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Speaking from experience, when that "once in 1000 years" storm comes through and knocks out power (including cell towers) for weeks/months at a time, you'll be glad you have that GMRS radio.

My wife of almost 44 years has never been into radio although she didn't mind me being into them. She now has her own pink GMRS radio. It only took one emergency situation for her to see the value of GMRS. The "once in 1000 years" has happened 5 times to us in the last 7 years, in the form of wildfire evacuations, snow storms taking down power and cell service and various other loss of power or cell service events. Oh and one semi lost person in the mountains that wouldn't have been lost had they carried an available radio. She took advantage of the cell phone outage last week to teach our 6.5 year old granddaughter how to talk on the radio.

You ever watch a Gen Z try to use one? They stick their fingers in the holes in the dial to press the numbers thinking they're buttons.

Drats!

Well, I got all my quarterly mobile and portable radio programming updates done so, my next project was to install the Antenna Specialist/Antenex/Laird/TE Connectivity Trunk Lip NMO Mount and C27 Base Load CB Antenna on my 23 Wrangler IZARUBICON 2 Dr. as recommended by a couple of forum members. The install went pretty easy and yes, I have chassis ground continuity at the mount and NMO connector. That was verified before I cut the cable to the desired length and installed the UHF (PL 259) Connector. The mount and antenna was installed at the hood rear lip edge in front of the cowl on the passenger side as near to the outside as possible to not interfere with my Ditch Light. Before I do any cutting of the antenna element, I better check the provided cutting chart and see what is recommended for the CB freqs and the chart indicated a cut at the 49" mark for 27 Megs. I measured the element and it was already 49". In checking the VSWR, right off the bat my Rig-Expert indicated an initial VSWR at just a tad less than 1.5:1 on Ch. 1 and a little less than 1.2:1 on Ch. 40. Since, I can't stretch the antenna element, I elected to raise the antenna element about a 1/4" in the antenna ferrel. That worked pretty good but, based on my readings, I elected to drop it a tad back down and I ended up with 1.05:1 across the board. I'll just have to live with that. Next will be the comparison test and see what would be the difference in the Farz between the Firestik II and the C27 antennae. However, I have to wait until my friend gets back from Colorado next week so we can use the same Avalanche vehicle and I need to get another C27 antenna, so we are testing with a like antennae again. Onto the next project. Oh, by the way, please note, there is no shine/glare on my tires, and it is obvious that there is definitely no armorall on my Mickey Bajas. It had to be the shine/glare from that well-polished Chrome Bumper.

You have the power to change that. Getting a ham ticket is easier now then ever. Take the plunge you’ll be happy you did.

Yeah, I'll report back after Milton. Already hearing radio checks over the area's biggest repeater.

The fiber network runs in a redundant ring and is divided by 7 districts that run and maintain their own fiber within their district. Some of the districts even have redundant operation centers. For example district 1's primary operations center is in Ft Meyers and the backup is in Bartow 90 miles away. With additions of cameras, traffic detectors, EDMS (electronic digital message signs - and each one of those have a camera focused on them to confirm operation) and the like over the last 10 years that are all IP based and consume a ton of bandwidth fiber is the way to go.

I put up the wristwatch walkie talkie thread and it seemed to spark some interest in radios you've had. So list'm here. Radio Nostalgia of days past when you were just a youngster or just starting out at whatever age to remember your radios of the past whether they be plain jane simple HTs to CB and ham radios of the past. Myself I had a GE pair of walkie talkies. Pull up antenna, on/off volume and PTT were what you had. When I got a bit older I ended up with a few CB radios and I think the last was a 40 CH SSB Midland. And I think this was the one I had but I'm not positive.

Some think it tilts the steering wheel up and down.

You can but I would use unit designations like unit 1 or 2 to minimize any confusion to whoever you're talking to. And to your second question the answer is yes

To show the channel name in the TD-H3 Press menu Go to option 19 (MDF-A) Press menu use the up and down arrows to switch between name and freq Select name Press menu again to confirm Go to option 20 (MDF-B} same as above You should be able to enter a name for the channel in CHIRP

My wife for whatever reason has decided she likes the walkie talkies because they are "fun". Right now she mostly uses the base station and we have communication between my house and my shop. Yes, we have phones, but me being "one of them" I dislike having all of my digital communications stored forever in Utah. I like being able to lift up the talkie and press one button to communicate with my wife. No multi button presses, waiting for a pick up. At times now I have to scroll down quite a ways to find my wifes text thread because for the most part we talk on the radio. I got them because it was something I did as a child. Figured it was fun. And even if my wife didn't enjoy them I still do. We have an active repeater and I talk with some of them characters on it. It's definitely a 2nd communication source that isn't reliant on others. It's getting to the point that I carry the talkie around with me more than I do my phone.

