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Saw this on another thread, seems to pertain to @WRTZ750 question as well.

I do something very similar on ham 70 cm, using DMR. You can either transmit to a talkgroup called "Parrot" and then listen for your transmission repeated back or you can look at a dashboard and see the actual S value as you hit the repeater.

I'll run a PL tone but don't plan to leave it setup for more than a hour or two at a time. Main plan is to use it on the base station and drive over to the park and test my HT's. I've got three different brand of HT's and stubby, normal, clone Nagoya, real Nagoya, and N9TAX Slim Jim antenna's for them. Want to test them for range and audio quality then move to another park a bit further away until everything is out of range. Once done testing I'll remove it. Just wanted a way to test things in the field without assistance.

Mine is set with no tone on the ID, so you should never hear it, but it is compliant.

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

If it's the metal box that's the decider, the mygmrs shop has the rt97s in the metal case, rather than the 97 in plastic. https://shop.mygmrs.com/collections/repeaters-and-accessories/products/retevis-rt97s-portable-gmrs-repeater

Simplex is like a talk back repeater.. When you broadcast, your transmission is recorded by the Simplex controller then re-transmitted a few seconds after you end your transmission. So actually there are two exact transmissions, and yes - you do need to get accosted to the talkback... Simplex can be set up with one radio and one antenna, A Duplexer is not needed. Since you would hear your recorded transmission this in sense would be a way to test your transmission.. EcoStation can be set up for simplex or duplex and you don't need a controller since your computer would provide that.. I knew someone awhile back that used a Latnex simplex controller and a handheld radio connected to a base antenna, it worked pretty good.. Simplex repeaters are easy to set up and a good way to learn repeaters.

I'll assume it will become another tool (or toy depends on how you look at it) to play with. Kinda like my NanoVNA - great tool for the money to have around but only gets used every other month or so. The same will be probably be true for the simplex repeater but when I want to test something it would be nice to have around.

I think the product you showed could be connected to a radio. If then that radio was monitoring the repeater output that you want to test I think you could use it for such a thing. I am not an expert on this item.

Nothing in the regulations establishes priority for simplex users or repeater users. We're all equal in the eyes of the FCC. ?

Until you get a better reply to your post, why not go0gle search "2-way radio supply near me" using your zip code? Or "Midland MXR10 for sale" which may net you another online retailer. Perhaps you find a brick-n-mortar shop within 25 miles of you that has one on the shelf... Either way good luck to you.

* Ecostation can be set up for either a Simplex or a Duplex Repeater using 'ONE' Radio.. I have not done this but there are YouTube Videos calming good results.. I use RigBlaster for my I.D.er which knows when radio traffic is present.. It works great.. I actually use it for a voice I.D.er with my repeater name. you can make thet MP3 file with this tool.. https://speechgen.io * The RigBlaster is a controller for your Radio I.D. Voice are Code * I use this for my remote power by phone, works great https://www.gallagheraviationllc.com/SwitcheOn-2-Channel-15-Amp-Remote-Power-Control_p_153.html * you can also remote power with an HTML version.. A friend of my used this one and it works great as well. http://www.ambery.com/ip-p4.html

Which rule prohibits store-and-forward for GMRS? 95.587(d) prohibits it for FRS, but I don't find something similar in part E. I could easily be overlooking it.

It's all good. We put up Macomb 675 and Detroit 625. Holly is coming as soon as the weather breaks and I'm working on Pontiac. All Motorola Quantars.

Radio check.... Totally in love with the KG-1000G plus and the KG-935G plus. Decided to grab both while in stock, thanks to a certain YouTuber doing a overview of the new plus versions.

I used BCD235XLT for years, till all the law enforcement, fire, EMT, and even city comms in my area went to P25 Phase 2. I gave away this scanner, it was good, but a bit tedious to program: everything must be done from the front panel. It also had a NiMH battery pack, that was easy to replace. Just a few days ago I found a deal on ebay that I can't pass, for the BCD325P2 scanner, beaten up but working. These P25 scanners are expensive. It also a breeze to program from computer using regular mini-USB cable. The difference between scanner and regular HT is that scanner is scanning much faster, so less chance to miss communication, and a lot of them, even cheap ones, can also scan trunked systems

Always give 4 seconds between conversations to let the repeater drop out .......Importation to keep it clean and if warned back off and listen ....As a repeater owner that applies to most .

Not really. A repeater should already repeat your transmission.

Gonna stick something ELSE in here that I don't think has been covered. If you are on a LINKED repeater system, even if you are a repeater owner on the system, you have to identify. Reason is that your transmissions are not only coming out of your repeater, but other owners (call signs) repeaters as well. That being said, I don't know of any owners on the linked system that don't identify. So this isn't a ding on anyone I have ever heard or talked to. But it's worth mentioning for others. I see this being debated here and in several other threads. And I frankly don't understand why it's a big deal to identify. And thing for a second WHO it is that consistently DOESN'T identify. The clowns that are causing hate and discontent with their beeps and burps and other crap being jerks. So you are wanting to fall into that group and act that way? Not sure what your motivations is for that. Repeater ID requirements. What the regulations say has been covered, several times. What you choose to do on YOUR repeater is up to you if it's stand alone. If it's linked, it has to ID every 15 minutes. And you are better off to set the ID for 10 minutes so that if it's held off by traffic, it will still go out in time to be compliant.

