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Earlier tonight, while watching some college football at my brother in laws house, I made contact with several stations on a repeater with my HT from approx 40 miles away. Everyone said I was coming in very clear and surprised at that. Apparently that repeater sits very high. Radio is a Tidradio TD-H5 with an NA771G. So far, this was the most radio communication I've had. Our local repeater sucks, so I've had very little contact since I got into this hobby. Tonight was fun!! That's all I have

I love GMRS and I am also a "HAMster". My name is Will nice to meet you, I have started a ham radio club at the jr high school I work at and I have already led one student to earn his technician license and have about 10 more in the works. I have about a total of 20 kids that I brought into the hobby. Check out the blog that Bridgecom Systems put out on the ham club that I created for these kids. With that being said, please do not assume that all amateur radio operators are a bunch of hermits that keep to themselves and do not share this hobby with others, because there are a lot of teachers like myself out there that are doing the same at their schools. As well as countless hams that teach their family and friends. I am sorry that you may have had a bad experience with some people. I hope we can talk more sir, I am always up for a good chat

What was the principal reason for the disqualification?

Emergency comms is not the focus of GMRS, nor is GMRS particularly useful for E comm; that is why it is little used as such. GMRS is good for what it is good for.

702’s answer about desensing might be all that it is, but I think it’s more basic than that. When you’re using a repeater and transmitting from radio A on the repeater channel, you’re transmitting on one frequency and listening on another that’s 5 MHz lower. So, if radio B is set to receive the repeater it will not receive radio A directly. Radio A is transmitting on one of the 467 MHz main channels and radio B is listening to the repeater output on the corresponding 462 MHz main channel. You might be able to tune radio B to receive the repeater input frequency, but then you won’t hear the repeater output.

I started the same way... CB for off road comms. Then came over to GMRS, and eventually became a ham too. Fun stuff.

47 USC 310(a) establishes no foreign government or representative of such may hold any FCC license 47 USC 310(b) only says common carrier licensees are subject to foreign ownership restrictions GMRS is a non-common carrier service, so long as he isn't a governmental rep somewhere else he's fine holding a license, but ULS will not accept an international address - if he can't accept mail here but has someone willing to accept on his behalf stateside he can use that person's address

You need to get out more. I don't know you, but maybe you're just naturally unlikable? Join the amateur radio service if you want. Free test study here: https://hamstudy.org my 12 yr old grandkids passed the test on the first try.

A Foreign National can get an FRN Number, FCC CORES account, and a GMRS License. They may not be a representative of their Government, and must be at least 18 years old.

Why does every new license holder want to setup a repeater? I would like to shed a little light on some of the important things to consider if you recently got your GMRS license and now want your own repeater. First thing to consider, are there any open well placed repeaters in your area that you are able to use? I can assure you most repeater owners want people to use there repeater. Owning several repeaters I can assure you all are welcome and encouraged to use my machines. Do you have access to a location to host your repeater? If your answer is your garage roof you should reconsider. Your garage roof will give you about the same coverage as simplex. Unless you’re on top of a mountain and all your users are at the bottom you will never be happy with this setup. GMRS is not as popular as one would like to think, unless your repeater covers 20 miles or more you may find you only have 1 or 2 users in the area. Unless you already have a group of friends together you may want to consider this before spending money on a decent well positioned site to install your repeater. So you found a nice high site and the price is right, all you need to do is get the repeater installed, sounds simple right? Some thigs to consider first and foremost are the costs because they can add up quickly. Are you on a commercial tower that requires a license and bonded climber? If so this could be by far your largest expense depending on your area. I have spent $600 to $1200 on a climber; I have had quotes as high as $2500 depending on the amount of work and heights involved. Keep in mind commercial sites require certified mounts, hard line cable, cable clamps, engineered grounding solutions and commercial grade antennas. No tower owner is going to let you install a comet antenna and 200’ of braided shield coax. This brings me to my next point, the antenna. Because of the costs involved with climbers you will want to expend your budget on the antenna. Remember a $2000 repeater on a $200 antenna is going to work about as good as a $200 repeater. Whereas a $200 repeater on a $2000 antenna is going to work like a $2000 repeater. On my first repeater I was gifted use of a 150’ tower, I installed a DB-420 on the top and 160’ of 7/8 hardline. Total cost of equipment for the antenna install was $2500, with the climbers labor coming in at an additional $800. This left me with enough to purchase an old Motorola R100 repeater running at 25W. To my surprise it had 30 miles of coverage, all due to the cash spent on the antenna and waiting for a decent spot. Things happen, more so if you have an antenna 200’ in the air with a conductive cable connected to sensitive electronics. Antenna issues, feedline issues, repeater issues all cost money and I promise at some point you will have issues that need repair and require your money! It is my opinion that the GMRS community does not need another 2 to 5 miles repeater as it just becomes background noise. What use is a public listed repeater if somebody in a mobile can’t use it 5 miles away while moving or the portable coverage is only a mile? If after reading this you are still going to build a repeater for your garage more power to you, just don’t expect 20 people to show up if it only reaches a mile. As the owner of several GMRS and Commercial repeaters I can attest to the amount of money and effort go into my repeaters. I have only touched on the basics, if you add in any kind of testing services, duplexer tuning, addition of a combiner channel to an existing tower system, RF engineering, rent and insurance your costs can sky rocket. The best advice I can give any new licensee is to try and use the available systems in the area. Take the time to learn a little about what you’re doing and to assess the usability of the service before investing in a repeater for the sole reason of saying you own one.

