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Well we have one guy who likes to drink and talk to himself and gets upset when no one wants to talk. I don't think he realizes that people have jobs.

Ham Study Org is pretty good.. I'm passing the General on it. I just need to schedule the test...

The flash cards each have references that can help you get as much background information you want. For me that was the fun part. I could go down a rabbit hole whenever I wanted. You’re going to do great.

I went on HamStudy.org last night and took a few practice tests. I finally got one where I was 26/35 which I guess would be passing. The electronics part is easy for me(Electronic Tech Degree, DeVry)but some of the legal stuff and other "HAM" stuff was a toss up. I'm sure with a bit of study I could pass. Thanks for the link.

Count it a blessing that you find it "rare" to have people "jabber jawing." In my AO on the local repeater, you'll have guys jaw jacking all night long about smoking meat or how many guitars they have. Last night it was about a local get together for BBQ. It reminds me of an old ICQ chatroom. And there are so many repeaters, they talk about leaving one to go to another because the traffic is too heavy on the one they are currently on.

Over use is just a factor that most GMRS messages over the airwaves are very short. Usually there aren't long conversations. It's "Honey I'm coming home, over" or "Where are you now and how long will this take, over". And then the call sign. It's rare when you have 2 people jabber jawing for more than 15 minutes at which time you should announce ID. Another reason is to get the other parties attention. It's not a telephone that alerts you a call is coming in. It just comes in. And if you aren't paying attention you might miss it. So announcing your call sign, then saying their name and maybe doing it twice because of no response from the 1st try you get multiple instances of IDing. And if the person fails to connect they'll usually sign off with their ID also. And that might just be the last ditch effort to get whoever you want to contact on the other ends attention.

Don't get me started... If you think the police are going to assume you're the good guy just because you bought a sash from Ebay, you don't know much about law enforcement. Save your money and learn how to behave after an unfortunate incident. At least using your callsign too much won't get you deleted.

It could be the Warrensburg repeater. https://mygmrs.com/repeater/5840. but it's private. I don't see any others close to Downs that are listed here or in Repeaterbook.

they list 6-8 radios that are compatible. I get that those radios are lacking and need help... My DMR experience has always been with Hytera radios and never had any of the problems programing.. I always preferred the CMS route with slight variations on the front panel. I will say that Baofeng's new CMS for their new digital radios is pretty impressive. I dont have the DM32 in my hands yet but the onliine videos reflect a positive experience both with CMS and front end programing.. I have had issues running Open source stuff in the past and more than once had rebuild after planted virus attacks.. GetHub and a couple other down load sites are getting good weedinig out these issues.. Im not knocking OpenGD77, just trying ot understand it and finally getting it..

What’s your definition of “very limited?” 10%?

I checked a couple days ago and Shaw Butte was back up. For how long is anyone's guess.

Sorry, I totally forgot I posted this question last night, I was a little drunk. But, my thinking was that it might be very useful to some people who use their radios for work, or off-roading, or what not. I think especially for like farm work or something like that. I just remember that back in the day a lot CB radios had that, and think it would be a nice feature to have. Not sure I personally would ever really need to use it (maybe when I do search and rescue it could come in handy).

Ha! So true.

Could be a lot of trees in the way and they're using a more powerful transmitter and antenna. Maybe your signal isn't strong enough to reach them. They might be using a Rx tone and can't hear you. Or they just don't want to talk to you like OffRoaderX said.

Or maybe they just dont want to talk to you.

All the digital voice modes have their pro’s and con’s. To start off research what seems to be popular in your area. That way when you buy equipment you’ll have someone to talk with on the air. Also look for sound samples of real digital voice communications using the mode you’re interested in. Some people have a hard time adjusting to the sound quality. Yes, you read that right, digital voice communication doesn’t sound exactly what you hear with just FM. Some people say certain digital voice modes sound better to their ears than others. That ultimately might really be due to the quality of the pre and post audio processing in a given radio. When it comes time to buy a radio the choices are reasonably good for some. Others you’re stuck buying new or used commercial radios since those are not manufactured in Ham specific gear. A lot of us here have various radios doing about every digital voice mode out there. We would be happy to make some equipment recommendations.

Yeah, I double/triple checked, then jumped over to a repeater and had a quick convo to make sure things were working there.... then jumped back to GMRS19, heard a conversation going on, waited for it to end and heard that someone was monitoring, so I jumped on and tried a signal check and *crickets*... so maybe its something else in the setup.

Sure, the other person might be out of range, maybe on the other side of the person you hear.

are you making a statement, or asking for help?

Usually, but not always. Its possible his antenna is not as good as yours, or he's transmitting with more power/from a better location than you are, or your antenna does not transmit as well.. It's also possible that he is using an RX code, so he only hears transmissions using that code/tone. Are you SURE it wasnt a repeater you were hearing?

Hello all, Still very new to GMRS. I was jumping on GMRS Channel 19 tonight as I heard some local traffic (not repeater traffic). I keyed up for a radio check, but got no response. If I can hear others, they should be able to hear me on Simplex, correct? Some of the traffic I was hearsing was definitely only one-sided... like I was only hearing one person in a conversation responding to questions. I'm not using any tones... is there a reason I'd only be able to hear one side of a conversation and no one could hear me?

mcleanilares.org

KA3BQE

I'm hoping to help integrate GMRS into the McLean Il ARES severe weather nets.