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One thing I have found is that it’s extremely easy to find groups on Facebook (I assume the same about Reddit) that support a particular point of view. They exist solely to support and reinforce that point of view and they can’t be corrected. Anyone who tries becomes a target. A guy I know compares Facebook to the lead pipes of the Romans. It’s better to just avoid them. i am a member of a couple of antenna building groups and one for the HF rig I own. We don’t talk about GMRS and so far I haven’t seen any politics or negativity. Of course there’s always the guy who feels obliged to respond to every question with “RTFM”, usually without having read the actual question. Some people (sorry to steal your phrase @OffRoaderX) are just miserable and want to spread their misery. Every group has them. Anyway, as I’m sure you already know, GMRS can be a very fun hobby. It certainly can be used for much more than talking to friends and family if that’s what you want. And obviously there are GMRS groups to join. If not, start one. Choosing to take the ham exams is a personal decision that has nothing to do with GMRS. In my case I was interested in ham radio long before GMRS existed but never made the time to study or take the test. I got into GMRS because I wanted a two way handheld to talk to others on the rocket range and GMRS was what they were using. I signed up for an FRN a long long time ago, intending to get “legal” but didn’t like the price and kept hearing rumors (at that time) that the fcc was going to get rid of the license fee for GMRS. I never got around to it until last November . But I was far more interested in the radios and the technology behind them than just communicating on the range. Notarubicon videos fed that interest, which then led me back to ham radio because it covers an even wider range of subjects that interest me. For me, it all works together. I use and enjoy GMRS and learn something on this forum nearly every day. At the same time I continue to expand my technical knowledge and operating experience using ham radio. I don’t see it as needing to choose between them. Each has its enjoyable aspects. TL;DR @OffRoaderXis responsible for me becoming a ham. ?

Yes, a genuine kit would include the cables with the correct orientation tabs. But, the really cheap $10 "repeater maker" cable kits sold on Ebay have no orientation tabs, and can be plugged in either way. I have also seen people totally jam in the correct cables upside down, because they were convinced that the tab orientation was incorrect - since it didn't match their old MaxTrac. They never even noticed that the M1225 dust cover has a diagram molded into it showing the correct orientation.

Another option, the Vertex VXR-1000 "in car repeater" has Part 95 approval, and you could connect it to the back of your commercial radio's DB9/25 connector and have HT access to your base station throughout the house.

It's funny... I like Randy and I think he has a good sense of humor, but I was about 50/50 on if he was being sincere or not. This one was a hard read. LOL I figured for people who truly are new to radio and have zero clue about Ham radio (most of the world) it would help them as they read through.

Why anybody would need a justification from others to do what he/she wants to do? If GMRS is a hobby to you, great! It is not to me, but why would you care how I use the service? You only care about how YOU use it. Do whatever you want, while being a good neighbor to other users. It's a free country.

Ok team, I have solved the issue - and along the way learnt a great deal about how PL/CTCSS/DCS/etc tones work. That said, before I get started I wanted to shout out to @wayoverthere @BoxCar @wrci350 and @Screech for all the suggestions, followups, ideas and collectively all the information that I needed to get this one solved. With that said, while I now understand it all, and I got it to work, I also realize that while it's easy in my head, it's hard to write down - i'm going to give it a try though so maybe someone stumbles across this one day and it helps them out. So through my journey I found out a few things: There are actually two repeaters on the 462.55/467.55 frequency that are relatively close to where I am located - one uses input tone 131.4 no output tone, the second uses input and output tone of 241.8 When i've been testing what has been suggested in this thread, I did have a variable that I hadn't thought to share/I didn't think mattered. I've had the van parked in different spots - and while those spots have been less than 20ft away, that's been the difference between hitting both repeaters clear as day vs barely at all. I've done this several times, it's quite consistent. So my solution is Setup two channels, each using their own output tones and both using no input tone. Set one of the two channels as my secondary channel on the KG1000 - I keep the primary channel on for my simplex comms with my friends When I receive a transmission I will return transmit on the frequency i've got set as my secondary - if i'm heard, awesome - If i'm not I quickly switch to the other channel and that inevitably gets through without an issue. What did I learn? Having no PL/privacy/CTCSS/DCS tone on the receive side means you hear everything on that frequency (I did not know this!) Line of sight/obstacles do and will have an impact to your transmissions I'm somewhat lucky that I have two overlapping repeaters that effectively extend my transmission range Hopefully this explains it all and clarifies the combination of items that happened. Adam tl;dr - radio works fine, user needed to better understand radio theory

I share a somewhat story. I began in radio when I was 12 years old (I'm 58 now) when I got into the '70s CB radio craze. I took it a lot further though, for I got into scanners as well as SWLing; that taught me a bit about antennas. Eventually I got my ham license (in 1991) as a Tech Plus and slowly worked my way up. I'm an Extra now as well as having received my license earlier this year, but I'll never say that I know everything about radio; if I ever say that I might as well as turn in my licenses and become a hermit. Radio communications has allowed me to experience things and meet interesting people that might not have happened otherwise. For me it's been a hobby but it has also been an expansion into lessons learned in life. Thanks to a life-long friend that now lives in the Houston, TX area (well, 46 years anyway), the enjoyment of radio has been a godsend for me personally. But as you basically said, it's a hobby for some and for others it's more than that. There's really no wrong answer to the question "Is radio a hobby?" Nor should there be. GMRS is an extension of the radio hobby for me, and I'm glad I got into it since I have definitely learned a few things thanks to all of you here. Warren, WRPC505 / WQ1C

Well, geeze, if it's not a hobby, then there wouldn't be guys putting thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars into building sites and systems. And I certainly would not have put up 3 repeaters on the same site if they were ONLY for my personal communication. Of course, is my hobby building sites, or radio in general... I honestly can't answer that. I enjoy the site building more than the talking.

