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There is an uncommon phenomenon known as the "latent sad-H.A.M.".. As we all know, sad-H.A.M.s are born, not created, and the vast majority of sad-H.A.M.s grow up to have the license, live in the basement, callsign license plates, etc.. HOWEVER - The latent sad-H.A.M. does net yet have, and in many cases may never actually achieve the life-prize of a H.A.M. license - but this does not prevent the latent sad-H.A.M. from exhibiting all of the attributes and defects of a sad-H.A.M., most of which you have pointed out. You find many of these latent sad-H.A.M.s frequenting places like GMRS forums, Reddit, night-clubs that cater to men, HOA meetings, shoe-stores, etc, and although they do their best to disguise their true nature and try to blend-in with the regular people, they are usually very easy to identify. SOURCE: ME! I am The Queen of all that is GMRS, my thesis was in sadH.A.M.ology, in 1987 I coined the term "sad-H.A.M.", and my Wikipedia page says that I know everything. I am also a YouTubes superstar so that gives me extra interweb credd.

I've never ignored a new member that fast lol

Just get the Grindr app for your phone - its much easier to find anonymous men to "communicate" with.

You’re right; it’s absolutely wrong and probably written by someone who has never visited one of the more rural states. One of the civic duties our ham radio club volunteers to do each year is provide communications for a 127 mile bicycle race. We can hit our repeater fine for almost all of the course, but cell service is only available for a small portion. The cell companies have little or no motivation to build cell towers where the density of humans is single digits per square mile, even though roads pass through.

I also find it hard to believe anyone would be terribly successful getting help in an SHTF situation if they're barging into an Amateur frequency with attitude and no license, having already been kicked out of a local GMRS group for showing attitude and disdain for the process. There's some crossover, and long memories between GMRS users and hams. Go into a GMRS group and treat people such that they kick you out, then find yourself in an "emergency" and key up on a ham repeater. Great plan.

Don’t push him toward amateur radio. We also have enough garbage already.

Hey, Jeffrey, you only had your license for three days and have posted 5 times to this forum and you are already acting like a "Sad HAM" and you definitely don't have any respect for the Queen. The Queen is not any type of an antenna sucker. Maybe Amateur Radio is your best suit and the crowd you should be hanging with because GMRS is for the cool people. If you think GMRS is for emergencies and the SHTF scenarios you will be in for a rude awakening during those situations when you can't communicate with anyone except God even with a fully or discharged battery. Oh, there is another "Sad HAM" on this forum that may be somebody you probably would get along with real well, his forum user name has something to do with Danish Marbles.

It depends on what you expect. As you are just starting, a handheld radio provides a decent start. Your biggest hurdle is learning the terms sed and what they mean and apply to your situation. As you obviously have no experience or background in radio, start with an inexpensive unit. I would keep the cost less than $40 for your first unit. Read the manual that comes with it and spend time on Youtube with the tutorials and reviews. After you have played with the radio for a couple months and know its functions and features well, you might be ready to upgrade to a unit with higher cost and features. Don't get caught up in wanting bigger, better higher power unis until you know what you have and how to use it.

And that's why I'm here.

That is the LA-Echo-1 repeater. The repeater has a huge footprint but the owners have been accused of questionable activities - and because of the clientele it is not the best choice for making new friends or use in an emergency.

Same here.

For handheld radios, the Nagoya NA-701C is good for MURS and GMRS. The Nagoya NA-320A is average for amateur 144MHz, 220MHz and 440MHz, and performs marginally on MURS and GMRS. The Diamond SRH77CA will work anywhere from sub-par to fantastic on frequencies from 136MHz to about 600MHz, but is designed for 2m/440.

You probably did it wrong.

So, you only got your GMRS license to gain access to forums that restrict access to licensed users and no other reason?

You see, here's the thing. Or things, if you're counting. First, posting often is not a faux pas. There are people on this forum who quite literally live here. They talk to us more often than their own families. Second, if you want to joke about any subject here, no one will stop you. But not everyone appreciates the humor. In fact, a number of folks here were born without a sense of humor. Third, I don't get why anyone would call you a sad ham, because in order to be a sad ham, you need to be a ham, which to my knowledge, you're not. Also, it requires taking a test, so you may already be at a disadvantage. So you win that argument. The title of "sad ham" has to be earned. It takes a lot of posts throwing one's ham superiority, epic knowledge of FCC rules and radio theory in everyone's faces in order to achieve sad ham status. Also, you need to start every post with "I've been a ham for X years" as a warning to take you seriously. And finally, no one cares if you alter or censor your speech. They probably just won't engage with you. Not surprisingly, you're already on a number of ignore user lists in addition to being tossed from a GMRS club. I haven't taken that step yet, mostly because you do provide some entertainment. Which is nice.

