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Stop with the negativity. We all know that you are just a hateful rude person with no friends. You really need to pull your head out of your forth point of contact and then see a doctor so that your headspace and timing can be reset. And to answer why someone would want to listen to the NOAA channels, the internet might go out during a bad storm or the person might be somewhere that there is no internet or cell service.

Speaking of someone not having anything better to do…

OK, today was the big day. I got my buddy to bring over the bucket truck. I had already made up the antenna with the cable as you all know. 1st thing to do was get the existing antenna down. So up to the lightning arrestor and cut off the water protection. Used a set of channel locks to undo the N connector. Didn't see anything that would be a water issue in there. So up the mast I went in the bucket clipping off the tie wraps as I gained altitude. Got to the antenna and loosened the nuts on the U bolt and removed the antenna. Back down to the ground. 2nd thing was to put up the guy wire system. I used a triple clamp designed for 1 1/2" mast and attached 1/8" stainless steel cable using loop thimbles and aluminum double barrel sleeves. Crimped them up using 2 sleeves. One tight against the thimble and one about 1 1/2" away where the sleeve hid the end of the cable to make it prick proof. Had 50' of cable on each of the 3 legs which I knew was more than enough. I also knew it wouldn't be too short. Up in the bucket again and mounted it about 2' from the top of the mast and opened up the looped cable and let it hang down. Back to the ground again. 3rd thing was bring up the antenna. All the way to the top this time and mounted the antenna using the U bolts that came with it. And slowly went down to unfurl the cable. Forgot to bring the tie wraps up, crap. Back down to fetch them and back up and tied the coax off about every 10" with two tie wraps at each spacing. Then to the bottom to attach into the lightning arrestor. Put the heat shrink tubing on, ya.. didn't forget LOL. And used the self fusing tape to seal the joint. Slipped the tubing over it and hit it with the heat gun at 700ºF. Back down again. 4th.. Went into the house to pull the trigger. Hit my repeater and it came back with a good signal. Hit the Holyoke repeater which I could barely do lately and I got a response from a friend that I was Lima Charley (loud and clear) which I haven't been in 6 months. SWR on my repeater frequency was 1.01. Switched to Channel 22 and the SWR was 1.00, fantastic. 5th I got the 5/16" stainless steel turnbuckles and crimping equipment and tied off one side to take the slight lean out of the antenna that I've had ever since a wind gust bent my chimney mount a bit. I put 2 more straps on and lengthened the mast 8' and tied it into the chimney with a wood working clamp which stabilized it quite a bit. The guy wire straightened out the slight lean. Had to install a screw eye that I needed the bucket to do (or a ladder, but why I had the bucket truck here) I pulled out one of the long nails holding up my gutter and put a 3/8"x8" eye hook with a PVC ferrule and it hit good. Very secure, I was worried it's be a rotted pc under the aluminum siding. But I hit a roof rafter end. Tied that off with the guy wire and crimped everything up. Time was up for the bucket truck and he went on his merry way. I gave him a pair of the TD-H3s for the help and a bit more. 6th .. One more guy wire to tie off and I just moved my truck into position and stood on my tool box and secured the guy wire and turnbuckle. Pretty much completed the job. Took about 3 hours, 2 1/2 with the bucket truck. Still have to clean up all the little tie wrap clippings. That'll be a job for tomorrow. Have to paint the blocks I put in to secure the eye hooks sometime soon.

Well, unless your using this product, your antenna won't be top notch

I listed my original first edition Baofeng UV-82 on eBay for $350 since it's now a pre-tarrif classic..

What about all of those junky/crappy radios (Midlands, TidRadios, Retevis, Wouxun, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc) that were "junk" - and you "threw straight into the trash can" ? Are you staying that instead of taking advantage of the warranties on ALL of those radios that you seem to know so much about and have told us you purchased, and "threw straight into the trash", you never even once considered getting a replacement instead?

The Amazon man just delivered my BTech GMRS 50Pro - ask your questions now/post your concerns! I will be uploading a video about it in the next day or two and looking for feedback/questions, even from "some people".

