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Who cares? People prefer posts that address the issue rather than what you do or don't do or think. People are asking for answers or guidance, rather than some irreverent comment from lurkers. Reviewing all your posts I can think of, you have not offered any help or guidance but only a snap remark about YOU.

That guy is just a shill for the cheap-chinese-junk radio manufacturers!!! he is a commie that will say or do anything that his chinese handlers tell him to do!!!!!!! HE DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A HAM LINCESE SO HE SHOULD NOT EVEN BE ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT RADIOS!!!!1

My take is that you cannot get an accurate SWR reading on an HT antenna without specialized equipment. I also think you should stop overthinking how imperfect you low-cost/mass-produced radio is and just use/enjoy it. If you want a high-quality 'performance' radio, you're going to have to pay a lot more for it.

And we’re so glad you grace us with your superiority.

Great write up. The only thing i would suggest (living in a heavily wooded area just outside of town myself) is to get that base antenna as high as possible. 30' might not get you very far. I had my repeater at 30' with subpar to OK results. Over the weekend i got it up to 50' and man what a difference. I used a 30' aluminum flag pole as the base, then attached 20' of 1" aluminum electrical conduit to that, and mounted the whole thing to the back side of my garage. I now easily get 10 miles out of it. Not too shabby for a 2 watt solar powered neighborhood repeater. Have fun with your new hobby!

No, you print the official copy, as the FCC will not send a hard copy of any license anymore. GMRS and ham are 1 page (ham has a place on the bottom to cutout and make a wallet carry version), but commercial licenses can be multiple pages.

No Sound. I could see the RX indicator flashing active traffic on the channel but the radio lacked any audio. I had just tried programming today with software and I (mistakenly) activated feature 34. Once I changed RX Hopping back to "OFF" the RX sound is working again. Just an FYI.

Ms. Carter, Really, as WRXB215 suggests, the best thing you can do is attend either a nearby GMRS club, or perhaps even a ham radio club. The concepts are exactly the same either way.

Are you getting paid by the post or something? Do you get a bonus for pointless/meaningless/non-helpful comments? Or do you do it all for free just so you can revel in the joy of trying to display to everyone how smart you think you are?

Yah.. Sorry.. I'm just learning all this socially ree-tarhd-ed stuff.

Been watching a lot of Randy's videos and he has a lot of great content. I have learned a lot just by watching.

That's way more expensive and involved than mine. Lol. The long and short of it.... I put mine together on the ground and lifted it all as 1 solid piece. I cut the top off the 30' flag pole (3" at the bottom that tapers to 2" at the top). I then slid the first 10' section of 1" electrical conduit about 8" in and drilled through both and used 1 1/2" metal screws to secure them together. Then i used a clamp like they show in your video to attach the last 10' pole. I also drilled through that clamp and added a few screws to help secure it even more. I then wrapped all those connections good with Gorilla tape. Then i mounted the j-pole, ran my LMR-400 and zip tied it all in place. The hard part. Being a holiday weekend nobody was around to help. So i grabbed my extension ladder, propped it up against the garage, and pulled the whole 50' mast up little by little until i had about 20 feet resting on the roof edge. Grabbed another ladder and climbed up on the garage and lifted and pulled until it was 90% erect. Got off the garage and lifted the rest of it up and in to the base of the mounts. From there it was just tighten up the mounts, fill my hole for the base and done. Probably not the best way to do it, but it worked for me, and is budget friendly.

That 6 db difference is true for 100 feet of LMR400 compared to 100 feet of RG8x, but for any other distances the losses must be scaled up or down according to the distance. For instance, at 200 feet, the losses through LMR400 will be about 6 db (3/4 of the power is attenuated), but the losses through RG8x will amount to 18 db, meaning only 1/64 of the RF power reaches the antenna; 63/64 is attenuated. Putting that into ERP values with a 6 db antenna and 50 watt output radio, 12.5 watts makes it through the LMR 400 to the feedpoint. Then the antenna adds 6 db gain so the ERP is 50 watts. For the RG8x, 50/64 watt makes it to the antenna (0.78125 watts) and the ERP is 3.125 watts.

