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Me personally, I won't publicly condone rule violations. That's just stupid, for an unfathomable amount of reasons. Also, if someone asks about the rules, I'll genuinely try to provide a good/correct answer. Beyond that... I really don't care who does what. I just like to argue on the interwebz when I'm bored.

It doesnt matter, and only the hall-monitors care - as you can see very clearly in this and other online forums..

The ONLY offset setting in GMRS, when used, is +5 MHz. Most GMRS radios will handle that. Ham radios, on the other hand, usually need to be told what offset to use, especially if set to xmit out-of-band. Even in-band ham repeater offsets vary according to which band they're operating in and what region of the country you're in. FYI/FWIW, a repeater's output tone is only useful if you're getting interference on the repeater's output frequency OR there is another repeater (or repeaters) in the area on the same frequency pair. If the repeater's output is weak, having that tone detection turned on can, per my experience, prevent you from hearing said repeater, as scratchy as it may be.

The spec's for the 2730A are hard to compare to the 2821D since the sensitivity units are different. You need to convert the 2730A to uV units. -10dbuV -> 0.32uV -5dbuV -> 0.56uV https://static.dxengineering.com/global/images/technicalarticles/ico-ic-2730a_sn.pdf file:///C:/Users/kcs/Downloads/IC-2730A-brochure-12-01-17.pdf

Nitro', The only GMRS repeater I've been able to bring up was in Sherman (I visit Denison every few months). There's another one that I hear from time to time which, I think, is the Rockwall machine. Supposedly, with repeaters in Denton and Greenville, GMRS really could use one right in between them along US380 right here in McKinney. Right now, I have an Anytone AT-779UV (pretty much the same hardware as a Radioddity DB20 and Retevis RA25) for the car with a gaggle of HAM HTs that will listen ? to GMRS as well. It's 20-watts which I think has more than enough power and is only about $100. I've been having fun programming it. FWIW, I'm fairly new to GMRS but I've been a ham for almost 30 years. -Rusty-

If you have an external antenna then try Channel 17 after 9 or 10pm. There a group of guys that hang out there, simplex. I'm not quite sure where they are but west Plano is my best guess from driving around. I'm over here in McKinney just west of US75 and Virginia.

Hello all, New GMRS user here. Looking for other user contacts in the local area to radio check/chat with occasionally. Unfortunately, I've had little success finding any contacts or repeaters in this area other than the occasional child asking if anyone is out there on GMRS5 ?.

I am looking into and thinking about building a repeater when I go camping with my family. It will be set up in a travel trailer. Just trying to figure out what would be the best way to build such a unit.

Hello I'm Rick I'm a Mat Su Valley guy off Fairview Loop in Wasilla. Looking to expand and learn more about GMRS. I'm a former military engineer and I currently work in Emergency Management and before that was a prepper, and semi professional firearm and outdoor gear reviewer. Looking forward to hearing you all on the nets

"some people" have nothing else to do in their life, so they make their hobby extra-serious. All that talk of fines and federal agents coming to your house is (99.99% of the time) BS, usually spread by sad, little people.. The normal people here just want to talk to their friends.. and have better things to do with their time than spreading fairy-tales..

DMR will only increase the channels if used in TDMA. Rarely that happens. And why should P25 or NXDN be pushed aside for DMR ? That's the issue. Only so many channels for repeaters. And why should an analog user who has had a repeater on the air for 20+ years be interfered with because someone bought a license and put up a DMR repeater in the same area. I know this can happen in Analog also. Still doesn't make it right. Linking should not be part of the digital standard. Again I get baffled by trying to make GMRS another ham band. Its one service that has some basic rules that anyone can spend the money on and get a license and use. As said earlier there are many places you can go use DMR, Fusion, P25, and NXDN outside of the GMRS service.

