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I would venture to guess that the requirement to use call signs on GMRS could be in part because of the power allowed. A user running the full 50 watts on GMRS, even without a repeater, has the potential to transmit a signal much farther, and possibly interfere with communications very far away, which is unlikely with unlicensed low-power services like CB, MURS and FRS. Licensing, and using your call sign, gives users the ability to identify those users causing interference, and it gives the FCC a way to take action against offenders who the FCC assumes know the rules... assuming the offenders are actually using their call signs. That's what I think anyway.

Update: I reached out to Radioddity through Amazon, and they said the manufacturer's feedback was misprinted labels. They confirmed the actual capacity is 2500mah.

Wife knows I can find something birthday wise in many larger thrift stores...so she encouraged it and we went for my last birthday to an area with a lot of them. Bought an old Hallicrafters SX-24 with matching speaker. Doesn't look like much but still works (most of my "gifts" were radios from several stores). Not going to hide my purchases, last was re-casing kits for some well used Motorola XPR-6550 handhelds (right after getting the SX-24 and some other older radios).

Saving it to buy a better radio.

So if your just hiking or biking use low power and dont worry about call signs. Toss them a FRS radio and be done.

YouTube is owned by Google. The advertising you see is usually targeted based on your online history. No wonder your wife doesn’t want you messing with her internet.

I get it. The wife goes shopping. Sees an item that costs $2 but it's on sale for $1. So she buys it. You go shopping. See the same item on sale. But you decide you don't need it. Later you both can legitimately claim you "saved" a $1. The difference is you still have yours.

Radioddity is usually pretty good about taking care of their customers no matter if you bought directly from their website or their Amazon store.

Sometimes I buy radios on the DL without running it by the spousal unit.. I do the purchase in PayPal “pay in 4” so the charges don’t stand out as large on the statement and I’m a ninja about grabbing that package off the porch on my way in and having the item in my pocket by the time the back door opens . Is there a help group for me?

This is what I erected several years back and it's been rock solid for me. -10ft 4x4 wood fence post, $10 -A sack of quick set concrete $8 -Some RCA TV antenna mounting hardware, $13 -4 sections of RCA mast, $56 ------ $87 (add more or less sections of mast to your liking at $13 each, but 4 or less need no guying) There are 2 $40ish antennas on this mast. A widebanded discone that does just about everything acceptably well, and an Amazon yagi for GMRS that really blasts out directionally, but good only for 467 transmit. Add about $15 for some PVC to replicate the little manual rotation contraption I've made. I use this setup with a Tidradio TD-H8 GMRS (That I've turned up to 11 watts VHF 8.5 watts UHF) and it get in full quieting to all of my repeaters, some being 30+ miles away.

If you’re using a radio that requires a license to use, you’re required to identify the license you’re using. It’s a very simple concept. If you’re authorizing someone to use your license, they are required to identify your license. Equally simple concept. If you are the license holder, you are responsible to ensure that they do. Still simple. Inconvenience or the opinion that a rule is stupid has never been recognized as a justification for violating regulations. However, the FCC almost certainly won’t enforce it.

Simple. GMRS was not intended to be private. You need to use a call sign basically the same logic why you’re required to have a license plate on your car, registration number on boats, airplanes etc. Don’t want to use call signs there is always FRS.

If you want to transmit and receive on the same frequency use one of the simplex frequencies. Channels 15-22 receive on the same frequencies as repeater channels 23-30, BUT there is no offset. So, rather than selecting channel 30, use channel 22. It transmits and receives on 462.725 MHz

Yup. Biggest issue with the 300 and 500 is the display. Kinda small for APRS in a vehicle. If you only want a tracker I guess its fine.

You buy what works for you. GMRS isn't the solution in all cases.

I got a super good deal on the TH-79A at a swap. Couldn't pass it up. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/253-th-79ajpg/?context=new

Yeah, now you have to look for some NOS, new old stock, tubes to keep it going. Likely cost you more for those than what you paid for the radio.

