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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.

For back country, I've used a Garmin Inreach several times just to send and receive text message updates. There are also some volunteer 4x4 offroad recovery assistance groups which can send help getting unstuck via text message without relying on emergency providers. For the FRS radios, be sure you have some manufactured fairly recently, where they upped the power output to 2W. If you have older ones they may be .5W.

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.

I am 68, and have never even had a CB. I thought it would be a good idea to get into GMRS for disaster preparedness, so I took the plunge. I discovered a community of very nice people, who were into it for a variety of reasons. I decided to introduce myself, and join in on some of the "roundtables". After a few days, I discovered the downside; troublemakers who ruin the experience for everyone. After several warnings to stop acting up, the "moderator" took "MY" repeater offline. What a crushing blow! It really hurt after making new friends, and then suddenly have them taken away from me. I was also concerned that because I was new, that I might be considered the troublemaker. I am NOT that type of person! I used to sit around all day watching YouTube videos on various topics, mostly pre sixty-four horror movies, and current political topics. I found it very refreshing to interact with people again, after so many years of seclusion. I have so many irons in the fire, that explanations to some of my questions didn't stick, and that irritated some of the members, and I was publicly dressed down for my lack of retention. I meant no disrespect, and I genuinely appreciate every member that tried to clear up my lack of knowledge. I was looking forward to each new day engaging in conversation and LEARNING something new. I didn't think I would ever want to buckle down and dig into a topic. again. And then to have it all snatched away from me in the blink of an eye. Even though I have only been involved in "amateur" radio for a few weeks, it feels like the death of a close friend. Regarding the creep who was causing all the trouble; how do you catch him, and then make him stop? I suppose you could change the codes, and get word to everyone a few at a tim, but from the little I've learned so far, there isn't anything you can do to make them stop. 609 Bob just across the stateline in Illinois has my information, so I can be "found" or talked to through him. I hope this gets favorably resolved soon. It was/is fun having a new zest for life at 68.

I received the SM-01 microphone and foot pedal yesterday. I did have to rewire one connection. The PPT connection was different between the microphone and the radio. The other 3 connections were the same. One thing to note you have to do ground wire to ground wire and not worry about the mic ground for it to work. To fix the PPT connection you have to wire the orange striped wire that connects to the radio to the brown stripe wire that connects on the microphone assuming you are using a T568B coded Ethernet cable. Of course you could just cut off an end and reconnect an end with moving the PPT to the correct spot and crimp on a new end. I didn't have any RJ45 connectors on hand so I did a splice in the middle. I tried the microphone out today and people said it sounded fine. The downside is you lose all controls on the microphone but if you need to be hands free it is a nice trade off. Thanks again for everyone's suggestions.

Welcome WRVC250. I feel your pain! I used to do CB so long ago. Never really got out of it, but slowed WAY down. Recently (3 months ago) learned about GMRS and more importantly..... Repeaters. Man did the "hook" set in! Where I live we apparently have had some "troublemakers" as well. The repeater owners have not taken things off line, but have added steps to be able to connect in to the repeaters. This caused me serious disappointment. The owners have made it so existing users can access the repeaters and I have learned how to do it, but my lack of technical knowledge (oh and my ability to over complicate things LOL) did not make it easy. DO NOT give up!! WRUJ869

I don't think so. I just used the keypad.

For 10 years I unscrewed my NMO mount when backing my F350 in the garage every night. Sometimes a better mount requires a bit of work. Just food for thought.

you might consider a bracket like the ones at Valley Enterprises: https://www.valley-ent.com/store/brackets I didn't see Bronco specifically, but perhaps one of the F150 mounts would work? might be worth the call... good luck!

Quick overview of CHIRP of you're that fresh. LOC is the channel number. The number you place is the channel its set to in Memory/Channel Mode. Frequency is obviously the frequency you set. Follow FRS/GMRS frequency for instructions. Tone mode can be CTCSS or DCS. Think of these like the key to repeaters. You can listen without them, but need to use the PL tones to talk on them. CTCSS will be along the lines of 67 hz+ while DCS is more D023N+. The tone is as above but the number part. It's what allows you to talk with other people with the same tone. Assuming you want to use GMRS repeaters, select a positive duplex. This is the frequency offset direction while you transmit. IE: Offset of 5 Mhz for 462.00 would be 467.00 because of the duplex being positive. Negative would result in 457.00 which isn't a GMRS channel and therefore is useless to you. For your use always will be in FM Step is how much frequency your skipping in VFO I believe. Skip is wether or not you want the channel to be recognized in the scan on Memory/channel mode.

