Base station radio

[GreggInFL]

On 10/19/2024 at 1:47 PM, WSFF871 said:

Hey Gregg... I am in FL too (Nocatee)... curious what your "cheap 25W mobile" actually is  (Brand/Model)....many thx

Bobby

I settled on a Radioddity DB25-G.  Amazon had it for $89.99 a while back. I had to return the first one because it wasn't right.  The replacement seems okay so far.  I went with 25W because it would easily plug into a car's cigarette lighter and could be moved inside to a power adapter.  This is not the best set up, but for a new user like me it's perfectly adequate.  I'm told that people tend to keep buying radios, so there will be plenty of opportunities to upgrade.

[WSFC997]

2 hours ago, GreggInFL said:

I settled on a Radioddity DB25-G.  Amazon had it for $89.99 a while back. I had to return the first one because it wasn't right.  The replacement seems okay so far.  I went with 25W because it would easily plug into a car's cigarette lighter and could be moved inside to a power adapter.  This is not the best set up, but for a new user like me it's perfectly adequate.  I'm told that people tend to keep buying radios, so there will be plenty of opportunities to upgrade.

I bought the Radioddity DB20-G, during prime days, and then unlocked the frequencies using their own software, making it a DB20-GUV.  I only did it to get around the 8 repeater channel limit on this thing.  I have a ton of repeaters around here in the Phoenix area and 8 just ain't gonna cut it.  No desire to transmit on any of the HAM frequencies...  I'm still working on an antenna for the house (currently using a pizza pan with a cheap Bingfu magnetic mount UHF antenna) and I actually get better RX/TX when I'm in the car.  Anyways, new to the site and new to GMRS, but not radios in general.  

Jeff

Phoenix Area

WSFC997

[GreggInFL]

^Welcome!

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WSFC997 said:

I bought the Radioddity DB20-G, during prime days, and then unlocked the frequencies using their own software, making it a DB20-GUV.  I only did it to get around the 8 repeater channel limit on this thing.  I have a ton of repeaters around here in the Phoenix area and 8 just ain't gonna cut it.  No desire to transmit on any of the HAM frequencies...  I'm still working on an antenna for the house (currently using a pizza pan with a cheap Bingfu magnetic mount UHF antenna) and I actually get better RX/TX when I'm in the car.  Anyways, new to the site and new to GMRS, but not radios in general.  

Jeff

Phoenix Area

WSFC997

Welcome, Jeff!

[TrikeRadio]

3 hours ago, WSFC997 said:

I bought the Radioddity DB20-G, during prime days, and then unlocked the frequencies using their own software, making it a DB20-GUV.  I only did it to get around the 8 repeater channel limit on this thing.  I have a ton of repeaters around here in the Phoenix area and 8 just ain't gonna cut it.

Ah... I like that. so by default you can't save any other GMRS repeater channels with different tones wihtout unlocking it? Glad to hear there is a way around it!

[WRXB215]

12 hours ago, TrikeRadio said:

Ah... I like that. so by default you can't save any other GMRS repeater channels with different tones wihtout unlocking it? Glad to hear there is a way around it!

Yep, it's sad that you have to do things like this sometimes. You shouldn't have to find a way around it. I think some of the manufacturers misinterpret the regulations. Any GMRS radio should be able to have multiple repeaters programed in with the same frequency but different tones so that as you travel, you just switch to the one you are near.

[amaff]

12 hours ago, TrikeRadio said:

Ah... I like that. so by default you can't save any other GMRS repeater channels with different tones wihtout unlocking it? Glad to hear there is a way around it!

Yeah, the channel programming is SUPER restrictive in GMRS mode.
But it's also really easy to program in the GMRS rules once it's opened up.

I also really like that it has a "TX OFF" function for each memory channel that you can set from the face of the radio, if you want to program in, say, ham frequencies that you don't usually have permissions to transmit on.

