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Almost 7 pages of nothing more than pure self-absorbed grammatical masterbation and, as expected, nothing actually accomplished. Great job everyone, you're making GMRS a better place!

This is literally the first time I have ever heard of a UV-5R that was DOA.. I've purchased over a dozen, and know probably 100+ people that have also purchased them, so it is likely not a pattern. That said, virtually anything is a step up.

You get what you pay for, and sometimes not even that much.

Good day! New GMRS user, but long time radio geek I was a CBer back in the 70s, and then got my ham license in the mid 80s (N9FIV). As life changed I let that ticket expire but was re-licensed in January, 2022 and I am now N7BBQ as a ham and WRXZ627 on GMRS. I retired in April, 2022 and we sold our house in the Chicago area in October, 2022. My wife, adult daughter and I are now traveling full time in our 35' motorhome. I picked up a couple of Baofeng UV-9G handhelds mainly to use as we are traveling. I also have my ham HF gear and a dual band HT with me and mainly use the HF gear for Parks On The Air activations and hunting. Outside of radio and RVing we are BBQ and Steak Cook Off competitors, although we retired from BBQ Competitions after 14 years. We still plan to do some steak cook offs when we can. ...ron

Never mind that other users in a local area of a linked repeater might want to try and communicate using 50W simplex or via a repater but multiple or all (of the eight available) 50W/repeater channels are clogged up with the same people, having the same conversation about raising chickens, fishing, cooking beans, or whatever. This is a waste of scarce available spectrum and terrible stewardship of the available channels for GMRS.

Hey folks. I just wanted to take a minute to thank the members of MyGMRS.Com for the support and well-wishes. I know sometimes we bicker among ourselves, but at the end of the day we're all human, trying to enjoy the hobby and help we're we can. All of the messages, emails, etc. have really shown me what a great group we have here and how when someone is truly down, the petty stuff gets put aside and concern for a fellow member becomes the priority. Again, thank you all. - Marc

There’s a conversation about that from maybe eight or nine months ago. Technically you might be able to do something like that but you tie up more channels. Done incorrectly you end up with an infinite loop. But the regulations don’t allow repeaters to transmit on the 467 MHz frequencies so it’s not really possible.

Like it or not, you have to admit the threat of beating or death keeps the child-labor QC results very high on these things!

Mcbazel Surecom SW-102 Digital VHF/UHF 125-525Mhz Antenna Power & SWR Meter https://a.co/d/b3YS7m7 that one specifically. I’m just lost in the sauce about the connector types.

I’m trying to understand your dissatisfaction with amateur radio. Are you disappointed that more people in your area aren’t chatting frequently on VHF/UHF?

How does having a repeater only available for family members prevent that person from not being effected by others on all the same frequencies? I’m not saying you may not have a valid criticism of their said criticism but this statement lacks context. Was there more to this? Edit- I tried to look back through the thread for context but it was a jungle out there.

Ham doesn't get used for off grid or local communications because everyone is down on HF contesting. I gave up on Ham. While I do find a handful of Hams in my area that do utilize the VHF/UHF bands, no one really does much with it outside of quick chats here and there and a few nets. I keep the license just in case the HF bands get destroyed by other forces and everyone decides to come back to VHF and UHF, or in case I run across someone who actually wants to use it (all wishful thinking). I really try to do my best to not think about it, but it makes me sick to my stomach to see how much technology is available to Hams and all of the millions of possibilities there are to communicate using VHF and UHF and Hams would rather activate parks on HF, leaving GMRS with only 8 repeater pairs to play with that can fill up quickly and are not allowed to be radio linked. GMRS is more likely to be used by all people in an emergency situation or off grid purposes compared to Ham Radio that will only be used by a select few Hams in a select few situations. So, my focus stays on GMRS because my wife and I can use it without her having to study up on a bunch of stuff you do not need in order to just pick up a microphone and communicate. It also allows the rest of my household to use it. Personally, I would love to see the FCC allow the MURS band to be used with higher power (50 watts), give GMRS users 462-462.725/467-467.725 so we have more space for repeaters, simplex, and linking. Take those who lost their place in the 462-462.55/467-467.55 and put them in the 440 Ham band that doesn't get used in a large majority of places in the United States. Then, allow crossbanding or linking between the VHF and UHF and just label the whole thing GMRS. This stuff can be done with plug and play equipment. It would make more sense than allowing large amounts of frequency spectrum to go to waste. And, if you got those ones out there who prefer to use digital, the FCC could make allowance for that also. That way, in the end, more bandwidth would be getting used and the FCC would be making money on spectrum that is not getting a whole lot of use as it sits. Seems to me to be a win win all the way around.

Yes! And the Baofeng/Btech external speaker-mic also works fine with 3170.