A vendor wouldn't have to do it deliberately. The battery packs are likely sourced from an outside vendor and they just slap their label on it. Unless they do some in-house quality control check they might notice notice until the complaints roll in.

In addition to Astron, Tripp Lite, you might want to look into the Powerwerx 28 Amp Power Supply. I've been using this power supply for my three base units for sometime and it's been doing great. Also, I was surprised on the physical size of this unit being small and it never seems to get hot. https://powerwerx.com/variable-power-supply-digital-meters-30amp There is no such thing of anything being quality and cheap. Anyways, cheap is relative. You get what you pay for.

Well on my phone and computer when I watch YouTube, Firefox w/ uBlock Origin blocks the ads, cookie notices, social media links, etc. On my Roku "Smart" TV there's no way to install an adblocker (at least that I know of). I could use my router w/ a VPN or DNS that blocks ads but I haven't as my wife says no because she works from home and "can't have me screwing with her internet!".

LMR 400 for 35' feet. RG58 - Loss per 100 - 10.6db LMR400 - Loss per 100 - 2.7 So at 35' of RG58 you are loosing almost 4db which is over 50% of signal loss and power.

Radioddity was the seller.

You have two choices: 1) Use a different repeater that uses the standard GMRS +5 offset C) Become a felon and buy a ham or LMR radio, which is what 100% of the people using that repeater are using.

There are a few repeater owners who choose not to adhere to the customary 5.000 MHz offset. This is one of them. That means you must be able to set a 5.075 MHz offset or independently program receive and transmit frequencies. If you independently program both frequencies, you shouldn’t enter an offset. Standard preprogrammed channels on commercial GMRS radios will not work with this repeater.

Ok Thank you

I really like my RT97..Works great for what I need, which is occasional use in the mountains for communications. I can get about a 30 mile circle which is more than enough for my needs.

No, because we are all talking about something else that has nothing to do with that and veering off-topic would be rude and insulting to the person that started this topic.

Hey, whatever works!! Anytime a tower goes up for sale in my area, they get snatched up pretty quickly, so for now, I have been using those 1-3/8" galvanized top rail for fencing. I have 25' on my roof with my Comet 712 EFC (Top of antenna is about 50') and 40' of top rail for my Commscope DB404 (top of antenna is also around 50')Of course I had to add guy wires, but so far so good. This was supposed to be "temporary" but I said that about 9 months ago. So far they survived high winds and lightning

I came to this idea because I really didnt want to screw anything into my house. Didn't want to compromise my newly done roof or siding despite all of the reports of it being "fine to do". Just needed a stout structure to bolt onto that I didn't care much about, and a 4x4 from the big box home improvement store concrete set into the ground seemed like the perfect stout base to use. As I said, this has been up for years now in the further southwest suburbs of Chicago. We get severe storms in the warmer months. a bit of sway but it's very stout. no guy lines. I actually have a second version of this a bit moved back on my property to support the high side of an HF sloper. That one is with an all PVC mast. Again, all good. I'm actually considering adding another section of mast pole, because this amount has been so problem free. I could probably peek up another 10 feet. The only thing holding me back is that I'll need to sort of finesse all of the coax feed line to accommodate it.

Very good examples!

LOL! I just tried transmitting on channel 15 on my UV-5R GMRS for apparently the first time ever and it would not transmit. 14 and 16 work just fine.

Not my problem.

But it does! It’s call FRAUD. I had a buddy tell me he had opened up some cheap suspect Chinese battery backs. He found a chunk of steel in them to add weight to cover up the lower weight from the smaller low capacity cells that were used.

