Leaderboard

I have brought this up before not in a "dont do it way" but more in a let us set expectations way. I have in no way intended for it to be a discouragement at all from trying equipment or talking to random people I have done both of these things. You are free to do whatever you want to do with GMRS, (as long as you follow the rules). I just dont want to see people disappointed when no one replies to their call to talk.

I don’t know the exact cause, but here’s an experiment you can try: Disconnect your radio from the coax at your house and disconnect his radio from the coax at his house and swap radios temporarily. The object is to see whether the weak reception follows your radio or continues at your house. If it follows your radio then you know it’s the radio. Otherwise you know it’s something with the combination of the coax and antenna. If it’s something with the antenna and coax, swap it temporarily. See if the isssue follows the antenna. By doing this one component at a time you should be able to figure out what the cause is. You may find that it just happens to be your location. RF is not guaranteed to be symmetrical. Just because he hears you well is no guarantee that you can hear him well. But you’ll find many posts on this forum that talk about how important a good receiver is and that the difference between 15 watts and 40 watts really doesn’t make much difference. It might be as simple as the Midland having a less sensitive receiver.

Can't go wrong with a Comet 712EFC. It actually works better than my much more expensive Commscope DB404

If he has a 100' run he really needs LMR400 or equivalent. Hopefully RS gave him 50 ohm cable and not 75 ohm Cable TV cable. What connectors are on it ? If it has a F connector and adapters its definitely 75 ohm. If it has PL259 its most likely RG58 which is ok for CB or HF but not much good for UHF.

I completely agree with you regarding the "radio police". I also think that the guy who proposed this just wants to turn gmrs into ham on different frequencies. He suggests raising the limit on certain channels to 100w. I could totally foresee the overly obsessed ham guys scolding a gmrs user because they're trying to see how far apart they can talk. IMO. Ham is great and so is gmrs, but they are separate and should stay separate.

I may have unintentionally done this myself more than once. I'm really not sure. I'll have to go back and take a look. In my mind, "My Repeaters" can be misinterpreted as favorites. My apologies if I erred. Vince - WRZK593

That’s probably a loss of nearly 90%.

RG8x may be a start of your problem. Assuming cable length of 50' (you mentioned the pole is 30'), that 4db loss in the cable vs 1.35db in same length LMR400. Add in the no ground plane on on a mag mount antenna, and you have a severely hampered receiver.

I also use with great results the DX Engineers 400MAX. It can be purchased terminated with UHF or type N connectors. I use type N. You will want a short length of something like RG8X between the 400 and the radio as 400 is very thick and stiff. You want to keep the run as short as practical to minimize loss. Mine are 50'.

DX Engineers 400MAX is equivalent to LMR400 superflex

Safe to say that coax is not helping. Id say if possible do what @Sshannon said and switch yours out. If you can’t hear him well you know thats your issue.

Id get your antenna fixed first. At least get some sort of ground plane under the mag mount

Sorry if this is beating a dead horse, just wondering what the terrain is like in between your houses. I doubt it would be the issue considering he can hear you well but I guess it is possible if he is transmitting from a valley it could have some effect.

Ohhhh now I understand the deceptive level of effort involved! I did go back to ensure that I didn't claim someone else's repeater, and fortunately, I had enough functioning brain cells (at the time) to Star them as my faves. Here in Hawaii, there are VERY few GMRS repeaters, so it's definitely in my best interest to respect, and help the respective owners. I'm glad I came across this thread. Vince-WRZK593

You probably already did this but just in case: Before the cable is plugged in, and before you run the software, you must install the driver for the cable. Then plug in the cable and look in Device Manager and make sure that the driver is attached to a virtual serial port. Then open the CPS software and assign that serial port to the software.

Maybe it should be renamed "My Owned Repeaters" or similar.

One thing I have not seen mentioned yet is what type of coax cable the OP or his brother is using. I also haven't seen what the length of coax each is using. Using a longer run of the wrong type of coax will definitely effect things.

