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A lot of folks use Ham radios. A lot use commercial / LMR UHF radios. I often joke that "How do you know if someone's using a Motorola? Don't worry, they'll tell you."

People usually announce it on public forums.

There was one guy that received a letter from the FCC that listed four violations. The last one was for using a non-type certified radio. That is not the reason he was investigated. They showed up because he was jamming a repeater. While they were there, they noticed he did it with a non-type certified radio and just threw that in for good measure. To my knowledge, that is the only time it has ever shown up on a letter and, like I said, that was not why they showed up at his house.

Quitter!

50w for 15-22 and repeater inputs. 5w for 1-7, 0.5w for 8-14, plus 8-14 have to be narrowband and should only be handheld. Bandwidth misconfigurations show up in the waterfall of SA or SDR equipment. But more importantly, can cause interference with the repeater inputs. Nobody can tell, if you're configured correctly.

Unless you do something incredibly stupid with your radio, nobody will know and almost nobody will care, not even the FCC.

And some 20 watt mobile radios can transmit on channels 8-14 when set to narrow band and low power without any mods being done. They still transmit above the legal 0.5 watts though. A suggestion for those thinking about modding an amateur radio for GMRS, I highly suggest that you make sure that it will not transmit on GMRS channels 8-14 so you don't possibly interfere with the GMRS repeater channels.

No one will ever know the difference unless you tell them. As stated, amateur radios are not type 95 certified so are not legal to use on GMRS. Some people want to stay compliant while others don't worry about it. That is a decision you have to make for yourself. I can't confirm or deny that any of my radios have been modded

Not according to the regulations, but from a technical standpoint yes, and many people do.

1) Install CHIRP NEXT 2) Select GM-5RH D) Program Radio 5) Thank me

You should stop showing everyone how ignorant/disconnected from reality you are because people are laughing.

At least the dumb ones do.

Radio devices transmitting on GMRS freqs must be in accordance with Part 95, Subparts A & E. More than likely, not legally.

Your best bet for real emergency communications for the least amount of money is satellite communications. Things like the Garmin InReach are the best bang for the buck. Mostly because of cost and ease of use. HF radio on 3.8 MHz to 7.2 MHz would be the next best thing. It would be my first choice if you want voice communication. You can cover from 0 miles to 10,000 miles, radio to radio, with 100w and a simple wire antenna. No need for repeaters or other infrastructure. However, there is a very small learning curve and portable systems are a shade more bulky than SatComm stuff.

That's like getting a ticket for not wearing your seat belt .... but only because you were speeding and running red lights.

Has there ever been a case of being fined, warned or whatever FCC does for using a ham radio for GMRS where POWER and BANDWIDTH were correct?

You should be able to tell if you are connecting with the repeater because it will transmit back to you for a second or longer and then make a squelch burst. If you hear that you've connected and maybe no one is there to hear you. If you hear the kerchunk on a repeater and no one answers, does the repeater really exist?

Pretty much this. You've got to try pretty hard to actually get into real trouble with the FCC. And even then...

This is a prime example of why I like to suggest people have a solid base radio/antenna and explore HF privileges. There are a few hundred people on my repeater for “emergency communication with family” who have nothing but an HT and no practice with it. I can’t wait for the first big storm or power outage…it’s going to be interesting.

Appreciate this thread as my friends and family are talking about this - managing expectations - how if cell goes down after a disaster it might be days before GMRS repeaters get us in touch. Coming up with a plan for times of day to try, and which frequencies - since we are lucky to have a few repeaters in reach. Just starting out and testing things, so appreciate all feedback, but mostly just chiming in to say a big thank you to all repeater owners.

Are THEY on a repeater? Do you have that specific repeater programmed into the radio with the correct tones? Are you on the correct channel for that specific repeater?

They lied to you... Are you using "CHIRP" or "CHIRP NEXT"? In CHIRP NEXT, select GM-5RH

Thanks for the information regarding the discone antenna. I forgot that I have one in the garage. My other problem is I'm running out of places to install another antenna. I already have the vertical antenna for HF ground mounted in my yard and a dual band vhf/uhf on a pole mounted to my garage. I need to find a spot for the discone. While I've been licensed for about 15 years my main interest has been in the HF bands but lately I've become interested again in the uhf bands and see that there has been so much advancement in affordable hardware that I don't what to play with first.

Just like me buying a dust collector for my shop and then spending 20% more than the dust collector to buy the duct work to connect it to the machines.

Especially if a person buys an inexpensive radio.

