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Why does every new license holder want to setup a repeater? I would like to shed a little light on some of the important things to consider if you recently got your GMRS license and now want your own repeater. First thing to consider, are there any open well placed repeaters in your area that you are able to use? I can assure you most repeater owners want people to use there repeater. Owning several repeaters I can assure you all are welcome and encouraged to use my machines. Do you have access to a location to host your repeater? If your answer is your garage roof you should reconsider. Your garage roof will give you about the same coverage as simplex. Unless you’re on top of a mountain and all your users are at the bottom you will never be happy with this setup. GMRS is not as popular as one would like to think, unless your repeater covers 20 miles or more you may find you only have 1 or 2 users in the area. Unless you already have a group of friends together you may want to consider this before spending money on a decent well positioned site to install your repeater. So you found a nice high site and the price is right, all you need to do is get the repeater installed, sounds simple right? Some thigs to consider first and foremost are the costs because they can add up quickly. Are you on a commercial tower that requires a license and bonded climber? If so this could be by far your largest expense depending on your area. I have spent $600 to $1200 on a climber; I have had quotes as high as $2500 depending on the amount of work and heights involved. Keep in mind commercial sites require certified mounts, hard line cable, cable clamps, engineered grounding solutions and commercial grade antennas. No tower owner is going to let you install a comet antenna and 200’ of braided shield coax. This brings me to my next point, the antenna. Because of the costs involved with climbers you will want to expend your budget on the antenna. Remember a $2000 repeater on a $200 antenna is going to work about as good as a $200 repeater. Whereas a $200 repeater on a $2000 antenna is going to work like a $2000 repeater. On my first repeater I was gifted use of a 150’ tower, I installed a DB-420 on the top and 160’ of 7/8 hardline. Total cost of equipment for the antenna install was $2500, with the climbers labor coming in at an additional $800. This left me with enough to purchase an old Motorola R100 repeater running at 25W. To my surprise it had 30 miles of coverage, all due to the cash spent on the antenna and waiting for a decent spot. Things happen, more so if you have an antenna 200’ in the air with a conductive cable connected to sensitive electronics. Antenna issues, feedline issues, repeater issues all cost money and I promise at some point you will have issues that need repair and require your money! It is my opinion that the GMRS community does not need another 2 to 5 miles repeater as it just becomes background noise. What use is a public listed repeater if somebody in a mobile can’t use it 5 miles away while moving or the portable coverage is only a mile? If after reading this you are still going to build a repeater for your garage more power to you, just don’t expect 20 people to show up if it only reaches a mile. As the owner of several GMRS and Commercial repeaters I can attest to the amount of money and effort go into my repeaters. I have only touched on the basics, if you add in any kind of testing services, duplexer tuning, addition of a combiner channel to an existing tower system, RF engineering, rent and insurance your costs can sky rocket. The best advice I can give any new licensee is to try and use the available systems in the area. Take the time to learn a little about what you’re doing and to assess the usability of the service before investing in a repeater for the sole reason of saying you own one.

My question is about radio proximity. A modern day transceiver (HT, mobile) is both a transmitter and a receiver built into one unit. And I understand that RX is automatically shut down whenever TX is initiated, thus saving the receiver internals from being fried. (Pros can correct me, is this true?). Many, many years ago (and in a place far, far away), in the Air Force, I was a radio man. Mostly we used HF-SSB and some VHF. The transmitter and the receiver sites where massive facilities and physically located literally miles away from each other and thus didn’t have the problem of frying receivers to worry about. And further, as a kid I remember my dad’s old ham setup. The transmitter and the receiver were in separate metal chasses, as were the power supply and some other equipment he had, (filled up his entire 72" wide radio/hobby table). I think each unit must have been shielded because they weighed about a ton each. I don’t recall the RX being shut down when he transmitted, but I was a small boy, and did not understand the equipment…one of them could have been some sort of switch that shut down RX as needed, I dunno. Today, in my “shack” (a 24 inch wide, 2-level shelf I built), I have several mobile radios physically mounted right next to each other and a couple of power supplies. My question is, if any two or more radios are on, and I transmit on one, will it fry the internals of the those receiving, because they are physically located right next to each other? Comments please, and thanks! ... Edit: Should have ready 72 inches, not 72 feet.

