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Commercial radios have the on- and off-hook behavior programmable in the software. Very often off-hook is programmed to monitor (i.e. squelch off, tone off), that gives the operator a second-two to monitor before transmitting. But it can be programmed to many other functions, home channel, off-scan, etc.

Excellent document, and thanks for the help and input.

This is one of my favorite short guides for grounding and bonding but there are lots of threads here that cover it in great detail. The Bible is a document from Motorola that’s available on a BLM site, but it’s pretty deep. Also ARRL has a book on grounding and bonding. https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles Papers/Reeve_AntennaSystemGroundingRequirements.pdf

Man... I want to go to Merus so badly. I have been trying to get to Moab and to the Rubicon for 2 years, but money isn't working out. Maybe next year and I can add Merus to the list. A huge majority of the offroad community has moved to GMRS and FRS. I have 3 friends that have been to Merus who have told me there is basically no cell coverage in a huge area of the park. CB is rapidly going to the wayside, so making sure customers have the proper safety equipment, including a radio, makes a lot of sense.

I expect that the ‘Rental Radios’ are, in fact, just FRS.

I only use folded dipoles on my repeater systems and I find that 50' of vertical separation is good. So for my Rugged system, I have RX at the top at 300' extending to 320' the TX antenna is at 240' extending up to 250' My my 2 cents

Very interesting! It makes a lot of sense, and could save people a lot of heartache. I wonder how they handle licensing? (Serious question. Legally speaking, you can't just hand someone a radio for a licensed service and say have fun.)

I'm going to take a guess here that the microphone for this radio is a clone of a for-reals Kenwood microphone, since it looks identical. I had a comercial Kenwood TK-something-or-other that had the same feature. When you hang up the microphone on a grounded clip it trips a scan circuit. Most likely, Btech has no such circuit, and for that matter they're not even expecting anyone to screw that clip into anything metal. Or some manufacturer is just cloning that microphone with zero regard to what that extra wire even does.

On an old Mororola mic I was messing with a few months ago,I found a voltage present on the "button" on the back of the mike, that slips into the mic clip. When shorted by being in the clip, the radio would scan, and when open it would stop scanning and park on the last used channel. The current from the button was just a few milliamps.

Welcome @talljeffd!

Welcome to GMRS Talljeffd ?

I'll second that "excellent document" ?

This is kind of fun. Today, I made a new setup for operating in the field. I assembled two 25' masts from a 31' mast and a 19' mast, and strung the main element of a homemade OCF 80m antenna between them. The small element tapers off on a slant, with a rope staked in such a way that the end of the short element is about 5' off the ground. Both masts are also setup to receive vertical VHF/UHF antennas. So, I can work Amateur HF, VHF/UHF and GMRS all from one massive setup. I plan on putting this into operation for a 24 hour race I am doing communications for. I'll probably be up for 30 hours with at least 26 of them on the air. So, I'll find out just how good of an 80m NVIS and 10m-20m DX antenna this setup is. If it works well, this will be my Field Day setup. I'll shoot some pictures and video from the race to share later.

Sorry I rained on your ham lite parade. Maybe go back to ham and leave GMRS ? Your on a public forum. You complain about repeaters yet when asked about funding one you throw out comments such as this. This is the issue with folks, they dont realize stuff costs money.

Your question made me look for a video that would explain this better: Stan Gibilisco passed away within the last few years but I liked his videos: As for your other questions, almost all communications cable is 50 ohm. The antenna you showed is also 50 ohms. The port on your radio expects 50 ohms. But, there are lots of different types of cable and different types have losses that increase proportionally to length. Those losses are simply characteristics of the cable. Unfortunately, the rate of loss increases dramatically as frequency increases. At GMRS frequencies some cables lose half or more of their power in less than 50 feet. But, a good antenna, raised high can compensate for that somewhat. I wouldn’t select less than LMR400 and if I was going longer than 50 feet total I’d look for something even better.

I mentioned in a previous post some commercial radios have a signal strength measurement feature, RSSI, built into them. This is NOT the simple bar graph display you commonly see. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/302-nx-1300duk5-rssi-display/?context=new A number of radios have the ability to measure the RX signal strength during normal operation, typically for trunking systems with multiple TX sites. The radio can be programmed to use the site with the strongest signal.

Our Delta repeater in Southern California easily gets farz of 60+ miles, with the record so far being 120 miles from its location near Mt. Baldy California to Chiriaco Summit east of Palm Springs.

INPUT Tone = TX Tone OUTPUT Tone = RX Tone The words “Input” and “Output” are relative to the repeater. So, your radio transmits the Input tones the repeater requires, and receives the repeater’s Output tones. Set your TX tone to the Input tone needed by the repeater. At first leave the RX tone empty. Once everything is working you can try putting the Output tone in for the RX tone.

"good" is entirely subjective and depends on what "good" means to you, so you're only going to get a bunch of people telling you what THEY have/what THEY think is good for them. So I'll start: In both my Jeeps I have Motorola XTL5000s.. To me they are good, so I i highly recommend one.

I just replaced my standard rubber duck on my Baofeng GMRS-9R (same radio as the UV9G) with the Nagoya NA-771G. I have not yet tested it in the real world, but the SWRs are great compared to the rubber duck that came with it.

