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LMR 400 loses about 2.7 dB over 100 feet at GMRS frequencies. So 40 feet would be 40% of 2.7 dB or 1.08 dB so you lose 20.6% of the power your radio inserts into the cable. That’s just the cable loss. That’s really not terrible; it’s just something to be aware of.

Oh Happy Days. I managed to get CHIRP Next installed and working on my Linux Box. I had to install WINE to get the factory programing software working(but it didn't work all that well) and I thought "I'll bet I can get the .exe for CHIRP Next working under WINE too and low and behold, IT DOES. I also saw that in CHIRP Next I can "skip" channels from scanning on the H3 so YES, it can be done. I ordered an H8 because I want to play with that 10 watt beast to see what it'll do. Anyway, just wanted to share and let ya'll know that you CAN get CHIRP Next working under Linux by using WINE. Talk to ya'll later. TN.Frank Out.

You probably have 2w or less making it to the antenna. If you switch to a mobile with at least 15w-20w. That will get you somewhere closer to 10w-12w into the antenna. A 50w radio will get you about 26w-32w depending on the cable loss. Multiplying your usable transmit power 13 times will increase your power into the repeater by 4+ s-units, which would be fantastic. Even at 15w, you will get at least 2 additional s-units into the repeater.

And, when the repeater is transmitting on the same frequency the home station won’t even receive that.

You probably doomed yourself and your loved ones by placing an artificial and unrealistic constraint on your communications when you adopted the constraint that “the only source of communications is GMRS”. Like the others, I don’t understand why you’re packing around a repeater. What your scenario is missing is realistic planning. Instead of deliberately constraining yourself to GMRS you should ask what communications could help you in such a disaster. You should have a plan set up in advance that include near and distance communications, at least the ability to listen to outside communications to discover the nature and size of the disaster. You should at the very least be prepared to receive news via broadcast and shortwave radio. That means knowing where to tune and when. A huge step up from that would be the ability to respond on a variety of frequencies. Ideally, the communications gear you choose uses very low power while listening and capable of listening across a very wide range of frequencies. An example of a poor choice would be my FTDX10 ham radio transceiver. Yeah, it’s 100 watts output, but when receiving it uses amps. A better choice would be the Icom IC-705. Its receiver is plenty good and capable of receiving most frequencies from broadcast AM up to 470 MHz and all modes, so capable of receiving GMRS and its current consumption is only a fraction of that of my full size transceiver. With the right antenna you can listen to stations that are thousands of miles away. I don’t know if a MARS/CAP mod on the IC-705 allows it to transmit on the GMRS channels in an emergency, but honestly, GMRS is very limited as a true emergency band. Don’t get me wrong, having a bunch of people who have GMRS radios is infinitely better than tin cans and a piece of wire, but its reach is vastly more limited than other bands used by people who know exactly where to tune in an emergency. At least as important as the radio is the need to have a good antenna(s). Again, simply having an antenna isn’t enough. You must know its strengths and its limitations and how to get the most out of it. Many people think it’s silly, but those hams who take their wire antennas and throw them over a tree for Parks on the Air know exactly how to reach someone five hundred miles away with 10 watts of RF.

If you're considering a Motorola Repeater Station for your project, get something a little more modern like a Quantar with a professional quality duplexer like an EMR Corp type quality and a Laird FG4603 basestation antenna. You'll wish you did in the long run if you go cheap and use crap equipment. There is a reason why public safety agencies do not use consumer and amateur radio grade equipment on their systems.

Also, there are criminal statutes with severe penalties to falsely report emergencies by any means.

Let it rip with the questions. One person may not have all the answers but all together you should get your questions answered so fire away.

There's d-bags on both sides of the spectrum. The gmrs putz that calls out like an old cb'r and the over-compensating ham. I've seen both about equally.

Glad to hear that you finally got CHIRP Next up and running.

They do different things for different brands of radios. Typically the functions must be enabled in order to work. Both are holdovers from commercial radios. These functions allow someone who knows the code for your radio to send either a stun or kill message. That can be helpful for a company that loses one of their radios. When your radio receives a stun message it usually is disabled from transmitting until it receives another stun message. When it receives a kill message it usually stops working altogether and must be returned to the shop that configured it to be resurrected.

Good to know! More power would compensate for this loss. I think I need to borrow a mobile radio with power >20 watts and see what happens. I know where I can find one too

I am new to the GMRS world. I have been looking at the map here and see that some repeaters seem to openly list their input/ output frequencies, and some do not. For the ones that show the Input/ output frequencies, should I still send a request to use the repeater? Don't want to break etiquette.

New guy fron NOLA, WSAZ243. Sorry i dont have the answer for you, just thought I wold say hi.

Welcome! First we need to know specifically what you are trying to accomplish. The more details the better. Distance terrain location etc. The devil is in the details with radio.

In actual SHTF you're not going to worry about hitting repeaters, you're going to worry about your immediate family. The thing that's nice about GMRS is that your lisence covers most of your immediate family, which means you can supply them with radios. Perhaps you don't want to have someone use your callsign? That's 100% fine, pick up a cheap FRS HT from Walmart, you'll be able to use your own GMRS radio to communicate with it. After securing your family, if you want more communications with the outside world, use Ham, specifically HF bands, without using a repeater because as @WRXB215 said

When the grid goes down, repeaters may not be available either. Batteries and generators only last for so long. As far as satellites go, you can only communicate on them for a few minutes at best while they are in range. Then you have to wait for a while before you get another chance on another satellite. And not only that, the other person you are trying to reach has to be on the same satellite at the same time. If you want to use satellites at any given time you need to use something like the Garmin Rino. Otherwise it is really hit and miss.

