RT97S Full Duplex Portable GMRS Repeater

Power board went out on my 97s , emailed retevis about it , they wanted me to send them a video of it not working and of the tests I done to confirm it was the power board , I didn't get a video of any of that before I contacted them , but I finally convinced them it was the board , and they shipped me a new board , I soldered the new one in and buttoned it all back up , hooked the antenna to it and plugged it in , Walla it powered up and is now back to working , they stood behind there warranty and I have the 97s and the new 97l , and Angela was very great to work with on this and I'll be buying more from them due to them standing up to there warranty , and I thank you Angela and retevis , Scott

Retevis RT97S, I live on a little hill (145 ft) and my mast is 20ft, I have hills behind me and a bit on the left and right but get good range with just the HTs, 3.5 - 4.5 miles. Because of my location I will never get far(s) but fun to play with.

Fixed installed on my Toyhauler Camper w/a Multi-Polarized 1/4 wave NMO (08-ANT-0864), and a 6 Pack of RT22 Handhelds all on licensed GMRS for use somewhat near camp. Ive built my own GMRS repeater before and this has better audio and is much more portable and power efficient.The handheld coverage is far more solid than simplex, being inside a building like the showers/bathroom does not cause issues like before, the handhelds can hear the repeater from much further away than they can be heard, like 8m+ Rx and 2-3m Tx. The range is perfect for base camp, we switch to simplex if we have a bunch of handhelds too far out from base, could likely gain range for HT's with a higher gain base antenna but I don't need it and this multi polarized wideband antenna is getting me great audio without LoS and better range in Canyons.Mobile Rigs can now venture off at great distances and keep coms, tow vehicle has 25W with 5/8 wave radio and I've got over 15 miles out, and from behind obstacles I didn't think would work like earthen dams. Anyone in base camp can communicate with the far-off mobile rigs with a simple handheld, audio is clear. This is great and just what I wanted, I can install nice radios with nice antennas in toys such as OHV's and Boats and still communicate with base camp over large distances.

Very impressed with the build and abilities of this repeater. Well designed and very functional. Once ordered you will receive a message from the company about any special programming you may desire. For me I simply wanted the typical GMRS repeater frequencies programmed into the unit. They said it may be 30 days before delivery but - for me it came withing about 10 days. Easy set up and worked great. Now just trying to locate a good high location for the repeater to be placed in an emergency. I would definitely recommend this repeater as a very good purchase and value.

I am starting off with a 4 star, I will edit in the future should it change. Repeater up and running for about a day now. Good coverage and noce clear audio.Shipping from Hong Kong was super quick less than 2 weeks. Retivis customer service resp were great making contact a few times.Only complaints so far, dodnt come programmed with the correct gmrs freq. However programming cable and a software download made short work of that. Antenna quality height and over all placement is more important that wattage anyway.So far I am happy with my purchase. Thank you retivis.

Out of the box this thing was ready to go. I was easily able to get my handhelds programmed and working with this repeater. We use it as a city wide repeater for my friends and family. It covers 5 square miles pretty effectively on a 40' tower with the Retevis base station antenna. I also had it deployed at a summer camp in a heavily forested area on a 20' pole and it worked very well for over a month. The unit only had to be rebooted once when the squelch got stuck open.All and all, this is a great starter for folks playing around with GMRS radio.

This repeater works out of the box. Power and hopefully a good antenna and location. Altitude of your antenna is essential. You are only getting about 5 watts out of the transmitter and duplexer. But no complaints. You get this unit high enough and you can attain really decent coverage. It would have been nice if they put a station identifier into the unit but it's really for quick and ready communications. Worth a buy. I hear a new version coming out soon...

Works great may have to get one more to cover all the nooks and crannies in our twenty square mile mountain ranch. Highly recommended.

I recently got back into radio, and figured I would set up a GMRS repeater. I bought the Retevis RT97s and have been pretty happy with it. The setup is easy. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be compatible with CHIRP, but it does have a Windows-based app for making programming changes.

Good for off-grid setups. The RT97s works wonderfully with my solar-powered system.

Durable in harsh conditions. I’ve been using the RT97s on a construction site for months, and it’s been flawless.

Perfect for local communications. I use it for family communications in a rural area. Great clarity!

Works great in valleys. Even in low spots, the RT97s has significantly improved our range.

Plug and play convenience. RT97S is incredibly easy to use. Just hook it up and it's good to go.

I love it. I have it hooked up temporarily until I can get my antenna on my roof. Great product. Small compact and easy to transfer over to my vehicle.

This increased our coverage from 3 miles to six miles/Coverage on a 35' push up pole on a silo.Really helped our portable radios along with increased our coverage in our vehicles from around 3 miles to 9 miles.Really great product and worth the buy.

Like Radio All Revis

Works perfectly for neighborhood communication

I currently have 2 of these repeaters. One I modified to by upgrading the duplexer to a larger unit and adding a 50watt amplifier on the TX side. The 2nd is a stock 5 watt. (actually about 8watts +\-). 2 things I discovered. 1st) make sure your repeater is set for Wide Band. The default programming is for Narrow Band. 2nd) have your duplexer re-tuned, after your receive it, for the specific channel you will be using. My TX and RX ranges increased significantly when I set the radio for Wide Band, and my TX and RX signals improved dramatically as well with a fresh tuning of the duplexer. I have my repeaters permanently linked together with the GMRSlive allstars link. My 50 watt unit is on a 5600ft mtn top in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It's range is about 70 +\- miles. I use the smaller 5watt unit from a ridge top to reach into a small mining community down in a steep narrow canyon. With this link, now these folks can communicate outside the canyon quite easily to family members on the highway heading down into the town. With no Cell service anywhere near these rural mountain communities, this is the perfect way to communicate. I love these repeaters and I'm planning on ordering 1 or 2 more over this year to expand my network of linked repeaters into other remote outlying areas.

it's on the air (gmrs) at 50ft + works great! about 4 miles to ht would like to connect the 9 pin to run android apps for ID etc it would be great if you offered a 50w max out repeater.

I bought a Retevis RT97S about 2 months ago and recently bought the speaker mic to go with it. I used it for the first time at a summer camp event this past weekend. It worked great! I used a home made J Pole antenna mounted on the snack bar. We used 6 Wouxum KG905 portables and one KG 935 portable as well. We used it to communicate with the entry gate, the golf carts for dispatching for transportation and the security folks. All this was done with it set on low power! The mic on the repeater sounded top of the line. Everything about it worked out just fine and it was everything I expected.

I purchased my RT97S six months ago and have it linked with MYGMRS. It is a great all-in-one solution for someone stepping into the hobby. I have a TRAM 1486 antenna (approx 25 feet high) married to the RT97S and easily get 5-15 miles coverage radius (range resulting from terrain around my area). I highly recommend this repeater for people who want to invest in a repeater solution on an appropriate budget.