Good base radio

[WSDE521]

I am now searching for a good base GMRS radio and suggestions on a good antenna! I will probably have to put an antenna reasonably high up on a post due to all the trees and other foliage in my area, they are mostly pine trees but there is numerous oak trees and the forest area is pretty dense in areas. 
I would like to purchase a decent base radio with enough watts to reach the two repeats near me with little or no problem. 
I should have already purchased one due to live in a hurricane prone zone. Right now we are just having a tropical storm but it can dump 30” of rain on us in the next couple of days, I have a generator for backup power because we lose power often due to bad storms and hurricanes. We have been lucky in the last few decades, the last category 5 hurricane was Hugo back in 1989 !!! We have dodged a bullet several times with cat 3-4 hurricanes turning before making landfall here in Myrtle Beach. 
if anyone can please recommend a good GMRS base please let me know, I am looking for something between $300-$500 less if possible but reliable. Also an antenna that will give the distance to transmit and receive. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am looking for help not smart remarks or rude comments from people who think they know everything!! I am here to help and get help from others who know how to respect others. 

[SteveShannon]

12 minutes ago, WSDE521 said:

I am now searching for a good base GMRS radio and suggestions on a good antenna! I will probably have to put an antenna reasonably high up on a post due to all the trees and other foliage in my area, they are mostly pine trees but there is numerous oak trees and the forest area is pretty dense in areas. 
I would like to purchase a decent base radio with enough watts to reach the two repeats near me with little or no problem. 
I should have already purchased one due to live in a hurricane prone zone. Right now we are just having a tropical storm but it can dump 30” of rain on us in the next couple of days, I have a generator for backup power because we lose power often due to bad storms and hurricanes. We have been lucky in the last few decades, the last category 5 hurricane was Hugo back in 1989 !!! We have dodged a bullet several times with cat 3-4 hurricanes turning before making landfall here in Myrtle Beach. 
if anyone can please recommend a good GMRS base please let me know, I am looking for something between $300-$500 less if possible but reliable. Also an antenna that will give the distance to transmit and receive. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am looking for help not smart remarks or rude comments from people who think they know everything!! I am here to help and get help from others who know how to respect others. 

The Wouxun KG-1000 is widely considered one of the best 50 watt (maximum allowed) mobile GMRS radios, but with the right antenna even a 20 watt radio should do nearly as well.  There is no purpose built GMRS “base station” radio, only mobile radios installed in a permanent location with a base station antenna.

[WRYZ926]

With GMRS being line of sight, you will want to get the antenna as high as you can. Use a good antenna AND good coax cable with minimal loss. 

You are going to want to use LMR400 or equivalent coax cable. It will have the least amount of loss compared to other types of coax. I highly suggest going with the DX Engineering brand coax. They call it 400MAX and 400MAX UF (ultra flex). It is reasonably priced and definitely better than what you can find on Amazon.

One of the best commercially available GMRS antennas is the Comet CA-712EFC antenna. Many of us here on the forum use this antenna. Higher antenna gain will help overcome any loss from the coax cable. 

I have to agree that the Wouxun KG-1000 G Plus is an excellent 50 watt radio and I use one for my base station. An excellent choice for a 20 watt radio is the Wouxun KG-XS20 G Plus. I have both. Both radios will reach the local repeater that is 21.5 miles away with ease using the Comet CA-712EFC mounted on my roof. I have also used both when we were in our testing faze. We tested the repeater antennas on simplex first to see how they work. Granted the repeater antennas are at 400 feet above ground. I had no issues reaching the tower site on simplex with the KG-XS20G Plus. My signal was stronger/louder when using the KG-1000G Plus on simplex. I was still being received loud and clear with the KG-XS20G Plus though.

Good coax and a good antenna as high as you can get it will help the most.

[WSDE521]

21 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

The Wouxun KG-1000 is widely considered one of the best 50 watt (maximum allowed) mobile GMRS radios, but with the right antenna even a 20 watt radio should do nearly as well.  There is no purpose built GMRS “base station” radio, only mobile radios installed in a permanent location with a base station antenna.

Thank you man, I appreciate your support. You have been very supportive to everything I have asked on here , I respect that and appreciate it . I have noticed there are some people on here that believe that they know everything about everything but in reality they know absolutely nothing about anything. Other than being disrespectful to others! Those people I just ignore because all they want is attention!! 
thank you again 

 

[SteveShannon]

4 minutes ago, WSDE521 said:

Thank you man, I appreciate your support. You have been very supportive to everything I have asked on here , I respect that and appreciate it . I have noticed there are some people on here that believe that they know everything about everything but in reality they know absolutely nothing about anything. Other than being disrespectful to others! Those people I just ignore because all they want is attention!! 
thank you again 

 

That means a lot.  Best wishes for your preparations!  WRYZ926 gave some really good specific advice, better than I did.

