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Some radios also have what is known as “talk around”, this basically lets you transmit on the same channel in simplex (around the repeater) to see if you can reach the other party without going through the repeater. This can be helpful because it maintains the tones you have set for the repeater but uses simplex. Also you don’t need to be monitoring simplex separately on the B channel while using A or lets say you are using a radio that isn’t dual receive like the KG-S88G for instance, you can hit a side button to activate the “talk around” feature and see if you can reach the other party on simplex even though they are still set to receive from the repeater. It’s a pretty common feature these days and perfect for the scenario you described.

He just got it programmed. The manual was no help. I must say, it does sound great into the repeater. Thanks for your help Steve. Jake

I have a 935G+ and changed RPT-16 from 462.5750 to 462.550 and saved the change. I then turned the radio of and back on and then checked to make sure the change was still there. Then I used the channel wizard to change RPT-16 back to 462.5750 and saved the change. Everything is normal again. I'm not sure what you did but I tried to reproduce your issue and couldn't. The Channel Wizard worked for me.

Thanks everyone, i forgot how long until i was able to use mine and he was a bit worried but, I relayed these answers and later he replied to me and said he now is good to go. Thanks again!

For some radios, in order to have the headphone jack reproduce the transmitted audio, there’s a built in “monitor” or “side tone” setting that must be turned on (not to be confused with the “moni” function that simply opens up squelch.) Does the BTech radio allow CAT control? If so, HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) has a recorder app built in that records both the outgoing and incoming audio. It works well with my Yaesu radio. The Yaesu FT5DR handheld will record both sides to a microSDR card in the radio. So will their FT3DR and probably their mobile radios such as the FTM500. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of their less expensive models do also.

Yeah even if their new callsign shows up on the FCC site... usually takes a day or two for MyGMRS to add it or recognize it.

I don’t know how many people here play around with these sorts of devices, but I recently decided to purchase the Argent Data ADS-SR1. Previous to that I owned the Surecom SR-112 simplex repeater box. They’re pretty useful things if for no other reason than to test your own equipment. They can serve as your helping hand on your remote station to key you back and let you know when you’re still hitting the home station. And to play back a recording of how you sound coming in. The problem that I always had with the Surecom version is that it just didn’t work sometimes . It seemed like it made a bad connection in the audio jack, and it could be solved temporarily by just unplugging it and plugging it back in, twisting it, or just otherwise agitating the connection in some way to re-gain electrical contact. Then it would work again, for a while.. Additionally it had a tendency to chop the first couple of seconds off of the transmission, so I had to be in the habit of keying up dead air for the first second of every transmission. It just wasn’t reliable. Cheaply made, and you could feel it by holding by the box. It was just kind of junky. But, it was $60 and the Argent one was $90 and you had to purchase the connection cable separately ($10 more). So about a week ago I had a use for the simplex repeater that I had for a test that I wanted to do, and found that the Surecom box was dead. No longer held a charge on the internal battery and the way I needed to use it required it be on battery power. At that point I just trashed it since it never did work well in the first place. So that’s the end of that thing… I placed an order for the Argent Data version of this device as well as the appropriate cable. Firstly, the best part about this one is that it just simply works. It uses an RJ45 connection at both ends which isn’t really susceptible to a “bad” contact like an audio jack type connection could be. No chop off in the recording. Basically this product is the version of the thing that I think all people are trying to get when they buy these things, that actually just WORKS as intended. Buy once, cry once. Get the Argent Data simplex repeater. It’ll actually do the thing you’re trying to accomplish with it..

I love the dual receive. I'd actually like to have a 4 band receive. I know they exist, but I have enough radios. Did I say that out loud?

Works fine. I do it all the time. The only thing is you need to have the Tx AND Rx CTCSS set for the reverse frequencies to work with another radio. At least mine does.

I do have my beeps turned off, so that sounds promising! I'll try more line-of-sight NW of me when I can. Thanks!

Ok, that makes sense and perhaps I've been too focused on the base station centric solution to the detriment of thinking about the problem differently. I like the idea of trying the HT on dual watch at the other end of the house. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure it shuts off receive on both A and B when you transmit on either.

The GP-9NC (GMRS/MURS) is rated 153-157MHz and 460-470MHz. The straight GP-9 and GP-9N (ham version) is rated 144-148 and 440-450MHz.

I like the Pontiac LeMans in the driveway !!

The KG-935G plus, the KG-S88G and the KG-Q10G all have talk around just to name a few. All are Part 95(E) approved... so yeah no, you are incorrect on this matter.

