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GMRS uses FM, frequency modulation. One of the characteristics of FM is that a receiver “captures” the strongest transmitter on a frequency. It will do so regardless of the tone, because the CTCSS or DCS has nothing to do with reception. The tone is only used to determine whether or not to audibly reproduce the received signal. So, if your wife and somebody else who is closer to you are using channel 17, you might never hear your wife. That is why aircraft do not use FM. Instead they use AM or amplitude modulation. An AM receiver can receive and reproduce multiple signals on the same frequency simultaneously, allowing a person to break into a conversation if needed.

Be careful!!1 I have read that the rubicon guy is just a shill for cheap chinese radios and will say anything the manufactures tell him to say!!!1 I know it must be true because the people that say that have been licensed ham radio operators for 20+ years, it says so right in their forum signature!!1

There probably won't be too many folks using MURS though

Yes, there will be interference.

Only if they are held vertically. In any emergency zombie situation, the safest way to hold an HT is horizontally. That way, only other users holding their handhelds horizontally will hear you. It's the polarization equivalent to a CTCSS tone.

Good advice. And remember, UHF will only get you so far. That may be far enough but if you intend to reach for hundreds of miles, you are going to need HF. To use HF, you will need at least a Technician license. And that only gives you a little sliver of HF. Bumping up to General opens up much more HF.

I agree. Another reason I'm very grateful to those who do.

Just save your batteries until everyone else's batteries die.

Like almost every such general question, the only possible answer is “It depends.” For short range communications to a group, FM VHF and UHF (including GMRS) shine, if and only if you have plans for what to do in the event of a disaster, interference, zombies with RDF equipment, etc. You must have backup plans as well and backups to those. Yes, I believe you need ham radio in the mix and a way to monitor shortwave and broadcast bands. The news you eventually piece together from a GMRS handheld using simplex and its short ranges might be like playing the teenage game of Gossip.

Half joking here, if everyone is on 17 move to 15. seriously though if you are really planning on GMRS as a SHTF family plan have a secondary channel choice to go to should your first choice be in use.

So far the best luck I have had using the UV-9G has been the Nagoya 771G. I think I ended up using a bit of emery cloth to shave it down a bit as it was a snug fit on that radio. The Signal Stick is a great antenna but I don’t believe they make one tuned for GMRS specifically so like the UT-72 that’s probably not your best choice. I have no experience with the UT-72G. I agree with @WRQC527 ,being that it’s tuned for GMRS it’s going to do better than the UT-72 . Real world testing will beat speculation on how many fars you will get. If you can get up on your roof or a ladder safely you may get some idea of the improvement height makes and think of a base station with an antenna mounted higher. If you know where the repeaters are this line of sight tool may help in seeing your path to them. Oh and shout out to @WRQC527 nice deduction on the key strokes

Welcome to GMRS Addicts Anonymous. Yep, great bunch people here.

Channel 17 and channel 17rp both receive on the same frequency. That's why you hear the same chatter on both channels. But the channels marked rp differ in their transmit frequencies. They are for specifically configured for repeater use. A radio set to channel 17 receives and transmits on the same frequency, 462.600 MHz. That's referred to as a "simplex channel." A radio set to channel 17rp receives on 462.600 MHz, but transmits on 467.600 MHz. That's the 5 MHz offset Randy (@OffroaderX) mentioned. The repeater receives on 467.600 MHz and is designed to simultaneously transmit what it receives on 462.600 MHz. Transmitting and receiving at exactly the same time is called duplex.

Thanks. I did get some of them programmed in. FWB-C-view-and South walton and milton. I have a TID radio TH-8 coming today. It's fun doing this at Almost 78 yrs old.

Still have a few here thankfully. The closest is run by a local Ham.It’s good to try and use local people over Amazon when you can so these places are still here next year.

I started with GMRS one month ago. Got my Ham Technician's license earlier this week. Doing a deep dive into both methods of communication for emergency preparedness. My goals are 1) communication with my wife (empty nesters, so just the two of us, all kids live out of state), and 2) information gathering. Having a good scanner at home, as well as HT's that can scan emergency channels, is my immediate goal; along with finding a secure way to communicate with my wife. Eventually would like to set up mobile GMRS and/or Ham and base station at home. A lot to do and to learn, but figure one step at a time and eventually I'll get there.

