best starter gmrs base/mobile radios

[LeoG]

I have the XS-KG20G for both mobile and base.  I have a 4.5 amp power supply and it works just fine with the 20 watt output.  Another nice thing is you can plug the KG20 into the cigarette lighter port without issue.  Both of my radios output 25 watts which is nice instead of the standard "up to" nomenclature you usually see.

I am thinking about going to the KG1000 for the base since it's tough getting to my shop repeater because of terrain.  The repeater (50 watts) reaches the house good but the radio at the house is iffy and sometimes it reaches and other times it can only trigger the repeater but no audio or broken audio gets through.  So I think it's purely a power thing since one gets through fine and the other doesn't.

If it doesn't work out I could just put it into the mobile.

[WRYZ926]

45 minutes ago, LeoG said:

The repeater (50 watts) reaches the house good but the radio at the house is iffy and sometimes it reaches and other times it can only trigger the repeater but no audio or broken audio gets through.  So I think it's purely a power thing since one gets through fine and the other doesn't.

This is one case where more power can help. 

Can you raise your base antenna any to help?

[LeoG]

The home base antenna won't be going any higher, it's at 40' at the base  of a 7.2dBi gain.  The plan for the repeater antenna is to go from 40' to 80' and go from a Retevis 7.2dBi gain to a Comet CA712EFC 9.8Dbi gain antenna in the future trading up from M&P Hyperflex13 to 1/2" hardline.

[WRYZ926]

7 minutes ago, LeoG said:

The plan for the repeater antenna is to go from 40' to 80' and go from a Retevis 7.2dBi gain to a Comet CA712EFC 9.8Dbi gain antenna in the future trading up from M&P Hyperflex13 to 1/2" hardline.

That will definitely improve things for you.

[LeoG]

Also my base coax has water in it.  Put up a thread about it a while back.  When it gets to 26F things improve immensely.  At 32F you can watch the SWR go from 1.15 to 2.08 and things get much worse.  I plan on doing hardline from the lightning arrester to the antenna and going to a Laird 5 dBd antenna