New guy from N.W. Indiana. Just recieved my GMRS. I'm here to learn.. Wrkp702

Yeah, I use an app on mobile or a computer the vast majority of the time, but it doesn't help out of range of internet - which sometimes I am. Not often, but it's good to have something. There's also other data that's kind of hard to get online - I know where to get it now - but NOAA was my go-to for wave data / predictions for a LONG time. 12 foot waves on 7 second intervals? I don't think I'll be going out that day! I'm working on a repeater project too - I'd like to know if you have any feedline issues. I was thinking about getting some rg-214 but its super expensive - maybe I can find some used hardline somewhere, mine isn't going to be mobile. I got LMR-400 and I now hear its not the thing for duplex - intermod, noise, desense ... something like that? Excellent for a base, supposedly not so much for repeaters.

Check gorund wire

Welcome Jeeper and RVer's... GMRS is for you and your family with grand kids. I'm having so much fun showing the grand kids that GMRS is two steps up from FRS and CB, which is fun as a kid. But my preteen like to talk via repeater to BFF. Yes they have to do the right things and call signs. They have so much respect for the license of GMRS... Yes I beat it into them... So I purchased a Motorola GR1225 repeater for home and will use it for RVing and Jeeping. It is not installed yet maybe by March as it is cold outside. I'm connected with a private repeater owner who has the best location and 30 mile range. He has taught me and G daughter so much... We donated to his repeater cost and offer to help him short of tower climbing. We are planing on a GMRS fest for the 50 or so who are authorized on his repeater. So read between the lines and if you have any question PM me and I will go into details... You are in the right place, welcome to GMRS. It is a family fun thing short of being a Ham which is for one person license. Let me know if this helps you. Jack P.S. I use an app on my iPhone for real time weather... Hearing NOAA over the air does not do it for me... I'm more visual and like to see radar and all the other data.

We motorhome. I've switched to GMRS from FRS recently and do not regret it at all. We started using them for backing in to a site or the storage unit and hiking in case we got separated. Occasionally, one of us will take the dog while the other stays in the motorhome and that's a little peace of mind. When we fish (poorly), we sometimes separate a ways to try different areas. In the last few months, I've built a GMRS base here at home, a Micromobile in the TOAD Jeep and soon in the motorhome. I don't know of any RV groups that exclusively use GMRS but Jeep Jamboree is going that way this year.

Good Morning gjbartel. Do you own a second GMRS radio? What model do you have? While I don’t rule out the possibility of you having a defective unit, it is truly more likely that the two radios are simply not configured correctly (not configured in a complementary way). Since you are having issues, you need to start simple. Read the manual on your radio. Determine which memories (channels) on your radio that actually capable of being used for transmission (MicroMobile radios are not permitted to transmit on all channels and frequencies, some are receive only). Reset your radios to factory defaults, if that is an option. Pick a common simplex channel with frequency that both of your radios are both are permitted to transmit on. Configure both radios so they use that same frequency. Disable CTCSS and DCS codes for the channel/frequency you picked, and do this on both radio units. Set squelch control to minimum value, for any model you use with adjustable squelch (it may be a menu option). Now try and communicate between the two radios while in relatively close proximity (25’ or so). By eliminating use of any CTCSS/DCS codes, you eliminate the chance that it is your code settings that are preventing you from having success, leading you to believe your transmitter is defective. For basic simple operation: Both radios must be configured to transmit and receive on the same frequency. Both radios must be capable of transmitting on the chosen frequency. Both radios must be powered on. Both radios must be within radio range, with squelch settings low enough to permit the receive radio to unmute when the other radio is transmitting. Both radios must be configured with compatible, complementary CTCSS/DCS codes (or both with none at all). Any ‘group mode’ settings on your midland radios (if they have them) are turned off. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

We'd have to rename it something like "guaranteed minimum radio service." :-P I've had the same fantasy, but I'm not going to get emotionally involved without a path to agitating for the cause. Edit: Anonymous delivers, and so do I: https://www.retevis.com/handheld-gmrs-two-way-radio-rt76

you can expect to loose 5 to 7 percent in range and depending on the audio circuitry in the radio audio can sound good or bad. I have had some in building issues w/NB, also I was running 650 narrow for a while due to adjacent channel interference and found a loss in horizon areas where I could talk through in wide before.