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The WCARS repeater W4MOE (146.91, -.6, 91.5) on Mt. Spivey did a wonderful job collecting information and disseminating it. I helped what I could from my location in S. Asheville before leaving because of no electricity or water. My power will be on by midnight Friday, but no word on water. The storm washed out roads and bridges, undermined pipes which caused breakage and damaged the water/sewer treatment plants. Makes me proud that I was able to contribute to the information flow in my little corner of S. Asheville.

One of the upstate SC repeaters (ham) has been set up with a net controller out of Pisgah Forrest NC, and he's been collecting gas/fuel info from the surrounding areas to pass along to the Mt Mitchell repeater, which is organizing the relief efforts in Asheville, NC. I've spent the last couple of days driving around southern Greenville County (SC) reporting back intersections with or without power, locations that are open, have gas and food, and take cash and/or card. While most (including myself) may not see this as doing very much, it may have had a huge impact to someone somewhere.

Maybe I was wrong about Radio Shack. Because it was this walkie talkie I owned. A GE. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1566874310/general-electric-walkie-talkie-model-no?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=realistic+walkie+talkie&ref=sr_gallery-1-11&pro=1&content_source=1e7d35687412d382575f6798675b27afaeac1be3%3A1566874310&organic_search_click=1

I am embarrassed to admit that I too owned a set, circa ~1975.. We would attach a long-wire to the antenna and talk with CB'rs... I then moved up to CB radios (plural) before taking a break for 40 years and then getting a GMRS radio..

I shared this in a different thread about the same exact model radio, but here’s some info that may help - We installed the same model, current production version with the USB-C port, into a Jeep JK. Antenna was also properly grounded. We experienced the same issue: heavy static, virtually no range (maybe a block or two at best), yet the weather channels were clear. We could hear some traffic, including configured repeater channels, but transmit was a no-go. There was static on receive too. I contacted Midland customer service via their website. While a quick web search will explain that the older models of this radio (without USB-C) had issues with repeater channels, it’s not widely known that even the most recent USB-C version has a firmware issue. I don’t know if it’s just a bad production run, but I suspect that’s the case. Midland advised me to send it in and they would update the firmware, but wouldn’t even cover the shipping to them. Since I was within the Amazon return period I elected to return the radio. We installed the higher power MTX575 that was previously in my 4Runner, and it works great. To do it again, I’d go with a different brand radio altogether. I hope this helps. Hoppy

Hey, so it did, and better than I had anticipated. Long story short, I got caught up in some of that hurricane carnage that swept through where I was going, and I didn't get to check all of the spots that I wanted to between my limited time there, and dealing with the weather/downed trees/flooding/flat tires. HOWEVER, I am happy to report that the larger range repeater can be pinged from my parents' font porch, and radio checks several miles away also allowed it to be pinged. I wasn't able to hop the mountain to our hunting grounds to see if it can be pinged over there, but from the areas I could hit it, that gives me hope since I was hitting it from further away with a mountain between us. The best news out of all of this is I went down for a wedding, and of course the show must go on right? A lot of out of staters were coming in for this wedding, and the location for it was kind of in the back woods. Some of the family was staying there the night before with the bride and groom to get ready for the wedding in the morning, No cell phone service and downed lines made communication impossible for last minute needs when it comes to the things they left states away. The family was super impressed that I had a set of radios that could communicate just fine across a pretty good distance with no power or cell service needed. All in all, I would say it was a success.

Depending on how close you are to the repeaters, you might be able to use a more portable (re: not permanent) set up. I have a J-pole antenna on 24’ painters pole that I put up and take down as needed. I use ratchet straps to stabilize it on a basket ball goal when I put it in use. Then take it down when it’s not needed or in bad weather.

And Archer and Archer Space Patrol Realistic tended to be their better brand. They had handheld ham radios that were built for them by other companies. I bought a pair of these after I was grown up and newly married, although this picture is from a radio museum website. Apparently I was a latent ham even then!

Mine were from Radio Shack. Don't remember if they were Tandy's though. Or just something they found to sell. They were olive, black and tan colored but not in a camo pattern. On/off/volume with no squelch other than built in. They took a 9 volt battery.

Yeah, those kid walkie talkies -- I think Montgomery Ward's brand was something like "Airline" How long did those telescoping antennas last ?? --- "can you hear me now?" CBers complaining about the kids on 'their' channel

My experience has been different. Using Chirp, with the 5RM profile, I first downloaded a stock code plugs from the radio, then added a few air band frequencies and uploaded them to the radio without any problem. I guess YMMV.

There are plenty volunteer groups and radio clubs, of course depending on your location, that have relationships with the government agencies. They practice message handling protocols, and yes, some require or recommend some level of training in the FEMA National Incident Management System, however groups like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Church groups, and others also make use of at least some basic protocols and standardized forms to ensure message accuracy, proper handling and routing, and to minimize wasting time communicating to the larger command centers. Without a working plan and solid procedures, chaos will reign. Emergency Management Agencies could not operate effectively if a bunch of random, untrained, chatty good 'ol boys are tying up the comms freq or critical cell phones. Yes, it is arguable that they are effective without the additional burden, but all you really need to do to get an idea of what it is like, check with your local HAM or GMRS clubs to see when their next Simulation exercise is scheduled, and get the details necessary to participate. Some are closed to just their specific org, but many are Statewide coordinated events, some that last for several days. If you are licensed and equipped for the bands they use, there is no other cost. The FEMA Incident Command courses are free and online too.

