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I have to concur that line of sight makes a huge difference. I live on a peninsula that sticks out far enough into the pacific ocean that I can pick up a repeater in Chula Vista, Ca. That's pretty close to 200 miles. It isn't always happening, but some times. It actually took me a bit of detective work to figure out where it was. I was flat amazed. But, I sit on top of a hill and there are no obstructions between me and the repeater. I have that repeater programmed just the novelty of it.

I just acquired a VX-4207-7-45 from an old school bus my dad use to work on 20 years ago. He passed away a few years ago and I just recently had the opportunity to snag this radio from the bus. I'd like to reprogram it for GMRS or something. where can I find the programing software?

Click on “My Repeaters” in the menu, then click “Add Repeater.”

I think the title says it all.

I just thought I would stop by and post a quick hello since I am new to this. I got my radio all installed and got my license from the FCC. Now it time to play and have fun here in the wet western Washington (Puyallup).

And we are using encryption on some of the Talk Groups.

Pulled up the repeater page for 725SHAWBUTE, and there's a comment there from another user a month or so ago about the repeater being down. Looks like they've had interference issues with a business repeater in the past, and someone causing issues as well, between the comments and the thread below. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/7946-soooo-rip-shawbute-i-guess/

That would be fantastic, Steve. Generous as usual. Thank you. Let me get the software up and running and I'll check back.

Gregg, I would be happy to help put together a codeplug for you/with you. You can listen to DMR on amateur radio.

You're lucky because you can use encryption too. Keeps the scanner kiddies away.

You need a codeplug specifically configured for your DM-32 and the DMR repeaters in your area. Since the DM-32 is relatively new and each radio's codeplug is different (except for OpenGD77, which are interchangeable), you need to contact some Ham or Ham Club in your area that has a DM-32 and has written a codeplug. When I was "younger" I used to look forward to these challenges to help strangers; now not so much, especially for radios that I have little or no respect for.

Got it. Thanks.

Here is a bit of audio from the testing on 8/29/25. BOBGMRSRADIORANGETESTS(EDITED).mp3.e56741ddf04e15cbf25a7008b3a045de.mp3

In the DMR mode the Part 90 Industrial/Business Radio Service

First before investing in any kind of radio for P25 monitoring, particularly for public safety, you want to make sure it's not encrypted. If it is you're hosed. You won't find any way to break the encryption normally used. Second it's not a trunked system. Some radios will NOT scan trunking systems unless they are registered/affiliated. That's can't happen without the system administrator of the system authorizing your radio on it, which likely 99.999% of the time won't happen. There are some ways to do what is called a "non affiliated" scan. It usually means some way to spoof the radio to think it's really on the trunking system. I have a buddy who managed to do that with some XTS2500's on 700/800 MHz to monitor his local PD. He's lucky they don't encrypt. It's usually the first item above that spoils the idea of monitoring.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. You stated you have Motorola DMR radios but don't have a HAM license. So on what service are you using those radios?

With the exception of CB Radio, FRS, Marine and Aviation in the United States, and IMS Spread Spectrum, I believe all services require some type of Station or Operator license.

I have a Baofeng DM-32UV, still in the box. I intend to configure the analog side for GMRS. I'll RX only on the digital side for now, but would like to know what I should be listening to. It's not a matter of how to program it, it's a matter of what to program, i.e. what should a DMR newbie be listening to? Is there a recommended beginner code plug?

Some scanners receive P25.

Not really. Ground is the reference for everything so lightning always wants to flow towards it, but you don’t want it going through your house to get there. Plus lightning isn’t very good at reversing its direction instantly. It would be different if lightning caused a long term voltage increase.

Okay, but on what service can you use DMR without a license? The only one I'm aware of is PMR446 in Europe.

Thanks for the reply. I will look at the link you gave. What you said confirms what I thought. The one thing that makes no sense that I always hear is not letting the lightning in your house yet that is essentially what is happening when you bond your lightning ground rod to your service ground. That creates a route into your breaker box. I will probably just move the ground wire for the service by putting a ground rod in the back of the house and bond everything together that way. That would be the shortest route and probably the easiest. That will get it off the water line. It looks like I should be able to do that.

The only reason I'm interested in P25 is to RX LEO/EMS frequencies to keep track of what's going on same as I monitor DPS on NFM. You'd be surprised at all the stuff going on on the roadways.

This is at least one of your problems. Imagine sitting next to a window air conditioner while your wife is talking to you at normal speaking voice from another room. Without the AC you would probably hear her. But with the AC, even though her voice is no quieter, the AC is making it very hard to hear her, because it's dominating your hearing. The radio that is transmitting TO the repeater is transmitting at maybe 5 to 15w. That's a very loud window air conditioner, to follow this example. The repeater is the quiet voice in another room. Your receiving radio is sitting next to the window air conditioner, in this example. It cannot "hear" the repeater because there's a very strong signal next to it. This is called de-sensing. The listening radio is desensitized by the overwhelming output of the nearby transmitting radio, preventing it from hearing the very distant radio (the repeater).