I just created a neighborhood repeater setup. I used Wouxon (2 of them paired) KG1000 Plus with a duplexer and (2) power supplies (This needs just 1 antenna). Testing today worked great on both HT and mobile in a highly dense wooded area. Excited about the results. An attick mounted TWAYRDIO Yagi Antenna UHF 400-470Mhz from amazon worked the best against all my antennas. Crazy good antenna that finalized my setup after much testing.
Did my repeater basically the same way. Used a larger box from Harbor Freight. I took a battery out of an old 12v jump starter that i had laying around and put it in the box using cigarette lighter adapters on the radios. I use a magnet mount antenna or my Tram antenna adapter system that allows NMO antennas to be connected on a 20 foot push up pole. The battery lasted nearly an entire week on our camping trip in Colorado Rockies. Hope yours works out well. CHEERS from Colorado
Nice, that's great it lasted the whole week. Its nice to have something that's a set and forget. I just got back from a week long camping trip also and it worked great when I used it, definitely extended my range from previous trips to this locations. I didn't use it every day however so I am not sure about my battery life. I am just using the stock extended batteries in the baofengs with the option to add a USB battery backup... Need more testing tho...
You found the duplexer that I had not been able to find. Thank you for that. I've been debating just figuring out how to position two antennas versus the power loss of a duplexer. Do you know how much loss you are experiencing through the duplexer? The other benefit of two antennas is being able to switch frequencies in different places. Nice build - thanks for sharing.
@@petemitchell6788 Look forward to your performance review. Would love to see what kind of difference you get in actual field performance between your build vs. the Midland portable system. Midland/Retevis claims 5 watts after the duplexer where you say you are likely getting 2.5 watts. With good placement and good antenna did you see a difference in use? Thank you.
I would say the performance I experienced was pretty poor and agree with @paulbrown9574 that the midland repeater is the way to go. I have been eye'ing it for some time, but I was out of work at the time so I was hopefully a budget build would be good enough. The midland seems to be a much better value. Now I just need to buy that and build a small battery for it so I can hoist the whole thing up a tree. That was one thing I really licked about the way I went...
Hello, I was just wondering in GMRS world… you guys can just Willy Nilly put up a repeater? I’m coming from the Ham Radio world where we had coordinated pairs, and you had to go through a council and get it approved and make sure there is a frequency pair (2 meters) available? How does that work with GMRS? What duplexer are you using, and where did you buy it? I’m look forward to your reply. Thanks. 😀🥳
I am a ham as well and yes it is definitely different. Especially considering use case. If I were making a higher power fixed position repeater then I would do my best to not interfere with anyone else in the area by first checking a few resources like repeater book, which lists GMRS repeaters and mygmrs.com. I would also take a little time to listen on the freq I wanted to determine its regular use. There are no frequency coordinates or really any official local process with GMRS. In this case however it is important to note my use case which is a portable system to be used while camping for short periods. Given the remote locations and low power of the system this is a non issue for me. For a list of the parts I used check the description. Thanks for watching!
@@TechTinkerHobbyist sorry that was supposed to be “certain”…how is a duplexer tuned? Sorry I’m still new to this… Is this something you do yourself or something they do before they ship it?
haha no worries, I was wondering if I was missing something... A duplexer basically has a series of filters and isolation components so 1 freq does not interfere with a 2nd freq, as on a repeater both are being used simultaneously. As such they are typically configured when you purchase them for a specific set of freqs. Depending on where you buy they may just list the freqs it is setup for or, as was the case with this one I ordered from Aliexpress, I had to provide the freqs I wanted when I purchased. The downside for a mobile unit such as mine is that I am locked to this set of freqs so if I am camping somewhere and others are using this channel I just have to deal with it...
@@TechTinkerHobbyist The Midland/Retevis repeater really should be tuned as well but they center on 462.55/467.55 and let you change channels without re-tuning for ease of use. You can do the same and get similar results. Most of us don't have the equipment to tune a duplexer at home.
I just created a neighborhood repeater setup. I used Wouxon (2 of them paired) KG1000 Plus with a duplexer and (2) power supplies (This needs just 1 antenna). Testing today worked great on both HT and mobile in a highly dense wooded area. Excited about the results. An attick mounted TWAYRDIO Yagi Antenna UHF 400-470Mhz from amazon worked the best against all my antennas. Crazy good antenna that finalized my setup after much testing.
