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Should be this one: Authentic Genuine Nagoya NA-771G 15.3-Inch Whip GMRS (462MHz) Antenna SMA-Female for BTECH and BaoFeng Radios https://a.co/d/eWqjTzt

I suspect that a good quality whip on your handheld and a good quality base station antenna on the mobile will work well as is. Your conditions (summit to a point on the opposite side of the valley) are nearly ideal. I don’t think that I would use a Yagi for the handheld, because if you have an emergency that disables you in some way you might not be able to point it. If you point it the wrong direction it’s worse than the rubber duckies. Also with two Yagis how do you know where to point them unless you can see each other? If you cannot communicate until the Yagi antennas are mutually lined up it’s difficult to coordinate the alignment. If you do use Yagi antennas you might want to run some tests; Yagi antennas with fewer directors may yield a wider pattern that works better for you. I would hike into the same area in advance and run some tests. Also, avalanche beepers and personal locator beacons are probably necessary.

Honestly, you are describing a situation well inside LOS. Unless there is something in the way that you didn't mention, 10 miles from a summit to a valley should be a cake walk even with just a few watts and a vertical antenna. Normally you would use a beam to reduce the reception of signals/noise from directions other than forward, while increasing listening ability and focused power in the forward direction (which you obviously understand at this point). However, those forward listening advantages are accomplished by enhancing the ability to hear more of the refracted and scattered emissions you are receiving from beyond LOS, that didn't fly off into space or get absorbed by the terrain. Or at least reduce the ambient noise so what you do hear is easier to understand. Your forward transmitting advantages are accomplished by putting more focused energy into the atmosphere in a forward direction, thereby likely increasing the amount of RF that is refracted and scattered beyond LOS, that didn't fly off into space or get absorbed by the terrain. That increase in refracted and scattered energy would, theoretically, increase the ability for a station without a beam to receive your signal. So, to sum up, it sounds like you are already in a massive over-kill configuration. If there is no heavily diluted "over the horizon" communications to enhance, you won't benefit from using beam antennas.

I could anticipate a government entity granting a person or radio club money or material to establish a repeater used for government supported public service purposes, but it’s clear from the scope of the current regulations that only individuals can be newly licensed. I completely agree that grandfathered government entity licenses exist. Whether those license holders could now establish a new repeater for their government purposes I haven’t studied. Under the current rules, can a government entity build a repeater and require its employees to become licensed so they can operate it? If they can, so could a commercial corporation or a political group. I don’t believe any of those cases is consistent with the scope or purposes of GMRS.

When it comes to the rules, yes, we all need to follow them. But even like Ham Radio, if you spend 90% of your time consuming yourself with "The Rules" instead of enjoying what you got into, you will be miserable. I have known many people to get out of the radio hobby or distance themselves from it (in general, Ham or GMRS or anything else) because of the thinking that the FCC was going to show up at their doorstep to take all their radios, arrest them and lock them up in federal prison for 20 years and slap them with $10,000 fine. Then you have those in the radio community that preach that and they do everything in their power to shame people into this thinking, that they inadvertently shove people out of the hobby. These type sit on their high throne surrounded by radios thinking they own the airwaves. I, like probably thousands of other GMRS operators run a mobile radio hooked up to a power supply transmitting on an omni-directional antenna and they talk base to mobile/portable and if they happen to have a repeater to use nearby, they talk through that to other GMRS operators or their own family. Same goes for the mobile. Same goes for the portables. As long as you are within the proper parameters, I highly doubt the FCC is going to swoop in to take you away because you didn't follow one letter of the law based on a fraction of a technicality that was misinterpreted accidently. I have known of people who deliberately interfered with public safety communications and other forms of licensed radio communications and everyone knew who they were and that they were doing it. Nothing was ever done. Nothing ever happened. Sadly! Again, I am not saying its ok to break the rules. Rules are how we maintain order and stay together as a society. Get out there in the community with those who follow the rules to the best of their ability, learn the in's and out's and set up your station and enjoy. We are all in this together and following common sense and common courtesy is above all things, and by following that, you will be following the rules.

