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Permission to ask a potentially stupid question? Why would one have a "couple" of G90's? I understand redundancy. "One is none, two is one" kind of thing, but outside of that, what don't I know? Go easy, I'm new.

No WiFi where my repeater is.

6M is still VHF, it's just low VHF 50.0 to 54.0 MHz. 6m is generally good for local communication but is definitely hit or miss when it comes to long distance coms. It isn't called the magic band for nothing. Too bad the Xiegu G90 does not have 6m capabilities. I have a couple G90s and they work great for a 20 watt radio. I get comments on how my audio sounds all of the time. And I have worked stations with it and good resonant antenna that guys running a 100 watt radio with a not so good antenna don't hear. My next project is to mount a 15" portable monitor, TYT TH-7800, mini PC, and a couple of 10 AH batteries into an Apache 5800 case for portable WINLINK.

That's what I use to turn my repeater on/off.. Costed $22, took 30 seconds to setup, and I can control it from anywhere.

I had been addressing my three kids as "you jokers, smokers, and midnight tokers", which was fun until my 7 year old asked what a midnight toker was. Didn't think my cunning plan all the way through. I just said "it's from a song" and played Steve Miller Band until he quit asking questions.

And if your repeater is AC power based (as many are) just get a wifi smart plug. Easy Peasy.

AHHHH......WHAT..?????

That's where my head is right now, too. I'm very much looking forward to it. I've been watching Mike over on Ham Radio Tube and am currently obsessed with his G90 "Go-Box." As we plan to RV full time in the not too distant future, a Pelican case with a HAM radio in it and a portable antenna solution seems ideal. Glad you figured out the whole idea of "offsets." I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure them out.

They aren't cheap Amazon LED light bulbs but the LED fixture in my hallway bathroom from Home Depot? Great Googley Moogely! Traffic comes in to my HT clear as a bell, all day and night. But let somebody go in that bathroom and turn the light on? White noise on HT. Big time! The first time it happened, I thought the radio had failed or the antenna broke.

To the OP, I am somewhat in the same boat. My best guess, as it is something that I am only as of late learning myself, is that you are not hitting the repeater. I hear traffic from my local repeater all day and night. I've tried to work it with my HT and have had zero success. I've had simplex contacts out to about 3 miles, but the repeater is much, much further than that. And even though it is atop a mountain, I have no luck. I've decided to move up to a 50w radio and bigger antenna to try my luck.

Well, if reddit is to be believed, there's a bit of a grass roots uprising against them. Time will tell but I shan't be holding my breath, one way or the other.

"This long" has only been about three weeks. I've been a CB guy for the past three decades and didn't even really know what GMRS was until about 4 months ago. All I ever really used it for was communicating with OTR drivers when I was also on the road. Occasionally used it when offroad with others, but largely on the Interstates. I was largely ignorant of "skip" and the "Kilowatt Klub." I started looking into GMRS and HAM with interest about two months ago. Largely informed based on your videos, by the way. As I am, by nature, a rule follower, I made sure to cross the "t's" and dot the "i's." But once I really started to get my mind around the hyper-focused, local nature of what GMRS was and put that up against the absolutel impossibility for any federal agency to monitor it, I realized what a piper tiger it all was.

I went outside with my longer 771 antennas on 3 of my radios(AR-5RM, BF-F8HP Pro, and UV-K61) and the 3" antenna on my UV-5R and the longer antennas hit about 5 or 6 of the programmed repeaters, the UV-5R hit about 3 which I think is still pretty good for being in the 'burbs and miles away from the White Tanks. I can't wait to give 6M a try with the RT-880. If I could get 15 or 20 miles Simplex I'd be happy since 6M should skip a bit and not have to totally be Line of Sight like VHF/UHF is. I'm so glad I got my HAM Tech. License. This opens up a lot more Frequencies to play with vs GMRS/MURS.

Good job getting that all configured! And congratulations on your new call sign KM7BVY.

There are a lot of variables to take into account. But it doesn't surprise me about you having a weak signal with an HT inside the house. Metal buildings, metal roofs, old wood lath and plaster walls with chicken wire, bad electric wiring, etc can play havoc on radio signals. And the cheap Amazon LED light bulbs can be very noisy too.

I guess I've got everything programmed properly. I was getting automated returns from some of the local Repeaters and I even got a call back from a YL that said I had a weak signal with a lot of static, go figure, I'm using my BF-F8HP Pro from inside the house. I'm sure it's only pushing 5 or so watts. At least the HAM Repeaters are in operation, no deal for the Shaw Butte GMRS Repeater, it's still down and out.

I checked and everything was ok. I'm going to try to make my first contact. KM7BVY Over and Out. 73's.

30 Mile LOS requires a 600 ft elevation approx. Pretty sure that's not going to happen with him. 100' which is reasonable is still only about 12-15 miles.

Thanks guys. I guess I will have to work on getting my tower taller.

Yes that chart can definitely confuse people. It shows both 1.00 MHz and 1.6 MHz split for the 1.25m/220 MHz band.

Yes GMRS Live has been shut down and also why you can't download the software anymore. If you really do not care about the FCC rules then you can always try and get an Allstar node with a UHF SA818 radio to work for GMRS. But good luck with that one since Allstar Link and Allmon3 are written specifically for use on amateur bands. You are overcomplicating things and also are going to spend more money than needed. Just go with a single repeater along with a good commercial antenna. And get the antenna up as high as you can get it. Also make sure to use quality coax to connect the repeater and antenna.

Thanks....I probably should have read the submission date on the FCC site. My attention span continiues to diminish.... G

There is now an H-8 version 3 out there now that has airband and bluetooth programming like the H3. I recently bought one. It is nice to have the extra power, and the larger kepad is nice at times. But the H-8 still does not have a usb-c programming connection like the H3. It also does not have the two PTT buttons like the H3 has. Sometimes I like the larger design and sometimes the smaller H3 is more convenient. So I like and find both to be useful. Oh and I was also able to wireless transfer my codeplug in the H-3 into the H-8 very quickly and easily.

He only just submitted it 12 hours ago. The electrons haven’t cooled down yet.

I have fun running various OS's in a VM. I haven't had any luck getting Mac OS X Sequoia VM to work yet, kernel panics. Sierra seems to run OK. I use Tumbleweed when on the Internet, like now.