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I was once at the same place when I started with GMRS, i.e. thinking about getting a mobile. A wise non-sad H.A.M. advised I start with the antenna: "Forget the mobile radio for now, just plug your HT in to a mag mount on the roof and see what happens. When you go with the mobile you'll need the antenna anyway." A few bucks later I had a newfound respect for antennae. I drove that sucker to the top of a hill and everything lit up. Height is might, indeed. I'll leave the radio comparisons to those here who are more knowledgeable.

Assuming nothing is wrong with your current antenna, it is doubtful you will hear/notice much difference with a different antenna - and the kicker is that no-matter what anybody here says, no matter how many formulas they post, and now matter how many licenses they brag about having, the ONLY way to know for sure if it would make a difference is to buy the new antenna and try it. Stop over-thinking it and just use the damn thing.

What some people do for fun…..

I can see this both ways. Both as a "does it matter if I spend the least possible" and "does it matter if I spend hundreds". The real answer is spend what you are comfortable spending, as long as it has all the features for your situation. And remember, GMRS is BYOC (bring your own contacts), so you pretty much have to be ok with buying at least 2 of everything to talk to your wife/kids/granchildren/etc. That being said, ignition sense in the commercial radios is a huge advantage. My wife's car, it just comes on when it's started, and turns off 10 minutes after the car turns off. With the right settings, she hears nothing but me when needed. I don't have to instruct her or get her to remember anything. Grab the mic and respond is it. Worth spending the few extra bucks for the setup in her car.

The title of this thread could be interpreted another way. One could ask does the user care a lot about how much they spend on a radio? I know some on this forum have likely spent well past 4 figures on a portable radio. If I spent that much on a portable radio I would be reluctant to even take it out of the house. I have only purchased a few radios new over the years. The majority are clean used radios showing few signs of use. Even then I've spent maybe $200 to $250 at most on a used commercial grade radio. The more expensive used commercial ones tend to be FM/Digital types. Out of the later the FM/P25 radios seem to be noticeably more expensive than the other FM/digital types, especially the VHF models. Ham gear is a different story. Before the new TH-D75A was released the older discontinued TH-D74A was selling for a huge price premium above what they sold for new. I saw a few selling for above $1000+ on eBay. When the TH-D74A's were available one could buy it new for around $650.

Just when I think I've seen the most UN-helpful post ever, you come along and up the ante.

I was unable to pass them.

Don’t try to pet the big black fluffy things!

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no, he's just a social-retard and is incapable of expressing himself in a socially-acceptable way with other people.

It's repeaters identifying themselves periodically. 15-22 share the same frequencies as repeater output frequencies for GMRS.

What? Hopefully none. Now if you intended to ask: Are there any repeaters in ME? (Maine) We might be able to show you how to find them on the repeater pages of this site.

The 935G actually isn't. But I think that further illustrates your point. Half the price of an Icom, with a better front end.

One can't always got by the name on a radio either. I have an Icom IC-T10 hand held and it is not much better than my Baofeng hand held radios when it comes to picking up noise/RFI. The IC-T10 is a SOC radio. Granted the IC-T10 is Icom's entry level hand held. Where the IC-T10 does better is on RX/TX and rejection of adjacent signals. Plus the IC-T10 feels like a real radio versus a child's walkie talkie from the 1980's. My Wouxun hand held radios are both superheterodyne and do better than my Baofeng and Icom hand held radios. Neither one picked up the RFI like my Icom or Baofeng radios. The front ends also do not get overloaded like the IC-T10 or GT-5r/UV-5R GMRS radios do. The Wouxun hand helds I own are the KG-935G and KG-Q10H. The Explorer QRZ-1 fall in between the Icom/Baofeng and the Wouxun radios. The QRZ-1 is a rebranded TYT UV-88 hand held with a custom firmware. My testing for RFI was far from scientific. What I did was walk around the house with all of my hand held radios tuned to both VHF and UHF frequencies. Every radio except for the two Wouxun's picked up RFI on UHF inside the house. The biggest culprits of the RFI source is my computer monitors and TVs. Sorry for being long winded here. This goes to show that you can't always go by the brand name either. As far as mobile radios go, the Wouxun and Midland GMRS radios are hard to beat. Neither brand is perfect but they perform better than the cheaper brands. One can always go with Kenwood or Motorola radios if they can afford them or find used radios at a decent price. In the end, go with what you can afford and has the features you like.