On a UV-5G or UV-5X channels 1-7 will be around 4w. Channels 8-14 will be around a half watt. Channels 15-22 will be around 4w. Your best FRS radio will be about 2w/0.5w/2w for those same channels. You get pretty good range outside the vehicle, you mentioned. And poor range inside the vehicle. A 771 antenna can help but it's not really the answer; I can't hold a 771 vertically inside my car, can you? The answer is to get an inexpensive magnetic mount antenna for each vehicle, such as https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TPZ221K?ref=emc_s_m_5_i_atc (Nagoya UT72G). This is a 3dBi antenna, which is relatively low gain, but it's an all-in-one kit; the antenna on a magnetic mount, cable, and even an adapter for the radio, all for under $35. And it gets the antenna outside of the vehicle. Another alternative is to go all in; get an antenna such as the MXTA26 ($59), buy a mount for it ($29), and an adapter for your radio ($10), for a total of $98, per vehicle. That will get you one of the best mobile 6dBi antennas you can find for GMRS. But it's probably not necessary to go to that expense. Just getting your antenna outside of the faraday cage, known as the automobile interior, you'll achieve much better signal propagation. Mount the magnetic mount in the middle of the vehicle's roof, for each vehicle. There's no handheld that will do very well when its antenna is inside the vehicle. This all assumes, of course, that there's nothing wrong with your radios in the first place. But there probably isn't. In the end, spending more on the antenna than on the radio is rather par for the course. That's where you get the biggest improvement.

Stop it. Line of site maybe 7 miles but it's going to be scratchy.

No guessing needed. A 50 watt radio draws too much current for a cigarette lighter circuit. Run the positive power lead for the radio back to the battery positive lead. The negative lead can go to one of the grounding points in your vehicle or can be taken back to the battery.

I have an RTL-SDR Blog V4. The V4 has one advantage over the V3: It can do HF without the pitfalls of direct sampling. It has one disadvantage as well: It requires updated drivers (free), which means a few additional steps for first-time setup. I think it's worth the trade-off to be able to do HF. There are lots of other SDRs, but most of the better ones are over $100. For "Better" you typically get broader bandwidth. The RTL-SDR, and most others in its price range will have 2.4MHz bandwidth. That means if you want to listen to GMRS in the 462 range, and in the 467 band at the same time, you would need two dongles and a way to share the antenna. For me, needing more than 2.4MHz bandwidth in my waterfall at the same time has not been a common use case. More expensive models may do better in the HF or may handle higher than 1.7GHz. They sell a version that comes with some antennas. That adds about $20 to the kit, and the antennas are worth about $20 (ie, they're not great). I use a Comet CA2x4SR for 6m-23cm (the antenna can receive okay from 50MHz to 1.25GHz). And I have a home made dipole cut for 20m that seems to work relatively well for receiving from 40m up to 10m. You will need your own cables and adapters. The basic kit is barebones; just the dongle. Software is free: SDR++, SDR#, SDRTrunk, SDRAngel, and other tools are all you'll need. But you do have to download and install it, and configure it for whatever SDR you own. A Windows or Linux computer will be fine. There is a Linux distribution that can be run from a thumb-drive, even, that is made specifically for simple SDR use. It's called DragonOS: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/dragonos-debian-linux-with-preinstalled-open-source-sdr-software/ I bought a few of the RTL-SDRv4 because I thought I was going to set up trunk-tracking for my area, and it spans more than can be covered with one or two dongles. I really don't use more than one or two, though. Almost always, one is sufficient. I've found that when I do use two, I have one set to 2m, and one set to 70cm, to listen to uplinks and downlinks simultaneously on ISS fly-overs. For antennas, a discone that covers from HF to GHz range is a really good way to go. Here's one that I am considering: https://www.amazon.com/300-Watt-Broad-Band-Scanner-Stainless-Transmit/dp/B00QVNI1V0?ref_=ast_sto_dp . Since you're only receiving with an SDR, it doesn't matter as much that the antenna has a higher SWR in bands that interest you, as long as it receives reasonably well. I also bought a few attenuators (40dB, 20dB, 10dB) so that I can plug directly into the SDR and measure power output (after calculating the power offset). But an SA like the TinySA or a power meter like the SW102 are probably easier to configure to work for this purpose. There is some overlap between a spectrum analyzer and an SDR, though. But an actual spectrum analyzer will sweep larger ranges more easily. Later I added a HamItUp Nano up-converter, even though the SDR has HF capability, because the HamItUp seemed to reach a little better into the lower ranges. You may eventually spend a little to get some band-reject filters for FM Broadcast and AM Broadcast. I don't use them all the time, but sometimes they're useful. It's just another avenue of exploring the radio hobby. You can start out with nothing more than an RTL-SDR and the antenna you already own, whatever that is, and an adapter. And then grow from there.

All of mine that can be unlocked are (well, they're ham / GMRS radios that are unlocked) because most of the cheap radios' software is really restrictive. They're unlocked so I can configure them how I want. Following all the GMRS rules (my mobile won't transmit on 8-14, for example, and runs 5W on 1-7, etc), but I can put the channels I want where I want in the radio's memory.

That doesnt sound to smart to me.

Maybe if you told us what kind of radio you have... and..maybe.. if you told us what steps you are taking.. and.. MAYBEEE.. if you told us what exactly is not working..or what happens.. or really, any detail at all.. .. then.. maybe.. just maybe.. someone could help.. But otherwise, welcome to the forum!

