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I got my GMRS license a few weeks ago and received my handheld radios a few days ago & started setting them up (still learning & trying to set them up lol). Well, I reached a local repeater and made my first contact. It was exciting to me so I just thought I’d share that. Thanks everyone for helping me with my newbie questions.

You have made it abundantly clear, many times, in many posts, that there are many things you cannot understand.

Shouldn't be an issue, as long as the transformers are not having issues. They should be well outside of near fields with the distance of each other. Just make sure tower can not intersect the lines in the event of a failure with a fall over. Don't forget to calculate the height with the antenna. One caveat pay attention to equipment grounding. Electrical hv transmission towers are like lightning magnets. This can attract near field (under a mile or so) strikes. Doesn't have to be a direct hit to damage to your equipment. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

For Trail Comm. it really won't do diddly to add a ground plane and most likely you won't be shooting skip anytime soon on GMRS. On my 23 IZARUBICON 2 Dr. I run a glass-mount Larsen antenna on my rear glass with great success. If I remember correctly, my VSWR on 462 MHz is 1.12:1 and on 467 MHZ is 1.6:1. As for my farz, I don't know what the difference would be in comparison with either a quarter wave or my Laird 1/2 wave 2.4 dB gain omni antennae. I just don't see much differences. As for my CB antenna, I am using a 5 Ft. Firestik II Tuneable Tip antenna and it is mounted on my Mopar Heavy Duty Rear Spare Mount Bracket. Mopar provided the means of mounting an antenna near the door hinge.

I operated a power plant for over 30 years and the antenna for our UHF site radios was less than 70 feet from a 72KV transformer and transmission lines. There was no special grounding for the base station or antenna (professionally installed). We never had any problems with TX/RX. Where I live now I have a GMRS j-pole less than 100 feet from 200+KV transmission lines and have no issues.

It is not the arcing so much. It's more of the large electrical discharge of a near by strike 1-2 miles away can generate large voltage spikes, almost as bad for electronics with out the same visual effect as a direct strike. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

It looks like unless he makes a surprise appearance, the OP got disgusted and left a while ago, leaving the rest of us to debate ad nauseum. I'd like to see him come back just to see if the problem he's ranting about ever got resolved, but I'm not holding my breath.

Update (Last): I got the 1000G Plus configured as a repeater and once again did the above traveling to test it out. The results were the same EXCEPT I went a little farther. Last time I got to 15.71 miles this time I went 17.1 miles. Which is about 1.4 miles farther and she was still hearing my “Loud and Clear.” This tells me I could go even farther. BUT since 17.1 miles is on the other side of town that we go to it is good enough for me. This experiment tells me that a repeater does work for the purpose I wanted and that was to allow my wife to use her Btech hand held and still communicate with me in town. I know some of you will say “So will a base station” but the limitations of a base station for us is that my wife doesn’t want to be “tied” to the microphone of a base station. Here is the equipment we used: 2 Wouxum 1000G Plus configured as a repeater, XLT Duplexer (DP-450X5N-50 from), 50 feet of M&P Cable, Smalex SEC-1235M power supply and the TRAM 1486 Antenna. For my Tahoe, a Wouxum 1000G Plus and the Midland MXTA26 6db gain Whip Antenna. For my wife at home she had the Btech GMRS PRO, Btech BS-22 (to activate the PTT on the GMRS PRO), and Airpods for a speaker. I know people suggested the COMET CA-712efc but I already had the Tram and if it didn’t work I’d get the COMET but as you can see the Tram works fine. This is the end of my updates. I’d like to thank everyone who replied to this post and gave me good advice and comments.

Yeah, back to the topic. While they are NOT cheap per battery, the Interstate DCM0075 battery seems to be a real workhorse and has a lifespan when properly float charged and maintained of at least 8 years. I have a number of these that were pulled at 3 years from being in tornado sirens that act as the battery plant for my 12 volt system currently. THe 12 volt system predates my 48 volt system by a few years and it's still going strong. The 48 volt system is similar but uses 110 amp hour batteries that are also pulls from equipment that by code has to have new batteries every three years.

Although they’re programmed this way, no regulation requires it. It’s inconvenient to people that buy GMRS radios, but there are several examples within the pages of this forum of repeaters that have a non standard offset, yet comply with regulations.

I wouldn't worry about 1.65 SWR. I run a Comet 2x4SR and the SWR on 462 MHz is 1.2 and 1.7 on 467 MHz. The SWR is also very good for 2m and 70cm. Are you going to use the radio and antenna for 2m and 70cm? If so, then check the SWR for 2m and 70cm before making any changes to the antenna. Also you need to know where the antenna is most resonant before making any changes. This will require using an antenna analyzer.

I used the USB-C Port on the radio (not on the battery) and i could not get it to work with one of my own USB-C cables, only with the cable that came with it.

EMF will affect HF for sure and can affect VHF depending on how strong the electromagnetic field is and distance from the source. I am surrounded on three sides by utility lines in town with two transformers (one south and one north of my property. And the neighbor's above ground service connection is on the fourth side. I haven't noticed any interference on HF, VHF or UHF.