And yet you seem to care so, so deeply. Enough to comment anytime you can that they should have bought a different radio.

Couple things to know about radios in general. First is power output. A radio that has V power output is going to perform the same as any other radio that has that same power output. This is assuming that both radios are transmitting a signal that is legal, where the harmonics are below the required level. Not gonna go into the weeds on that, but you can look it up. Then you get to features, menu items and the like. The multi thousand dollar radios typically have LESS features (higher end commercial radios) than a 40 dollar Baofeng or Btech. They are NOT designed or built for radio hobbyists, they are designed for public safety communications where the user just needs to talk and listen. Menu items all revolve around that and extra's are not there to overly complicate the radio. THe other modes like P25 have no bearing on GMRS because it's not legal to use P25, DMR or those other modes on GMRS. The service is limited to basic wideband FM analog communication. So we get to the last part, the receiver. And this is the part where the better radios will shine over the inexpensive ones. Things like adjacent channel rejection and front end filtering in the more expensive radios make them better. Mind you, if you are operating in a suburban or rural area that doesn't have a ton of RF noise and trash in the air, you may never see the difference. But we have taken a Baofeng and a Motorola HT1000 up 200 feet on the tower. The HT1000 worked as it should. The Baofeng would receive all manner of noise and garbage and was almost unusable. Taking both into a busy downtown area of a major city would show similar results.

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that I have probably used and owned more GMRS radios than anyone else here - and in my not humble opinion, the answer is "it depends" ... Usually, but not always, a higher priced radio will be better built, last longer and have more features than a less expensive one.. But not always. And, 50Watts is not necessarily the best - in most cases, for most people, usually, a 20W radio will give you just as many fars as a 50W radio when doing normal-people communications - your geography/terrain will usually limit your fars more than the watts, most of the time, on average, in most scenarios. For what you have indicated you want, I would say to check out the Wouxun XS20G or the KG-1000G .. If you want SUPER SIMPLE (but limited), look at one of the Midland 40 or 50W models. Based on my experience, and the experience of hundreds of personal friends (in my offroad/radio groups) and thousands of online 'friends', I would be cautious of the very cheap high-power mobile radios like the Btech, due to their high failure rate. Also keep in mind that EVERY manufacturer sells duds - so you will hear horror stories about ANY radio.. The thing to pay attention to is how often does that happen and to your point about customer support, how well does the company take care of them. Midland and Wouxun both have overall very good reputations of good support.

Hello all, probably got a stupid question for y'all to make fun of. I am slightly new still to GMRS. I got my Callsign about 3 months ago now. I have a simple 20' flagpole antenna and get good (~15 miles) simplex range for my needs. I'm trying to figure out how to avoid causing any interference when choosing what channel to set on my new repeater. There's a lot of repeaters within my range and my thoughts were on RP22 or 462.725 . I have not received anything on this channel and on the map the closest repeater to me that's on the same channel is about 50 miles away. I have tried keying up using the ctcss tones and get nothing, which leads me to believe it is out of range. I want to avoid disruption as much as possible out of respect for other GMRS operators. What's a fool proof method of avoiding interference? Obviously I will use "privacy" tones but is there more I can do to keep the air waves clear. I am almost ready to turn on my repeater system, but just wanted to ask this before I do. Edit: Thank you all for your input. I appreciate your experience and support. While this repeater will likely be open to all who draw near its primary purpose will be family communications between Pasco and Hernando Counties.

Sometimes I hear what sounds like Morse Code, but in the form of static bursts, not tones, as if someone is keying a mic. Some days this can go on for a long time as if someone is having a conversation. Mostly on channels 16 - 21. Any idea?

