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Not very far from my experience. At one end of the super store it comes in pretty bad. I'm not running an airband antenna though, just a 771G. I can hear them out in the parking lot pretty clear and at times I've heard them at my house which is about 1.25 miles by way of crow. But that's rare.

What's the typical range on these Walmart transmissions? The one close to me is 4-5 miles. I can get 2m simplex from someone who lives near it. If Walmart uses an antenna on the roof I might be able to receive it. I used to get Dollar Gen. distribution center 10 miles away on 460 business band (not where I live now). The highway flagmen here use FRS/GMRS frequencies without callsigns. Whether they're using FRS radios though is questionable based on range and signal strength.

Smart man! That's a really nice setup you have. You bought a V71a, the best dual band radio in the history of amateur radio. As for antennas, get the PulseLarsen NMO2/70BLarsen for the V71a and a simple 1/4 wave NMO mount for GMRS and you will be extremely happy. https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-000565

Toss the old hardware in the trash and load all your radio programming software in a virtual machine on a late model PC using the appropriate OS,whether 32 or 64 bit, and save yourself a lot of heartache. All radio professionals do it this way as time is money and they are intelligent and refuse to dick around with all these unnecessary problem.

It's and ancient Chinese secret and we are sworn to secrecy. You don't need to know what's in the dumplings you enjoy. Why do you think you have the right to know what someone's antenna height is?

The Walmart in my area doesn't use MURS, but I do hear some road construction crews using it from time to time. It's usually the "flaggers" that tell you to stop or go when working on a 2 lane road. I hear them chatting back and forth.

Ditto, plus if you're using a 2 radio set you can see where the 2nd person is relative to your position. It's also be handy to let someone with the 2nd radio to know where you're at if you get lost or hurt. For $30 or so bucks it's a handy feature to have.

Would work for me

I did a scan while I was in WalMart and it showed up as 154.57125. I've programmed it in and everytime we go grocery shopping I have it on. I hear the overhead announcements, manager to employee, the auto button announcement to unlock different items and of course the carriage collector. The wife and I have a blast with it.

I watched a YouTube video of a couple of travelers being given a tour of the station I'm planning long term here, I plan to retire in 2030, as a gift to myself, I want to go out to SoCal, see Disneyland 75th Anniversary, & of course I'll swing by Station 127

I told the people at work that 'I identify as WSEL330' spoken phonetically. HR hates me.

You could try to Fox hunt it AND what about the skid marks in the driveway?

I realize that I am sliding down this radio rabbit hole. I cobbled together a 'repeater' with 2 GMRS50-V2's (BTech). I attempted to use a Surecom SR628 plugged into each ones K1 adapters. That didn't work. I looked at the rj45 schematics and saw that the pin2, for RPT CTRL, doesn't even go to the k1 side of the adapter. OK, line from external speaker jack(no data on that plug) on receive radio to K1 on transmit radio and put that one on VOX. It operates but it doesn't sound good (of course I do not have a second person to help test it so I used an HT with ear piece and my vehicle mobile rig to test at about 150' from the antenna). The BTech has an option for 'REP-M' describes 'Repeater Forwarding Mode (X-band repeater with 2 BTECH Mobiles)'. I have a feeling X band is something i am ignorant to. previous sentence sets up this thought, could I plug in a RJ45 jumper to both? Not really confident in that one. SOO, I googled some stuff with an idea. Will K1RFD Echostation work as a repeater controller with my PC and the two radios plugged into it with the programing cables (RJ45-USB). I totally spiraling towards getting a legit repeater but I am working and learning with what I have. OR anyone able to set up two Radioddy DB 40g's as repeaters? and how?

Outta curiosity or gaps in my education, Duplexer or no. I'm guessing the RF's occupying the same antenna would still be a problem. If a duplexer is used, would it have to be purpose built or just tuned?

Outta curiosity or gaps in my education, Duplexer or no. I'm guessing the RF's occupying the same antenna would still be a problem. If a duplexer is used, would it have to be purpose built or just tuned?

"I used the PFM" love that sh&$!

(thinking, Is he talking about me?) LMAO

When it comes to radio electronics nothing is impossible as long as you have the funds and the know how. It is really basically manipulating electrons and passing audio from one device to another device. Crossbanding in-band and out-of-band multiple radio devices can be accomplished in several ways, audio tie with a logic controller, voting comparator using COR, console patch, or an interoperability gateway. I've designed several crossband package configurations back in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s and some of them have been written up in various trade magazines. Back in the early 80s, I designed an airborne repeater package using a GE Porta-Mobile II Low-Band Radio and a GE MPD Portable with a Sweet Electronics Logic Controller and put it in an Airplane so two vehicles (car on a VHF Highband Channel and a motorcycle on a Lowband VHF) can directly communicate over 15-20 miles apart in hilly terrain while in motion traveling across the State for a special event. "Some People" not in the know couldn't figure how in the hell I was able to make a Lowband radio talk directly to a Highband radio. My answer to them was "I used the "PFM" technology method. I truly missed those days creating solutions like this to make the impossible possible.

We transmitted into dummy loads as part of a test of our emergency communications trailer. So unless someone was really close to the trailer, no one heard us when transmitting into a dummy load.

Should work for me, I'm in AA near BWI.

You mean you heard from a friend how they did that. Be careful, you don't want to go to radio jail where they desense you and you have to constantly remind them that you do use your call sign....

COSTCO in Avondale, AZ uses it but I've never tuned in to see if I could hear anything. I plan on using Blue Dot or Green Dot when I'm Out and About to keep in touch with friends who have radios since they'll probably be less traffic on it then on GMRS.

Yes it will work. The issue is that the FCC doesn't allow cross band repeating or linking different services. While your GMRS call sign gives you privileges on GMRS channels they don't give you privileges on the amateur bands. And an amateur license does not give you privileges on GMRS. It doesn't matter if you have both licenses or not. We tested some dual band amateur mobile radios with cross band repeat that were MARS Modded and yes you can cross band from GRMS to 2m. I don't suggest doing it though. You will get the attention of the sad hams and sad GMRS curmudgeons really quick by doing this. And again not permissible by the FCC.

Central Maryland (Howard County more than likely) would probably be best for most. If we do future meetups, we could move around.

We'd love to have you! I know you've organized the NOVA meetups.