Leaderboard

Meet your local HAM club or 911 Radio Network Operator--they will likely have access to hill-top towers and may be receptive to running or leasing you some space. In my county, I am the 911 Radio admin and I am currently working with my UHF/VHF team on feasibility of using spare space in my hill-top towers for a GMRS repeater re-using some state-provided repeater gear we have just acquired as spares. I'm just waiting on them doing some surveying to make sure it won't interfere with our 700MHz PS network or our UHF/VHF fall-back (legacy) networks.

When I first set up my btech, I had the 1/4 wave antenna sitting on top of my printer, mag mounted to a piece of sheet metal. When I keyed up, the printer woke up and printed a page of gibberish characters. ? Setup has since moved, and the antenna is on top of a bookshelf now.

There are no legal GMRS radios on the market if they have 22 channels. Why? Channel 8-14 are dedicated FRS channels and transmit power on those channels is .5 watts. Only blister packs meet the power with fixed antenna. But the blister packs are illegal if they transmit on channels above 14 Baofeng radios like the UV5R And 888s are also illegal to transmit on GMRS if a GMRS users transmission 8-14 they are breaking the stupid rules because those radios transmit on low at 1 watt and dont have fixed antennas. The same with all Amateur radio equipment. The FCC has made mess by keeping FRS. Too many illegal users GMRS has the potential to be a great secondary communication network for people that dont have reliable Cell coverage. The FCC when they approve a cell tower and a cell provider a license, require them to install and maintain a GMRS repeater. That makes it possible for nation wide radio communications with even a 5 watt radio. The .5 fixed antenna users can pay a $5 GMRS annual fee. No repeater use End the FRS frequencies.

I dont usually like to post videos here, but I have been so inspired by several of the "experts" in this forum complaining that we should not be using radios made in China that I put together a list of all the American Made radios AND I vow to purchase each one of these American made radios and do a full review of them in the next 30 days.. Thank you to "some people" that opened my eyes about not purchasing radios that are not made in America.

This might sound anti ham radio but I would pick the band that works the best to communicate locally. For me, due to terrain, would be VHF.

One of the members of our group recently was successful in having his city put up an open GMRS repeater intended primarily for emergency use, but also available the rest of the time. He is now trying to expand to other local cities but is facing much resistance and typical bureaucracy and red-tape of getting the city government to approve everything.

Keep in mind that you need more than an antenna if you want to benefit the public. You’ll need a repeater and a duplexer and some way to power it all.

You might have a better chance if your city has a REACT team or emergency communication team. Kinda like https://mcacs.net/ whom has P25 repeaters in our area. Maybe even amateur radio clubs might be able to help. We are fortunate, here we have REACT repeaters peppering D.C. (you need to be a REACT member to use). I also got access to a repeater, part of a several repeaters, which are not "LISTED" on purpose. Their main function is for the Red Cross. I guess the owner of the repeaters select users to limit usage. Most of us that have access do not mention them, nor do we share the information (mostly out of respect for the owner and its purpose, not to be selfish). The real repeaters (the one I have access to) are big $$$$$, commercial antennas, commercial gear on commercial sites. You may get the city to budget repeaters for emergency communication usage. Stating regular use of the system by locals can assure the system is ready when needed. I do imagine it being tough with a city that has a small population. Plus most municipalities will want to set up a emergency communication system on p25 (preferably encrypted) for interagency interoperability (most likely P25 phase2). A Retvis 97 is just not going to cut it for city coverage. Maybe start a local GMRS Club with the amateur radio operators?

Jeez - you're going to give your cat cancer.

Man, do I have e stories. LOL. When I use my GMRS radio while in my driveway, the garage door opener lights turn on. In my last Jeep, I had to move the antenna because when I keyed up, my dash would reboot, run self diag, and my windshield wipers would turn on. I also have a HF radio and an amp that puts out about 1,100 watts. If I run it full-tilt, LED lights in my house that aren't even plugged in will actually light up. It trips my wireless surround sound, turning that on. And depending on the frequency, it makes my radio/alarm clock's radio turn on until I let the mic go. RFI does some wild stuff.

I would like to introduce your printer to my paper shredder... Keying up an HT in the same room causes the shredder to cycle (for whatever time-out period it has to ensure paper has cleared the blades). And in the 80s or 90s, I recall tales (may be urban legends, though I was living in the South Bay at the time) of newer model cars getting disabled on CA highway 17 (now I-880). Seems there was one mountain pass on the route that aligned with either a radar site or microwave relay towers... RF bursts were essentially doing the equivalent of an EMP on some of the poorer shielded engine management systems of those cars.

You can try this one: 135K4414K073AWGG

I am a bit confused: the purpose of getting "a city" to put up an open GMRS repeater is to save the initial and ongoing cost of such a setup?