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Yesterday I had a teenager home sick from school because he had thrown up in the night and the school has a 24 hour rule. My wife called me at work on her lunch break. "He won't answer his phone. Text or call." I could tell by her voice that she was already worrying. She is across town and I am in the next town. So I say. Walk out to your car and try him on the base station. I get a text back a few minutes later that he is fine but has lost his phone in his pig sty of a room. Not a major emergency she can get pretty worked up worrying about her babies. Maybe I got a couple of my radios justified with the Wife.

It's also important to remember that the power output will have less effect than you might expect. That's not to say it'll have no effect, otherwise we would all have 100 mw handhelds and be delighted, but the effect on range is certainly not proportional to power. Using the Free Space Path Loss calculator at Pasternak, the loss increases by 6 dB for every doubling of distance. If you're down to 15 watts, from 25 watts, you have lost 2.2 dB. https://www.pasternack.com/t-calculator-fspl.aspx?utm_campaign=Power_Combiners&keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAiArY2fBhB9EiwAWqHK6m1sMnUKdXjKlSefQDa1mTL4ALA32Cg53fVUHsRkay7AEJN_aHBRqRoCsIAQAvD_BwE

It’s important to note that there have been a lot of Surecom SW-102 meters reported within this forum that have really lousy accuracy. How can you be sure it’s not the meter. Measuring a cheap radio with an equally cheap meter could be an exercise in frustration. Do you have a friend with a more expensive wattmeter that can verify your results?

As more groups try to keep up with the next guy/group on the linking subject, the ideas of keeping comms brief as possible is going to be VERY important!! I can't stress this enough. It is mind boggling to think of one paid subscription service I know that is methodically dominating the 8 channel space like they do. One guy pushes his xmit button and he is heard from Macon to Chattanooga with topics that have no relevance to anyone else. Yes, before anyone starts soiling themselves, it's a giant party line I know. The part that amazes me that I have never once heard anyone behind these kinds of linked systems say is, "gee, perhaps we need to chill out a little as we are hijacking every available channel". One time a radio pal of mine asked me, "why are you so rarely on the radio?"... I said, "because most of the time I have little to nothing to say". His response was a classic, he said, "well...that never stopped anybody"... Epic statement. The money steers the ship though. No matter how real, honest, and measurable, any of the postings on this thread are? Where does change actually occur? It starts with each and every one of us.

Interesting question. I’m tempted to just say let your conscience be your guide, but understand that if we don’t want GMRS to be treated like ham radio, we need to adhere to the rules that separate it from ham radio.

The only problem with Bird meters is you can't have just one. It started out innocent enough, but I just been finding sweet deals on them and now I have five of them. The one in the pic is hooked up top my GMRS radio pushing 47 watts. I won't even tell you about my slug and dummy load collection.

Don't let science get in the way of advertising. More watts is always more better! Who needs a receiver? I got 45 watts out, a cigarette lighter plug and a mag mount!

I just had a thought about the VFD's I see at work ... they are always completely shielded, they are not standing alone on rooftop equipment the way they are in mechanical rooms. In fact, some Carrier brand equipment has some of the electricals inside 3 layers of RF shielding. Really annoying to take the panels off for testing. Either something inside is very noisey or very prone to receiving noise. Manufactures don't put in an extra screw, much less an additional stamped panel if they don't have to. Now you guys have me wanting to take an SDR receiver into a mechanical room with stand alone VFD's

Why dont you just use your radio and dont worry about it ? Radios cost money to buy quality stuff. If you buy a CCR and CCR meter you get what you pay for.

Or the owner of the repeater could co-phase a couple of yagi's and get the repeater to keep most of its coverage in the USA instead of running onmi-directional antenna(s).

All meter ranges are calibrated at two separate points with the expectation that everything in between is linear. It’s very possible, perhaps even probable, that the low points would be quite close. It’s also very possible (perhaps even probable) that the radio puts out less power than advertised. It’s a dilemma, for sure.

I would tend to agree. If the Canadians do end up trying to use the repeater as long as they act responsibly I would just let it be. It's up to their government to enforce their rules.

Piratical Canadian in the wild ?

I have a passing familiarity with Wouxun from the GMRS side, but always forget that they make Amateur radios too. Not quite what I’m looking for but a good suggestion. I like the idea of the 805 line and could see getting one in GMRS and MURS eventually.