There are more ham repeater sites than GMRS.

As @OffRoaderX indicated, starting out with ham radios is going to make it a little more difficult. I have some UV-5Rs and an AT-778UV so if you have any specific questions about those I may be able to help. The way tones work is the same across the board. Here is a few very basic pointers to hopefully help you get going: Simplex: radio to radio Duplex: radio to repeater (offset) GMRS offset is +5MHz. GMRS radios should already have this set on the repeater channels for you. Ham radios don't so you have to set it yourself. When using a repeater, RX will be a frequency 462.### and TX will be a frequency of 467.### with the same .###. See note above. Tones: Most repeaters use a "tone" on the RX or "input" of the repeater which will be the 467.### frequency. These tones are sometimes called PL or DPL tones, CTCSS, etc. but they work the same. When a repeater, or radio has a tone set on the RX, it will squelch out (ignore) any signal that does not carry that same tone. Therefore, you must use the same tone on your TX that the repeater uses on it's RX. You do not have to use a tone on your RX. Without any tone on RX, you will hear all signals in that frequency. Hope this helps.

It's H.A.M.! You passed a test, you should know better.

All of your radios are H.A.M. radios, so they probably won't be able to transmit on the GMRS repeater.. But, if they are unlocked, you can ignore the 'output' tone until you know what you're doing, and just use the input tone by entering that in your repeater-channel setup which will be specific to each radio. You have a lot to learn - there are no simple, quick answers.. Unless you had real GMRS radios, then it is actually pretty simple and quick to use a repeater.. but you have H.A.M. radios.. sooo...

Transmit (encode) with the Travel Tone and set your receiver for CSQ, and operate simplex from your vehicle and save the portable radio batteries as long as you can. Scrap the repeater idea. The repeater more than likely will require AC power which may not be available or if your repeater is DC operated than you will still need AC to charge the battery. Too much power consumption and battery up keep to worry about. Of course this is in case if the fan can't operate due to the public power system being off-line for a long period of time.

For sure, but,.. It's been my experience that it's gotten that way because of all of the hams putting the "ham flavor" all over the GMRS band.

No. It is a clone of the Radioddity GM-30 and not the UV-5R.

Please restate your original question with more detail about the two stations. Pretend I am 5 years old

lol My antenna cost more then my radio for a long time when I first got in to GMRS. don't let anyone shame you radio go out and have fun...

I'm taking my HT down the driveway closing my gate. carrying all the other stuff sounds to heavy. I would shelter in place where all my toys are... WASQ406

I got on the roof with a Nogoya UT-72G mag mount stuck to a roof jack. My brother had a Nagoya NA-F30G antenna from his back patio. Using cheap GM-5RH HTs, we were about to have a conversation. It was a little quiet; but not terrible. I can certainly hide a mag mounted antenna from the HOA. I'll probably try the Midland MXTA 26. I could go a little higher on the roof; but it would require significantly more coax to get down to my desk in the garage. From where I had it, it would require about 25 feet of cable.

So this setup will cause you to not hear transmissions from that repeater, unless they also have a code of 67.0 set on their transmissions? Why use a channel shared with a local repeater? There will be interference when both are transmitting, subject to the "capture effect."

No way you're going to get MY toilet paper... Nice try..

Perhaps it was the wrong receiving tone?

If only GMRS ops would adopt trendier-looking traffic vests and hard hats, they would get a bigger response

I totally agree with you WASI800! Operating legally is always the best route to take.

Even more simplified: if you were standing out in the clear would you see the repeater antenna with a telescope? Would you see the person with the HT without a telescope?

Your Baofeng and the hypothetical baofeng standing next to the repeater have 6 inch antennas, low quality components, and output only a couple of watts.. The repeater has (probably) a perfectly tuned 10-foot or larger antenna, (probably) very high-end expensive and very sensitive components, and is outputting (probably) upwards of 50 watts.. So not only can the repeater hear everything much better than your $19 Baofeng, but it can squirt it's RF electricities many more fars as well.

Chesapeake-575 Repeater https://mygmrs.com/repeater/8199 I just installed a simple 2 radio setup with a small Duplexer at my home in Great Bridge Area of Chesapeake. Its only up about 20 ft currently but I want to get it raised higher sometime this year once I get my antenna tower installed. If anyone is interested in trying to hit my repeater in Great Bridge, Chesapeake its is at the link above, just do a Permission Request and I will give you the PL Tone Info. (462.575 mHz) I am currently working on trying to improve it but I think I am getting aprox 6-8 miles coverage.

Not to many in this area. Tabb repeater over in the Newport News ares works good with a pretty good coverage area too. I’ve hit that repeater a few times when over in that area. Nothing over here on the south side. I noticed a listing for a repeater popped up in the Chesapeake area but it quickly disappeared. I’m in Virginia Beach and have been thinking about messing around with the idea one day. Just haven’t got there yet I guess. LOL.