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Yes, and as Sshannon pointed out, this concept belongs in ham where one can use the lower frequencies in the 70cm and 2m bands so this horse is already dead. I had already considered the potential ramifications and possible solutions for a “mixed bag” of canned frequencies that were going to be addressed later in the thread, along with linking independent repeaters but at this stage, it’s all moot. I’m absolutely sure that many hams are already doing what I envision, but I dreamed it up myself and I realize that the best path forward for me is to get my ham license. Thanks for your input, and please have a blessed day.

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

I appreciate the information. Looks like something i could try and if would not work out i would not cry as much :}. TY

Duplex means the radio is transmitting on one frequency (467.xxx MHz for GMRS) and receives on the corresponding frequency (462.xxx MHz). Simplex means the radio is transmitting and receiving on the same frequency in the 462 MHz range (except for the now-permissible 0.5W ERP NFM channels 8-14, which are 467 MHz). I really abhor the FCC channel number scheme which treats the simplex main channels and repeater as /separate entities/. As seen in a number of threads on this forum, it just leads to confusion (in the old days, one had a button on the radio that toggled between simplex and duplex on a given channel, and the channel was commonly identified by the .xxx portion of the frequency [one's license only authorized TWO of the eight main channels, so your channels A&B might not be the same as my A&B). Channels 15-22 and 23-30 (aka: rp15-rp22, 15r-22r, and other naming schemes) receive on the 462MHz, with the result that people with simplex only radios (FRS) or tuned to simplex 15-22 still receive the output from repeaters, but can not transmit to the repeater. Most R-Pi configurations (I'm only accustomed to Amateur Pi-Star usage) are simplex from radio to Pi-Star -- only one side can transmit at a time (a true repeater is receiving on 467 and SIMULTANEOUSLY sending what it received back out on 462). If the R-Pi side is transmitting, it will not hear anything you try to send until the board goes silent (toggles to Listening mode). For Amateur, there ARE boards that support duplex mode -- they have two antenna on the board (not to be confused with dual-band boards, which can be configured for 2m or 70cm usage). Take into account that these boards run VERY LOW power... <50mW is not uncommon, I don't think I've heard of any that gets as high as 100mW! Strangely, my radios can pick up my Pi-Star system from down the block (500 feet or so), but it won't receive my transmissions, even on high power. Probably evidence of how much more sensitive the Kenwood/Icom HTs are compared to an SoC radio chip on top of a potentially RF-noisy processor board. Once your signal hits the internet, simplex/duplex is irrelevant -- it only applies to the link from radios to node and node to radios, and most R-Pi nodes are probably running simplex. If someone has managed to connect the R-Pi to an actual repeater, then it is duplex at that repeater. If it is linked to another simplex node, well -- it is again simplex.

That Alamo575 site is hosting some RF Uplinks for the new repeaters so Jon took the 575 offline to avoid interfering with the RF link radios. He's pretty busy with real life but he'll get around to updating his website. I also removed the Cibolo725 since I'm hosting a RF link and was completely covered up by the NE and NW repeaters.

In this case Alex is right. The owner of this site probably doesn’t want to have a thread that teaches people to flagrantly disregard regulations. Now if you wanted to publish almost exactly the same thread in the ham radio area and aim it at doing a cross-band VHF/UHF repeater, nobody could complain.

You mean the "gnawing worry"? You free-flying rebels are funny. Keep up your free-spirited, but useless and harmless experiments. Don't forget to keep us all posted, we will enjoy your fruitless hunt. I ROFLed here. Up to 50 watts, with Baofeng! Crazy stuff, Imma telling ya

Why don't we have a dislike button here, anybody knows? Or better, "stomp into cow manure" button.

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

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Yes, there are EXISTING licenses that are grandfathered, and can't be modified that we share the channels with. But he's asking about what I assume would be a new license, which I don't believe the FCC would grant. Now that's only based on the regulations as I personally understand them. But I am far from an attorney, or FCC licensing agent that would be making that final decision. It wouldn't hurt to have the entity contact the local FCC field office and ask if they wanted to get a license for community communications and EMCOMM use. They may well grant it. But they may not. The one difference in part 90 licenses and part 95 licenses is that a part 90 license holder DOES have some level of level of responsibility to the content transmitted on their licensed frequency. Not sure if that would carry over to a government entity having a GMRS repeater license or not. But if it did, that would certainly be a deal breaker for them if they were smart. We have little control over what others say on our repeaters. We can shut them off if there is an ongoing issue. But we aren't required to be mindful of anything said unless WE are the ones saying it.

The antenna needs a ground plane, or the equivalent, to work. I've tested a lot of hand held radio antennas with and without a ground plane. Just about everyone resulted in a crummy match except the 1/2 wave types. I had thought that a good ground plane would yield a good match, nope. Some tested better when stuck on the back of my hand, see sample photo, verses a large sheet metal ground plane. I'm guessing the antennas are specifically tuned to use the small ground represented by the metal body of the radio and coupled into the users arm while hand held. I wouldn't depend on the coax shield either. You get RF on it which feeds back into the radio resulting in "undesirable" operation. For the NA-771G you can try a tiger tail. I'll suspect as the tail moves around the match will change a lot too. If you have a backpack with a good sized metal frame that might work as good if not better than the tiger tail. 483039407_AmateurRadioPedestrianMobileHandbook.pdf

You can also use the /m and that will get you on the manufacturer mode, or like i like to call it "God Mode" it will ask you for the password to get into manufacturer mode ansho-bango is the pass. If you get the European version of CE27 then you can change to wideband. Just a word about the European version, they mislabeled the upload and download to radio, they inverted them. Download means sending the codeplug to the radio and upload means downloading the codeplug to your computer.

I always use the -d switch, and it does nothing for the narrowband mandate, the only way around it on the version I am using is to change the clock.

Yes! It is part 95 certified There is no such thing as a “dumb question! “ There are only dumb answers.