Retevis RT97 GMRS Repeater with "mouse" ears

[JeremiahBarlow]

Hey, somewhat new to radios and repeater tuning.

After getting my GMRS approval, I purchased a simple repeater here:   https://www.retevis.com/rt97-portable-gmrs-repeater-mobile-repeater?utm_source=GA&utm_medium=AD_K&utm_campaign=RT97&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0umSBhDrARIsAH7FCoefvNzaDiFF1Wj9bfswXlGTClsKp-DKQBf_nJAnSMcuh8SqChgp-4YaAkc3EALw_wcB#A9150CX1-C9196AX1-C9123AX1

Then I mounted it on my brother's 25' Rohn tower and connected it all up,,,,but ...

I have to be within a 300 feet of the repeater to get it to receive any signal.   It transmits fine but has trouble receiving.   We are using Baofeng UV-9R and they are connecting with each other at farther distances than the repeater can receive.   It seems quite frustrating for common knowledge.   I need someone with more wisdom to help me out.

I believe one of the follow could be the issue:

• The antenna could be faulty .... (not likely because it was a good quality looking, however I haven't ruled that out yet)
• The cable ends may have issues (there again, the repeater can transmit well if I am standing next to it and someone else is at a distance talking to me on a cell phone, they can hear but when they transmit back nothing comes in.)
• The duplexer built into this little repeater may be faulty
• The duplexer may be off tune (I don't yet have the tools to tune it)
• The final issues is, I may have purchased the wrong repeater!    Don't laugh at me, this was my first repeater and I was trying to go cheap.  I am learning the cheap often cost more in time and effort and money! 

[WRFP399]

The RT97 does have a low power setting. I have no idea what it's output is at that setting but it does exist and it does seem to reduce the power output. I note that the RT97 goes from consuming about 30 watts of power to 20 watts of power when you switch from high to low power.  I am hoping someone can test the power output on a functioning one, after the duplexer, to see what it is to satisfy my curiosity.  

RETEVIS is really good about sending out replacement units. Email them and let them know what is going on. Show them the poor output power of 700 milliwatts with your image. 

 

 

[JeepCrawler98]

13 hours ago, JeremiahBarlow said:

@JeepCrawler98, I finally got my connector to connect from N to SMA so I can test the radio transmit without the duplex. See attached image.  This is the power output without the duplexer, as compared to the picture from a few post back that had the duplexer.   I didn't see any power setting switch in the software.    I was having trouble receiving a signal,,, and this is showing really low power output as well.  Oh, and by the way, it's not the coax nor antenna because I still have that same smaller coax connected to a 40W repeater (Vertex EVX-R70) and it works nicely.   So it is something to do with this little Retevis RT97.

That alludes to a power output problem; I'd expect to see 5W-10W depending on what they actually have the GMRS PA set to.

Usual checks: power supply, program settings (the RT97 looks like it has a low power setting in the software).

Just curious; if you hook the lead coming out of the PA to a dummy load, does the repeater hear better?

[WRCK329]

On your antenna you show the link for, is that the exact antenna you are using? 

 

If so, it's center tuned at 430Mhz.  

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WRCK329 said:

On your antenna you show the link for, is that the exact antenna you are using? 

 

If so, it's center tuned at 430Mhz.  

That’s a good point, but if that were the problem you should see it in the SWR and the reflected power.  Assuming the SWR meter is reasonably accurate neither of those are seem to be an issue.

This simply looks like the Rt97 has a very low output power.  He needs to contact Retevis.