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Me and the UV5R aren't speaking at the moment.. I got busted talking to the Wouxun-radio-voice lady...

To everyone. There are always steps to building your shack, step 1 being get on the darn air to step final being the ultimate buildout. I want an IC9700 into a GP98 at 50' AGL for FT8, some light satellite, and the ability to remotely get on my home radio anywhere I have internet connection. Its why the I bought the 2m/70cm/23cm triplexer instead of a simple UHF/VHF diplexer to connect my radios to my vertical on the roof.

I seem to get a new "badge" or "rank" every few days, but what are they, and what is required for each level. Also, it appears it didn't take into account any posts from before the software upgrade.

Thanks for the clarification @kb2ztx! Sounds like the Larsen NMOKHFUD is still the way to go then. ocm

I'll put my money on local desense from being in the same room/proximity.

Although 5 9s is written as shown.

Yup. Too bad my random wire blows for 6m. I could get out so far was about 10miles. Picked up a dxcommander, need to build it. I am hoping I can have it setup so I can catch the early band openings. Random wire did get out to Tenessee a couple of weeks ago during a 10m opening. Did it on Olde 28.400 ssb. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

RST signal report, minus the tone part: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-S-T_system 5 is fully understandable 9 is full quieting strength signal (no frying pan noise). This is normally discussed on Single Side Band (SSB) conversations over HF frequencies, as there is no squelch, so you do end up hearing some pretty quiet in the background nosie.

That is more restrictive than I thought. Good info, thanks.

Using another repeater falls under the cooperative use clause and restrictions by the owner fall under 'individual licensee duties' of 47 CFR §95.1705: Repeaters are still classified as 'stations.' This section is why many repeater owners require permission, as they're technically required to keep a list of control stations. Key takeaways: "Shall determine specifically which individuals, including family members, are allowed to operate (i.e., exercise operational control over) its GMRS station(s)" (2) May allow any person to use (i.e., benefit from the operation of) its GMRS repeater, or alternatively, may limit the use of its GMRS repeater to specific persons; (3) May disallow the use of its GMRS repeater by specific persons as may be necessary to carry out its responsibilities under this section. "Specifically" in that first paragraph implies that a repeater's licensee must specify who you allow to act as a control station (which is any station using a repeater) over your GMRS station (in this case a repeater). This pretty much means that you have a duty as a repeater owner to keep a list of users to be compliant with this rule. This is aside from helping to tune out the noise caused by people who take others' hard work for granted and cause trouble. I don't think anyone stumbling onto a GMRS repeater is breaking the rules as a control station since it's hard to post a repeater as locked down in a matter fitting public notice; but the repeater owner does have a legal burden to keep track of you as a permitted user which users need to be aware of and thus should notify repeater owners of their intent. Of course, per the above, they can tell you to get off their equipment too and it's entirely within their rights to do so. In practice; is this ever enforced and does the FCC care? I doubt it - but it is in the rules.

For all of you that have rattled on about the 'cost' of putting up a GMRS repeater as an excuse.... We bought the TOWER SITE ours is on for 48K. So your few grand for an antenna and repeater don't hold water. Mind you they are not the ONLY radios on the tower. But crying about the cost of a repeater, antenna and line sort of falls on deaf ears for me. Spend 50K plus before you can even have somewhere to plug in the repeater and then we can talk. That being said. GMRS is NOT ham... it is a short form of private LMR. And you can have "closed" ham repeaters that are club only if you desire to do that. And you can require the payment of dues for entry into a club to get access to a ham repeater. The difference with GMRS and HAM is that with GMRS, you can do the same thing, BUT you can only take in enough money to support and maintain the GMRS system. It can't be for profit. And it can't go for club fee's or other nonrepeater costs. So my take is this.... it is YOUR repeater. You can choose to allow all comers, or you can choose to have it remain private and only used by you and your family. If you choose to accept donations... great. Electric costs money... tower site insurance costs money,, fixing stuff costs money... but while we would never refuse to take a donation,,, we will not ask for them either. Lets break down some REAL costs. Site 48K... rewire site 10K, monthly cost of ownership due to electrical and reaccuring stuff like taxes $200 - $400 TWO MTR uhf repeaters 800 each. 4 port combiner new cost, 8K per port. 600 feet of 7/8 hard line at 2 bucks a foot. Receive multicoupler for RX and window filter $3k new. Two DB-420 antennas (one TX one RX) 1.2K each new. I don't want to HEAR what it cost you. I don't much care... We are hosting TWO fully public GMRS repeaters which will be 3 total as soon as I get time to set down and repair the TK-850 Kenwood and program it. Then it will be 3 open repeaters. Tower is 240 feet tall. GMRS repeaters talk 3 counties away in most directions to a mobile with a reasonable antenna. When you spend that sort of jack and put forward that sort of effort, let me know and I will listen to how expensive it all is. Until then STOP hiding behind the cost of it. If you don't want to share, don't. There is ZERO requirement to do so. If you want to put up a repeater that is closed,, do it... but remember that if you are holding others back from having a repeater, because you happen to be able to cover 9 to 12 counties, don't. Will we be tying up 3 of the 8 repeater pairs,,, in a sense, yes. But they are open to ALL. And we have only irritated ONE person. He runs some sort of GMRS business. And the fact I am interleaved on his pairs, and stomp his coverage in the dirt with a single site where his crap is from here to there and back again and he STILL don't have the overall footprint we have. I honestly don't care if I am killing his pay to play GMRS business. And YES it's a business with an OHIO issued business license for GMRS. If you are reading this... you know WHO you are and who I am.... sorry but you don't get to claim all the freqs for your business and then be mad when someone comes in with a better system and allows folks on it for free.