GMRS is intended for families and other small groups. As such, the technology is very limited. If you are looking to do other "interesting" things with two-way radios, you may need to look into ham.

CPS for a DMR radio is a different beast than that for an analog radio for sure. I was VERY happy with all the RT Systems programmers I purchased until they started releasing (and of course I started purchasing) ones for Alinco and Anytone DMR radios. A lot of erratic and annoying behaviors. I learned to save often. Over time they have gotten better for sure, although still a few oddities when updating a zone or scan list. I've found that sometimes I have to restart the program to see changes I've made. I still prefer them to the manufacturer's CPS though! Also disappointing to hear that was the response you got. I've always found them to be very responsive and a couple times they've fixed issues for me overnight. Where's the DMR calculator function? Haven't used it, but sounds like I should!

@WRYZ926I appreciate your feedback sir.

I've broken the ring many times. From a hour or two when installing new switches to a week or so at a time when one of my guys drove a underground fiber warning post right through the fiber before it was fixed. Every switch that part of the network has passive fiber coupling, if the switch or power goes down the fiber is coupled together to keep the fiber live bypassing the switch. Also all are on large UPS's, IP accessible power strips, etc. Every pullbox for the fiber has at least 50ft spare cable looped in it. The strange thing is the way different districts test things. The UPS's all have ethernet ports and are connected to the network. One district will test remotely once a month and send somebody out it it fails and another district actually have crews that go to the site to test the UPS and visually verify batteries are not bulging, connectors are good, etc on a monthly basis.

No worries. The actual answer (in the category "Radioddity GMRS Radios", is "What is ... buy the RT Systems programmer?"

No, but when I took driver's ED the instructor told us about a girl driving the car once. They were doing some real on the road practice. The instructor told her to make a left turn off the side street into the school's parking lot. She grabbed the shift lever on the right side of the steering column and flipped it all the way up. The transmission didn't like it much.

Ever watch a boomer try and drive a 1920s Ford? They think the ignition timing lever is their turn signal!!

Did you know that many young people can't read the time on an analog clock with the moving hands either.

Well apparently it's suppose to but mine does not. I'm trying to find a fix with the people at Buy Two Way Radios. I tried doing a factory reset and while it's reseting most everything it's not everything... Apologies for inadvertently highjacking the thread.

hahhahahaa!! You are funny!

You're welcome That photo is of my 6 band cobweb antenna. It is for 6m, 10m, 12m, 15m, 17m, and 20m bands. Here is the clamp I used to guy my 2m/70cm antenna and the cobweb antenna. EZ 43-A Adjustable 3 Way Down Guy Ring for up to 2-1/4" Mast I put the clamp right below the antennas and tied the guy ropes to the clamp and then found spots below to tie the other end of the ropes to.

Inappropriate for the forum. You should probably give up while you're behind. Just a friendly piece of advice.

@desertbird to answer your actual question, the Retevis RA87 is a 40 watt that is CHIRP compatible. There are others, 40 and 50 watt. Just do a google search.

I probably can't add much info regarding radio/coax/antenna. However regarding a tilting mechanism this has worked out well for me. There are many other solutions also but all info is good info. Hindsite I would have put another 5ft of pole up, also used a longer 4x4. The 4x4 is in concrete about 2ft in the gnd. I was trying to stay away from to much supporting hardware, so the antenna is only about 10ft in the air. Higher is better, I went with a physically smaller antenna (its used in mobile applications) since I was concerned about wind loading. we are in fairly consistant 20-30mph winds with gusts to 70. this happens about 2-3 months out of the year. The pole I used is a 1.66 inch galvanized pole, its plenty rigid and I have no other supporting hardware other then the brackets on the 4x4. Best of luck -- jim

Once you propose how to prevent hogging all repeater channels I will sign. Without the hogging limitation, this just solves one thing and presents a new problem in its place. Ursula K. Le Guin's Lathe of Heaven

Attention seeking behavior married with arrogance. It’s what’s for dinner!

Please consider putting the link below on the MyGMRS website. I encourage everyone to sign this petition. https://www.change.org/p/demand-fcc-to-allow-all-network-connections-to-gmrs-repeaters-and-radios Demand FCC to Allow All Network Connections to GMRS Repeaters and Radios

Or just because the sarcasm wasn’t sarcasm at all.

The Armorall on your tires says otherwise!

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.

Yes, it looks like you’re doing everything correctly. Maybe have your friend from AZ test the radios with you. As Gil suggested above put 50 feet or so of distance between you to avoid desensing.

You mean the person who marked the antenna as 162-167 MHz?

Have you tried the Roadkill network?

Every time someone keys up without a license, a puppy dies.