(Disregard....this would be for the k1 plug, not the multi pin) Wouxun...kg805g, and the uv7d (dual band, 2m and your choice of 6m, 1.25., or 70cm as the 2nd). Ip54 and ip55 water resistance, same battery, same k1 cable, and same desk chargers. Edit: missed it was the multi pin similar to the xpr rather than the k1 plug....disregard.

I'm holding out for one I can run off of one of the USB power adapters ?

Yeah, they’re sort of getting a raw deal from their government. I’m guessing, as you said, I don’t think there will be an issue with them on the repeater. As a side note they were looking to get a MURS allocation like the US back in 2014. Again the Canadian government backed out on the idea. At least they have good beer there.

I have the FT-65 as well. I really like it. I have it’s little sister as well. Both can easily be opened up for GMRS.

Thank you, Steve. I imagine I’ll end up with a nice Wouxun eventually. I do like how those look as well as the KG-S88Gs. I have an FT-65, so I’m covered for a decent handheld on the HAM side. The multi pin connector from Baofeng (UV-9R/G family) is different than the two-pin that most Baofeng’s have, and more closely resembles the contact pins that are on some professional Motorola radios.

So the two plug connector used by Baofeng is a K-1 connector, as in K for Kenwood. There are better radios than the Baofeng. I would look at Wouxun KG-UV9G and KG-UV9D or P. https://bettersaferadio.com/wouxun-kg-uv9g-pro-gmrs-two-way-radio-shtf-scanner/

I totally get that and I thought your question and post was a good one. I hope it didn't seem like I was pushing back on it. Thus my comment on the repeater owners strick enforcement rule (he stated he would "fart in the general direction" of people not adhereing to the rules. ?). A lighthearted non threatening approach. As long as people are being respectful and polite I'm okay with our Canadian neighbors on the airwaves.

When you go in the menu, there are options to calibrate the frequency display (0.1KHz increments) and the power measurements. They are VHF, UHF, low power VHF, low power UHF, adjustable in a plus/minus percentage of the base reading, up to 100%. I can't help you on not wanting to spend money on a device to calibrate against. Everything that measures, requires calibration at one point. The cheaper the device, the less accurate and more often the issue of calibration occurs. My best advice is, buy a much more expensive, quality meter that is known to be accurate from the manufacturer and doesn't require calibration often (maybe after a few years or after a drop/impact/etc.), or don't worry about it and just use what you have as a binary device. Have to warn you though, you're going to spend several hundreds of dollars ($400-$500+), but still won't completely get away from the need for calibration.

During the last major storm event (Skywarn activated, so repeater was tied to Skywarn net and local NWS), the storm took down the Lowell repeater that was the primary system used in Kent county (the repeater appears to be on a farm silo a few miles north of me -- with two hills intervening so HTs from inside my faraday cage house may break squelch, but voice is not usable -- but the repeater has remote receivers throughout the county and some adjoining regions so coverage from HTs is normally quite good [the remotes use courtesy beeps of Morse code identifying the remote the signal came through]). I hadn't caught the frequency of the alternate repeater, nor the last ditch simplex frequency...

^^^ This! have mentioned this a dozen times if I mentioned it once. The Surcom SW-102 is a user-adjustable tool that needs to be calibrated. I have had to re-calibrate mine 3 times this year. Even if it was accurate out of the box, that doesn't mean its still accurate. That doesn't really mean anything. I'm not being a smart@$$ when I say the closer to zero you get, the more accurate the meter is. Also, I just did a test of my radio using a Surecom and shared the video. The Surecom was out of calibration after I had calibrated it at the end of last summer. It was misreading a 101w radio as 78w. It also had a bad SWR reading on my dummy load (result of bad power reading). I had to calibrate it with proper tools (or you can use known good meters to compare) so I could use the digital meter in the video, to provide accurate results. The reality is, the fact that you get the same results on the antenna and the dummy load leads me to trust the results even less.

Sure - if I had a son-in-law who was a citizen of Canada, he would still be able to use my GMRS radio when he's visiting the states. Canada wouldn't have any say in the matter and the US government has no regulation prohibiting it. In fact, if my son-in-law were to come to Montana annually for skiiing or hunting and wanted to get his own US GMRS license, he could do that. It's only useful in the US, but that's all he would need. Now if he lived close to the border and used his call sign to communicate to someone in the US the Canadian government might be upset, but that's just common sense.

This is MOLSON123 calling MOLSON789.

There are services that exist just for that sake.