[WSFF871]

21 hours ago, GreggInFL said:

I settled on a Radioddity DB25-G.  Amazon had it for $89.99 a while back. I had to return the first one because it wasn't right.  The replacement seems okay so far.  I went with 25W because it would easily plug into a car's cigarette lighter and could be moved inside to a power adapter.  This is not the best set up, but for a new user like me it's perfectly adequate.  I'm told that people tend to keep buying radios, so there will be plenty of opportunities to upgrade.

Gregg...thx so much!!

[GreggInFL]

57 minutes ago, WSFF871 said:

Gregg...thx so much!!

You're welcome.  If I had it to do over again I would upgrade the radio to a good 40/50W unit with a Midland MXTA26 antenna.  Just depends on your budget and how much you intend to use it.

[brasda91]

@WSDE521 where do you stand with your base radio setup?

[SvenMarbles]

Regardless of what you decide to do for a permanent base antenna, I'd recommend also purchasing an N9TAX slim jim style antenna and just having it put away. With that, you can have something that is field deployable AFTER whatever type of problem rolls through and busts things up. Toss a line over a tree limb, or something high, or raise a painters pole, and get it up in the air. You can screw it into whatever handheld you have, or even your base radio if you can power it (I believe they're rated to handle 100 watts).

Also consider, for a base radio, to instead of buying a power supply box, get a 30ah Lifepo battery, a charger for it, and perhaps even a little solar power setup (harbor freight). The battery accomplishes all of the day to day powering requirements, and instead of having a power supply box plugged in, just have the battery on the plug in trickle charger all the time. This when when things go down you' have some buffer back up power time for the radio. I tested mine, and it'll run my radio with pretty heavy use for about 8 days at high power. This could probably be improved by bumping the power level of the radio down to medium or low power.

[briann252]

On 10/5/2024 at 11:47 AM, GreggInFL said:

^ A similar approach to a base station is a mobile setup.  The same power radio into a good antenna will get you much more range than a handheld.  Not as much as a base station with a better antenna, but still an impressive improvement.  Here is the Florida suburbs (flat with trees) my HT is maybe two miles, but my cheap 25W mobile into a small mag mount antenna is at least ten miles.

The added benefit is that it's mobile.  Assuming there are not massive trees on the roads post hurricane, I can drive the 4x4 to high ground for good comms.  Can't do that with a base station.  You can always move it inside to use as a base unit.

This is what I am setting up as I want a base in the house, but also when out camping,  How do you use the mag mount antenna at home?  So you just put up by a window inside? Or do mount it outside and run the cable through the wall?  I am leaning towards mounting the antenna near a window in the house so it will be easy to remove when I want a portable base.  I am also close enough to a good repeater that I can communicate with a handheld, so I am not overly concerned with max range.  

[briann252]

Double post. 

[GreggInFL]

45 minutes ago, briann252 said:

This is what I am setting up as I want a base in the house, but also when out camping,  How do you use the mag mount antenna at home?  So you just put up by a window inside? Or do mount it outside and run the cable through the wall?  I am leaning towards mounting the antenna near a window in the house so it will be easy to remove when I want a portable base.  I am also close enough to a good repeater that I can communicate with a handheld, so I am not overly concerned with max range.  

The mag mount uses a pizza pan for a ground plane.  I placed it in the top shelf of a closet where it worked well for RX but not TX, so I'll have to move it to the attic or outside.  The rig is in the vehicle now, but when I next have it inside I'll try those options.

