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Spam from here? I am yet to see that with any of the repeaters I have listed here. But I would be curious to know how much the owner monitors his repeater if he's concerned with 'spam' from the GMRS web site. I am betting that this is another case of a repeater that got installed and forgotten by it's owner.

I would try a bigger/better/higher antenna before forking out more $$ for more watts.

Yeah, it sounds like he doesn’t understand how to set up his spam blocker and whitelist notifications from my GMRS.com.

During a huge enduro motorcycle race in town, heard some gal on the CH 6 get on the radio to tell her lover her husband passed out and she was sneaking over to his camp....

I agree with the previous posts that the most probable culprit is that the RT15 radios are using CTCSS or DCS Codes (see page 6 of your RT15 manual - I found it on the Retevis website here: Retevis RT15 Mini Lightweight FRS for Business Radio, usb charging, license free walkie talkie). Page 1 of that RT15 manual shows a diagram of the radio and according to that diagram the radio has a "Monitor" button on the side just below the PTT key. If you long press that button, it should, temporarily bypass any pre-programmed CTCSS/DCS tone code squelch. So, if you have all radios on the same channel (avoid channels 8-14 as your base station probably will not transmit on those channels) then long press that Monitor button on the RT15 while you transmit on the Midland GMRS base station and you hear the base station radio transmission come thru the speaker on the RT15 you will have pretty much confirmed that the issue is that your RT15 FRS radios have factory pre-programmed CTCSS or DCS Codes enabled. To solve this issue, you will need to reprogram these RT15 FRS radios to remove the use of CTCSS/DCS tone codes. As has been suggested by @AdmiralCochrane, you could also program your Midland 105 base radio to use the same CTCSS/DCS codes as the RT15 are using, but personally, I would not recommend that approach as doing so will limit your ability to communicate with others. Hope that helps.

I must say, there is a learning curve here; but it's good one. Every couple days I learn something new; either from mistakes or the expert replies I am getting from all of you! Thanks!

This. With good line of sight, you can go 50+ miles with a 5W handheld and a stock rubber ducky antenna. I'd try and figure out what the issue actually is before hitting it with my purse.

Some, though thankfully not most, repeater owners have some major control freak issues going on. They have lengthy lists of "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" which may be frequently added to. One such repeater, a friend sent me a link to last night. The dude who owns it sounds to be on the verge of a major mental/emotional breakdown of some type. The group for the repeater I am a part owner of try to be laid back about it. All we ask is a reasonable effort to follow the rules (ID at appropriate intervals, no profanity, etc). As has been noted, try not to argue too much with the owner if you want to use it as it IS their repeater.

Repeater distances, are at best a guestimate by the owner. Obstructions will be the main cause. If you can climb on to the roof, and see the antenna of the repeater you have a good chance. I have been up almost 50 stories locally and am surprised by the amount of antennas I can see. But the rolling hills here tell me there are tons of rf shadows. Plus some repeaters, transmit better than the hear and vice versa. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

You can get a reasonable estimate for the SWR at the antenna end of the cable if you know the coax losses, from a chart of loss verses frequency for a known length of cable, and the forward and reflected power. You can calculate the loss for the exact cable length one is using at the frequency of interest. The cable loss allows one to calculate the power delivered to the antenna based on the forward power measured at the radio end. Also the reflected power measured at the radio end allows one to calculate the reflected power at the antenna end based on the cable losses. With both the calculated forward and reflected power at the antenna end of the cable is now “known” it’s now possible to calculate the SWR of the antenna itself. This saves the trouble of having to stick the SWR meter up at the antenna, which in many cases isn’t a realistic possibility. While not likely as accurate as a real reading it’s better than nothing.

Are you able to hear other conversations on there? Are you hearing the 'kickback' from the repeater after your transmission or a station identifier (often in morse code)? It might be that your radios are set up fine but no one's actually listening when you're trying. We have a couple repeaters out here (Salt Lake valley) that you'll often not get an answer on (unless you catch the owner hanging out), and some that are pretty much always monitored.

I’m not a member so I don’t know if you are required to request access after joining the club and receiving the tones, but I would not expect that to be the issue. It sounds like you’re on the right channel and you’ve double checked the tone. The only thing left that I know of is as you mentioned in your original post, getting closer. Once you are closer, when you hear traffic, try listening on the input frequency and scan for the input tone.

As per the User-Manual in pretty much 100% of radios that have a Call button, the Call button is to send an annoying noise out to all other radios configured in the same 'call-group', so they know you're about to start talking to them.. Think of those old Nextel radio-phones. It is about as useful as the 'Alarm' button on many radios.

