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Yup long ago our area used hams alot for the stuff. Over the years that has been used less and less. Our SAR team supports 5-6 events a year. One event is managed by the county EMO and we use the TLMR system. All others we use our SAR public safety system and SAR is the IC for the event. All communications are run out of our MCU as well as mapping and FA support. Mostly because we know it works and again we dont run into issues handing a person a portable radio. The other issue they had was hams not showing up and not knowing how to use equipment. We got called in years ago to support an air show and the hams flipped. In the end we had the proper gear and knew the ICS plan and such. Sadly that event went away but we did 2 years of it for them. Its different all over the US. I think clubs that are Public Safety mindful and work with the counties or municipalities normally are used more but some sit at home waiting for the big call and it will never happen. You have to market your service and complete the task when asked or you wont get used.

I think you hit the nail square on the head with this statement.

For the most part I see no reason a government entity would put up a GMRS system unless it was a public thing thru a CERT team or something of that nature. Government and Public Safety have many other systems they can use and don't require a person to get a license. Our SAR team still has a GMRS repeater at a county park that was provided with funding from a grant via the county years ago. Other than an occasional user its pretty quiet. All park staff use the TLMR system as well as all public safety.

Well, they could. However I do appreciate the concerns you have brought to light in such a diplomatic fashion. You sir, are a shining example to us all and your statement is worthy of consideration. With that, I will end my input on this subject and I appreciate you kindly pointing out to me the error of my ways. This was intended to be a thinking exercise, but I see now see how it can be interpreted. You have a wonderful day.

Sounds like BTech customer support needs a driver for their clown car.

BTech Support reached back out to me and let me know that they were mistaken. They retested my radio and were able to get a fix on a GPS signal. I'm not sure how long they waited for the unit to connect to GPS but I will be testing it again once they send it back to me. I'll update the OP with this information.

I think you're correct. However, the local, state and federal government gets folks like ARES/RACES, REACT and CERT involved becuse they know that as robust as their system is, it's only reliable on a good day. That said, it's also cheaper for your civilian volunteers to bring their own gear, too. The responsibility of design, purchase and maintenance is covered by us (volunteers).

Disclaimer: I want to start off by stating on the record that the concepts I want to put forth are for entertainment and information only. I do not advocate for using any equipment mentioned in the following post(s), nor do I advocate for using said equipment in any mentioned manner. Therefore, if any individual builds such a setup and runs it, I will not be responsible for any repercussions brought to said aforementioned individual in the event the black coats show up to said individual’s residence to seize said equipment or to haul said individual’s ass off to the pokey. With that being said, on with the show.

Based on it's design, that's what I was leaning to as well, 5/8 over 5/8. Not sure how I missed the ground plane in the antenna farm specs, guess is was looking for GP or NGP. My oversight. Thanks for the assist!

Laird BB-4505cr Manufacturer TE Connectivity Info Ground Plane Required Frequency (MHz) 450 - 470 MHz Product Narrative TE Connectivity ongoing commitment to refinement in mechanical and electrical design has resulted in the release of their latest product, the mobile coil antenna with an elastomer spring. The new elastomer spring provides increased flexibility, better shape retention, and eliminates electronic noise & road noise compared to stainless steel springs. The mobile coil antennas will continue to maintain all of the features that make them unique, such as stainless steel whips, housings constructed with ABS material injection molded around a solid brass insert, and gold plated push pin contacts. Together, the mobile coil antenna and elastomer spring, make TE Connectivity the obvious choice for quality and long lasting value for demanding mobile radio communications. Gain (dBi) 5 db Maximum Power (Watts) 200 Whip Length (In.) 34" Whip Material Stainless steel Bandwidth 20 MHz Spring Incl. Yes Color Black Base w/ Black Whip Mount Type Order NMO Type Mount Separately

Hi tep182. Welcome to the thread. I hope you’re doing well.

Mencken said something about "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy"...

Disclaimer: I know, I know “not approved equipment blah blah blah”. This is a concept, so any keyboard Karens out there can keep it to themselves. We’re not children here and we don’t need to be preached to by your highness. So to begin, a simple repeater would of course have to be based on two radios able to match the same frequencies. To keep costs down, and to not have to worry about desensing, insertion loss, or multiple antennas in a limited space, these radios would have to be placed apart. Far apart. Like 20, 30 or even 50 feet apart. One HT of coarse will be the receiving unit, the other will be the transmitting unit. The interface between the two radios I will dub the “MURS bridge”. This bridge is where that added functionality will come from, but more on that later.

I’m a tinkerer. I have a curse that had always kept me digging deeper once an interest infected me. I was like this with PCs, then Linux, solar, now radios. I love to conceptualize and figure out how to get the most performance out of bare necessities. I’m new to GMRS, thanks to the many entertaining videos posted by Notarubicon (Props dude, I’m a huge fan). So on with the concept. In the event of SHTF or total disbandment of a certain three letter government agency, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to reach out farther over the air using a relatively high powered repeater that you didn’t have to sink $1000 into? The technology is readily available. I’m referring to HT’s with cross band repeater capabilities. These little gems are awesome with features that will align them with some mobile rigs. The Leixen UV-25D is fine example of such an HT. It will cross band from UHF to VHF, VHF to UHF, or both ways. The flexibility here is unbelievable, and radios such as these or the TYT UV-8000 series of radios being the foundation of such a repeater would bring features to a repeater that simply don’t exist in even high end setups. I intend on outlining how this setup would work, be implemented, go over the strengths and weakness I think such a system may have, and touch on added features that would come from such a setup in posts to follow. I welcome any feedback, positive or negative along the way. Ideas are strongly encouraged as this is how we all learn.

i'll second this as well..having jumped into LMR gear with some Vertex EVXs...the most basic frequency setup wasn't too bad, but SO many menus. i'll say their context based help is pretty good at explaining things though. went to a VX mobile next, which was a bit simpler, and i learned some things there i was able to go back and apply to the EVXs. still here and there poking at getting one of the other EVXs (i have two 450-512 split, and one 400-470) working on DMR.