Thanks Rusty, I've requested access to both Greenville and Denton. Greenville responded back quickly saying I had approval, but I’m only in that area once a month.. Still waiting on approval for Denton. Right now Im only using HTs and really want to buy a 50 Watt for the truck, but will hold off to see how much I use these. I'm so new at this I couldn't say if I'm connecting to repeaters on not. For instance: Greenville 550 shows input and output tones of 141.3. It doesn’t show a +- offset setting. So I'm a still little confused even after reading manuals multiple times. Ive watched almost all of Notarubicons videos and Im going to self label myself as one of the so called "stupid people". I have 3 HTs: Baofeng UV-5R, BR-F8HP and a UV-9G. I also agree that another local repeater would be pretty nice. I pretty much listen to the trash pickup guys fighting in the 463 range and the occasional GMRS call out.

I wouldn't be concerned about FRS. It's a different service, and effectively unlicensed at that. If an FRS user wants to use digital voice, well let them pay for a license. It's another perk of getting licensed besides using higher power and access to repeater operation. The repeater idea has merit. I believe that dual mode equipment is available, which will automatically switch between analog and digital modes. The negative aspect is too many non-technical GMRS users have trouble figuring out what offsets and tones are judging by the frequent posts on the forum asking for help. Now throw in color codes, slots, talk-groups and user ID's, well even some experienced radio buffs have a bit of a problem with those.

Personally as much as folks want digital I think its in FCC and evey one best interest to stay analog. There are only a handful of repeaters for GMRS and if we add in DMR, P25, NXDN then it will turn into the ham bands. If you really need digital get a ham license or another license and use that service.

Lscott and gortex2 are both correct. But there is a bit of explanation that needs to be done to have a better understanding of it. First is receiver technology. Back in the day, and in the present, a standard analog FM receiver has a number of stages that the RF goes through as its stripped of it's intelligence (the voice communication) and presented to the user via the speaker. First is an RF stage, this is connected to the antenna and amplifies the signal (and ALL other signals it can hear) to be shipped up the line. These are typically fairly wide band amplifiers that will amplify much more than just the frequency range of the radio. Here's the first part of receiver degradation. That first RF stage has a design gain of X number of dB gain for the stage. So, lets say that's 10dB. If you connect said radio to a signal generator and feed it a signal level of -110dBm the output of that state SHOULD be -100dBm. An increase of the 10dB of the stage. BUT, if you feed that antenna with 2 signals from a generator that are different frequencies and also are -110dBm and look at the output of that stage, the signal level of each frequency will be -105dBm which is half as much as the single signal gain because the state can only generate 10dB of TOTAL gain. We are talking GMRS, so 462Mhz. But that RF stage exhibits gain at 140 Mhz too. To deal with out of band frequencies a GOOD receiver will have a band pass filter that will only let in 460 to 470 blocking the out of band stuff. Cheap receivers don't have expensive filters. And receiver sensitivity is measured with a SINGLE frequency in a controlled environment at the BEST measured level. Meaning they will sweep around and find where the radio performs it's very best and that's the spec. Second is shielding. Keeping the signals that are floating around in the radio out of other circuits in the radio requires shielding and isolation. Go find an old Motorola Spectra and take it apart, look at the designed isolation. Then take a part a kenwood TK860 or other radio from another manufacture of the same era. Spectra's were a BEAST for performance. Other's not so much. But you could buy 4 TK-860's for the cost of ONE Motorola Spectra. So stage two is the IF stage, a second signal is created in the radio and mixed with the RF. This mixing creates two frequencies. The sum of the two frequencies and the difference between the two frequencies, which is the one that's important here. Of course, what ever else has leaked through beyond the primary frequency of concern (what the radios actually tuned to) is also present and ends up converted as well. This is where the 10.7 IF frequency is created and passed to the IF amplifier. Stuff is cleaner now and more filtering happens. Then it's stripped of the intelligence from the IF and sent to the amplifier for presentation by the speaker. Digital processed radios. These are analog radios that operate in the digital realm. An SDR receiver if you want to think of it that way. Some of these directly take the RF into the digital processing chip and some operate at the IF frequency mentioned before. Because the RF is directly converted to a data stream it's now easily processed and can be filtered much better than even the best designed analog receiver could hope for. If it's not specific to the frequency of concern, it's simply ignored. And 'amplification' is as simple as changing the bit stream. All amplifiers can mix frequencies. so RF. IF whatever, mixing can occur. If there isn't any amplifier in the sense of a stage with an analog transistor that exhibits gain in the stage, then no mixing happens. Remember that the RF is now a digital stream of date, even in an analog radio. The SDR chip take the RF in and outputs the intelligence directly to the audio amplifier. All the A to D and D to A (analog to digital and digital to analog) happens in that chip along with all other signal processing. This allows for greater First RF stage gain, better filtering and error correction (something that CAN"T happen in an analog receiver at all) and a whole host of filtering that's done in the digital domain. And that's how we are seeing a huge increase in receiver sensitivity in these newer radios that are Digital and analog like the XPR Motorola offerings. They are barely analog at all. Doing all RF and IF processing in the digital domain while being 'analog' radios.