Just an FYI Since the UV5R-8W was not listed in the Chirp Next drop-down menu today... I tested/used the BF-F8HP selection. That allowed all 3 Power settings to be selected during programming, instead of the 2 power settings as recognized for the UV5R drop-down model choice. It's alive! I hope this helps someone. UPDATE Today 03-31-25: RE: Programming change - UV-5X HX: I purchased two of these radios together/ same purchase, but never opened the 2nd UV5R-8W until just today. The #1 unit above has been/is still working great. Unit#1 has been updated with several new channels numerous times. Unit #1 is always updated using that saved BF-F8HP Chirp code plug--since the beginning. However, I just tried to copy that same working code plug into my Unit#2 and discovered a minor issue. A trial of full factory resets and numerous edits in Chirp did solve this issue. Everything else transferred correctly to Unit#2 and the radio worked well ---except the Power-up Message--- it would not display my call signs to match Unit#1 and always reverted to WELCOME. Thus, I found a Baofeng page that advised me to use UV5X for Chirp. I then read the radio (Unit#2) as a UV5X, then entered the call signs in this new UV5X Chirp code plug, and uploaded it to Unit #2. All is now working as desired. I hope this helps someone. Update 4/18/25 I reverted to using the BF-F8HP selection in Chirp again to access all the power (1-5-8) levels this radio supports. The UV-5X selection limits the radio to Low and High only.

Good job figuring that out. I’m not sure I could have.

Probably. While everyone here knows that GMRS is not what the FCC refers to as "amateur radio," I'm betting the legislators, who probably don't know an anode from a cathode, intended to exempt anyone with an FCC license. That the text fails to do that is a matter of definition; the old intent-of-the-law vs letter-of-the-law thing. Same for law enforcement. I'll bring my GMRS license next time I'm in PA. "Look officer, here's my FCC license."

Got a pair of Tidradio TD-H3's a short while back and I'm pretty pleased with them Still haven't really tried them out a great deal. Wife took a walk with them to the park which was about 1/3rd mile away and they did well. Still, new toys to play with. There is a repeater about 6 miles from me that I can connect with, it's open which is nice. But it's still kind of far for the HTs to sound good. I decided to look into a repeater for myself just for something local. There is nothing nearby. I found the RT97 and started looking into it. It's a compact package with a somewhat low wattage transmitter. But it's pretty inexpensive and an all in one. Looking around I found it had been updated and now sports a DB9 connector that a microphone will interface with so it can also be a base station. The DB9 can also be used to interface with a computer or other hardware such as a Auto ID. I've had the RT97S for a few days but the antenna I got in the kit got separated by the Memorial day holiday as DHL doesn't do weekends and I'm sure doesn't do holidays. I ordered a Nagoya UT-72G Mobile antenna that I could get here quick so I could play. The programming is slightly different from the RT97. With the RT97 you use the power DIN connector to interface with the computer. And all of the videos I saw with the newer RT97S also showed the same thing. But when I got my unit it came with a USB to DB9 connector for programming. The instruction booklet is absolutely worthless as it doesn't mention how to program, what software to use, where to get the software or the sequence to program. All the videos I've see you plug the USB/DIN connectors into your computer and the repeater, fire up the program and the repeater takes power from the computers USB port to power the chip in the repeater. So this is what I did except plugging into the DB9 connector. No joy, the program wouldn't read the repeater so I couldn't even get started. Tried several times with no luck. So I decided to plug the repeater in by using the power supply and the DIN connector. Well that did it. Got my repeater programmed to what I wanted. It was setup with all 8 channels on high power, narrow band and PL encoded for 136.5Hz. So finally today I got my Surecom SW-102 SWR meter so I could make sure the antenna was OK and check the power output. The Nagoya seems to be tuned much closer to 467.5Mhz as I got a near perfect SWR, a 1.01 when I was using my TD-H3 transmitting on RPT1. When I hooked it up to the repeater I got a 1.28 SWR after moving it around on my truck to various spots. Settled on the center of the roof. I was also able to get 6.25 watts out of the duplexer. I guess I got one made on Tuesday morning before lunch LOL I wasn't able to do a real test of the repeater as of yet because the wife is away right now and the neighbor I am friendly with wasn't around. So best I was able to do was to walk around my neighborhood and use my call sign and repeater test so I could hear the squelch tail. I live in a crowded somewhat hilly area. The antenna was only 6' off the ground and the direction I walked in put it behind my aluminum sided house. All pretty poor conditions for testing. But off I went anyway. The farthest I walked was 2850 ft from the repeater but of course lots of houses, trees in the way because the antenna was essentially on the ground. I was always able to connect with the repeater. I have the antenna coming from Retevis and it's a fiberglass antenna, it didn't state what model number. The cable came in the repeater box and it's a disappointing RG58/U cable so I ordered some LMR400 and that won't be here til next week. I have one of two spots for the antenna. On my house chimney sharing a cell phone antenna mast that I have up already. Or at my wood shop with the same situation, a cell phone antenna on a mast. The house ground elevation is 62' and the shop is 162'. But the shop is also 2 miles from my house and I'm not sure how effective that'll be for covering the area near me. Not much of a review, for now. As I learn more about it I'll post it here.