Since I'm not the owner it's up to the real owner, or admin, how they wish to conduct operations on it. I'm just trying to get a feel for what is likely to be the case.

It is classic RFI and if it exists everywhere in the area when you are outside the vehicle and the vehicle is completely turned off (no fancy LED lights - they’re a common source) then it’s probably more than we can diagnose. That leaves two obvious choices: Contact a local ham club and ask for help tracking it down, or avoid those frequencies. Personally, I would simply avoid the frequencies.

No dispute from me. Solar installations are absolutely a possible source of RFI, and more and more common across the nation. With regard to VFDs, all VFDs produce some RFI no matter their country of origin. It is the installation (grounding and shielding) that mitigates emissions. Electrical contactors and cross-line motor starters with failing components can also produce RFI with no VFD present. For the OP, since it seems like a fairly widespread area of interference (assuming it happens absent the presense of your vehicle as Sshannon mentioned) it might be worthwhile to take note of any particularly large power transmission lines along your route. When time allows, follow them as far as they parallel your normal travel pattern on public thoroughfares, and investigate the locations of any large electrical substations where 14400 volts steps down to 4160 (or similar) to feed natural gas compressor stations, mining or foundry operations, or similarly large electrical customers.

A Canadian citizen* can apply for a GMRS license for use within the borders of the United States. Since location data is prohibited from being sent through a GMRS repeater, you would have no real way of knowing whether they’re in the US or across the border. *As long as they are not a representative of their government.

I don’t think I would know if they didn’t tell me. I don’t make a habit of verifying people’s call signs. I’m also not working for the FCC. Unless I am personally aware of some truly nefarious activity l don’t care if other people jaywalk. That said I’m sure there’s more that I’m not thinking about here and am interested in what others think. Also this repeater owner has a pretty strong penalty for not adhering to the rules. ?

I have used mine in blizzard conditions once and once in rain so hard my DTV was out and both times the message went thru. I'm not saying it will alwasy go thru but those tests did for me. I would anticipate if you know there is a storm coming most comms would be up and sending a "are you ok" message after or during the event would go thru. But I also think 90% of the time a TXT doing the same will go thru. One other thought is alot of times local internet stays up for hours while power is out. If you have wifi there are multiple "chat" based apps that will work as long as you have WiFi or other ethernet connection. I dont rely on text for 90% of my messaging to be honest. Yes a $300 Garmin is expensive but in the end is it really ? Back to your UHF idea. If you get a mobile radio to use as a base get a decent antenna and line. Most folks spend money over and over trying different things. LMR400 is fine if you can keep it under 50' long. The Laird FG4603 is my go to antenna but its more than most want to spend. The Browning BR-6143 is a decent economy antenna that's just install and forget. The other cheaper ones require you to tune and assemble the antenna. Without spending funds on testers and stuff it takes more time. My parents got a Laird 4603 with 25' of LMR400 and a Midland Mobile. It works for them. Not sure he can get 10 miles but 5 miles are fine to another mobile. Base to Base may be further.

Personally radio communications for an emergency are limited. If your intent is to talk to family HAM may be a better option just for the resources that are out there. But in a true emergency dont rely on any. 90% of the ham stuff as well as GMRS does not have battery backup or if it does its not for extended use. While I have one repeater in a generator backup building none of the rest are and are off air during power outages.

AS you know by the rules its not allowed. What's done is an entirely different matter. I am confident its used where ever it has coverage. Considering a major amount of folks have no license in the US and use GMRS daily I doubt the FCC would even get involved in it.

I don't know that I'd buy them specifically to diagnose this radio, but a dummy load and a meter (surecom sw102 isn't horribly expemsive and will have you covered for both swr and power output) are helpful things to have in the radio hobby. The meter will tell you if you have power going out, and the dummy load reduces the possibility of interferece while testing. If it's strictly a utility thing, I agree with @Sshannon that it's probably more economical in the long run to just take it as an opportunity to upgrade.

Having these tools might be fun, but I wouldn’t buy hundreds of dollars in tools just to diagnose a problem with a $25 radio. Just buy a different radio that you don’t have to diagnose.

Should be easy to verify if radio actually transmits with wattmeter between radio and antenna, or better, between radio and dummy load.

With Ed Fong antennas you need ferrites, and a lot of them. Sweet spot seem to be between 5 and 7. But if SWR does not change when you manhadling the cable, whatever number you have is good already.