I forgot to mention that I went with a lower db antenna due to the hills in our area.

OK, but why does this antenna work so well from my kitchen? My brother and I can talk for miles as he's driving around. Trying to figure this out is baffling.

The signal is line-of-sight and travels mostly horizontal. If there is a window in the attic you may have better luck putting the antenna there.

No, just asphalt shingles. Not sure about the underlayment but as I recall there wasn't any foil. But if there was foil wouldn't it affect the kitchen set up as well since the signal has to go through the ceiling and then through the roof?

Do you have a layer of that foil barier in your roof?

With factory tinted windows, the tint material is in between the layers of safety glass. I'm not sure what each manufacturer actually uses, especially when it comes to metal content of the tint. Like I said, I have had some say glass mount antennas work fine and others say they didn't work for them. I mentioned it so people were aware that tint could possibly cause an issue.

And oh how easy is it for that $100 billion dollar system to fail. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The factory Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Rear Window Tint is not a tinting film material. It is actually a dark window known as Privacy Glass. I don't know how the glass manufacturer tints the glass.

Great Falls is way too far away from me (148 miles), but the significant metropolitan population would seem to indicate that an GMRS repeater might have traffic there. I’m not certain why none exists already, but as far as I know, none does. Our ham club has a guy who plans to put up a GMRS repeater here in the Butte area. We’re probably only between one third and one half the metropolitan size of Great Falls.

You can buy a DTMF relay on Amazon for about $20 and then wire it up to power on an external speaker. This is what I’ve done. I can activate and deactivate a remote speaker with DTMF tones. Unfortunately, some repeaters block DTMF tones from being transmitted. Before you go to the trouble of getting a relay, I’d make sure that the repeater will allow the tones to pass through.

Receiver de-sense is a common problem when there is a lack of receiver front end filters. Distance is also relevant for the transmitting / receiving radio to the repeater. If at the repeater tower site - for sure the repeater will & should be heard on a HT in the other hand. But at further distances, several miles away from the repeater, a cheaper radio without additional front end filtering can & most likely will be de-sensitized by another in close proximity transmitter - especially when only 5 MHz away.

Just went over this on another radio forum and the answer was no.

Cheaper non commercial radios do not have the receiver front end filtering, as do commercial radios. So when you are transmitting to a repeater on one unit, & your 2nd unit is too close - Your 2nd unit's receiver is being de-sensitized by the transmitting unit & not receiving the repeater output. Depending on the manufacturer, a 50 yard separation should let you receive the repeater transmission, on the 2nd unit. This will not be noticed when talking simplex, as you are communicating radio to radio directly, regardless of close proximity.

Yes sir. Aside from using the radios for off road comms, just shooting the bull over the airwaves seems to peak my interest. It wasn't too long ago that we had a bunch of local CB'rs that were on the radio in my AO. Including me. I guess this hobby brings that back in a way.

Now you got the bug!

Like @N6CST I have a Tundra and went straight to the battery. The grommets on each side of the truck have a nipple top and bottom. I used the bottom nipple on the driver's side. Top was already used. The install was very easy. Running the wire from the cab side made it easier to see where to fish the wires.

What you are doing is called projection. That is a psychological defense mechanism with which a person attributes their own thoughts, feelings or actions on to someone else. You misrepresented facts, you trolled, you were called out on it, and you are embarrassed. I get it. How about offering something constructive to the thread?

So you use the $100 billion dollar system to tell people you want to use the couple thousand dollar system....

It is disappointing that the service is so underutilized. I got in to GMRS in pursuit of my other hobbies. Camping, hiking, off roading, boating, etc.. In my opinion, one critical use of GMRS is emergency communication. Cell phone services have failed in various areas of the country during civil emergencies. Best practice is to be proficient with the system before an emergency arises. Using the system with some frequency, and networking with other users in my area seems like the best way to become proficient. Cell service does inspire a "why bother" sort of mentality when it comes to radio Comms. So far, for me, GMRS radio seems to be a depreciable skill. Manual programming, and management of the various features on the radio takes regular use for me to remain proficient. If I set it down for a month or so, I need to refresh my knowledge a bit.