[WSGI548]

I have been using a HT with a mag mount, but a base it the next purchase. I have been using the painter pole with a mag mount at home, works well. I am hitting a repeater about 40 miles away on 5 watts, as well as another one about 10 miles away. For those that use batteries, are there any issues? I am thinking of going that way so I can take it out back with me a little easier. Otherwise has anyone used a cigarette lighter style dc converter like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Converter-Cigarette-Refrigerator-AUCARAUTO-C15/dp/B0C4KJYMSZ/ref=sr_1_17_sspa?crid=3CPS5ZWOZGQ8E&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.fXIC-VleCgLkcho3QA14OILDONN7ZuJJP8xBERoIU6A7wagqv4XY7yEGA3fpTOwK1tJenJ2OJYwCIr-Mx0OkGAvUsUN7bokOaH3jXbQn8kUSOAk12Ul1gEwilWGYClo4pg762PJW94nE-LyVecwLNfduBxeE37-3ISuN5AoTbyv4ITK69QvHSD83bYvsomWmSDmFQDpV-D4hdL15tyle1K7LLGFl1QS892RllXp34go.hosoaLxkAr1uOUoiDsFGs4r1V5wZ2fBR6_bp3u0Ep9I&dib_tag=se&keywords=12v%2Blighter%2Badapter&qid=1739245365&sprefix=12v%2Blighter%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-17-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&th=1

Sorry if your not supposed to put links, just using it as an example.

Here is my current house setup, pizza pan and all.

 

[GreggInFL]

On 2/10/2025 at 10:45 PM, WSGI548 said:

I have been using a HT with a mag mount, but a base it the next purchase. I have been using the painter pole with a mag mount at home, works well. I am hitting a repeater about 40 miles away on 5 watts, as well as another one about 10 miles away. For those that use batteries, are there any issues? I am thinking of going that way so I can take it out back with me a little easier. Otherwise has anyone used a cigarette lighter style dc converter like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Converter-Cigarette-Refrigerator-AUCARAUTO-C15/dp/B0C4KJYMSZ/ref=sr_1_17_sspa?crid=3CPS5ZWOZGQ8E&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.fXIC-VleCgLkcho3QA14OILDONN7ZuJJP8xBERoIU6A7wagqv4XY7yEGA3fpTOwK1tJenJ2OJYwCIr-Mx0OkGAvUsUN7bokOaH3jXbQn8kUSOAk12Ul1gEwilWGYClo4pg762PJW94nE-LyVecwLNfduBxeE37-3ISuN5AoTbyv4ITK69QvHSD83bYvsomWmSDmFQDpV-D4hdL15tyle1K7LLGFl1QS892RllXp34go.hosoaLxkAr1uOUoiDsFGs4r1V5wZ2fBR6_bp3u0Ep9I&dib_tag=se&keywords=12v%2Blighter%2Badapter&qid=1739245365&sprefix=12v%2Blighter%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-17-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&th=1

Sorry if your not supposed to put links, just using it as an example.

Here is my current house setup, pizza pan and all.

 

That's very smart.  Hilarious, but smart.  Well done, sir!

How did you piece this together?  Poles are easy to find, but what are you using for a base?  How did you attach the pizza pan?

Yes, I've used a similar adapter for 120 -> 12V.

[WSGI548]

Well, I admit it took a little ingenuity to do what I wanted… I bought a wood handle paint roller frame($5), then knocked the metal frame off. I used a large hollow wall anchor down the hole where the frame was with a little glue. I then Attached a 25lb magnet ($7) from home depot via screw to the hollow wall anchor. The pizza pan started out a 16” from a dollar store, but I went back and bought a 12” after reading about the size of ground planes, both worked equally well, but the smaller one was a touch easier to deal with. And I ended up with the below. Allows me to attach and detach everything to set it up/down.

 

edit-Just saw you asked about the base. It came from Walmart, a 26lb umbrella stand. Has different size shaft adapters and only cost $20. Has two little thumb screws to snug everything down.

[WSGI548]

This is my newest attempt to get a better antenna up. It is a threaded extension to pool pole adapter ($9). It has 3/4x5 acme threads, same as broom handle or extension pole, then goes to 1.25 push button to use pool pole accessories and has set screws to snug it down on the threads. I ordered some push button pool pole adapters($10 pr) off amazon to use with it. I will be remounting the antenna on the black adapters, then they can be attached and detached easily, with the antenna mounted, when I want to setup or take down. I ordered some RG8X with bncs on both ends, as well as some adapters. This should allow me to have different antennas, yagi, omni, etc, and quickly attach or detach to swap them. It is still a work in progress. My goal was to be home usable, but also field usable in case.
 

