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It shouldn't.. .but, that is no guarantee.. I have one of the cheapest wifi-cameras you can buy mounted on my Jeep's 3rd brake-light/license plate bracket, and my antenna is mounted about a foot away above the passenger side brake-light (see image) - i've never suffered any interference.

This is just an "I think", based on owning a couple... from what I see, the Amateur Radio and the GMRS radio are the exact same radio, in every way, shape and form. What distinguishes the GMRS radio from the Amateur Radio is the stickers, labeling and what firmware is loaded at the time of sale from the manufacturer. Again, making assumptions based on past experience owning some of these, the firmware for all versions of the radio are likely stored in a controller memory. Because each radio is identical, all 3 versions of the firmware are stored. There is a BIOS (Basic In/Out System) that is independent of the firmware loaded. The BIOS will look at the boot options and see if there is a command to go to a boot menu or load the stored data in the EPROM (aka ROC/Radio On a Chip). If there is no indication to load the boot menu, the BIOS loads the current radio configuration, memories, restrictions, etc.. If there is an option selected to load the boot menu, the BIOS will load the menu. Depending on what you pick, if anything at all. the bios will flash the EPROM with the firmware stored on the controller memory and then reboot, loading the new operational state. This is why all of your saved memories and settings gets wiped when you change modes/types. Just to recap what I mentioned before, in Ham mode, it only allows transmitting on ham frequencies. On GMRS mode, you can only transmit on the pre-programmed GMRS frequencies stored in a memory channel. In normal mode, you can transmit on every frequency from 136 MHz to 520 MHz.

No, I think it’s going to be the increment of change in frequency when you are in VFO mode and go up or down in frequencies. It isn’t relevant for GMRS.

Looks like everyone was right. Not enough horsepower that battery pack. So, I got a charge controller for my solar panel, 7ah battery, mini inverter and all is well in paradise. Should have posted this sooner and saved myself the headache. By the way the Ammo Can looks great. Thanks for the help.

And the best price I find for a top quality made up cable with pl259 connectors is this M&P 50 foot cable. This is what I have: https://www.gigaparts.com/ultraflex-10-pl-259s-50-ft.html I didn’t check for ABR, but their cables are pretty good too.

I don’t have one but by far the folks who have them are very positive.

M&P is about the only "upgrade" from LMR400, unless you go to hardline! This site will custom make the M&P in the length you specify, with or without connectors: https://www.buytwowayradios.com/messi-paoloni-mp-uf10-mr.html

You can order a 75 foot coax cable ready to go from DX Engineering. It is DX engineering brand 400MAX. It is available with PL259 or N Type connectors. The cable with PL259 connectors is $137 and the cable with N Type connectors is $140. DX Engineering 400MAX cables.

I can't speak about the Melowave antenna, but their NMO magnet mounts are good to go. I use one for my 38" Comet 2x4SR antenna on the back of my SxS. I am currently running a KG-1000G as my base station and a KG-1000G Plus in my car and they are good to go.

Mine came with its own little monitor that is mounted on the front-dash.. from the time I put the Jeep in Reverse, until the image shows on the screen, is about 1/2 second... and as far as I can tell there is no transmission delay - the image is 'live' with no lag.

Yes, it makes a difference if you are in VFO mode and going up or down in frequency. It is not relevant to transmitting on GMRS but it is relevant for receiving frequencies in VFO mode..and tuning up or down in frequency.

I use DX Engineering 400 Max. Good stuff. They will make whatever length you want. https://www.dxengineering.com/cableconfigurator/cabletype They also have assembled cables in 75 foot length's with either UHF or type N connectors. Type N is better for UHF frequencies. https://www.dxengineering.com/search/department/cable-and-connectors/part-type/coaxial-cable-assemblies?N=brand%3Adx-engineering%2Bcoaxial-cable-type%3A400max%2Bcoaxial-cable-length%3A75-ft

I think GMRS is rad, I got my license but just don't have a lot of people in east San Diego using repeaters. A new one went up recently and I actually talked to a guy on it which was kinda cool, other than that I have never had a radio check come back to me on the other one. I got my HAM license and it is night and day, tons of good strong repeaters on peaks, lots of people talking and through a linked system I can hit my house 100+ miles away from down in the desert.

@WRVY822 A GMRS type certified radio is not supposed to allow you to transmit on both HAM and GMRS at the same time. Some radios appear to get around the separation of hardware issue by wiping out the programming every time you switch from one service to the other and only allow you to transmit on one service at a time. There are HAM radios that can transmit on GMRS frequencies but you are not supposed to use them for that. I do not have the radio in question so I can't tell you what it actually does, I can only tell you what it is supposed to do.

It would be ideal if Gigaparts had a 70 foot piece of M&P as Boxcar suggested You can splice them as you asked, or you could: 1. order exactly the length of 400Max you need with ends installed on it from DXEngineering or 2. order the 100 foot cable and two extra Evolution connectors (M&P makes great connectors) and cut the cable to the exact length you need plus an extra jumper. Gigaparts has the best prices on Evolution connectors and they come in packages of two. If you decide to splice two made up cables together with a barrel connector, but sure you use a good quality barrel connector. I recommend Amphenol. That will minimize any losses. As @WRXP381 mentioned you could just order bulk cable and install your own ends. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Why not just order a 70 foot cable from Gigaparts?

