All Activity

Those are the "Sad Hams". They have been pissed off and angry for a long time since Thrifty Drug stores closed up so they can test their radio tubes with the tube tester and get a 5 cent ice cream cone at the same time.

The standard travel tone is 141.3Hz. If there is a repeater in the area that is designed for people traveling through this is the most likely tone it will be on. But as others have said there is no reason that it can't be on any of the other analog tones along with the digital tones. Lots of smaller shorter range repeaters held by people who only use them for their own families or small groups. In CT there seem to be 2 repeaters you can use. One in Glastonbury which is permission based only and the other in Holyoke, Ma that is open for you to use or join their little group. Lots more smaller repeaters with a lot less range if you know where to look.

I'm not sure why you find that GMRS would be any different than Amateur radio. Just like Amateur radio, GMRS repeaters are put on the air by various enthusiasts that are willing to invest there hard earned money and time for various reasons to accomplish some personal radio communication goals. Traveling throughout the country and finding available GMRS repeaters that are open for you to use without obtaining permission would be no different than the Amateur Radio world. For GMRS, you have mygmrs.com to obtain the locations, frequency, and tone information for repeaters and any pertinent information regarding the use of those repeaters just like you can find for the Amateur Radio world with ARRL or Repeater Book. Yes, there are more Amateur radio repeaters than GMRS repeaters and there are only 8 GMRS channel as compared to a Gazillion channel possibility with Amatrur radio. In most areas GMRS enthusiasts do a pretty good job with sharing the spectrum. For an example, in the Phoenix Area, there are about 13-15 GMRS repeaters that are spreadout through the Valley with frequent use and with Amateur Radio, there approx 30-35 2 Meter and approx 15-20 70 cm repeaters with very little use except for one 2 Meter repeater that has some activity and one or two 70 cm repeaters with occasional traffic. As for simplex traffic on the Amateur 2 Meter and 70 cm channels, it is very seldom that you hear anything on the designated simplex channels. As for GMRS simplex traffic, all 14 Interstitial and 8 Main 462 MHz channels are very heavily used throughout the day and there appears not to be any serious conflicts with co-channel uses . In my opinion, there is a lot of wasted Amateur 2 Meter and 70 cm, and probably the 1.25 M and 33 cm channels as well sit idle and are a total waste of spectrum resources and not being used efficiently.

GMRS has only 22 official channels to use. Out of those 8 are reserved for repeater operation, with the matching 8 input only frequencies. If there is no traffic on the output frequencies they can be used for simplex. Normally the purpose built GMRS radios have the channel frequencies builtin by the firmware. At best you can select which access tone to use. Various radios allow duplicates of the repeater channels with different tones to accommodate traveling around different areas. Also the repeater channels you find the builtin ones are set for a +5MHz split. However the current FCC rules allow any of the 8 input frequencies to be paired with any of the 8 output frequencies, which results in a non standard split. Most repeaters stick to the standard +5MHz.

Was having a great deal of difficulty accessing the programming for my new 935G Plus. After some searching, I found there is an actual program zip file for the 935G Plus on the buytwowayradios.com website as well as a driver that needs to be installed for the programming cable. I have included the buytwowayradios.com popular download link. Thought this might be helpful. Popular Downloads

There are no universal tones. By regulation GMRS repeaters are individually operated, unlike ham radio with its club licensing. As such each GMRS repeater operator can choose whatever tone they want. When traveling, a person should research what repeaters are available and program DIY channels for them. This site is probably the best resource for repeater information. Look at the map or the repeater database. Welcome to the forums!

Sorry if this topic has been discussed before, but I didn't see it covered exactly. Forgive the intrusion, but I see you are very active on the forum. I am a HAM operator and new GMRS user. To that end, I am curious as to the function of the 8 built in GMRS repeater channels. Is there a common key or input/output tone these need to be programmed with? Also, how does that work if there is not an established nationwide repeater network for GMRS? Meaning, how does one travel from State X to State Y and use the set repeater channels? It is merely luck of the draw if you happen to be close to a repeater or am I missing something? Thank you.. WSJL651

You are no doubt correct. The ham tests can be intimidating to some people. There really is a very, very, low barrier to entry in GMRS and no barrier at all for FRS. Honestly, the folks in the local amateur radio club near me have thus far been very friendly and welcoming. I've not met him yet, but I understand that there is a high school student in the club, so that is a positive sign... Still the majority of the membership seems overwhelmingly north of 60.

