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Hello, You are free to use 1-22 for TX/RX (transmit/receive). Unless you’re in a densely populated area of radio hobbyists, you may seldom if ever receive a response on those channels via simplex (handheld-to-handheld) simply due to limits of range. If you are hearing RX frequently on those channels, and still never get a response (for example roadwork, daycare, schools, etc) it’s likely because they have tones set on their radios to not hear unintended traffic. If you can, I suggest grabbing an inexpensive radio to loan a buddy who will do simplex tests with you. Fun, of course, and really helpful to understand the behaviors of 462MHz propagation. Additionally, see this link for the GMRS channel chart, specifying usage parameters: https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FRS/GMRS_combined_channel_chart Have fun!

If you have a ground plane (radials, through hole mount on roof of a car, cookie sheet, etc.), then you can use almost any antenna design, 1/4 wave, 1/2 wave, 3/4 wave, 5/8 wave. If you do not have a ground plane, or your ground plane is too small, you must use a no-ground plane antenna, such as a 1/2 wave or 5/8 wave. Of course, both of those work better with a ground plane. This is a good article to describe the radiation/gain patterns for the common types: https://practicalantennas.com/designs/verticals/5eights/ Of course, the benefit of 1/4 wave is its the smallest of the designs, and is very wideband, but the 1/2 wave is only 12" for UHF and can cover the entire UHF band (380-512) acceptably as well. 3/4 wave is 16-18" and is more narrow band (but can cover UHF ham and GMRS), and 5/8 or 5/8 over 5/8 is the largest. The ultimate decision depends on which compromises you are willing to take. Since I already have a 1/4" wave VHF antenna (at 18" tall), placing a 1/2 wave UHF (12" tall) 20" from it wasn't much of a compromise, I got gain, a better horizon radiation pattern, and didn't increase my clearance requirements. I do only use antennas with a base spring because he 18" VHF hits on parking garages I regularly have to park in.

I'm a budget minded radio hobbyist, which means that I'm an avid consumer of the "cheap Chinese junk". I've possessed all variety of Baofeng, Quansheng, QYT, Talkpod, Radioddity, Retivis, etc. My experiences have been mostly positive. Some QC issues occur at a higher rate than higher priced "known quality brands", but they all DO essentially work. When factoring in the price/value ratio, there's simply no debating whether or not they're worthwhile purchases. Furthermore, when you move away from the $30 category into the $50-80 tier of such radios, It's been my experience that they're mostly excellent, especially when accounting for the value relative to the $200+ options. (Secret time,.. Those radios are made in China too). And say what you want about the Chinese makers of radio equipment, they seem to be very active in being a driving force in innovation and care about what people in the space ask for, and then they do their best to bring it to market. Quickly. If you choose to not be a consumer of such products, that's ok, but you should at least appreciate that they're there applying pressure in the market. Anyone who follows the radio YouTube space is familiar with how often these guys are being sent radios for testing, get pretty honest feedback about the shortcomings, and then revisions are made to solve the problems. That's a pretty remarkable thing for a market sector in the US that if left to the mainline brands, we'd be pretty niche and neglected. A prime case example is the TidRadio brand and the TD-H8 model. A relatively new entrant in the market. The early versions of the H8 had problems, honest feedback was given, and revisions were made. I've waited until I've reached a bit over 30 days of ownership to write this review. Initial impression: Very good build quality. feels "weighty" and stout in the hand. Powers on to a standard logo screen and defaults to a dual VFO display screen. One pet-peeve I have with some of these Chinese made radios is the font choice of the characters. Please stop using seriffed fonts. It's an odd look for a display that should only emphasize utility and readability. Another thing that I found to be a bit of a detraction was the mushy feel of the PTT button. This is less of an issue for my use case because I have my example of the radio mounted down statically and operate it with an external speaker mic. But if I used this radio daily in HT only form, I'd probably really have an issue with this. On day one, when trying to use the bluetooth programming function, I found it to be broken because it wasn't properly saving my repeater shift information. I later found that it was my mistake because I wasn't doing so with the "repeater designated channel" but the simplex one. I now know that the bluetooth programing of this radio does work perfectly fine, but I'll stick to the Chirp method just because of the ergonomics and familiarity that I have with the format. After prolonged use: The handful of cons listed above seem to be the extent of anything wrong with this radio. It probably should be mentioned HOW I deploy this radio. I've made it my primary home "base" radio. It's mounted statically on my desk, with a hand speaker/mic, and via LMR-400 coax to a 9db gain GMRS yagi outdoors about 17ft high and rotatable. I have my reasons for wanting to operate this way. A low power draw radio that operates from a self contained battery. I don't require a high amp power supply that requires mains power to operate. I could even get it charged with solar if need be. Maybe you're getting the idea of why that might matter to me and why I'm of the mind of wanting that. So with that being said, I've been in search of an HT style radio, but, one that has a bit more balls than the standard 3-4 watt options. Anyone whose done the same thing might be familiar with how frustrating that search is, with all of the gaudy and fake Aliexpress (false) advertisements of 8-10 watt HTs. The TidRadio TD-H8 is genuinely a 10 watt radio (picture below). Which means that it straddles the line perfectly between a more powerful mobile and a less powerful handheld. With a 9db gain antenna and 1.4db loss across a 50ft run, it provides for an ERP of 57.8 watts. Which has been good enough to simplex my mobiles solidly in a 12 mile radius, and reach repeaters full quieting at least 50 miles away. The way that I have things configured, for my needs, I give this radio two very big thumbs up and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone trying to accomplish a similar thing. ::Edit:: I neglected to mention one important thing. There are two variants for sale of the H8. The GMRS and Ham versions. The GMRS version of this radio will be software locked to transmit at 5 watts. Fortunately it doesn't matter which model that you buy, because there is an unlock method that simply involves a button press combination at startup to toggle the radio into operating unlocked. You'll need to do this with either model to get it to both operate on GMRS frequencies, and also at the higher power. Ham mode will be the higher power but wont allow operation on GMRS, GMRS version grants the GMRS frequencies but at low power. Unlocked mode is the third mode that allows both and both variants of the radio can be toggled into it..