We use to walk under transmission line, when I was younger. We would go at night with the old shop fluorescent bulbs. It was very cool how the lights would light up. You could make the emf waves in the light patterns, like ripples of waves. Now I am older I do not recommend it. Lol Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Hi Ziggidy, sounds like a good start! You should look to get the USB adapter for your Macbook. it will make programing both radios the same much easier. (for me, I have both a conventional USB adapter as well as the Multiport adapter) If you have a newer laptop, you probably need the USB C version (linked here) or (linked here). You still want to know how to program your radios manually but having software programing is helpful when you have multiple radios WRXP381 is correct on your answers, so you are covered there... -jc

Good job. Enjoy the hobby and have fun.

Nice job! This very thing, making contact on a repeater, is a stumbling block for many new GMRS users. I would say it is one of the bigger causes of discouragement among new users.

I'm just curious. Can you show us where this is codified?

@Sshannon we have mentioned that to them. The FRS base station was just talk since the grandson loves radios so much. Grampa is also our club's head VE so I don't see him breaking the rules. Again, gutting a legal FRS radio and putting the guts into a 3D printed body with the antenna permanently attached was just talk. I'm sure Grampa will get the boy licensed as an amateur in the near future.

Insofar as farz, you more than likely won't be able to tell the difference.

Here’s the forum for the nets: https://forums.mygmrs.com/forum/19-national-and-regional-gmrs-nets/ Here’s the forum for technical questions: https://forums.mygmrs.com/forum/3-technical-discussion/

Program only the transmit tone in your radio. Leave the receive tone blank or set it to TONE rather than TSQL. That will allow you to hear the repeater and anything else that’s on that frequency. Second, make sure you are close enough to the repeater to hear it. Many repeaters simply don’t have much traffic so you might not hear anything, but if you are close enough eventually you’ll hear something.

Well, I sort of have issue with that. But I also don't know if his situation changed, rent got increased or what motivated him to decide to do that. So I am not going to disagree with the actions of that repeater owner, because I simply don't know why he did it to begin with. I will say that there is a huge increase in GMRS users lately. I am getting 4 or 5 new requests per week, and I have one repeater that's linked and one that's stand alone. Both are seeing increased traffic month to month. And with that you are going to get some folks that have it in their head that paying for a license gives them access to anything they can program in their radio. Of course that's not gonna be teh case in all situations. And, you are going to have people that want to cause trouble, because it's their nature to do so. You can always contact the owner and ask why, and if he's wanting a reasonable fee, make a decision to drop him a few bucks to access his repeater. He might just give you permission since he's not had problems with you to begin with. It's hard to say.

Welcome! You first have to identify a repeater that you want to use then look up that repeater on the map on the main MyGMRS page there you will find the info for that repeater.

14 hours of continuous operation in VHF & UHF with no issues, but zip going on in the HF bands.

They all work decently. Even the Rtlsdr off of Amazon, usually to $20-40. It is usually what I buy for friends (usually with a minimum with rabbit ears. Then tell them to look at the different consoles (software) to find what they like. Each console has a different feel and some are way more technical. Don't get caught up in to many of the recommendations. Nor the the technical like lna's, bias tees and long wires off the jump. It has a lot to learn. But first get your hands on a cheaper unit like an rtlsdr. I had a generic one (silver one) and it looks like Amazon is full of the Nolecs now adays. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Id suggest a DVM to start following the power runs on the RICK. I am guessing the RICK from the old radios gets power from another pin. You should be able to measure the pins on the old cables and see which one has 12V

My latest adventure at Uwharrie National Forest.

I have a hammer and a butter-knife, I can take anything apart.

Obviously you're already aware of this, but for those who aren't: Wide open deserts aren't conducive to 50-60 mile range from a handheld, because the curvature of the earth puts you out of line of sight. Handheld to handheld over perfectly level ground, each antenna at 5 feet height will yield about 6+ miles before the curvature of the earth blocks the signal. Pretty good range can be achieved over a desert if two parties are on plateaus over a desert valley, though. In that case, 50-60 isn't impossible. (update): And reading a little further in the thread I see you mentioned curvature of the earth, too. I wonder how the flat earth crowd explain the RF horizon.

While the recommendation of getting a good mobile radio is good, go with what you currently own or can afford right now. Many GMRS and amateur radio operators have started out with a 5 watt hand held radio and a magnet mounted antenna. That setup works for short distances on simplex and also works pretty good when using repeaters. A 25 watt amp will work just fine with a 5 watt HT when using a good antenna. @WRQC527 gives a good use case for using a hand held radio and an amp.

There's nothing wrong with these amplifiers. There are some valid use cases. Like if you need the power but you don't have anywhere in your car to mount a mobile radio, or if you want to use the same handheld both in the car and when you're walking around. Mount the amplifier under the seat or someplace out of sight where it gets airflow. I run a Yaesu FT60 amateur radio in a cupholder mount with a magnetic mount antenna when I drive my wife's Kia Soul. The five watts is fine around town but it would be nice to have that amplifier under the seat.

Welcome to the forum, but, if you are using GMRS to find new friends you have chosen the wrong hobby. GMRS is more for communicating with existing friends while driving, hiking, etc. For finding new friends/talking to strangers, ham radio or the Grindr app might be a better choice.