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….because that’s what we need, more government regulations. [emoji849]

Yeah, i dealt with a guy that was thinking he was going to do that. He had 15 paper repeaters registered on here. When I started looking into his 'system' I even found a business registered with the state where he was marketing air time on GMRS. The tower owner already had one open repeater on the air that he made open. I put my repeater on the air as well (675) that was open. My coverage footprint covered several of his 'pay to play' paper repeaters. Of course he wasn't happy. He threatened to call the FCC. I reminded him of the regulations for selling air time on GMRS and his repeaters started disappearing, not that they existed to begin with. In truth, I was never able to verify he had ANY repeaters on the air. But I know due to the location of several of them, there was never any equipment at those locations for at least the last 15 years because I was in those sites and there wasn't any GMRS or even UHF equipment at those sites. But putting up free open access repeaters in the coverage area of pay to play repeaters typically makes them go silent. People will go with the free option every time if it's a good quality and fills their needs.

I personally don’t like hearing two channels at once so I turn simultaneous receive off. You can still use duel display but only hear one at a time.

Paying to be in a club so you can use the repeater is the same as paying to use the repeater with a technicality.

While repeaterbook.com does list GMRS repeaters, their list is a bit outdated. This website is a lot better when it comes to having an up to date repeater list for GMRS repeaters.

Well, don't feel bad about that. Because I was running 600 and 675 in a DIY Hybrid combiner, I was getting about 18 watts out of the building with the repeater at 75 watts. Then 350 feet of 7/8 cable. So your 12 watts at the antenna isn't really bad at all. Now receive is a receive multicoupler with a window filter. But of course, what gets lost in the cable is just gone. I have considered a TTA on UHF but haven't gone down that path yet. I have a couple old 800 units that I was thinking about removing and replacing the window filter on, but that's a down the road project. And I talk 60 miles in some directions so I am not hurting regardless for performance.

I agree.

Charging people to use a GMRS repeater is a rule violation. And as someone who lives in a densely populated area where 2 or 3 people own and operate wide coverage area repeaters on every pair, I definitely don't see frequency use even remotely close to considered overwhelmed. We have several wide coverage area repeaters here in the DC metro area. There are many smaller nested repeaters inside those coverage areas and they work well together since they have implemented different tone squelch settings. Even in heavily populated areas, like DCA with ~10M people, there are less than 8,000 active GMRS licensees in the area. It does not cause problems because of how little use there is. Some days, I may not hear any traffic at all. Also, I don't see a problem with a person having large coverage area repeaters on every pair due to the benefit to the community members, such as in a regional emergency or communications blackout. That far outweighs any perceived inconvenience from having a wide coverage area or a single person owning a repeater on every pair. Even day-to-day, families are using these machines to stay in touch in areas with no cell coverage. Friends are using them to stay in touch as a convenient alternative to cell phones, too. There are already antenna height and power limits. I'm not sure how we could tell people who live in a higher elevation that they can't have a repeater, though. I'm sure that would turn in to a Constitutional Rights court case. I don't think we should, either. EDIT: Quick note on power. I have a 50w repeater, but its only a 50% duty cycle at 50w. It's 100% duty cycle at 20w. After running through a duplexer and 150 feet of cable, only about 5w gets to the antenna. Even if I run the full 50w (since it never sees 100% duty cycle), I still only get about 12w to the antenna. It's not great. Sadly, the receive is impacted the same way. On the antenna height side, my antenna base is at 40 feet and I only get about 3 miles of coverage out of it due to the terrain, which also sucks. If me and my son hop in two vehicle and drive anywhere away from my house, we can talk 8+ miles. So, my repeater at my house with the specs you are talking about, performs worse than mobile simplex pretty much anywhere else but on my street.

I can hear and hit Tulsa repeaters on 650 and 675 here east of Muskogee. The 625 repeater here has great coverage. I hear a lot of simplex traffic locally, some with call signs, others with bubble packs.

That was actually quite clever.

Waving a hand.

