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I have an old Motorola Spectra repeater kit that I used for when out and about. Subscriber units can be whatever one brings though, shown here with my Motorola XPR7550e and Anytone "878" as examples. This along with a tripod, a couple of deep cycle marine batteries on an RV tray (let's you connect two batteries in an easier to move sled type of configuration, and a dipole antenna 20 feet in the air gets signals out well enough. I also have an old GR300 desktop repeater that had Motorola GM120 radios in it initially, after putting XPR4550 mobile Trbo TDMA radios in it, I now have narrowband and two slot TDMA possibilities in a portable package. Lots of possibilities when it comes to portable comms.

My Radioddity DB-20G arrived yesterday and I fired it up today and downloaded the default codeplug. It looks exactly like the default when using version 2.02 of the CPS software when it first opens, but I have not compared the sub-menu items. Amazon threw me a $16 discount coupon, too! It's really a terrific "simple" GMRS mobile unit right out of the box; and less expensive than the Midland. I easily added a CTCSS tone using the buttons on the unit to a repeater channel and started communicating on one of my local GMRS repeaters. BTW: Firmware v2.34 out of the box.

Another tool in the toolbox....I know many AUXComm/Emcomm/support elements that assist government agencies and private industry at all levels that have thought about bringing GMRS into the fold. Right now HF is big with the push for DHS SHARES, a program to link sites across the country via HF and data over these links during large disaster situations. GMRS is also on the table, but the first step now is still to get workers back into the office. My employer has 54 cities linked via radio across the nation (Motorola Astro/Trbo and analog conventional, Kenwood NXDN sites, and HF Radio over Internet Protocol), but if there were a real incident, it would still be only the few that are already at work and near one of the radio stations. Covid proved that, and I and my crew were in the office every workday as the federal government considered our public safey and fire interop with 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points to be critical. That was the reason I went and purchased a GMRS call sign and joined this site, so the station in my building would then be able to also use GMRS. As other have said, government GMRS is most likely through a user that ends up as the conduit for the service, and may bring their own gear, or have some provided. In my own use case, what this meant was for one person at each site to get licensed for GMRS, DHS Shares registered, AFMARS license, amateur licenses, FEMA ICS trained, and anything else to make it realistic to have these government affiliations. Then each station made sure to separate the commercial company comms and the interop radios. It is a little odd to see GTR8000 repeaters racked in a corner, and high end Motorola and Harris radios on a bench, and then go to the other end and see Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, and SGC tuning equipment for the amateur side in a support role.

A regular radio is just not an option in a vehicle that cant be secured. So the Midlands make for a good option. And the installs are so clean.

Hi Michael. Not an Ozzie. But I have had shrimp on the barbie and Fosters oil cans. Apparently there are differences of opinion on how well Fosters is regarded in Oz.

I take everything back, I just received approval on alot of them. Maybe my email is acting up.

I saw this new topic this morning and just assumed you were from Australia! ?

Bullshit. That’s a cheap shot that paints all of us with the same brush. Yes, there are those that simply memorize enough to pass the Technicians test, but they don’t hang around long. There are still many who work within clubs to help provide backup long distance communications. There are hams helping out during every tornado, flood, and hurricane.

One of the other things that I haven't seen discussed here is the fact that government entities typically have a number of licensed LMR frequencies already that could be used. Part of those being Public Safety frequencies that they would have somewhat exclusive use of in their jurisdiction. So the jurisdiction would need to own and maintain a cache of radios for this purpose or require registered volunteers to acquire radios for the frequency band in use and get an MOU from the jurisdiction indicating they had permission to have that channel or channels programmed in their radios. And this can be anything from VHF or UHF single repeaters to trunked system radios. I personally have programmed system radios for a city we do work for that issue radios to established neighborhood watch groups. Point is, I am really not sure WHY a government entity would NEED a GMRS license as they have other resources available that are exclusive use.

