New guy with no repeaters!

[WSED293]

New to gmrs, I understand simplex and repeater use.. I however live in a area with 0 accessible repeaters.. soo what do I need to do legals and equipment wise to create one? I have a giant tree I could send a cable style antenna up for over 100ft easy. What's yall knowledge I need. Thanks in advance! 

[OffRoaderX]

16 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Typically you need 

1. A repeater,

2. A duplexer,

3. A good antenna, and

4. Power.

I would respectfully disagree with my colleague from Montana on #4 - I would take elevation/antenna-hight above ground over power any day.

UNLESS he meant electrical power to run the thing? In that case, yah, he right.

[OffRoaderX]

48 minutes ago, WSED293 said:

What it takes to be basic but effective.  

I paid $500 for a used VXR-7000 in excellent/confirmed working condition.. I then had to buy a programming cable and acquire the software, buy an antenna and coax, mast, etc, and I had to pay to have the duplexer tuned.. it all came up to around $800'ish dollars of monies.

[WRYZ926]

Good low loss coax cable, and getting a good antenna up as high as you can get is very important. The saying "height is might" holds true with UHF frequencies (GMRS) since they are line of sight.

Nothing stopping you from putting up your own repeater. I will suggest going with a dedicated repeater versus trying to use two mobile radios. As @OffRoaderX said, there is additional costs for a good setup. Again going with good coax and a good antenna is important along with using a quality duplexer that is properly tuned. Most of us do not have the knowledge and/or equipment to properly tune duplexers.

Depending on the terrain, you will want an antenna with either 6DB or 9DB of gain. For hillier terrain 6DB is better while flatter/wide open terrain is where 9db shines.

Options are used commercial repeaters like OffroaderX is using or buying a brand new repeater that is setup for GMRS. A Bridgecom repeater without duplexer will set you back around $1500.

[SteveShannon]

58 minutes ago, WSED293 said:

New to gmrs, I understand simplex and repeater use.. I however live in an area with 0 accessible repeaters.. soo what do I need to do legals and equipment wise to create one? I have a giant tree I could send a cable style antenna up for over 100ft easy. What's yall knowledge I need. Thanks in advance! 

Here are very few wire antennas for GMRS, in fact I don’t know of any. 
 

Typically you need 

1. A repeater,

2. A duplexer,

3. A good antenna, and

4. A good source of electric power.

There are lots of opinions on which is the best for each of those. I don’t have the right experience to advise you but I would recommend that you hang around for a while, look back through older posts and ask some questions before buying anything expensive  

 

[SteveShannon]

7 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

I would respectfully disagree with my colleague from Montana on #4 - I would take elevation/antenna-hight above ground over power any day.

UNLESS he meant electrical power to run the thing? In that case, yah, he right.

I meant electric power.
 

I agree with Randy, don’t chase the myth of RF power instead of antenna and antenna height. 

[BoxCar]

Repeaters ready to run will cost between $375 to over $3000. How deep is your pocket?

[WSED293]

2 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

I would respectfully disagree with my colleague from Montana on #4 - I would take elevation/antenna-hight above ground over power any day.

UNLESS he meant electrical power to run the thing? In that case, yah, he right.

I appreciate the comment, your videos rock!! Only problem I have with them is I laugh to hard and miss important info! 

[WSED293]

1 hour ago, BoxCar said:

Repeaters ready to run will cost between $375 to over $3000. How deep is your pocket?

What it takes to be basic but effective.  

[nokones]

16 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

I would respectfully disagree with my colleague from Montana on #4 - I would take elevation/antenna-hight above ground over power any day.

UNLESS he meant electrical power to run the thing? In that case, yah, he right.

In Montana, don't they use hand-cranked generators for power?

[nokones]

16 hours ago, BoxCar said:

Repeaters ready to run will cost between $375 to over $3000. How deep is your pocket?

And it would be best to go very deep in your pocket in order to do it right.

[AdmiralCochrane]

Another way to put it is you can buy more range/distance with height than you can with power.

[swt9779]

The repeater doesn’t have to be fancy. Plenty of commercial LMR radios built into repeaters using little controllers and pair of cables.

Duplexer can be anything from the common cheaper “flat pack” notch type. Or the nicer (and much more expensive) lower loss band pass/reject can-style duplexers. The can-style usually pass a bit more juice through em.

Coax and antenna are extremely important to get right. Don’t use coax with an aluminum shield. Ask how I know.. (Will cause problems and troubleshooting headaches later, google intermodal distortion) If possible grab a chunk of LDF4-50 or similar hardline. It’s expensive but buy once cry once.

Use an antenna best suited for your terrain. Higher gain isn’t as important as the RF pattern. Taller pattern antennas usually have a more desirable coverage in hilly areas or more ground clutter. But no antenna at GMRS frequencies will eliminate the need for a clear path.

Height… nothing is as important as getting that sucker up as high as possible. 5 watts at 100ft will go twice as far as 50watts at 25ft. 
 

And the most important thing with repeaters is to have a stress management plan. Beer usually does the trick.

 

 

[Raybestos]

On 8/10/2024 at 4:42 PM, OffRoaderX said:

I would respectfully disagree with my colleague from Montana on #4 - I would take elevation/antenna-hight above ground over power any day.

UNLESS he meant electrical power to run the thing? In that case, yah, he right.

Says the guy who has a home where he can key up one of his favorite repeaters, 69 miles away, with just about any ht he happens to have laying around.

 

[OffRoaderX]

54 minutes ago, RayP said:

Says the guy who has a home where he can key up one of his favorite repeaters, 69 miles away, with just about any ht he happens to have laying around.

Because I have ....ELEVATION....

[WRXR255]

11 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

Because I have ....ELEVATION....

AMEN!

[WRUU653]

54 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

ELEVATION....

Sung to the tune of Cool and the Gang’s Celebration  

 

edit - did I mention I have the flu?

Edited August 17 by WRUU653