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Welcome to this site, there is a lot of good information here and people willing to help. I am a novice my self and many have given me solid advice (not my preferred brand is better than the other brands) that has made the GMRS useful to me as a hobby. Enjoy!

Having a license one should have a basic understanding of the rules. Where some ambiguous areas are found these forums are a resource to use to get some clarification. What is a bit distressing is when people ask questions before actually reading the rules FIRST. That would eliminate a lot of the more obvious questions.

Creating a repeater out of two radios that meet Part 95 does not mean you've got a Type Accepted Part 95 repeater. As mentioned, it is also quite expensive compared to the (IMHO better) alternatives. Vertex. Motorola. Kenwood. They all made good Part 90 repeaters. Some will put out at least 50 watts at a 100% duty cycle. Used units are available that will outperform a Bridgecom - and do it at a better price point. They also have a history of performance, along with available support (that you will probably never need).

Best advise I've heard is ensure the radio(s) are turned OFF when you're stopped. Some Hams have had their legitimate radios confiscated by stupid LEO's that don't know the law, particularly about exemptions for Ham radio license holders. If they can hear public safety traffic audio they could convince a judge they had "reasonable suspicion" a crime was afoot etc. Other than providing the required documents specified by the state's MVD you don't have to answer any of the LEO's questions. They are not trained communication professionals. While they still may take the radio(s) at least in court you can make the claim they had no expertise to make any determination as to the nature of the "device" they saw. Might even have recourse to recover damages.

Personally I think the RT97S is ideal for 90% of the folks who want a quick repeater. Location and antenna is everything. If your only using a 4 watt HT to talk to the repeater it will work just as good as a 50 watt repeater. People get hung up on that part alot. IF you have a great site, good antenna system it will work really well. My sites all run Part 90 repeaters (MTR2000, Quantar and MTR3000).

Ohh, I did not know that the Retevis RT97S is Part 95 Certified! I have the (older) RT97 (non-S version) and have had great results with just a mag-mount antenna on the top of my car. You can see how that went in this video: and you can see how well it works in hilly areas in this video: I agree with @WROZ250's warning about the Bridgecom - I have not used one, but have read many bad/negative reviews on them (although did not know they had a Part 95 repeater). I have also built a repeater from two KG-1000Gs - and although it was a great learning experience, its very expensive and not a practical solution for a 'real' repeater.

If you are wanting to have two or more radios on a single antenna you are out of luck..... you need two antenna's one for transmit and one fore receive... If you are willing to run 2 antenna's you can run a control station combiner that allows you to run as many radios as it has ports. 4 is usually the minimum but 8 is more common and they can be expanded to 32 ports which is the largest I have seen. With tow antenna's. Now the pricing isn't for the faint of heart, typically about a grand per port on the smaller ones and can get down to 500 per port on the larger units. Plus of course the two antenna's required. Signal loss though these is pretty high as well. Looking at 6 dB both directions. SO a 50 watt radio will have 12.5 watts out, but it's typical to turn the radios down to 20 watts so you are looking at 5 watts out. Incoming signal is also 6dB down so you need to be fairly close to the repeaters you are talking to.

As far as I know, you can't listen on two radios at the same time AND be able to transmit on either of them, one at a time or otherwise. Even a switch won't make that possible unless you are using two switches to completely cut out the other listening radio before transmitting. Duplexers are frequency split and directional. So, that is off the table. Diplexers are also frequency split, but support two-way communications on the same frequency. However, each side of the split typically has a vast enough frequency split that two radios can't transmit and receive on the same frequency on both sides of the split. Most of the time, they are band splitters. One side being VHF and the other UHF or one side is VHF/UHF and the other is HF/MF. Some T splitters (which are very affordable), but not all, would allow you to receive on both radios at the same time. However, you can't transmit without destroying the other listening radio. So, that really only leaves a T connector and two auto-sensing or manual switches. Keep in mind that there will be a small amount insertion losses, but you are facing potentially high expense. Frankly, even using 2 high-end auto-sensing switches is risky... I wouldn't do it. Keep in mind, I don't know everything and I am not aware of every device or method out there. This is just from my experience and training. Someone else may have a better answer.