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?

Big news in the myGMRS world: we have beta versions of a brand-new iOS and Android app ready for users to test! Android Users On your Android device, go to the Google Play Store and search for myGMRS or click here. Install the current app version (1.3.0), which is the older version. Once you've installed the app, you will see a Join the Beta section on the Google Play Store listing for myGMRS. Join the beta test by tapping Join and wait a few minutes. You will then see a new app update available that will install the 2.0.0 Beta version to your device. iOS Users Use the following link to join the public TestFlight beta for myGMRS: https://testflight.apple.com/join/ZrWc4Dkm We're eager for feedback on these apps, as we've been working diligently on creating a unified modern app experience that will allow us to add features more easily in the future. You can share your feedback in this thread.

Dummy - each tone cancels half the interference from the S.A.D. HA.M.S.

Using your photo above, you have Channel 25 in the A Bank and VFO in the B Bank Hit the FUN button to enter Menu Mode and use the V/M and Main as up and down keys to run to Menu 19:DSPSUB. Using the Up and Down arrow keys your selections in this menu 19 are: Off, FREQ, VOLT and it looks like you are in FREQ mode in Menu 19, which is correct for dual monitor. Hit the FUN button to exit Menu Mode for now. Now Hit the Main button to swap the B Bank VFO into the top (main monitor) and A Bank Channel 25 goes to the bottom (secondary monitor). You can now exit VFO Mode and have the B Bank enter Channel Mode by hitting the V/M button and then select your secondary monitor channel using the Up and Down Arrow keys. Hit MAIN to restore your A Bank Channel 25 to your Primary monitor and the newly selected B Bank Channel goes down to the Secondary monitor. Unless you find a way around this upcoming problem that I will note, I do not like this feature because I find that whichever channel receives a signal first will take priority in the receiver. So if I am listening to a conversation in the A Bank and they let the carrier go and at that moment someone hits a carrier on the B Bank Channel, it will take priority on my receiver and I cannot hear the other party's response on the A Bank. Maybe there is an option around this, but I have not yet found it, so I go back to Menu 19:DSPSUB and turn it to OFF and just use the single monitor.