It is my understanding (which is open to correction by others) that your SWR affects your transmission far greater than reception. But I am unclear if the correct word is affects or effects..

I dont think that 1db is going to make the difference, but it could be one of multiple weak links like cable length/quality, connectors, radio sensitivity, and any of 2-gazillion other variables.

PS: it does not HAVE TO BE the internet. You could also use your own private leased-line type connection, but that is much costly.

Why does every new license holder want to setup a repeater? I would like to shed a little light on some of the important things to consider if you recently got your GMRS license and now want your own repeater. First thing to consider, are there any open well placed repeaters in your area that you are able to use? I can assure you most repeater owners want people to use there repeater. Owning several repeaters I can assure you all are welcome and encouraged to use my machines. Do you have access to a location to host your repeater? If your answer is your garage roof you should reconsider. Your garage roof will give you about the same coverage as simplex. Unless you’re on top of a mountain and all your users are at the bottom you will never be happy with this setup. GMRS is not as popular as one would like to think, unless your repeater covers 20 miles or more you may find you only have 1 or 2 users in the area. Unless you already have a group of friends together you may want to consider this before spending money on a decent well positioned site to install your repeater. So you found a nice high site and the price is right, all you need to do is get the repeater installed, sounds simple right? Some thigs to consider first and foremost are the costs because they can add up quickly. Are you on a commercial tower that requires a license and bonded climber? If so this could be by far your largest expense depending on your area. I have spent $600 to $1200 on a climber; I have had quotes as high as $2500 depending on the amount of work and heights involved. Keep in mind commercial sites require certified mounts, hard line cable, cable clamps, engineered grounding solutions and commercial grade antennas. No tower owner is going to let you install a comet antenna and 200’ of braided shield coax. This brings me to my next point, the antenna. Because of the costs involved with climbers you will want to expend your budget on the antenna. Remember a $2000 repeater on a $200 antenna is going to work about as good as a $200 repeater. Whereas a $200 repeater on a $2000 antenna is going to work like a $2000 repeater. On my first repeater I was gifted use of a 150’ tower, I installed a DB-420 on the top and 160’ of 7/8 hardline. Total cost of equipment for the antenna install was $2500, with the climbers labor coming in at an additional $800. This left me with enough to purchase an old Motorola R100 repeater running at 25W. To my surprise it had 30 miles of coverage, all due to the cash spent on the antenna and waiting for a decent spot. Things happen, more so if you have an antenna 200’ in the air with a conductive cable connected to sensitive electronics. Antenna issues, feedline issues, repeater issues all cost money and I promise at some point you will have issues that need repair and require your money! It is my opinion that the GMRS community does not need another 2 to 5 miles repeater as it just becomes background noise. What use is a public listed repeater if somebody in a mobile can’t use it 5 miles away while moving or the portable coverage is only a mile? If after reading this you are still going to build a repeater for your garage more power to you, just don’t expect 20 people to show up if it only reaches a mile. As the owner of several GMRS and Commercial repeaters I can attest to the amount of money and effort go into my repeaters. I have only touched on the basics, if you add in any kind of testing services, duplexer tuning, addition of a combiner channel to an existing tower system, RF engineering, rent and insurance your costs can sky rocket. The best advice I can give any new licensee is to try and use the available systems in the area. Take the time to learn a little about what you’re doing and to assess the usability of the service before investing in a repeater for the sole reason of saying you own one.

Assuming you are using the same cable that worked with CHIRP and your Baofengs, then either you have the wrong software or you have a Windows/port/driver issue. I would try to reboot everything, then go directly into the Wouxun software, ensure you have the right port selected and try again. If no joy, try each different port.. If still no joy exit out and do a RUN AS Administrator for the program and try again. If still no joy, Uninstall the Wouxun software, then RE-Install, but RUN AS Administrator when you run the installation .. If STILL no joy, do anything else suggested in this thread between now and Tuesday.. If still no joy, contact BuyTwoWayRadio support on Tuesday and they can walk you through everything possible.

