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Welcome! I have and like Yaesu, but Yaesu doesn’t make a radio certified for GMRS. They make great ham radios though. People will say that certification isn’t important, and as you progress you might even decide that it isn’t, but for someone trying to get started it sure makes it easier to use the radio without having to worry about violating a regulation. Others will tell you that it doesn’t matter if you violate the regulations because the FCC doesn’t enforce them anyway. Statistically there is some validity, but I still like to know where I stand with respect to regulations. Wouxun is arguably one of the best GMRS radios made and certified for that purpose. The people who have one like the KG1000G Mobile Radio. It’s a 50 watt radio. As far as I know all mobile GMRS radios have a UHF connector for an external antenna. They have to. Several of us have purchased the Radioddity db20g, which is a tiny 20 watt GMRS mobile radio. It’s small and easy to use, plugging into the cigarette lighter. Like the Wouxun it needs an external antenna. It’s about $100, unless you wait for a sale. I bought two of them directly from Radioddity for $87 each. It’s sold under a couple other names as well. Firmware might vary based on brand. These forums have lots of discussions about what radio is best. There will never be universal agreement.

What do you mean when you say you couldn’t find an antenna that matched? It’s unfair to condemn a product for failing to operate well on two frequency ranges it’s prohibited from operating on, especially when the OP is asking about use on the bands it’s designed for.

Those are who I affectionately refer to as "Askholes"

My Motorola XTL5000 remote will no doubt work anywhere my "ISARUBICON" takes it. I finished up the radio install this morning. Next will be the CB Radio. Besides the comms, I have all the get-dirty trail stuff on order with some unfortunately on backorder.

I highly recommend the Wouxun Kg-1000g Plus and the Wouxun KG-XS20G Plus for a bae/mobile GMRS radios. The 1000G Plus is 50 watts while the XS20G Plus is 20 watts. The Wouxun GMRS mobile radios are better than any Baofeng/B-Tech or Midland radio. I run a 1000G Plus as my base and in my vehicle while the XS20G Plus is mounted in my SxS. The Midland MXT500 is sitting in a box simply because it is not as good as the Wouxun radios. Where a 50 watt radio will benefit is if you have trees and/or other obstacles to push the signal through. The local GMRS repeater is 21.5 miles from me and I can talk to others on it just fine even with my 5 watt Wouxun KG935G HT (hand held). I used my XS20G with my roof mounted antenna and was able to talk to the repeater sight on simples just fine. When it comes to dual band 2m/70cm radios, I have had good luck with the TYT TH-7800 as a base and in my vehicle. You can get them for around $239. There is also nothing wrong with Yaesu or Icom mobile radios. Though those start around $300 and up. If money is a bit tight then look at the TYT TH-7800.

Man, just for giggles, I searched for lifted Camry. This thing is pretty wild. Still not a Jeep, though. Ha

I would steer clear of the Toyota Camry I had one and couldn't fit tires on it big enough to take it 4x4ing, and the ground-clearance was only 4 inches and it has no low-range gears. While it is cool that it supposedly can drive in dirt when you actually go 4x4ing it doesn't do well.

I have not had the desensing issue with the 935Gplus. I don't place them right next to each other on a table but even just a few feet apart has not been an issue. They seem pretty immune to that. Just getting back to basic's, have you heard any traffic on the repeater at all? It may be a problem with the repeater. Is there another one near by that you could try? The KG 935G is a great radio. I would be surprised if it is the radios causing the problem.

Yes, you have to take each test in order, but you are allowed to take one test, and then the next and the next as long as you pass each one. You can walk in without an Amateur license and walk out having passed the Amateur Extra test. If you use something like HamStudy to study, it’s entirely possible.

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.

Low- 2 watts Med- 4.5 watts High- 8 watts

GMRS like dual band 2m/70cm radios all have a SO239 connector on them. And @Sshannon brings up good points about having radios certified for the bands you want to transmit on. I am running a 16" Comet SBB1-NMO dual band radio with my TYT TH-7800 and a 20" Nagoya UT-72G with my Wouxun KG-1000g on the vehicle. As I mentioned I have the same two radios in the house for base stations. I am using a Comet GP9 for dual band and a Comet CA-712EFC for GMRS. One thing to pay attention to is the fact that the short dual band antennas will not work for GMRS and visa versa. Now if you can use a longer antenna on your vehicle then the Comet 2x4SRNMO will work for 2m/70cm and GMRS. As always, everyone has an opinion on what they like and think is the best. Stick with Wouxun for GMRS, they are generally considered the best for GMRS by most. Icom and Yaesu are the best when it comes to dual band radios. But don't overlook the TYT TH-7800 or Wouxun KG-UV920P-A either.

Welcome! I'm new to GMRS as well. I've found this group to be very helpful, extremely patient with the noobs and highly knowledgeable about GMRS -- and other invisible things that fly though the air. You're in the right place.