No kidding. When I starting collecting my mostly Kenwood LMR gear, and got the programming software for them, my first impression was WTF is all this crap in the setup. The setup is even stranger for the digital stuff. It's a bit of a mind set change to get use to how commercial radio radios are setup verses ham gear. Ham gear you can program them on the fly. The commercial radios you program them once and then just turn on the radio and hit the PTT button.

The above sounds right. I have another buddy that frequently volunteers for marathons, bike races etc. He either setups up his own portable repeater or the event communication's coordinator supplies some or most of the radio equipment.

Have you looked at the LFP, Lithium Iron Phosphate, battery types? The capacity is good and the chemistry is far more stable than just about any of the other Lithium types. This company is friendly to communication hobbyists and has a good selection. https://www.bioennopower.com/ I also found using these power meters is helpful to keep an eye on the power usage. https://powerwerx.com/watt-meter-analyzer-inline-dc-powerpole Everything I have is terminated in Anderson Power Poles. This makes it very easy to swap around equipment. I typically use the 15 amp and 30 amp connectors. I managed to salvage some of the larger 45 amp connectors off of dead lead acid batteries our IT department trashed from the server room UPS systems. https://powerwerx.com/anderson-power-powerpole-sb-connectors

I think the same logic works for private businesses. Each employee can have their own GMRS license and use the company owned repeater. The one caveat the repeater must be under the control of one of the licensed employees and ID as such.

Just a point of interest, PIV/CAC cards for government employees and contractors cost more than $35 each and aren't valid as long as a GMRS license. If a government agency really wants to have a GMRS repeater for their staff to use, I'm 100% certain they would pony up the few bucks for the employees to have an individual license to use on the government owned radio. Just a thought.

APRSDroid will gladly eat your GMRS callsign and will allow sending and receiving packets from air. Of course, no injection of data will be allowed into the APRS database over the internet. For this you must have ham callsign. I'm regular APRS user, but always on 144.390 and never on GMRS.

One of my favorite hobbies: go war-driving for GMRS/Ham repeaters and decode their input codes! ?

Wow. I'm all for using the search feature and using existing info, but I am pretty sure reviving an 8 year old thread is a record for this forum. LOL I am pretty sure, those in the know actually prefer the legacy LMR stuff for the rock-solid performance and true full legal limit power. It's not for the faint of heart or technically challenged, though.

As a system administrator for a nationwide Motorola radio network, made up of Motorola P25 Phase 1, Phase 2, legacy analog, and Trbo sub-networks, I see this all the time. While much of the programming, engineering, and installation and maintenance is done in house (very large corporation with a dedicated radio shop) we still do use many vendors, local radio shops across the country. And we all tend to complain en masse, especially for the new Trbo R7, Ion series radios, and push for PTT over LTE with the APX Next radios. For firefighting, confined space, and first response use cases, licenses are a problem. We have also had to inventory radios, triage them by firmware, options and EID status. Then, as you mentioned, making templates from that. Two counties in Washington State, King and Snohomish, are going through this right now. Too many templates to make and falling behind schedule, as they did not even know what they had end user wise, and have found they have more radios/license issues, and options that need updates. My fire departments are now sitting on APX6000XE radios, and awaiting the templates from the counties they must be interoperable with, to catch up. King and Snohomish counties are going P25 Phase 2, leapfrogging over FDMA Phase 1. They are now learning of the drastic changes in programming, entitlement ID's, CPS versus Radio Management, and other issues with TDMA P25 Phase 2. Then WAVE also gets pushed, with the monthly service cost being glossed over. All of this being typed as my old HT-1250 is being charged, the one I use for GMRS.

In the past few weeks, members and staff alike have researched the controversy regarding type acceptance or certification of radio equipment. We have found absolutely NO evidence that the agency is issuing citations to licensed GMRS operators for using Part 90 equipment in Part 95 service. We have anectdotal evidence that agency inspectors randomly allow Part 90 equipment in Part 95 service as long as all Part 95 technical standards are met. Therefore, it is the decision of the staff at MyGMRS Forum to once again allow posting of "Equipment Reviews" regarding ALL types of equipment whether Part 90, Part 95 or Part 97. We feel that it is the responsibility of each member to screen the information that is provided by others and to make an educated decision on whether or not to use any equipment of any kind in your own personal setting. Reviews of Part 97 equipment are acceptable due to the number of Amateur Operators here, however, we do not wish to see any reference to Amateur Radio Part 97 equipment being 'suggested' that it works on GMRS frequencies. Thank you all for your patience in this matter and thank you for your understanding. The forum is once again open for "Equipment Reviews" and similar postings under these guidelines listed above. The MyGMRS Staff