1. Yes 2. No

First, don’t mistake SWR for antenna quality. If it were that simple we’d all use dummy loads. They typically provide a very low SWR but have no ability to radiate RF. Second, the SWR meter is not a sufficient ground plane for a VHF antenna. Typically you’d need either a planar surface of metal or an array of radials of at least a quarter wave radius or length to provide a decent ground plane. For VHF that’s much larger than the body of the SWR meter you’re using. The fact is that measuring SWR for handheld antennas is frequently futile and unnecessary. Instead hook up the antennas and see what kind of performance you get.

It's really easy to unlock. Buy the KG-UV980P instead. Same basic radio, HAM version, Chirp unlocks it to transmit GMRS. Contrary to one persons opinion, these are solid radios (the 1000 or the 980P), they perform very well, sounds great on TX/RX. No you can't just put the 980P config on a 1000, that wont "unlock" the 1000 because as it's been said, the 1000 has additional firmware burned into the thing to prevent out of GMRS bands/power levels/offsets etc. As it should as a part 95 certified radio.

I just spoke with a large radio importer/reseller based here in the U.S. (i cant say who) - He said his tariff fees are based on the wholesale price (not 'calculated value' at the port of entry, as I thought/read about) - because the new fees would nearly double the retail price, and he knows he cant sell any at those prices, he has halted all new radio shipments.. i dont like it but I am willing to feel a little short-term pain for longer-term trade equity...

I just visited the Flat Earth Society Discussion Board to see how they explain limits on radio propagation and me now stupider cuz it.

A Fixed Station is one that's been repaired. /s

We all value knowledge and experience here, but the way you're treating newcomers is out of line. Everyone starts somewhere, and being dismissive, impatient, or outright rude doesn't make you look more knowledgeable—it just makes this community less welcoming. If your goal is to actually help people learn and grow, then your attitude needs to reflect that. Otherwise, you're not building anything—you're just gatekeeping. You were new once too. Try to remember that.

Dimmy antennas are used to contact stations 200 miles away.

Crap, there’s 30 of us? I only brought a dozen doughnuts. Happy Easter everyone! ️

Hundreds of thousands of members logged off just before you came on, they will be back. While you are waiting watch this video:

There aren't really any good ones out there.

For GMRS, the FCC allows plain language voice communications: 95.1731 Permissible GMRS uses. The operator of a GMRS station may use that station for two-way plain language voice communications with other GMRS stations and with FRS units concerning personal or business activities. Earlier, in the overarching Personal Radio Services definitions (which apply to all of the personal radio services) the FCC tells us what is meant by plain language voice communications: 95.303 Plain language voice communications. Voice communications without codes or coded messages intended to provide a hidden meaning. Foreign languages and commonly known radio operating words and phrases, such as “ten four” and “roger,” not intended to provide a hidden meaning, are not considered codes or coded messages. Even with an executive order to establish English as our official language changes to the above rules would need to be made if the government determined that radio communication must be done in English. Of course legislation could do it, assuming it withstood a constitutional challenge.

I recommend that you add @Socalgmrs to your “ignore list”. Life gets better. Personally I prefer to have a link to the CFR page on the internet rather than capturing a point in time with PDFs: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95

Is that what you kids call it these days?

By misquoting @H8SPVMT you very obviously define yourself.

WHY ARE YOU SUCH AN ASSHOLE ALL THE TIME ??? CAN'T YOU EVER MAKE A CIVIL COMMENT ???

No, we don’t say you’re lying about that; we tell you you’re a jerk when you imply that anyone who doesn’t get 200 miles is incompetent and when you scold new members about not reading the rules. As you say: it’s all about line of sight.

Yes, good test equipment will last a very long time. Still using an old Fluke 87 (no series III or white backlight here). Leaking LCD crystal around its display.....and believe it or not, a metrology tech put the main knob on in the wrong position, had to correct that myself. (My personal fluke ended up in the work pool as it looks like many others.....has happened with a Motorola XPR7550e radio as well). Black gasket broke, so electrical tape seals the gap in places.....but still accurate and great for use in dark corners of electrical cabinets or floor board of cars. Some co-workers bought the cheaper Kelin Tools multimeters, only to find they lacked a backlight. The old expensive Fluke 87 continues to do the job (suspect mine is 30 years old or so). By once, cry once. Get good gear.