Hey.. Hi everyone.. new to this GMRS thing but not new to radio (commercial tech for many years). Just thought I'd pop in here and say hello to you all. I'm out here in Northern California.. the Sacramento area to be more percise. Looking for locals and groups in the area to get involved with. hit me up. Hope to see ya around.

First thing that will be considered is the level of interference with legacy equipment. Since we are limited on bandwidth, FHSS is gonna be a no go. The popping it will cause in the analog receive of the legacy stuff and the fact it will effect ALL the channels not just the selected channel I just don't see it happening. The next logical thought IMO is DMR, using TDMA of a 25KC or 12.5 KC channel. Implementation would be simple enough in the channels could be designated with an A and B. Meaning CH 19 in digital would be 19A and 19B to split the two time slots per channel. The branded name for DMR of course is MOTOTRBO in Motorola speak, but there are a large number of manufactures that make DMR radios. This would basically DOUBLE the number of channels that could be accessed from a radio in the same allocated bandwidth for GMRS. But so would going to 12.5KC channel spacing. Mind you the range would suffer greatly with going narrowband, but the interstitial channels between the repeater allocations could then become full repeater channels if the FCC was so inclined to make that change. The other thing that's possible since we DON"T have the non-proprietary technology requirement in GMRS that the hams have, we COULD petition for some level of Tier2 DMR functionality like trunking for area's that have significant GMRS use. That would share 4 talk paths on 2 repeaters with a huge amount of possible group call designations (talkgroups). But planning and cooperation from ALL users of the system and the system owner would be key to getting that to actually work. But some level of a 'CLUB' membership with or without dues would almost be mandatory as the configuration of the subscriber radios and ID assignment for the individual radios would need to be controlled or it would simply be chaos. Tier 2 DMR allows for proprietary trunking methods like Capacity Plus from Motorola that will ONLY work from a Motorola radio. P25, which I would actually prefer, does NOTHING for increasing bandwidth allocation, unless you went to a Phase 2 APCO25 standard. But the requirements for that are radios that are thousands of dollars and back end equipment that would be in the tens of thousands. So that is a pipe dream. And linking P25 is FAR more complicated than linking analog or DMR. DMR linking is simple, other than every device on the linked system needs a specifically assigned ID. Call routing mandates this. But outside of that, a Motorola repeater that is DMR has an Ethernet jack in the back. You configure the repeater a certain way, and connect it to the Internet. There has to be a C-Bridge somewhere as there is a hard limit of 15 repeaters that can be linked together with out the C-Bridge, but outside that, you can route talk groups with the bridge to limit the number of active repeaters by the talk group being used. Meaning a TG (talkgroup) could exist for each state, region, or a nation wide group simply by routing the TG to the repeaters in the footprint of the TG designated area. Any of this would of course interfere with legacy analog equipment and communications in analog. There would almost certainly need to be some level of restriction of what repeater pairs could be used and how far they would need to be placed apart from current analog repeaters to minimize interference. DMR talks further, which increases the possibility of analog interference. And while I am all for it, and the conversion for ME is as simple as going to the tower and reprogramming my repeater (running an MTR3000 on the 462.675 machine) if you look at the coverage footprint of 675 on the map, running an analog repeater in that footprint would be near impossible as my transmitted output would tear the analog receive up for those operators.

