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Welcome to the new forums! Unfortunately, over the last year or so we've had serious problems with our previous board software (phpBB and vBulletin), so I did some shopping around and decided that Invision Power Board is the way to go. Between vBulletin and this new software, I've had to lay out over $400, so I didn't make the decision lightly. While it's possible to migrate the posts from the previous software, I decided it wasn't worth the effort. I prefer having a clean platform and I will be tying the forum software to your main user accounts, so you no longer need two accounts for the site. This extra step will take some time for me to implement, so I'm going to lock down user registrations so we don't have duplicate accounts everywhere. Keep a look out for an update in the near future! So without further ado, welcome to the new forums! I hope this will be our last migration for many years to come, and donations to help offset the software licenses would be very much appreciated.

Here in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento regions we have started hearing a "baby monitor" type devices using GMRS 462 and 467 MHz primary repeater frequencies, in nursing home settings (given the message content). We are aware of about twenty incidents of this over the past three months, but the rate of occurrence is rising. The most recent was strong enough to interfere with a CERT/Fire Council repeater out here. These typically operate during daylight periods, and appear to be continuously keyed for up to 12-16 hours at a time, although background noise, such as televisions, could be keeping them transmitting if set for VOX. They do not have time-out timers enabled. These change channels occasionally, but usually end up on 462.625, 462.725, 467.625 and 467.725 MHz. They use a D754 or a D734 DCS code. This kind of device was explicitly mentioned in past FCC GMRS rulings as it was feared that manufacturer's might use these channels for such things. Given most repeaters here in California are on 1500-4000 ft. mountains, continuous destructive interference will occur to our repeater inputs. I tried to DF the source of one of these last week, but it was found to be in San Francisco and we ran out of time. SF is a particularly difficult place to do this due to the density, hills and other sources. Thankfully these are constantly keyed. The device I was looking for was horizontally polarized, making it about 10-20 dB weaker when received on a vertical vehicle antenna. A Yagi in horizontal worked best. My goal was not to go after the user (they don't know better), but instead get a picture of the device, determine its manufacturer and model number, and establish who is selling it. As these may be used in nursing care facilities, they will likely have to bring the device out to us to be safe. Please let us know here if you hear these as we are trying to keep a list of the channels and codes in use so we can identify the specific radio model. This is clearly in violation of §95.1733(a)(10) and §95.1763© for GMRS, and §95.587(3) for FRS. It also appears to violate §95.533.

I recently purchased one of these radios for use in my home. It is hooked up to an excellent external antenna at good elevation and with excellent feed-line. With my current system I have verified I can can get into 6 higher-profile repeaters within 50 miles of my home at or near full quieting. From my earliest use of the radio I started to notice something unexpected. I fairly regularly have multiple radios on when I in the mode of ‘just playing radio’. What I observed was that my HTs regularly showed greater S-meter readings than the 1000G when lower level signals were encountered. This was not remotely what I was expecting given one radio is using an external high-gain antenna while the others are indoors using low-gain antennas. Nonetheless I mostly discounted this, at least initially. While I do use repeaters, I like to focus more on what I can do simplex. Recently I set out get a feel for what I could achieve simplex between my new base radio and the HT in the mobile using my external mobile antenna. For this test, both my neighbor and my wife were on our respective base stations. Again, to my surprise, my neighbor was able to hear me at a range about 50-75% further than my wife could on the 1000G. Again, I discounted this difference, chalking it up to his extra 10’ of antenna height. At the opening of my post I reported that I could get into 6 higher-profile repeaters in my area. True, but at first I did not realize that. One night I was confirming my repeater access on each repeater in the city. I would announce my callsign, sometimes indicate where I was at, and that I was just testing. I took note of which repeaters I received a squelch tail back from, noted the S-meter reading, hailed again to confirm, and sometimes asked for a radio check. If I heard no squelch tail from the repeater after multiple attempts I moved on. Later that night, while in a conversation with another GMRSr on a repeater I can work well, I had some folks jump in to say they heard me on two different repeaters quite well earlier (ones that I had not previously gotten a squelch tail back from). Each one told me that they had tried to reach out to me but received not response back from me. I was shocked. Learning this talked and then switched over to those repeaters to try again as a group. Yep, they could hear me great, yet I could not hear them back. I checked my radio settings, all was good. It was late but we decided to try one more thing before we called it a night. I hooked up my KG-805G in place of the 1000G (exact feed-line and antenna). Low and behold the KG-805G got into the repeater fine at just 5 watts (although a bit noisy), but the KG-805G was able to hear the other parties. OK, now I know something is going on. Yesterday I enlisted the help of a seasoned local GMRSr and amateur radio operator so I could perform some receive comparisons between three different radio models I have. For a period of time I had them transmit and talk while I hooked each model of radio to the exact same antenna and feed-line one after another. I took note of whether the squelch opened up, what the S-meter reading was, and what the audio quality was. In the end, the 1000G was the clear looser by a unexpected margin, while the 805G was the hands-down winner. Many times the squelch on the 1000G would not open up at all, and when it did, the S-meter was low and the audio very noisy. Conversely the HT radios always opened up, always produced usable audio and exhibited S-meter readings consistently 2-5 bars higher than the 1000G under the test scenario. These results are not at all expected in light of the fact the radios have published sensitivity ratings that differ by only 2dB. I have started a dialog with BTWR about this issue in hopes their customer service comes through. I would like to think that I received a dud and the issue can be resolved by swapping out the radio. Time will tell. I writing this for the benefit of all of you that have already purchased this radio, or that are considering it. Your signal might very well be reaching a lot farther than you know, merely because your receive is not on par with your transmit. Not usually a good combination. I will report back how custom service handles this situation, if and how the receive issue gets resolved. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I would like to see Kenwood come out with a DMR version of the TH-D74A radio instead of the D-Star version currently available. I would likely buy one.

