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Need an inexpensive cup holder mount for your small GMRS mobile? Try a 3" plumbers test plug. I got mine at Menards.

No. MyGMRS uses IP networks (that’s the IP in VOIP), not POTS. This claim has been discussed and discarded numerous times.

Great presentation, Marc...well organized, and no fluff or foolishness.

@Radioguy7268 measuring is a very good way. I also have a antenna transmission line analyzer that works pretty well. I made a video about line loss and how it impacts communications, to help train new Hams that join my ARES teams. If you are really bored... but I am no Randy.

The best way to know your cable loss is to measure it. Not always practical when you're stringing 150 ft or more of hardline directly from the spool onto a tower, but for most of the GMRS mortals, it's in a coil with terminations installed prior to us heaving it up onto a pole/tower/rooftop. If you know the input power, and can measure the output at the other end before it is hoisted and connected to the antenna, then you can calculate/know your own losses easily enough. I say that because while the manufacturers do tend to post numbers grounded in reality, the various distributors can get a little creative when it comes to their claims. Rounding up, rounding down, convenient lapses in stated lengths (oops, it was 1.5 dB per 50 ft, not 100 ft.) can all make a difference. I've seen some knockoff brand RG400 jumper cable assemblies that had nearly 3 dB of loss in a 5 ft. jumper. It should have been less than 1 dB even including the connectors.

As the shop owner, I wanted to follow up on what happened on this scenario. We used Tessco for shipping the CommScope base station antennas rather than taking on inventory of these antennas. They are very large, and the freight is very expensive, so it doesn't make sense to ship them to us, have to store them, then ship them again to the customer. You may be familiar with this as being called "drop shipping" where the item gets shipped directly to the customer. In this customer's case, we received his order and sent the information to our sales rep at Tessco. Days went by, and we never heard confirmation that they received the order and couldn't reach the rep. I tried to find a regional manager to contact, but still couldn't get ahold of anyone. Now being a week later, I escalated to their generic sales and support team, and explained the issue. They replied with the retail cost of the item, and a shipping charge of about $700. If we placed the order, we would have lost about $400 due to the super-high shipping quote and the non-discounted cost of the antenna that we already had negotiated with a sales manager in the past. So unfortunately, we had to cancel the order and refund the customer. I sent a message to him apologizing and explaining the scenario above to show why we couldn't fulfill this order, because of course it looks unprofessional if you don't understand the details of what happened. Needless to say, I pulled all products that we ship from Tessco and informed them I was done with their company do to this colossal issue. Almost a month later, none of the people I reached out to ever contacted me except their main support rep. Never again.

Thank you, both! It's very much appreciated!.

Another "Expert"....and you guys think I make this stuff up.. I didnt even mention that he only has a ham callsign..

Very nicely done, Marc! Good information.

Major FAIL. No spitting at hams, no direct stare into camera, no 30 minutes of stroking your own feeble ego, the word "dork" not even uttered once (!), no bullshit (!!), no caressing of Baofengs, too many numbers who knows whado they mean. No fun. If I wanted a lecture, I'd go to some boring university or somethun

I filed for mine over the weekend and received a PDF over email on Tuesday morning with my call name. Not sure what's going on with you.

