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Okay, first, just use the preprogrammed repeater channel for 462.675. Just change the tone. Second, clear out the receive tone. If a receive tone is incorrect you will never hear the repeater. If you leave it blank you hear everything on the channel. Good luck!

Just when you thought this would end. We need a wooden stake. This vampire just won't stay down.

Wide Band for most Repeaters for sure

Some radios will scan for the tone coming from the repeater and Notarubicon ( @OffRoaderX ) has a couple videos about that, but there’s no guarantee that the input tone and output tone are the same. Anyway, until you need it, leave it blank for the receive side.

That is correct.

There are so many better ways to communicate in an emergency these days so if I am using GMRS for an emergency it is because nothing else is available. In which case the channel I can contact someone on is going to be my emergency channel.

Scotch 33+ 3M electrical tape as @gortex2 said the good 3M will last. The cheep stuff is useless. Also ? for @Sshannon’s UV cable ties.

How far down the mast will there be cable ? I would use stainless ties from HD or Lowes. Just below antenna I'd wrap it with electrical tape (3M good stuff) then 2 stainless ties. There is no reason to do a loop, just run it straight down the mast. Where it goes into house/shed put a small drip loop and tape with double stainless tie there also. For reference good tape will last for years. I removed my fathers tower last year when he sold the house. I had used 3M tape then around the 6' mast with stainless ties about 15 years ago. I still had to cut the tape and ties. They were fine in Upstate NY snow and ice belt. There really is a difference in harbor freight electrical tape and 3M.

I have tested with the SWR meter for the Nagoya and the Aubree 18" Inch. The results are about the same. I just like the Aubree better because I can fold it up, and its more sturdy. 1.03 for the Nagoya and 1.02 for the Aubree The performance is close enough that its a matter of preference at this point. This is strictly on GMRS freqs.

You get it from the repeater owner. Go to the repeater page of whatever repeater you are interested in using (you can find them on the map page of MYGMRS) and request access.

The repeater section of this website. Also the map. Unless there is a lot of noise on your RX frequency , leave the tone off.

Why not just use a piece of steel running crosswise and stick the antenna base to it? The metal will serve as your ground plane.

I would change this sentence to: Save As... this file as a backup, and then Save As... again with another name, something like "UV-5G 202301251630" Then I would continue with: Import your CSV file. The columns and rows of Chirp should populate. etc... And before or after upload be sure to do another Save for this file.

I just talked to someone in Clermont today on the Orlando700. Clermont is way out of reach of the Orlando700 so that's not normal for sure but I get it all the time on Kirkman Road for over a year now. And I put my home Antenna up a bit higher and now can talk to my home unit no problem from Route 50 11.9 miles north on Simplex. And I tried it going south and picked it up on 192 in Kissimmee. Also get my base at the Orlando Airport east and west near Disney World but it's spotty at Disney location. The path north from my home to that location has parking garages, trees, Universal etc. I'm very impressed with that coverage. On the Simplex coverage west I can also hear chatter coming from the Fort Wilderness Disney Campground on Simplex that is about 6.8 miles west with trees all around the campground area. The J-Pole Antenna I have is great but appears to be a bit directional. Over the weekend I will be trying another Antenna and checking the results. My wife just wanted to talk to me going back and forth to work. And that is no problem at all.

FM on your radio is probably the same as Wide FM or WFM. That shouldn't prevent you from connecting to the repeater though. I suspect the reason you cannot connect to the repeater, despite being close to it, is almost certainly because you are transmitting the wrong CTCSS tone or DCS digital code. With DCS (also called DPL or a few other things) you also have to say whether it's normal or inverted. Or you're transmitting on the wrong frequency. Typically you transmit to a repeater exactly 5.000 MHz higher than you receive from it. Most commercial GMRS radios will automatically add in the offset if you're on a repeater channel. That can cause problems if you're on one of the very few repeaters that have an offset that isn't exactly 5.000 MHz. However, this happens very infrequently. I would be inclined to think it's a tone problem. You don't need a tone or DCS code to receive and when people have problems receiving the first thing many of us will advise is to clear out any receive tones. But you do need the right tone when transmitting to the repeater or it will simply ignore your tranmission.

And back before GMRS became wide-open (ie: back when a GMRS license was only good for TWO main frequencies (channel depended on radio radio programming, so the frequency could be a different channel on different radios), specified when applying for the license) the FCC DID have a designated emergency/traveller aid /frequency/... That was the xxx.675 frequency set, with recommended CTCSS 141.3. The old Maxon GMRS 210+3 HT provided two programmable channels (#9 and #10), the seven GMRS interstitials (#1-7), AND had the emergency frequency fixed in channel #8 (since anyone could use that channel for a true emergency/TA, the Maxon allowed one to select any two of the main frequencies for their license -- on the common two channel business [Part 90 LMR] HTs, the recommendation was to specify .675 as one of the two licensed frequencies to have access to it for emergency [and as it was on the license, could also be used for general purpose stuff]). .675 equates to channel #20 in the unified GMRS and FRS numbering scheme.

There are cable ties that are intended for exposure to the elements (UV resistant). Just use one of them, but be sure you don’t tighten it up. Coax cable is very easily damaged. A short piece of ground wire could also be used. Also, Panduit makes a lot of different cable handling accessories. I’m sure others do too, but I’m most familiar with Panduit.