If you think this place is low on active members just wait until you start listening to your radio

Seen this picture before. It is bird crap on the windshield.

Well I'm getting setup for the big swap out. Getting the Comet CA712EFC ready for deployment. Wrapped the area where the antenna joins with self fusing tape. And then marine grade heat shrink with the adhesive lining on the inside. Then wrapped the N connector after wrenching it tight with the self fusing tape. And then the heat shrink tubing again. Put silicon where the aluminum tube joins the ground plane area before I put the mounting tube on. Pretty stiff stuff. I guess that's why they call it hard line. And the completed assembly. Should be going up sometime this week.

This really isn’t ambiguous: Plain language voice communications. Voice communications without codes or coded messages intended to provide a hidden meaning. Foreign languages and commonly known radio operating words and phrases, such as “ten four” and “roger,” not intended to provide a hidden meaning, are not considered codes or coded messages.

Yes, just click on the map option and zoom in to where you are.

You thought wrong. The only requirement regarding language is that your callsign be announced in English, and even if there was a requirement that you use only English on repeaters, it wouldn't matter because the FCC does not enforce the rules (ie; they dont care). Welcome to the exciting and dynamic world of GMRS in the L.A. area!

Last week we got 8-10 inches. The highlands are still solid white, as is the continental divide about a mile east of me. Rivers went out a month ago. Two pictures to demonstrate how quickly things change.

Yea, it's one of my 2 major pet peeves with GMRS and the two are linked by those who claim to understand but don't really know any more than the rest of us. There are some differences in equipment. Handhelds are even defined by equipment, and per FCC as Steve also suggested, handheld is a sub-type of mobile where regulations don't specify separate rules, Base stations have an antenna in a fixed position. Mobile is normally straight forward but can get a little fuzzy in some circumstances. To me, their clarification indicates it's the linking itself that is not intended, not just use of phone or internet. Linking by any technology has a lot of the same drawbacks (tying up channels, potential for interference, etc.). It's not just PSTN or internet but the linking itself that is a concern. True that they didn't update the regs, but interpretation by FCC is a lot better IMO than interpretation by Billy Joe and Bobby on the internet. For those who want to challenge it because the clarification wasn't incorporated into the wording in the regs, y'all go ahead and see what happens.

Yes I have rucked plenty. I was both airborne and air assault qualified, assigned to airborne units. And when my assigned weapon was not the M60, then I would get assigned to carry the PRC-77 radio. So yes I know a thing or two about rucking extra weight. Now go strap on a 75-80 pound ruck sack, carry the M60 machine gun with 1000-1500 rounds of ammunition along with your main and backup parachute before you say anything else about how I supposedly don't know anything about carrying weight. I was also a combat engineer so I carried even more stuff than the average infantryman. And I have done so in combat on a few occasions. Let's break down the weight infantryman ruck -70 pounds combat engineer ruck - 75-80 pounds Main and reserve parachutes - 53 pounds. M60 machine gun unloaded - 23 pounds 500 rounds of spare ammo - 35 pounds Those weights didn't even include any explosives or mines I also had to carry. You showed your rear again by assuming that I don't have any experience rucking heavy weights. And we all know what assume actually means.

Interesting. I have a DB-20G and 2 UV-9Gs, and never had a single problem with any of the 3. Well, aside from my own mistakes programming.

What about Target? “Transmitting In Target Stores”

Okay, here's a silly question. Why can't the collection and use of gmrs radios be a hobby? Folks will say they're for use as an adjunct to other "hobbies" such are hiking, off roading, fishing, hunting, etc. But I'd bet more that a few folks here have considerably more radios than they actually need for these activities. The whole programming thing seems to be an area that sounds hobbish. Then you get into setting up and maintaining repeaters. Other than for your personal use that sounds very much like a hobby. GMRS clubs, well that's definitely in hobby territory. Personally, I'm looking at it as just another hobby for my retirement years. Another new field to study and learn. And actually for the most part cheaper than some of my other hobbies.