I purchased two new Chinese clones of a Kenwood Lithium Ion battery back. They absolutely refused to charge in the official charger base. I even tried some of my spares I had of the exact same model, no good. Turns out the packs were missing an internal connection to a resistor that identifies the type of pack to the charger base. The charger base can do multiple battery chemistries so it has to know which one. I had the charger base service manual with the various battery pack internals documented. I discovered a missing connection between an external charger connection and one side of the resistor. Making the connection externally using some fine gage wire the battery pack then charged up just fine. I contacted the eBay seller to get a refund on the two packs. They said the problem was my charger base. Well I sent them the documentation to prove otherwise. They still argued so I got eBay involved and got my refund. I also left some very negative feedback about the seller too. They later begged me to change the negative comments. I told them NO. What likely happened is the Chinese battery pack manufacturer had a quality problem where the packs got built without that one wire connection. So, instead of scraping them out sold them to a reseller, likely for a really good discount. They in turn figured they would turn a quick buck by selling them to unsuspecting customers who don’t know any better. Well, I was one who did. Anybody who complained got the charge base excuse. I’m very sure they knew the packs were no good. They had a healthy supply of them and I can’t be the only one who complained.

WRXB215, Understood, I'm more concerned that the 308 casings have not been properly labeled and may cause damage to my rifle.

Welcome to the exciting and dynamic world of GMRS radio! Nobody on the repeater is going to be bothered by you making sexy-talk with your wife from your handhelds, but you will likely be bothered by them, so you may want to avoid Ch16 just so they dont upset you. As for books, there are probably a lot, but you can probably learn everything you know by just reading through the old topics here.. and of course, by watching the Youtubes.

There are areas where VHF and UHF are very active but it's in pockets. From what I gather, it seems as though the areas where it is pretty dead are larger than the areas where it is active. 2 meters is pretty much the more active band no matter where you go, however, the rest of it is usually pretty dead. Where I live, we have a statewide DMR system and I hardly see any activity on it. I know of another state where they have a statewide DMR system and Hams actually frown upon others using it unless it is for emergencies. My issue with Ham is that I dont do HF. For the bands that I do like to run, there just isn't enough activity. Ham Radio isn't what it used to be. So, I ended up going with GMRS but decided to keep Ham running also until it just got plain old stupid. One repeater had some redneck flying off the handle swearing up a storm talking like some drunk guy on CB and then came the bad attitudes from Hams who think having a GMRS and Ham license is not being loyal to Ham. They cant understand why you would bother with GMRS because it doesn't travel far and no one is on it. In the middle of all of this I needed more antennas for my SDR project and police scanner. Sadly, I dont have room for anymore antennas. So, I disconnected my Ham Radios and packed them away and plugged my SDR's and new digital scanner into the existing antennas and things have been good ever since. I have GMRS if I need to communicate with Hams and also family and friends, and I get to monitor what I want making better use of my electricity and space.

This is the one I use: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/alo-dm-330mvt Plenty of power even for extra accessories. Powers my KG1000G, a handheld scanner and powered speaker for the scanner at the same time. Enough for a 100w HF radio. Has lots of connection options even a 12v cigarette lighter plug. I love it.

Actual measurements of signal strength performed by swapping between the OEM antenna on my UHF radio and a clone of the Nagoya (Tid Radio 771) dispute that. Sitting at my kitchen table I transmitted to a DMR repeater 16 miles away. I watched the signal reports using a Brandmeister connected dashboard. When I transmitted using the factory rubber duck the signal strength was reported as s6. Then I removed the factory antenna and replaced it with the clone 771 antenna. The signal varied between s7 and s8. Going back to the original antenna the signal strength went back down. Those are reproducible data. Since then I have replaced the original antennas on two of my best radios with Diamond 771 antennas. I consistently get good signal reports from other hams on both 2 meters and 70 cm when using these antennas. As an aside, I don’t know what the number 771 indicates.

I use mine for off-roading.. any time I want to "make contacts" and find anonymous men to talk with, I use the Grindr app.

I agree with SShannon that terrain is the main factor. This said, I have the 771G Nagoya antennas on a couple handhelds and it’s shorter siblings on a couple others. I also have the Smiley Slim Duck on two and generally find it performs better than the stock antenna or shorter Nagoya, but about the same as the 771G. I prefer the Smiley.