I found this calculator searching around the internet. The only thing is minimum baseline is LMR-400 cable. I was hoping it would go down to RG58 so you could make comparisons. https://www.antennas.ca/calc_ERP.htm My little system with 6.4 watts out, 50' LMR400 to an antenna with 7.2dBi of gain radiates and ERP of 24.5 watts.

Well color me impressed. I did a very jerry rig on the Retevis MA-09 antenna just for receiving even thought I did transmit a bit. My 1st try was with my mobile antenna on the roof 26' off the ground. It made it 1.3 miles before it quit. The 2nd try with the new antenna only 3' off the ground I was able to make it about 100' before my house 2 miles. Only because the house is on a hill. And it's only about 15' down from the top of the hill. I was able to hit the repeater with the TD-H3 (4 watts) with the OEM antenna which isn't that great. So I'm still using the RG58/U (50') so effective radiating power is about 11.8 watts which is a far cry from the LMR400 that will be on the system when I set it up for real, 24.5 EFP and the antenna will be 30+ feet off the ground.

Yes, it’s frequently done. You’ll need an adapter to go from the connector on the radio (SMA usually) to the cable for the antenna which will almost certainly be a PL-259 connector. SO-239 is the female connector that mates with a PL-259.

Yes. That tends to work a lot better than an HT (with rubber duck) inside a vehicle.

The super restrictive programming is probably my biggest annoyance with a lot of the cheaper GMRS radios. My more expensive ones (in this case, KG-905Gs, so not SUPER high end stuff) let me program in what I want where I want, and enforce the GMRS rules properly for those frequencies. As far as I can tell, I could put a repeater channel in every slot of the radio. Pretty much everything else I have is jailbroken (with the appropriate rules programmed in manually) so I can set them up the way I want to. There's nothing in the GMRS rules that says "the radio can ONLY HAVE 22 simplex channels, 8 repeater channels, and if you're feelin frisky, a handful of DIY channels"

I just got the Baofeng GM-15 pro and its an awesome little radio, just at Witts end with the programming software not allowing you to program diy Channels as additional repeaters.

Are you new here? That's kinda what we do...

It sure will !!! real quick fast and in a hurry!!!

The grindr app will definitely help you decide.

@warthog74 Good thing you didn't have to worry about OSHA.

quick someone call the radio po po!

You used Menu #13 to set CTCSS as 162.2? I advise that you keep Menu #11 - Rx CTCSS as OFF. What happens when you attempt to access this repeater? Have you driven closer to it?

The RT15 handheld Retevis FRS radios state in their marketing literature that you can communicate with other 22-channel radios on channels 1-5. That tells me that other channels probably have squelch tones set that would prevent you being able to hear other radios on anything above channel 5 (unless you happen to figure out what tone is set in those radios). Set the RT15 FRS radios to channel 1. Set the MXT105 to channel 1 with no tones set (this should be the default configuration unless you've changed something). Now they both should be able to hear each other. And they should work compatibly on channels 1-5.

No it is not. We had some good storms over the weekend and it held up fine. Minimal sway at the top. It probably helps that it's all aluminum and the antenna is a copper J-Pole that weighs 1.5 lbs. So the whole thing might weigh 35lbs and is not top heavy. I lifted it up there by myself. I buried the flag pole 6 inches down, and drilled the mounts in to the studs of the garage. It's solid.

