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I can see, especially on a repeater or a net, where - if you have fifteen different users with fifteen different roger beeps, AND the repeater might have some tones or squelches or something - it could be a little bit chaotic. But, on a quiet, simple repeater to immediately be told, with no tact, to "turn off your roger beep" is wild to me. Same vibes as the guy who wears the CCW sash. Calm down, Boss Hog. You'll get them Duke Boys one day.

I would but I'm probably putting this radio away in a faraday cage box so I can grab it and throw in the car. I selected option 3, a static burst that makes it sound like an old pro radio. The first two are double beeps, indistinguishable from one another to my ears. I'm not sure the static will get the same hate reaction. I would enable on my GMRS handhelds if they had it. If anything, even worse on ham. AFAIK, they just hate the sound. But repeaters that have a courtesy tone (not much different) are fine.

Just pull it out to the length needed for 6 m. Use an analyzer to tune it, mark it, and return to that length when you want.

To your first question, that would depend entirely on the person on whose repeater you are speaking. With the GMRS license, your whole family is allowed to use the radio. I think you are correct in wondering about the rest of the users wanting/not wanting to hear you and your daughter talk. It is a courteous thought. My advise would be to key up and ask when you hear traffic. Make sure your daughter knows basic radio etiquette see how it goes. I routinely speak with my daughters but we use simplex and tones to ensure they don't hear any untoward traffic that may be out there. To your second question, short answer is "no." There's not a way to filter incoming RX from the repeater. In for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak.

Actually, the only people that won’t talk to you if you have a Roger beep are the folks who want to control others’ use of the Roger beep. I would rather talk to the other people anyway.

Someone should make one of these for 6m.

I've often wondered the same thing.

It is interesting to me that so many people in the GMRS community, if one can call it that, have such strong opinions about something so silly. Is it because CB bois use it and GMRS people are much more serious "radio operators?" What's the aversion? I really don't get it.

Let me know which one gets the most reactions.

I'll have to look those 2 up, thanks.

I have used OpenGD77 and OpenUV380 many times without any problem finding the right com port. Have you loaded the correct driver for the cable? When you plug in the cable, watch in Device Manager to see which com port is created.

I am having problems Upgrading my DMR 1701 to Open GD 77. It will not find a COM PORT for uploading. Please advise if anyone has ever had this issue and how to remedy it. If anyone has a good download for it. Thank you.

Regulations wise? So long as they're not doing anything else wrong, no problem. As far as the owners of the network are concerned? You'd have to read into it / talk to them about it. I've seen all sorts of weird rules for 'mah repeatah!!!!' Nope. Generally, the 'rebroadcasting to the network' part doesn't happen on your radio's end, but on the linked repeater end.

Regulations permit your child to use your GMRS radio including talking on the repeater. Anything other than that would be the personal preferences of the repeater owner. If the repeater is linked to other repeaters you’re stuck hearing the link traffic.

The Diamond SRH999 and SRH940 both include 6 meters.

Yep, same

Like said the minute (insignificant) drop in wattage wouldn't be noticed on the receiving end but I would be curious to if it is lower than 12.9 on transmit. 3's Greg

I hope everything went well and you heal quickly. Don't rush physical therapy or try to use your shoulder too soon. I'm running a Comet GP-9 dual band antenna and its base is at 22 feet above the ground mounted on some 1 5/8" fence posts that are anchored to the house. Our club's repeaters are 22.5 miles away with the antennas up on a tall radio station tower. I'm running a Comet CA-712EFC with the base at 20 feet above ground with my Wouxun KG-1000G. With this setup I can easily get into the 2m repeater with my Icom IC-2730 set on low power (5 watts). And the other people can't tell if I'm running 5 watts or 50 watts when using the 2730 and the GP-9. Using a hand held around the yard is a different story since I am low to the ground and using the short HT antenna. I have to use a minimum of 20 watts to get a good readable signal into the 70cm and GMRS repeaters. I can sometimes get into the GMRS repeater with a HT out in the yard if I am facing the direction of the tower but it's not a strong signal. I can't get into the 70cm repeater at all with a HT. The 2m and 70cm repeaters use the same antennas which are at 900 feet and the GMRS antennas are at 400-450 feet. Cross band repeat works well around the yard for me. Another good use is if you are traveling with a group and there is only on mobile radio but several hand held radios.

Oh, yeah, I can get days on a 3,800 mAh battery if it's mostly on standby. With regular use, about 3 x 8 hr days. Or, I guess 24 hrs straight through, if you have enough stamina for that.

Well I suppose it was two questions, first being how big of a deal it is if my kid is talking back and forth with me on this repeater network and second would be if there's a way to limit my transmissions to just the local repeater and not get and receive everything from the rest of the network. I have both send and receive ctcss codes to that local repeater but that doesn't seem to limit anything.

I don't know how the airwaves are where you live, but here it's unnecessary to have "privacy" (they aren't) codes engaged on all channels. There's not enough traffic to keep me from communicating with friends and family, and with a DCS tone engaged, you won't be able to hear anyone else on the channel. The UV-5r has plenty of memory slots. I have the GMRS/FRS channels "bare" and another set of just the GMRS channels with codes engaged. If I'm talking to family, they'll have gotten the radios from me, so we can communicate on the coded frequencies if we feel the need. FRS channels 8-14 are restricted to 0.5 watt. The UV-5r is nominally 1 watt on low power, although a lot of times it's less. I recommend you set the power on 8-14 on low and then try to avoid using them unless you really have to. Most likely, nobody will notice 1 watt vs 0.5 watt, but it's the polite thing to do.

I've been trying for months to get an antenna mast up outdoors, but it's one thing after another. Most recently I had shoulder surgery and won't be able to lift anything heavy for several months. Right now, I'm using a mag mount on a pizza plate, so crossbanding won't give me much more than I get from my HT. If I had a good antenna on a 40' mast, I might find a use for crossbanding.

I was responding to the points being made about repeaters being expensive and bulky. In some circumstances, you might get better distance even without the repeater. I've done that a couple of times on ham just to get the feel of it, but so far, I haven't had circumstances where I felt the need. I hadn't thought of that, but if there were lowband GMRS channels, I'm sure someone would start making radios capable of crossband repeat.

The main issue I see is finding a 6M antenna for an HT. There's plenty of HT size 27MHz CB antennas to be had but nothing for 6M/50MHz that I can find.