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What Are Some Good The Choices For Mobile Vehicle Repeaters On GMRS?
- Thread starter JASII
- Start date
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Other than configuring one to act as a vehicle extender, I don't see much value in having a repeater in a vehicle. Repeaters work best when they are located at a prominent site, such as a mountaintop or a high building or tower, away from trees and other obstructions, resulting in much-improved coverage. I'm not sure what having a repeater in a car would accomplish.
Retevis makes a 10W repeater, the RT97, that is type accepted and reasonably priced.
www.retevis.com
RT97 Long Range Full Duplex Mini Portable Repeater
Retevis RT97 Long Range Full Duplex Mini Portable Repeater, 10W Portable Analog Repeater UHF/VHF，Compact size and Easy to setup, Weather resistant design, accessories inclulding the AC Adapter and DC power plug, the high power is 10 watts, extend your handheld two way radios or mobile analog...
www.retevis.com
My wife and I are ATVers. We joined an ATV club recently and some of the group rides have quite a few participants. Having a low-powered repeater mid-point would help ensure that the front and rear riders, as well as everybody in between, hear each other.
Retevis makes a 10W repeater, the RT97, that is type accepted and reasonably priced.
RT97 Long Range Full Duplex Mini Portable Repeater
Retevis RT97 Long Range Full Duplex Mini Portable Repeater, 10W Portable Analog Repeater UHF/VHF，Compact size and Easy to setup, Weather resistant design, accessories inclulding the AC Adapter and DC power plug, the high power is 10 watts, extend your handheld two way radios or mobile analog...
Thank you. I will look into that one.
A 10 watt repeater does not give twice as much output as a 5 watt radio. 5 watts is about 7 dBW, while 10 watts equals 10 dBW. Used with a mobile antenna, it will give very little real increase in coverage especially when mounted on a vehicle.
Unless that vehicle is at a significantly higher altitude.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Well, as you know each family will need a GMRS license if the want to be legal.
Also, most of the cheap consumer grade GMRS radios will not do repeaters.
I used GMRS with family on ATV rides, and it worked fairly well, at least until I was able to get them to study for their ham license and switch to 2 meters.
A couple of things to consider:
-Some ATV's have noisy ignition/electrical systems and will cause issues. If you are going to power the repeater off one of the ATV's, consider some filtering on the power connection.
-Repeaters are going to have duplexers in them, and they will not like being beat around on a rough trail. The duplexer may go out of tune quickly and make your repeater pretty useless. Retuning the duplexer after each ride is going to get expensive if you don't have the correct test equipment to do it.
-If everyone is covered by a GMRS license, you'd do better to have them get better radios and antennas.
We used to use Motorola HT-600's and P-200's on GMRS, they stood up to the abuse pretty well. Better antennas than the consumer stuff.
If anyone is running UTV's, they can add a mobile radio and a good 1/2 wave antenna on the roll cage and repeat traffic if needed. It takes a bit more work, but mounting a small mobile and a decent antenna on a traditional ATV is also a good option.
I'd really be concerned about the duplexer in any repeater in an off road application.
prcguy
Member
I'm confused. 10 watts is exactly twice as much output and a 3dB increase over 5 watts. Maybe you meant its not twice as much range?
N4KVE
Member
Years ago I worked in an area where I could hear my repeater with my HT, but could not get back into the repeater. I had a friend convert a GE Mstr 2 into a one way repeater. I would transmit on my HT on some weird freq, & the GE would transmit on the input of the repeater at 20 watts through the UHF antenna on the car. I used a small HT antenna on the GE to receive the signal from my HT, as I was never more than 50 feet away from my car. It worked great. Mstr 2’s were very easy to convert into repeaters.
prcguy
Member
Is the OP looking for an actual GMRS repeater with duplexer to use in a vehicle, or a "vehicular repeater", which is usually another radio on a different band tied in to your main vehicular radio to extend coverage to nearby hand helds?
Yaesu has the VXR-1000 vehicular repeater that will interface with most radios. Its not legal to use with GMRS but I suppose you could have the vehicular repeater on some MURS channels to extend a portable radio to a GMRS repeater. I picked up a VHF VXR-1000 recently for $50, so they are out there used.
Yaesu has the VXR-1000 vehicular repeater that will interface with most radios. Its not legal to use with GMRS but I suppose you could have the vehicular repeater on some MURS channels to extend a portable radio to a GMRS repeater. I picked up a VHF VXR-1000 recently for $50, so they are out there used.
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