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Do you really trust open sourcee firmware?? Asking for johnny

Yes.. Review and comparison coming in a week or so.

I desided against the DM-32 after I confirmed that it cannot use OpenGD77 firmware. That has become a game changer for me in DMR.

Treadmills make great clothes hangers… A good way to get started is to pick up a Radioddity db20g and swap it to 2 meters and 70 cm. It’s inexpensive and versatile. Most people like them. It’s 20 watts but for those two bands that’s usually enough.

We are happy to announce we will be having a monthly test & tune day. This will help provide a platform for members to test radios, antennas, locations and things one needs to better further their knowledge of their GMRS radio operations. We hope once a month isn't enough and test & tunes will become the GMRS get out and find out days/weekends. More to come. Contact me if anyone has a day they might be testing. WSHD977 - Bob

My repeater is open to anyone that wants to use it, following rules of course.. And i do reserve the right to shut it down on the ocasional 'jack wad'.. Dosen't happen offten but it does and usually due to one 74 year old looser named Ron Antonson

Noted, Sir. I think I will go with two radios with a price point that is palatable and play. Having said that, I will continue to actively work the bands with the HT on an aerial antenna. Thank you for your time again. I just didnt want to get a radio(s) that would be next to the treadmill and bread maker in the garage....

Listing a repeater as "open" is typically taken to mean no permission is required. However, politeness is never out of style, and there's no harm in contacting the owner to say thanks.

It is polite to ask to use someone's repeater, I have several in my area I rarely hear anyone using but I have called for the owner when first using them, with permission then use it freely. 3's Greg

If you are a Broadnet member & have any technical issues with you equipment etc, send me email to wrmz361@gmail.com KE2AUM-WRMZ361-73

If it is listed as an Open Repeater, it is an open repeater and permission is not required. I wouldn't worry about it, just use it. Most repeater owners don't monitor their own repeater anyways unless it is the only repeater in that particular coverage area.

You also have SSB voice privileges on a portion of 10 meters: 28.300-28.500 MHz. Here’s the problem. VHF and UHF radio’s typically do not include 6 meters, even though 6 meters is technically VHF. But 6 meters is almost always included in HF radios, as is 10 meters. I would not try to buy a radio that includes just the bands you’re allowed.

Using an external antenna gets the antenna up higher and out of the metal box of the vehicle. I set up my wife with the Nagoya UT72 and a handheld microphone with an H3 radio. Makes using it much easier and gives much better range than the short antenna on the HT.

My mistake, I am guilty of being vague. I am looking for a station which can reasonably handle all bands I have voice privileges on (6m and up). Agreed the spectrum scope seems helpful. I am initially interested in building antennas. The contact thing will be fun once I find folks on the air but I need to spend more time searching for traffic instead of just 'scanning'. I programed my HT with all local repeaters within 25 miles but only heard one organized net one time. I am investigating the local HAM clubs.

Are you talking about UHF and VHF or HF which will allow you to grow? The Icom IC-7100 goes on sale from time to time for $899. It does all of the popular HF, VHF, and UHF amateur bands. The Yaesu FT-991A is another, but it’s incrementally more expensive. The color spectrum scope is nice though. If you’re really just talking about 2 meter and 70 cm, there are few purpose built “base stations” but many mobile stations that can easily be used in a fixed location. I would look at Icom, Yaesu, Alinco, and Kenwood, although it’s hard to find Kenwood now.

I got my tech license recently and I am excited to get going. I have a HT and find it interesting but I am looking for a budget friendly base station for the general bands I am authorized to use. Budget friendly means under $800 for a radio that has room for me to grow and not limiting in a short time. Thank you in advance for your suggestions. P.S. I have Radioddity and BTech GMRS bases, Radioddity and Bufwang HT's. I am not brand loyal so.....

They either mean what they say when they label it open or it’s not really open. I would use it without seeking permission but if you get a chance contact the owner to say thanks.

Should one ask for permission to use a repeater even if it is posted as "open system"? In passing by, I can see just using it for a short moment without permission, but if it is one I would use more frequent???

I'm not sure why, but cruise lines seem to go out of their way to block certain things. It's their world and laws don't really apply, they can do whatever they want. I recently took the Queen Mary 2 from New York to Southhampton UK, and was appalled to see what they were doing with the internet. If using "normal" internet things like google, Youboob, FB, Insta, tik, it works great, super fast (the boats main connection out is using Starlink). Anything else is choked off to about ISDN (1Mb) speeds but still somewhat functional. So if using your own email servers and not googles or outlook/microsofts, downloading email with attachments, is a minutes long experience. Commercial VPN's like Nord are all blocked, even their websites. I connect via my own private VPN back to my office and the std VPN ports are blocked. NP, as the IT person, I logged to the web admin interface at my office and changed my ports there and on my devices client. That worked for 2 days. After that it was blocked. I changed the ports again, after a few hours, blocked. I changed the connection type from IPSec to SSL VPN which uses normal web ports 443 to negotiate and that worked for another 2 days or so. After that they simply blocked my office IP address, not just for my device/login, for anyone on the boat and probably every Carnival boat (the boats parent owner/operator). I checked with my evening table mates (in my Tuxedo of course, it is the Queen Mary) nobody could even reach my website. So they have a short whitelist of sites that get normal speeds, a blacklist, and the vast majority of the internet is a greylist that gets choked off speeds. I seemed to have jumped from grey to black by simply using my private VPN tunnel to my office. Yep, your in their world.

Many of us have used hand held radios with an external antenna with good results. As others have said, getting the antenna outside of the vehicle is the biggest improvement you can make. Adaptor cables that go from SO239 to SMA are cheap and make connecting an external antenna to most hand held radios easy to do.

Our GMRS repeater is at least 100 miles away from any other repeater that uses the same channel and tones. I am 80 miles away from the other repeater. Normally there is not any issues. But when tropospheric ducting happens, one of the other repeaters can be heard at full strength and will also key up our repeater. I have another GMRS repeater that is 50 miles west of me. On occasion I talk to a guy that lives 150 miles east of me on that repeater that is 50 miles west of me. It's amazing how far you can reach when atmospheric conditions are just right. This goes for any band/frequency from HF all the way up to 900 MHz and higher.

thats true.. I ordered the DMR ver because i wanted to compare to my Hytera HP682. Also ordered a UV28 Plus on the analog side.

And less than half the price.

per the specs on Baofeng it looks to be the same radio minus DMR... It as the same zone and ch options, Which attracts me.

As has been said, you may get SOME additional punch through trees and what not at 20W over 5W, but the biggest thing is putting the antenna outside of the big metal box. The nice thing about it though is that with the antenna on the outside, not only does it improve your transmit range, but you'll be able to hear them from further away than you otherwise would as well, with a handheld inside the car without an external antenna. All that said, if staying in touch is super important to the group....if a large separation happens, have a plan for correcting that / regrouping.