Thanks for the clarification, Steve. For followers of this thread, I have found this site after reading your posting, and since it offers more coax choices, it may be more useful than the OP's. Scroll down near the bottom and there is a set of calculators: https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/

100 feet of RG58 could be an issue. You can buy 100 feet of LMR400 and have far less signal loss than with RG58. I'm in the process of assembling the parts to put a GMRS antenna on a sailboat mast, and even though it's rather thick and heavy, went with LMR400 to avoid losing all the gain the antenna produces over the course of a 50 foot run. RG58 will have an attenuation of approximately 10.6db at 100 feet, whereas LMR400 will have an attenuation of approximately 2.7db. It's unfortunate to lose most of the benefit of an antenna through the coax.

As stated above, the NEC is minimum, the R56 manual is significantly above the minimum, but is a industry standard designed to protect the millions of dollars of equipment in the RF shack at the base of towers as well as prevent damage to other infrastructure connected from outside. Note, in the event of a lightning strike to a site built to R56, the antenna will be destroyed, and likely the coax on the tower will need replacement, but the remainder of the equipment should survive.

According to Retevis I have the MA-09 antenna https://www.retevis.com/ma09-high-gain-gmrs-omni-directional-base-antenna-us

Maybe you don’t, but it does seem to be a popular topic on this forum.

Channels 8-14 are not available for GMRS mobile radios to use(though it may be able to hear them). Try 1-7 and 15-22 check that all "privacy" tones are off. Read the manuals to find out how.

@WQNG647 I'm not aware of any QRZ type databases for GMRS. Have you tried any local clubs?

it is impossible for anyone to answer that question with the scant details you have provided, but here are some things to consider: You might just be too far away to hit the repeater or there may be something (mountain, forrest, etc) blocking the signal The repeater might be offline You might have the wrong tone You might have the wrong frequency You might have the right tone and/or frequency but may have programmed them wrong Probably 1,000,000 other things i'm not thinking of

Since I need a place to store all this stuff I put it into a box. Harbor Freight to the rescue and got one of their Apache boxes. Really wanted the orange... But figured this would be much better to keep it out of view instead of screaming here I am. Storage/camping/bug out box, call it what you will - it keeps things organized.

Well there are some people who can only think in big, commercial ways. If you are putting up a repeater it has to be on a 60' pole up on top of some mountain. And while I'd love to do that I'm not in mountainous territory and I don't really want to spend lots of money putting up that type of equipment for something that may end up just being a dead end hobby. I got the 2 talkies for my birthday. I asked for them. Normally I ask for tools for my woodshop and my family kinda frowns on that because they think I work too much (I do). So this time around I decided to just get something that I can play with and tinker around. I'm not trying to be this big community member and solve everyones repeater problems. I'm doing it so I can communicate with my family and friends and just have something different to do that doesn't involve wood working.

Another thing to consider is static electricity. Static will build up on your antennas and has to have somewhere to go. I would rather have static electricity go to an outside ground versus following the coax all the way to my equipment. The links provided are worth reading, even if they are long.

I have never read the entire thing, so I’m in the most people category (when I’m not busy being “some people” (credit to @OffRoaderX).

But I'm not "most people" I'm "some p..." wait, scratch that.

Or if your really bored or really want a proper ground system read this... https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/Lands_ROW_Motorola_R56_2005_manual.pdf

That ^^^^^

Although GMRS is in the name of the site, the site also caters to ham radio interests. Radio is radio. If you’re so up-tight that the inclusion of helpful information about a radio triggers you, then you probably aren’t getting much enjoyment out of anything. Learn to ignore posts about non-GMRS radios.

Nice job documenting the problem. Ignore the naysayers. They’re just upset because you’re smarter than they are.

Ditto, as much "wind" as some here would like to blow about this or that FCC Rule you're only going get busted if you're jamming a repeater, broadcasting on Emergency Service Frequencies or talking about something illegal like a drug deal or other criminal activity. Just talking to friends and family about normal,everyday stuff won't even be noticed by the FCC.

Yep the GM-30s / GM-15 Pro are some of the best sub 100$ GMRS radios and I'm seeing more out there in the wild. I think between friends and family we have 8 or so. Super easy to use and charge.