I would agree with others that GMRS is not great for finding people to chat with. If you want radio for that, CB and Ham radio would be much better. Outside of metro areas, GMRS users are far and few between and even in metro areas, you will have a bunch or people lurking, but unless someone knows you, they probably won't respond. Also, "the best" is so incredibly subjective. You need to define what "the best" would be fore you, including upper and lower budget, features desired, is space or weather-proofing a concern, etc. Then we can recommend brands on models based on your goals and limiting factors.

No, a repeater is NOT what you need. Just a 20-25W radio set up in the house with an antenna 15-25 feet above the roof.

I suspect his bumper sticker says “Born to be ignored”

Anyone have this image in your head after reading this here feller's collection literary gems? I, too considered placing him on my ignored user list, but frankly, I think I'll wait another day.

Dude! Don't curse my people! I thought we were friends! LOL

For mobile consider the Comet CA2X4SR. It handles GMRS, 70cm, MURS, Marine VHF, and 2m. And it will listen to a much broader range than that. I've worked a repeater 63 miles away with less than 4w from a handheld with an adapter, with that antenna. Ideal conditions, to be sure. But it's anecdotal evidence that antenna is capable. I'm not really invested in the licensing rant, though.

I’m gonna take a guess based on my perception of Randy’s humor that @OffRoaderX was having a bit of fun with the redundancy of stating your call sign in your post when it’s already your name on the site. So I can’t help wonder why you got ousted from the club? Was it the colorful language? As @marcspaz mentioned I have found the Nagoya NA-701C to do well. For mobile the Comet SBB5 does good on 2m/440 and okay on GMRS but as stated the antenna that is tuned for what you’re using is going to do the best for that. Everything else is going to be a compromise. Cheers

The short answer is yes, there are plenty of multi-band antennas. The long answer is, yes, but not that cover every band. Also antennas tuned to and dedicated to the band you want to transmit and receive on Will work better.

Last night at 2310 hrs my son-in-law called me and woke me up. He said he and my daughter were outside watching a wildfire on a mountain that is less than two miles from my house. I got up and went into the living room and could see the flames. I turned on my 935G+ and moved to the Cal Fire Command frequency and the County Sheriff's frequencies. We talked for a few more minutes about evac routes which would be different for both of us and chose a GMRS channel for contact in case we had to leave. I called a neighbor who lives close and let him know and heand his wife came up to our house as they didn't have a view of the incident. As we got settled in our dark living room I turned on my second 935G+ and brought up the Cal Fire tactical channels and found which two they were using. At that point We could hear the local SO as they were trying help get gates open on the dirt roads crossing private lands for Cal Fire. We could here Cal Fire setting up the Incident Command post and after units from as far as two hours away arrived we could here the fire teams talking to each other as they reached and worked the fires. My neighbors left at a 0130 and my wife went to bed at 0230. I sat in a dark room watching the fire and listening to the fire fighting activities until the sun came up a couple of hours ago. There are a lot of radios that can do what the 935G+ can do as well as and maybe better. However, I had all of the frequencies programmed into both radios in advance and they are always charged up and ready to use. As I sit here this morning looking at the burn area so close to my house and listening to the fire fighters give turn overs to the next shift I realize how important having a good radio/radios can be in emergencies. Went tend to use our radios as a fun tool or toy. We like to get on line and argue and complain about things that don't really matter, comparing the size of our antennas. Program your radios with frequencies that can help in an emergency and keep them charged up. Learn to use your equipment and have a plan. The fire was burning 1/4 mile below six towers on the mountain top that have the local amateur repeaters and a lot of commercial antennas (no GMRS repeaters). Thankfully the fire didn't go that direction. The fire went in the opposite direction from us. I can no longer see the fire so it looks like we are safe this time. At this point no lives were lost and no permanent structures were destroyed with no firefighter injuries. I now return you to the latest thread on FCC ambiguity...

Could it be because I didn’t use u bolts. I do intend to get proper bolts but the ones the antenna came with, a couple nuts were stripped so I just screwed the antenna to a 2x4. I was just excited to get it in the air.

I would agree that it’s probably a bad connection, possibly a solder joint or possibly as simple as a loose set screw that clamps the radiator to the antenna base.

Correct. Not sure the brand but he used it for the repeater before an upgrade. I don’t think it comes apart.

The antenna is probably a fiberglass tube surrounding a metal element. Without knowing what you have it’s difficult to say how to tune it or even if it can be tuned. But it’s much more difficult to tune an antenna without an antenna analyzer anyway.

What can be, unburdened by what has been, cannot unite HAM and GMRS. We can however, burden ourselves with resolve, to burden the unburdened.

X2 .. This is what i was going to recommend before getting distracted earlier.

Both share the same frequencies on the amateur radio bands all of the time. It is quite common to have a 2m or 70cm repeater setup for both analog and digital. The most common digital mode around me is DMR. My local club has 3 70cm repeaters and all are setup for analog and DMR. Digital on GMRS frequencies is a moot point since it is not allowed.

