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If a new ham came to me with the question about "which digital voice mode" to use, I would suggest looking up the repeaters in their area to see if there is a clear front-runner. Around me, it's like 50% FM 40% DMR 10% all other digital voice modes To me, it was simple-- I went with DMR because I wanted access to as many local repeaters as possible. Of course, if you will mostly use a hotspot, then we're back to the original question.

And this folks is what happens when someone asks something that they should KNOW the answer to..... like "if I transmit DMR into an analog repeater, will another DMR user hear me" which should be obviously NO. And at that point, one would have to assume the other person or people in the thread will assume you know NOTHING of radio and the underlying technology OR you do know and are asking really silly questions to irritate the folks in the thread. Then we need to retort by talking about all the effort put forward to further GMRS and it's users. The TWO HUNDRED dollar a month electric bill, hosting TWO repeaters on the site,,, or the taxes, building upkeep, repeater upkeep, overall mundane site maintenance like mowing the grass. Na.... I don't do ANYTHING to contribute. Not one damn thing. And while the two GMRS repeaters are NOT the only radio equipment on the site,,,, the fact its' done for FREE. Well don't see any effort there. Whats wrong with subscription fee's??? You're gonna ask ME that. The guy that has two repeaters that cover 7 counties in Ohio that are free to use by ALL what's wrong with fee's. Simple, if you can't afford to have a repeater on the air,, take up a limited number of repeater pairs, and think you should be somehow entitled to MONEY for your effort... well screw you. That's whats WRONG with FEES. Go spend 48K on a tower site. 1800 a year on taxes. 15K to rehab the site. Then put a GMRS repeater on the air FOR FREE and support all this out of pocket and then question me about fee's... I have tried to be nice... I am done with that. You don't like me... fine... You don't like what I have to say... don't read my posts. You want to get on my thread, and ask stupid questions that my WIFE actually laughed at because SHE knew you can't TX DMR into an analog repeater and have it come out the other side as DMR. NO,,, I am gonna call you out on it. I brought up post counts because if you were some noob with 5 or 10 posts, the question is relevant and you would be deserving of a real explanation. Not the case here. Oh, BTW,,, she is an accountant. I am the professional radio guy. She's just been around it enough to know better. Only chimed in... but are done with ME and the thread. The what the hell are you still posting for? You said you will stay out of my lane and ask that I stay out of yours. So I said NOTHING and stayed in my lane. PAY ATTENTION,,,, YOUR TURN SIGNAL is STILL on from the lane change there bud. Here you are.... back in my lane. So at this point... this whole thing has been hijacked. It needs closed or deleted.

There's a couple facets to this. If there is a repeater you can both reach, 50 miles isn't out of the question strictly with the radios, and depending on terrain, might even be possible simplex. Alternately, if you want to use zello to bridge the gap, radio only really comes into play if you want to be freed from the gateway and use the radio..if you choose, you should be able to just connect to them strictly on zello, either on computer or in the app. The radio gateway is just a way to free one end. (or both) from working directly with the app, via radio(s) Ill leave the gateway specific stuff to those that have worked with them, as my depth of zello knowledge is strictly end-user.

Michael (and OffRoaderX), I salute you for your generous donations... This forum is filled with people like you and others who have helped me in the past, and others, and it is greatly appreciated. (I was going to send kudos to you via PM, but then decided a salute needs to be public). Thomas ...

TETRA is another option available, but is not very popular in the US. Its basically the big brother of DMR... 4 slot TDMA... Prepping and SHTF, you should probably use AM/SSB to establish contact, then use digital encrypted for trusted intercom. I think FM still has issues due to PL/DCS codes potentially preventing interoperability like AM/SSB would. Digital has other advantages over analog, that I use extensively, text messages and call alerts, along with radio checks and if you have a dispatch console or something like that you can do real time tracking of assets etc, OTAP... etc. G.

You are luckier than I am then... I rarely get 10% off buy it nows, etc... the only way to get a deal is by snipping stuff and being lucky... G.

A box will be heading your way next week Lou..

Hi Jerry, I own the Fort Pierce repeater which covers the Port St. Lucie area very well and with a good base station you should be able to get to West Palm Beach. For your house, you would need a UHF base station antenna outside as high as you can practically get it (ideally on your roof if that's possible). Elevation is the key to getting better range. For a base radio, you can use a mobile radio and a power supply hooked up to the antenna. Some form of lightning protection for the coax that comes from the antenna is advised, especially in Florida. There are Polyphaser surge suppressors that you can buy which will protect the radio from a surge in the coax caused by a nearby strike. For your mother's house, depending on where she's located she might be able to use a handheld radio which would be good for mobility, but you'd have to try it out and see. I'm not sure if you have a GMRS license yet, but a license would cover yourself plus your immediate family members which includes your mother, so there's only once license to purchase from the FCC. Once you have a license you can register for the main myGMRS.com website and you'll see the frequency and PL tone information needed to program your radios to the Fort Pierce repeater, and you can try it out. I actually put up this repeater for my elderly aunt and uncle who live on the island. Their cell service isn't great and they have become stubborn and don't like to evacuate when there's a hurricane. I wanted a way to reach them by radio, or a way for them to call others for help if they ever need to. I live in NJ so I have linked that repeater over the Internet which allows me to talk to them when I'm not in the area.