I know I'm coming in kinda late with this but I just recently got into GMRS radios. Bought me a Baofeng UV-9G and absolutely hated that included belt clip! Here comes 3D printing to the rescue! Found a design I liked on Thingiverse that someone had made for a Yaesu radio and got to work in Tinkercad to modify it to work with the UV-9G. A couple iterations later and I now have a belt clip that I'm quite happy with.

I bought a UV-9R PRO for my son because it was cheap and advertised as fairly waterproof. It has a different sort of a belt clip that uses a plastic "button" that is screwed onto the back of the unit that slides into a separate belt clip. First, the button screw came unscrewed. Then after Locktite-ing the screw, the plastic "button" broke off and now this unit is useless to me. At least it was cheap... The more I send out radios with my son to run around with his friends with, the more I like the original UV-5R: cheap small light flexible antenna sturdy clip takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin' did I mention that it's cheap?

I wanted to find a pair of handhelds I could give to my young kids while out hiking and exploring. Something that will help them feel more confident going out of sight, while remaining in contact with Mom and Dad, and not having to worry about losing / breaking an expensive radio. Keep in mind they are 5 and 8 years old doing 7+ mile hikes while carrying their own food and water. Keeping gear weight down is important. My requirements are (in order of importance): Small form factor and lightweight Relatively cheap, but decent build quality USB rechargeable What I looked at: Baofeng UV-5G BAOFENG G11S Radioddity FS-T1 TIDRADIO TD-H5 Midland x-Talker (existing radio) Size Comparison: Radioddity FS-T1 Weight: 4.25 oz Battery Capacity: 1500 mAh, 3.7V Size: (see comparison pic) The only new FRS radio, and also the cheapest at $35 for the pair. And you get what you pay for here. This one was easily the lowest quality of the bunch and just felt cheap and plasticky. The belt clip was terrible and looks like it will snap in no time. The flap covering the charging port ripped off during the first charge session. And micro-usb!?? Come on man … bummer. Not impressed at all. Verdict: Hard pass. BAOFENG G11S Weight: ?? forgot to do this stuff Battery Capacity: ?? Size:?? I liked this one, good build quality, durable feeling. But it was simply too big and heavy for the kids. I would recommend this if you want to get a decent GMRS HT that is simple to use for adult friends who are not radio dorks. Verdict: Returned. TIDRADIO TD-H5 Weight: 8.75 oz Battery Capacity: 1500 mAh, 7.4V Size: (see comparison pic) The only one of the bunch with an actual USB-C charging port on the battery! Dang, why is this such a hard thing to find? Not sure, but moving on … You get a lot of stuff in this package, 2 radios, extra batteries, microphones, and more. But you also get what you pay for as well. Smaller battery capacity and while the radio felt decent in my hands, it had one really annoying issue that won’t bother most people. The channel selector has ~ 5 millisecond delay between when you press the button and when the radio responds. I work in software and performance issues like this drives me nuts, no way would I be happy using this. Interestingly the radio is much more responsive in menu settings. So the delay issue, larger / heavier form factor, smaller battery out-weighed the benefit of USB-C charging. Verdict: Returned. Baofeng UV-5G Weight: 7.6 oz Battery Capacity: 1800 mAh, 7.4V Size: (see comparison pic) I was really impressed with this one. It’s not the smallest or lightest, but it has a small enough form factor that when the kids wore it on their packs they did not complain. Has all the awesome features you already know about and love. Not much else I can say that hasn’t already been said by others. The only draw back on this is the standard battery still requires a charging cradle. Some other users pointed out that the upgraded battery pack comes with a barrel charger that can work on a USB adapter. That’s cool, if only we could do that on the standard size battery. Verdict: Will keep this one for Mom and Dad! Overall Conclusion: Unfortunately, I was not able to find what I was looking for and will continue using the Midland x-talker FRS blister pack radios for the kids. It’s small and light weight and gets the job done. I’ll just have to be diligent about bringing extra set of fresh batteries. On the plus side, Mom and Dad got an awesome pair of repeater-capable radios with the UV-5G!

In the past few weeks, members and staff alike have researched the controversy regarding type acceptance or certification of radio equipment. We have found absolutely NO evidence that the agency is issuing citations to licensed GMRS operators for using Part 90 equipment in Part 95 service. We have anectdotal evidence that agency inspectors randomly allow Part 90 equipment in Part 95 service as long as all Part 95 technical standards are met. Therefore, it is the decision of the staff at MyGMRS Forum to once again allow posting of "Equipment Reviews" regarding ALL types of equipment whether Part 90, Part 95 or Part 97. We feel that it is the responsibility of each member to screen the information that is provided by others and to make an educated decision on whether or not to use any equipment of any kind in your own personal setting. Reviews of Part 97 equipment are acceptable due to the number of Amateur Operators here, however, we do not wish to see any reference to Amateur Radio Part 97 equipment being 'suggested' that it works on GMRS frequencies. Thank you all for your patience in this matter and thank you for your understanding. The forum is once again open for "Equipment Reviews" and similar postings under these guidelines listed above. The MyGMRS Staff