I may reach out to you to talk that through at some point. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Hello all, Mat here, normally a C.B. Junkie who's been into GMRS since 2018, first post on this Forum. Honestly I don't know if it's just my particular area or what, but all I ever seem to hear on my Rig is kids with Walkie-Talkies, usually very young, jibbering away on them, and what I call 'beeping off', trying to all talk at the same time...apart from maybe 4 individuals who actually talk Simplex. And then come to find out, in my immediate vicinity I'm the ONLY ONE who's licensed (WRAQ431). I have to guess the beepers aren't licensed, Mom & Dad got the kids Walkie Talkies for Christmas or something, and the 'talkers' maybe got them for camping/outdoor stuff, as these GMRS radios are readily available at our local WalMart. Does anyone else put up with this kind of thing, or is it just me? Not so much 'putting up' with the people that actually hold a discussion, but those danged kids...ok, rant over...

Receive PL’s are a great thing.

Oh I was part of the 90$ club too. Seems like every change goes into effect shortly after I renew. next time to renew Ill be 72... so this may be my last one Ill go rogue then...

What’s 17? Route 17? I don’t know of any Route 17 in R.I..

Thanks. It occurred to me this may be much ado about nothing. Given that RG58 loses about 11db at 100', I realize I'd only 1 at 10', but most mag mounts have 17'-18' of cable so I'd figure two. Planning to couple with an antenna that has either 2.5 or 3db of gain as well. Thanks!

So 99% of your public safety vehicles on the road use RG58 on an NMO mount Under 16' of cable I wouldn't worry about RG58 on UHF. If your running 50' then you should have concern. Being your using a mag mount it really doesn't matter. You will not notice a difference in RG58 vs LMR240 or RG8X.

Here's a simple explanation. Longer antennas (properly designed of course) focus your signal so it's concentrated towards the earth's surface. We're not talking to airplanes or other planets so why waste signal up there. We want to focus our signal at ground level (or horizon) which is where our contacts are. The gain of the antenna tells you how much it concentrates your signal where we want it.... in this case the horizon. So gain (length) and height both help. You may also need to consider the loss in your coax. You may want to run heavier and lower loss coax for the longer run then adapt to something more flexible for the last 10' or so. I would try and keep coax loss down around 2dB or less if you can. Less than 1dB would be nice. Vince

