1

So far, for my needs, the RT-97 works just fine and on a recent ski trip, I ran it in my vehicle with a mag mount antenna and was able to talk all over the mountain.

Also, I tested the antenna with my NanoVNA and have attached the SWR graph, which is not bad at all.

[coopthink]

I thought I would add to this thread that I went back and tested with a dummy load and it seems that I am getting 3.4-3.5 watts on both low and high settings, which is strange. I have reached out to Retevis and while they were quick to respond, I haven't gotten any useful info yet. I've seen folks actually getting 5 watts out from the RT97, so I think this unit definitely has a problem. I'll update the thread with anything I get back from Retevis.