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The more I learn about the FCC's General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), the more I am fascinated by RF in general. It touches everyone's lives every second of every day, yet few people pay much attention. How cool is it that after 42 years and 14 billion miles away, the 22-Watt radio on Voyager 1 is still sending data back to earth every day (how important is that antenna?). So why aren't more people interested in GMRS or RF in general? There's no test to get a license like amateur (ham) radio. It's $70 for a 10-year license, and is really easy to get started. So here are some theories. People don't know: GMRS exists Why GMRS exists Why they'd want to use GMRS How to envision themselves participating in GMRS What it takes to get started with GMRS What it takes to continue and improve with GMRS Technical information they should know about GMRS Etiquette when transmitting (TX) on GMRS What a GMRS "Net" is and why Most people within the GMRS community are helpful once you're in, but the community is very inviting in a go-figure-it-out-yourself way, and no one has assembled everything you need to know about GMRS all in one place. We GMRS people are putting the onus on outsiders to sift through thousands of painfully esoteric webpages with a winnowing fork, separating useful info from useless, poorly written, or incomplete info. When I first heard about GMRS on a 4x4 trip, I arrived home and Googled around and settled on a Midland MXT-275 because it seemed perfect for mounting on my truck dashboard. At the time, I had no idea that Midland doesn't manufacture a GMRS radio capable of operating on split-tone repeaters (Dear Midland, I know you're reading this: why do you squander so much potential?). Edit 6/28/2021: Midland heard our cry! They just updated the MXT-275 to include split-tone programming on repeater channels. So for example, now this radio is able to reach a repeater that receives (RX) incoming transmissions on 467.550 with a PL tone of 103.5 and repeats the transmission (TX) at 462.550 with a PL tone of 88.5. I didn't even know what "split tone" was or even what "tone" meant, or carrier or squelch or hundreds of other little things you all take for granted. Since then, I realized that if the big, bad manufacturers like Midland, Kenwood, Motorola, and iCom can't even invite the public to learn more and provide useful content for each stage of the customer journey—Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, and Loyalty—the 2-way radio industry has much deeper problems and aren't there to help guys like me. As we get involved deeper into GMRS, there's little-to-no hand-holding going on at each level of knowledge. I ending up relying on the Ham community here and there and a guy who is basically a saint at a little radio shop in Phoenix, Arizona (hope Tim over at Procomm and the others at the nonprofit AZGMRS.org don't mind me giving them a shout-out). Edit 4/14/2020: By the way, AZGMRS made this awesome list of FCC-approved GMRS radios that they recommend. If you live anywhere near Arizona and are reading this, now would be a great time to become a member. Their repeater network covers some 100 miles around Phoenix with more and more repeaters joining the network (check out their sweet coverage map). But it's still frustrating. I wish a GMRS expert—presumably a manufacturer—would just come out and say exactly what a total newbie needs at each stage of their involvement or level of need. Two-way radio manufacturers should stop wasting time trying to sell, and start marketing and branding, which means educating the public about the 5 W's (Who, What, Where, When, Why [+how, +how much]) without trying to sell to them. Most new users don't know what they need because they don't know what's possible. For example, I wish I knew that manufacturers don't typically include the best antenna on their radios right out of the box. It took me over a year to realize that the best bang for the buck for a portable base antenna to include in my go bag is N9TAX's Slimjim and that Smiley Antenna makes the best bang for the buck antennas for hand-held radios (which by the way, everyone just assumes newbies are supposed to know that hand-held walkie-talkie radios are called "HT" for "Handy-talkie" and what a "QSO" is). How would a newbie know that the cheap Nagoya 771 "upgrade" antenna for Baofengs that everyone talks about actually isn't the best bang for the buck for the GMRS frequency band of 462–467? How would a newbie know that antennas work best when tuned exactly to what they call a "center" frequency that accommodates 5 Megahertz in each direction (+5 and -5 Megahertz) at the expense of hearing other frequencies? I learned the hard way that in order to properly install an NMO antenna mount on the roof of my truck, I would need a drill bit specifically made for drilling NMO antenna mount holes, and that yes, it is worth the money to do it right the first time. I'm still in the middle of learning how a "quarter-wave" or "5/8 wave" antenna works, the difference between dB gain vs. dBi gain, mic gain, antenna gain, because again, everyone seems to just assume I already know what all this means. I still don't understand what antenna "tuning" means and why you have to "cut" an antenna to "tune" it. Can I make my own antenna right now in a pinch with a copper wire in my garage? Ok, show me! How do I measure it or test it? What is SWR? Can I measure it myself? What do I need in order to measure it? Is one SWR meter better than another for my level as a newbie? Is there something I should learn to make it worth buying the better meter that opens up a whole new world of capability? Is it worth learning all that? This graphic did a great job beginning to explain what dBd gain means for those of us who know next to nothing about it, but now I need to go find out on my own and sift through a thousand webpages to find out if dBd is something new I need to know. Speaking of dB, I know that "dB" is a decibel, but is it the same as my stereo volume? Why do I see manufacturers saying that the microphone and cable have a dB rating? What is going on here? This is madness! We can Google things all day, but which info is true and correct and the most helpful? I think that the entire industry is sitting on a Gold Mine of consumers sitting at home for weeks on end who would love to buy GMRS equipment and communicate via GMRS to friends, family, neighbors, and other GMRS users. Whoever provides the most useful, relevant, and engaging content that stops making assumptions about what people know or don't know will win. STOP ASSUMING. START EDUCATING.

Happy camper now. Got my vanity approval at 2:49 A.M. via e-mail. Odd time in my opinion but end result makes me happy!

