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GMRS is not a "hobby" GMRS IS intended for people to bring their own audience (ie; your group while off-roading) GMRS is NOT for people that "want to make contacts" It seems you have been misinformed about what GMRS is for, and what its primary purpose is. It sounds like amateur radio or the Grindr app are more of what you are looking for.

Loop testing is great to test no breaks in either conductor in one shot, but it's not a great check to make sure the center and braid aren't shorting together. Did OP by chance shorten the cable and crimp on a new connector?

I'm happy with this install. The remote head mount fits in the bottom front console box with no fasteners. Radio is mounted under the passenger's seat. No wires are showing anywhere except what you see here and the coax from the bumper to the antenna. Antenna coax and direct power from battery thru floor drain grommet. Antenna on spare tire mount. Remote speaker wire plugs into Uconnect radio aux input ⅛" socket and functions thru the Uconnect to the Jeep's factory speakers that can BOOM the audio. Ran the coax along the frame and behind the passenger's rear tire skirt to get to the bumper. The radio is programmed to recieve tons of stuff outside the ham bands for monitoring: CB, GMRS/FRS, marine, air, business vhf, and TV alternate sound.

Because arguing about it here generates over 20 responses in 5 hours. You can't get action like that from the FCC.

It's very easy to program a repeater on a GMRS radio vs a ham radio. I always like to get started by learning how to program on the radio so I understand how it works, then when I want to program a lot of repeaters, I'll use CHIRP. Programming a repeater on a GMRS radio literally requires only ONE entry: Just select the correct repeater channel, and enter the TX/Encode CTCSS/DCS tone, and you're done. Optionally, when your ready to get fancy, you can enter the RX/Decode tone.

It's a continuity test. It simultaneously confirms the shield and the center conductor do not have an open. If either were open, there would be a high resistive value.

An MXTA26 doesn't require cutting. It's a tuned antenna. If the SWR was high to start, either the cable was/is bad or you need a better mounting location. Chances are the antenna is damaged and no longer usable without risk of damaging the radio. I would trace the coax and look for signs of crimping or damage. If there isn't any, the NMO mount may have a partial short or broken wire in the base of the mount. Usually due to over-spinning the connector during install of the mount ot antenna. I had to toss a few before I learned my lesson. You may need to buy a new coax and antenna.

The more I hear, the more it sounds like your coax is somehow jacked up and your antenna is now possibly too short. Antennas that are slightly too short or too long, (which is unlikely with an out-of-the-box MXTA26), shouldn't generate a 10:1 SWR reading. Bad coax, bad grounds, even one tiny wire from the braid or center conductor shorting out at the connector will jack up your SWR that much. If you can take the coax completely out so it is not connected to anything, there should be no continuity between the center pin and the outer shell of the connector on either end of the coax. It should be an open circuit.

I was loop testing to make sure both the center conductor and the braided shielding weren't broken. It's a common technique in Aviation to jumper a pair of wires/conductors to verify continuity.

Probably because he knows that quite literally, he has a greater chance of winning the lottery than there is of the FCC doing anything.

Is this what you were looking for? https://fccid.io/2AJGM-P51UV

Like Borage257, when I plan a trip I check the repeater map along the route I am taking. I then program all of the listed open repeaters in my radio into a specific scan group. When on the road I just scan that group. I have a KG-XS20G mobile and a KG-935G+. The last long trip I took I just took the handheld with a mag mount antenna. I was stopped in traffic on the highway in one location and wasn't hearing anything on the local repeater so I scanned the GMRS simplex channels to see if anybody was talking about the traffic SNAFU and only heard a lady guiding her husband while backing in their RV into a campsite. I would hear traffic on repeater every now and then but there wasn't as much traffic as I had anticipated.

