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And dead horse...

I noted that on your last video on a Wouxun HT! I was on my smart TV and couldn't comment on the precise nature of your verbiage! Although, I'm betting that "Certain Individuals" did leave some good ones worth reading?

Nothing brings out a pile up on the amateur bands like a YL calling CQ. At a local meet up last Saturday, of of the guys was bitching about Contesters using a YL to call the CQ Contest, and when he answered, "some dude replied, I wanted to talk to the girl!!!" Like it was false adverstising or sumtin... But back to the topic. I only need to know one callsign, mine. I can't think of the callsigns any of the friends I talk to on Simplex; I know a couple of their numbers, but it's so we can tell the 3 Joes apart. We ID on time and and when we complete a conversation, and that's it. And no phonetics. A couple of the guys, we still use their CB "handles" when calling them! I don't ever recall anyone on GMRS asking me my callsign.

to sticky the thread, right?

I'm taking this horse to the glue factory.

Fusion and D-Star are Ham specific digital modes. DMR is used on the Ham bands, but was initially, and primarily, designed for business uses. Other digital modes, primarily designed for business band usage, you're likely to to encounter on the Ham bands are NXDN (ultra narrow and narrow), P25 Phase 1 and dPMR (typically used on the business bands in the EU). There are a few others but are almost specifically used on trunking systems, TETRA and P25 Phase 2. So far I haven't found anywhere in the USA where dPMR is used, however I have some radios that will do that mode. The first radio I purchased used was from a US seller so somebody had used it, but the radio didn't have FCC certification, so it wasn't really legal to use on the business frequencies it had programmed into it when I read the radio on arrival before reprogramming for Ham use. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/500-ic-f3162dt-front-and-back-sidepng/?context=new

When the operator has used the phonetic alphabet when giving their call sign for years on the Ham frequencies it gets to be a habit, and those users likely don't even think about it. Personally I don't care. The rules specify when and how to ID. So long as it complies with the rules, just have to get use to it. A few of my commercial HT's have the ability to ID using a builtin CW, Morse, code feature. Unfortunately it has to be manually initiated. If it was automatic on a timer I would use it and skip the voice ID. I'm sure that would irritate a few people. I've even thought about designing a small Arduino type ID'er that plugs into the mic port of the radio and does it on a timed basis using Morse code.

That figures. I frequently monitor the FRS/GMRS channels when out walking for exorcise. I rather routinely hear traffic from outside of the area when on the Detroit and Mt Clemens machines, so the linking is still on-going, just not publicly advertised. Everyone I've heard behaves themselves, ID's etc. and no crazy topics. You might even get bored monitoring the system. The weather reports are useful at times, particularly in the winter when it might be raining, or light snow, down south and blizzard conditions farther up north.

I think the issue lies with a person of used group who literally ties up every single repeater frequency so they can essentially prevent any possible new users from utilizing the service.

Be sure to listen without any RX tones or codes so you can hear what’s transmitted on each frequency. If you have the wrong code or tone on RX you’ll hear nothing. With no tones or codes you hear everything.

No way NYC is quite on GMRS with all those repeaters. Twice as many than Las Angeles and LA is a mad house zoo on GMRS...

There’s a database/map associated with this site that should help. Click on “Repeaters” on the top menu.

Probably quiet because of cell phones and internet, would be my guess.

Why is it that the GMRS channel are so quiet? I never hear anything out of these GMRS channels. Are there any GMRS repeaters in NYC in 2025? If so can you please share the information

Success! Looks like I may have not been transmitting with the correct offset! I manually input a repeater pair, and got a successful (though faint) signal check response. Excellent. I've just ordered a programming cable so I can go ahead and program in my local repeaters more easily. But, at last I know the radio is working. I appreciate the help and patience everyone!

Fair enough. I forgot about LMR/business licenses. I was thinking about DMR/Fusion/D-STAR.

It's not permitted on GMRS but digital is in no way exclusive to H.A.M.. I do not have a H.A.M.s radios license but my FCC Business License (LMR) lets me transmit digital and encrypted.

right on. Time to start doing more troubleshooting. Appreciate the things to look into!

No.

Nah, you're good. All GMRS is analog FM. CTCSS vs DCS is just a different way of sending the squelch code. I don't think you get into digital signals until you start getting into ham stuff.

ah, it looks like that might be setup wrong on my radios! I'm gonna reset them and try to reprogram in a repeater pair by hand. Maybe that will help! One other thing I just thought of... the repeaters I am trying to access use DCS codes. would that mean that they are digital repeaters? If so, the baofeng radios are analog right? Would they not be able to access digital repeaters?

if they are the same as my uv5r, it will show a "+/-" symbol at the top of the display when the current channel is programmed with an offset. the "OFFSET" option in the menu (as @hxpx noted) should show what it's set to. If you have the programming cable, reading the programming from the radio with software (such as CHIRP) is also a possibility.

Assuming the manuals I have are right: UV5G: Menu 25 should be SFT-D which is Frequency Shift Direction - should be +, and Menu 26 should be OFFSET and should be 05.000. UV5G Plus: Same deal but the menu numbers should be 28 and 29 Not sure if the manuals I'm looking at are correct, so you might have to look around for those.

Got a question - is something up with the Baraboo650 and the Devil’s Head Gmrs repeaters? Are they down? I’m currently on a camping trip at Devils Lake and I noticed that the repeaters are somehow not opening when I’m pressing the PTT and transmitting my callsign, and I’m also around 10 min away from both repeaters so I know I should be able to hit both repeaters, even if it has a lil static (bc of the forest I’m guessing). I did also notice that the Baraboo650 is both on the map and on the search result, but Devil’s Head isn’t on either. Also mind you, I did hear radio traffic on Devils Head and Baraboo650 a week or so ago, so Ik I should hit the repeater and hear it kickback. I did also program the repeaters correctly since I’ve used these repeaters last year (and I check the myGMRS website to see if any updates happens to any of the repeaters I use weekly). Radios used: Motorola XTS 3000 and Radioddity DB-25G mobile.