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It’s simple. If you’re not with a concerned group of people with utility of the GMRS service. Beat it… It’s not a radio AOL chat room. It’s concerned groups and families doing THINGS. Don’t clog up a repeater pair with your money if you’re not with that vibe. The technicians class and the 440 is SOOO available for you guys… And you’re right at home there. You can just pour over your latest dialysis treatments and all the rest, and they’ll hang on your every word. But the GMRS/FRS is just for the groups, friends, and families just trying to keep in touch in the field. It’s wives, 13 year old girls, and dads. If you made a repeater, and this type of traffic isn’t welcome, then actually… YOU need to vacate. Free up that repeater pair for the 5 watt repeaters that actually need to be there..

right, so *probably* not GMRS then.

Good afternoon gang. I live in VB around gate 5. I am cobbling together a small repeater but not sure if I can pull it off. Anyway, I am interested in a local group. I am hoping that we could build a community here to support getting a repeater on par with the Hampton repeater. Lets open the dialog see if this is viable.

this all makes sense. I surely must've been doing something wrong. The folks I heard on the repeater were doing signal checks and jumping to other repeaters to see if they could hear each other on the other repeaters as well. But, perhaps they just didn't want to respond to an unknown either! I thought I had the correct tones setup from our local page, but I never saw anything for CTCSS or DTCSS, only receive and transmit tones that corresponded to DCS settings. Good idea to try without the Receive tone.

As a possibly bothersome old man, I agree with some of your concerns. Hamification of GMRS is common and widespread and IMO needs to be addressed (but not everyone sees that as a problem). I disagree with you and Randy on using phonetics for callsigns; it's extremely hard to copy a callsign correctly without phonetics. Now you can say I don't need to know but callsigns are used to keep track of who is who (there may be several Steves and Bobs so first names alone aren't good enough). For those who only talk to family the behavior would be different.

Just a comment not meant to toll or support any points of view. I was brought into radio protocol via the military. The lessons are hard to break even after multiple boxes of crayons. It is almost pavlovian when I grab the radio. I have washed some of the terminology out but old habits die hard. You are welcome to ignore me or point out when I trip into military mode. P.S. I will not ask for a call sign

nope,, never once heard a call sign, just first names. Ch 3 seems to be most popular followed by Ch 7&18. I hear them on 18 as they hike (hitch hike)down to our local Walmart

No it’s not isolated. It’s anywhere. Through public repeaters and the home simplex that has tones. They scan the tones. The bothersome old men get involved..

Are they announcing call signs? If not, there's an above even chance that they're using FRS radios.

So, really it’s not the call sign, it’s that someone is trying to chat with your wife? Maybe he’s intrigued at hearing a female voice on the radio. Try using CTCSS or DCS so he can’t easily interrupt.

Yeah it’s label maker taped onto the radios. But when it’s just minutia communications between our party, why is some guy even trying to chat us up? it’s just like, go away,.. lol And to my original post. We could just be like beep beebeep beep bebeep bebeep beep beep bebeep.. That’s my call sign.. it doesn’t MATTER if you know it. The papers are in order with the FCC. Other users don’t really need to police it. Amateur radio users have the culture of self policing. This isn’t that. When I go fishing, I don’t walk the shore checking licenses..

So doesn’t your wife just use your call sign WSAK691?

any time I hear one of those retards I severely berate/make fun of them... ...as i mentioned earlier... many of these people have emotional/mental defects...

Well I suppose that’s sort of the predicate issue. The general use of GMRS as a social venue. And then expanded from there, the amount of people who want to shout “WHISKEY SIERRA UNIFORM BRAVO”,… Just conjuring images of them with a headset on at a submarine radio station… It’s a practical use band. Like, my wife and kids are camping. I think what most of you guys are MEANING to do is ham radio. And that’s 20mhz south on the dial. So why not just head on over there? You’re creeping out the casual folks just trying to use GMRS (women and children) who are trying to use GMRS correctly. My wife doesn’t need to be asked what her call sign is from some goof while I’m on my way back to the camp site with a bag of ice…

I was hoping to get a follow up after the original posters update since it seemed like they had positive results. I have read the various reviews and comments on tinted glass or heat lines so I’ve been hesitant to use this type of antenna set up. I’m currently using the Midland Ghost and have had good results but I have to run the cable btwn the two doors and across the door seal. I would like to clean up the wires and prevent any paint damage by switching to a glass mount. I also have a height restriction so even with the glass mount, the amount of antenna above the cab might be less than optimal. If there isn’t any feedback, I may just have to give it a try. How hard is it to remove the glass mount if it doesn’t work?

I'm afraid that I am not familiar enough with that topic to make a video about it..

LoL, exactly. Just like the panda and the hippo.

Why do I catch this nonsense first thing in the morning and feel compelled to even bother to say something? First off WTF are you talking about? Are you referring to someone putting out there call sign on a repeater to see if others are also on the repeater? You answered that question in your own before anyone else ever could, THEY ARE BEING SOCIAL It's sort of HOW THEY CHOSE TO USE THE SERVICE. WTF do you care? You decided to post about it here so it must really effect you. Do you loose sleep at might over it? Does it plague your dreams? Is effecting your performance in the bedroom? The cure for any and all of that is tuning your radio to a channel without a repeater and turning off the scan function. Then you will NOT hear those pesky SOCIAL GMRS users calling out their ID's morning noon and night being social. And Randy, if you are looking for a topic for a video how about No being a TROLL

I knew that when I wrote my response, I just didn't convey it correctly. In a rush while I was waiting for my last Physical Therapy session, I counted my multiplication factor of the 4 watts as the number of dBs with my fingers rather than the total dBs. That is what I get for rushing myself and using an android device.

Why does it bother you?

Having R-DCS set will block everything that isn’t transmitted with the same DCS code. Leaving R-DCS cleared out allows you to hear everything that is transmitted on that frequency. If you set T-DCS nobody will hear you except those who have a matching R-DCS or those who have no R-DCS. My recommendation for someone who isn’t hearing an expected response on a repeater is to leave the receive tone off but you must have the correct tone or code (remember there’s both CTCSS, which is a tone, and DTCSS, which is a digital code) when transmitting. You might also try getting closer to the repeater. Finally, not everyone using GMRS wants to respond to an unknown person on a repeater. Have your daughter take the other radio and walk a ways away and see if you can hear each other on the repeater.

Overuse of call signs are the guys that set their auto CW's on their repeaters every 15 mins of the hour regardless of traffic. Especially the ones that have to announce the date, time, temp, and city.. Crazy as hell

I have heard hikers on Pacific Crest Trail refer to the 'Rock House' several times.. Maybe one of the places they can charge..

I was not able to hit the Bushnell repeater from the Beef's parking lot Friday night for what it's worth.

Using it when you sign off is all that is required, I thought.