I used one of these, MFJ-1702 2 Position Antenna Switch, for that purpose a long time ago. GigaParts has them for around $40. I am sure there are other brands and venders out there.

I would like to do something similar so following to see what is recommended.

Wonder what would happen if you said "yes, and your LED strobes are causing RF interference, please turn them off"?

Sounds like it might be fun, if I could ever get the hang of CW and truly learn it. I know quite a few people that do really well QRP CW.

Oops, didn't proof read before hitting the send key.

They both dropped it after I told them "no, that one is ham radio, and this one is gmrs". That scanners don't generally have microphones would sort of support the 'lack of expertise' kind of thinking. that I don't have any public safety stuff in the scan list of either one probably isn't a bad thing either.

I believe Maryland has a law against using a police scanner in a motor vehicle. The law is on the books to protect motorists from pirate tow truck drivers and companies responding to assistance calls by the police. The motorist also has to affirm to the police officer they accept the uninvited tow operator over the police contracted service,

Someone has to WTFM before we can RTFM. ?

I spend much more time listening to the 1**MHz band than I do talking on the GMRS band lol

Yeah, its right up there with the age old WTFM.

Most men I know have a general philosophy of "when all else fails, read the directions."

Yes, GMRS radios can only operate in the GMRS frequency range (aka band) which is in the 462-467 MHz range. There are lots of different communications bands within the 100 and 200 MHz ranges. Broadcast FM, air traffic, business radios, MURS, public safety(police, fire, ambulance), television, animal trackers, and amateur radios.

Full disclosure - I've never had a Retevis repeater on the bench to test it out. Judging by the price point (and the design of their portables) it's probably based on a simple Direct Conversion receiver, which are sensitive, but prone to overload. I'd agree that for a simple "quick and dirty" low elevation repeater, it probably does the job for a majority of users looking for their own specific solution. The Retevis is at least less than the cost of a good used MTR2000. I'd really ask anyone looking at a Bridgecom or building their own Woxoun repeater out of 2 mobiles to stop and check out the alternatives available. You really can end up with more for less, if you consider used Part 90 gear. And, that used Part 90 stuff has a resale value when you're done with it. Something you won't really see with used Bridgecom equipment.

He's speaking the truth, and being a veteran myself I understand and respect his plain speaking. I'm a ham myself, and came to GMRS because of the sad hams. Sent from my SM-T860 using Tapatalk

same way...just select ZA

I have a QCX mini (20M) still in the box (unbuilt). I also have one of the original QCX (40M). The Mini may be too small IMHO which is why I have not built it. In hindsight, I kinda wish I had purchased the current QCX+ as it has room for easy modifications, and for ease of building. Not knocking the Mini, it's just too small for my tastes and I don't need small (not that small anyway). All that said, the QCX is really is a great radio (regardless of version) even at the current prices. Prior to the QCX, I built two of the 1Watter transceivers (a 20M & 40M) from Kits and Parts which is, in some ways, a better sounding radio (IMHO) but is limited in frequency coverage due to a VXO verses the VFO in the QCX and, it's not a direct sampling receiver. What Hans did with the QCX is genius. There are a lot of good kits out there! Personally, I just enjoy building so... ?

You need to reread the section of my post mentioning radio modification. I don’t recall saying anything about transmitting out of band much less what specific service. Personally I have a fleet of radios FCC certified for Parts 90, and 95. They are also legal to use under Part 97. As long as I hold a valid license for the particular service I don’t have a reason to worry about the FCC. I keep electronic files for every radio I own. That includes manufacturers brochures, operating manuals, service manuals, FCC certification grants etc. that I can locate. I know what I can and can’t do with a radio. You would be surprised by what shows up. Some of my commercial analog/digital radios have Part 95 certification. Until the FCC authorizes digital voice modes I just can’t use that feature. The radio is still legal to use on FM.

