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I am new to GMRS and I am pleasantly surprised at the great community, professionalism and courtesy shown on the national net and repeaters in general. I have been a ham since the 1980's and have watched repeaters go silent and that even includes DMR. While the GMRS community is smaller there is more activity on my local GMRS repeater than all the areas 2 meter repeaters combined. GMRS operators in general are very helpful and I see great potential with radio operators that are easily licensed and willing to put their skills to use for the good of the community. I am pleasantly surprised that the "CB slang" from the 70's is absent and everyone talks in plain English. My only gripe with the service is all the unlicensed business operation on repeater outputs courtesy of the "bubble pack" radios sold everywhere. Thankfully the repeater overpowers most of them and tone silences the constant stock room chatter. Let's keep this great service alive and active so it doesn't turn into another 2 meters. I would like to see more wide area linking or repeaters.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! Steve Shannon

You can put me in the Midland camp, too. I have used a lot of different radios over the years and they seem to hit the mark with reliability, advertised v. actual power, and ease of use. If you only want a few watts, the MXT115 is good, but I recommend the MXT500 and MXT575. They were natively designed to be wideband, they have a lot more power (enough to actually make a difference in range), and the audio quality is much better on both transmit and receive. The down side is, they can be a bit pricey. While the newer MXT275 can be programed to run wideband, the circuits were not originally designed for it. This means you are working on the edge of the capability, which leads to weak performance in wideband.

Along the top menu you can look for clubs near your location. Maybe that will help.

Thanks! New York. And wish I wasn't lol.

Welcome to the forum. I’m from Montana

So...I had a longer post put together on mobile browser, all typed up, used ARRL's RF Exposure calculator, had a screenshot...and the forum said "NOPE!" and deleted the whole thing. The shorter version is that running the calculation using 5 watts, 33% duty cycle (5 min tx, 10 min rx), at 462.550mhz and 2.1dbi, it spit out a safe distance of just shy of a foot for controlled space (informed operator), and not quite 1.5 ft for uncontrolled (uninformed bystanders), though perhaps 2.1dbi is a little overestimating a rubber ducky. bumping up the power and/or duty cycle pushes the distance out further. IIRC, when i ran my calculations for my "shack", it was something like 3 ft at 50 watts, controlled, and either 4.5 or 6 uncontrolled, for UHF, and a bit more for VHF. Based on that, i read that "occupational use" disclaimer as the manufacturers' attempt (even if FCC forced) to ensure the operator is informed of the RF exposure involved, and can adjust their exposure accordingly, whether with less TX time, lower power, or moving the radio away via remote mics. i suspect many of the 5 watt limits came down to balancing allowable exposure with being able to keep a reasonable amount of talk time.

Same to you & everyone else! ??

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Lincoln-Warrensburg 725 Repeater here on myGMRS shows it in Warrensburg; having moved there on November 12th. That notice was apparently posted on that repeater site as included in the myGMRS Weekly Repeater Update email for November 6th:

Howdy... totally new to the world of GMRS. Just got my new Bronco and plan to get back to some off-roading here in Colorado, hence the radio. Did some research, talked to some folks and I ended with a license and a radio to keep in contact on the trails. As a long time pilot I'm quite comfortable on the radios, but it's just in the plane and does its thing when I need to chat with ATC. Getting into the real ins and outs of GMRS has caught my interest even though it came about indirectly through the off-roading world. Purchased a Wouxun KG-935G to get started. Got some good reviews. Glad to be here and have the opportunity to learn from the "pros" out there.

@OffRoaderX, I think TNRonin needs a link in order to fully understand... LOL

If you look close, 99% of them are actually sad-hams, disguised as GMRS operators.

I had hoped this wouldn't happen, but we get to see sad GMRS operators on display. Tho not to the degree of sad hams. Yet! Sent from my SM-T860 using Tapatalk

Short of interference with medical or law enforcement, why does it matter if individuals are on a channel talking without a license? I understand that there are rules in place to have a license to use system, but at the same time if businesses or individuals are using the system then who cares? I personally don’t agree that we should even have to obtain a license to use this system, kind of a racket if you ask me, but whatever I’ll play along and I’ll even help people get one if they so choose, yet I have read a bit of all these forums and everybody says the same thing, all they hear are crickets in most places. If the FCC isn’t too interested in policing the system then why should it be upon us to do so? Im sorry but I do not have the time nor patience to try and track down individuals or to go to businesses to inform them that they need to have a license to use system. Personally I don’t think any of us should be doing that in any way and putting ourselves in a possible dangerous situation just to inform somebody that they shouldn’t use a radio or how to use one. And to be honest I would much rather have my taxes spent on something more important than to have some government official spending their time trying to track down some kid telling poop jokes or cussing over radio.

It helps a bit due to the added contrast, but doesn't totally solve the problem. That will have to wait for an OLED screen in a future version.

Some of the early UV9GPro and the UV9GLite had Roger beeps, but IIRC, the bulk of the UV9GPro units do not have a Roger Beep.. Due to the outcry of customers from around the world, they added it back for the UV9GX. Mid power is now 2watts, high power is still 5watts.. I dont remember what low power is, but its the same as the the UV9GPro. I'm only telling you this because YOU are my favorite user here at MyGMRS ...

I have one right here on my desk.. It's a nice upgrade the the UV9G.. The release has been delayed due to supply chain/shipping issues, but it should be available soon (my GUESS is 30-60 days, but this is only a guess).. Some new stuff on the UV9Gx: theme able color schemes much brighter LED flashlight stiffer knobs can receive down to 219Mhz more power control settings for better battery life a priority channel button, pre-set to the official highway channel, CH19 more pre-programmed frequenicies and most important a ROGER BEEP .................affiliate link below.. Oops.. sorry.. bad habit.