If you haven't played around with it yet, I've been kinda addicted to the websdr.org website. Listen to all sorts of HF, VHF and UHF in real time from receivers all around the world over the web. It's a bit of a learning curve but it's fun. So I picked up a USB SDR dongle for around $50 a few days ago and hooked it up to my spare GMRS antenna. The antenna doesn't do HF at all but does seem to work ok on the VHF and UHF bands for the most part. It has also been a bit of a learning curve but getting I'm getting there, it's only been a few days. It takes a bit to figure out what kind of signals you are looking at on the waterfall. At the moment I'm just looking for normal FM repeaters but with software plugins you can decode DMR, Packet and all sorts of other signal types. I can also have it set to record audio only when the squelch is broke. Cool for recording your local GMRS repeater 24hrs a day if you want. Anybody else play with SDR?

For that diameter I agree. If you’re willing to spend some money and go to a larger diameter, there’s also LMR600, LMR900, and LMR1200. I watched some videos on installing connectors on the larger cables the other day. The tools cost more than my radios! Of course M&P has similar diameters and performance cables.

Message withdrawn, I can't delete completely.

This gives me a better understanding now. I'm not doing much in VFO as of yet, so this wont have any bearing then.... BUT ill leave it at 12.5 for now. Thanks all.

If people don’t buy first generation there often aren’t second generations.

Yea, I know of one analog smart net system still being used today. Anyways, if you have eligibility 90.35 (a), then it's only time & money at that point.

I have these radios and use this software. You want channel 28, which is repeater 6 (RPT-6). Set the input tone to 141.3 and you are good to go. As Steve mentioned, the manufacturer has apparently locked the channel frequencies to maintain certification, but you can select the tones. The OP (Crash1) can do similar, with whatever channel/freq/tone combination corresponds to the repeater he wants to hit.

I'm no math wiz, but it's probably a wash. The connector with an extra 18 feet (totaling 68 feet) of coax will probably suffer the same loss that a solid 100 foot run would. Just make sure to seal that up good if the connector ends up outside.

Abbree AR 771 GMRS antenna has been working great for me both GMRS and Ham frequencies Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would say the Wouxun brand is the better brand of the Cheap Chinese Radio junk.

For my 70cm gmrs hts. I usually use what is supplied with them. Aka my motorola xts5ks. For my ham radios (2m/70cm/aprs and gmrs) I have found stocks antennas are ok. But the stock rubber duck antennas did the best job trying go across such a wide bandwidth. Even the signal stick was barely an improvement on the 878uv, caused intermod issued with the Feng bf8hp for me at least. For my gmrs hts I usually swap them for Nagoya 701c and they perform admirably. The harris xg100m. The long high gain antenna works the best. It's tri band and is adequate. Real short, stock rubber ducks work fine. If it is a gmrs specific ht. I found the Nagoya 701c a good antenna. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Comet makes nice antennas. M&P cables are excellent. I haven’t tried the Airborne. It’s lighter in weight than their Ultraflex or Hyperflex because it uses copper clad aluminum as the center conductor (exactly like LMR400).

I think I will pretty much echo what everyone else has been saying. 1. Elevation/line of site is king. see the below chart regarding my own situation. I can hit the repeater with 5 watts at 50 miles, but if it were not for the elevation, there is no way. folks have hit the same repeater with a hand held from this area. 2. Quality coax. I use LMR 400. one end has the pl 259 connector the other has a n type connector into a antenna switch. This is a build your own cable through dx engineering. The shot below shows the antenna connection to the switch. switch can select from gmrs to sdr. 3. SWR, its more important for xmit, but a tuned matching circuit is better than one that is not. Bottom line is you want as much real energy getting to the antenna, or from the antenna during reception. Best of luck, all the information presented here is good stuff.

Seems like it would be listed under GMRS but instead they make you search for it. Here is the link to the GM-15 Pro on their website.

I have not. Genuine LMR400 is only $1.62 per foot: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/tmv-lmr-400 400Max from DXEngineering is $1.45/ft.

Have been using SDR's for a long while now, as well as software defined military radios. Wat made me break into the amateur side was finding out that Icom was supplying the first few "black box" receivers for the Predator (RQ-1, surveillance only, no Hellfire missiles back then) fleet. The civilian versions of the PCR-1000 had some issues, like being able to be opened up like those purchased for military/export use. Now, like others have mentioned, I monitor my own networks with SDR receivers, and the HackRF is better than the cheaper USB versions, but it is so easy to just carry along a small USB/antenna and listen to what is nearby. For portability, I used a re-purposed Hinge Health Amazon Fire tablet and SDR# with USB dongle. For the money, great combination and makes the tablet useful again. My newest "scanner" would be a Uniden BCT-15X (possibly a handheld Uniden floating around somewhere), as the SDR USB sticks are on every older computer now, doing something at some point.

