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To be fair: it's not just TIDradio doing this. A LOT of 'cheap chinese radio' models are set up the exact same way. The Radioddity DB20-G I have in the truck does similar nonsense. It too is unlocked. For those radios, I just program the 'rules' manually (they won't transmit on anything out of band, all the GMRS channels have their appropriate power levels and bandwidth, etc), but that's not something most people new to this are going to want / need to fool with. But it does mean I can set the thing I bought up the way I want.

Are they made in the us? I mean the pro's fccid shows it was tested by a chinese firm. Well I guess 98% of shit now adays is made in china. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

The issue at I understand it isn't that it won't transmit out of band. It's that it only allows a very limited number of transmit capable GMRS channels in memory. It's not FCC regs doing it, it's lazy software. If I put GMRS 22 in memory slot 22, or 122, the radio should enforce the rules. Instead here it has the first 50-some-odd channels for GMRS (and it's pretty picky about what you put where), and the rest are receive only. It's why I have mine in "Normal". My KG-905s aren't like this. Put a GMRS channel in whatever memory slot you want and it'll enforce the rules for that frequency / pair. But, $100 radio vs $40 radio, so, you know...

That is what my local club is using for our GMRS repeater. It works fine and has handled everything we have thrown at it. We tested it for about two months before opening it up to the public. The duty cycle is fine for a lot of traffic.

For a GMRS and consumer grade radio, I would stay away from the cheap Chinese POS radios and take a look at the Midland GXT 67 Pro or the Rocky Talkie. They may not have any foo-foo bells and whistles that really don't make the radio better but, they are simple to use and of better quality than those radios produced by a non-english speaking government owned corporation in a far-away land. There are videos comparing the two aforementioned radios that are produced by an English speaking non-government owned corporation located on the "Land of the Free".

This is how I do it: "Stink-Finger to Hoochi Momma, do you copy? .... KMG365, clear"

This is a great interview that our friend @OffRoaderX has done with someone whom has been directly involved with a linked repeater network being turned off after FCC interaction. This is a big deal. The FCC is asking for call signs of people who used the network, not just to turn down the network. Repeater owners and users, pay attention. I don't want to see my friends getting in trouble. Thanks for the great work Randy!

I so wanted to post a meme that talks about debating. However, not wanting to walk the line between humor and politics I will just supply the punchline... "Debating is a lot like riding a bike..." I now return you to your regularly scheduled dead horse thread.

For rx only, you have the options of a ht scanner. Although, a half way decent sdr will have some serious sensitivity. No suggestions on hts. Only because I found that the more you spend generally you, after a certain point, you get more features (ie ruggedness, color screens etc.) But I will say I have been more impressed by the selectivity, and sensitivity of commercial offerings by motorola, kenwood, harris than any of my amateur radio gear. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Air band is AM because the FM capture effect will prevent a weaker signal from being heard, when using AM two signals can be heard at the same time with one causing a hetrodyne (remember all the noise on AM CB?) ATC can hear them

I don’t know. What I do know is that there are two important standards for reception: sensitivity, which is the ability to hear a weak signal and selectivity,which is the ability to pick one signal out of several, to reject adjacent signals. The manufacturer’s typically will publish both specifications but I haven’t seen a table comparing the various handheld radios. You might find that most of the better radios hear about the same. For selectivity and clarity of output (a factor of audio amplifier quality and speaker quality), I suspect that many of the folks who have worked with commercial radios will tell you that commercial radios have superior selectivity and audio clarity, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re right. Some of those radios cost in the thousands when new and presumably the difference in cost meant something. They were designed to discern signals reliably and reproduce loud and clear audio in the worst conditions. But I’m one of the few people here who hasn’t got an old Motorola or Kenwood commercial handheld radio. Personally I’m very happy with the performance of my Yaesu handheld radios. Even my $100 Yaesu Ft-65 sounds really good when paired with the external factory microphone/speaker. I will say that the antenna is frequently the most important element in sensitivity, so be prepared to hear some opinions on what’s best there. Also, you neglected to specify which bands you want to hear “the best, furthest, and clear”. Good luck! I’ll be watching to see what I can learn.

The GMRS version of the radio is just that, a radio that will operate on those specified frequencies designated by the FCC for GMRS. Same thing if you put it into HAM mode. It won't be transmitting on any out of band frequencies. And open mode is just that. You can transmit on frequencies that you shouldn't be transmitting on. It's not being stupid, it's doing what it was designed to do.

I can't stand it. It's got to be the stupid FCC trying to make the radios as convoluted and ridiculous as their own website. They need to take a big step back and let people self police. If we need their help we'll ask. Back to Normal mode with this little radio. I'm done buying "GMRS" radios. I'll buy radios that can be made to work on the frequencies. EDIT: Apologies for making another H3 post I should have done more searching but I was busy pulling my hair out.