Hi Royce, I appreciate the offer! I think I have everything well under control but it does soak up a lot of my free time. My day job is substantially similar in many ways so burn out is a real thing. Your support as a premium member is greatly appreciated and that's the single best thing you and others can do, along with participating on the forums and making purchases on the online store. So thank you!

Or an even cheaper Baofeng radio. ?

Here's a video from a few months ago discussing the sinking of the Moskva by Ukraine. From the 57 second mark, check out the Baofeng UV-5R. In other news, I've seen images and video over the years of various combatants on Middle East battlefields with mag-mount CB antennas on their Toyota battle trucks. Russian warship 'Moskva' sinks in Black Sea: What does it mean? | DW News - YouTube

I have to say, I haven't been to my Florida home for almost a year, so I cant speak to any weather issues happening now and my experiences. However about 10 miles base to mobile is normal for me when i am there. This is when I am in Hollywood, Altamonte Springs, and St. Pete. Also, depending on geomagnetic activity, troposphere activity, etc. I have gotten hundreds of miles during Spring and Fall months. That said, there may be something going on that is boosting distance right now. I'm in Virginia right now and yesterday I made a simplex contact at 32 miles and another simplex contact minutes later, but even louder, at 48 miles. It's always fun when odd stuff like that happens.

You can download the 935G programming software even if you don't have a programming cable and just open it. It will be the default settings of the radio including the factory channel presets. If it looks OK to you, then reset the radio (menu 57) to factory default.

I had great luck with attic mounted antennas, until I replaced the old roof with a metal one of course Then metal foil faced insulation went into place. As for my VHF/UHF/7/800 MHz radio antennas, they all went to metal brackets on an 8 foot high fence. Even with lower height, but shorter coax runs (about 12 foot shorter on RG-58, and about 8 feet less height, I did not notice my range decrease to anything I spoke to via radio. In my case going from the attic to a fence was not a problem. What I miss though is the discretion. Nobody even knew I was into radio when everything was in the attic. I have only had one dog walking passerby ask about the antenna (I think he only saw one of them [Laird 1/4 style on NMO magnet mounts]), but it was better when nothing could be seen from outside the house. Being high on a hill I averaged about 17 miles LOS in VHF, 14-15 for UHF and roughly 12 7/800 MHz with attic mounted antennas. I seem to be getting the same now on the fence post.

This comes up often it seems. Here in my part of the Pacific Northwest, Channel 1 and CSQ seems to be common for calling and emergencies. Supposedly this is also the case in the Olympic Rain Forest on the peninsula of Washington State as well? Some Coast Guard helicopters were issued Garmin Rino radios to monitor for lost hikers in Sequim and Port Angeles areas as well, and FRS Channel 1 is often cited. As for GMRS channels or which is calling or emergency I do not know.

Some hams have had to get very creative. Dipoles or end fed half waves hide along fascia boards or are disguised as Christmas lights. J-poles can be hidden behind hanging plants or in flagpoles. Tall trees can help hide many kinds of vertical wires. Fences help hide horizontal wires. If you can make an antenna, you can make an antenna that looks like something else!

When I scan frequencies I never add a tone to them just so I can hear it all. I can find the tone after I hear it if I want to talk back.

For me I monitor 675/141.3 when traveling only because that is our SAR repeater frequency for years (back to the react days). When around town or my repeaters my radios sit on my repeater. When in the Jeep we scan as the rides use a different channel every trip. I would say 90% of the conversations we hear in the jeeps are channel 1 or 2.

I have no idea how it could be destructive. I understand that “some people” find them annoying — that’s obvious from @gortex2‘s reply — but destructive? I don’t see how. I agree with you that the repeater owner definitely has the last say, but I also think there’s little to gain by joining a repeater and right away doing something that irritates many or most of the other users. I would listen to hear if others use roger beeps and then follow the community norm, just to keep the peace, especially if you hope to talk with any of them on the air.

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.

See the "wheel" near the upper left hand corner of the map? If you click on this wheel, two options open up: Show Offline Repeaters and Show Stale Repeaters. In my experience some of these are still active, especially "stale" which can just mean the owner has not posted any new comments or modifications to his repeater page in over a year. So I always show them to an inquiring member such as yourself, to give you more data to work with.

There is one in Troy TX I'll have to find his info

I put it another way: GMRS, like many of the other things I do, are not a "Lifestyle" or "Identity" activities. Radios are a tools. (That's the same way I look at firearms and motorcycles.). I don't need "stuff" for people to know who I am. I don't wear corporate logos on my back. My tools let me do what I want to do. I don't wear free advertising.

Thank you.

For most normal people, GMRS is not a hobby.

I've been using LMR400 on my repeater for over a year-and-a-half and it has been plenty "good enough" for me and everyone in the several hundred square miles that the repeater covers. Is it as good as a multi-thousand dollar commercial-grade repeater installation? NO Will the coax last forever? NO Does it work? YES Be wary of "some people" that love spending other people's money.

To make that scheme work, you would need to obtain a GOOD duplexer (notch/bandpass) tuned properly to your desired frequency, then insert the linear amp before the duplexer.

That cant work, for the reasons you stated, and to back that up, I tried it. You either need two antennas or the amp has to be before the duplexer, which in this particular case would kill the duplexer.

The young ladies in my area come with USB-C!