ISSUE SOLVED. OPERATOR ERROR. Solution is at the bottom. Past issue: Unboxed a pair of Baofeng UV9G GMRS HTs last night and have discovered that I have a repeater connection problem on Both of these UV-9Gs. I have contacted Baofeng for help. I hope they respond with an answer/ solution since I can't solve this. Findings: Simplex normal. No issues. Repeater channels= failure after programming in tone. I press the PTT -- both radios show channel change to the repeater offset channel, and the CTCSS indicator is present. Proper CTCSS code is installed. No RX CTCSS is needed or installed. However, there is zero connection/and the repeater does not open properly. The Repeater is active and opening as usual with my other HT radios here. After programming the UV9G several times in channel mode, VFO mode, and when using Chirp software = there is no improvement or clues found in Chirp or manually checking options on the radio. Every setting has been checked and compared to the manual, and also compared to my other working Baofengs. No clue. I also tried another antenna. I am starting to think there is a bug in the Baofeng (FCC compliant) GMRS radios connecting on repeater channels?? Another user on the forum is having like repeater connection problem with a BAofeng UV5G GMRS (FCC compliant) radio. I hope Baofeng answers with positive advice/tips..... SOLUTION: I decided to try a UV5R antenna on the UV9Gs... and now it works as expected on Repeaters! Findings: The smaller diameter UV5R SMA antenna threaded on fully --and made a solid connection. Radio then tested out great on hitting local Repeaters. Now back to our original antenna as shipped with. Further examination of the UV-9G/ Radioddity supplied antenna shows that installing this antenna finger-tight is simply not enough! Itappears to be a larger diameter (at the base) and fits much tighter than I expected. The base provides AMPLE drag while spinning on/i.e. rubbing the case opening much. It also warranted another revolution to be fully seated from where I wanted to stop yesterday. This was not expected-- but now I know. Thanks all!

He is the poster child, a classic use case, as it were, for the Ignore User feature of this site. I suggest placing him on your list.

Thanks, WRYZ926 for your concise answers and with what both, you and Randy's responses are along what I was thinking, but it's nice to hear it from seasoned veterans of the GMRS community. Also, thanks for your suggestions on antenna types. It gives me food for thought going forward. I may try one in the future just to see where things go. I'll enjoy allowing my repeater to service the local airport industrial airpark which it has good coverage as well as the I95 and I295 corridor if even for only a few miles here in Virgina. It's what I had expected. Thanks guys.

Issue solved and original post updated above.

That’s good advice. The removable face plate is such a great feature of this radio. My only primary concern is the ventilation of the radio itself, don’t want to kick dust or debris into the radio with the fan. Thank you for your input.

I have to agree that the only way to know is to try a different antenna. You can try a different antenna if you want to or stick with what you have if it is meeting your needs. You are already using a good repeater and good coax. The Comet CA712EFC is an excellent antenna. The CA-712EFC has 9dBi of gain which will be more of a pancake radiation pattern. That being said. I run my CA-712EFC with the base at 20 foot above ground and have no issues with RX or TX with people close to me. A couple of friends are also running the CA-712EFC. One is at 40 foot and the other at 60 foot. Neither one has issues with radios that are close to their antennas. To keep things simple when it comes to dBi versus dBm, just subtract 2.15 from the dBi value. So for an antenna with 9 dBi of gain that equals 6.85 dBm of gain.

I refreshed your Premium Member status on your forum account and you should have access now!

There is a fire department near me that has a digital RF link between two locations on exactly 462 MHz. They had a really dirty transmitter for months, causing interference with GMRS for about 6 miles around. I was able to find out it was from them and got them to fix it. At first, they swore I didn't know what I was talking about... but a few days later, it was resolved. You may have something similar going on there. I would ask around to see if anyone local to you has a Kraken SDR or is familiar with RF triangulation, to see if you can find it. It may be a matter of just having a convo with the right person to get it resolved.