95.305(e) doesn't exclude state and local governments -- but the rest would restrict them to grandfathered licenses... Such as the Grand Rapids 575 repeater (which is not "public" though did post a CTCSS tone for /emergency/ use [back in 1997 repeater guide]). https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=195998

I have a few radios using similar programming software, and the port selection dialog comes up greyed out for them. I had to use the Windows Device Manager to locate the COM device in question, and then manually change the Windows assigned port # to match the one the programming software defaulted to. As a result, I have something like two or three different adapter cables for the radios all assigned to COM 1 -- meaning only one cable at a time can be connected to the computer. Tones do nothing to prevent transmission... But mismatched tones can prevent /reception/! Tones are used to open the squelch on the receiving device. However, if the transmitter is set for repeater, the receiver will not hear it -- they are on frequencies 5MHz apart. Both devices need to be set for simplex -- try channels 1-7 in the unified channel listing as they are simplex only with a 5W ERP limit (you may also want to ensure both radios are set to the same bandwidth; wide FM, not NFM).

you can't change or set an offset on FRS channels and the repeater channels are fixed at +5 MHz.

I guess it depends where you are: Just for giggles, I gave a CQ up on 146.52 and Tom, KE6HHM from Santa Clarita answered and after a few minutes, Dave, KN6VVM jumped in from his home up in Tehachipi!

Wrong. 95.305(e) No person is authorized by this section to operate a United States Government Radio station. 95.1705(a) Eligibility (1) Individual licensee (2) Licensee’s family (3) Licensee May allow anyone to communicate an emergency message (4) Grandfathered licensees (which includes governmental units allowing its employees). So, no, there’s no current way for a government unit to setup and operate a repeater. I greatly abbreviated the sections above, but I don’t think that changed the conclusion.

If said government entity has a grandfathered GMRS license (and maybe not even then -- if their license didn't specify a repeater [back in the day I believe such had to be declared on the license application], no changes are permitted) -- the FCC no longer issues licenses to organizations/businesses/etc. If they don't, the repeater will have to use the license of some individual person acting as the trustee of the license -- that individual would be responsible for the repeater's operation. The trustee will likely be an employee (possibly who ever is already in charge of tech stuff). If they leave, the government entity will have to find a new trustee (with different license) and update the repeater ID system.

hope ur ready for the wind....we had 100+mph winds hear at the wyo/colo border yesterday and this is a normal winter thing. with i25 being shut down all the time... guess im a nobody....

3 pages of arguing over a control station, fixed station....yet we help guys use non certified radios for use......im baffled...

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.

Point well taken. Before going off the rails assuming illegal operation one might have stumbled on a perfectly legal grandfathered system. If it bothers somebody do some research before jumping to conclusions. Even in the Ham world we have to be careful since Hams only have secondary status on the 70cm band, we share it with the primary user, government. I remember doing a frequency search a while back and stumbled across some public safety frequencies between 420 MHz and 430 MHz. The US Ham band officially runs from 420 MHz to 450 MHz depending on how close you are to Canada, Line-A. The 70cm band is a mine field of various users, technical requirements and restrictions. https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/compendium/0420.00-0450.00_01MAR14.pdf https://www.chp.ca.gov/find-an-office/central-division/offices/(420)-bakersfield https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf00049.html

I don't know that a government entity could even get a GMRS license under the standing rules pertaining to the service. Now that doesn't stop them from 'hosting' a GMRS repeater up to and including purchasing of the equipment and the installation work and having a GMRS license holder as trustee of the repeater. This happens from time to time with various EMA's that again, cant get a ham license but can provide everything to facilitate a repeater installation and having the local ARES group / ham club put their call sign on it with an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) that the equipment can or can't be used for general ham operations until a time where the EMA activates the ARES group and at that point the repeater will be used for emergency communications. There is no reason that the same thing couldn't be done with GMRS, the only difference being there are no 'club calls' for GMRS and a specific individual would need to act as primary trustee of the repeater regarding the call sign on it.

The government agencies I work with usually ask volunteer civilians to partner with them, provide the hardware and human capital. I'm not aware of any of them doing it on their own, but my experience is obviously anecdotal. My team is in process of putting an amateur repeater on the county dispatch tower at the EOC. We are already approved for the antenna and radio install. I am going to see if we can put up a dual band antenna and see if we can co-locate the amateur and GMRS systems there.

List it now; I list repeaters months before they even go online just so there's a chance for someone to let me know if I'm sitting it on an occupied frequency.