The one key factor in distance for radio is the height of the antenna. Higher antennas clear more obstacles and have a greater distance to the horizon. The next factor is the output power from the antenna as some antennas have a gain factor that negates losses in the coax between the radio and antenna.

"It depends" None of them, unless they're are on open, dead flat ground, will have a horizon that's a circle. The one further away may have a better, taller antenna, more sensitive hardware, or fewer obstructions. Or it's possible the one close by is down for some reason (maintenance, equipment failure, etc)

I will try that. Thanks.

Wouxun 805G for a base and a homemade j-pole up 25'. Baofeng GM-15Pro for the car.

Happy Father’s Day to you as well. First, are you on a repeater channel? You didn’t say what channel you’re on. On all GMRS radios there are the simplex channels 15 - 22 and there are the repeater channels which are numbered 23 - 30 or something like RP15 - RP22. The repeater channels and the simplex channels receive on the same frequencies, which is in the 462 MHz range. So, channel 15 receives on exactly the same frequency as 23 (or RP15), 16 receives on the same frequency as 24 (RP16), etc. The difference is that the repeater channels transmit at a frequency that is usually 5.000 MHz higher than the simplex channel. So channel 15 receives and transmits on 462.550 MHz, channel 23 (RP15) transmits on 467.550 MHz. Because you mentioned that you’re able to receive just fine, it could be that you’re transmitting on the simplex channel, which would never wake up the receiver.

Well, I don't know that anyone here understands what this is or what a Audio Aggregator 25747 is. A bit of a description of what you have going on here and what you are trying to accomplish might help. Or you can keep us guessing.

Here’s why it’s important: SWR is calculated based on the relationship between forward power and reflected power. Higher SWR by definition means higher reflected power relative to the forward power. When you measure it at the radio, you’re seeing all of the forward power, but you’re only seeing some of reflected power. So, measured at the radio you always see a lower SWR. One of my RigExpert analyzers has Bluetooth so we connected it directly to ann antenna before raising the antenna. We could see that SWR was 1.6:1. Measuring at the radio end of the cable using the same analyzer the SWR was 1.1:1. That was with 50 feet of M&P UltraFlex 10, which is as good as LMR 400. It was also at 2 meters where the cable performs even better than on GMRS.

I tried to get permission through here to a nearby repeater and didn't have any luck. Waited 10 days. It also said to contact on facebook, which is something I don't do. But my wife does and I pestered her until she contacted the owner and he was glad to give me permission. Also said he gets so much spam that he pretty much ignores what comes from here. So it may be that.

And we've all owned a few 'coakroaches'... Damn things are so tough, the're hard to get rid of

It looks the same as every other UV-5G variant, I doubt you missed anything. Baofengs are like cockroaches

Drill a hole and put an NMO mounto n the roof.

Another thing is how the system is when listing open repeaters on this website. I listened ours as open and I still occasionally get requests from people to use it. I usually always grant permission as long as they have a valid GMRS license.

I'm surprised no one has tried it and reported. Time for an experiment...

It is very difficult to tell from your horribly poor quality video, nor did you bother to mention it, but is that the new BTech repeater? If so, have you contacted BTech Support to see what they say about it? They have been very responsive when i had trouble with my BTech repeater.

No, and there really can’t be. There are too many variables. The answer will always be: Try it.

We have discussed this many times on the forum. Getting a range of 200 miles is very unrealistic for most people. 30 to 50 miles is more realistic depending on what part of the country you live in and what the terrain, forested areas and structures are like near you. That being said, the Comet CA-712EFC is an excellent GMRS antenna. I get about a 25 mile range on simplex here in Mid Missouri with our rolling hills and forested areas. The base of my antenna is about 20 foot above the ground. Also remember that the best antenna in the world won't do any good if you are using the wrong type and/or low quality coax cable. And try to get the antenna as high as you can get it.

Apparently there is programming software for these. It doesn't LOOK like you can change the tones from the face of the radio, but this would do it. Alternately, it'll give you some idea of what tones are set. If you watch their video, when they read from the radio to the software, EVERY channel has tones set. I have no idea why they do this.

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

Motorola XTL2500 with Comet 712 GMRS base antenna- Motorola XPR7550E- CP200D Mototrbo Motorola XPR5550 for Backup Some Baofeng for VFO Emergency- Motorola XTL2500 110watt Commercial

This channel works well! Very nice folks are on it too.