I've thought of that, but then wonder if the whole GMRS band might be overwhelmed with traffic in such a scenario. I live on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area. GMRS offers limited channel capabilities, so it could be that that portion of the band is rendered unusable. Overall, it sounds like a combination of communications methods might be in order. So, GMRS, Ham and scanner. Right now I want to find the best option for communicating with my wife between home and her work. I work from home, so that would be my base station so-to-speak.

I am truly honored and humbled at your presence..... ....and thanks for the warning hahaha

It is. But it is not the only way. The solution, if you will, is a toolbag full of useful tools. Each one has uses and limitations. GMRS is limited to UHF, and a few channels. Ham radio, on the other hand, includes a buttload of frequencies on VHF, UHF, HF, and many different modes. Lots of us have both GMRS and amateur radio in our toolbags. The more options you have, the better your chances are of successfully communicating.

Never feel like you have to apologize for asking a question, especially after trying to find prior threads. Welcome to the site.

You’re pretty negative towards other people’s posts lately, cherry picking things to be snarky about. Is everything all right?

All that computer libertarianism aside, I haven't paid for Windoze since XP; and even that was in a program called SoftWindows (or VirtualPC, who can remember that long ago...) to run Windows on a PowerPC (IBM-Motorola-Apple) Mac! When I discovered that various wireless radios programming software needed to be run in Windows, I sucked XP out of that program, and armed with my serial number, I reinstalled it, first into BootCamp, when Mac went Intel, and then into Parallels, when I wanted to be able to run Windows and MacOS concurrently (like needing to use copy and paste between environments). And that worked for me for years, hand in hand with Chirp for certain radios that were lucky enough to have been reverse engineered by those dedicated radio hounds! And then sure enough people started asking me questions about how to program certain radios that only had Windows CPS software and they only had Windows 10, or gosh-forbid, Windows 11, and did not even know what XP was! So I had to break down and install an upgraded version, but after some research I discovered Windows 10 and 11's dirty little secret: You do NOT need to activate it! Now I do not know if this is an after-result of the MicroSoft antitrust settlement, or some other "business reason," but it works perfectly fine if you do not activate it. Now Microsoft is not going to give you any technical support, but after all, all I am doing is programming radios! AND, I turned off Auto-Update, because, well if it ain't broken, why fix it?!?

Yep, 72G gmrs... (fixed thx). Thanks for all the feedback, I'll get researching/watching asap! May order a couple trial antennas and go from there.

Often called a double. Usually ends up with a mess that is incomprehensible. Sometimes it's unknown and unavoidable, but it's one reason you should pay attention to other traffic around.

You end up with a cacophony of incomprehensible signals. Sometimes the strongest signal will win.

A lot of mutual interference and signal jamming. That of course depends on the length of the transmissions and power levels. Long winded communications using 50 watt mobiles would be the worse case.

I would think that if there is traffic on the channel, then even though you have filtering codes setup, you would still have some kind of interference such as garbled communications, spotty reception, etc. I am curious what the smarter-than-me folks on here have to say.

I'm assuming you mean the Nagoya UT-72. Share with us. Are you looking at the UT-72 amateur radio VHF/UHF (144/430Mhz) model, or the UT-72G GMRS (462-467 MHz) model? The reason I ask is because you will likely get better performance from the UT-72G GMRS version. Amateur radio antennas and GMRS antennas are generally not interchangeable because they are tuned for different frequencies.

Hello and welcome! The correct answer to the question of how far can my radio reach is always "it depends". Everyone's situation is different. The only way to know for sure is to test it for yourself. Here is a video series that should help clarify it for you. https://rumble.com/v28lefh-vhfuhf-ht-maximum-achievable-range-part-1-series-intro.html https://rumble.com/v28mw9j-vhfuhf-ht-maximum-achievable-range-part-2-understanding-line-of-sight-and-h.html https://rumble.com/v2mztaz-vhfuhf-ht-maximum-achievable-range-part-3-output-power-and-antennas.html

A GNU/Linux op system if for those of us who refuse to pay Bill Gates/MicroSoft for the privilege of being able to use our computers and don't want to give up our Freedom to a Large Major Company who(if you read the End User Lic. Agreement) basically gives MicroSoft permission to take over their computer and install or uninstall anything that THEY feel the need to do. You also have to pay money for that slavery. Why more people don't simply download a good Linux Distro and do the install is beyond me. Linux is actually much more user friendly than Windoze is in that it doesn't FORCE updates and force you to use what they say you can use. There are so many Free and Open Source programs that you can use under Linux to do "stuff" without the need to pay for or otherwise compromise your machine to a Major Corporation. I do all my video editing with Kdenlive for FREE and it works as well as any of the paid programs that you'd use in Windoze. On those rare occasions where I must use a .exe I can install and use WINE to run them FOR FREE so I get the best of both Worlds in a manner of speaking. People who think Linux is still ALL Terminal based and Hard to use haven't given a good Linux Distro a look in quite a while. Linux Mint or one of the Ubuntu flavors are just as easy(if not more so) to use as anything MicroSoft has put out and you don't have to Sell your Soul to the Devil to use them.

