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I think many people coming from the CB world may have different expectations. Better audio quality and reliability of communications, but still with a fairly disorganized group of people looking to chat with others nearby. It is certainly within the capability of the equipment. But, as you point out, it is not the general nature of the community.

We have several projects planned that are in various stages of development, but I'm trying to figure out priorities based upon what the members want (and some things that I haven't thought of yet). I think we can all agree that Problem #1 is outdated listings that never got removed but are no longer on the air for one reason or another. We have plans to address that, but it requires a major redevelopment of the site. In the meantime we have the toggle switches on the map that allow you to hide anything that hasn't been updated in the last year, as it could be stale. So, what do you think myGMRS needs? What do you personally wish we had that we don't? Here's some projects that are being considered or are already in the works: Finish working on the mobile apps. We have a beta version of the iOS app that has some issues before it can be released to everyone. That effort needs to be revived soon. The Android version has been released but there are new features that we want to add (and will also be in iOS). A complete site redevelopment. Much of the code powering myGMRS is over 10 years old. It's the main reason new features aren't being added -- we need a fresh modern platform to work with. Some early experimentation has been done and we think we have the right combination of technology, but need to build it. Then we can begin adding new features once we have covered all the current functionality. Launch of our store and securing reseller arrangements with various suppliers. This has been a small success already that we're hoping will grow with time. Most of my energy has been spent here lately, trying to get products that our members are likely to want to purchase. We're always looking for suggestions on products we should add, so please let us know. Expand our repeater linking project. We have had success with adding systems to our myGMRS Network over the past few years but we haven't pushed to expand very hard. Interested parties have come to us asking to join and we have approved them on a case-by-case basis. It's time, I think, to ramp up the project and try to get more high-quality repeaters on board across the country. There is a lot of work involved in making this something that can scale up without taking huge amounts of my time, however. Upgrade the forums. We're using an older version of the IP.Board software, and I want to migrate to the latest version soon. We'll have to migrate all the accounts and topics over, but hopefully it won't be such a tough process.I also have a really cool project in mind that I'm going to remain tight-lipped about. It would be an app which would be of interest to the entire two-way radio community, not just GMRS and Amateur operators. I'm working on a proof of concept that could expand into a whole side business if successful. So again, what do you think this site is missing? What kinds of features do you think would be worth paying a small subscription for? The core features of the site will remain free. Since incorporating, we have had to look for ways to monetize the site so it pays its own bills and can grow with time. One example might be an ad-free experience for paid subscribers. Another could be advanced tools for helping to compile a list of repeaters along a trip or commute. Dream up some ideas and hopefully we can launch them all!

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.

I keep trying to reset or use the forgot password option but no email ever makes it to me. I've attached two files showing I am using the right email and I tested with a wrong email John10e WRAT941 Should add the forum works but I can't get into the main MYGMRS sight and select repeater information. asks me to log in

I would agree with separating your tx and rx radios by 1 mile. I’ve found that I usually don’t have this issue with the big US brands of radios however the CCB radios with the exception of Wouxan always experience front end overload. A responsible repeater owner will respond to all inquiries within a reasonable amount of time (usually within the first 48 hours but up to one week). Of course, these are the same responsible owners that keep their listings current, up to date, this is what I do as a responsible owner. If you’re not receiving a response, I’d move on since chances are if the system experienced an issue, say one serious enough to knock it off line, the chances of the owner correcting the problem and placing it back on line or even on line within a reasonable time period are very low. That’s not really the option that I want to rely on for my communication needs. Something to consider is all. Although my current system is providing less than adequate coverage which I’m working diligently to resolve (I chose to start small and hopefully improve over time), I or one of my “control monitors” are monitoring the repeater 24/7 and if the primary system fails for any reason, it’s a quick and simple changing the coax connection and flip of a single switch and the backup repeater is up and running while repairs are made to the primary unit, with minimal down time and interruption. I can’t speak for anyone else, but this is the way I have chosen to implement my operation in order to ensure that everyone using my system can rely on, within reason, that it will be up and running when it’s needed.

Get one of the repeater cables from seller mre1032 on Ebay. He offers a couple of different versions that will suit your needs well. He's welll known in the Motorola community and highly reliable. In fact, check out some of his other offerings for the 1225 mobibles.

The M1225LS can be modified back to a standard M1225 by simply removing the aftermarket board that makes it a trunking radio. That will give you a 20 to 24 channel conventional radio. And you won't need the LS version of the programming software. Find version 4.0, it runs just fine under XP. If you are acquiring an older PC for this, get one that has a real serial port. Then get a serial version of the programming cable. It will be much more reliable than trying to use a USB cable on the older PC and software. The serial cable use COM-1 so there's no dicking around with comport assignments. I bought a refurbed Panasonic ToughBook CF-29 with XP installed on Ebay. It is rock solid for the M1225 as well as my newer Professional Series and Commercial Series units. There is tons of information to be found about the M1225 (and LS) at batboard.batlabs.com, radioreference.com, and repeater-builder.com. You will probably find my posts and questions about this exact subject on the batboard and RR (user name is STeveC0625 over there.) I bought a 1225 not knowing it was an LS model. By searching at RR and the batboard, I found all the answers I needed and then some. I ultimately ended up selling the aftermarket board which reduced my purchase cost of the radio to almost zero.

I dont recall what programming for accessory pins the LS offers but thats the biggest issue you may have. Use good shielded cables between a duplexor and radio.