Unfortunately (if I'm finding the proper specifications) Icom lists sensitivity in different units, so a direct comparison is not feasible: F2821D IC-2730A (and the web page has red notices that specifications are only guaranteed for 2m/70cm bands)

Thanks! I’m just using a couple HT right now. Not sure if I'm going to set up a base at home or in my truck yet. Looks like we’re fairly close in proximity. I'm Near Custer & Virginia by the Aero Club. I still haven't connected to any repeaters and only made contact on channel 5 with a kid and his parent a couple times.

Transmit on the repeater input frequency and call them idiots. If they clap back, they are on the repeater ?

Here is what I did if you don't want to spend the funds on a Reteveis. (Altho if I had a travel trailer the Reteveis with a extendable mass antenna would be my ideal setup.) Now this isn't a epic high power repeater but is self contained and deployable while out camping. Hoist it into a tree, or set it up on a hill. It has run a couple days with moderate traffic. Worked decent for when people ventured out from where we camped surrounded by hills. HT to HT at camp would not hit through the hill. Plopped this little box on the top and was able to bounce up and over the hit back to camp. Its just a Baofeng, Surecom and a HF box with some random connectors. Runs completely on their own batteries. As long as you understand the Surecom takes and rebroadcast your transmission and everyone remembers to give a few seconds for the transmission. Think maybe I am into it around 100 bucks give or take.

There are some special packages almost all the time. Right now there are three different bundles where you get two handheld radios for no extra charge. https://www.retevis.com/rt97-long-range-full-duplex-mini-portable-repeater-promotion I have no connection to them and couldn’t tell you which package would be better for you.

2nd the RT-97.. Its portable, light, small, rugged, and it works great

This is a very good use for the Retevis RT-97, which is an all in one repeater and duplexer. Add an antenna and cable and you have a small low power repeater.

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

...as predicted...

..Like I said...

Just remember, that as predicted in the proclamation video, "some people" will always and forever spew reasons why Ch19 (any channel, actually) is not "the right choice", and will argue about it as they have for years, accomplishing nothing.. Those people are not invited to join with the rest of us normal people on Ch19.. They can go talk to themselves on some other channel.. My name is Queen Randy and I approve this message.

From part 95.531 - permissible uses: (c) GMRS stations. FRS units normally communicate with other FRS units, but may also be used to communicate with General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) stations.

The rules state otherwise.

I am still not sure why these posts keep appearing in GMRS groups. It is and has been legal for business to use FRS channels... People dont read the rules but claim to know them all the time. I see so much disinformation on the internet regarding the part 95 rules and some of the GMRS groups on facebook are the worst. If you try to correct the admins they block you for pointing out the truth...

Hi Everyone, It's come to my attention that a few members may be posting advertisements for their business in an aggressive manner. For example, they may not be interacting with the other members in a productive way, only pushing their products or services. I think it's a good time to enact a new policy for the forums whereby member advertising is prohibited without written consent from me, the owner. I don't mind a simple signature line that includes your company name, but I do not want to allow posts that are advertising your business. We cannot be held responsible for these posts and we certainly do not endorse any companies other than our approved advertisers. If you'd like to advertise with us, please get in touch with me to discuss. I'm very flexible on rates; doesn't matter if you're a small company or large. Our moderators Gary, William and Scott, as well as myself, reserve the right to edit or remove any posts which serve as an advertising platform that isn't approved by me. This serves to protect the other members as well as myGMRS and its parent company, RepeaterFinder, LLC. Thanks for your understanding, Rich WQEJ577 N2DLX