Not sure where you all get your coax loss figures but they are way off. https://www.qsl.net/co8tw/Coax_Calculator.htm Any considerable length of general purpose coax (LMR-400 and down) is very lossy in the UHF and up spectrum. Heck loss with bonafide hardline gets to be pretty bad at long lengths depending on the size As a wise old Elmer once said your transmission line should cost more than your radio and antenna combined. Now in his time they didn't have the ability to separate the amp deck from the radio head. But still putting your amp deck 400' in the air on the tower isn't exactly feasible to being cost effective. Maybe it is if you live in a lightning free area and if you do I would love to see a picture of a real unicorn. Now on towers I know they use isolation to keep the equipment safe. But at home at least 80% dont. At home many use long runs of whatever coax they can afford. Ive seen countless YT vids of folks using trucker special. And it works because its just enough signal to hit 2 or 3 local repeaters. Yay the radio gets out!! But does it really? Most everyone goes by what repeater they hit. Try Simplex. You will find it doesn't go too far. Unless a repeater is well over the horizon a couple watts will hit it. But weather can wreck havoc on that. And if you have a 40-50 watt radio on high hitting your antenna thru lossy coax you might only be getting 3 or 4 watts out of your antenna. Yep antenna gain will help but again in this spectrum a flock of birds can block signals. You want to keep that coax/hardline at home as short a possible. If youre going for a repeater it doesn't need too be a mile in the air. The repeater is already there. That's why many an HT can hit them. Anyhow as usual I drifted off subject. Check your coax calculations. They are much worse than you think. Dont forget to factor frequency and swr. Do nite that oddly RG8 is better on UHF than 213. Velocity factor? That's not 8x but big old RG8. As for reference my antenna is 23ft in the air. I use a 21' foot LMR-400 Coax run. I can hit Repeaters on UHF from 65 miles away. I am on a hill. Not the highest point around but south and east of me is all downhill. To the north is a valley where the city is that lets me bypass it and cover small towns north up to 60 miles UHF and 100+ miles VHF. West Im blocked by my faraday cage built house(no I didn't build it) that even on 2nd floor an HT wont work standing in the windows.(I think the guy who built this house lined his hats with foil). The local GMRS repeater is 4 miles away and a 2m and 440 repeater is 2 miles and cant hit them inside. At first set-up I had my 8Watts HT, 65ft. of RG8X and a Tram 1480 antenna. I could hit tepeaters up to 25 miles on UHF. When I got the Yaesu 50watt radio I gained about 5 miles total. But once I shortened coax to a single run off 21' of LMR400 and moved amp deck just inside garage my ranger increased dramatically. Plus reception of Simplex stations increased 50fold. I have Simplexed 45miles on UHF. So my point is: Double check your coax loss. You will find its more than you think. Secondly build your base system, unless you are doing your own repeater, to do Simplex. Doing this will give you more repeaters to choose from. Unless you live in a deep valley short good coax is the way to go. Buzz

Now that's the right way to run a radio service-styled organization; I would enjoy and support being a member if one was located in my area. Warren, WRPC505 / WQ1C

We have spent many years working ten meter FM repeaters from around North America and one in the USVI while mobile and it because the band opens most days, an eighth-wave antenna is short and fairly efficient, low power is fine because good repeaters have lots of receiver gain, the audio has FM clarity, it does not distract the driver, and we can speak to regulars every day from around the state who are too close to contact by skywave but too far to contact by direct wave.

The majority of the repeaters are Motorola Quantars.. There are two ways to restrict access; the first is a singletone Repeater Access Code. The second solution is a Motorola MDC Repeater Access Code. Both of these are in addition to the CTCSS tones. We have also outfitted the systems with controllers to allow parameter changes remotely and the ability to shut off the transmitter remotely. About half have been fitted with smart plugs that allow a timing routine, this allows us to shut the repeater down at 2330 and turn it back on at 0630, but can be remotely turned on if the repeater is needed. A lot of our problems is when the derelicts know that system owners and operators are in bed. These are the times when the amplified microphones, echo mics and other nefarious activities come into play. Starting back in September of last year we also added real time recording of each system. The recordings are retained for 120 days per the policy within our by laws.

Yeasu FT-4XR and FT-65 will also meet your need. The mod to allow out-of-band isa simple key code entry for either.

I went through something like that here in my area. I just got on the repeater a few times a day, at common 'commute' times, and called on the repeater for the owner. After a few days (about a week iirc) he answered. I introduced myself and we spoke for awhile. I asked if it was okay for me and my family to occasionally use the repeater. Not only did he say yes, but he was happy that someone was going to benefit from using his machine. In my experience, most owners are fairly friendly. Just be mindful that its someone else's property and you should do okay.

My GMRS is in violation of Part 95 here are the FCC rules. Part § 95.1749 GMRS network connection. Operation of a GMRS station with a telephone connection is prohibited, as in § 95.349. GMRS repeater, base and fixed stations, however, may be connected to the public switched network or other networks for the sole purpose of operation by remote control pursuant to § 95.1745. Using All-star Link in GMRS is ilegal under part 95.349