It was a three year old thread.

It wasn’t “starting to sound” like anything but crickets. You’re trying to stir up a thread that was dead almost exactly two years.

What is the leangth of the LMR400 you used ? Shorter the cable the better it will work. If you copuld mount the repeater just inside the shop 10' below the antenna I would think you would have much better results. Remember its still 3db of loss per 100' so even 50' of cable you will loose some power to the antenna. At 50' of cable you only getting about 4 watts to the antenna.

In my 40 years in the commercial LMR world I've never installed an antenna with a loop below it. Not really sure why folks think its needed. None of mine at home or at any of my tower sites have a loop. Most have a drip loop near the bulding enterence but many have proper antenna line feedthrus to eliminate water ingress at the location.

No coordination.

Yes CTCSS is set to 162.2 RX CTCSS is off. Nothing happens no repeater anything. The first of the week I have a ride and we will go right by it I will let you know what happens. Thanks for all your help

At least some of these appear to be ham radios. Are you sure that the frequency limits are set to go into the GMRS range and not restricted? Not having some of these radios I’m not sure if you can check this but I am able to see and even change the frequency range on some of my ham radios in chirp. GMRS radios are preset with the offset on the repeater channels so you likely wouldn’t be able to change the offset in them. I use a Mac as well and have no issues with it for programming using chirp. One more thought, when you program your radios are you copying from one radios settings in chirp and dropping into others? Is it possible you changed a setting in other radios without even knowing it. It’s a good idea to always save your previous program when making changes. Hope something here helps. Good luck.

Ask for a signal report. Radio checks are what you ask your wife for when you want yet another radio.

I was reading the CHIRP python code for the RA-87 and spotted a few interesting sections: 1: A listing of the actual (targeted) power level for each of the power settings (low, low2, low3, mid, high). POWER_LEVELS = [chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low", watts=5.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low2", watts=10.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low3", watts=15.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Mid", watts=20.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("High", watts=40.00)] 2: The programming indicates that the "left" and "right" side of the radio have rather independent memories. This is also described a bit in the manual. But to be a little clearer, the radio is marketed as having 200 memory slots for programming, and while this is correct, 100 of them are the left side, and 100 of them are the right side. In the highly unlikely event that you would ever need more than 100 repeaters programmed into your device, for example, you would need to program some of them into the left, and some into the right. For GMRS this is not terribly significant; though there may be a few people who use a lot of memory banks, I suspect that most of us aren't using more than 100. If you need <100 total, then you could make left and right both contain the same things. But I suppose for those who want many configuration combinations for GMRS frequencies, you could burn through 100 and have to start using the left side and right side for separate configuration storage. 3: The CHIRP driver for the RA-87 sets "VALID_BANDS" to [(400000000, 480000000)]. It would be interesting to see what happens if one added more ranges to VALID_BANDS. (Bricking the radio is a possible "what happens", though.) This seems to align with what others have posted, that this radio will scan frequencies between 400MHz and 480MHz but not outside that range. It does look like tuning steps can be set to 5, 6.25, 10, 12.5, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, and 100 (kHZ?). 4: The RA87StyleRadio class definition sets _gmrs = True. I imagine this results in allowing transmission on GMRS frequencies. In searching the code, I do see other radios setting _gmrs = True, or False, and see that other common settings for other radios are _ham, _murs, _pmr... with appropriate bands set in various ways. There is another thread on mygmrs where the question is asked whether the RA87 can scan 2m frequencies (and another comment that the manual doesn't mention any such capability). It is possible that this is simply not a capability of the RA87 hardware, but it would be interesting to modify the CHIRP driver for the RA87 to replace VALID_BANDS = [(4000000000, 4800000000)] with VALID_BANDS = [(1440000000, 1480000000), (4000000000, 4800000000)] ...and upload that to the radio, hopefully not bricking it in the process. I'm sure that adding _ham = True would cross over the no-longer-type-accepted line, though. And who knows if the radio would die a sudden death if one were to key up in 2m. For anyone who wants to look at the CHIRP driver code for this radio: https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/repository/github/revisions/d644af4b89c8edfe1b59f2f4aa929fc725056edd/entry/chirp/drivers/retevis_ra87.py

