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Nice! I am looking forward to a review on the RT49Ps, PartsMan, once you have had a chance to get them on the water. I'd like to know how many "fars" they will allow you to "talks" across the water. Here is my Christmas KG-1kG plus. Thanks wifey!

RE #1 (ski slope): For direct contact (“simplex”) between hand held radios, GMRS, with 5 watts output and an improved antenna, will do a bit better than the 2 watt FRS radios you have been using. MURS and Amateur license radios (on VHF) may do better as well, owing to the propagation characteristics of the VHF band. RE: #3 (backcountry emergency use): A satellite based unit such as a Personal Locator Beacon or communicator (to include the new iPhone 14) will be the most reliable.

Well I signed up for the $60 2 year subscription. I'll see how it goes. Thanks to everyone for their input.

What radio are you using? I knew this is a somewhat controversial suggestion, but if you study for the relatively easy Technician Ham Radio exam and get licensed, you will discover so many more Repeater options open to you (as well as even Simplex communications, especially on 2 meters).

Very cool! 500 watts, but that’s only 20 dB more than my GMRS HT! ?

May have missed it was me that posted part of an email reply. Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 9:23 PM Hello, We have plan to make 40W GMRS analog repeater, but the available date is not known yet, once we have update, will public to our SNS, you will see that. If this repeater you plan to use in which application scenario? Like farm, or factory, or ? Thanks! Thanks and Regards, Elsa Jin (Customer Manager) Web:www.retevis.com So based on what I was wrote, 40W is coming some time. No reference to any other product or timeline. Trying not to post too much, but they clearly wanted to know uses cases.

Here is my latest addition to my GMRS collection. A pair of waterproof floating FRS HTs. My other hobby is kayaking so these are perfect for coms with more expensive radios on shore.

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. I will use your suggestion to move closer to the windshield. I will find a way to protect the paint from damage. I edited the original post to show the roof is not an option. I have less than 2" of clearance moving through the garage door due to lift and tires.

1.) You can upgrade the antenna, but I do not find it necessary in my area. If you choose to get an upgraded antenna you will need a 'SMA Male' antenna. Some people like Smiley antennas and Nagoya antennas. Signal Sticks are also worth a look. Since you have the UV-5G just get something tuned for GMRS. 2.) The CT icon is showing up to tell you there is a tone set for R-CTCS. Unless you have interference (some one else transmitting on the RX channel) you generally don't need a tone in the R-CTCS slot. 3.) Yes, there is. The easiest way to do this is in Chirp. The far right hand column is labeled "skip". Select 'S' in the cell to skip the channel.

I know you are in the same business as I am. I will say this, specifically pertaining to my area. The TG ID's and alias names are spot on with what the state system is using for those users. So if I need a TG ID in hex or decimal, the ones on there seem to always be right. And with the additional access that a paid membership provides, hunting licenses for users is a bit easier with their interface than the one the FCC has and provides the meat and potatoes of the license without needing to click around to get that info. At least it was that way the last time I was a paying member.

Apologize for spell! I grew in Philadelphia that's I can thank the Philadelphia School District for. Just Kidding, but I wish this technology was around back the 90s, of course, my generation is one of the last to remember Telephone Booths and Arcades. I sort of trading stamps not S&H, but some other stamps that I'm pretty sure IGA use to give out maybe A&P stores did too. Well Happy New Year!

@Luish19779, unfortunately GMRS is not a rag-chew service. Many refer to it as a BYOC radio service (Bring Your Own Contacts). Meaning, you and a specific person or group of people are looking for a common radio service so your group can specifically talk. This is why its so popular with groups that do family emergency communications, offroading and outdoors type of entertainment, road trips involving multiple vehicles, etc. As Michael (@MichaelLAX) mentions, Ham radio is most likely a much better bet for you. I am in NYC 6 to 8 times a year and there are a bunch of repeaters in NY, CT, NJ and PA that I can reach, depending on where I am in and around the city. I have really good luck around Bronx Zoo and little Italy, up to around Yonkers Raceway. There are some amateur repeaters on the mountains nearby and the stuff south and west are at lower elevations or you get some clear LOS due to the river. Something to think about, if you are just looking for strangers to chat with and to make new friends. GMRS really isn't the best choice for that, though.

My 11 year old grandson and his friends are all about Rubik's cubes again!!!

What radio are you using? To hit a repeater under "Duplex" select the "+" and in "OFFSET" type in 5.0000. Picture is pulled from generic GMRS info in chirp.

This is good advice ^^^ I have gotten into the habit of downloading twice from the radio every time. leaving one untouched and make my adjustments on the other so I have a go back at the ready should it not work out. It’s helpful to reference back and forth should you make numerous changes. Easier to keep track of what you did.

ALSO: be sure to Read from your Radio and download and save the default codeplug that comes with your radio, for future reset purposes, if needed.

Under "Tone" or "Tone Mode" you can select "TSQL" and then under TONE or ToneSql select the tone from the drop down menu

I recorded Christmas wishes from a new friend in South Africa. We chatted 12,700+ km / 7,900+ miles via HF radio. I apologize for the audio sync problems. I rushed last minute to record a conversation with Lyle, which led to me having some issues with the radio display feed being frozen and the time sync between voice and video being off. I will record another one later, after I fix my video codec issue, but I really wanted to share it anyway. Merry Christmas everyone.

@Sshannon LOL true story!