Yes there are way more modes than I listed. I just listed the 3 most common ones used in amateur radio.

also... don't be surprised if your request for access either takes a long time, or you never get a reply. Some repeater owners don't check their messages here on mygmrs very often. Another reason to just pay to join a club and use their repeater. they respond faster to requests. But I totally understand. When I started I tried jsut the free ones that I had tone access to... before I paid to join a club or two

I think that might mean you are actually hitting it. (Unless that is your own radio doing a "roger beep" which you could turn off). I'm not sure how many people use that repeater so you may or may not get a response. Call it with your call sign and ask for a radio check for your new radio... as a test see if you get a reply but yes... outdoors where you have a clearer view of the direction of the repeater might help... but you may be hitting it from inside the house too.

@WRYS709 Sorry, no I don't have one (yet). I've been thinking about getting one for my wife's car, just haven't pulled the trigger yet. Too many other things have come up lately.

Don't confuse the 778UV and the 779UV. This is a clone of the 779UV, which, near as I can tell, isn't on Chirp.

Interesting. We messed with that thing for 2 hours just to try to make it transmit a DCS tone. Almost at the point of sending it back and choosing another radio. Thanks again. SBB

I had similar problem when i ordered a Duplexer from a 'popular' radio sales outlet. I actually got two different Duplexers shipped to me that were bad or not tuned right.. The radio outlet worked with me, fed X out replacements and the 3rd one hit a homerun.. It worked.. Take the duplexer out and transmit receive on simplex using same tones. If it works then, you gots a bad duplexer

Ok Shannon I'll tell him to give that a try. Thanks very much! The manual was VERY vague. SBB

Yes, I corrected it. My error.

All of this is correct on my radio. Offset is set at +5. When I hit the PTT, I do see 467. When I let go, it goes back to 462. I think I'm just out of range. I should also add that I'm doing this from inside my house, so there's likely already a lot of interference for a handheld, even with the Abbree antenna. I do get a two-tone hi-low beep when I release the PTT.

That can happen if you have tone squelch turned on and with the wrong tone. You can check by pushing the MONI button. Turn off the tone for receiving (or set tone mode to “Tone” rather than TSQL).

Ranchino should be Receive on 462.600 023 DPL Output (TR) Transmit on 467.600 023 DPL Input (TX) Since the Baofeng UV-82HP is not a GMRS certified radio it might not be doing the proper +5 offset for transmit? But I have never used one so... Not sure.

Offsets are all the same for all GMRS repeaters. always +5 and that is just built into the certified GMRS radio's repeater channels. But yes, the repeaters on the same frequency will use their own input and output tone so you can communicate to and listen to only one at a time.

Have you tried to see if you can get a response from the Ranchino repeater? (I think it is the only one you mentioned that has the input tone publicly listed.) The others.. I guess you will just have to wait for their permissions to get the input tones. I can say that the Mesa Crest club (which yes it costs a very small fee) is well worth it... great coverage and good people on it. They also have a repeater on Santiago Peak as well as their main one. Good luck and welcome to the world of GMRS.

50 yards is far enough that it's likely beyond the width of your home/property, unfortunately. With a scanner, or an SDR, you could put both the output frequencies and the input frequencies in the scanner. When you key up you're going to be transmitting on the input frequency. The scanner should jump to the strongest signal; the input frequency. When you release the PTT, the scanner would probably jump over to the output frequency since it will still be outputting the squelch tail. When you're not transmitting but someone else is, the scanner would jump to that. So with, say, a Uniden scanner, if you're trying to listen to the 700 repeater, then you would create a very small scan group of 462.7000 and 467.7000, set squelch appropriately, plug into your VOX recorder, and let the scanner jump to the strongest signal (or at least the first signal it hears, which will be the input frequency until it goes away). With an SDR, you would use SDRTrunk (software) and set up a small scan group of those two frequencies. Again, it will jump to the stronger of the two. SDRTrunk has a recording mode. So I'm saying your base station may not be the receiver you need to be using to accomplish this. I understand it's what you want to do, but this is an XY problem. Here's the Wikipedia explanation of an XY problem: While the Wikipedia explanation is not as tactful as I would prefer (I would not suggest you're ignorant about X or confused about the problem Y that you're solving, I assume you know a lot about all this stuff), it does demonstrate that if you take a step back from the problem and look at what you actually want to accomplish (Y), you may find that X is not the best way to do it. Just being open to other options may make the problem easier to solve. If you don't have a scanner or an SDR, never fear. Even a cheap-o Baofeng will let you put 462.7000 in "A" and 467.7000 in "B", and set up dual watch. Plug it into a recorder, leave it on the other side of your house, and it should do what you want. All three techniques I've mentioned -- a scanner, an SDR with SDRTrunk, and a Baofeng with the repeater pair in A/B slots -- are techniques I've actually used.