And we are back to the "Guys that build BIG repeaters" want people to use them. I have banned exactly ONE person from my repeater. I did that because he got mad at ME for not banning someone else from my repeater. So since he didn't want to hear the guy on my repeater, I banned him. In this day and age, don't think your leaching off an open repeater owner. If he wanted money, or assistance with labor or anything like that, he would ask. Or he would close the repeater and start charging fee's for access. As a repeater owner, I can tell you this is true. We haven't invested the time and money into building out this stuff for it to sit dormant. If you have repeaters in your area that are OPEN, with posted PL/DPL codes, and they state they are open access repeaters. USE THEM. That is what they are there for. The owners WANT people to use them or they wouldn't be listed as open. Don't expect them to invite you yo them. Listing them as open and posting the codes or having the codes announced over the air in some cases, is all the invitation you are gonna get. But don't think you are leaching. You don't build a repeater system out that covers multiple counties for your own private use. It's done because they want to support the GMRS radio community. Because, not every GMRS user has the access to a tower or the ability to build out a big repeater. Those of us that do, to this to support others.

Totally agree and the answer is NO they don’t neeeed that many repeaters. It’s turning into a macho thing. “I have more and bigger repeaters then ….” It’s causing many problems and upsetting other repeater owners. Some court cases have even come up about it. It’s getting crazy for something that should be used for family and friends while doing an activity.

Exactly. Since GMRS was always intended to be a Short range or Local radio service to begin with. Everyone's ambitions about trying to make Gmrs a nationwide thing would be better served if they just studied up and got their amateur radio license instead, then they would have Several avenues available to them to accomplish Nationwide comms.

NaNa NoNo has spoken.

I was told by a (former) Midland Marketing person that this is by design - the entire chassis is a heat sink so a fan is not needed, but yes, you feel the heat. Also, beware that "some people" are going to leave ssstupid comments in this thread declaring that this radio "sucks", "is junk", it's too expensive, it's gimmicky, etc, etc, because it does not have the features that THEY think are important. So bear in mind that Midland did not design this radio for them, they designed it for normal people such as yourself that just need to talk to people while driving. Midland did not design this radio for losers that sit in the basement searching for anonymous men to chat with over the radio to brag about how many buttons or knobs their radio has.

Got the voltage regulator on today it's back to normal voltage, now I can get radio back in tomorrow if it doesn't rain. Thanks again, WSEK634

Au contraire, the rules tell us exactly what a fixed station is and the rules tell us exactly what the limits are. You just haven’t extrapolated from the rules how you might use one. Others have described how they could be used. A pair of fixed stations could be dedicated to provide an intercom between two households such as on a family farm, for example. Or for telemetry and control.

And there ya go with the negativity yet again. @WRVK513 If you want an actual Part 95 certified radio then yes the firmware will be locked. And this goes for pretty much all Part 95 certified consumer grade radios. We know plenty of people use non certified amateur band radios that have been unlocked/Mars modded on GMRS, but those radios are not Part 95 certified. And if you don't want a locked down radio then look else where.

Line of sight does make more of a difference when using VHF and UHF. I'm glad to hear that you are getting into all of the repeaters now. A j pole antenna has zero gain when measured in dBd, which is the same as a dipole antenna. Using the kv5r loss calculator and your specs, you will have an ERP of 21.8 watts. As you see that will still work even though you are losing about half your power output. Switching to 50 feet of LMR400 will only gain you 6.9 more watts on ERP. I would not bother switching out the RG-213 to LMR400 for that little power gain. What will make a difference is going with an antenna with higher gain. But no need to change anything if it is working well for your needs.

Ask away! Most of the knowledgeable people here are extremely helpful. There's no place on the internet which doesn't have some jerks, but there are fewer here than in most places.

We got a QSO!

We. Don’t. Want. Your. Linked or networked. Repeaters on gmrs.