Good Day TDM. In a lab environment, when they measure an antenna to derive its radiation pattern, they reference the center of the radiating element(s). So it would seem logical that if you were doing scientific experiments with antenna and wanted to compare the coverage of two antennas in real-world space, you too would reference (or mount) both antennas at the same elevation, using the center of the radiating element as the reference elevation. For simplicity, let’s say the smaller antenna had 2 foot radiating element and the larger had 10’. If you mounted the 2 foot antenna at 45’ AGL to center of radiator and wanted to contrast it against the other, you would mount the 10’ at 45’ AGL to center it its radiator. For the sake of a fictitious example. Assuming that the gain of the 2’ and 10’ were both the same (they would not be), the power used was the same, and both were mounted at 45’ to the center of the radiator, I would expect the shorter antenna to win the range contest because its center of radiation is higher above the horizon. Whereas if you compared them both by mounting the bottom of the radiator at 45’, now suddenly the 10’ would win because its center of radiation is higher than the smaller. Now let’s switch to reality. For GMRS, the longer antennas have more gain because they are in-fact some form of collinear antenna design. They are actually comprised of an array of multiple antenna stacked one on top of the other. This has the effect of increasing the effective antenna gain (squashing the donut as some would say). So, if you have an antenna mast and it is 45’ off the ground and achieve range ‘X’ when using a simple ground plane antenna, you will achieve range ‘Y’ when using the 10’ collinear antenna. ‘Y’ will be greater for two reasons. First, it is a higher gain antenna. Second, because the center of radiation is higher. If you live in a valley and need to communicate with radios on the ground in the valley as well as others high on the nearby hills/mountains then a lower gain antenna is usually better. If the terrain is mostly flat to rolling, than a higher gain antenna becomes a candidate. One finally thought. If you live in an area with lots of trees (as I do), a low gain antenna mounted well above the trees is probable to substantially out perform a high gain antenna located below the tree line. So while we say that height is everything, which is true, what is is really all about is getting the antenna above all the obstacles (trees, buildings, earth, etc...) that reduce its range. Good luck on your project. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

One owner of a repeater has spoken to me plenty of times. Several owners have responded to my request via email.

I tried a handheld in my house as a receiver then went out to my car and my wife tried and I only got the break.

IMHO, it is reported in the federal register calling for comment by the public on or about Dec 28. So from my days reading the pink sheets as it is called, 30-60-90 day so makes it Jan, Feb or March. Then as you said will take them 30 days to make the changes on the web site. Welcome to the "I paid $70 Club". Jack

Unfortunately many of these devices are likely to be chinese made and the companies won't respond or react to any FCC violations but rather change marketing names as to continue selling in the US. E-bay doesn't help the situation much either. I have seen several devices from chinese manufacturers ranging from monitors to two-way intercoms which look to operate in the 462/467 range and as you mentioned above, they all operate on a DCS code. Some even advertise that they will work with two way radios, giving the frequency and DCS code in the ad. In the end, the end user is the one responsible for use and operation of non-certified transmitters. Most times simple education and assistance is all that is needed to get companies in the right direction (Many don't wish to receive a fine, but many more do not want to face the legal ramifications should private personal info be released into unsecured airwaves)

This is awful. Keep us posted as to what you find. It is amazing what junk gets imported and sold.

We have seen that the Google, Bing, Ask and other search engine spybots are camped out here reading new posts. Just a word to the wise... use your discretion in posting personal or sensative information that could possibly compromise your personal safety, security, lead to identity theft, or give non-licensed individuals a way to access your radio systems.

We are bumping up this announcement once again as a refersher to all members. MyGMRS is one of the fastest growing GMRS and alternate radio service forums in the US. As a result of it's popularity, we are being "scanned" by countless 'spybots' from all the major search engines as well as some from other countries. We have seen as many as 30 search engine 'bots' collecting data here at one time. We would just like to remind everyone that this forum is PUBLIC and if you don't want the world to see your personal info, don't post it.

Account integration is complete! This is how it works: Registrations are still disabled and will be indefinitely. Even though you don't have an account on this new forum, go ahead and try to sign in anyway with your regular myGMRS.com username and password, not your old forum account. If the credentials are correct, you will be asked to provide your email address. Please ensure you enter a valid email address so you can receive updates and private message alerts if you subscribe to them. Once you've entered this information, go ahead and finish creating your account. This should make logging in to the forums much easier for everyone!