Yes, SWR is a transmit function, but losing 3 dB is still signal loss, so yes, the length of the cable WILL effect receive!

Out of curiosity what distance did the map indicate? Is the repeater on the left side of the graph? The higher one? You do have some terrain in between. The line will turn green when the path is in the clear. It may still work somewhat but that is likely part or most of the problem. And yes better cable is very important as well.

Resistive losses in coax cable work in both directions.

Hello and welcome! What is the terrain like between your antenna and the repeater? GMRS is UHF and is mostly line of sight. It can penetrate some amount of vegetation and homes etc but not hills or mountains. Use this Line of Sight mapping tool to check your path: https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ In the pop up graph you can input the height of the antennas for more accuracy. Start there.

It's been my experience that you might hear them, or in the case they are using another CTCSS setting you'll see the signal bar on your display indicate a signal reception from their radio. Pay attention to the, "listen first" as well.

I was going to say the exact same thing. and just so everyone knows, the newer UV-5Rs do not suffer from the horrible deadly spurious emissions/"dirty transmitters" like the early models that you referenced.

If you want APRS, get an amateur license and quit trying to make GMRS into something it wasn't meant to be. All you people wanting to turn GMRS into a clone of amateur radio need to just get their licenses. Sent from my SM-S911U1 using Tapatalk

Incorrect.. If the (factory) box says "GMRS Compatible" as stated by the OP (and it was not written in crayon) then it is the GMRS version, which is FCC Part 95 approved for use on GMRS meaning they are perfectly legal and within FCC guidelines to transmit on GMRS with.

My wife and I took a driving trip last week to Utah and Arizona. We spent most of our time in Southern Utah. Ahead of the voyage I looked up all of the listed repeaters in the areas we would be travelling. I requested access to three repeaters and received a response from one repeater owner (thanks WRVI568). I loaded everything onto my 935G+ and used it with a mag mount mobile antenna. I also loaded 2m repeaters into a VX-6R with a stock antenna. I eventually just used the stock antenna on the 935G+ as well. I scanned GMRS channels and repeaters most of the time. We drove through multiple National Parks where I heard the only GMRS traffic for the whole trip and that was on FRS. I was scanning on 2m and heard a short communication out in the middle of nowhere on simplex. I did test a couple of the repeaters to make sure I was getting out. We stayed out of the larger towns and mainly stuck to the scenic routes. We carried radios when we did some hiking but stayed together so we never used them. When we got back to Northern Arizona I scanned railroad frequencies with the 935G+. I'm a nerd and enjoyed hearing the EOT signals and occasional yard conversations. In AZ we drove old Route 66 from Williams to Needles. Really enjoyed the Burma Shave signage. It was a great trip. That is how I enjoy using radios when travelling.

As it's been said, and will be said again.....if you must buy junk, buy cheap junk.

Voice scramblers (inversion scrambling) won't prevent the tones from being scanned. Audio will just noise, but the tone still gets transmitted in the same place.

Why would it be a problem if someone use your repeater? Is there some harm to you or your repeater if someone does use the repeater? It's like you setup the entire backyard for a BBQ with all kinds of food and drinks and you only invite yourself to the party. Owning a repeater and not allowing anyone else use it is like having a party for yourself only. So, what is the point of having a repeater and only you uses it. Who are you going to party with?

Haven't dealt with that website lately, have ya?!

You don't need your own linked repeater, all you need is permission to use an existing linked repeater. That is, unless you have money to burn and you want your own repeater. I used Zello once, mostly because I don't want to use it twice. Not a fan. Linked GMRS repeaters are a hot-button issue across the GMRS universe. Some people like them, some don't, some say they're allowed, some say they're not, some people who had them disconnected them to avoid potential trouble with the FCC (should the FCC ever crack down, which is unlikely). It depends on what you think GMRS is for and how you interpret Part 95 rules. Endless arguments are raging to this day. I would say that if you're this interested in linked repeaters, get your amateur radio technician license and play with linked repeaters to your heart's content. Amateurs have it figured out. I have some pretty strong opinions about linked GMRS repeaters.

As noted by WRYZ926, the sequence is a bit difference. Definitely use a standard cable tester and couple the OEM cable to your new cable build for testing. The indicators should light up like a normal cable. FWIW, the extension I made took 6 tries before it was of sufficient quality. Hang in there. YOU CAN DO IT!

I've heard you can use a PO box to register with the FCC. That's the only way I know of to prevent your personal address from being listed in ULS.

I'll take a solid pass. Way, way to much money, even though I'm positive it's a great radio. I used a pair of ICOM MURS handhelds and couldn't get 1 full statute mile out of them. Measured output was 1.2w on high. I sent my son the the school parking lot and he went out of range before he got there. Just for grins, I called out to him with my bullhorn and he could hear that. Could make out what I was saying, but he heard it, which was better than the radios. So, while you're mileage may vary, it's a whole lotta nope for me.

Thanks, i read that entire thread but because it is 7 years old, I thought there might be some updates/something new/different - the options mentioned in that thread also did not meet my need of 'easy to use' or 'plug and play' .. But, thanks anyway. Hoping others have more helpful input.