Thanks for the explaining this term to somebody who is guarding his virginity with devotion, in the world where bad sad hams run amok in the night with their godawful lingo. And who is banned at google.

AGREED! A TK-890with dual heads sounds like a good option

I think I would just put a repeater in at my house and walk around with my HT before I spent money on a combiner. Then it won't matter what room I am in, if I'm in any room at all.

Ive said it in the past. I run the 275 in both my Jeeps and the 115 in my parents vehicles. Also had a 115 in my Motorhome we just sold. I have yet to find issues with any of the radios. With that said I run good NMO mounts and 1/4 wave antenna's on all of them, except my mothers Renegade. We have a Larsen glass mount on that. They work great on my repeater. 99% of my traffic is simplex when traveling for Jeep events or camping. When at a camp ground I had my repeater in the MH and would use sometimes. Even when traveling up and down the east coast I have yet to find a repeater I could not access that I wanted to. I guess its all on what you expectations are . I find the ease of use and basic controls a plus especially for my parents who are in the 70's. Been doing GMRS for a long time and other than my public safety gear all my GMRS stuff is Midland for the purpose above. Simple. Reasonably priced. If your in an area where you are bouncing all over repeaters and split tones and such I guess they aren't the best option but I find many worry about that when its not really an issue. YMMV

Why don't you look for a radio that has a dual control head option.

Someone has to WTFM before we can RTFM. ?

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.

World peace is possible if we just keep hammering home the fact that these are not separate groups.

That BF-F8HP is a ham radio and as you mentioned using it on GMRS would make the FCC very sad. A 'real' GMRS radio is not only FCC "approved" but is also MUCH more simple/easy to use. Which GMRS radio is best for you depends on your specific wants, needs, and desires. But a few to consider would be a Wouxun KG-805G (very simple/easy to use), or something like a KG-935G, or KG-S88G which is also waterproof. If you want something less expensive, I like the Baofeng UV-9G which is not very expensive and is also waterproof.. If you search the Youtubes you will find many reviews and much infos for all of those radios, and many others. And oh, that Nagoya NA-771 is not made for GMRS and will not perform very well.. If you get a GMRS radio, the stock antennas work great and putting the NA-771 would likely reduce your range. You want the NA-771G which is made for/tuned for GMRS.

If you transmit on a GMRS radio without a GMRS license you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison If you transmit on GMRS frequencies on a UV-5R you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison You can legally use a UV-5R on GMRS frequencies if you just lower the power level.. If you don't, you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison You don't need a GMRS license to use a GMRS radio if you put it on low-power and use the FRS only channels. If you talk a non-licensed person on GMRS "the FCC will come after you" (this one was JUST posed on this forum last week!)

For anyone planning to implement MDC signaling, you should investigate the use of DOS (Data Operated Squelch) and PTT Sidetone. I'd recommend only using it in a group if everyone on the repeater is using MDC, and everyone agrees on the setup parameters. If properly done, the users on the system will not hear the MDC squawk, and every radio on the system can ID other users. MDC can also be used for selective calling, radio alerts, and Status updates. It's a pain to set up if you're using multiple radio models across different manufacturers. DOS will silence the MDC turkey call noise (either pre, post, or both) for users that have it active - and a PTT sidetone can be useful to remind the user to pause for a moment until the MDC pre-burst is sent. Set the PTT sidetone to something less than obnoxious if you're using it. Whackers like MODAT, MDC and PTT Sidetone - even when they're not actually using MDC for any signaling benefit. They just think extra noises sound cool & they heard all those noises on their Bearcat Scanner - so they think that the radio users must be hearing those noises too. Well designed radio systems don't annoy their actual users with squawks and obnoxious beeps.

Well one Ham got tired of people using cheap Baofeng radios, and other similar CCR’s, on his repeater. So, he switched over to require a MDC sequence to activate it. The cheap Chinese radios typically don’t have it. It effectively kept them off his repeater it seems. Of course he got branded as a Motorola snob. However some of the other main stream commercial radio manufacturers have it as well, not universally on all models, so it’s not that huge of a limitation. I have it on some of my Kenwood’s, for example the TK-5220/5320 P25 ones in my collection. There are some other Kenwood models I have with it too besides the ones above. https://www.urci.com/downloads/kenwood/kenwood_tk_5220_5320_brochure.pdf The TK-5320 with the band split of 450-520 has FCC Part 95 certification, FCC ID ALH378500. The radio can be programed and used for GMRS legally provided power, frequency, bandwidth and modes are followed as listed in the rules. One could use the MDC signaling as a means to keep unauthorized users out of a private GMRS repeater. Another use would be to identify which radio in your group is transmitting. This is advantageous when the radios are all operating under the same license. Let’s say you’re out camping, hiking etc. and one of your family members is injured and can’t speak. Simply keying up the radio will uniquely identify who it is.

I suspect hearing yourself being "parroted back" after a making a transmission just might be a give away...