BTech GMRS RPT50 - NEW 50-Watt GMRS Only Repeater

[WSBT338]

6 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

You have the Surecom plugged into the DummyLoad, right? If so, that is better than the antenna..

Make sure you have the repeater set to HIGH power, and if so, and you're only getting 8Watts, call BTech and tell them to send you one that works as advertised, or do what i did, just get your money back.

OMG  The firmware update must have set me back to LOW power. Set it to HIGH and now I see 38, 39 and maybe a 40W. Mostly 38's. Pretty sure that's where you were and they told you it should be better. Ugh.

[OffRoaderX]

1 minute ago, WSBT338 said:

Pretty sure that's where you were and they told you it should be better

Yup.. I got 38W IIRC, then 5 minutes later, it died.

.....save the box...

[WSBT338]

Progress. Managed to get the case cover off. Went through a few screw drivers to find one that wouldn’t strip those little bitches. Power reading from the duplexer is still 38-40W. If I plug directly into the repeater look what I get 

Been working with Katy at BTech. They’re probably gonna send me a new Duplexer. 

[EDIT] The voltage was low. They had me turn it up from 12.2V to 12.5V (there’s a little white adjustment screw on the Power Supply). Now I’m getting 43W out of the Duplexer. I asked if I can turn it up a little more. Please hold.

[UPDATE] They told me no higher than 12.8V. I’m hitting 45W now pretty consistently. They are concerned with 1.2 SWR. I would guess it’s my patch cable?

Anyways, it’s not the Duplexer. I can live with 45W.

[OffRoaderX]

1 hour ago, WSBT338 said:

They are concerned with 1.2 SWR

Why? that's near-perfect. 

[WSBT338]

2 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

Why? that's near-perfect. 

I thought so.

[gortex2]

What do you think you are supposed to get out of the duplexer ? No radio that puts out 50 watts is going to give you 50 out of the duplexer also. Looking at your meter looks like your seeing 45 watts from radio add in duplexer I think 40 is pretty decent. 

[WSBT338]

43 minutes ago, gortex2 said:

What do you think you are supposed to get out of the duplexer ? No radio that puts out 50 watts is going to give you 50 out of the duplexer also. Looking at your meter looks like your seeing 45 watts from radio add in duplexer I think 40 is pretty decent. 

This is my first experience with all of this, so I am just shooting for the stars. I get 47W on my Midland MXT500. But it doesn't have a Duplexer. I was at 38W with the BTech. Now I'm at 45W. I'm thrilled as I initially wanted to send this back and now we got it to work without replacing anything. Just the twist of plastic screw on the Power Supply to increase the voltage.

[gortex2]

Sorry 38 vs 45 wont see any noticable difference. Folks get wound up over a 50 watt radio but dont account for losses in the duplexer and other factors. In the LMR world test gear and equipment is a 10% variable. Yes our gear is really good and normally wont be that far off but I have seen many 110 watt base radios only show 95 on a power meter and still pass all operational tests for the unit. 

[WSBT338]

1 hour ago, gortex2 said:

Sorry 38 vs 45 wont see any noticable difference. Folks get wound up over a 50 watt radio but dont account for losses in the duplexer and other factors. In the LMR world test gear and equipment is a 10% variable. Yes our gear is really good and normally wont be that far off but I have seen many 110 watt base radios only show 95 on a power meter and still pass all operational tests for the unit. 

You’re taking to a guy who increases the voltage on the motherboard of his PC to get 5 more frames per second in his racing sim. Thanks, but I’m good with where I am on the new repeater.
 

Eager to get it connected to my antenna on the roof and test. Bringing my “shack” into the house instead of where I was before in the garage. Have some work to do regarding access, grounding, etc. Thankfully the mast and grounding rod are right on the other side of the wall from where this will live. 

[WSBT338]

My GMRS-RPT50 is live  https://mygmrs.com/repeater/9233 Limited range, but off the grid. 

[LeoG]

Congrats !!  What is the height of the antenna?

[WSBT338]

39 minutes ago, LeoG said:

Congrats !!  What is the height of the antenna?

About 45’ above terrain. My mast starts at 14’ above. 

[LeoG]

Mine is about 40' up but surrounded by trees that are 20' higher.  I'm waiting to push it up above the trees to see if I can get farther.  Right now with the RT97S I can get about 4 miles in the direction there are no trees.  The treed areas are about 1.4 miles before the signal deteriorates.  Might have to go up 80 feet to clear them.  Not sure I can do that.