The TYT TH-9800 is FCC certified for 10m, 2m, 6m, and 70cm. They re not certified for use on GMRS or CB bands. And there is enough difference between a 10m antenna and a CB (11m) antenna that one will not work well for both bands. And trying to use a 10m or CB antenna for GMRS will not work very well either. Now some dual band 2m/70cm antennas do have good SWR reading in the GMRS band and will work for all three. The Comet GP9 and Comet 2x4SR will work for 2m, 70cm, and GMRS. The TH-9800 will work fine with a good quad band antenna that covers 10m, 2m, 6m and 70cm but there is no guarantee that a quad band antenna for those bands will work for GMRS. And none of them will work well for 11m.

The FCC does actually go after pirate radio stations very aggressively - not just the pirates but also going after the people/landlords that own the houses/land that they broadcast from and by definition none of those guys signed up for a license. Source: https://www.fcc.gov/enforcement/orders

Let me grab some for this one.

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to introduce myself after joining this informative forum and receiving my GMRS call sign yesterday. I’m an over-the-hill family guy with 3 kids, beautiful wife and a little dog here in TX. When I have the time, I enjoy off-roading, archery, camping, shooting, swimming, fishing, hunting hogs, karate, learning history, shade-tree wrenching, and banging on drums - and am fairly mediocre at all of those pursuits. I’m still very new to GMRS (and radio communications in general). I don’t have a GMRS radio yet and am researching both mobile and hand-held. I’m also reading and studying up for a Ham tecnhnician’s license that I hope to attain later on this year. In the meantime, I’d like to learn as much as I can about GMRS now that I got my GMRS license and possibly contribute when I can.

WADR: the families of those 4 Pepperdine College student pedestrians who died by way of a speeder who lost control traveling down the Pacific Coast Hiway in Malibu last October, do not think that speeding is a victimless crime! LA Times article

It’s never wrong to ask questions first, but our coordinator has been very open to taking multiple tests. The people who stand the best chance of passing multiple tests don’t take much time on the first test.

1/10 mile should be enough

I think you should be able to set it up on a per-channel basis. I have a pair of Baofeng UV-82s that I set up with two channels. One channel has PTT-ID, one doesn't. I set them up in CHIRP within the channel settings. I wouldn't be so bold as to say this is how all radios with PTT-ID work, but that's my experience.

Thank you!

Are you on channel 29 (which is also referred to in the manual as RPT-22)? That’s the quickest way to get everything setup. Then as a bare minimum you just need to set the xmit tone. Or, if you’re trying to program one of the user configurable 999 channels, have you seen this in the manual: Accessing a Repeater in Frequency Mode The REPEATER menu option (page 54) allows you to transmit to a repeater while in Frequency Mode. If you are tuned to a GMRS receive frequency that is valid for repeater use and turn the REPEATER menu option ON, the KG-935G will transmit to the repeater input frequency when the PTT is pressed. The REPEATER menu option is ignored when the radio is not tuned to one of the 8 GMRS repeater transmit frequencies.”

Here’s a clear copy. Scale it up as needed: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/icu1umn9p6ekwah7cya2b/GRMS-9R-Manual-V5_-Simplified-Annotated.pdf?rlkey=ghnqdzs5mi915ekf0gg7nx4r7&dl=0

Technically, hams shouldn't respond to folks transmitting without identifying with a valid call sign if they know a person is unlicensed. The reason being that they would be violating FCC regulations the same as the person transmitting. That said, the FCC probably isn't going to do anything about it unless they get complaints. But there are self-proclaimed amateur radio enforcers who will berate and otherwise confront folks transmitting without a license. Personally, my life has no room for such things, and it's easier to ignore them.

I have a 35 Ah AGM battery powering my base station (Amateur HF/VHF/UHF and GMRS) that sits on a 4 amp battery charger/maintainer 24/7. I have a pair of solar panels worth about 15 watts that will keep it charged if needed. All of the components came from Harbor Freight.

Just a short video from this past weekend. @hfd376 and a few others local to the area joined me for a nice New Year's Eve trail ride.

I was going to answer this yesterday, but did not because I thought it was clear... I also have the GMRS-9R (two purchased on Amazon). I use chirp and you should use the Baofeng UV-9G setting. It works perfectly.

I do not have this model, but... I googl'd "Baofeng-9R" and got this website. I then clicked "Download" and got this website. There is no model "GMRS-9R" listed on the Downloads page, but there is a "UV-9R." Is this the same radio? Attached below, is the downloaded Manual for the "UV-9R": That same page also has a software download for the "UV-9R", also attached below for ease of use: Try this software and see if you can make a copy of the default settings and report back your results for others. GOOD LUCK! BAOFENG_UV_9R_User_Manual_20231019_EN.pdf WP970I_ENG_CPS.CAB SETUP.LST setup.exe

I'll say that someone should go for General regardless, since it is not that much harder than Technician and grants plenty of extra privileges.