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Hello all! New user here. Recently purchased the dual pack of GM30 plus units. Since I live in “the suburbs” with lots of folliage, and houses and whatnot, about 10 miles from my city center (Dallas for those who care) I figure getting an antenna up on my rooftop is my next order of business. Hardline with some unobtanium antenna is the “best”, but for those of us who want to pick a price point and go… Where is the division between cabling cost vs antenna cost? 50/50? Does an $80 antenna with RG8 make more fars than a $20 antenna with LMR400? Or vice versa? Do I bother with N connectors for something like this, or, since I’m just going to SMA, do I just get something thin and not bother? My particular application calls for about 50 feet of cable to get to the top of my chimney, and I’m hoping to budget around $100 on this simple setup.

If you are looking for a way to use a "travel tone" on your radio when YOU travel, so you have access to the local repeaters, then I would suggest that you set up additional (new ) channels on your radio, with the same channel numbers that you use at home, but program these with the "travel tone" and use those when traveling. You can name the new channels as T-20R, T-2R1 etc. Whatever will help you differentiate them from your 'home' channels.

Ahh,, So if you access your contacts via your Phone Icon, you don't see the 'Share My Location' option.. You only see it when you select your 'Contacts' Icon... I've always accesed my contacts via the phone app.. Interesting.

@SteveShannon, self-explanatory they largely are—I guess my bleary-eyed brain at almost midnight eastern last night hadn’t thought of the dropdown in the repeater creation page. Thanks for posting that for us all!

As in much of life the easiest way to find out is to try it. So, I started to add a repeater and then cancelled after discovering what the drop down list contains. I think they’re self explanatory:

First off, before I even get to the question, gotta say, from a mapping and data perspective (my day job), awesome job overall on the site! I was wondering, really just curiosity, what are the possible options for, and definitions of those options, in the “Repeater Type” field? I’ve seen Open System, Permission Required, and Members Only, but I was wondering (even with these being largely self-explanatory) if those are the only possible types, or if there’s more, or detailed definitions for the types.

Great Information! I am currently studying for my license. Yes, I listen to the Nets Hear in CT and the reach is far. I know that the Bears Club repeater has a far reach up north and into Rhode Island at time. I can't wait to get my license!

Once you turn on the ability to use repeaters, the Garmin Rino turns off digital data. Last choice on the contact ^. Right after “Add to Emergency Contacts”

Yes all APRS radios will send location data when operating in APRS mode.

Yea I'm familiar with the Find Me app but i don't think it works with phone calls or off your phone directory. In fact, i just checked my phone directory and i don't see a 'share my location' however i do on the find me App. I don't think Find Me provide a bread crump option like the Rino. I've used the Garmin Rino's but never through a repeater. The Rino has a bread crumb feature but you have to upload through their map program, i forget what it was called. I remember it was kind of a pain.. The phone app we used (i think it was Log GPS) was pretty cool, we used it at work for a ton of things, even for logging USA fiber routes. It tied into your camera and you phone log. The app we used was somewhat custom also, It has an option. if you are code savvy, to write some of your own parameters. ... We had someone that did that for us.

Curious. Do any ham radios have gos and save/transmit location data?

You don’t really need an additional app with Apple. You can simply go to a person in your contacts and choose the last option “Share my location”. For the Garmin Rino if you transmit to a repeater or if you select the option not to share your location the radio won’t. The first is required in order to comply with regulations. The second is (as I pointed out earlier) simply an option.

The RINO (not Republican ) sends your GPS position each time you xtmt to other RINO users and vis versa. Apple has an App that does the same thing on iphone's, each user has to have it installed and set up in their call directory, it adds a toggle to include people in your direcoty to your locate list. It does some other cool things like include coordinates on pictures with time stamps and an export tool to upload to Google Maps.. We used it at work a lot for outside plant stuff.

Yes, the Garmin Rino. I don’t know whether the location is stored in memory unless you activate breadcrumbs or create waypoints, but your instantaneous location is live at any given time. But you can tell it not to share your location.

My repeater has a 3 second hang time. Also, I use DPL 047 in/out and the station operates narrowband.

Appreciate the info. From what I've read I intend to look into Wouxun and Baofengs to start.

Looking at the map on mygmrs, the only repeater I see that has coverage in your area is the Mesa Tumbleweed repeater. But you will have to either request permission and the PL tones or try to scan for them. And you might not even pick that one up depending on your exact location.

Hi I am new to the GMRS Family, and I am trying to find repeaters that provide great range when I travel from Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

And far more often than not, user error / misconfiguration stemming from not understanding how 'privacy tones' (I know, I know...) work.

This is not an issue. All GMRS radios/brands manufactured after 2017 can communicate with all other GMRS radios/brands, and most manufactured before 2017 can also. There may be isolated incidents of one radio not talking to another radio, but those are.. isolated...

A true GMRS radio is not that complicated; you switch to a channel (1-22), make sure that neither radio has tones enabled, and then just start talking. If you add a tone (CTCSS / PL, or DCS), you will need both radios to use the same tone. Midland gives its tones different numbers than other manufacturers, so you might have to look up in a crossreference table in the manual if you have a Midland. That's it for radio-to-radio communications. All GMRS radios should be compatible with all others at this level. Then getting into repeaters, you'll need to select the correct repeater channel (sometimes named 15R, through 22R, sometimes R1-R8, sometimes R23-R30), and the correct tones for that repeater. But any repeater-capable GMRS radio will work about the same way, and all should be compatible so long as they support repeaters in general.

A lot of these complications are likely related to privacy tones or something similar. I have radios from several different companies and have not had any issues. (Wouxun, Tidradio, Motorola, and yes, too many Baofengs)

“I’ll alert the Media!” - Hobson in “Arthur”

Welcome!! Scan the 8 repeater channels for local activity Use the Repeater Map and Database on this website