Never mind, I see you’re still easily triggered.

People have lives, they work, they have other business to take care of,ect.....if they do talk to who ever then it's by cell phone...radio is way down on the list of things to do. that's why it's quiet......gmrs/ ham repeaters the same....it is what it is...People will start talking at some point,when things in this country start getting better..

I scan all the GMRS frequencies here in Orange County, CA every day on my way to and from work. There appears to be a lot of radio traffic. The issue for me is that I don't know Spanish.

“Some people” use that app to find cats and dogs when they are hungry.

I have both Ham and GMRS Licenses, and find my experience on Repeaters to be very similar. Both services host Nets a few times per week. Both services have regular Emergency Comms nets and training. The larger repeaters in my area provide traffic and weather updates from a control operator morning and evening. Some people are talkers, but many are primarily listeners. Find all of the repeaters in your area and load up your memory channels. Use Scan a lot. You will get a feel for what is happening in your area. Don’t forget to scan the simplex channels as well. Relax and enjoy.

We have a group of radio dorks around DC and Northern Virginia that are on the GMRS repeaters just about every day. I call it "the going to work show" in the morning and the "going home show" in the evening. Great group of people. That said, it's a little burst. Everyone knows one another. The rest of the time, it's pretty quiet. And we have close to 4 million people in the coverage area. I would assume the total number of licensed operators around a group of 200,000 total citizens is pretty small. So I'm not surprised it's quiet for your area.

GMRS is a good service and I see it as the evolution from the old CB days. Where Amateur Radio is filled with people who enjoy making contacts for the sake of meeting new people and making contacts, GMRS is often called a “bring your own friends” type of service, in that its often used within families, hunting / hiking groups, off road groups, etc. You’ll typically find fewer folks just looking to connect, but that does happen on occasion. Where I’m at there are regular net sessions, a Ham study session, and we even had a recent picnic to meet up. I’m still not as well known, but that’s fine by me as I have other stuff going on. You should investigate to see if you have local GMRS groups near you. You are entitled to whatever opinion you wish to have, but that doesn’t make it accurate. Many folks who use GMRS are also Ham operators. While we have fun with “Sad Hams” the truth is there are people here who simply enjoy radio and use Ham and GMRS. My dad used to say “it’s not what you said but how you said it”. Instead of complaining and insulting established members here, maybe consider taking a breath and getting a sense of how things flow. There seems to be a thing with new folks around here lately….

Might be meeting the wrong people, just about everyone I have ever talked to about radio has been very welcoming to the hobby.

I believe your reasoning is correct. Unfortunately, when I tried to look up any Canadian GMRS licenses I was unable to do so because only USA addresses are supported by the license search utility.

I told my wife to delete that!!!

*The NotARubcion has entered the chat-room* ...your radio, your choice.... *The NotARubcion has left the chat*

it already has in many parts of the country, most notably in bigger cities like the LA Zoo

Some radios have a wake up feature that allow you to use CTCSS or DTCSS to get through the repeater and then separately send eith a two tone, five tone, or DTMF sequence to wake up a radio. That’s more commonly available than using two different CTCSS or DTCSS tones. Most inexpensive radios cannot send two different CTCSS or DTCSS tones and whatever tones are required by the repeater are continuously needed. Look for 2-tone or 5-tone settings in the instructions and make sure someone has been able to use them successfully. On the forums recently someone was trying to do the same thing without success.

I have a 5RM which adds the WX channels and can copy a VHF/UHF frequency from a radio transmitting next to you. Also has Rx on AM Aircraft freqs & FM radio. It has 999 channels too. I load mine up with tower & tracon freqs for the local airports and railroad channels!

I'm guilty of doing this on occasion. If I hear somebody on the repeater input frequency and I catch a call sign, I'll look them up online to see how my antenna and radio are performing on receive. Not a lot of local GMRS users here and I'll do a call out to them and let them know I'm local to them. I've made a few simplex friends this way.

Well stated.

Hi from Florence Or just received my license WREJ714 I picked up a Midland MXT400 very excited to get it set up. Any recommendations for a base antenna?

Welcome aboard!

Hello, Newbie here. Thank You for creating this great service! Is there an invite for discord?

Just an update. I was mistaken. Both use channel codes. However the algorithm used by dPMR doesn’t yield the codes listed in the standard for dPMR446. At least from my reading of the documentation for both. I did some spreadsheets to generate the channel codes based on frequency as shown in the dPMR standard. They don’t match the ones listed in the dPMR446 standard unless I missed something. The standards document for dPMR446 is ETSI TS 102 490 While the one for dPMR is ETSI TS 102 658 ETSI TS 102 658 V2.6.1 (2019-01).pdf ETSI TS 102 490 V1.9.1 (2016-08).pdf