Most of us use the Larsen NMOKHFUD NMO Mount. It isn't 100% waterproof but way better than the others. I normally slip a piece of self sealing heat shrink over the cable and I have yet to have one get water in them. My JK is at least 10 years old and still works fine. They work really well. https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=264_266_291&products_id=1125

Okay, I’ll bite here. I own a repeater (Rugged 575) in Naperville, IL at 300' receive / 250’ transmit. It’s on a commercial site with other UHF and VHF radio systems as well. Not only have I spent nearly 5 figures setting this up correctly but I monitor it as if it was my baby, cuz, you know, it *IS* my baby. I built it with no financial help from anyone else. Of course there was other help I received by LOTS of other commercial repeater owners (Those of you that are reading know who you are) as I’ve come a long way in the last year and some change here. I have my repeater system set up for several different private family usage cases and I also have a tone for public which I closely monitor as well and others that are out there do use it. As a repeater owner I’m super happy to turn my radio on and hear other people using it. As a matter of fact just yesterday some other licensed GMRS users were using my repeater and I needed to use it with my wife as I was at the grocery store and I broke in and said, “hang tight guys, I need to talk to my wife for a minute. I’ll let you know when I’m done”. Anyways, I flipped to our tone, talked with her about the particulars, then went back to the public side and said “Carry on guys! Glad to hear you out there using the machine”. That being said, mine is set to “Ask permission” as well because as others have mentioned, I want to know who is using it to verify their license and location because it’s my system and it’s my responsibility to make sure it’s up to par on the commercial shared site. I have sent an email back to EVERY! SINGLE! PERSON! As well welcoming them with the tones to use it! I haven’t had the need (yet) to ever reject anyone from using my repeater but I still keep a tab on who has access to it as in my opinion, it’s my responsibility to do so. Not only that, but I have my custom verbiage I send back with every request as well stating that this is a family repeater as well and to aid to traffic on the other PL tone. Heck, I’ll paste what I send you can see where we are coming from with this: “The tone for my repeater is XXXX (left blank) (N – normal, not inverted). When you key up for the first time please identify yourself using your call sign and call for ROB. I am regulating who is using my repeater as it is being used for my family as well. I have received an exceeding amount of requests to use my repeater. Originally this was set up for family only use but seeing as the range is far better than expected, I have opened it up on an as-requested basis to any licensed GMRS operator. PLEASE NOTE: ALL TRAFFIC MUST YIELD TO MY FAMILY. The tone for public use is different than family so if you see your radio lighting up receiving on 462.575 but no audio is coming through on your radio it's because my family is talking so please do not key up until that traffic has cleared. Thanks and I hope to hear you on the air!” That being said, sometimes users don’t understand what a multi-table is either so I will say this too: When you first use a new repeater you should ALWAYS call out for a radio check IMO because you don’t know how that repeater is set up and should NEVER assume anything! I was in Iowa once and I made contact to the owner on the traveler tone (I was travelling) and he told me that it’s linked to another repeater in California! NONE of this information was posted on mygmrs.com and upon googling I couldn’t even find it either!!! It was good to know that I was keying multiple machines too and me and the owner had a nice long 30 minute conversation and he was glad I keyed up and shouted out! To sum up further as a repeater owner: *MOST*, but not *ALL* repeater owners don’t mind you using their machine I’ve found. Now I’m in the Midwest mind you, so again, no assumptions would be made for other machines that I’ve never used, but around here most repeater owners are very happy to have you on their machine and it brings a great smile to their face to know that they are serving the public with a reliable communication system and growing the hobby as well! Remember that GMRS isn’t HAM and HAM isn’t GMRS. A *LOT* of people out there want GMRS for family use under one license and that’s what I’m doing but I’ve decided to open it up to the public as well as the coverage is fairly decent. I looked at getting a business license and could have easily done it too but I like the idea of being able to chat with my family *AND* other GMRS users so here we are! Thanks!