Well, I have only be a ham for 20 years. Do I have an agenda, yes, I dislike stupidity and to a lesser degree, wackers, or wanna be public safety types. These aren't the average hams that want to do their part, pass traffic in a disaster situation and conduct themselves 'professionally'. I am referring to the clowns that have a light bar on their car, a big sticker about weather spotting, fake radar dish on the roof of their car and the mandatory ham radio 'police badge' further indicating their self importance. And the modification to the radio makes it 'illegal' under part 90, not part 97. The radio was never type accepted under part 90 so if it transmits there it's automatically in violation. This is regardless of any other regulation or stipulation in the rules that says any means at your disposal.... if you take a ham radio and transmit in another part of the spectrum that's regulated under a different part of the regulation, then the radio has to meet the requirements of that part of the regulation. Ham radios are NOT part 90 approved, therefore they can't be transmitting there. It's just as illegal to spin the dial on your HF radio down to the AM broadcast band and start transmitting there. Again, not because of the part 97 regulations, but because of part 73 that regulates AM FM broadcast. And the number of regulations they have to follow is FAR more strict than ham or even part 90. And that's a piece of the spectrum that WILL get the attention of the FCC if you go messing about in it. Here's the problem with all this. This lie has been being told to other hams for YEARS to the point it's common. The League refuses to set the matter straight, and tell hams to stop spreading this myth because it will drive away some part of the ham community as a whole that believe they need to be able to talk to the police or fire dispatchers directly 'just in case'. And the truth is a lot of those guys are one step away from getting a Crown Vic and turning it into a wanna be police car and ending up on the front page of the newspaper for being arrested for impersonation of whoever. Now all that being said, if you are stuck on a mountain top and you are in trouble, can't get down, or whatever the case may be. If you have a radio that will talk on the police, fire or dog catcher channel and you call for help, NO ONE is gonna fault you for that. And I seriously doubt you will end up with a fine from the FCC for transmitting a distress message. But there are limits to when it's acceptable. And with this specific situation, none of those limits were met.

If we are to take anything on "basic face value" as suggested above, we must do so exactly as written and assume that terminology used doesn't create obscure or unusual definitions that would be beyond a common person. So on basic face value, No provision of FCC regulations prevents an amateur station from using any means of radiocommunications at its disposal to provide essential communications needs in connection to the immediate safety of human life and the immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are unavailable. You could argue that normal communications were unavailable because someone didn't have their cell phone within arm's reach, but that would make you a weirdo. It seems in this particular incident, the relevant questions are: Was life or property in danger? and Were normal methods of communicating unavailable? I haven't read anything to indicate otherwise so I'll assume both are yes. I'm also going to assume that some standard procedure was followed, and the initial call was logged and comms tech/dingdong was instructed to clear the channel or monitor another channel (or method) should someone wish to contact him. That should have been the end of it, but for reasons known only to him he intervened on public safety comms at least 7 more times. IMO that makes him a moron, who deserves more than a strongly worded letter and fine which may or may not be enforceable. Finally, if he really was just concerned about his own equipment burning per that other thread, he should have paid a private fire protection company to get a truck up there and stayed off the radio.

Fairly common connector in the ham and LMR world, and you can find extra harnesses with bare wires, or t connector to power pole connector fairly easily. I made a similar connector for mine, with 12v socket on one end and power poles on the other (my alinco psu has 2x power poles on the front and binding posts on the back).

I purchased an Astron SS-30 Switching PSU. It has served me well and i have 3 radios hooked to it. It has 25 Continous Amps. Of Course, You will only transmit on one radio at a time.

At GMRS frequencies almost any power supply will work with no interference coming from the switching circuit in any FCC registered supply. Mean Well, available on Amazon has some good ones under $40.

I just drove from Central California to the Texas-Louisiana border. I did the 1900 mile drive in three days. I had my handheld GMRS radio on and scanning for the whole trip. I heard one person talking on a repeater west of Phoenix, AZ. Somewhere in New Mexico I heard a couple of people talking car to car. I was stuck on I-10 in Houston for three hours due to an accident four miles in front of me and heard nothing. I also had a 2m/70cm handheld on, scanning, and heard very little traffic. Both radios, KG-905G, and Yaesu VX-6R, work perfectly. Interestingly enough, when I reached my destination I found a juvenile detention facility using GMRS radios. The facility is several miles from where I am. I was surprised I didn't hear more traffic on either the GMRS or the HAM bands. I will reverse the trip next week and will keep the radios scanning. As an aside, the 3200 mHa battery in the KG-905G lasted the whole trip scanning 12 hours a day for three days and is still showing over 8 volts.