That's a good question. I really don't know. There is a sizable group who are dead set against the idea. Those people have valid points why it shouldn't be allowed. IMHO I think many of the objections could be mitigated through careful rule changes. The fewer the better. Unfortunately the GMRS community can't even agree to a common digital voice protocol. That would be the first major step one. Everyone has their favorite mode. However the favorite mode may not be the most appropriate. It has nothing to do with it's "technical" superiority. Whatever mode is chosen has to "fit" into the current usage of the service without causing widespread interference and chaos. That places some difficult restrictions on what could/should be used, and where. The end result could be a mode that might not be the majority's favorite, but would cause the least problems.

You have to choose the SUBSONIC or TRANSMIT SUBSONIC menu and then choose CDC rather than CTC from the menu:

All the radios have to be on the same channel to reach each other. To monitor and use both a repeater and simplex channels the radio must be capable of dual channel operations. In other words, both an A and B channel.

Well Id start with the map on this website and see if any are listed. Next I'd listen to every pair via a HT or mobile. Next I'd listen to each pair at the location and antenna you want oput the repeater on. From there I'd pick a channel/.

If recorder has right and left inputs. Leave one side on mobile radio for rx then second to a SDR listening to your TX frequency.

Getting back to the DB20G, has anyone approached the Chirp developer about adding the Radioddity DB20G? It would sure be nice to have something other than the factory CPS for this radio.

You can't dop that. Your VXR is going to have a duplexer correct ? That is tuned for TX and RX channels. You can't flip them and use it the way you plan.

Well, You really need someone that is familiar with communications to work with you to figure all this out. With GMRS, every member not related to another member needs to have a license. So if a father son / sons are involved, they could all operate under one license. But no one else can. With ham it's specific to the individual to have a license with the correct allocations for the frequencies in use. This is typically not an issue any more. But a Novice license holder would not be able to operate in the VHF / UHF spectrum until they upgraded to a technician license. But your best bet is a statewide part 90 itinerant license with a repeater pair and a simplex frequency. You would be using part 90 radios that could be used for ham OR GMRS with the correct programming. The other possibility is getting an MOU from the agencies you will be service and having their assigned frequencies for SAR deployments programmed into the radios so you would have direct communications with Incident Command. Of course, you NEED to have an MOU, don't just start putting public safety frequencies in your radio thinking it will be ok. If your group is established and recognized by public safety agencies and you get calls from them requiring assistance on a search, then they may well want you to have their frequencies programmed so that they are getting real time information AND so when a search is called for weather, or the individual is located, they would want to pull everyone back in without needing to track a group leader down for each group to call back searchers. SAR during an activation is considered first responders in many states. For that length of time you are technically recognized as public safety. That's what I would be looking for, not what cheap radio service can I throw together some radios and use cheaply as humanly possible. Look at it like this. IF you are doing high angle (rope) rescue. You can get proper harnesses and ropes that are specifically designed to be used in that capacity. Or you can go to the hardware store and get whatever they have available that has a minimum break strength above what your heaviest guy is. It will work after all right? Same thing with radios. You send people out into the wilderness to search for someone, that radio is their lifeline back to the world. If they fall and get injured then that radio will bring them help. What would you want to be out in the boonies with? A good quality commercial radio, or a 15 dollar import that you bought because it was the cheapest thing you could find?

Absolutely violating FCC rules. A GMRS license allows you to use only specific frequencies with specific equipment (that can not operate outside of those frequencies for this exact reason). Someone didn’t read the rules that they said they read when applying for their license.

We lived on a farm in western Nebraska, used the CH 14 walkie talkies alot for communication, as I grew up we would touch the antenna to the lightning rod on the barn, gave us a BIG antenna. we could talk for many miles. But nobody could get back to us except a few local truck drivers.

How do you know they aren't using FRS radios?

There is lots of overlap around the DC metro area and it works out fairly well. Just use a different tone and you should be fine, regardless of your coverage area.

So can the small group of people not simply use one of the eight existing repeaters?

Although GMRS is in the name of the site, the site also caters to ham radio interests. Radio is radio. If you’re so up-tight that the inclusion of helpful information about a radio triggers you, then you probably aren’t getting much enjoyment out of anything. Learn to ignore posts about non-GMRS radios.

Assuming you entered them on that channel, then, yes. That channel is now programmed for Ranchino.

The OP asked one question, whether to use channel 17 or 17RP to talk to his repeater. It was answered in a straightforward post (use 17 RP) almost immediately afterwards. Why are you guys fighting over this? Go to your rooms.

From my phone it didnt work. Used my laptop and boom it worked

I have searched long and hard and have not found an answer to this question: Probably more common than not, my radios have the ability to create Tx/Rx channels with any frequency that I choose. I created a "private" channel using the frequency 462.5375 MHz, which is just below the GMRS channel 1 (462.5625). Is this violating any FCC rules and / or potentially creating any problems? Yes, I do have an active GMRS license. Thanks in advance for any feedback! WSEI687 Dale