Leaderboard

The pedantry behind the rules perpetuated by the community wanting a straight answer, and the bureaucracy not giving a straight answer, instead opting to encourage reporting if it's needed, tells me that the actual stance on the issue as of this moment is "if it isn't a problem, don't worry about it."

What radio are you using? Do you hear the beep while pressing the PTT or after you release it. Some radios will beep if you are trying to TX out of band.

You’re right. The wire leading from the center tap of the SO 239 becomes part of the radiating element. For that reason they are usually connected directly to the radiator or with a very short wire.

It’s entirely possible that the repeater has a courtesy beep programmed. Some do. If so, you should also hear it whenever anyone else transmits. It’s also possible that your radio is programmed with a Roger beep as 709 suggests. If it’s that it will beep every time you transmit, regardless of the channel. Rather than depending upon the beep, try asking if anyone hears you while you PTT.

https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-905g.html Click on "Downloads". The Wouxun cable is (IMHO) a step above many of the other K-type cables, but looks like it is sold out. You should be able to use a different one.

Assuming you do not own the repeater, you should ask the repeater owner if the system is capable of multiple PL groups. That type of setup was commonly used back in the day for Community repeaters, where each user group (plumber, HVAC, Landscaper, etc.) had their own PL tone, but they all shared a common frequency, and each user had to monitor to make sure that the repeater was not in use by one of the other groups before they would Key up on their PL. If the repeater has Multiple group capability (Every Kenwood TKR-850/851 came with that feature right out of the box) then it's simple to just request your own separate PL tone for your group. Expect to pay for that feature if it's available. Listening to a repeater's output in Carrier Squelch would defeat the purpose of having a separate PL tone. Set up properly, your daughter would only hear you when you keyed up using the special PL tone. Other traffic on the repeater would be nothing but a flashing receive light on her radio. It's 1970's technology, so don't expect any actual privacy or miracles - but it would do what you're asking for.

Moisture bearing vegetation is even worse than houses full of .. .fat people!

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.

Printed some cradles for my 2 new BTECH GMRS-Pro's. Show us your GMRS related 3D prints

Buy Two Way Radios is the importer and also work with Wouxun to develop these radios for the American market. They are the source for the sales, software, service and help.

Nice!

Yeah: When the 308 guy gets tired or goes back to his old repeater, this one returns to normal! Whenever I hear him on his home repeater, I go there and tell him he is not allowed to be transmitting that stuff on "this repeater" and he gets obstinate and stays there longer!

I have the talkpod and was impressed how well it works on Chirp. I also bought the 8w version. Now my wife and I don't fight over radios. I think it can use a better antenna for the airbands but maybe I don't live that close to airports. I also found that the modulation sometimes overdrives the local GMRS repeater. Between radio to radio, they sound ok. Oh and the mic is up near the volume knob which is a little weird. I do like how the small button below the PTT can be programed to transmit on the B band. I also programed the top red button to scan. For the price, can't be beat but wish there was more control of the mic gain. My DB20G radio that I just installed in the car was also over driving the repeater so a fix I did was to transmit in Narrow Band but that's not the best fix. These radios need to come with a better way to control mic gain.

Good advice.

Whether it is clear or not the FCC did not answer 527's questions. Typical bureaucratic non answer.

Are you talking with your friends on the trail, or trying to bounce signals off the moon and talk to strangers across the planet? If you are using your radio for talking to your friends on the trail then SWR of 1.4 is fine and SWR of 2.4 is good enough. Stop overthinking it and just enjoy the radio.

Hams have been using house gutters for antennas in HOA restricted areas for years.

No, the FRN hasn’t expired. Just make sure its information is up to date and buy a new GMRS license.

The 462.675 MHz frequency is the receive frequency for your Anytone or UV-5R radios. 467.675 MHz would be the transmit frequency. That's either directly entered or entered as a +offset of 5.000 MHz. The input tone is the tone your radio must transmit using CTCSS. It's an input to the repeater so the radio you have must transmit it. The output tone is the tone that the repeater sends out (transmits). If your radio is set to a different CTCSS tone for receive it will not reproduce transmissions from the repeater. However, if you don't program a receive frequency into your radio, it will not filter any transmissions and you will hear everything transmitted on that frequency. I usually recommend that people leave the receive frequency empty until they know they have the transmit tone working and that they're activating the repeater. Some software requires that you set a MODE. Usually the choices in the MODE column include Tone or TSQL. Tone means that your radio will send a tone, but not require one coming back. That's the same as leaving the receive tone empty as described above. TSQL means that your radio will remain squelched (silent) until the correct tone is received. If you have the wrong tone, you'll hear nothing if you turn on TSQL. Good luck!

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.

Then you probably should have said that, especially since the OP is a self-confessed n00b and prone to confuckulation and at a very impressionable stage in his radio career.

If the repeater cant hear you then how can you kerchunk it?

When: 2/24/24 @4:30 PM Where: Five Guys, 7321 Atlas Walk Way, Gainesville, VA Who: Anyone interested in radio https://fb.me/e/6le81jZPo

Actually I just watched a video on the YouTubes showing how to get the Roger Beep set on the GMRS Pro, Oh Happy Days.

I like mine . It’s one of the best radios BTECH has. Only thing is I wish there was a exoskeleton made for it and a way to protect the screen. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Make sure Radio Certification Type is set to none in the cps. I learn unless it is a certain type of battery, the radio goes into a hissy fit if it is set to UL

Hey Michael, yes they are preset from 23-54 and a +5 offset is preset. I do use Chirp and I did try adding a repeater set up on channel 102 this morning and it does transmit as long as you are in a gmrs frequency. So if you wanted you could fill it up to 127 with repeaters. Also you don’t have to stick with the frequencies in their preordained order. You can change things around say if you had a different order you wanted. The offset can be changed also. It won’t let you add any non Gmrs channels for tx though, just receive. For that you need it’s Ham cousin the GT-3WP and yes that can be unlocked… though I would never ? One thing I would add is I did adjust the squelch parameters in chirp to dial out unwanted noise in scan mode. This seems to have different sensitivity from radio to radio for whatever reason. Gil

Almost all repeaters have a tail delay, meaning that after you stop transmitting, the repeater transmits for a second or so after you un-key. So, say something like "This is WQYV590, testing." When you un-key, listen for the transmit tail.