Regardless, this whole ask for permission thing seems flawed. This isn't a business radio license. You've put up a repeater on a limited shared resource (only 8 pairs) and then expect people to catch you on the air (without knowing your schedule) so they can ask if they can use it? That makes as much sense as having somebody wait at a toll booth until the attendant decides to show up for work. Suppose somebody takes the time to finally catch you on the air and ask. What exactly is accomplished? Does it satisfy the King? Does the King approve or will the King go have to chase a baofeng on vox that's been strapped to an ice cream truck because the King behaved like an Oaf? Let's be honest here. The only thing this permission thing is doing is feeding an ego.

I would agree ham radio can probably be safely classified as a hobby. But, I would not make the same statement about GMRS. Yes, for some GMRS is a hobby. But, as @wayoverthere notes, probably a greater percentage of MyGMRS members than of the general GMRS population fit that description. Look at the history and licensing to get a feel for what GMRS is. It's roots were as a business service, and those early licenses are still grand-fathered in, and business use is still perfectly legal on GMRS. Licensing is by family unit, not individuals. This encourages use of GMRS as a practical communications tool, rather than as a hobby. Another point of comparison is repeaters. GMRS repeaters are limited to 8 frequency pairs, have no coordinating body, and commonly share frequencies using PL, etc. to control access. GMRS repeaters tend to be used for short, task oriented communications and less for rag chewing. So, sharing channels works well. Ham radio, with frequency coordinators, etc. seeks to limit the number of repeaters in an area to avoid interference. There are many other differences, but I think I have covered the main points. But, I would add one more thing. Where is it written that either as a hobby, or a personal communications tool, that getting people interested in two-way radio is, or even should be, a commonly agreed upon or shared objective? I think that is an admirable goal. But, I would also not fault someone who did not share that goal.

The responses don't surprise me. Seems counter productive towards getting people interested in a radio hobby. You want to talk money, we're currently burning in a brand new hytera ip addressable repeater going up with a DB420 antenna. Easily over $3k without counting duplexer, lightning protection, and cable. This will be at 950' in downtown Miami. Open to all. Part of the reason it's being done is the general "you stay off my repeater" vibe we picked up from looking at the local gmrs listings. It was baffling to see how unfriendly this side of the radio hobby can feel.

Update: Thanks to @Radioguy7268 my first VX-264 is on the air in wide-band mode. Some notes for those who may follow... My Vertex Standard branded VX-264 with firmware 2.07 just arrived today and I used the Motorola CS150 v5.01 international version software to program it. To switch the radio to accept wide-band channel settings I used the Wide_Band_Recovery_Tool software v1.03. (This is not available from Motorola but, thanks to Radioguy7268, I can share a copy with anyone who needs it.) NOTE: with the VX-261/264 radios you must use v1.03, v1.02 does not support them. I did not use, though I have ordered one, the FIF-12 programming adapter. Instead, I used the <$20 CT-106p cable from BlueMax49ers. Extras: I do not own any windows machines so I used a Win-7 VM in VirtualBox for the wide-band recovery and programming. Also, as my MacBook only has USB-C ports, I used a USB-A to USB-C adapter. So far I am very pleased with the radio and find it almost ideal suited for CERT type applications.

Thanks... Bit the bullet and ordered: FIF-12A - Motorola Vertex Standard USB PROGRAM CABLE PC I/F AAJ23X501 1 @ $105.03 CT-106 - Motorola Vertex Standard Programming Cable AAD68X501 1 @ $29.25 According to Wisscom the CT-106 is required to connect the FIF-12A to the VX-264. BTW, v1.03 of the recovery tool is online at communications.support in this thread. However, attachments cannot be accessed until after some probationary period and some minimal number of posts, so I can't download it, yet.

I found a YouTube video on configuring the VX-231. According to Vertex From January 1st in 2013, if the USA version is used for the radio programming in the following frequency range, the CE programmer automatically/forcedly programs the radio with 12.5 kHz width. In addition, once the USA version is used for programming (even the programmer was used before that date), the radio is marked electrically in the radio memory that the radio is sold/used for the USA (NA) market, and this marking cannot be erased. However, that same announcement also says there is a way to reset the radio: The software tool is “Wide_Band_Recovery_Tool_1_00”. Located via VSOL > Resource Center > Technical Information > General Information. So far I have been able to locate the international version of the programming software for the VX-264. But not the Wide_Band recovery software. I have also read that even with the recovery software, it must be used with a genuine Vertex FIF-12 cable ($150). I have already bought a VX-264 and BlueMax49ers cable on eBay, due to arrive Saturday. So, I will report back on what happens when I try to re-program the radio. In the meantime, any tips/pointers most welcomed.