As some of you may know, we have been trying to get myGMRS integrated into CHIRP, a popular open-source radio programming software created by Dan Smith, for several years now. I finally heard back from Dan in December and shared our API (Application Programming Interface) resources to him and test credentials for the website. Given that this was a new feature and a big convenience to users, we wanted to offer it as a perk to Premium Members of the website who support our efforts to be the go-to GMRS community. Dan expressed concerns about having any paid services such as RadioReference.com in his application, because developers would be unable to test unless they had a membership at the website. We agreed to table the discussion until we had a solution for developers to test the myGMRS integration, and he implemented the new feature into CHIRP-next, the next generation of the CHIRP application. Dan released a version of CHIRP-next on December 24th with myGMRS integrated into it. Yesterday, I sent Dan an email letting him know what changes to expect to the API once I require accounts to have a Premium Membership to download repeaters through CHIRP, so he had time to make the required changes to show the appropriate error message rather than a cryptic "Got error code 403 from server" message. Long story short and omitting the gory details, Dan decided it was best to completely remove the myGMRS integration that he had finally added, rather than work with us on how to reach an amicable agreement that makes everyone happy. We offered several solutions to provide developers with Premium Membership so they could test the feature, eliminating the concern from Dan. We are surprised by this but respect his wishes, even though it hurts the GMRS community which utilizes his product for GMRS and/or Amateur Radio. Understandably, I know many people will wonder why this wasn't just a free feature and that be the end of it. However, myGMRS is a small business and it needs to be profitable to survive. myGMRS is a one-person operation (not withstanding all the amazing members who contribute the repeater listings and forum posts) and it takes considerable resources to just to keep the lights on with there being so many users. Since the founding of RepeaterFinder, LLC, the corporate entity behind myGMRS, I have not taken a salary. We intentionally minimize the number of advertisements we show because we hate ads too, but they alone don't cover the cost of running the website for nearly 50,000 users. Very few members have been kind enough to support us by subscribing to a Premium membership, so we're always looking for new perks to add for Premium Members to draw more people to sign up. To those who do support us, I sincerely thank you! If you'd like to utilize the myGMRS lookup feature and are a Premium Member, you can download the last working version of CHIRP-next from 01/09/2023 here: https://trac.chirp.danplanet.com/chirp_next/next-20230109/ If you receive "Got error code 403 from server" when trying to authenticate to myGMRS, it means you do not have an active subscription and you can subscribe by going here: https://mygmrs.com/profile/subscriptions You can see the commit notes from Dan regarding the removal here: https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/repository/github/revisions/12301814e238458766f1f7bf06476b39a4e3ab93 Here's the original ticket tracking the feature request: https://chirp.danplanet.com/issues/9169 Thank you for understanding!

Hey, we're hear to serve. Others are not obligated to respond to your transmission, so the only thing you may get back is that hissing sound -- especially if you are the only one on the channel. Next time try something like, "WSAW335, radio check please." If anyone is listening there is a good chance they will respond. BTW, pushing PTT without saying anything is called "kerchunking"* and is considered bad form. Don't worry, it's happened to the best of us. * https://www.amateurradio.com/proper-kerchunking/

Two weeks ago I discovered that my RTS software corrupts memory when using the features that RTS built into the software. I was editing a DMR codeplug and I used the built-in editing functions to edit the order of channels. To its credit, when the corruption cause the editor to throw an error it offered to send in the stack dump. The next day I received an email that basically said they could see what I did that caused the error: I used the functionality in the editor. I truly appreciate the responsiveness of their customer support. I like their editors (I have six of them) when they work, but I lost a lot of confidence in using their editors for DMR.

One caution about hiring “handymen”, be sure they are licensed, bonded, and insured so that in the event of an accident they or their estate don’t sue you.