Agree with the others. RG8/X is fine for 10/11 meter, but your repeater will suffer massive line loss on GMRS. Also only 30 feet high with RG8/X coax will result in horrible repeater performance. You'll be lucky to cover 2 miles. I use LMR400 on a 50 foot run. I had my neighborhood repeater antenna at 30 feet for a while, but coverage wasn't that great. I recently popped it up another 20 feet to 50 feet and i more than doubled my range that's now averaging 10 miles on a 2 watt repeater. Notice that i now am higher than most the trees around vs at 30 feet i was being blocked by trees. The higher you can get that antenna the better your results will be. You also asked about antenna recommendations. I personally use a copper j-pole tuned to gmrs frequencies. Durable, light, cheap, effective. There are better and more expensive antennas, but for home / non commercial use, these work very well.

Welcome to the world of GMRS. The transmit frequency of the Repeater will be 5 MHz lower than the receive frequency. You transmit 5 MHz higher and receive 5MHz lower. Example is a repeater on 462.600/467.600 you transmit on 467.600 and the repeater receives that and simultaneuosly retransmits it on 462.600. Now if you're talking about the rx/tx CTCSS or DCS tones. That's up to the repeater owner to set, they can be the same or different. Many repeaters only use tones on the input, meaning you need to transmit the tone (100.0 for example) for the repeater to hear you. Many do use an output tone, but you don't need to set that if you don't want to, but is convenient if you only want to hear the repeater, and not other users on the frequency using simplex.

It depends on the radio. Some radios come with very good stock antennas. That being said, I've used dual band VHF/UHF ham antennas on my GMRS radios and they worked just fine. No doubt a GMRS specific antenna will work better but the dual bands have worked just fine for me.

Oh boy, now you've gone and blown up some folks' entire world view

We haven't taken anything down. There may be an issue with the machine but we're full steam ahead otherwise..

It will help if you share the part of the country you reside in. Otherwise, it's hit-or-miss about you finding anyone visiting this forum connecting with you. GMRS is primarily a "bring your own contacts" service. It's aimed at family and friend usage more than chit-chat contacts like amateur radio.

I agree with @OffRoaderX, This sounds like an issue with your antenna, feed line or duplexer. (I suspect feed line). Try taking the duplexer out of the feedline temporarily (disable transmit first) to see if your receiving range is more reasonable. If it isn’t, look at the feed line and antenna for problems. It might be as simple as a very lossy coax cable or even a damaged one. A lossy feed line will also make SWR look really good.

There is nothing really to "configure".. Assuming you have a well placed and well-tuned antenna with no obstructions between you and the other radio a mile away, my guess is that the duplexer is not well-tuned for whatever channel you are using. I would try testing on all 8 repeater channels to see if one works better. If you still can't get any better than one-mile, and assuming it is not an antenna or terrain issue (ie; if your handheld or mobile radio can reach 5 miles from that same location) then I would contact BTech support and tell them to send you one that works.

I am going to suggest a Bridgecom repeater if buying brand new. Or look for a used Motorola repeater that can be programed/setup for GMRS. For the best results, you are also going to want to use a separate/external duplexer versus the small duplexers that are built into repeaters. Our club is using Motorola repeaters for 2m and 70cm and a Bridgecom for our GMRS repeater. We use external duplexers on all of our repeaters. I know there are the portable repeaters from Retevis and Midland, those are fine for temporary use or only covering a small area since they are low power. I would also stay away from the BTech GMRS repeaters until they work all of the bugs out. Bridgecom has sales all of the time and their sales prices are lower than what the BTech repeater costs. A few of us tested the Bridgecom repeater out for about 2 months before opening it up to the public. We put it through its paces and tested the duty cycle. The Bridgecom passed and is working well for us.

I like my DB20-G. The software to program it is a little clunky and the manual is *thin*, but there's plenty of user support out there (there's a few good thread on here regarding the DB20-G and the other Anytone 779uv clones). It's a bit restrictive in how it wants you to program it in GMRS mode but if your needs are for something a bit more open, it's easily unlockable if you're comfortable programming in the GMRS rules yourself. (EDIT: Note that there are versions that do and versions that don't come with the programming cable. The DB20 did. I believe the Retevis did not. Just keep an eye on the listing to make sure it includes the cable) I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT recommend the BTech GMRS 20v2. The interface is a mess, changing the volume involves hitting the MONI button and then tapping down the volume while listening to the speaker scream from static, and the speaker sucks so it had to be near full volume for me constantly. That was before it just stopped working after a couple weeks. So...that one went back to the rain forest from whence it came.

Poppycock! I for one think that more threads with links to those videos are what society and the world needs! Think of the children!