Thanks for the warm welcome

Yes. I shutdown every night and cold boot in the mornings. Fast boot is always disabled so cache is cleared. Has to be this browser... just checked in Firefox and the map is working there, but it was also working in LibreWolf just last night. Head scratcher right now! I'll figure it out. It's updated so not sure. In fact, I will reboot again just to be certain.

Have you rebooted?

A ham said that? Geez. My crew of ham friends and I use ham radio and GMRS a lot of times (both repeaters and simplex) specifically because there's no cell service. In fact, that's one of the cornerstones of amateur radio. "When all else fails."

The antennas that come on the radios from the factory are typically decent at everything. I have bought several different brands expecting to have better performance and from my experiences there is no difference over the factory antennas. When your talking about a HT, the improvements are mostly so small you can't and won't notice the differences. Now with that said if you get something like a magnetic mount Midland MXTA12 & MXTA26 you will notice some improvements and just use an adapter to the HT. I had that antenna on a KG1000g Plus and was picking up tons of chatter from rail roads, Ham nets, and Fire, EMS frequencies really well over any antenna i ever wasted money on for my HT. Just my .02.

I had a HAM guy once tell me "if you can hit a HAM/GMRS repeater, you will have cell service". I can't tell you how many times that statement was proven wrong, especially in the desert areas near Randsburg, Bird Springs and many places near Bridgeport and Mammoth. I do a lot of Boon-Docking and never rely on cell service. I use GMRS and a portable repeater many times with success and able to switch over to HAM on occasion.. Even used Starlink for dependable internet connections and have used it to make a few VOIP calls out to the world.. Never depend on Cell for communications. Having a two-way radio (HAM/GMRS) IMO is a must.

Here is your area in the topographical map. Have fun https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/map-gn9tp/Connecticut/?center=44.45529%2C-87.92378&zoom=14&popup=44.44725%2C-87.92001

Okay, thanks a lot for that explanation and tip. I must have had a case of stupid the first time I read this because I didn't get any lights coming on from it, but as I re-read it late at night for some reason this time it made sense! I will modify the saved file I have and give it a try. Thanks again!

Elevation relative to sea level is irrelevant. AGL is relevant. Just express things relative to each other.

The picture was taken at 2316 last night using the Night setting on my phone.

Just drill a hole. My F150 has 6 NMO mounts and 2 GPS. It had 12 miles on it when I tore the truck apart.

Digital is a newer tech. It isn't compatible with analog to share the same frequencies.

Within CHIRP: Tone means you transmit with the repeater's PL/CTCSS tone, which you must do for the repeater to listen to you. TSQL means you transmit with that tone, AND only listen if the repeater is transmitting that tone, too. With "tone" the repeater will hear you, and you will hear the repeater plus anyone else transmitting on that channel: Kids playing walkie talkie, road crews, whatever is being transmitted on that channel. With "TSQL" the repeater will hear you, and you will hear the repeater. You won't hear everyone else who happens to be intermittently using that frequency. For getting things set up the first time as a newbie, "tone" leaves one less possible problem in hearing the repeater. Once you've gotten set up and made contact once to confirm you have the right tone, switch to TSQL so you don't hear unwanted chatter.

This forum is gold. A good 89% of the community are very helpful and knowledgeable. This top is also helpful to me and I am sure others.

I agree with @AdmiralCochrane. I studied for both. Got 100% on the tech and 80something on the general. The difference in HF privileges is quite substantial between tech and general.

What's the difference - money. You can pay a lot of money for a new junky Chinese radio and get a great deal on a nice commercial/industrial grade used radio. It all depends on where you shop. The real question is what is the difference between a poorly performing radio and a good one? Money isn't always a good indication.

Sub channels are a misnomer. There are only 30 channels in GMRS. Subchannels refer to a tone or digital code which is used to tell a radio when to ignore transmissions and it’s just another name for CTCSS, PL, etc. Every repeater will have a CTCSS tone or a DCS tone on the input, which your transmit tone MUST match or the repeater will ignore your transmission. However, the tone mode is less limited. Right now you say Chirp shows you’re set to TSQL. That means your radio will only break squelch if that particular tone is received. If you set that to TONE, instead of TSQL, it will still send the tone you program, but it will allow anything through. That’s especially helpful when you’re getting started so you can hear someone tell you you’re using the wrong tone.

You have to transmit the codes from the TD-H3. Put them into function 13, Tx CTCSS. Put the H3 on the frequency and then press the blue button, press 1 then 3 and press the blue button again and then the up button until you reach the proper tone and press the blue button again. Should transmit and receive after that.

There is a good chance that it won't work within the building. If the structure is the common corrugated metal with concrete, it will be blocked. A repeater to work within a building with that structure ... would be adjacent to the building rather than in it or on top.