Here’s the nickel tour of GMRS repeaters: First: You transmit on one frequency, which is in the 467 MHz range and listen on another which is in the 462 MHz range. As long as you choose a repeater channel on your GMRS radio, that’s automatically done. If you’re transmitting on a 462 MHz channel you’re not on a repeater channel. Second: If the repeater has an input or uplink tone (called CTCSS by most companies or PL by Motorola), you must set a transmit tone that exactly matches or the repeater will just ignore you. There’s a digital alternative to that called DCS (or DPL by Motorola of course) that might be required instead. Third: the repeater probably has an output or downlink tone as well. That’s optional, but if you try to use it be sure to get it right. I usually tell people to leave the receive tone empty when getting started. That allows you to hear everything your radio receives. There are some GMRS nets in Phoenix that I listened to the last time I was there. That’s a good way to test your configuration because you have a high degree of confidence that there will be signals for you to listen to and it’s a non-intimidating way to test your ability to transmit. Check out https://www.azgmrs.org/

Agreed! Once again, in a perfect GMRS world, with no linked or "networked" repeaters, this should be a minimal problem. Absent garbage being constantly piped in from across the state or across the nation, most repeaters I have ever heard, have little traffic. If you regularly operate on one repeater output for 50W simplex, and a repeater becomes active, you could switch to another 50W output and probably find it vacant. Without linking, the chances that all eight are in use via an overpowering repeater in your area are kinda slim. With so much linking, well, that can be a problem in some areas, especially when all eight 50W channels are blasting the same conversation out at the same time.

I would suggest a couple of things. First, make sure your coax is intact with no kinks, breaks, pinches, etc. Also use a digital multimeter to make sure of three things. That there is not a short between the center conductor and the outer shield, that there is continuity between both ends of the center conductor, and continuity from the shield from end to end. Make sure your antenna mount is grounded as well. All this can be checked with a $5 digital multimeter. Many high-swr problems are due to shorts and bad grounding. It's highly unlikely you damaged the coax with 15 watts. No doubt others will chime in with ideas as well.

Anecdotal, I know, but in my own experience there are very few people I wheel with that are amateur radio operators. All of them use FRS or GMRS when they wheel anyway. Moving to amateur service for offroad is seriously going to limit who you talk to on the trails. If you are not worried about that or don't trail ride, I suppose it's a non-issue. If you are planing on using VHF and UHF, the same limits apply as in GMRS. While you can run 1,500 watts on amateur bands, the extra power doesn't do much if the LOS isn't there. Most of the time, VHF simplex around me, is limited to between 3.5 and 20 miles depending on terrain. However, I few days ago, from a mountain top I talked to someone almost 250 miles away. GMRS works the exact same way. The only thing that gets you more range without repeaters and mountain tops is HF. You can work the world with just a few watts... but you won't talk any further locally there either, as LOS still limits local comms. Usually once you hit the LOS barrier, either you need 40m, 80m or 160m NVIS to talk, say 20 to 350 miles. Otherwise, you aren't talking to many people inside the 350 mile radius there, either. What specifically are you looking to do. Myself and many others have a ton of experience over many decades in different areas. There is a good chance we can help if we know what you want to do.

@marcspaz Assuming the repeater had been established for some time, folks using a channel that’s known to be in use by a repeater is a bit like fly fishing directly beneath a dam. Sooner or later the dam will spill.

Looks good! Yaesu, or clone? Wiring to factory speakers is great, aux underseat speakers don't do much. And I also like your manual gearbox, not many people these days "row their own".

Welcome! With a GMRS license and a new radio, you are well on your way!

Hello, new guy checking in. I received my license on 09/21 and my starter Baofeng the next day. New to the GMRS world but been using radios for over 30 years as a LEO and .Mil. Happily retired from both now. Looking forward to going down this rabbit hole.

You are rather misinformed. If you use a PL tone on receive, you are only going to hear transmissions that have the matching PL tone. Also, keep in mind, FRS shares all channels with GMRS, so you may be hearing construction works goof around. There isn't anything in the world that will stop those transmissions.

Use a PL tone and never hear him again?