I'll be using an external controller, actually experimenting now with some stuff. If it doesn't work out then this will just be my mobile and I'll figure something else out. Also checking out the retevis ra87. Also, 725 is a no-go. Something between is causing interference. I'm not familiar with the sound, something between dial-up noise and a printer printing? Completely constant 24/7, must be lower power or far away.

The irony is that without the CCR's there would be a whole lot less to talk about on these forums. Hell they might not even exist.

A lot but not all GMRS repeaters use CW to identify.

I stand corrected on the KG-935G. It is a direct conversion SOC radio. It still outperforms the Icom IC-T10. The KG-Q10H and IC-T10 are close to the same price. The Wouxun KG-Q10H and KG-Q10G (GMRS version) are $220 and the Icom IC-T10 is $240. If I had to do things over, I would not have bought the Icom IC-T10 and instead stuck with the Wouxun KG-Q10H or KG-UV9D for a dual band hand held radio. And the Wouxun KG-935G is probably one of the best hand held GMRS radios. I ended up replacing my Midland MXT500 before I realized I could send it in to be fixed for the low power issue. Otherwise I might have kept the MXT500. I have been pleased with the Wouxun KG-1000G and KG-XS20G mobile radios.

Program a radio to listen using the repeater input frequency and CTCSS tone. Can you hear the other radio transmit?

I actually reached out to him and then he posted it on MyGMRS. Now its available for everyone! MOSINEEHILL675

Cheap Chinese junk doesn't have nearly the features and reliability factor and an accessory support and customer service and repair centers like the Motorola and Kenwood. If you want to buy cheap junk from Amazon I don't care.

Every vehicle I have owned with the battery monitor system and auto start/stop system has been this way. I have seen as high as 15.2 volts and as low as 12.8 volts with my 2023 Ford escape. Most dc power supplies used for radios have two output settings. One is for a constant 13.8 volts and the other is variable voltage. I leave all my power supplies on the constant 13.8 volt setting and they are all very consistent at 13.7 to 13.8 volts.

I guess 'draw' isn't a good description, other than an inductor looks like an open (not ground) the instant power is applied. The bigger issue is if it takes a hit right at the antenna, you get hit by the lightning, and the inductive kick. So you get blasted twice. Mind you that it seems the ham mentality is if a single service loop is good, then rolling 15 feet of cable up is better. And if a pre-made cable is used, there is just no way it can be cut to length. So it gets coiled somewhere. I have seen more than once where someone bought a 100 foot pre-made cable to go 30 feet and teh other 70 feet is in a coil someplace. Sometimes its at the base of the tower, sometimes at the entry to the building, and ever behind the operator desk. As a commercial radio guy, this drives me nuts.

That video is for the UV-5R which is a H.A.M. radio. Look for a video showing how to setup a repeater on a GMRS radio because the process is very different (MUCH easier on GMRS). Basic steps are: ID what repeater channel to use based on the frequency of the repeater enter the transmit tone (receive tone is optional) there is no 3.. you're done - the whole thing should take about 30 seconds.

Well, I appreciate the detail, that’s the main reason I posted under the “Technical” forum. For instance, I now understand dBi vs dBd better, and am more confident in going with the Larsen since it has some dBi gain which is what I was looking for to begin with. Just snagged a used Midland MXT575 for a good price, next up the antenna, some research on installing, and put it together!

If people would stop buying CCR crap equipment and buy decent radio equipment such as Motorola and/or Kenwood for use on GMRS freqs and use the appropriate manufactures' proprietary software you won't have near the problems that people have stated in the various postings in this forum. Everything is a lot more clear and straight forward with the programming procedures.

Not that I know of. There are only a few GMRS repeaters in the entire state of Montana with the biggest share near Billings and Wyoming probably has fewer. There are ham radio repeaters though.