[WSDE521]

14 minutes ago, WSDE521 said:

Thank you man, I appreciate your support. You have been very supportive to everything I have asked on here , I respect that and appreciate it . I have noticed there are some people on here that believe that they know everything about everything but in reality they know absolutely nothing about anything. Other than being disrespectful to others! Those people I just ignore because all they want is attention!! 
thank you again 

 

 

[WRYZ926]

The KG-1000G and power supply combo will work well for you and make a nice base station setup. Let us know if you have any other questions or have any problems with setup. Don't forget to use a good antenna and good coax cable. Most of all enjoy your setup.

If you decide to use external speakers with the radio, you will want to either use two speakers or just use one speaker for only one side. Y adaptors/splitters will not work, they  cause an impedance mismatch and cut the volume levels in half if you try to use one speaker hooked to both speaker outputs on the radio.

I found out the hard way by buying an y adaptor only to have the one speaker not being loud enough to hear. I decided to just use one speaker for one side of the radio.

An excellent speaker is the Icom SP-35. You can get them on Amazon for $35. 

[gortex2]

I use the MXT115 for my parents. I like KISS. It works fine on both the repeater channel and simplex we use. Its sitting on a small ff power supply. Antenna is a DB404 on the roof with 35' LDF4-50A

 

[WSDE521]

2 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

The KG-1000G and power supply combo will work well for you and make a nice base station setup. Let us know if you have any other questions or have any problems with setup. Don't forget to use a good antenna and good coax cable. Most of all enjoy your setup.

If you decide to use external speakers with the radio, you will want to either use two speakers or just use one speaker for only one side. Y adaptors/splitters will not work, they  cause an impedance mismatch and cut the volume levels in half if you try to use one speaker hooked to both speaker outputs on the radio.

I found out the hard way by buying an y adaptor only to have the one speaker not being loud enough to hear. I decided to just use one speaker for one side of the radio.

An excellent speaker is the Icom SP-35. You can get them on Amazon for $35. 

I found this on Amazon , is this what you use ? I am still trying to put away the money to buy all of these items, If you have any more suggestions please let me know. I am on SS and have to be cautious about how much I spend, however I am old enough to know that you get what you pay for! If it is too cheap. It’s probably junk .

[SteveShannon]

That would probably work but many people have had great success with the Comet Ca-712EFC antenna. DXEngineering has it for $140. Be sure you get the CA-712EFC which is tuned for GMRS.

If you’re trying to save money, don’t get it at Amazon. It will be more expensive at Amazon!!!

[WRYZ926]

Here is a link to the Comet CA-712EFC at DX Engineering. Cost is $140.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-ca-712efc

 

I can't speak on the quality of the Retevis antenna. But you won't go wrong with the Comet CA-712EFC.

[WSDE521]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

That would probably work but many people have had great success with the Comet Ca-712EFC antenna. DXEngineering has it for $140. Be sure you get the CA-712EFC which is tuned for GMRS.

If you’re trying to save money, don’t get it at Amazon. It will be more expensive at Amazon!!!

Thank you, can you suggest where I should buy it? I am trying to get the money together, I can get the 1 1/2” -2” pipe free of charge and have people to help me secure it, I plan to put it about two-three feet in the ground and cement it in the ground, I can also anchor it two or three times to the side of my house, it’s not going to fall down!!! I can put the antenna on and clamp it down really well then secure the coax as many times as I need to. I will drill a hole in the floor and run the coax through it after I have everything installed I will silicone around the the hole. I only plan to drill the hole one size bigger than the coax itself. I do believe I will need to ground it really good so lighting should not be a problem. Anyway thanks again and if you can tell me where to purchase the Antenna cheaper than Amazon please let me know. I will need approximately 45 foot of coax to reach the radio from the antenna and under my house 

[WSDE521]

Just now, WRYZ926 said:

Here is a link to the Comet CA-712EFC at DX Engineering. Cost is $140.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-ca-712efc

 

I can't speak on the quality of the Retevis antenna. But you won't go wrong with the Comet CA-712EFC.

Thank you  

[WRYZ926]

You're welcome.

Here is a link to the DX Engineering MAX400 and MAX400 UF coax cables. Either one is available in many different lengths. 

https://www.dxengineering.com/search/department/cable-and-connectors/part-type/coaxial-cable-assemblies?N=brand%3Adx-engineering%2Bcoaxial-cable-type%3A400max_lmr-400-uf-ultraflex

[LeoG]

5 hours ago, WSDE521 said:

I found this on Amazon , is this what you use ? I am still trying to put away the money to buy all of these items, If you have any more suggestions please let me know. I am on SS and have to be cautious about how much I spend, however I am old enough to know that you get what you pay for! If it is too cheap. It’s probably junk .

I have that antenna for my RT97S repeater and I went with the UAYESOK from Amazon which turns out to be the exact same antenna with a slightly higher price.  I can easily hit the 3 repeaters near me at 7, 17 and 21 miles away.  I'm using the Messi and Paoloni Hyperflex 13 cable at the house (84 foot run) and LMR400 with the repeater (50 foot run).

If you live in an area with more trees and hills you want to stay away from a super high gain antenna and stick with something in the 6-8dBi range. (convert to dBd by subtracting 2.15 from the dBi value)

Both the Retevis and the UAYESOK were under 1.1 for SWR with my setups.