Go jump on it. I would, if I did not have four of them already: https://www.ebay.com/itm/266327438043?hash=item3e025a32db:g:o0MAAOSw8j9kc3QY&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwJU%2B%2F62jI%2F09cb8W%2FP7DsJ4OoYgKBsHR25P%2FGaaJ8M5VUJUL306ARrTijgep5YOaQssrqbxrMWiC9xToo1iZv%2FZ7%2FpNWM3QODRRpAVrVJA6Qygy95qrkhw%2F6oc6WfjmkouBxj6tjLWOAPrtdwttcc4hHhp1EDfXwIpLDt10IRS5vRPvjmyaKyML6Gas95e%2FwX2u1XU7I6QxSfpAEKCDsvGgYziCzxXzEMNyoaZXT4R2OAgNRxF%2FVuL5mi04dtEbiIQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR4Slo5GsYg But you also would need programming cable, keep this in mind.

Hello all, I purchased my first GRMS radio, a Baofung GM-15 and also received my license after paying the fee… My expected use is working as a volunteer for disaster relief and so communicating with my fellow volunteers. As we are all volunteers, we provide our own equipment… Now that I have the radio, I am keen to learn as much as I can about GRMS operations.

Would be nice if you added a searchable database field for COUNTY (i.e, state and county search) to the repeater listing.

Yeah, as Shannon said there are specific regulations forbidding this. The other issue that comes up with doing this is the entire repeater allocated frequency range exists in a 200Khz bandwidth. Meaning that if you are trying to 'listen' to another repeater signal and then transmit to the next 'hop' you have a transmitter and a receiver in the same 200Khz bandwidth. The transmitter will swamp the receiver and you will either go deaf, or the receiver will lock on to the transmitter thinking it's the desired signal and the thing will loop up and not stop transmitting. If you are dead set on doing this. It needs to be engineered correctly and linked via some other means. This would typically be some sort of IP linking using either the internet or microwave links between the sites. The equipment and methods that are used for the MYGMRS repeater system are not some super secret proprietary technology. It's a reuse of a ham linking system called AllStar Link or ASL. This runs on a software add-on that runs on a IP PBX called Asterisk. In other words an IP based phone system. That technology could easily be used to link multiple repeaters together and be fully closed so that your repeaters were the only equipment on that specific system. And that would probably be the best option for this. Now I will also say that linking a bunch of repeaters together and taking up a number of the 8 repeater pairs we have available isn't going to make you real popular if there are others that are wanting to put up repeaters. So be aware of that as well. If you are going to do it make sure that it is going to fill a need.

I don't see why not. That is not very far for GMRS as long as there are no hills between your antenna and the repeaters. In fact 5 watts should be enough. I live on a 500 foot hill and with a roof top J-pole can easily reach 30 miles simplex using Wouxun KG-935G+ handheld to the same radio in a mobile set up using a mag mount antenna. That's just furthest we have tested, I think it would reach much further given line of sight conditions.

Been saying this for years....^^^^^^ Linking and CCR world is the issue with GMRS now. Its ham lite and it sucks.

I have the Cobra 29 LTD Classic Nightwatch AM/FM and I haven't heard anyone on FM yet. It's almost non-existent on AM these days.

Many folks don't want there repeaters connected. None of mine in NY or Virginia are connected. They are used for what they were intended for. Otherwise I pick up my cell phone.

AS close as you want. Its the tower thats the issue. I lived on the other side of a fence from an airport and had to get an approval for a small tower. Had antenna on the house for years with no issues.

Was he actually stomping on their communications, though? I haven't read every account of it, but what I've read (including a skim of the proposal) just mentions him transmitting on their frequencies.

Maybe part of it is what was being interfered with or the situation, but it boggles me a bit that the intentional and repeated interference of Bondy was less of a fine than the well intentioned (warning of hazards) but unauthorized transmissions. I think the inference i saw elsewhere related to the official statements made about this recent one was that it amounted to making an example out of him.

"No GMRS transmitter will be certified for use in the GMRS if it is equipped with the capabilities to operate in services that do not require equipment certification, such as the Amateur Radio Service." That's rather confusing. I have my Part 95A FCC certified TK-3170 programmed with a bunch of Ham simplex and repeater frequencies in addition to GMRS stuff. Depending on how you interpret the above the radio may not be legally used on GMRS?

The last rule change by the FCC they just "throw in the towel" in regards to what people were already doing, using those "dual service" FRS/GMRS radios without getting the required license. It was easier for the FCC to make the wide spread illegal practice legal by a rule change. Now they can ignore the issue. I expect at some point the same will be done with the use of Part 90 radios on GMRS. The FCC can't really say with a straight face they are enforcing the rules when they let the practice of using Part 90 equipment on GMRS go on, except were you pointed out, when its in conjunction with other rule violations. As discussed on the forum many times your typical name brand LMR/Part 90 radios meet and or exceed the technical specifications for GMRS. The only element missing is the official blessing by the FCC, certification. I personally expect to see the FCC sooner or later to again to "throw in the towel" on the issue. Likely with language along the lines of if it was certified for Part 90 with no front panel programming, and maybe a cut off date, its good to go, with no ambiguities. I suspect there are a LOT of Part 90 only radios being used everyday with no issues on GMRS. So long as the technical specifications, power - bandwidth - channel frequency - frequency stability - no digital - no encryption/voice scrambling, are met how would would one even know a radio was Part 90 only just from monitoring on the air? If you can't does it even really make any difference?

No wonder Tennessee looks like North Korea on the GMRS Hub. "Pick up your cell phone?" - LMFAO.