Hello All, new to GMRS looking forward to learning somethings and sharing as well. WSDL946

I used to see this in ham, a lot. At one time, the American Radio Relay League put out a paperback "Repeater Directory" each Spring. Others and myself couldn't wait to see the new edition, each year, curious to see what (if any) new repeaters might have gone up in our area. Often as not, the "Repeater Directory" was full of "paper" and "vapor" repeaters that had either been off the air for years, or had never existed to begin with. For reasons I have never understood, some people got a perverse ego trip from seeing their call sign next to a non-existent repeater or repeaters in the Directory. For reasons few if any understood, the ARRL would only accept the word of the alleged repeater owners or trustees with regard to the status of a repeater (on-line, off-line, never existed, off-line for decades, etc). This enabled the paper and vapor repeater "owners" to keep their names up in lights, so to speak, practically forever. I tended to associate such behavior with the same kind of mental disorder that fuels the stolen valor hacks, who claim to have served in the military, received certain medals or honors, have been Navy Seals or Green Berets, but in real life never did any of those things. Sadly, we see the same illness here on GMRS, too.

kind of reminds me of the 100's of new repeaters that people register but their status is always 'offline'.. Whats that purpose??? Are they trying to 'claim' a frequency they don't use... some pretty crazy thinking...

yup, there is a growing number of those guys, mostly back east, some in the mid west. Where the hell do they get their money.. They sure have one hell of a large family,, don't they

Excellent! This is exactly what I was looking for.

I think the larger repeaters might need rules so they don't overwhelm the area. Like putting up 8 repeaters on all the frequencies and then charging to use the repeaters. Little guys putting up 5 or 10 watt repeaters for local area coverage for their families don't really impact the areas much.

Repeaterbook has its strengths, but if you’re looking for GMRS repeaters this site is the more complete database. Click on Repeaters (like @amaff points out), and then click on where it says “near me” assuming your device knows your location.

lol

This cannot be stressed enough. People routinely talk to the space station using 5 watt radios and it’s more than 200 miles away, but there’s nothing in the way.

If you are just listening, the Motorola XPR7550e has one the most sensitive receivers, the can be had for around $300 if you look for the right deal.

Thanks for the add. I come to the whole “radiosphere” relatively late in the game as I have been retired for 2 decades but, I like the idea of learning something new so, here I am. Looking forward to learning from the corporate knowledge and making some new friends in the process. Some of the radioheads in my area (Pensacola-Navarre-Fort Walton Beach, FL) may hear a radio check soon! WSDN494

I figured it out. The icon I thought was a pin I would have create and drag to my repeater location. I was wrong. The icon is on the center of the map (see picture). This is the icon you drag to your state, in large the map and drag icon and repeat until you have the icon on your location.

Welcome!

Howdy Folks! The family does a lot of mountain off-roading in SXSs and FRS just doesn't cut it anymore. So we have moved to GMRS for greater range and repeater use. I've been in Comms/IT for 30+ years. I was a green suit Tropo/SkeeterLOS microwave radio repair guy for Uncle Sam for 6 years back in the day. But it's been a minute so I'm back into learning mode with GMRS. Also, as a private pilot, I'm on the air bands while flying PIC. Note: If anyone needs help with a Home Internet/IT issue? Let me know. IT is my daily gig. Perhaps I can help. I'm also an avid VR pilot in DCS (its way cheaper than flying the real thing). I have a full motionless VR simpit setup. I can answer questions and help with that as well. V/R Del (WSDN287) Now.. How do I land this thing?

While I don’t dispute this happened, the issue of asking for call signs is a bridge too far. The owner should not need to produce any such info, but even if they do I doubt anything would come of it. The government always tends to overreach and it’s up to the citizens to push back and keep them in check.

Every station is required to ID once every 15 minutes and at the end of the conversation whether you’re on a repeater or simplex. You are not required to identify as different units when the call sign is shared amongst family members, but you might want to. In reality very few people follow the identification rules and nobody has died as a result.

LIES!! I know this for a fact because the guy that posted that spurious RF emissions from a UV-5R will totally black-out emergency services started his post by saying "..I have been a licensed ham radio operator for 23 years"... and in his forum signature there was license number and a list of all 17 radios that he owns.. So, yah, he was totally legit.

Talk to them just like you would on a phone call. "WRVM969 <Person being called's name> are you on?" As you are both under the same call sign, only one needs to give the call sign.