SBR on this setup 1.0!
Nice, that should be a pretty powerful setup! I wanted to use those KG1000's also, just not in the budget at the moment...
What duplexer did you use
Did my repeater basically the same way. Used a larger box from Harbor Freight. I took a battery out of an old 12v jump starter that i had laying around and put it in the box using cigarette lighter adapters on the radios. I use a magnet mount antenna or my Tram antenna adapter system that allows NMO antennas to be connected on a 20 foot push up pole. The battery lasted nearly an entire week on our camping trip in Colorado Rockies. Hope yours works out well.
CHEERS from Colorado
Nice, that's great it lasted the whole week. Its nice to have something that's a set and forget. I just got back from a week long camping trip also and it worked great when I used it, definitely extended my range from previous trips to this locations. I didn't use it every day however so I am not sure about my battery life. I am just using the stock extended batteries in the baofengs with the option to add a USB battery backup... Need more testing tho...
You found the duplexer that I had not been able to find. Thank you for that. I've been debating just figuring out how to position two antennas versus the power loss of a duplexer. Do you know how much loss you are experiencing through the duplexer? The other benefit of two antennas is being able to switch frequencies in different places. Nice build - thanks for sharing.
It’s typically 50%. In the long run it’s cheaper and easier to buy a 10w GMRS repeater for $300. The Midland has been great.
@@petemitchell6788 Look forward to your performance review. Would love to see what kind of difference you get in actual field performance between your build vs. the Midland portable system. Midland/Retevis claims 5 watts after the duplexer where you say you are likely getting 2.5 watts. With good placement and good antenna did you see a difference in use? Thank you.
I would say the performance I experienced was pretty poor and agree with @paulbrown9574 that the midland repeater is the way to go. I have been eye'ing it for some time, but I was out of work at the time so I was hopefully a budget build would be good enough. The midland seems to be a much better value. Now I just need to buy that and build a small battery for it so I can hoist the whole thing up a tree. That was one thing I really licked about the way I went...
Hello, I was just wondering in GMRS world… you guys can just Willy Nilly put up a repeater? I’m coming from the Ham Radio world where we had coordinated pairs, and you had to go through a council and get it approved and make sure there is a frequency pair (2 meters) available? How does that work with GMRS? What duplexer are you using, and where did you buy it? I’m look forward to your reply. Thanks. 😀🥳
I am a ham as well and yes it is definitely different. Especially considering use case. If I were making a higher power fixed position repeater then I would do my best to not interfere with anyone else in the area by first checking a few resources like repeater book, which lists GMRS repeaters and mygmrs.com. I would also take a little time to listen on the freq I wanted to determine its regular use. There are no frequency coordinates or really any official local process with GMRS. In this case however it is important to note my use case which is a portable system to be used while camping for short periods. Given the remote locations and low power of the system this is a non issue for me. For a list of the parts I used check the description. Thanks for watching!
Can you explain how or why the duplexer was tuned to curtained frequencies?
"curtained frequencies" - I am not familiar with that phrase. The duplexer was configured and tuned for a specific GMRS repeater channel
@@TechTinkerHobbyist sorry that was supposed to be “certain”…how is a duplexer tuned? Sorry I’m still new to this…
Is this something you do yourself or something they do before they ship it?
haha no worries, I was wondering if I was missing something... A duplexer basically has a series of filters and isolation components so 1 freq does not interfere with a 2nd freq, as on a repeater both are being used simultaneously. As such they are typically configured when you purchase them for a specific set of freqs. Depending on where you buy they may just list the freqs it is setup for or, as was the case with this one I ordered from Aliexpress, I had to provide the freqs I wanted when I purchased. The downside for a mobile unit such as mine is that I am locked to this set of freqs so if I am camping somewhere and others are using this channel I just have to deal with it...
@@TechTinkerHobbyist The Midland/Retevis repeater really should be tuned as well but they center on 462.55/467.55 and let you change channels without re-tuning for ease of use. You can do the same and get similar results. Most of us don't have the equipment to tune a duplexer at home.
So... how is this working with the equipment you linked?
It's working pretty well. I just got back from a week long camping trip. It was definitely able to extend my range.