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Normally, I would totally agree. That said, we only have eight 50W Simplex/Repeater channels on GMRS. In an increasing number of areas, more and more repeaters and "nodes" are being added which pipe in inane chatter from all over the state and/or nation for much of the day. This makes ignoring those setups less of an option when the garbage being piped in from elsewhere ties up half or in some cases, all of those eight channels. If your own bike is using a repeater or 50W simplex to stay in touch with family or friends in your local area, riding it becomes very difficult when you have multiple repeaters or nodes that pipe in pointless chatter from around the country jamming an axe handle between your spokes. Just sayin'...

What happens when you connect another radio up to the same coax and antenna and transmit?

Located here...

You will need to get them from their club. Click here Texas GMRS Network

On all of my ht's and mobile radios, I set them to encode (transmit) only on all thirty channels with a 141.3 PL. As this is the universally (in the USA) accepted travel and open system tone, I figure my chances of being heard increase greatly, whether on an open system repeater, or on simplex where an operator needed more protection from noise blaring through their speaker than the carrier squelch alone on their radio had to offer. As others on here have correctly noted, I leave the receive on those channels in carrier squelch (cs) mode or "Off" on some CTCSS Decode menus. For some reason, many repeater operators just couldn't spare that extra 30 seconds it would have taken them to program their repeater to encode a tone on the output to match the one required on the input to activate their repeater. If such is the case on a repeater you are trying to use, if your CTCSS decoder is turned on, you will not hear that repeater, thus the cs mode. Most of my stuff is Wouxun, so adding other repeaters and simplex channels where differing PL codes are used is no problem. If you have Midland radios or similar that do not readily allow addition of more repeater and/or simplex channels, programming your radio as I described above may not be a luxury you can partake of on all channels. I hope this helps.

Yah, there's your problem, right there.. Many of the "experts" I have seen posting stuff here really struggle understanding the difference between "will not work/does not work/is bad" and "may not work 100% the best".

This is what I wonder too. If he’s getting 20 watts out after the duplexer (assuming the right frequency), the problem sounds like something to do with the cable and antenna.

I am assuming that you get the same notification as below when you go to COM->SET COM: But it is a good sign that Device Manager recognizes the Prolific driver. Do a right-click on Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM4) and go to PROPERTIES and post screenshots for the General tab and Driver tab. What version of the Anytone CPS software are you running. I will attach a copy of version 2.01. And, since I know it works well with the Anytone, I will also attach a zip of the Radioddity v2.02 CPS software. What version of firmware is installed: Power off, hold down V/M key and Power on - it will show "V2.xy at the bottom of the screen; turn off power If these do not work, I am starting to smell a hardware problem. Are you still within the Amazon refund window? Will Hesenate swap it for another radio and cable? They should certainly send you the WCH chip'd USB cable instead of the problematic Prolific cable; to try first. AT779UV_Setup_2.01.exe Radioddity DB20-G Programming Software 2.02_20210707.zip

The repeater is known as The NotARubicon Ranchino 600 Repeater, or more simply as just "Ranchino".

That’s the real purpose of the Roger beep.

Hi Keith, Please double check your callsign format, it should be 4 letters and 3 digits. Many people are confusing the I with a one currently.

It was approved by the FCC for data transmissions. The data mode isn’t voice so that scrambling doesn’t apply. https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/examining-the-gotenna-communications-device

Technically speaking, as so often happens here, the cup is full. Half air, half water.

Whatever you do don’t hook it up to the 120 volt (unless you like smoke). These radios are designed to run off the car’s battery. You can plug it into the 12 volt dc cigarette lighter type outlet if you want to keep it temporarily installed or for a more permanent use run the wires back to the battery, red + terminal for red wire and battery grounding terminal for the black wire. FYI I don’t remember what the fuse size is for the cigarette lighter outlet, check your Toyota manual if you decide to use that. The fuse size should be equal or greater than the radios 15 amp. I believe it is.

Yes, I was telling him that not all repeaters are listed on mygmrs site. I kind of got carried away with the other stuff. Just so he knows that there are many more repeaters than my gmrs shows

Your group should invest in radios on a service that allows encryption.

Good point.. I only use that Times New Roman "real" LMR400, or whatever its called.

First, there are many different types of coax cables that people call LMR400. Some have a shield that consists of aluminum foil over copper braid. Some, like the M&P 10mm stuff have copper for both layers. LMR400 is the Kleenex of coax. Does it make a difference during full duplex transmissions? Darned if I know, but I’m certain that this range problem isn’t because of LMR400. I just read an older thread on another forum where a guy said “my company has several repeaters that work just fine with LMR400, but I’m looking at making a portable repeater and I want something more flexible.” Immediately someone went into great lengths telling him not to use LMR400 for repeaters.

I see DTCS and 023, and I heard you hitting the repeater, so I'd say it is correct.

I thought it was "YouTube Hobo"?

@JamesBrox what you may want to do and what I have done is program one set of the eight repeater channels with a TX tone of 141.3 then you will be able to use an open repeater with that tone. Don't set a tone for the RX if you want to hear everything on that channel regardless if the repeater is using that tone or not. When you make a contact verify it is an open repeater free to use. Most that use that tone are but some may not be.

I appreciate your patience.

I had a great time up on the mountain this weekend. Thank you to all who could attend. For those who didn't make it, our friend Holden shared a few pictures. Enjoy...

I also don't want anyone to take it personally. Sent from my SM-A136U using Tapatalk

I have the same experience where I am as well. My My concern though isn't that you don't have another channel to use, it is with linked repeaters you may be stepping on other people using simplex and not know it. You might not even be on the same frequency or even in the same state. There are a limited number of frequencies in GMRS and as the FCC says "You must cooperate in the selection and use of the channels in order to make the most effective use of them and to reduce the possibility of interference". It's not as simple as if you don't like them stay off of them. It's not that I'm totally against linked repeaters, part of the reason I recently went for my ham license was so I could use linked repeaters and be able to reach out anywhere in my area (hiking or offroad) especially where the cell service drops out.

Nothing wrong with that, and we all do it, but that is very different from "rag chewing", aka talking for several minutes at a time without unkeying the mic, for hours on end, about nothing - basically, talking to hear themselves talk, or just to try and demonstrate to everyone how smart they think they are, how many fancy and expensive radios they own, how long they have been in "the business" (implying they cannot possibly be wrong about whatever they are talking about), and listing how many different jobs they've had working on complicated and technical things ... You know, just like the long-winded, overly-complicated, multi-paragraph off-topic posts that you you see in this forum every day..

I always say "breaker 575 anybody got their ears on out there"

Double check your programming on both sides (repeater and mobile/portables). I'd think that it's more likely a fat-fingered typo than a problem with the antenna & line. It's either that, or you're describing a de-sense issue in a unique way... The suggestion of testing in simplex with another radio hooked up in place of the repeater is a real good test for basic troubleshooting. If a portable works just fine in simplex mode, then there's likely a problem with the repeater or duplexer. If you experience the same problem when testing with a portable - then you know you're looking at a coax/antenna issue.