Well a short follow up. RT97 5W. New max range from the fish bowl. I raised the Antena 5' to what should be 25'9" plus or minus some inches agl. I managed to still talk to it from 5 miles. 731' ground altitude at 5 miles, repeater 600', ground +25', plus trees and buildings, per google earth pro. So for a low power repeater in a fishbowl I would have to say it works pretty well. It is certainly impacted by other radios around the airport area and some areas on the north hill (extended over 6 blocks more). Too bad It was not the RT97s. Maybe a few more watts could have cut threw some of the interference, but I sure would not know if it works like that or not. My simple tests show a best case of +1 mile on a 5' increase in height. Mobile 50W, past test 15W and 50W on same mobile antenna no range change @ 4 miles, thus to me that was the repeater height primarily and likely some power limits too. So anyone wanting 5 miles, these little 5W repeaters are very capable. If you want 5 miles and public, sounds like the RT97s is the one you might be able to spit out a call sigh as most say you should or must. Who knows if it is better when on a hill, but I would bet it is. Such a simple device to deploy.

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.

Sorry but this made me laugh. Have you ever read the QRZ forums? Or the ones here? ? Actually now that I think about it, I *have* ignored a number of users on RR so maybe I don't notice as much.

I would not move it to the brush guard. You are going to have a huge shadowing problem at least 160 degrees toward the rear of the vehicle. You will not be happy with the performance. I would either put it on the roof or measure the distance between where it is now and the rear lip of the hood, and then split that measurement and move it closer to the windshield by that final measurement.

I will post it here somewhere. So far all I have done is remove the Retevis tones (That was simple enough but a hassle to do 22 times) and make sure they talk back and forth with my GM-30 in the house.

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!

First, welcome in to the world of radio. It's a lot of fun, you can meet some very interesting people, and as you have already seen, the airwaves (especially repeaters), can be infested with troublemakers. The moderator on the roundtable you were on made the mistake of engaging the troublemaker by issuing "several warnings to stop acting up". This rarely works, the reason being that troublemakers are difficult to locate and they thrive on the attention. They love disrupting communications, and the more people complain, the more they do it. The only way to get them to stop is to ignore them completely, and not even mention the fact that they are making trouble. This comes hard to a lot of people. I've heard troublemakers on roundtables and nets for years on both amateur radio and GMRS, and as a moderator (net control) for some of them myself, it frustrates me to no end when people (especially moderators who should know better) engage them and try to talk them out of making trouble. Taking repeaters off the air when they are being jammed is a necessary evil with linked repeater systems to protect the rest of the users from jammers. Finding troublemakers is a very painstaking, time-consuming process, and it's only possible when the troublemaker is transmitting. And once they're located, there is not much, probably nothing, the FCC or anyone else will do unless it involves jamming of critical communications like law enforcement, emergency services, commercial users, etc. Don't give up though. Listen in, chime in when you can. It's always great when new people get involved. By the way, here's a fun fact, 62 years ago, I was born in the city you live in.

I've had 3 different repeaters over the last two years: DIY 2 KG-1000Gs Retevis RT97 Vertex VXR-7000 All using the same ~$120 Tram 1486 base antenna and 75 feet of LMR400 coax The two KG-1000Gs was the most expensive (~$875) and had the most power - but it was also the most unwieldy and issue-prone The RT97 was a much more compact package, and was the least expensive (~$400), but only output about 4-5watts after the duplexer and has a limited duty-cycle The Vertex VXR-7000 (what I currently use) is by far the best solution. I paid $500 for mine (used), it puts out ~25 watts after the duplexer and it can be used 24/7 (100% duty cycle) - But because of its age its a bit of a pain to program/get set up. My recommendation, based on my experience, would be to try and get a good used commercial repeater (like the VXR-7000) OR an RT97. Next month another company will be releasing a new GMRS repeater very similar to the RT97 but easier to configure - but i'm not allowed to talk about that yet.. So you might want to wait and see if that one works better for your needs.

How will passing the ham test make the GMRS Pro useful?