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Welcome to the GMRS fam, brotha! Glad to have you. I can't get out to most of the repeaters you monitor, but I'm always monitoring Brentwood 600, if you're able to get out to that one. As a matter of fact, this club has a check-in net on that repeater on Wednesday evenings at 8pm. So key up over there with us whenever you're available and if you can hit that one. I also may be able to make contact with ya via Lebanon 675. Glad to test that sometime with ya. Hopefully I can hit the repeaters a little further south once i get my antenna and base station (finally) setup.

We get these on Channel 15 and Channel 21. We live near the Major theme parks

a small slice of 80 meters as well.

Not continuously.

I don't know. That's something that I can't answer. Text messages are short and the burst is very short.

I thought I read that it could be modded for 3 power levels not just 2w and 50w..but can't find the info now. Did I just dream this or? Thanks

Then add in network linking things get more involved. My pet peeve with DMR repeaters are the frequency of changing of supported talk groups and networks. Some are rather extensive systems. See attached file for an example. I've spent hours reworking some of my DMR radio codes plugs due to changes. Then a few weeks, or months later, it's all changed around again. Further trying to find the current configuration may not be easy. Some repeater owners/operators just changes things and don't document it. Some I've just given up on, too many changes. While I like DMR the frequency of changes, and no coherent place to look for them, takes the shine off the mode. In fact it could turn people off to using it altogether. N8NOE.pdf

I would take the gfci outlet to Lowes or Home Depot and purchase a different make or model and see if that doesn't help. Some of the newer ones are less susceptible to this.

Hey guys! I’m new to GMRS, just got my callsign almost a week ago. I work in armed security and get bored so I’m always listening. i currently live in Bradyville and I work in Smyrna, Murfreesboro and sometimes get sent out to other odd locations and cities. i monitor Rutherford650 the most as well as the Woodbury (chainsaw575) please talk! I love banter and to listen!

I agree that it is courteous to ask for permission to use open repeaters. But it's definitely not required. As the custodian of our GMRS repeater that is open, I always try to approve requests to use our repeater when I receive them. If they are courteous enough to ask then I will be courteous enough to grant permission quickly.

Local ham fest's are another good place to look for used equipment. There are pluses and minuses on buying a shack in the box radio that does everything. One major downside is if something goes wrong then you lose everything at once. Another negative is that shack in the box radios are Jacks of alll trades but masters of none. The big plus is that you only need one radio. I personally prefer separate radios for home use. You also have CW privileges on 15m and 40m as a technician along with 10m AM/SSB, CW, and 10m digital modes. Since you recently got your tech license, now is the time to study for and take your general test as everything is still fresh in your memory. There really isn't much differences between the tech and general tests. Like any hobby, radio can get expensive if you let it. There are so many different things you can do with an amateur license, especially once you step up to general or extra.

Channel Banks are a big reason why I really like the BF-F8HP Pro. I like to scan Public Safety channels but I also like to scan Airbands. With Banks I can set each Bank up to scan and move to that Bank when needed. All in all though the K61 is 99% of what the AR-5RM is at a lower price point which lets people get more radios for their group for the same money. Bottom line, I'm just a Radio Dork with an addiction to radios.

With me, and I'm not sure how guilty I may be, but if I do it's habit. A habit, because it's required on my work radio. It's only natural that some of those habits follow me. In my case, I'm usually checking for warrants. CCSD -Britt

I have two Wouxun KG-1000G Plus GMRS Base/Mobile radios for sale. They have been used on a bench for about 2 hours each. They are in like-new condition. Great radios, but I just didn't use them enough to justify having one, never mind having 2. Asking $300 shipped each. I will include the $15 programming cable with each radio. I am in North County, San Diego. Email address is mare-clave-2k@icloud.com. Reach out via email if you are interested or have any questions.

Kinda same, honestly. Unless I'm testing out a new radio or install, I basically never talk on the radio to talk on the radio. We're at the track or strung out along a hiking trail or in a group of vehicles driving somewhere and we need to talk amongst our group, not really to anyone else. Other people on frequency means we're moving to our secondary channel haha

Okay. I think I'll be Covey Leader and Raven. . From Rambo.

If I hear any kind of chatter, I go to another GMRS channel. I have only set up privacy codes on two channels, One CTCSS and the other DCS. These were for my own education. I haven't really tried repeaters yet and try using FRS first, then GMRS. And all this is deep in the Cherokee National Forest. So I've heard nothing. It's not that I'm unfriendly. I just don't want everyone to know where my stands and game cameras are.

I have a Quansheng UV-K5 (8) running a custom firmware. These are neat radios than can do quite a lot. With the proper firmware, they will even do double side band on the 2m band. I don't know about your radio but there are add on boards for the Quansheng to allow it to transmit on HF. I haven't tore into mine yet to add the board and second antenna.

I know when repeaters can have issues when setup for both analog and DMR if not done correctly. Whoever setup our 70cm repeaters for both analog and DMR didn't get things right and we had nothing but issues with the entire setup.

And if you bought a mobile unit you would have to purchase some sort of antenna anyway. This is a good way to prep yourself for the upcoming upgrade to a mobile unit in the future.

Thanks, everyone for the excellent advice! Much appreciated! I decided to purchase a mag-mount antenna for myself. It will give me the additional flexibility of being able to put it on another vehicle, in case I'm driving the church van with a bunch of boys and dads, instead of my personal vehicle. Plus, it was a lot less expensive than the mobile unit! Maybe I'll eventually be able to convince the other dads to invest in one as well (first have to convince them to get their own handhelds and license!) Thanks again!

I agree with you. Its place in my lineup is as an EDC general-purpose radio. IMO, the UV-5r/BF-F8hp is too small to manipulate easily. It's fine if I don't need to change anything, but the tiny screen and buttons make it a pain to work with "on the fly". The AR-5RM/5RH Pro GPS has a larger screen and buttons but is too large to carry easily. It needs a belt case, or at least a clip, but I prefer to be able to carry it in a pocket. The K61 is intermediate in size, making it easy to deal with if I want to change something, but still small enough to carry in a pocket. I like the color screen of the 5RM, but it's really hard to see in bright sunlight. The K61 screen doesn't wash out much in bright light. It stores 999 channels, meaning I don't have to decide what to leave out vs the 5RM channels. I still like the 5RH Pro GPS best because I can store the channels in banks, but if I'm going to carry the radio quite a bit, I go with the K61. Edited to add: I forgot to mention that in addition to 70cm, 2m, GMRS, and MURS, it works on the 1.25 meter band, which I do use.

I have been surfing the net and have not found a download for programing software for these two machines (KPG 66D & KPG 91D). I am not looking for free stuff but would be nice. $100 for membership and etc seems a little more than I need. I have found a site selling but shows a picture of floppy drives. I havent had a machine with those in years. I'm not expecting free but downloadable from a creditable source. Any direction?

I watched your review of the DM32. Digital has always intrigued me but seems a bit complicated. I'm going to stick with analog for now but digital might be in my future.

I ordered my h3 plus as a GMRS version to play with the Bluetooth programming. I did manage to get my h3 plus to program the ham stuff simply by selecting h3 in the program tab at the bottom of the OD Master app. I think I read the radio and made changes in the programming and wrote to the h3 plus. I haven't explored updating the firmware as I don't have a programming cable. Hope this helps. Doug