Unfortunately, price isn’t always a great determiner of value. A highly skilled engineer working in a country where wages are a fraction of another country is capable of designing a high quality radio for much less than an equally skilled engineer in one of the countries where engineers are highly paid. American engineers don’t have a monopoly on scientific knowledge. Statistically speaking, taking two competing products, both designed in the same economic area, the one that has a greater dedication of resources (for design, manufacturing, QC, and support) will generally reflect a higher customer satisfaction and have a higher price. Sales price for mass produced items will be largely dependent on the cost of production and after sales support, once the sunk cost of design has been covered. Despite our national pride, very high quality items can and are produced in countries with low labor costs. So, unfortunately, price isn’t an easy predictor of quality. A company’s (recent) reputation is a more reliable predictor.

This is great advice. I really like the BTech and Baofeng HTs and have had great luck with them. On the mobile side, a couple of years ago, I acquired 4 BTech mobile radios. The first 3 didn't make it a whole 3 weeks, combined use. The 4th worked okay, but the screen washed out when the roof and doors were off the Jeep. I sold it to a member here, and last I heard, they were happy with it. With a 75% failure rate, I'm going to wait on trying another one until people are bragging about them like the TD-H3 gets love now.

Good deal. Have you gotten to the point where you are considering a particular repeater?

Good luck!

Your response seems unusually harsh, especially considering you have asked such a novice question. Maybe I'm misreading it. That said, there is an overwhelming amount of new people that come here convinced they need a repeater, when the know nothing about radio and have only had a license for a few weeks to a few months. Given how long some of us have been around and seeing the trend of unnecessary repeater build ideas that never come to light, it's not an unreasonable question to ask why someone new thinks they "need" a repeater. Especially if there are some already in the area or possibly another solution. Also, not everyone can afford putting a repeater up, not realizing putting a quality and reliable repeater on the air cost anywhere between $15,000-$20,000 when you include the mast and antenna system. On the high-end I have a friend who spent over $1.8m to get a 300' tower built to install his repeater system. Even on the low side, if you have access to free tower space, you're going to spend $5,000-$7,000. If there is another option available and someone can help me find a better or alternative solution that doesn't cost me a fortune, I would want the feedback. If someone just wants to understand "why", I wouldn't be mad that they asked.

This place is a gold mine.

With only 8 pairs, it can get crowded in some areas. It sounds like you are on the right track with the steps you have taken. Nothing is fool proof, but if you are really concerned, along with the monitoring you are doing, I would recommend publishing your repeater info. This way, if you end up causing interference with a previously existing repeater, the legacy repeater owner will have some way of contacting you. For what its worth, there are several repeaters around me on the same frequencies and overlapping coverage. The repeater owners have talked amongst themselves and agreed to leave every machine up, have their regular users operate with a custom tone, and all run 141.3 for travelers and emergencies. It has been working out very well for several years, with very limited interference. Just about everyone has been pretty happy with the coverage and availability.

