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11.76dB 4w > 60w

4 to 60 watts is nearly 11 dB. (4 to 40 is 10 dB).

There are more important concerns with GMRS use.

They have a mental/emotional defect that makes them crave power and control - often because in their life, they have none.

It kind of seems to me like so many GMRS users are eager to police what other people do on the air. Why?

It kind of seems to me like so many social GMRS users are eager to shout out their call signs on the air. Why? is it like a radio-cool thing? Or you just genuinely want to shout out your home address to goobers with mustard stains on their shorts? It’s also legal to run it off in fast CW and ASSUREDLY no GMRS users would know how to deal with it. Legal. Your license situation is between you and the FCC. You don’t need to share it with every mouth breather on the air…

If not friend, then why friend shaped? I think people underestimate moose, too. Saw a female moose and calf at a ski resort in Utah during the summer and the employees were trying to keep people far away from them. They are absolutely massive and have no problems stomping someone who gets too close.

If you're keying in the frequency, then you're probably on a channel that has transmit disabled or in VFO mode where some radios also have transmit disabled. Kerchunk is the sound you hear from the repeater when you press and release the push-to-talk button.

All valid reasons.

More elegant.. easier to move around, less hassle, less wires.. Most important: higher wife-acceptance factor when using on the kitchen table.

....penetration....penetration with or without lubrication, it won't change the price of noodles in Pandaland

I was in Sequoia a week or two ago and as we were driving around we came up on several people pulled off the road looking at a baby/small bear just off the road... Everyone was in their car.. except for ONE non-english speaking (spoke Russian or something) woman.. and her TODDLER trying to walk up to the bear to get pictures... Every time they got within about 5 yards the bear would trot away... I left before momma-bear came out to teach her a lesson about Darwin.

I spent 18 years in Alaska. You might be surprised how many people need to hear this.

Best advice on the internet, today!

Wow, this is great info! Thank you. I've just been testing my radios one at a time and seeing what they can pick up on the repeaters. I haven't tried any simplex between the two and have only had one active at a time. I'm not quite sure what "kerchunk" is... but I'll research it! When I go to get the info for my local repeaters from a site like '"Front Range GMRS" (as redirected from here), I just key in the frequency and then adjust the R-DCS to what is specified on the site. I'll run through all the local repeaters a few times a day, but I haven't heard anything. I'm sure I'm missing something. When you say "turn off the tones", would that be the R-DCS settings (sorry that is just the menu terminology in my radio), or is there another group you recommend? I'd eventually like to be able to use the radios with my buddies, but for now I'm just trying to get a handle on the ins and outs of how it all works. I don't think I want to get full into ham at the moment as I don't have the time/money/bandwidth to go that far. But, it'd be nice to have a tool for some crisis communications if I needed it, and for communicating with friends on trips when the need arises. The radio does have pre-programmed channels and repeaters (VFO/MR), but I've just been keying in stuff. Maybe I messed up all my settings and I need to factory reset to try again.... Thanks for all the info everyone, I appreciate it. it seems that "Front Range GMRS" does a thing on Friday nights on GMRS Channel 19 so people can check their radios and such. Perhaps I'll give that a shot tonight! Never have pushed the PTT button yet

Not knocking your plan, just curious. Why do you want an integrated unit instead of the less expensive (although admittedly less elegant) option of a separate radio and power supply?

I have noticed, though, that there's almost always someone monitoring a GMRS repeater, perhaps because they're personally owned and the owner monitors it.

When I was young, I wouldn't have followed this advice, but I'm older and if not wiser, at least I know a bit more. Don't go into remote areas alone. If you're traversing difficult terrain, do it one at a time so there'll be at least one party uninjured if an accident happens. Make sure someone who isn't going knows where you're going and when you expect to be back. If communication isn't impossible, arrange a check-in schedule with someone who isn't with you. Don't try to pet bears.

I totally agree with that, that’s great advice.

The repeater I can hear is quiet most of the day. It picks up around lunch and in the evenings but even then it was the same handful of guys who'd hop on to talk about food and complain about sports. Your radio should have repeater channels with offsets already programmed - you may just need to set the TX tone. You can always announce your call sign and ask for a radio check to see if anyone's listening - when I was fiddling with my antennas, I sometimes got a response from one of the regulars even if nobody was talking. If you're looking to talk to random people with a radio, the 2m/70cm ham repeaters around me get way more traffic. GMRS is geared more towards "I want to talk to people in my group" though some people use repeaters for random chat.

UV-5G and 5G Plus are GMRS radios and come configured with channels for repeaters that are already with the +5MHz offset. You should only have to add the tones. First, how are you testing? If you're testing by keying up one radio and wanting to hear yourself on another radio, that won't work. If the radios are within a block of each other, there's a good chance one is desensing the other. Think of it this way: If your wife is talking to you in a normal voice from the next room, you will hear her. Now turn on the window air conditioner in your room and keep listening. You can't hear her. Her voice is just as loud as before, but your ears and brain are desensitized by the fact that there's another loud noise nearby. Radios work similarly; if a radio is transmitting on 467.7000 (repeater input) at 5w and another is listening at 462.7000 (repeater output) only a few feet away, the dreaded "spurious emissions" and the "poor selectivity" of your radio are such that it's like the transmitting radio is shouting in its ears, so the listening radio cannot hear the repeater 20 miles away that is only whispering. So you have to adjust your test; someone needs to take the listening radio a block away. If you've done that and still aren't getting through, turn OFF the tones on your radio and keep them turned off for a few days of listening. Do you hear people occasionally? If yes, then your tones were probably wrong. If no, then you haven't learned much; it could just be a quiet repeater. If you determine your codes were wrong, check them again and enter them more carefully. Retest. What about a kerchunk? Do you hear that when you key up the repeater? If not, take antenna out of the mix. Get in your car and drive closer to the repeater. Set the tones that the repeater needs before you leave the house. Drive close to the repeater, and key it up. Do you hear the kerchunk? Yes? You're good. No? You're not configured correctly. Now let's assume you get the kerchunk meaning you're configured correctly. Drive back home. Now do you get it? Then your antenna is also adequate. Not getting it? You're out of range. A different antenna *may* help, but more probably won't help.

You need the T-DCS code to get into the repeater. You can hear everything the repeater transmits without an R-DCS. If you’re using a GMRS radio and you’re using a repeater channel the offset is automatically added.

Some people that has repeaters should check there mail for the ones that won’t repeater approval. Some hasn’t logged on in 6 months.

Thanks for the input and guidance everyone. Maybe I'm putting too much faith in an antenna and I just need to spend more time adjusting my frequencies, making sure I have the right tones, etc... Outside of NOAA and FM radio, I've only heard one other person on a repeater. Perhaps it's just a VERY quiet area. Do I need to worry about offset settings or anything? I just key in the local repeater frequencies and add R-DCS codes that show up on the sites... I thought maybe a better antenna would help. Still learning! Thanks everyone.