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I came across a short (under 4 min) professionally made video showing how citizens in fire prone areas took action to have some kind of communication network. This came about because of the horrific fires in rural areas and loss of telephone and cellphones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uhOwng_j38 The solution was to purchase GMRS radios and apparently quite a few where sold in just one rural area. They had some help from what looks like a ham or two (but did not identify them as such), and even set up a modest repeater to get across one ridge area. The equipment shown were Midland MXT series radios. And for this application, I think this is a good choice for plug and play.

FTDI programming cable for Chirp. https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=kenwood+tk880+programming+cable&_ssn=bluemax49ers&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=btech+gmrs1programming+cable&_sacat=0 How to with keypad: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=btech+gmrs-v1+programming

Wow! That's terrible. Both simplex and on the repeaters, many of us call each other by name instead of station ID. Especially if we are having an ongoing convo, even if there is a few minute break and we start back up. As mentioned by berkinet, calling by station ID is common. I would assume its because if I wanted to call for you (for example) there is only one KI5GXD, but there may be more than a few people named Lee who are listening. There is nothing stating it has to be that way. There is definitely no need for getting chewed out on the air. Please don't let that spoil your interest in the hobby. There is a tremendous amount of fun to be had. Anecdotally from my 17+ years of experience, that is not even close to the norm. It sounds like you just need to move on from that group. I am positive there are a lot nicer people to associate with and usable repeaters around.

In fact, as far as the rules go, you were 100% correct. Period. There is no requirement to call another station by their call-sign. Yes, that is common practice, but, it is not required. Although also common practice, it is not even a requirement to identify your station at the start of a transmission. So, you could have just keyed the mic and said "hey david, you there?" Should Bryan ever hassle you again here is chapter and verse. CFR Title 47: §97.119 Station identification. (a) Each amateur station, except a space station or telecommand station, must transmit its assigned call sign on its transmitting channel at the end of each communication, and at least every 10 minutes during a communication, for the purpose of clearly making the source of the transmissions from the station known to those receiving the transmissions... On the other hand, the club may have its own operating policies and rules and those may address identification on their repeater. Though, even if you were in "violation" of their rules, that doesn't condone the manner in which you were spoken to. You might ask if there is such a set of rules. But, since you probably have no further interest in their repeater, it doesn't matter anyway.

I'm curious what sparked the verbal abuse? The rules say every 10 minutes and at the end of a session. What actually occurred? I ask because some people seriously over use their ID... doing it every transmission, at the start and finish, every 2 minutes, etc. I wonder if he over uses his ID and thinks that's how it should be done. I would like to think that if you're doing something as simple as missing an ID, one of the seasoned folks would put a reminder out. I do. I say "well, it looks like its ID time fellas." That way no one takes it personally and we all get the reminder. Then I have heard some guys talk for 2 hours and never ID. Which is another pain point. LoL

There is your problem RAR is a file compression and archiving format. The file you have needs to be un rared. I think this free one from the MS store will do the trick. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/unrar-windows/9wzdncrfj2zh?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Technically you can talk on any ham frequency you want to as long as you are not interfering with other stations. There are no private frequencies. However, that does not give you permission to turn on the proper PL/DPL and use a repeater without permission. And, if you were to talk simplex on the input frequency you might be accused of deliberate interference. As to "private" repeaters. No, there cannot be a charge simply to use a repeater. However, access to a repeater may be limited to club or group members, and paying dues may be a requirement for membership. So, in that sense, as in GMRS, there are Open and Closed repeaters and they are usually identified as such in repeater listings. However, my best advice to you is that there are a$$holes all over the world, in every field, endeavor and hobby and they are best left undisturbed. This guy you ran into is not representative of the vast majority of hams world-wide. Enjoy the hobby and go find a group/repeater/frequency where there are people interested in talking to you.

In addition... what is the exact name of the file you are trying to open. Include the name and the extension: example foo.exe, tk550.zip, etc. And, what operating system and version are you using: Windows-XP, Windows-7, Windows-10, etc. Note that according to the Hamfiles download page the software you want only works on Windows-XP/32-bit and Windows-7/32-bit. Although, some users reported success on Windows-8 and Windows-10.