3 guys with Yagis works pretty damn well.. we've pinned down the same A-hole on 'Desert Candles' a few times.. But other than finding them,, aint much else you can do... This guy cares less when his name and address is broadcasted. He doesn't jam but a certainly and annoyance with his recordings and body cavity sounds..

Then the best way to make it stop is to turn the channel-knob on your radio.

A KrakenSDR and a couple of local angry GMRS users can usually make it stop... fairly quickly..

No, he was testing both the shield and the center conductor at once by putting a jumper at one end and the ohmmeter at the other end.

Did you test the mount or just the coax? You may need to put an antenna analyzer on the antenna that gives you the high SWR and see where you are on the SWR curve. Without knowing where you are on the curve it’s more difficult to know how to tune an antenna and Marc’s right, the MXTA26 doesn’t need tuning. By shortening the whip, you might have just increased the SWR.

Yes i know you have to enable them and i have enabled them. Also when looking at the manual in the back of the book it gives you a list of the frequency that i need to be on and gives you the repeater channel for me it is channel 20 on repeater that is the proper frequency.

The Midland MXT575 doesn’t allow you to choose repeater channels until you have activated them. That’s covered on page 10 in the manual.

Well, officially,GMRS is:

I've said this before. As much as sending text messages over GMRS sounds like a neato idea, (which it kinda is), it's yet another example of trying to make GMRS something it was never intended to be. As much as amateur radio gets maligned on this site, the list of ways GMRS wants to be like amateur radio keeps growing. Linked repeaters carrying transmissions into other states, internet setups like Zello, and texting apps like Ribbit. The problem is that GMRS has a very limited 5 mhz slice of the UHF band, and it's channelized. Cramming more and more into it is eventually going to overload it. I'm a bit of a purist, so in my humble opinion, leave it alone and use it for, as the sum of all human knowledge, Wikipedia, says, (I say that with tongue firmly planted in cheek), "short-range two-way voice communication and authorized under part 95 of the US FCC code".

It looks like you are in an area with quite a few open repeaters. To figure out what’s going on let’s get some more info and maybe we can narrow down a solution. Are you hearing other people on a repeater? What radio do you have and how are you programming it? Are you using Chirp?

I am in a general area with two linked repeaters tied in to more. Conversations entirely on the most distant one regularly tie up the two closer to me. Another guy has put up a big repeater tied in to a big national network along with a couple of nodes and another guy still, felt it necessary to link his short range repeater into that network. AFAIK, GMRS was not created so that people get to "enjoy" useless chatter from across the state or across the nation. It was for families, friends, and others, to have reasonably reliable two-way radio comms in their local area. I define "local" as how far a base, mobile, ht, or repeater, can reach to other devices in the area it is set up in, be it 5 miles or 100 miles, depending on terrain and gear used. If dead air is so worrisome, there are options available without unnecessarily clogging the 8 existing repeater/50W Simplex channels with pointless noise. Ideas include: 1) get your ham Tech license. It really isn't that hard. A little reading and study. No more Morse Code test. Hams have waay more repeater frequencies at VHF and UHF and can therefore better handle the linking. 2) If too lazy or whatever for #1, CB allows for talking and hearing skip from all over. Unlike internet linking, which is really no different than VOIP phone calls, your radio, antenna, and location, come together to allow you to talk to a distant state (or country) using the airwaves, not a glorified phone network. 3) If your base, ht, or mobile, allows; program in some ham repeaters or other frequencies and listen to them. 4) Download a scanner app and listen to public safety and ham stuff from across the country. 5) call someone on your phone, in the next county or the other side of the country. Be it a friend, relative, or a random desk clerk at a big chain motel; you can experience the same "thrill" of talking to distant places using the same (VOIP) technology that makes those trendy and kewel repeater linkups possible. And you don't even have to remember to key or unkey a mic!