This might be a dumb question. But can a ham UHF radio be used for GMRS only?

So far, at 10 inches long, it’s conveniently located on my dashboard. But it works!

radio image means a download of the data from the radio that matches your radio. I don't even see a UV-5RH on the read from radio list in my CHIRP.. maybe i need to update.. but is that you exact radio or did you choose the wrong one? possibly UV-5RH is a new radio for CHIRP and it is not working right yet?

Thanks

You should be able to do the firmware update again. Setup the firmware program by starting it and then load the proper BIN file into it. Connect the USB dongle to the computer and make sure the COM port is selected and accepted. Plug the USB dongle into the radio which should be off. Then press the PTT button and turn the radio on. The blue bar on the program should start moving up. I don't know if you can release the PTT button or not, I don't until the update is complete. When it does complete press the END button, turn off the radio, unplug the USB dongle and turn the radio back on. Hopefully it works.

I would recommend using RG-8X cable. It has far less loss than the typical RG-58 type and just slightly larger in diameter. You can use larger coax like LMR-400, less loss, but its much more bulky and heavy. But for a portable application I would assume you would like something small, light and easy to carry. All my portable radios I typically use BNC connectors. Those don't cause SWR problems and are low loss when using quality types. You can find adapters from just about any connector type to BNC. I have BNC adapters for all of my radios. I would use the minimum length of coax to get the job done. The link below is for a 25 foot RG-8X cable with male BNC connectors on the end. If you really need 50 feet then use two with a BNC barrel adapter. Otherwise the 25 foot one would likely be more than enough. https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dxe-8xdb025 I use a portable mast system with about 25 to 30 feet of RG-58 cable. The higher loss on the cable helps to keep the SWR on the antenna down below 2:1. That's a trade off I made and I had the cable already. If a find a good buy on a RG-8X jumper cable I'll swap out the RG-58. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/257-portable-mast-antenna-system/

Well thank you. I was wondering if one stays below 50 watts. How could anyone tell what radio it is.

Thisi s part of the reason none of my repeaters are listed. I ran into this in the north. Then we had a huge storm and the next week I got 100 emails of people complaining of coverage or no one answered them. I told many up front I do not answer and thats not why the repeaters were on the air. I finally removed them from listings and changed frequencies and DCS tones. Oncei n a while I'll get some one on one of them asking for radio checks. Normally I ignore and they go away. There is also a false understanding that repeaters are just therel ike cell sites and people must monitor the channels. Not how it works. Many here realize repeaters are done by volunttersd and not government but many dont realize that.

Did a bird hit your antenna.

Air bands are AM and the KG-Q10H is FM only for transmit. I can't tell you if it will transmit in the maritime mobile band or not since I am not licensed nor have any reason to use that band.

I have the KG-Q10H and it is a nice radio. And yes it can be unlocked. Here is a video showing how to unlock the Q10H https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsXFtMe_-Eo Once unlocked, you can use it on MURS and GMRS along with 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, and 6m bands.

There is made in China and there is CHEAP made in China.

Okay, first, APRS has no need for the internet. It’s possible to use the internet to see APRS data that has been connected to the internet, but by no means is the internet necessary. Second, APRS absolutely works radio to radio. You just make sure both radios are set to the same frequency and turn on APRS. But, you typically must have a radio with APRS functionality built in or you must connect a TNC to your radio. Do you really want APRS or are you just looking for position reporting and short text messages? It’s like asking do you want to be a Boy Scout or do you just want to camp.

If this is the case, is it better to have your own repeater(s) so you don’t have to bother with someone else’s?

I made my own. It is compact, portable and I hang it outside my doorway during the day. It transmits well and receives very well. It was about $10 in parts and an hour of time between build and fine tuning it. Using two AWG 8 copper wires at 5.8" in length each for a total of 11.6 inches, some solder, some RG-8X and an electrical tee box that is weather proof at IP67. I get between 1.1:1 - 1.3:1 SWR across the band with reflected power hitting at 0.05W at the highest. I used a NanoVNA to tune it. I have a ferrite choke on it near the feed for noise control. Big improvement over stick and rubber duck antennas that I own when using indoors, but that has a lot to do with it being outside. I live in a very low lying area that is prone to ponding during rainstorms as well as being surrounded by trees and buildings.

All you are going to get is people re-enforcing their opinion that whatever they bought is the best.. and, you will get one that will say "brand X is junk and everybody i know that ever had one returned it or threw it away"...You can ignore him because we are all pretty sure that he is rhee-tarh-ded.. Tell us what is important to you in a radio and you will likely get some better recommendations ..

Quit lecturing people on “the info you promised you’d read”. The information on the license says absolutely nothing about repeaters and your comment is not helpful to anyone.

Also make sure to have the correct tone set on your radio for transmit if the repeater is using tones. You can leave your receive tones off for now. You can hear the repeater with no receive tone set but the repeater will not hear you if it is using tones and you do not have your transmit tone set.