No license necessary for frs. lot of the kid toy walkie talkies are on low frs channels. Daughter's old pickachu walkie talkies was on channel 5. Around here it is a bunch of business using them, kids or Spanish people (seams landscaping companies love them). Ignore and hit scan Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Its an old "the right tool for the right job" For my use I don't need changing tones or connecting to multiple repeaters. I only use one. My own. So I got two 50x1 for $400 instead of two woxouns for $700. Totally happy with 50x1. Can monitor 4 different frequencies at once!

Dang. You still have an open mall? All the ones in my general vicinity have declared bankruptcy. You might not have to do anything but give it a couple more months.

As of today it is still 70$. Now to see if they accept it. I started my renewal on the 15th. But never could get to the pay for it page till today. Microsoft edge won’t work... expired the 17th. But they had the application on file for the 15th.... guess I will wait and see what they do

Thanks! Based on what you posted I did some more research on this. I found the exact tone on a video in YouTube, although it's much louder and clearer in person. The video is about programming Illegal FRS digital radios. The signal is strong enough in most parts of our county to exclude an FRS radio on simplex, unless the radio is connecting to a repeater. Then again it could be any other radio that has both the capability to transmit on 462.700 and also digital. Then again, it still points to a repeater because of the distances. Here is the video. I queued it to start at 14:30, a few seconds before you can hear the tone: https://youtu.be/R_fYaK84VU4?t=870 Best, JAS

This is probably not a good test. Your transmitter is too close to the test receiver which is desensitizing your wife's RX. This is a common problem and the reason a repeater needs a duplexer to work. The huge nearby in-band signal makes the receiver turn its gain way down. Of course the repeater signal is much weaker so will not be heard. You really need to get your TX a couple hundred yards, (or better yet, a mile) from your test RX. I did this same thing with a 5W radio and my wife could not hear me at all through the repeater. But I got a reply from a guy 10 miles away who could hear me fine. My wife downstairs could hear the other guy fine but her radio "plugged its ears" whenever I was transmitting. Vince

As low as we all remain good practicing stewards of GMRS I am certain we can have a positive impact. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I know of people who won't turn on their CB radio if the kids are in the car because of what goes on there. Nice to hear people are behaving themselves on GMRS and hope it stays that way.

I have played around with the companding option in my commercial radios I use on GMRS. I end up turning the compander off after a while because of the issues it causes. The companding feature does work as advertised to help clean up the audio SNR. The companded audio has a "processed" quality to it and I don't mind that. The problem is it requires ALL radios talking to each other to also be using companding in order to sound right. It's an all or nothing type deal. Radios that don't compress their transmitted audio will sound muffled and distorted when heard out of companded radios. The expander in the receiver expands audio that wasn't compressed originally and blows it apart and sounds like 'expletive'. The compander is best left disabled when you have a mix of radios that do and don't compand their audio. Motorola includes a low level expander (LLE) option in their top tier radios. When using LLE, the transmit audio is not compressed, only the received audio is expanded by a small amount. It gives the audio a very slightly "fuzzy" quality to it under some conditions. Overall if a radio has companding capability, the radio needs to include the option to disable the compander. The compander feature should be OFF by default. The Motorola Talkabout FRS bubble packs use companding. Motorola calls this feature "X-Pand". The compander is always enabled and with no option to disable it. With Motorola's VHF and UHF business radios, the Business Bubble Packs as I like to call them also compand audio on narrow bandwidth channels with no option to disable the compander. People who have complained about bad receive audio quality out of the Motorola Talkabout FRS bubble packs are really complaining about the effects of the compander on the received audio, especially when hearing radios that don't compress their transmit audio because they don't have companding. Motorola could greatly improve the Talkabout FRS bubble packs by simply adding the option to disable the compander. My wife (g/f at the time) and I had a pair of Motorola Talkabout 250 FRS bubble packs in the early days of FRS. The Talkabout 250 was one of the early 14-channel FRS bubble packs from Motorola. It was one of the first models to push their "X-Pand" audio companding feature. Motorola added X-Pand to all of their analog radios back then. Motorola's top tier radios have the ability to enable or disable companding on a per channel basis. With Motorola's FRS bubble packs and their business bubble packs, the compander is always enabled. The Talkabout 250 had LOUD audio for hearing them in noisy environments which I liked but the companded audio sounded like 'expletive'. The radios aggressively companded the audio by over-compressing the transmitted audio and over-expanding the received audio. The companded audio quality was so bad and to the point that basic functionality of the radio was impaired. The radio was almost unusable with radios that don't compand their audio. It was THAT bad. Reducing the expansion ratio in the expander part of the companding system would have helped a lot. Wikipedia article on companding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companding

Agreed, and that is not commonly understood, so it deserves mentioning again. While you will find locations and individuals that do use GMRS for rag chewing, if that was or became the dominate use of GMRS, it could find itself useless for family comms. There are just not enough frequencies available. But admittedly, it is nice to meet, connect and chat with other licensees for short periods on the radio.

for the most part GMRS is not about talking to someone you dont know. Most GMRS users use it to talk to family or personal friends. This gets discussed monthly. If your looking to chat on a radio GMRS probably is not the best option.

$70-club? Phufffff. Whiners, no sympathy. There are people here who are members of $90-for-5-years-club. Some people are more than once members.

Ok, let's try to keep this in scale. If one were to renew for $70 the day before the new price went into effect. The total extent of the "damage" would be $3.50 per year over the 10 year life of the license. That is $ 0.0095 per day, $0.067 per week, or a whopping $0.29 a month.