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"The Smiley "5/8 wave" duck antenna is not a true 5/8 wave antenna in terms of physical length. It's an electrically 5/8 wave antenna achieved through the use of a loading coil. This means the antenna is physically shorter than a true 5/8 wave antenna but still resonates at the desired frequency. "Here's a more detailed explanation: • True 5/8 Wave Antenna: 
A true 5/8 wave antenna is physically 5/8 the length of the wavelength of the desired frequency. 
 • Smiley "5/8 Wave" Duck Antenna: 
This antenna uses a loading coil to shorten its physical length while maintaining the electrical characteristics of a 5/8 wave antenna. 
 • Loading Coil: 
The loading coil acts as an inductor, effectively increasing the electrical length of the antenna without increasing its physical size. 
 • Performance: 
While the Smiley duck is designed to perform like a 5/8 wave antenna, it may not achieve the same gain and performance as a true 5/8 wave antenna, particularly in open terrain. 
 • Advantages: 
The compact size of the Smiley duck antenna makes it ideal for handheld radios, and some users say it can provide better performance than a standard 1/4 wave antenna. " Let the buyer, beware!

Says the disparager...

As I have said several times on here. GMRS is radio facebook, radio chatroom. It's how many are using it. It's a social gathering spot for people that just want to chat. The reason GMRS and not HAM is HAM requires testing and more effort. With GMRS, you pay your money and you get a license. And the codgers involved with ham radio aren't always real welcoming to the younger generation either.

And for the sake of the discussion, there is NOTHING stopping you from putting a repeater up, on one of the frequencies they are using and talking on it. And this is for the same reason I gave before on them backing themselves into a corner. They have a linked repeater system and have overlapping coverage of a number of the pairs if not all the pairs. But again, who are they going to call? The FCC? I seriously doubt it. Because again, backed into a corner with no recourse. What are they gonna tell the FCC? They going to admit they have all the pairs tied up with linking? That they are running a for profit business selling air time on GMRS? I personally dealt with this in Ohio. At first I was willing to try to work with the guy. But he started telling me HE had the pairs and I could only run a short antenna and low power. His repeaters (turned out to be paper repeaters) were well established. When I started looking into his repeaters, and found his business license and it stated he was for profit selling air time on GMRS, I picked the two pairs he was on and parked repeaters on both pairs. He wasn't happy. I invited him to call the FCC and told him I had all of it documented including his state business license where he was selling air time for profit. It never went any further.

No young kids on our trip this time. We traveled with the grandkids up to my sons house but we were by ourselves to bring the kids back and it was his birthday so we had the party to go to. My sister and other son came up the next day and we did the party and then stayed another night. Traveled home and I gave my brother a radio. They had to stop for gas and we didn't so lost them relatively quickly, it's hilly on the NY thruway. Kept trying as we hoped they were catching up and eventually we hit a slow down and they got about 1.5 miles away according to the mile markers and we could communicate with a pair of Tidradio H3s. I have a Nagoya 771G antenna and his radio had a Smiley Rubber Duck antenna. I could hear him before he could hear me before we got in range. All in all it was helpful besides just talking. He had a statey come up and warned us, so it was nice having that heads up. And on several occasions when we had slow downs we were able to give them heads up and tell them which lane was the best to be in. At one time they actually got ahead of us for a short bit during one of the slow downs. That didn't last very long. There was also a repeater I had found on the way up. I was just playing around with the repeaters I had programmed in and when I keyed up the Long Island East End repeater I could see the response on the LCD panel but no sound. I removed the Rx tone and I had access. On our way back we used that briefly but had better luck just using my repeater frequencies with me in talk around and him in normal All in all it was a good experience and helpful and I'm glad I gave them the radio.

I have the H3 and it's easy to program it. Are both input and output tones the same? If not reverse them just to make sure you aren't mistaken which one is the repeater input tone. If both are the same then leave the Rx tone at none so you will receive the repeater output no matter what.

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I know Ky and his son Buddy. He’s well known in the hobby and they still make and sell parachutes for our hobby.

Hey, by chance do you know of Ky Michaelson? He was huge in the amateur rocket scene, at least back in the day. I believe he has a few world records. He used to be called "Rocket Man."

I went to brand new HAM radio club meeting this weekend, and everyone stared at me when I walked in. I'm 49, and covered in tattoos. I was definitely at least 15 years younger than anyone else there.

I absolutely would if I lived there.

Does this site have the ability to send notifications on new repeaters being added? I'd love to get an email anytime a new repeater comes online in my state.

Yes. Try getting closer to the repeater and/or confirming that you have the correct code and that the repeater is actually online.

I'm trying program an open system repeater that is 8 miles away from me with a 051 DPL input/output tone into my Tidradio TD-H3 Plus. I tried it programmed with the 051N DCS code in the radio and I have not been able to hit it, I think I'm programming something wrong. Does 051 DPL correspond to 051N or am I supposed to use the DCS code list in my manual and look up 51 and select the corresponding DCS code (in this case D274N)?

Not between Gaviota and Ventura. Someone needs to put something on both Santa Ynez and Red Mountain for you.