But the folks that put their cash and effort to put up Nesses 625 are having a gathering this weekend for the Hams & GMRS folks in Salley, SC for what I think is a equipment swap meet kind of thing. You going? They were just publizing it tonight. Vance 600 was mentioned also.

Why are you telling this to OP who already IS a licensed Ham?!? I am convinced that some of the members of this Forum think they get paid by their sheer number of posts!!

the lack of volunteer frequency coordination to manage the GMRS repeater spectrum will kill any chance the FCC will even come close to consider permitting linking. And i honestly don't think it would take to many complaints about bandwidth hogging to awake the FCC sending out a few letters to the BIG abusers. Especially with some of these guys whom blatantly advertise what they are doing while taking money to do it. They don't affect me so i quite making noise about it, but i have been in cities where these guys operate and i can see the problems they create.

...because too many of them tell lies and fairy-tales to make themselves look more important...

Not to mention that this thread is 2 years old.

Marc, while I believe that you had that conversation (I've never had reason to doubt you) and find it interesting, it isn't however the official reason the FCC put forth with their clarification. Thus I think using "sending voice over POTS / Broadband is considered theft of services" as an antiquated idea argument wont go very far. Perhaps that was the genesis of the reason some time ago for not linking GMRS but it's clearly not the reason they put forth recently in writing despite what this engineer says. It certainly is an easier argument to fight in this day and age it just isn't the one I think would sway the FCC because it dosn't address what they have publicly stated as the reason. In addition to violating Commission rules, linking repeaters is not in the public interest. Because GMRS spectrum is limited and used on a shared “commons” basis, the service only works well on a localized basis when users can hear each other and cooperate in the sharing of channels. Linking repeaters not only increases the potential for interference, but also uses up a limited spectrum resource over much larger areas than intended, limiting localized availability of the repeater channels. GMRS and the Family Radio Service (FRS), which share many of the GMRS channels, are intended for individuals such as family members and friends, scouting troops, emergency response groups, and hobbyists to communicate with each other over short distances, directly or through a repeater station. Linking repeaters, via the internet or other networks, undermines the purpose and usefulness of the GMRS and FRS.

Nice; appreciate it!

This ^ is correct. It's menu setting 21 & 22. MDF-A and MDF-B, hit the Menu button again to get the cursor down and then push the up or down arrow to toggle between Channel and Name. ETA: I see this has already been answered.

But that's in Chirp! You asked how to do it after uploading, so the answer was referring to using the radio's menu, i.e. pushing buttons. [Everyone should read the regs carefully yourself, not take advice from random internet people.]

Disclaimer: I'm still on CHIRP Legacy, so this may be different on the current/new CHIRP Open your UV5R file in CHIRP, click the Settings tab, then click Basic Settings, you'll see Display Mode (A) & Display Mode (B), click there, you'll have the choices of Name, Channel, Frequency Select Name, save your file, re-upload, & you won't have to go into the menu settings It's been my experience that on some, not all, radios, that if you change something in the settings through the menu, the radio doesn't/won't keep it If you make your edits in the software & upload them, the edits are remembered & kept YMMV 73

There is no rule or regulation that says these frequencies must be "transmit blocked", and, nobody asked anyway..Stop making up lies, its making you look ignorant.

Thank you OffRoaderX and Uncle Yoda. Its in Basic Settings, under Display Mode A and Display Mode B. Using the pull down menu, the selection is now set to NAME.

On my oldest UV-5R: menu 21 MDF-A, menu 22 MDF-B (A & B correspond to the 2 displayed channels) *All those things you mention need to be transmit blocked to stay w/in regs. And you need a ham license for talking on ham frequencies.

I do not recall the exact name of it, but there is a Menu Setting that you can change to show name, frequency or channel.. Might be called MDF or something like that.. Find it, then set it to 'name'.

Programmed a UV-5R using Chirp. The MURS, FRS, NOAA Weather Frequency, and GMRS and names are displayed on Chirp. In the MR setting, how may the names be displayed on the UV-5R after successfully uploading the image to the UV-5R? Thank you! WISC904

it is an investment,, But not as bad as you think. RVing is all we do for entertainment.. We don't spend money on airfares, ships or hotels, so we look at it as a tradeoff from one or the other. Also, RV's can be written off on your taxes, like a home and i also took advantage of Californias Solar program, 30% off a 1600 watt systems and even qualifed for a PG&E rebate beacause i was temporally living in an RV Park when i installed it ..