Obviously I can't speak for every situation, but for the team I'm a part of, the government employees that don't know squat about amateur radio or RF comms in general, went out and bought a bunch of garbage and insisted we used their gear. The problems were that there gear wasn't just poor quality, but didn't cover bands and services needed. So even when it wasn't broken, it still didn't work. After a few years of us bringing our own gear (including portable towers and power) the right people finally asked us what they should buy. So, the gear here is owned by the government and we just maintain and use it. We still end up bringing our own gear 100% of the time, because we just never know what to expect. I would like to think our situation would be worst case. I can't see a club or group like ARES wasting time and money on cheap gear.

And, of course, depending on the license(s) that you hold.

I have a friend that lives not too far from you. Truth is, radio is pretty tough over there. Unless I am on a bridge, range is limited to a couple of miles. I have only been there 4 times for a couple of days... so I never really looked for any repeaters. Not legally. Technically, its possible, but would be way too complex and expensive to make it work, if you somehow got around the legality of it. Most repeaters are very limited in operation. They (can) support a wide range of frequencies, but they are typically configured for a band segment pair, with one input and one output. Height is might... so the saying goes. You will need to do a topo eval of where you want to talk to and from, and then install antenna setups tall enough to get over the terrain. GMRS lives in the 462MHz and 467MHz range of UHF. GMRS (and UHF in general) are what's called a line-of-sight service. The radio waves travel in a straight line to about 15% further than the visible horizon. That is because generally speaking, with rare/limited exception, UHF Radio signals get absorbed by the ground or radiate out into space. An example would be with my mobile radio and mobile antenna mounted on my Jeep, while in my driveway, I can only chat about 1.5 miles with 40 watts. Same radio on 5 watts, with a high gain antenna mounted on a 40 foot mast in my driveway, I am talking 40 miles. What radio do you have? Depending on the radio, you may only be able to legally listen on both and not transmit on either.

At UHF, that's where GMRS operates, antenna height is the BIG issue. While more power may help if there are obstructions between the two stations using a better antenna and high enough to clear local roof tops will pay off. To give you an idea of how far you may expect to communicate the site below will give you some idea. As you can see from the examples holding two radios by hand, 5 feet, you're lucky to get 6 miles. And that's with no obstructions! I have talked mobile to mobile and got reasonably clear communications using an external magnet mount antenna of around 5 miles at 5 watts on VHF while driving on an open highway. Past that the other station began dropping out. The other station was using a similar setup. I would expect on GMRS, UHF, about the same performance. http://www.hamuniverse.com/lineofsightcalculator.html I would also recommend you look into getting a better radio. You will find lots of suggestions here where most people recommend a good quality used commercial grade, Part 90, radio. Some are even FCC certified for Part 95 so there is no question about their legal use on GMRS. While many people buy the inexpensive Baofeng radios they don't have the best performance. I have several Chinese radios I play around with. For not a whole lot more money you can get a much better quality radio. I have several Kenwood TK-370G-1 radios that are FCC part 95 certified, 128 channels, narrow and wide band per memory channel, and 4 watts. I have near me a DMR station that routinely breaks through on multiple frequencies on the cheap Chinese radios, but doesn't do it on my Kenwoods. That's the difference a good receiver makes.

1/2 mile is about right with those Baofengs on UHF. Reaching further distance will require to use a better antenna placed at a height higher than 20 feet AGL. That would be the cheapest option IMO, if you want to increase range. Going with higher end walkies will probably increase the range too, and depending on conditions it might almost double the range, but that could end up being very costly... and in the end a better antenna placed higher is always the better route. Going mobile (instead of walkie) will give you 10dB more power (x10 power) but range might not increase much, as the higher placed antenna will be a far better solution. I don't think repeaters can be made dual duty due to the hardware involved in making one, you need two different repeaters to do Ham and GMRS. G.

Answers... 1) No. Your guess is right. A repeater repeats only one frequency at a time. (Well, there are exceptions, but not that would apply to GMRS.) Ham and GMRS are different radio services and cannot interoperate. However, it is quite possible any given piece of equipment could operate on either the ham 440 band or GMRS, but never simultaneously. 2) It all depends. Fixed location, mobile, (car/truck, etc.), handheld? Terrain: line-of-sight, obstructed, vegetation, etc. Post back with more details. 3) You can listen to whatever you can receive. It is only transmissions that the FCC regulates. Well, ok, there are exceptions like for mobile phones etc. and I believe there are, in some cases, rules about repeating what you hear to others. Welcome to GMRS.