[WSBT338]

Had the first visitor on my GMRS RPT-50 this morning. A Paramedic that lives in my neighborhood. I can’t think of a better contact to have  Also, integrated a Sony Digital Voice Recorder into my mix. It plugs straight into one of my BTech GMRS Pro’s and only records when there’s activity. Photo of my “shack” attached.
 

@OffRoaderX I hope some day you have another opportunity to look at this repeater. Maybe we can get BTech to send you one. You already did the pay to play option. If they want to sell more units they need to go the extra mile here. 

[gortex2]

 

 

[LeoG]

On 5/9/2024 at 10:48 PM, OffRoaderX said:

Me too..

Any chance you'll try again since when you got it, it had just come out?  Buying Gen 1 equipment is always taking a chance.  Looks like they've had a few software updates and probably tweaked a few things by now from user comments and issues.

[OffRoaderX]

16 minutes ago, LeoG said:

Any chance you'll try again since when you got it, it had just come out?  Buying Gen 1 equipment is always taking a chance.  Looks like they've had a few software updates and probably tweaked a few things by now from user comments and issues.

I don't think so. For the monies, I would expect much higher build-quality (ie; no wobbly knobs), MUCH better software, and far more features like channels, more customization, etc. 
Not enough bangs for the bucks.

[LeoG]

Considering the prices of other repeaters in the 50 watt range the monies seem pretty reasonable.  I've seen repeaters for $1500 with only 10 watts out and most of the 40+ watt repeaters seem to go for another additional 2-3000 bux without the duplexer being included.

What might you recommend?

[Guest]

You can build a 40w Motorola repeater from eBay for $500 with duplexer and power supply.  

[WRYZ926]

For what Baofeng wants for their repeater, I would just go with the Bridgecom repeater. We are using a Bridgecom and haven't had any issues with it. Or you can always go with a used Motorola and have it reprogrammed for GMRS.

[LeoG]

It's boggling that there are so few mentions of this repeater on the internet.  Just wondering if your review killed it off

Only a couple reviews on the website itself and those people seem to be pleased enough with the operation of it.  Most complaints are because the ports on the rear aren't active.

[SteveShannon]

On 7/12/2024 at 4:29 PM, WSBT338 said:

Had the first visitor on my GMRS RPT-50 this morning. A Paramedic that lives in my neighborhood. I can’t think of a better contact to have  Also, integrated a Sony Digital Voice Recorder into my mix. It plugs straight into one of my BTech GMRS Pro’s and only records when there’s activity. Photo of my “shack” attached.
 

@OffRoaderX I hope some day you have another opportunity to look at this repeater. Maybe we can get BTech to send you one. You already did the pay to play option. If they want to sell more units they need to go the extra mile here. 

After the dismal performance of the randomly purchased sample, what value would there be in a review of a cherry picked sample? Do you think an honest reviewer would risk their reputation by reviewing a cherry picked sample after previously finding problems?

[OffRoaderX]

34 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Do you think an honest reviewer would risk their reputation..

i just made a video about Scientology so obviously i don't care about my reputation, but I dont want another one of those electronic abortions of a repeater.

[LeoG]

7 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

After the dismal performance of the randomly purchased sample, what value would there be in a review of a cherry picked sample? Do you think an honest reviewer would risk their reputation by reviewing a cherry picked sample after previously finding problems?

How would buying another random unit be cherry picking?  If you were to buy 10 of them and review them all and then pick the best one that certainly would be cherry picking.  Sometimes luck of the draw sucks.  Customer service seemed excellent until they didn't want to swap out for a new unit.

If that was me most likely I would have got the refund and bought another to get around their stupidity of not swapping a defective unit for a working one.  But that's just me.

So I'm guessing that's the final word and I'll have to accept that

 

Thanks for the initial review Randy.

[SteveShannon]

On 7/12/2024 at 4:29 PM, WSBT338 said:

Maybe we can get BTech to send you one. You already did the pay to play option. If they want to sell more units they need to go the extra mile here. 

 

19 minutes ago, LeoG said:

How would buying another random unit be cherry picking?  If you were to buy 10 of them and review them all and then pick the best one that certainly would be cherry picking.  Sometimes luck of the draw sucks.  Customer service seemed excellent until they didn't want to swap out for a new unit.

If that was me most likely I would have got the refund and bought another to get around their stupidity of not swapping a defective unit for a working one.  But that's just me.

So I'm guessing that's the final word and I'll have to accept that

 

Thanks for the initial review Randy.

You weren’t talking about buying another random unit; you wanted BTech to send him one.