Yes sir, thanks for the info, and I went with the Yaesu 891. Loving it, great for POTA and SOTA. Since I'm in a condo with hoa restrictions my antenna setup is limited, however considering the Yaesu 991A or ICOM 7300, in the future, for a base unit. Would be nice to have a HF rig in my truck, but again, antenna considerations may keep me from doing that. Meanwhile, enjoying my DB-20 mobile and the TYT 9800 base. 73 de W6KCO/WROA675

Yup. Talking face to face you get to read the other person's body language and not form your opinion on what just come out of the mouth or the fingers on the keyboard. Some people say things in jest, but you can't tell unless you read their body language. There is a lot of nonverbal communications that's lost when using messaging apps etc. Maybe that's why this county is going to crap. People don't talk to each other in person so much any more.

I have been a licensed Ham and GMRS operator for over 20 years. I come from a career in Law Enforcement in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Back in the late 90s most of the GMRS users on one of the high profile repeaters were mostly police and fire personnel. We all had fun playing radio, seeing how much we could reverse engineer our favorite batwing gear and respected each other. The repeater owner for that system had passed away so the repeater had went off of the air. Sure there were others but life, kids and other obligations were calling. So I took a break from GMRS and still played on digital in Ham. About two years ago I found a radio, dropped it in the charger and found that one of the local repeaters was still on the air. I immediately connected up with one of the members from our group in the 90s. He filled me in on the current condition and how much activity was taking place on the several GMRS repeaters in the city. So I listened for a few weeks......Wow was I disgusted! The lack of respect and decorum that these people have is appalling. The sad thing is most of them are hams (have been ran off of repeaters there) and are not even repeater owners...It's basically, I bought my $20 piece of crap radio and I'm going to do anything I want and no one can stop me....With all of this has came with profanity, music over the radio, keying up on top of others and other nefarious behaviors that some may relate to CB but I'm pretty sure its not legal there either. Plus being the son of a retired union truck driver, I used the CB when I was little and did not treat the service with that outlook. So I called the "flagship" or high profile repeater owners and said we have to do something. Hell, one of the repeater owners was even called and exploitive word that is not appropriate for this site, while he wasn't on the air and on the repeater that he pays for a nd supports on his own. We had operators telling the repeater owners they did not have any rights to restrict their use and that all GMRS repeaters are there for free use of the service and there are magical unicorns in the air farting dollar bills,,, ok so I made up the last. At the beginning of this year I began to draft an initiative to change things and bring class and decorum back to the service. The GMRS community in the city consists of about 140 operators. The majority of which are good, rule and law following individuals and do not wish to "freeload" as the small amount of individuals that have no skin in the game wish to do. Since forming, the Association has Incorporated, elected board members with the five founding members, adopted by laws, obtained a EIN number and received our 501c3 determination from the IRS which is huge. The Association has adopted a Operational Policy and Code of Conduct that all members must accept when petitioning for membership. The membership fee will be $40.00 per year. We have also registered as a charitable organization with the Kroger Company and Amazon. Our activities are described as expanding the education and technical abilities of the GMRS radio service while available to assist any public service agency in the event of a declared disaster with Emergency Communications. So that is where we are now. The applications will go out this week. The dues program will go live on June 1st, 2022 with a two week grace period for payment. Long story short; if you are not a paying member in good standing your repeater access will be revoked by the repeater owner as described in 95.1705. The relationship between the Association and the repeater owner is clearly explained in a executed memorandum of understanding for each repeater. We currently now have nine repeaters involved. The Association also has within it's powers to create a committee to evaluate any repair/maintenance reimbursement from a repeater owner. Within our operational guidelines, we have also restricted the use of the service to being another Ham repeater to talk about Ham Radio topics. If you want to talk about ham radio, there are a plethora of 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 40cm and 33cm repeaters in our area that sit silent in idle at all hours... Go there.... We also have operators passing GMRS callsigns around like they are ham radio operators, 15 minutes! use your unit number, you are taking up Airtime and hogging the repeaters. Another bad habit from the hams is not thinking about what to say before you key the mic. Operators will key up and uh uh uh and oh wow plus others. I understand my public safety background broke me of it, think about what you are going to say before you key the mic, say it and listen... You cannot hear someone else while you are yappin...We have also instructed our members to stop the Q codes and 73s, GMRS is a totally different service from Ham... If you want to talk ham radio, use one of those many repeaters that sit silent Now you are probably reading this and thinking, wow, pretty drastic...... No, absolutely not, the repeaters we have here are all owned by individuals. That means they are PRIVATE property, if you do not want someone to be at your property or to use your property you have the right to say that. That up to this point has not been respected. Imagine this, you are sitting on your couch, your door swings open, some guy from down the street kicks in your door, starts bashing your house apart and leaves.. What is the difference when people are doing what was described in the above, or stay keyed up for long transmit times, just resetting the TOT and not letting the repeater come up for air. Our organization has been received by the masses very well. A repeater is a complex and expensive piece of equipment. 80% of our repeater equipment is equipped with the capability to restrict access on the analog system. We will evaluate if we decide to use this as it will keep anyone who does not have the correct access information into that repeater with MDC technology. Other than that we are looking forward to getting our membership trained with the ICS modules and becoming more involved with our communities in any way we may serve. Just my story and my two pennies on radio clubs in GMRS. I have said from the beginning of our endeavor, we must do this right and thorough. I believe we have built the foundation. Take care, Jamie