The issue is, as far as I can tell it, there are a lot of people who are very upset by what the group is doing and who are also, simultaneously, completely unaffected by it. If I lived in the North GA area and I wanted to put up a repeater so that me and the boys could talks fars, only to find out that all the channels were already occupied, I might be a little upset. But I don't and so I'm not. I don't have the emotional bandwidth to virtue signal over things outside of my control. I have interacted with the group over the air and each and every one of them has been polite and professional. They invite "non members" to participate in there talk arounds. There are some trolls and there are some people kerchunking and roger beeping just to annoy but I kind of liken it to public transportation. If everybody's on the train, someone's going to be annoying. Having the ability to talk across the state without a HAM license is, I think, the major appeal. Again, some might say, that is not what GMRS is about. I heard it put this way once and I thought it was very accurate. GMRS is the radio you talk on when you're doing an activity. HAM is when the radio is the activity. Either way, Cotton, I'm looking to see how it all plays out.

This is also an accurate assessment of the situation. Can confirm.

This is an accurate assessment of the situation. Can confirm.

I'm on the South Coast between Gaviota and Santa Barbara, south of the Santa Ynez mountain range. If I drive out of the canyon and get out by Hwy 101, I can sometimes hear repeater traffic from way over in Ventura and even LA across the water. Nothing to my north. I've checked the maps, and I've monitored all GMRS channels for hours with only a little occasional simplex traffic here and there getting into the canyon where I live. If you are aware of some dormant repeater with high enough elevation on the south coast, to get a signal into these canyons, I'd love to know about it!

The average age of GMRS users in my household is 24.5. The average age of ham radio users in my household is 42. Your math checks out. I would like to get my 7 year old into amateur radio to bring that average age down.

Unless you are living near Piedras Blancos, San Simeon, Los Oso, Cholame, or New Cuyama there are several repeaters up and down the central coast. What particular area are you living in where you think there are no repeaters?

Interesting back story @SteveShannon. Thanks for sharing that. For me: Like many, I dabbled in CB in the 70's and later in the 80's I was a first responder and used radios daily. But I've also been involved with horses for most of my life. In the 90's (and for a subsequent 20+ years) I was recruited to be a volunteer announcer at an Arabian horse show and was asked to setup improved comms that could be used by show officials. Having a limited budget to work with, we used cheap blister-pack FRS radios to communicate between the announcer booth, the arena, the barns, the show office and patched thru the fairgrounds PA system. I used CTCSS tones to eliminate external chatter from creating interference with our activates. It worked really well. After retirement, I decided to look into GMRS where more power and range could be obtained. I got a license, a few handhelds and a mobile and have had some fun with it on the road. At home it is a different story. I live in a fire prone area on the pacific coast less than 2 miles from the ocean; however, I'm in a canyon where most VHF/UHF radio signals tend to be blocked by a lot of earth and lots of trees. There are no GMRS repeaters (or GMRS radio clubs) in my area. Everything I have at home (Phone, internet, TV, Cell) is via satellite, so the use of GMRS for any type of SHTF emergency comms is totally futile. However, the local ham club has 2m & 70cm repeaters on the mountain tops near me. That prompted me to get licensed and get a dual band radio so I could hit those repeaters. But I've yet to assimilate into the more formal, radio-for-the-sake-of-radio, ham culture. There is no doubt a lot to be learned from those guys, but I find GMRS in many ways much more practical and fun. Everyone can easily participate via FRS, and anyone with $35 to spare can be licensed to use GMRS. Like @WRUE951 said, I'm more comfortable here as it is not as rigid and structured. My recent attendance at the local ham radio club meetings has been an eye opener for me and that is what makes me very curious about the membership and demographics of GMRS specific radio clubs. Maybe if I could get my signal out of this canyon, I might setup a local GMRS group in my area...

I think the dad has close ties with the PD, which is fine in my book.. Nothing will stop this guy but at least he stoped bothering kids.. I think the real issue with this guy is on the mental side. So we live with him making his rounds jamming repeaters.. This guy has an Extra Ham lic so its a bit more strange why he plays these games.

As usual, it's got little to do with the radio usage, and a lot more to do with what he was actually doing (ie: harassing kids). If it wasn't kids, would they have done anything? Because it doesn't sound like it's stopped his general radio dickery. He just realized that screwing with people's kids MIGHT be a step too far.

I’ve been flying high power rockets for 25 years. I got GMRS radios to enhance my enjoyment of my high power rocketry hobby. Most of us in my rocket club got Garmin Rino radios so we could see where each other were while out recovering our rockets. After several years of being a scofflaw I decided that I wanted to do the right thing and get licensed as well. Somewhere along the line I started watching Notarubicon videos where Randy (@OffRoaderX) spoke about Baofeng UV5R radios. Also a friend showed me his UV5R radio and I ended buying one. I discovered that I really enjoyed programming it which gave me confidence. Playing with the Baofeng radios reawakened a barely dormant interest in ham radio that I’ve had since eighth grade. So three years ago I finally got around to applying myself to ham radio. For me (not for everyone) ham radio has been a fascinating experience. It keeps my brain working and is something I will be able to do even as I eventually get old. (I’ll be 70 next month but I feel 40 most of the time.) GMRS is something that can be done in conjunction with other activities, including very dynamic and energetic ones, and without becoming an expert on radio operations. Ham radio is a government sanctioned hobby intended to develop radio operators. It’s structured in such a way that older hams can (and sometimes do) mentor younger hams with differing levels of licensing and activities that are relatively sedentary. So, I think it’s natural to perceive GMRS as a younger person’s hobby. Now why did I come into this room?