SSTV is still a thing. There is a club near me that is big into it.

Thank you, yeah I realize I need to get above the trees the best I can. And with a hurricane such as a cat 4 or 5 not sure it will hold up to the 150 -200 mph winds but I can hope. I am very close to two repeaters and I think that would be a plus as long as the antenna stays in place. I would like to get this done before it gets cold. It doesn’t really get all that cold here but sometimes in the 20-30’ . I have been watching videos of the damage in the mountains of North Carolina and it looks like a war zone. I know if Myrtle beach was to get a cat 5 making landfall the damage would be in the upper billions and loss of life would be very high. I am just trying to get something together to be prepared for something that bad in advance. I will checkout the antenna you mentioned and the coax size . I will get the radio and coax first. I will have to bury the bottom of the post in the ground with concrete. I have a neighbor who works for a power company, he drives his bucket truck home every day. I can get him to help him with it . He also is what I call a prepper like myself. But I want to thank you for your support. my name is Kenny by the way

GE are the earliest walkie talkies I remember having too, but it was these https://www.ebay.com/itm/266679045699 On radio shack, I have a CB from there from sometime in the late 90's, and it IS branded radio shack. The mag mount antenna, as far as I know, never had any logos, and definitely doesn't now, though tje connectors have gotten a little corroded.

I need to get my extra license but keep putting it off. Maybe if we have a race it will get me off my keister and doing some regular study.

Did it ask for a password or does your account simply need admin privileges?

HAM radio operators or any non-public safety/first responder are not automatically qualified to conduct Search & Rescue or Recovery operations in the field during any disaster event unless they have been trained, and possess the required physical and mental attributes and have been certified by a regulatory or an public safety entity to do so under direction/guidance of the responsible public safety agency.

Or after you use it once it should store your radio parameters locally so you don't have to do it over and over.

I hate it when programs are written like that. You should be able to work local without being connected to the internet. Especially with radio CPS.

I suppose the speaker itself could be part of the problem. You never know.

Aluminum is fine for a ground plane. It's the lip mount that may be problem. If that is how you are going to keep the antenna mounted, you may want to try an antenna that doesn't need a ground plane. @SteveShannon beat me to the punch but I'm posting anyway.

You should be fine with RG8, LRM400 and equivalent, and the M&P cables @SteveShannon mentioned with a coax cable of 25-30 feet. I did calculations using 30 feet of RG8 and LMR400 using the kv5r coax loss calculator I used an antenna with 3 dBd of gain. This was with a 25 watt radio. RG8 - 36 watts ERP LMR400 - 41 watts ERP Remember that antenna manufacturers advertise using dBi which is higher than dBd. The kv5r calculator uses dBd. Subtract 2.14 from the dBi to get the dBd. Most coax is going to pretty lossy on UHF frequencies, there is no way around that. Unless you want to spend big money for the proper air core coax cable like used on towers.

An aluminum hood is fine. I think maybe wrxp381 thought that your antenna mount doesn’t couple to the hood somehow. without knowing more about the mount you’re using I can’t tell, but most do. Keep in mind that the position of the antenna on a ground plane affects the propagation of the signal.

I still have a set of Sears Walkie Talkies and they work. The problem with those old walkie talkies was the there was no squelch adjustment on most of them. And one was lucky to talk from one room to another inside. I would hope that the wrist watches work better than those walkie talkies did.

I got it up on my pole this afternoon. The base of it is about 20ft up and the tip of the antenna is about 37 feet. early results seem awesome. Did some simplex testing from the car home to it and didn’t lose it in the amount of time that I had to drive around. It’s mainly what I wanted it for, to be able to simplex better. I need to test in all directions and with varying terrain, but I have at least 8 miles nice and loud due south to a ground level station. And judging by how clear the last transmission that my wife made before being pulled away by our 2 year old, it could have gone much further.. I’ve got more challenging terrain to the north and east of me so we’ll see what I can achieve when I have time to test it out… But already I can tell that it’s significantly stronger and clearer than what I was running before.

I’m waiting for a pen communicator “Open channel D” And now we know how old we are!

Now we await the GMRS shoe radio. But instead of CTCSS, it uses a new tech called "The Cone of Silence."

