Repeater advice please

[WRYW415]

Hey, I have a bit of a dilemma and this may be a long winded question so I'll give details. I was looking at the repeater map of Florida. I noticed there is a HUGE "hole" in available repeaters where I am. A group of us around here help coordinate preparedness for storms for elderly and disabled persons (securing stuff from become projectiles etc) and use gmrs to do it (its a small subdivision). I'm located pretty much in between the 2 closest repeaters that are both on a highway (hwy 19-98) which is a known evacuation route (if you look at the map, on the West coast you'll see the South repeater i'm referring to "Hernando 625" and the one North of me "Tennille 625". I'm in Dunnellon in between hwy 19-98 and the "Silver Spring Shores" repeater. I don't mind spending the money (I see I can get a whole setup from a guy on eBay for $6-700, which is 2 radios, power supply and duplexer, and he programs them how you want). I believe it's a 50 watt setup.  I just need some good LM-400 coax and an antenna. The downside is I'm only 55ft above sea level and i have a LOT of tall pines around me. The antenna (probably a good Diamond or Tram) will go up on a 40ft tower next to my Sirio. Would having a repeater at my location help with evac crews, people fleeing or just anyone coming up 19?? Been into the radio thing for nearly 4 decades but unsure if it will get used enough to bother.

[WRHS218]

How much traffic is on the other repeaters you mentioned? It may be one of those "If you build it, they will come" type of things. If you put it up, make it an open repeater and then post it to this site's data base it will probably get some traffic. Maybe get your group to use it regularly and promote it. On all of my radios I have one set of repeaters with the ctcss tone set to 141.3 and I scan that group when I'm on the road since quite a few open repeaters use 141.3. Having a repeater in a known blank coverage area sounds like a good idea, especially along an evacuation route.

[BoxCar]

It's difficult to say how much help a GMRS repeater would be in the situations that you state. The most common radios in any neighborhood will be FRS and they cannot access a repeater as they lack the input frequencies. GMRS requires an FCC license (well, you are supposed to have one) but those radios aren't in the bubble packs you see at the retailers. GMRS licenses can only be shared among family members and each team or group would have to have their own license or licenses. If you are going to put up a repeater, then one of the little 5W units connected to a Tram 1486 or Diamond X50 would cover the area your 40-foot tower has to its radio horizon. Using that small repeater also means the cost of providing battery backup is a lot lower as a $60 15AH battery could keep it running for a couple of days with moderate use.

[WRYW415]

17 minutes ago, WRHS218 said:

How much traffic is on the other repeaters you mentioned? It may be one of those "If you build it, they will come" type of things. If you put it up, make it an open repeater and then post it to this site's data base it will probably get some traffic. Maybe get your group to use it regularly and promote it. On all of my radios I have one set of repeaters with the ctcss tone set to 141.3 and I scan that group when I'm on the road since quite a few open repeaters use 141.3. Having a repeater in a known blank coverage area sounds like a good idea, especially along an evacuation route.

Not sure about the traffic on the others since I'm too far from them to hear them. I'm also wondering about my antenna height. While I'm certainly not the highest area around (one of the the evac areas, crystal river is like 6ft above sea level and floods at nearly every storm and about 20 miles away as the crow flies). Hwy 19-98 is just over 13 miles from me at it's closest point. Figure the antenna will be 100 +/- feet above sea level. I just don't know if it'll make it to Crystal River.