[WSDE521]

16 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

You're welcome.

Here is a link to the DX Engineering MAX400 and MAX400 UF coax cables. Either one is available in many different lengths. 

https://www.dxengineering.com/search/department/cable-and-connectors/part-type/coaxial-cable-assemblies?N=brand%3Adx-engineering%2Bcoaxial-cable-type%3A400max_lmr-400-uf-ultraflex

 

13 hours ago, LeoG said:

I have that antenna for my RT97S repeater and I went with the UAYESOK from Amazon which turns out to be the exact same antenna with a slightly higher price.  I can easily hit the 3 repeaters near me at 7, 17 and 21 miles away.  I'm using the Messi and Paoloni Hyperflex 13 cable at the house (84 foot run) and LMR400 with the repeater (50 foot run).

If you live in an area with more trees and hills you want to stay away from a super high gain antenna and stick with something in the 6-8dBi range. (convert to dBd by subtracting 2.15 from the dBi value)

Both the Retevis and the UAYESOK were under 1.1 for SWR with my setups.

 

13 hours ago, LeoG said:

I have that antenna for my RT97S repeater and I went with the UAYESOK from Amazon which turns out to be the exact same antenna with a slightly higher price.  I can easily hit the 3 repeaters near me at 7, 17 and 21 miles away.  I'm using the Messi and Paoloni Hyperflex 13 cable at the house (84 foot run) and LMR400 with the repeater (50 foot run).

If you live in an area with more trees and hills you want to stay away from a super high gain antenna and stick with something in the 6-8dBi range. (convert to dBd by subtracting 2.15 from the dBi value)

Both the Retevis and the UAYESOK were under 1.1 for SWR with my setups.

 

13 hours ago, LeoG said:

I have that antenna for my RT97S repeater and I went with the UAYESOK from Amazon which turns out to be the exact same antenna with a slightly higher price.  I can easily hit the 3 repeaters near me at 7, 17 and 21 miles away.  I'm using the Messi and Paoloni Hyperflex 13 cable at the house (84 foot run) and LMR400 with the repeater (50 foot run).

If you live in an area with more trees and hills you want to stay away from a super high gain antenna and stick with something in the 6-8dBi range. (convert to dBd by subtracting 2.15 from the dBi value)

Both the Retevis and the UAYESOK were under 1.1 for SWR with my setups.

Thank you very much, this is very helpful, I will have to purchase all the equipment one or two at a time, but I will definitely take your advice. Right now we are having a tropical storm and looking at 30”’s of rain not going to be able to do anything outside for a days anyway. But I think I will get the antenna and coax first and get it set up and anchored to my house and cemented in the ground. Then save the money to purchase the Radio and power supply, . That I can do inside regardless of the weather. We are in Hurricane season here in Myrtle Beach SC . I want to thank everyone on here for being so supportive and giving me suggestions on what I may need to purchase.

[WRYZ926]

Stay safe with the storms. And everything will come together for you before you know it.

[WSDE521]

I agree, I don’t argue with people I don’t know because as you said like is to short to argue with them and they usually don’t know what they are talking about anyway!  But I am grateful to everyone on here that actually tries to help people, I am still extremely new and some people think I should know everything about this subject from day one!! I am trying my best and read up on different topics daily!!! I have purchased books and read things online. I will definitely get the hang of this soon, I have always learned very quickly. But having stage 4 brain cancer has definitely reduced my ability to absorb information as quickly. But I will definitely learn 

[LeoG]

This morning my wife got brave and answered the good morning rounds that go on the repeater.  One of the guys there asked if she used a certain repeater and she said yes.  He proceeded to ask her if she knew the PL code (it's an open repeater) and the most she knew was it was a 625 repeater.  She let the guy know that when I was around I could let him know.  She is interested in listening.  But not very interested in learning the ropes.  It took her a month to figure out the BAND button switches between the two frequencies we have on so if she wants to talk on one or the other.  Makes me laugh because it's so simple.  But to some it's not.  So it's good to ask and answer questions when you need to or can.

[WRYZ926]

@WSDE521 we all had to start from scratch and learn. Don't let "some people" ruin things for you.  And don't be afraid to ask questions. Just ignore the answers that are not helpful or when someone is rude/sarcastic.

Some of us started out decades ago with different radios/bands such as CB, some have experience from the military and/or their daily jobs. But we all had to learn as we go. Some people learn faster than others. Some learn by reading while some learn best by hands on.

I believe that you will do just fine and are on the right path. And don't let health issues slow you down either. I am totally disabled due to arthritis, fibromyalgia and injuries from the military. My health might have slowed me down but it sure hasn't stopped me from learning new things or doing as much as I can for myself.

[WRUU653]

You are in good hands here and I have little to add other than to support what @SteveShannon and @WRYZ926 have said about Amazon (oddly enough) not being the most inexpensive place to get some radio supplies. I have also used Ham Radio Outlet and had great customer support. Gigaparts is another option as well. Doesn’t hurt to shop prices. Good luck, looking forward to info about how your project goes. 

[WRYZ926]

And don't forget about DX Engineering and R&L electronics when price comparing.