After recently programming a ham radio with a few sets of frequencies for listening, as it came with none pre-programmed, I decided to export the sets I made and post them here to save others the duplicate effort. Just download these files, then from CHIRP go to "File > Import". A few things to keep in mind: These files use Windows/CRLF line endings (hopefully this never makes a difference). I don't condone transmitting on these frequencies on with a ham radio (especially on the weather radio frequencies as they are for public safety), but am providing relevant notes should you dare do so. On this note, CHIRP does not export or import the "Power" column, so be sure to set power levels manually as noted (should you dare use a UV-5R on, e.g., GMRS). In a similar vein to 2.1., the "Comment" section you will see when importing describes settings you may have to set manually. I hope you find these helpful! I have only been able to test these files with several Baofeng models: UV-5G, UV-9G, UV-5R+, and UV-5RTP. Regardless of make and model, please let me know if you run into any issues. GMRS Channels gmrsChans_20220706TZ.csv Taken from a Baofeng UV-9G's defaults with tweaked names. NOTES: Channels 1–7 should be set to no more than 5W. Channels 8–14 to should be set to no more than 0.5W. Business Channels (UHF, Motorola CLS Series Enumeration) motoCLSBizChans_20220707TZ.csv Taken from the manual for the Motorola CLS1110 and CLS1410. This channel numbering scheme of 56 frequencies is used by several business radios, such as the aforementioned Motorola models, Advantage AWR series, and to my vague knowledge, some Kenwood and Midland business radios. NOTES: All channels should be set to no more than 1W. Business Channels (UHF, Motorola CLP Series Enumeration) motoCLPBizChans_20220707TZ.csv Taken from the manual for the Motorola CLP series. This channel numbering scheme of 90 frequencies is a superset of that used by the Motorola CLS series. NOTES: All channels should be set to no more than 1W. Weather Radio Frequencies (in order of allocation) wxAllocs_20220707TZ.csv Weather radio frequencies, with the first 7 numbered in the order in which they were allocated over the decades ("WX" order). This differs from, and includes more frequencies than, the numbering scheme used by most weather alert radios made since the early '00s; these tend to use the main 7 channels in ascending frequencies, available below. NOTES: Never transmit on these frequencies. These are for public safety (especially during severe weather events and other natural or man-made hazards). If you cannot disable transmitting on these frequencies on your radio(s), set power to the lowest setting possible to mitigate an accidental transmit should it occur. I have disabled scanning on these channels because weather radio stations operate 24/7/365. Weather Radio Channels (the main 7 in order of ascending frequencies) wxChans_20220706TZ.csv The 7 main weather radio frequencies, numbered in the order of ascending frequency ("Channel" order). I believe this channel order is mandated for weather radios wishing to be Public Alert™ certified. This differs from the numbering scheme used by many weather alert radios made before the early '00s, many handheld radios, and many handheld transceivers; these tend to use the "WX order", available above. 162.000MHz, 163.275MHz, and the 161MHz frequencies are omitted because they are not official weather radio channels in the United States (nor part of the Public Alert™ standard to my knowledge). NOTES: Never transmit on these frequencies. These are for public safety (especially during severe weather events and other natural or man-made hazards). If you cannot disable transmitting on these frequencies on your radio(s), set power to the lowest setting possible to mitigate an accidental transmit should it occur. I have disabled scanning on these channels because weather radio stations operate 24/7/365. Midland's "Extra" FRS Channels midlandExtraChans_20220706TZ.csv Based off-of a table on RadioReference's wiki. Channels 23-36 tested against a Midland T77A and confirmed working; channels 37-50 do not exist on this model so those are untested. MURS Channels mursChans_20220715TZ.csv Based off-of the text for Part 95J. NOTES: Make sure your radio's bandwidth does not exceed MURS' odd (with respect to GMRS) maximum bandwidths. For a Baofeng UV-5R, this means you can only transmit on MURS channels 4 and 5, and you must do this on narrowband mode. All channels should be set to no more than 2W. Keep in mind FM is not the only transmission mode allowed on MURS. (MURS is weird.) Changelog (dates and times in UTC): 2022-07-06: Added Midland's "Extra" FRS channels (only channels 23-36 have been tested and confirmed working as the only radio I could test against was a T77A). Added MURS channels. Populated the comment field in all rows of all files. These contain information on bandwidth and max TXP (transmit power), and other relevant information (bascially each row's respective "NOTES" bit). 2022-07-07: Introduced a set of business frequencies used by the Motorola CLP series, which is a superset of those found on the CLS series. Renamed the original business channel set from "bizChans" to "motoCLSBizChans". Removed redundant set of asterisks from "wxAllocs" for WX01. 2022-07-15: MURS channels 4 and 5 shared the same Location column value in the CSV, causing channel 4 to be ignored. Fixed.

Cables don’t install drivers. Operating systems do based on what they read from the chip on the cable. The problem is, the operating system doesn’t always have the best driver to work with the radio. Sometimes they simply have a stub that was provided to them by the chip manufacturer. That’s why almost every radio manufacturer explicitly instructs users to download and install the driver before ever plugging in the cable.

GMRS repeater linking freedom I am writing to you as a concerned citizen and a General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) operator to respectfully request your support in advocating for the reinstatement of GMRS linking, which was recently banned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Website Petition

Yup, i get that,... my conscious would catch to me. Interesting to think about though

I don't, but if it was something I was look to use, I would get Icom V10 or a Moto. Both make current models for MURS.