 

[Socalgmrs]

Wow all the money and time spent to mess  around with not doing something right amazes me.  Cheap antennas then add in more money to buy junk to make the cheap antennas work better. Then in the end complaints will come about bad, limited transmission distance and scratchy signal reports.   Could have just purchased better stuff and done it right from the get go.  Ummm the state of the world concerns me.  

[gortex2]

I have to agree with socalgmrs which bothers me but spending a bit more up front on proper gear normally results in happy life and better performance. Ive seen many folks come on here, get annoyed when they use inferior gear then get disgusted with performance and disappear. If your serious about the service buy stuff made for the service and use it. Very few of the GMRS users are on this site. The majority of GMRS users buy a GMRS radio and talk and dont care about all the bells whistles and other stuff. 

 

[WRYZ926]

@gortex2 I feel the same way as you do on this. 

By the time you buy a mobile antenna then spend as much if not more to try and make it work better as a base antenna yo have spend enough to buy a good base antenna. The only saying to buy the proper tool for the job comes to mind. It is usually better to just spend a little more and buy the correct base antenna to begin with.

That being said, yes I have used a mobile antenna with mag amount attached to a cookie sheet in the past. But that was only a temporary setup until I could get an actual base antenna installed.

I fully understand why some will use a mobile antenna with some type of home made ground plane in certain situations such as dealing with HOA restrictions, needing a more temporary setup, or something that can be quickly taken down for severe storms.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WSGI548 said:

I ordered some RG8X with bncs on both ends, as well as some adapters.

This is the only thing in your post that gave me heartburn.  RG8x is terrible for GMRS. If you’re using more than just a very short length you’re attenuating a significant portion of your RF output in the cable before it ever gets to the antenna. Fifty feet of RG8X attenuates 62% of the signal. 50 watts out of the radio becomes 18 watts delivered to the antenna.

https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/

[WRYZ926]

You are still looking at 45% loss using 30 feet of RG-8X at 467 MHz. You would have to use a pretty high gain antenna to overcome the loss with a 30 ft section of RG-8X. 2 dBd of gain still shows a loss in power output (ERP). You would need at least 4 dBd of gain to overcome the coax loss of 30 feet of RG-8X. 

Getting LRM400 or equivalent will greatly improve things. Look at the DX Engineering 400MAX or even the Jet LMR400 equivalent from R&L Electronics. Both brands work well and are definitely cheaper than Times Microwave LMR400.

RG-8X is fine for jumpers that are 6 feet or less in length.

[WSEZ864]

I would agree with @SteveShannon and @WRYZ926 and the only thing I would add is that I's suggest investing in LMR400 UltraFlex or equivalent. The reason for this is for ease of installation, tolerance of tighter radius bends and versatility if your setup changes. I use LMR400 flex for everything except short runs for HF, where I use LMR240.

[SteveShannon]

2 minutes ago, WSEZ864 said:

I would agree with @SteveShannon and @WRYZ926 and the only thing I would add is that I's suggest investing in LMR400 UltraFlex or equivalent. The reason for this is for ease of installation, tolerance of tighter radius bends and versatility if your setup changes. I use LMR400 flex for everything except short runs for HF, where I use LMR240.

That’s a really good,point.  A lot of people recommend LMR 400 without explaining that there’s the original LMR400, which has a thick solid center conductor that makes it inflexible.  It bends easily enough but it doesn’t flex.  There are also flexible equivalents such as the Ultraflex mentioned above or my favorite Messi & Paloni equivalents: Ultraflex 10 or Hyperflex 10 (10 in the name stands for 10 millimeters which is the same as the 0.400 inch diameter of the original LMR400).