I kind of lean towards the Comet 712EFC myself. I took down my Commscope DB404 and replaced it with the Comet (up about 65') I'm at 1250' asl with the lowest elevation in my area being 700' (Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela rivers)

So I’m getting ready for a setup similar to this on my Toyota Avalon but mine will be attached to bike rack rail across the roof. The antenna will be over my roof “not attached” so technically I won’t need a ground plane since I have the roof correct ?

While technically not an accessory, RT-Systems programming software is always an extra "cha-ching" that makes life easier with a new radio. Also, cig lighter car charger is another one I usually add to the kit.

I was at my typical Thursday night radio coffee group get together last night. One of the guys had a good setup for a ground plane for a mobile antenna mounted on the rack behind the truck cab. I took a couple of photos to share on the group here. Might give a few people some ideas to try out.

This Motorola mic is a little over 30 years old and still in new like condition and I can still use it on my HT1000, MT2000/MTS2000, and my XTS series radios. It has had a lot of use over the years.

Since, I don't have a need or can I use a radio on 700/800 MHz, and I am not a HAM dude and never will be, and I don't intend to use MURS for anything, I don't think I would ever have a need for a multi-band APX radio. I thought about getting a single band APX radio for UHF just so I can learn about that series a little more but, I just haven't done that yet, maybe on a rainy day when I am bored and want to spend some money for the hell of it. Since, I've had my GMRS license(s) since the early 90s, I guess I am one of those GMRS old dogs and UHF suits me fine.

A lot of people on limited budgets or just dipping their toes into amateur radio and/or GMRS will use a hand held radio connected to a magnet mounted antenna in their vehicles. While a 5 or 8 watt hand held won't reach out as far as a 20 - 50 watt mobile, radio, it still works well with an external antenna. I ran a magnet mount antenna with my Baofeng GT-5R hooked to an external antenna in my car for a while and had no issues getting into the local repeaters. That allowed me to save up for and research what mobile radio I wanted.

Continue asking questions. Answerable questions are great. You didn't mention what GMRS handheld you have. Some models like Midland handhelds don't allow for removing the antenna. But in the GMRS realm that's less common. Nevertheless, before buying an antenna and an adapter, do make sure you are able to remove the one that came with the HT

I usually do both. I will ask on a forum but also research online. I like asking because at times people will elaborate what usually works for them and what to stay away from. Along with that, friendships are often made when asking through a forum. A tad more human interaction in forums; something that is lost searching videos over the internet. I hope I did not cause you any distress by asking.

Welcome new Mygmrs members @WSCD623 and @WRKW564

New to the forum, WRKW564, Athens, Ga.

Most likely that's just BS. Manufactures still stick crap like that on their products hoping some will believe it. https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/07/ftc-says-companies-warranty-restrictions-were-illegal

Every repeater in a given state, for now. Later on I will add a zip code radius search so you can narrow it down further.

Just an update that Premium Members can now export a CSV file compatible with CHIRP from the myGMRS Reports page: https://mygmrs.com/reports Note that there was a bug in CHIRP that prevented cross-tone DCS codes from importing properly, but this has been fixed with today's latest update of CHIRP-next.

The English on that webpage is suspect, but that aside, it says this is for making a cross-band repeater (RX on UHF, TX on VHF or visa-versa) - that means that the two radios sitting next to each other would not be much of an issue. But if you set your radios to work as a GMRS repeater (RX on 467.xxx and TX on 462.xxx) there would be much desense (the radios making each other deaf because they are too close) unless you set them at least 10-15 feet apart... But I've never used something like this so I would like to see what anyone with experience has to say. Something like the Retevis RT97 would do exactly what you want, but it costs a bit more.

The only thing important is the call sign you are using is listed in ULS as belonging to you.

The answer to your question is "NO" .. Weird that after so many words, the question still had not been answered.

I can't even begin to describe how ignorant and arrogant you sound. You clearly have zero practical experience in amateur radio, how the operators are integrated within local, state and federal emergency response plans, nor the overwhelming success the amateur radio community has had serving in actual national emergencies. The assumption that every operator is a decrepit, overweight, old man whom needs rescuing is laughable at best. Sorry @OffRoaderX I know that has Sad Ham written all over it... but I have to draw the line somewhere. LOL