An antenna sold for 70cm band will never work on GMRS

My favorite lie was "chics dig it". Also, had someone tell me you can't mimic NVIS by bouncing UHF signals off of moisture or debris in the atmosphere by pointing the antenna toward the sky. Nor can we have actual NVIS propagation during major geomagnetic storms and Arora storms. I guess the GMRS gurus know more than the JPL communications scientists that work for NASA.

Not that I dont trust you, or think you're making stuff up out of thin air, but i would love for you to share some actual facts about all these others this has happened to. Perhaps a link to the FCC enforcement database entry? Because as I'm sure you know, every time the FCC breathes down anyones neck, for any reason, by law, the FCC must publish that enforcement.

It's entirely possible the repeater is transmitting a tone but your receiver by not requiring one will hear anything transmitted on the frequency.

Hello all. I received my GMRS license last week and three (3) Wouxun KG-935G radios this week. I was informed about this website by the person that sold me the radios. I am in Belleview, FL. I am new to radios and I have a lot to learn so please forgive me ahead of time if and when I ask dumb questions. I did a lot of reading and watching videos before I purchased anything but after all that effort I am still unsure about a lot of things. Time and effort on my part will help. A little background, if you are interested. I spent 10.5 years in the Air Force working with fuels in CE and in RED HORSE. My wife retired from the Air Force after 25 years. I am an Engineer and design fire trucks, try not to hold the Engineer thing against me. Haha. Thanks and I'm happy to be here.

@WRPQ991 welcome! Glad you joined the site! Don't worry about understanding the geek speak. It comes with a little time behind the mic and keyboard. I recommend using the search function, as many questions from new users have been answered in great detail. However, if you don't find specifics, don't be afraid to ask questions. Many of us are here to help new people as well as learn from each other.

Actually when I was alerted you quoted me, it took me right to your message and I did not see the new OP message above yours. I will try his link, but I probably do not remember my FRN or my password. It's not something that comes up much except maybe once in 10 years... UPDATE: Yeah, I forgot it...

You and @gman1971are entitled to your opinions about never recommending Baofengs for any purpose, but I still contend they are a wonderful way to get Newbies into either GMRS or Ham Radio and sometimes, Both! I speak from experience...

Welcome, and yes, GMRS is great for use in the woods, even though UHF and pine needles do not necessarily mix well together. I am further north in WA State, but still manage a mile or so in the woods with handhelds, but also carry Motorola 1 Watt DTR410's as some places in my area, everyone is using FRS/GMRS. Welcome again.

Welcome to the forum. Enjoy GMRS and the knowledge you’ll gain here. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I keep my Roger Beep on - when someone complains about it, I remind them that its my radio and nobody is forcing them to listen to me.