Because many years ago, when technology wasn't what it is now, Amateur radio was a vital part of communications when things went south. Having an Amateur Radio license indicated that you had worked hard and studied electronic theory, laws and regulations and were somewhat proficient in communicating with Morse Code. The real question is why are they STILL a thing. Because having a Ham license now means you bought a book with all the answers to the questions, read it for 3 hours and took a test so you could get on the air with your 30 dollar radio that makes all sorts of beeps and crap and irritate the guys that did it right back in the day. Just sayin.

Man I'm envious of that view! Again I cant thank everyone enough for the information and will report back in a few days since it shows the antenna arriving tomorrow. Sshannon I also appreciate the link to DX. I ordered that antenna late Friday and with free shipping it will be here Monday. They don't mess around. TY

That's why I got my GMRS license besides the fact it was cheap at the time, $70 for 10 years. I had another GMRS call before this one when it cost $85 for 5 years. Never used it so I let the license expire. When the cost dropped, and in particular the term increased to 10 years, I got back into it again. Now that's it dropped to $35 it's basically a no-brainer.

The other issue with this site and many sites that list repeaters is lack of participation. At one point folks were telling others to list a repeater even when they never had anything on the air. Unless a repeater is up and available for use in my opinion it should not be on the site or require a annual update to keep on the site. Its been an issue for some time. For those that require access they should be replying to folks. Its been an issue for some time. None of my repeaters are any longer listed for part of this reason. Changes happen for everyone. So in the end the person who listed it may no longer have the email associated or it just goes to spam. As far as using others repeaters as others said try it and if someone is on the air ask if its open for use. Some don't care some do. Those that do have many options to limit use if they want to.

So today I accompanied the young man who maintains our amateur radio repeater. Our repeater is at about 9700 feet MSL, which is about 4,000 above where I live. Our repeater has an amazing coverage on 2 meter, reaching nearly a hundred miles in some directions, despite being situated in a mountain range. Our repeater uses a collinear array of four folded dipoles. Because they are a phased array the coverage pattern can be electronically modified wider coverage or to tilt the pattern by adjusting the phasing harness, but of course wider coverage comes at the cost of lower gain; which is why the Comet has higher gain. Here is a picture of the tower with our antenna being the highest 4x folded dipole array and a picture of the view towards Butte from the lookout.

I have a DB408 on my house, a 408 on my Rugged 575 TX antenna and a DB420 on my Crete 600 repeater tower and I can say 2 things for certain: 1) A DB408 will run CIRCLES around any amateur/consumer grade antenna. END OF STORY, it's like comparing a Neon to a Lambo for speed. Folded dipoles are far superior to any fiberglass stick. This is the same reason all our public safety systems use them too. Also why you see VHF dipoles facing all the same way to send RF up and down a long railroad track. 2) LMR400 is garbage compared to actual hard line and is a a *VERY* high loss line at these lengths. at 50', not even including connectors you are losing at the minimum of 25% of your power. At 100' of course it's 50%. Yes, you read that correct. The correct way to do it would be to put actual 1/2" hard line in. Yes, it's *SLIGHTLY* more money and you have to know how to put it together but for $200 you can get a correct tool to do this termination. I also own this tool and I have some spare line I wouldn't mind helping you over a video call. If you're going to go big with a DB404 or 408 and use junky LMR400 that would be like getting a 1,000HP diesel truck and putting a transmission from a smart car in it. Send me a PM if you want to chat on the phone. I'm not a 100/100 when it comes to this stuff but I do have a bit of experience in putting in high profile repeaters and this is all we use here in the Midwest. Even if you went with a DB404 you will be SHOCKED at what you can do with it but that LMR *HAS* to go if you're going to a big boy antenna! Thanks!

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.

The biggest problem is that you are not just "cross-banding" (which essentially only exists in Amateur usage as that service has multiple bands). You are "cross-service" linking: GMRS -> MURS -> MURS -> GMRS. That also opens up the problem that, someone with a MURS radio that is configured with the same channel and tone, is going to be picked up by your output radio, and repeated in the GMRS band -- AND DOES NOT HAVE A GMRS LICENSE/CALL. Also, there are only five MURS channels vs eight GMRS main/repeater channels. Three of the MURS channels are narrowband-only! (4&5 are wideband with narrow optional). Proper GMRS is wideband.