The FCC website has been having trouble lately. Took me 2 days to get my application in. Had to register with CORES to be able to pay even though I already have an FRN. After I finally got the application in it only took about a day to get an approval email with a link to download my license. Of course it didn't work at first. Tried the link once every hour for about 5 hours and it finally worked. The key here is patience. I suspect their website gets overwhelmed at times and they also do periodic system maintenance that gums things up. Good Luck

So, those loud buzzing sounds are not CTCSS. They're way too loud for that. I don't know what they are. Does it happen only when you're in your car? Does it happen when you're in you house? If you go to the other side of town do you still hear it? You might have to put a directional antenna on the UV5R to triangulate the source.

Hi "UncleYoda"... Somehow, your emotions are deleting the core part of the suggestion. There are 8 channels. I have never read that "hams should be banned", yet I am suggesting that "hams" unwittingly develop operating habits that do not blend well with the 8 channel spectrum allocated. My vision for even bringing this up, is to call attention to this which may cause "hams" calling other "hams" on GMRS to politely say, "OK let's roll over to 70cm or 2m or some where else so that we don't clog the space..." that's all. No malice, no hidden advocacy, no "ham loathing"... Just bringing the idea that setting a precedent where we all behave as gentlemen and ladies and handle things with decency is encouraged. That is all.

A Bird watt meter is one of the items on my bucket list of test equipment to buy. So far all the ones I've seen are either beat to crap, priced way too high or have the crummy SO-239 connectors. I know they can be changed out but why bother if I can get one with "N" type already installed. I'm interested in the power meter because the Ham grade ones I don't trust to be all that accurate. With the low power slugs, like a 5 watt one for HT's, for the Bird even a 5% full scale error isn't that bad. A 10% error, of full scale reading, on a 20 watt scale for a Ham grade power meter is 2 watts. That's nowhere near good enough when you're checking a 4/5 watt HT. https://birdrf.com/Products/Test and Measurement/RF-Power-Meters/Wattmeters-Line-Sections/RF-Wattmeters/43_General-Purpose-Wattmeter.aspx

Sounds like it’s time to buy a GMRS radio maybe. Then no worries.

Daniel, I see you are in Corpus, at present time only 1 repeater in the whole place, and it is not operational yet, out in Flour Bluff, when it is online, it May orMayNot coverwhere you live just looking at google maps. First of all, in Corpus there are probably Not going to be many gmrs repeaters up on commercial towers,,So ur HT, is not gonna do a very good job like one will do with amateur radio , with tall towers and 100 watt repeaters. most of the repeaters within 45 miles of you to are 10 watt(5-6watts after duplexer) Retevis RT97 repeaters, with antennas avg height of 30 ft on pushup poles( american tower company owns nearly all the big towers in the rural areas , and they dont want gmrs ot ham on their stuff( I know because I have one of them on my ranch).They still are goid repeaters, we are getting 15-25 mildes coverage with them( we are located in Refugio, Aransas, and San Patricio Counties, 6 repeaters scattered around up here.) So plan on getting a 40 -50 watt mobile radio, either for vehicle,with a midland 6db magnet mount antenna on the center of your roof, or if your lucky enough to live in a house with NO HOA gestapo,a 50 watt radio, a power supply, 50 or so ft of lmr400 coax, a 40 ft pushup pole , good to 30 ft without guying it if attached to eve of house, and a Good gmrs base antenna, i suggest a comet CA712EFC. Now for the bad news. With either of those setups, you may be able to get into the new flour bluff repeater, its antenna will be at 50 ft I believe, but it is one of the low power repeaters.And its owner id am a ateur radio guy brand new to GMRS, and he will have the same learning curve that the rest of us did getting things Just right to squeeze all the distance he can outta a low power system. That said, Chances are slim that you will be able to hit any of the other repeaters ( possibly Ingleside from certain areas of CC), But you still have simplex going for you. Over 110 folks in CC show to be licensed, all u gotta do is find some of em. If you come North of Portland you have much better chance of contacting some of our repeaters oreven catch some of the group on simplex (just about everyday 0500 to 0900 on the Bayside, or ingleside repeaters, and monitor ch19 simplex no tones, and ch 16 simplex no tones. We try to monitor bayside all day.Look up the repeaters in our area, on mygmrs hit the permission button, and you will get a response. If you are an amateur operator several of us monitor 146.500 simplex. We can answer questions you may have . Good luck! WQRJ814/ KF5WTB