In fact, antenna systems never have gain, all they have is loss. The goal is to minimize that loss. What is called antenna gain is more properly called apparent gain. That is, the RF energy emitted from the antenna will always be less that that emitted from the transmitter or amp. The apparent gain is achieved by distributing the RF energy in something other than a 360° patten.

I strongly disagree with this sentiment. Ham radio is much more than talking over radios. It is about experimentation, design, building, fixing, operating radios and related equipment. It is about casual conversations, emergency communications, rag-chews, community and support. It is about voice, data, telemetry, video, mesh-networking and satellite and moon bounce communications. And more. Part of what makes ham radio different from CB, MURS, GMRS, and FRS is the barrier to entry. If that barrier were to be removed, ham radio would quickly devolve into a cesspool. And keep in mind, electric theory is just part of what is tested. There is also wave propagation, proper equipment operation and practices, safety, rules and regulations, and more. I have no objection to remote testing per-se, as long as the same standard of honesty and avoidance of cheating can be preserved. But, for those who see remote testing as a way to avoid a little work and study that is, in my opinion, an extremely poor idea. And honestly, if someone is a complete null, they can just memorize the answers to all 424 questions in the pool - and you only are tested on 35 of those questions and you only need to get 26 (75%) right.

I didn't thought much of grounding antennas until I moved to my current house and needed every bit of range I could muster. Grounding the antenna made a significant reception difference, as in, it went from ~5 miles max to ~15 miles easy... grounding the antenna did lower the dB floor according to my spectrum analyzer, thus substantially improving reception range. To do grounding I read a lot of advice from people who do commercial tower installations and the NEC guidelines, etc. So, here is what worked for me: I purchased two Times Microwave Arresters, both N female, both Low PIM (low Passive Inter-Modulation), and both are bolted to the metal mast that holds the antenna(s) and the mast (1.25" steel pipe) is grounded using two copper clamps and a 10AWG wire to the house ground rod electrical box. The first arrester is placed right before the antenna, at the top of the mast. The second one is at the bottom of the mast. The short run between the antenna and the first arrester is a 4 foot LMR400 patch, coiled twice and both ends are silver plated connectors for low PIM. Then, from the first arrester (at the top) to the 2nd arrester at the bottom of the mast there is a 20 feet Heliax 1/2" cable run, both are N male ends and tri-metal low PIM connectors. The bottom arrester has a 90 degree elbow (silver plated) and another Heliax 1/2" 6 feet run, (both ends of this cable are also tri-metal low PIM) to the input of the "radio box" ... Inside the radio box I am using MILSPEC RG-214 patch cables with N male silver plated connectors for low PIM. The only connections that have any chrome plating are the antenna's SO239 and the Vertex Standard EVX-5300's mini-UHF connector. As you can see, I ditched all the UHF connectors and my SWR no longer creeps over time due to connectors being exposed to the crap weather. It was a "Copernican turn" for me, as all I had before was 239 stuff... glad I moved away from those, and from chrome plating... which caused a host of problems with the massive 1400 Candelabra tower sitting less than 2 miles from my antenna mast... All my radios are connected to a solar panel array and a 12VDC battery bank, thus not sharing anything electrical with the house, but the negative (ground) of the battery bank is connected to the same ground 10AWG wire the antenna mast is. G.

And there is the problem. There is usually no clear answer as to what the best, or even at times, a good, decision is. There are far too many variables involved. It might be that one excellent solution requires someone with a service monitor to configure, or the ability (and courage) to climb a tower, or deep pockets, a machine shop, and so on. Some users here are computer gurus while others can’t even connect a cable between a radio and their computer. Etc, etc, etc. I for one, have no interest in becoming a leader in this field. On the one hand, the more I know the more I realize what I don’t know. On the other hand, I am completely uninterested is accepting responsibility for someone who blindly trusts in whatever I might opine. At best, I am willing to be a guide or counselor to someone else’s journey into self discovery. YMMV. And that is a good thing.

While marcspaz's response if mostly accurate, signal reflection, while difficult to achieve, is possible. In the days when microwave was in common use for long haul links, mountain top reflectors were fairly common (see photo below). The same principal will work on UHF, IF the antenna is properly positioned at the right angle between the two transmitter locations. It is possible, though not likely, the water tower could act as a reflector. But, the transmitters would have to be well positioned and the antennas would have to be very high gain, probably a dish, and well aimed. So, I'd say if you can borrow two nice dish antennas, give it a try. But, don't expect too much. http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electronics-world/images2/radio-mirrors-communications-electronics-world-may-1969-2.jpg

What are you looking to extend? HT use? Typically using a repeater that is open to the public doesn't require any special permission from the owner. Depending on your setup, they would have no way of knowing anyway. That said, cross-band repeat into another repeater is a massive PITA. You have significant delay during the switching process and you can't talk until the repeater drops and your cross-band repeater drops out of transmit mode. You likely won't hear the first couple of words of others and if you start talking too soon, people may not hear your first few words.

it depends which handhelds you mean. the GMRS-V1, yes, since it's certified for GMRS use. ... Technically, the GMRS-V1 is not a Baofeng. Although manufactured by Baofeng, it has customized firmware and is sold under the BTECH brand name and it Is BTECH who have certified the radio with the FCC. AFAIK, no Baofeng branded radios are GMRS certified. The sole requirement for legal use on GMRS is FCC Part95-E Certification (Previously Part95-A). 47 CFR § 95.1761 - GMRS transmitter certification. (a) Each GMRS transmitter (a transmitter that operates or is intended to operate in the GMRS) must be certified in accordance with this subpart and part 2 of this chapter. (b A grant of equipment certification for the GMRS will not be issued for any GMRS transmitter type that fails to comply with the applicable rules in this subpart. [... ...]