Well the national organization that represents Hams, ARRL, has its roots in just such an activity. ARRL stands for Amateur Radio Relay League. In the very early days of spark transmitting messages were passed from station to station cross country. That was just about the only way to communicate long distances in those days. Even today there are emergency Net practice sessions on the VHF/UHF Ham bands, and on some HF ones, where one of the activities is traffic passing of messages.

it would seem that HF maybe with one or two relay-people or repeaters would be a better, more reliable solution because you will generally get much greater range with HF than with GMRS. and good luck getting any GMRS signals over the rockies and all other mountain ranges between New York and California.

Yes.. "N" means "Normal", "i" means inverted. 99.8% of GMRS repeaters use a "Normal" DCS/DPL/DTC tone.

On GMRS there is always a +5Mhz split from the RX frequency, or if you are left-handed a -5Mhz split from the TX frequency.. so RX is always 462, TX is always 467.

Thanks for the responses guys, appreciate the help and advice

This.. 1.9:1 is fine and more than plenty good enough for normal people using their radio for normal things. Stop overthinking it and just use/enjoy your radio.

Truly there’s nothing wrong with 1.9:1 SWR. I would not worry about it. Plus the short length of most cables attached to magnetic mounts means that the losses are usually low. You wouldn’t enjoy having LMR-400 as the feed line going through your door and over your roof.

I could see that happening. But, when you copy and paste the repeaters description and full information, then you are no longer doing this by mistake. This guy literally copied and pasted the repeaters description that was provided on the repeaters original listing.

That’s true, but really, nobody was talking about doing NVIS on GMRS frequencies.

@Reclusiarch - Welcome!

While living up north in Sacramento, my neighbors teen age kids would spend hours and actually made some contacts with the ISS... I remember one time while they were attempting a contact, watching the ISS reflection buzzing by... these kids had a computer set up for tracking and information where to point their makeshift antenna... Pretty Interesting

Winner!! I would also throw-in listening to/talking to the ISS.

All coax has attenuation (RF electricities fall out) that’s related to the length. It’s entirely possible to lose 75% or more of your signal strength (RF power ) in your coax before it reaches the antenna. SWR is calculated from the ratio of reflected power compared to forward power. An SWR meter placed near the radio measures power before it has been attenuated but it measures the reflected power after it has been attenuated in two different directions, when it is weakest. That results in a low SWR that doesn’t accurately predict how efficient your antenna truly is. TL;DR. Randy nailed it.

If it's this one, it makes sense that it's giving you high SWR readings. While it says it's compatible with all these different radios and frequencies, the truth is that it would be a Modern Marvel like you would see on The Discovery Channel if an antenna really did cover all those frequencies without being cut or otherwise adjusted. It also specifically says ham radio dual band, which alone makes it sort of incompatible with GMRS. Since ham radio UHF frequencies fall into the 420-450 Mhz range, while GMRS is in the 462-467 Mhz range, it's tough to get an antenna to resonate on both GMRS and ham frequencies. https://www.amazon.com/Bingfu-Antenna-136-174MHz-400-520MHz-Magnetic/dp/B08TGZN9ZG

The only way to do this and not break any of the GMRS rules would be to link them over the internet. Not sure of the overall cost, but not a trivial task. I'm sure others can chime in with more details.

Cheap, low quality cable - too many of the RF electricities fall out and dont make it to the antenna.

There’s nothing wrong with 1.9:1. Check it on different channels and you might see the SWR change. Also, a perfect SWR does not mean it is a good or bad antenna. A dummy load will get you 1.0:1. A very lossy cable will improve your SWR at the expense of signal strength.

It depends on the subscribers and the radios. a CCR radio wont do what you want. Motorola supports RAC (Repeater Access Control) but that's a form of MDC. There are not many options for analog options. I also use DCS for input and CTCSS on output. This helps eliminate many users but isn't a fail safe.

