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Well done!! Enjoy GMRS!

WSJV 482 here! Made my first contact today in Waynesville, NC! Didn't get his callsign but at least I finally hit a repeater!!

If I get up at 3 am it’s to use the WC.

Yep, had most of that for a long time. I don't agree on some of the survivalist/prepper frequencies - we have to work that out for ourselves and our locale. I can see somebody misreading that and getting up at 3AM to use the CB.

Do you hear this noise when the repeater is turned off?

Interesting potential modification of the GM-15pro/UV-13/Radioddity GM30. Would be curious if the GM-15pro keeps it's sync function after the firmware modification. https://youtu.be/G44BtmgYqhw?si=4Ni5-nVrD4FNZB_P

Yeah, yeah and use lag bolts with construction glue! lol

If you have a smart phone the mapping software likely has a GPS feature allowing you to get your current coordinates.

Well, maybe some logging equipment as there isn't a bit of farmland in quite some distance, well beyond the repeater. I here's a google maps pin of nearish were we tried the repeater. To further add some details, we would hear this noise on 20 or 22 repeater only with our without privacy. https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZKxaU34Jv3kgCZ7y9 <-approximate repeater location

Easy way to test is stick a thick sheet of plastic under the antenna magnetic base while the vehicle is stationary. If the match still looks OK then the glue won't make much of a difference.

Honestly if you’re going to do anything that’s more permanent than peel and stick you should really just punch a hole and install a through-hole NMO mount like @gortex2 showed.

You have probably seen this but for what it's worth, I passed this info around my contacts https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/shtf-survivalist-radio-frequency-list/

If we are going that far....braze a plate down.

That is the sound of telemetry data, while listening to it with an analog receiver. Its very common to hear on FRS/GMRS channels in rural areas where farming is mostly still family run and they don't have big budgets for automated monitoring and control systems.

Sounds like you are trying to connect to AOL by phone.

It was a very strong signal and discernible from the predicted ranges of the repeater even when voice didn't work. We tested the radios with straight gmrs (not using the repeater) and the tone never showed up. The strange sound appeared with Privacy Tones On or Off. As far as the SWR, he said it was "off the charts" on the Slim Jim Antenna and when he tested his fiberglass antenna back at the farm it read "8" However, the SWR was not for UHF so those results should probably be ignored. So far he's not been able to reproduce the tone back at the farm. Same repeater, same portable battery, same coax, and slim jim Antenna. So far though, I appreciate the help.

IDK, I have a few "POS Pandaland" antennas, and they seem ok... (at least for my purposes). At 460Mhz a 1/4 wave whip on an NMO mount is electrically very simple (no loading coils, etc.). It's not that the SWR doesn't change from the resonate apex of the tuned bell curve, it is a matter of how much it changes and if that change falls outside of a safe operating range or results in a humanly noticeable performance degradation. I'm no metallurgist, and perhaps there is much I don't understand on this topic, but at the relatively low <=50-watt power level used in GMRS, it would seem that a minor materials differences between a Pandaland vs other name brand whip antenna would have a negligible impact and be functionally imperceptible in most real-world scenarios. Anyway, that has been my experience. All I'm saying is that sometimes it is ok to give a Panda a chance!!

That does not sound right. Was the signal of the noise strong, like it was coming from the repeater, or was it weak like it was something far away? ..and, poor SWR would have nothing to do with this noise, but what do you mean by "strange results"? What was the SWR reading? and what do you mean by "more specific meter"?

Yup, I noticed that, so I registered and trying again with a direct upload and a link from G drive. Offending audio in question linked and attached here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cuIFnbH_eVS-tK4AAoTZZDrSx75JxyJJ/view?usp=drive_link Between the two it should be ok. My friend did hook the antenna system up to an SWR and was getting strange results. To the point where he's ordering a more specific meter. Sep 7 at 11-37.m4a

Perhaps an iron or aluminum bearing epoxy would negate that issue. I don’t know of any commercial epoxies that contain aluminum powder, but JBWeld has iron powder in it.

The BTech UV-5x3 is a tri-band Ham Radio that also supports the 220 MHz band and has some nice programming features over my older Baofeng UV-5Rx3. I do not know if the 5x3 supports transmission on GMRS.

Thank you Gregg and Lscott. Very helpful. The GM-15 is also currently on sale in the preferred colorway. much appreciated.

Depends on how much you use. The magnet mount depends on the capacitive coupling from the base to the sheet metal for the ground plane connection. Adding in a layer of glue increases the thickness and thus reducing the coupling. This could mess up the match.

That’s great. And when I spoke about participating I certainly didn’t mean contests and things like that, but rather engaging with leadership of the ARRL at the local level and higher to help them know how best to serve us. Contests might be a lot of fun (I haven’t participated in contests either) also but I consider the work they do to inform us of legislation and intercede with our government representatives to be their most important work.

Yeah, same with the bug zapper. They end up in the collection tray on the bottom sooner or later, but they seem they just can't help themselves. After a while of spending money on CCR's many people end up buying a much higher price radio. I like to tell people looking at the CCR's, cheap Chinese radios, you get what you pay for, and often not even that.