Very good question. I am utterly amazed there has not been more talk about this topic. While I am not an expert on the subject I will share what I do know. - There is no official need for DTMF in GMRS. It is a feature that can be used when you have a special need for it. - DTMF codes are commonly used to remotely control repeaters and to control other electronics that might be monitoring the frequency. - In some radio circles (outside GMRS) some repeaters and other radios might require both a tone burst to trigger a remote receiver to open up. This is a feature that equipment that long pre-dated CTCSS and DCS sometimes needed for operation. I know of no cases in GMRS where is applicable today. Perhaps someone else will have a current day example where it is being used. - Sidetones refers to the feature of your radio that allows you, the operator, to hear the tones that your radio is sending out. This could be your radio’s ANI-ID, manual DTMF from button presses, or even select-call calling tones. The term ‘Sidetone’ comes from telephony and refers to the sound emitted from the ear piece portion of the phone. If you press a button on the phone’s keypad you will hear the tones from the ear piece. In your radio, when sidetones are not active you could very well be sending out DTMF tones and have no idea that you are. If you are using DTMF for anything, turn sidetones on so you know when and what you are sending. - The ANI-ID on your radio is a number that you establish that identifies your radio. You have six digits available and values must be greater than 101. - If you have ANI-ID turned on, when you press and/or release your PTT, your ANI-ID is sent out. The BOT, EOT and BOTH values you see in one of you radio’s function menus determines if your ANI-ID is sent out when you press PTT, release PTT or press and release. - If a receiving radio has a DTMF decoder within it, your ANI-ID will appear on their display suggesting to them which radio is transmitting. - The ‘Ring’ feature is one that, when properly enabled, allows other radios in your group to cause your radio to ring to attract your attention. For this to occur, the transmitting radio must have a valid ANI-ID value configured, the receiving radio must have an ANI-ID configured, and the transmitting radio also needs to have the receiving radio’s ANI-ID entered into the Call Group it is using. So, for example, if you have two radios, one with an ANI-ID 101 and another with an ANI-ID 102, radio 101 can cause radio 102 to ring, and radio 102 can cause radio 101 to ring. The Call Group fields are where you enter the ANI-ID of the various radios you want to be able to call/ring. Think of them like speed-dial memories. For radio 101 to call 102, radio 101 would have 102 in one of its Call Group cells. - When you have one of your PF buttons configured to make a Call, that button causes two things to be sent out in rapid succession: your ANI-ID and the receiving radio’s ANI-ID. Using the 101 and 102 radio example above, this takes the form of ‘101#102’. - Some wildcards are supported in Call Groups. Instead of entering ‘101’ in a Call Group, you could enter ‘1**’. The later would case all radios whose ANI-ID begins with ‘1’ to ring. - Ringing is not enabled by default on Wouxun radios. One must expressly enable it. - One way to enable ringing is to set the current channels SP-Mute mode to “QT*DT” or ‘QT*DTMF”. Since SP-MUTE is a channel-by-channel setting you can have some memory channels configured to ring when called and others that do not. - ANI-ID needs to be programmed, but it does not need to be turned on to always send out to use the Select call feature. I have found zero Wouxun documentation or videos that covers this. Admittedly I struggled for sometime trying to piece it together. Thanks to [mention=5881]IanM[/mention] who provided some enlightenment to help me bring it all into focus. I have found some BF stuff that covers the subject a little, but terminology is slightly different. These features have, in my view, practical use in large organized group and family outings. They have also had merit, and perhaps still do, in some LMR circles. I recently have been configuring all my radios to have unique ANI-ID, and setting up Calling Groups. I have yet to work to work out the specific details of the SP-Mute mode called ‘QT+DT’ or QT+DTMF. But my current understanding is that the radio will not break squelch until it hears an ANI-ID in DTMF form and then when it does there is some other unique behavior. I will soon be exploring that and documenting its behavior. Hope this helps. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM Edit: If you to do some experimenting and to see things work with little complication do this: 1) Configure multiple Wouxun radios. Give each a unique ANI-ID starting a 101 and going up. Use 101 in your KG-935G. 2) Set each radio to GMRS channel 01 (462.5625), low power. 3) Make sure all radios are using the same CTCSS. Say 67.0 Tx and Rx. 4) Set the SP-MUTE mode for channel 01 on all radios to QT*DT. 5) On your KG-935G radio, enable sending out of the ANI-ID each time the PTT is pressed. 6) Turn all radios on. 7) Press PTT on the KG-935G and immediately press 102# and watch what happens. Then repeat using the ANI-ID for all other radios. This simulates a select call. 8) Press PTT on the KG-935G and immediately press 1** and watch what happens. 9) Press PTT on the KG-935G and immediately press *# and watch what happens. When you have made it this far and have seen ANI-ID show up on the radio displays and you have successfully experienced ringing, then move to programming your call groups in the radios if you decide you want to use them. You may also wish to explore the different behaviors you get if some radios are in the 100 series, some in 200 series and some in the 300 series of ANI-ID values. BTW, Despite PTT-ID being a menu option on the 805G, the ID is never sent out of that radio, nor will the radio ever display one if it receives one.

Very nice! I think it is more fun than talking on the radios! If I could find a job in an antenna factory I would be in Heaven!