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Hey folks, a few months back, I discussed providing a presentation on the introduction to GMRS, to just cover the basics. We held the presentation a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share the video with everyone. Fair warning, I'm not a pro YouTuber and my collar mic dropped with a few minutes left... please be gentle. LoL This is geared towards people with little to no experience. Hopefully it helps some people. The PowerPoint presentation is available for download, here... https://marcspaz.com/gmrs/GMRS101.ppsx Thank you to those who helped with content ideas.

I came here to read about Terry Sullivan, not some dumb question about a radio! Clickbait!!!!1

You did a good job on the presentation and making things easy to understand.

Hi welcome to the forum! (Should have been the first response.)

Looks like someone is going to get an honorary guest VIP invitation to the ignore user list

This is almost certainly a Windows/comport/driver issue - do you have any other radios that work using CHIRP?

[post deleted as moot]

We should request that it be pinned to the top so we can refer new people to it.

Have you tested UHF radios buried under 3 feet of snow? What kind of range do you get?

Hey folks.. I know the TidRadio 10 watt ham radio isn't meant for GRMS frequencies, but if you used it as a ham radio couldn't you just type in the GRMS channels and use say a repeater channel so you'd get the full 10 watts ? Not that I'd ever do so, but just wondering.. Could you buy the h8 ham and then just program in the GRMS frequencies and erase or only use the HAM channels to listen to ? Again, not that I'm suggesting this to anyone, just wondering if it would work? Like in Emergency? Are there any higher powered HT's that have all the frequencies available to use in an Emergency? Thanks in advance.. Great forum!

Thank you so much for the presentation. There were a number of points that I was completely ignorant of. Thank you again! Vince

Yes it has. And Christmas just came early! It was a close one. The driver was running late and said he was past his quiting time and only had two more stops and was thinking about saving them for tomorrow. I'm glad he decided to tough it out and finish the route. Now I'm happy and will get er up and running tomorrow.

Terry, I don’t have a clue about the RA87, but eventually you’ll get an answer. Don’t mind @OffroaderX. Welcome to the forum!!

FedEx took a week to deliver a Next Day shipment to me. An industry insider (ham radio friend) of mine suggests that they do not run some routes if the truck is not full. You just continually get delayed shipment notices until that route has a full truck to run it.

I was going to castigate you for not just looking on the Retevis sales page or online user-manual to get the answer to this question, but it turns out that all they say is "GMRS" and it would be very unusual for a radio like this to not also be able to receive 2M, 70CM and more... So now I want to know the answer too! PS: Welcome to the exciting and dynamic world of radio.. If people make fun of you here its because they love you.

Hi Marc. Nice job. I watched it on YouTube. I appreciated how you would move the screens in for the viewers. Very nicely done. Thanks for sharing. James

Hey Marc great job! Should be required watching for new folks. Thanks for sharing!

As an example, a friend of mine has two Baofeng radios. One was supposed to transmit at 5 watts and the other at 8 watts. When we put my wattmeter on them both the five watt model put out 6.5 watts and the eight watt model put out 6 watts.

I hated this radio. Field tested it for a month and sent it right back to Amazon. ID doesn’t work, compass was always off, battery hog. Can’t use any accessory with it and programming was a pain even with Bluetooth. Personally hated it

@WRUZ229 That is good to know for those that own the MXT575. I asked because a lot of radios with remote head units use a different pinout for the connection cable.

There's nothing like a first impression, am I right?

For those with unlocked radios, you can use CHIRP to turn TX off on individual channels by turning duplex to off.

Cut off 30' of cable ?

As mentioned using a Ham Radio on GMRS is not legal. On the other point about high power HT's. Most people find out the Chinese radios rarely generate the claimed power output. I've seen claims of HT's that can do 20 to 30 watts plus. Just not believable. The other point is the higher output power drains the battery pack faster resulting in far less operating time. Also the radios are not 100 percent efficient. For various reasons the real world efficiency is about 50 percent. That means if the radio is doing an honest 10 watts of output the battery is being drained at a 20 watt rate. Further the 10 watts of heat generated, 20 watts input minus the 10 watts of output, is soaked up by the tiny body of the radio. Those palm sized radios are the worse. Even a 5 watt radio turns into an uncomfortable "hand warmer" when operated at high duty cycles. A few Hams have destroyed their HT's power output stage doing this from the heat generated and the high internal temperatures. One posting else where the Ham said he did this more than once to the same radio. There is a reason why you see the duty cycle specifications of 5-5-90, 5 percent transmit - 5 percent receive - 90 percent standby.