Here in Montana 70 cm is well used by a network of linked digital repeaters, connected to the Brandmeister. I hear local conversations frequently between hams in Helena, Belgrade, Bozeman, and Butte as well as Montana Statewide Net checkins from Alabama, New Mexico and several from Montana. If a band seems underutilized, find some way to use it.

Hello Friends! I'm new to the forum and newer to GMRS radios. I have a Wouxon KG-935G+ that I'm working on programming. I have the GMRS part working fine. I'm trying to set up some receive only channels for scanning and I'm seeing some behavior I didn't expect. (Could be my lack of experience with these radios.) Here's the scenario, a department I want to listen to uses the same receive frequency with different CTCSS tones for the different areas. For example: Channel Frequency TSQL Tone 1 460.300 100.0 2 460.300 151.4 With the radio scanning and activity on channel 2, the radio will stop on channel 1 but no audio is heard. If I manually advance the radio to channel 2 I can hear the audio. The only behavior I have to compare this to is some Uniden scanners. On my SDS100, using the same frequencies and tones, the scanner will not detect activity on channel 1 and will stop on channel 2. I suspect the 935 is 'hearing' the signal on channel 1 but since the tone doesn't match the squelch does not open. Is this expected behavior for these transceivers or am I doing something wrong? Here is what it looks like in CHIRP:

WOW! CHIRP is soooooo much easier to use than the Wouxun software! But... I spent the time and retyped my complete program from CHIRP to the Wouxun software for the 935G+. The result was the same as with CHIRP. For now I'm going to remove the tones for the 'scanner' channels and try to contact Wouxun or BuyTwoWayRadios for tech support or a bug report. Thanks for all the input folks! Have a Happy New Year!! -James

Thanks for the reply 218! According to the docs for CHIRP, 'Tone' applies the tone to TX only. 'TSQL' applies the tone to both TX and RX. TX is irrelevant in this scenario though. If I remove all tone settings, I can hear all traffic on all channels including the obnoxiously loud identifiers. By using the tones I can not only block out the identifiers but I can lockout or skip the channels I'm not currently interested in even though they share the same RX frequency. Just wondering if my approach is flawed. I know the purpose-built scanners have additional capabilities that may not be built into this type of radio.

Popup blocker stopped me from reading it live, but it was downloadable. My comment: New enforcement nightmare. Just because people should be licensed to be legal doesn't mean they will be. If this was approved, within 2 months a new Baofeng GMRS+ would be on Amazon and about 3% of users under the new rules would hold + licenses.

Not at all: you live in the foothills of the Sierras. Your experience of not having others nearby you (other than family and friends), nor repeaters that you can reach, does not necessarily translate to the experience that others may encounter; for example, here in Los Angeles.

I was one who mentioned bring your own contacts. While that is true to a degree that shouldn't stop you from trying to make contacts if you want to. Pointing that out was to try to help explain why you may not be hearing much radio traffic. It was not meant to be a discouragement. Some areas have very little radio traffic and other areas have a lot. As someone else mentioned you can get a couple of cheap radios and let people use them that might be even slightly interested. I got into GMRS because my family and friends had no interest in getting a ham license. A long, long time ago I got ham license to use as a communication tool, not to make contacts. I keep my amateur license current but very rarely use the amateur bands. GMRS is a good tool. Use it how you want and try to have fun.

I remember back in the day, a Sprint Cell Tech told me the reason they dumbed the cell phone push to talk technology was because it eat up gobs of bandwidth and as they moved to CDMA it couldn’t work. We used the Sprint cell radios at work and loved them.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but receiver sensitivity is a big deal as well. If you are blasting out but you can't hear a return call, that might be frustrating to say the least.

We have seen that the Google, Bing, Ask and other search engine spybots are camped out here reading new posts. Just a word to the wise... use your discretion in posting personal or sensative information that could possibly compromise your personal safety, security, lead to identity theft, or give non-licensed individuals a way to access your radio systems.