Nagoya UT-72G mag mount: Nagoya UT-72G High Gain Magnet Mount GMRS Antenna (462-467 MHz) Nagoya 771G for attaching to radio in handheld carry mode also better than stock antenna: Authentic Nagoya NA-771G Handheld GMRS Antenna (15.3 Inch) (both also avail on Amazon if you want to support Bezos instead of a small business :) Amazon does offer free shipping but I like supporting the other guys)

Well, I have used it both as a paying member and a non-paying member. SO the question of is it worth it. And that is gonna be determined by a couple things. First is what scanner you have. Some scanners will directly import info from RR and other's don't as easily. Second is how good are you at programming scanners. If you don't really know much about doing it, and your scanner is compatible, then yes it's certainly worth it. Third is what is your time worth to you? Meaning, if you are looking to put a major cities complete talkgroup list in a scanner, you are gonna spend HOURS doing that by hand. With the power to import comes the ability to import specific stuff in specific zones. Which is MORE time consuming to do by hand. so if you look at the cost as a time saver, which it is, then again it's worth the little bit of money for at least the 180 day membership in my opinion. Now I ain't coughing up the big bucks for a 3 year run, but when I have a couple scanners to do, I will toss them the bucks for a 180 run and program the scanners I need to get done. Again, personal opinion and choice. There were some comments made about accuracy of the database overall. Stuff isn't removed from the database unless someone tells them it's bad data. IIf you know of bad data, tell them and they will make the needed corrections. I know about this first hand. I have passed on a number of corrections as my customers have moved off of VHF and UHF and on to the state wide system. They were always happy to have the corrections and made the database updates quickly. Of course the local admin guy I deal with knows me personally and knows if I inform them of something, it's correct. So there is no question with my data. Your mileage may vary with that. That being said, the forums kn RR are like the wild wild west of the radio world. There are a number of people that will post total BS in order to bump their post count. That or they truly think the know what they are talking about and have it all wrong. And there is little point in correcting them as they are convinced they are right and will argue the dumbest points. But the nonsense on there is good for a laugh at times. So my parting shot is this. If you either don't want to put in the effort to manually program a scanner, don't know how, or simply value your time, I would advise you to carefully consider a short membership. And the downloading of scanner configurations is NOT the only plus to the membership. It opens up several other commercial databases that are either very limited or are completely hidden from non-paying members. There are direct links to the FCC web site for the licenses, and a search tool for FCC licenses behind the pay wall as well. So there are additional features. Lastly, they DO indeed keep a better records than about anywhere else. For both frequencies and talk group information. And supporting that effort is probably worth the little bit of money they ask for with a paid membership.

While FRS HTs are easy to purchase and require no license to use, they are limited to 2 watts on the "high power" channels. The advantage of GMRS HTs are higher power (usually 5 watts) and removable/replaceable antennas for better propagation. The disadvantage of GMRS is that "friends" will have to purchase their own license ($35 for 10 years) while family members are automatically included. Base stations on GMRS can go up to 50 watts on certain channels and have external antennas mounted for height.

Besides the cable losses there are other factors you need to consider. The cable will be installed outside so it has to be water/weather resistant. The jacket has to be UV resistant too or it will rapidly deteriorate. Finally you need to be concerned with the quality and installation of the connectors if the cable comes with them.

I don't have the 935, but try turning up the squelch; if it is too low, it might be opening up for just noise.

Or a $1,000 smart phone.

I guess I have the best wife on this site. Nobody else got radios for Christmas. It's funny these are the crappiest radios I have at being radios but I am so excited because they are perfect in the right situation.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a great day! Michael... I was on 14.235.

I heard a rumor that a GMRS YouTuber will be making a video in the next few weeks showing how "compatible" the Retevis 40W amp is with the RT97 repeater.

They've been introducing bills like this for many years. They never pass. Better to just not live in a HOA neighborhood.

It can be as simple as instructing anyone who uses your repeater to identify it whenever they identify their own stations, but of course that's subject to human frailty. For example, if I were using your repeater, I would say "This is WROM258 on repeater WRMM689." Some (most) people purchase a device called an ID-o-matic, that sits between the two linked KG-1000G boxes and which automatically follows the rules for station identification. The Retevis RT97 doesn't have an easy way to insert an ID-o-matic. Its newer version, the RT97S has a port that should allow the use of the ID-o-matic, but I haven't done it so I cannot comment on whether it's easy or difficult. The RT97S used to be much more expensive than the RT97, but lately they appear to be very close in price. In fact, the shopping portal associated with this site had the RT97S for $100 off just the other day, but I think it was a limited time offer. Edited to add: And there's at least one repeater owner who simply setup a Baofeng attached to his/her computer which transmits a call sign to the repeater every fifteen minutes: Here are the FCC rules for GMRS identification: § 95.1751 GMRS station identification. Each GMRS station must be identified by transmission of its FCC-assigned call sign at the end of transmissions and at periodic intervals during transmissions except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section. A unit number may be included after the call sign in the identification. (a) The GMRS station call sign must be transmitted: (1) Following a single transmission or a series of transmissions; and, (2) After 15 minutes and at least once every 15 minutes thereafter during a series of transmissions lasting more than 15 minutes. (b) The call sign must be transmitted using voice in the English language or international Morse code telegraphy using an audible tone. (c) Any GMRS repeater station is not required to transmit station identification if: (1) It retransmits only communications from GMRS stations operating under authority of the individual license under which it operates; and, (2) The GMRS stations whose communications are retransmitted are properly identified in accordance with this section.

I sense a video from Notarubicon … I look forward to seeing it.