Somewhere here in Los Angeles is an Amateur Radio repeater that voice IDs with Dick Van Dyke reading the script. Word is he is or was a ham at some point. Took me by surprise the first time I heard it.

That’s kind off cool to receive the access tone info through the ID. ?

You may want to find a scanner like a Uniden or Whistler, or even a used Radio Shack scanner that will range into the UHF and higher frequencies. CCrane appears to focus on the lower shortwave frequencies up to VHF. Could be a marketing decision, could be because of the expense or technical challenges. Or both. Either way, a scanner may be your answer.

One of the new GMRS repeaters by me does so using a female voice. It even announces it’s an open repeater and the access tone required.

So I left my radio on listening on the analog side and I just heard the 70 cm DMR repeater ID itself. It did so in analog mode using Morse Code after the first DMR transmission in a long time.

So, I am going to write something super controversial and likely going to spur some conversation... I don't know what the right answer is and don't take this as advice, but I will tell you what I do know I have seen. I know two people that collectively run over a dozen GMRS repeaters and none of them ID on their own. Also, both of them had people file complaints about the repeaters, leading to site visits by the FCC. They both were accused of using non-compliant repeaters and not ID'ing. Both of their systems and sites were found compliant and nothing changed. They still have the same hardware and still don't ID. There are several things in the rules that lead me to believe that there are many people misunderstanding when repeaters must ID on there own. Combined with what I have seen my friends go through, it just reinforces that opinion. Come to think of it... I don't recall ever hearing, first-hand, a repeater ID on it's own. Like, anywhere... ever.

Thanks for the info. Looks like a better simplex repeater than the Surecom, the reseller is in the states and they have the proper cable for my radio where the Surecom didn't and I'd have to make one. Just placed my order. Thanks again.

Do you plan to make your linked repeaters monitor the frequency for activity in their local coverage area before actually linking from a distant user? Do you plan to make the repeaters monitor their input or output frequency prior to putting out it's ID every 15 minutes? Automatic linking and Auto ID are rarely implemented with any consideration that someone else may actually be keyed up and active as a co-channel user on the frequency already. Just curious, cause the Rule Police don't often talk about those concepts.

Remember people....GMRS operates in FM mode (F*@king Magic); therefore you may have comms in areas where propagation software predicts that it is impossible and that the inverse is also true. I think that snow/ice covered terrain may enhance the reflection effect that granite and other minerals create. BLUF...get out there and experiment!

Simplex in digital mode yes. No encryption in Analog (p25/DMR) P25 repeater will also carry encryption. None of this applies to GMRS channels.

I live on the east side of a large valley at around 3300 feet elevation. There is a repeater on the west side of the valley at 4700 feet. I do not have a perfect line of sight. I had been hearing traffic on the correct repeater frequency occasionaly but couldn't tell if it was on that specific repeater. At one point I had thrown a slim jim roll up j-pole in a tall oak tree and did open the repeater with a handheld. I spoke to someone that didn't know where they were or what repeater they were on. Last week my daughter and her family were on the other side of the valley. I had asked my son-in-law to see if he could hit the repeater in question. He texted me that he could and that he was listening. I was able to talk to him on my 5w handheld but the signal wasn't very strong and reception was spotty at best. I threw the j-pole back up in the tree, 16' off the ground, and has a great signal. I am 83 miles from the repeater. Pretty good for GMRS. Just a good reminder of what a few feet of elevation and a good antenna can do for you. I got my s-i-l and I each a roll up to carry when one of us goes up into the high country. The picture is the peanut gallery watching me throw a line into the tree.

At least... I just received two and I still want one two more ?

The low power Retevis RT-97 and RT-97s both have an integral duplexer but for higher power a duplexer can be quite large.

If there was zero other terrain? That would be correct. This is exactly why RF LOS terminates about 15% further than visual line of sight. RF is both scattered and partially refracted over the horizon. The closer to the horizon line, the more dense the scatter is. It's really hard to answer that question. For example, are we talking about a building? A small hill? or a 5,000'+ mountain? My house is in a recess in the ground by about 100 feet, with the ridge line about 150 yards away. I can stand in my driveway with a handheld radio and still reach another handheld about a mile away before the shadowing become to great. There is a way, but it is way beyond my skill set and understanding. The level of effort and all contributing factors vary too rapidly and greatly to attempt to try to calculate it in some practical time-frame, as well. To make things worse, the results would only be valid for the exact forecasted locations of the two radios. If you move either radio even an inch in any direction, the values are no loner valid. Items in the sky like rain and fog will attenuate the signal more. While diffraction, reflection and scattering of radio waves is the principle behind extending LOS, as those conditions increase, the amount of dilution increases, leading to more attenuation, not more extended range. The PPM of the photons simply drops too low to receive.