Yes, you can do that, and nobody would care... But dont forget that the HAM version does not have "channels", so you would have to program them all as you mentioned, and also manually set & configure your repeater channels.. Not a big deal if you know/understand how to do that, but based on your question I am guessing that you may not know how. Also, as I'm sure you know, there is virtually 0 difference in farz between 8 watts and 10 watts - the only difference you will see is the battery draining faster.

Not that the 97s would provide more power, but that the transmit and receive filters in the duplexer wouldn’t have as much effect on each other and there would be less losses in the duplexer. But if you did that none of the radios with preprogrammed repeater channels would be able to use your repeater. Besides, if you look at 2 meter repeaters, you’ll see that the transmit and receive frequencies are only 0.6 MHz offset. The duplexer in the RT97s isn’t necessarily designed for the lowest loss. If you really want more power get a more powerful repeater in the first place.

@WRKJ296 I love the mobile radio setup. Does Broadnet have an official DMR Ham repeater and talkgroup? It would be great if the FCC opened up GMRS to digital like the EU has with dPMR. DMR repeaters on GMRS would be really cool. I didn't know GMRS hotspots / nodes was a thing!

The GM15 is a "GMRS" radio, correct? If that is the case then it already has 8 channels (23-30) with the offset built in. Just find the channel that corresponds to the frequency of the repeater and enter & save your TX tone. You wont need to set or worry about the offset. To use additional repeaters you will have to create a "DIY" repeater channel. You cannot use a repeater directly or in VFO mode - the only way is to create and save the repeater info as a new channel or use one of the preset (ch 22-30) channels. If my memory is failing me and the GM15 is not a "GMRS Radio", then please just disregard everything I've said.

I’m pretty excited for this neighborhood repeater. Just wanted to share with the group!

I've always said I want to die peacefully in my sleep like ol' grandpa did. Not screaming in terror like the rest of the people in the car with him.

I know someone that has a Kraken I would be happy to do a FOX hunt.

Greg, there isn't much information out there about this stuff. Youtube has some videos but nothing that really breaks it down. I've made some videos on tiktok about the topic but it doesn't get down to the nitty gritty- (https://www.tiktok.com/@n2cfx). Did you get this sorted out? Or did you still have questions about it?

on youtube is alot of videos about it. you can talk to joel or juan and they help you with everything you need.

Lol yes it's a mystery to me why CB keydown contests are a thing. But hey maybe that's what's missing from GMRS.

If you want more range, perhaps an antenna upgrade... Like this. 1

Below is some additional text that I did not post from the Colorado SAR Groups (CSAR) lengthy announcement: “In the event of a backcountry emergency: ■ If the subject or party member has an FRS radio, they may describe the nature of the emergency and ask for help from anyone else listening; other recreationists in the area may be able to call 911 or respond to the subject’s aid themselves. ■ Once responders are notified and en route, unless the local sheriff’s office or Backcountry SAR team advises otherwise, CSAR recommends all parties switch to Channel 3.0. Responders may try to contact subjects on this channel, although be aware not all Backcountry SAR teams have FRS radios nor do they monitor Channel 3.0. ■ Responders to a backcountry emergency may ask folks using Channel 3.0, but not involved with this incident, to kindly move to another channel. Please note, Wyoming has the “Be 307 Aware” program, designated after the Wyoming area code. CSAR is going with the simpler Channel 3.0. From our experience, some users of FRS radios may not invest the time to understand the intricacies of their radio. On some radios, setting up Channel 3.0 can be done in advance and users can then be taught simply to go to Channel 3.0 during an emergency. CONCLUSION Having direct communications with rescue subjects can be crucial during emergencies. Although SAR teams do not actively monitor any FRS channel, establishing a common go-to channel when SAR has been activated by other means and are en route can greatly aid rescue operations and ultimately help save lives. CSAR is designating Channel 3.0 as the default FRS option during Backcountry SAR emergencies.” *** NOTE: There are many manufacturers of FRS/GMRS radios, some with more channe

Saw this in an article just now: "The SKA-Mid array in Karoo (will) scan the sky for sources of radio waves in the middle frequency range from 350 MHz to 15.4 GHz using 197 dishes, each 50 feet (15 meters) in diameter." How soon do you think it will be before Midland starts advertising FRS radios capable of reaching Africa? ?

Whenever my wife and I go out shopping, we stay on channels 8-14 because 1. 500mw should last all day 2. Even throughout the local shopping mall, we are both nearly full quieting from one end to the other. 3. Radio school taught me to always use the minimum power necessary and the untrained are forced to do this on 8-14, so there is less chance of bumping into other traffic.