I’ve never heard of coax being cooked at low wattage. I don’t think that’s what happened. But it certainly might have gotten damaged in a way that allows a short or open. Try another piece of coax.

Cheater!

Or "Handie Talkie". A portable handheld radio; what many call a "walkie talkie".

They're great radios. I still have two A7 versions and three A4 versions and I still use them to this day in addition to my XTS and Astro Saber series radios.

When we go on road trips, I’ll check our route against the repeaters mapped on this websites map tool. I’ll enter these in to my radio’s channel memory by local name/repeater name. Usually in order of our departure point to arrival point. Most of the time I’ll put in access permission requests on MYGMRS. Unless you are in a caravan or convoy, I would not expect to hear other simplex users. I used the DB20G, it has plenty of memory for most trips, if you want to save some cash the RT95/AT778uv is good too. RA87 looks interesting if you want more power.

462.xxx5 (channels 1-7) are repeater-free. Perfectly adequate for local traffic between HTs or between HT and mobile. Local traffic between mobiles on 462.xxx0 at full power has a good chance to overpower repeater interference. The opposite happens only when mobiles are far and repeater is close. In this case use reserve frequency, according to your communication plan.

This is a great question. I think if you are in an area where you have simplex frequencies open to use and you can use the lower power successfully for your contact it makes sense to do so. It reduces your own exposure to interference. Use what you need to get the job done and not more. While some inadvertent interference is inevitable having a separate set of repeater frequencies would certainly help eliminate a lot of it. This is where I think linked repeaters is also an issue. You may be stepping on people you don't hear who are on simplex. I don't know how successful you would be getting this done but separate repeater frequencies is the best reason I have heard for expanding GMRS frequencies

I think the mistake was made early on that there are not already frequencies that are exclusive to repeaters. The amateur radio band plans contain repeater frequencies and offsets, which are already built into radios and attempt to minimize interference between simplex and repeater users. The idea that simplex frequencies overlap GMRS repeater frequencies in seems odd. Just my two cents, which adjusted for inflation works out to not much.

The electrical ground through the cable shield is sufficient. None of the magnetic NMO mounts require you to scrape to bare metal.

Check out eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/322241896718?hash=item4b071d210e:g:gZQAAOSwgZ1XwZi3&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8JsFfRo6dm0AXwcGP4FZEv3cZs6njlbISV79wXWJh%2B4YtbqC%2FSK%2Ffqofn%2FNrKCO%2FDoK8%2FHXj4ezPT1x6eLDoN6lZn6NJaSC0HzNJ4haIMz44GfkhBSAbltGM%2FJqYJRH%2BvMkDWPAXdz%2FZM%2Ftt52UIJV%2FGYGfA2syfWJvE%2Fb8TbMiNd%2BlptMlQYxhhJcTk%2BfFeQCBrZGmTPwBvw9UgFhvUSfR02y2mla9gUyMzhnbxuROErap%2BoSWRkEzZINqDk2BKo88XXWMNq0rwvjTxxlEVeCZq82NYwhFLuXQLO%2FmLrlqAiPuIKe40NbRYP8VgEn1jig%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8DH76zXYg I bought some of these. They work pretty good and are a carbon copy of a Motorola antenna, they just don't say Motorola on them.

Smiley antenna has some great options https://www.smileyantenna.com/product-p/46540.htm https://www.smileyantenna.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=465&Submit=

Channels 1-22 are simplex channels, meaning there is no repeater offset unless you change the settings. Channels 23-30 are duplex channels, meaning there is a +5MHz offset for repeater use.

On the GMRS-9R, like every other GMRS radio, the offsets are programmed - so all you need to do is pick the correct repeater channel and set your tones.

Don't let the CDC find out.

If a Factory-Reset does not help, throw them in the trash and spend $40 on 2 new ones from Amazon - problem solved and lesson learned.. That lesson being that eBay is a den of liars and thieves.

I would. But from what I understand.....PL tones do nothing to what the radio hears. Thanks