Also, other repeaters are not the only possible victims of interference from a linked system where distant stations cannot monitor local outputs for traffic. Simplex operators on those eight 50W simplex/repeater channels can also negatively be impacted.

Now that I have the SWR figured out I deployed my portable repeater back to compare it against the copper J-Pole I had there last week . Working like a champ and I can hit it at many fars...I changed out the KMR-400 coax which I learned was not the best choice for repeaters with M&P Ultraflex 10.. So far so good... Not always a handy tree to hang it..

Hello everyone! Probably a dumb question, but here it goes... Is there a specific GMRS channel that could be considered "For emergency use only" kind of an homologous to channel 9 in CB? I am aware that for the most part, GMRS is for local communications, but I was wondering if I happen to be somewhere, and there is an emergency, if there is a specific channel considered as such that I can use to call someone (assuming it is somehow monitored)... Thanks!! WRJA906

Feel free to use these anytime. Please feel free to use the Fort Walton Beach, Crestview and South Walton anytime. There are some good folks that are usually monitoring the Fort Walton Beach repeater that can help with any questions you may have. you can also see a few on a list I have compiled here. If you would like a bigger list you can send me an email from the contact page on the website listed above. Hope to hear you on the air soon.

LOL! I suppose it's because I've never installed Windows before I don't know what the install process looks like. I've installed various *nix systems and I use Windows daily but I've never installed Windows.

1: YES - you also have to add the correct "TX" or Transmit tone .. The RX/Receive tone is optional 2: GMRS is not primarily intended to "get into conversations with others" - but if you insist, just call out and ask if anybody wants to talk to you. There is no protocol other than talking normally and using your GMRS callsign at least once every 15 minutes.

New member here. Just made my first successful transmission on my way home from work as I drove past the repeater (that seems to be the popular one near me). I use radio waves every day at work but this is more fun...Have a couple new antennas on the way and I'm sure this is only just beginning...Pretty excited, and the folks here have already been more than helpful as I'm beginning my quest.

@Sshannon Ok, I get it now. I just wasn't seeing the target market. It's all making sense now. Even with so many of their advertising photos of farms I still missed it.

Coffee, bar soap and toothpaste

Tires, whisky and ammunition.

Or stock up on enough toilet paper and trade it for batteries!

This line of sight tool is awesome, thanks! I'll probably start with the nagoya 771G...make sure my life insurance policy is up to date and climb up on that roof...

A better antenna would be the logical place to start. There's quite a few Antenna Tests on the YouTubes that you can watch to see which ones are giving the best fars. Most see to say that the Nagoya 771G is a good choice, other's like the Signal Stick and rate it as the best. Your Mileage May Vary. Randy(Notarubicon) has some good videos on his YouTubes channel that talks about getting more fars, I'd check them out.

Not at all. Midland markets entire systems to the agriculture sector as nearly plug and play systems. I wouldn’t be surprised if their GMRS radios make up half of the market.

Its internal connections are faulty; return it for a replacement.

Used to be able to go to Radio Shack.

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

Because they all have a better signal/are closer to the repeater than you, and you have an HT with a small antenna/are further away/have more stuff between you and the repeater. The best thing you can do is connect to a bigger/better/external antenna or get closer to the repeater. A mag mount stuck to a cookie-sheet placed up high/near a window can work great.

Yes that helps a ton, thank you for all of the information, very informative. It seems I'm not able to hit any repeaters except the one with hardly any signal. Interestingly enough, the UV-9G is only able to hit it sometimes with a Nagoya 771G antenna and seemingly never with the GM-15's antenna, where the GM-15 stock antenna on the actual GM-15 radio is able to hit it consistently. I think I'll return the UV-9G and maybe keep the Nagoya antenna. Thanks again for the help.