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@Billz Welcome to myGMRS.com. Lots of good people here who are knowledgeable and helpful. As @SteveShannon said @marcspaz video is a good one to start with. If you prefer the info in written form you might give this page a shot. I will also second @WRUU653 on HamStudy.org. That is what I used for my tech and general and I'm using it to study for the extra. P.S. I've been kicking around the idea of writing a PDF of GMRS basics and FAQ. Maybe I'll go ahead and dive into that. It would be something good to have.

Welcome to the forum. There are a lot of us here who got started at a later age. If you enjoy watching videos there’s a YouTube channel called Notarubicon that has a lot of basic GMRS knowledge videos. There’s also an excellent video on this forum by @marcspaz that’s an introductory level. I’ll see if I can find a link. Here: If and when you decide you would like to learn more about ham radio the concepts you learn here will help. I can also recommend an online study site that’s free (although you can buy their app for your phone for less than the cost of a beer at a local bar.) It’s called HamStudy.org. But most of all feel free to ask questions. There’s one guy who tends to scold some people for asking questions but he is definitely unlike anyone else here and it’s easy to add him to your ignore list. And sometimes he surprises me and offers good advice. Again, welcome!

Welcome to the forum! GMRS is for talking with your friends while off-roading, hiking, etc. in a very easy, UNcomplicated way H.A.M. is for chatting with anonymous men in the most complicated way possible while trying to show everyone how smart you think you are at the same time Never confuse the two and you will do just fine.

There is nothing illegal or immoral about listening to anything people transmit over GMRS or FRS. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy for unencrypted radio transmissions. What is creepy is hearing some random road crew using FRS and you choosing to key up to say hi. Or a father and his kindergarten/preschool kids playing walkie talkie, then you pushing that talk button and chiming in with "Hey friendo, this is Anton." People generally keep to themselves on GMRS / FRS *except* for people who use open repeaters. If your equipment is capable of working repeaters, and if it is set up to work with an open repeater, you're welcome to key up and say "ABCD123 monitoring" (which usually means you're bored and looking to talk to random people over the radio) or "ABCD123, radio check; I'm looking for a signal report." If there's someone else listening in on that repeater who is also willing to participate in this exchange, they'll key up and respond. And it's considered perfectly normal within "radio people" circles to do this. I don't know of any GMRS books that really lay it all out. You kind of have to start by listening, and by asking questions here.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I need to plagiarize that.

That would be fine if you use a coax switch and just switch between the two. I have been thinking about putting up yagi antennas for 2m, 70cm and GMRS along with keeping my vertical omni antennas. But that means even more coax cable runs into the house or to an outside remote switch. But yes it would be more headaches that it would be worth trying to connect both antennas to one coax cable.

And it should be a sticky at the top of the main page so it's easily found. IMHO.

Also, @Billz, many beginner level questions have been asked in the Guest forum. In fact I wrote this post as a bit of an effort to help people who are new to the forum and asking some of the more common questions:

Welcome @Billz to the forum. I’m basically going to parrot what @SteveShannon has said and recommends. @marcspaz’s video is an excellent place to start. Also I think you will find starting with GMRS was a good choice. You will learn about the basics that will help you understand things better if you decide to get your amateur license. If you do decide to do that the HamStudy app that Steve also recommended is a great tool. I think you’ll find you are not alone with the starting at a later age. I resemble that statement and did it the same way. As mentioned there are some that haven’t figured out the reason for an on line forum is to ask questions and exchange ideas. They will be easy to spot and ignore. So yeah, I haven’t really added anything other than to support what Steve has already said. I may think of something else once I have had my coffee ️

With an antenna switch you could select the one that works best. Combining antennas is more complicated. If you simply connect them in parallel you end up with an impedance mismatch and a minimum SWR of 2:1. A combiner may be built or purchased, but you really need to consider what you hope to accomplish by combining the two antennas. Will the combined antennas cancel out each other? Will they result in greater gain? Which direction because increasing gain in one direction necessarily decreases gain in another. In other words, it depends.

Holy sh!t... I am in love. That is by far the hottest, most sexy non-Rubicon I have ever seen. Please ask her if she into fat, old white guys. Kick in the part about being rich and looking for a third. That might help. My Gladiator and Wrangler are getting bored and lonely in the driveway, and the Mrs cleared getting a new toy.

At a press conference on August 12th, 1986, US President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Woh, back up here! If thinking that the General Mobile Radio Service like the Citizen Band Radio, I'm afraid you're not really getting the concept of what GMRS is. Don't get me wrong, GMRS is a valuable tool, but unless you're communicating with folks you know. You likely not going to get assistance from random strangers who maybe chit-chatting on a simplex channel or on an open repeater. Not like, Breaker 1-9 for Local Information or a Smokey Report. That's not likely to happen, at least not that hear such traffic. I do hear some traffic, but that usually small businesses or kids playing around. Keep the Rubber Down and Shinny Side Up!

Government is never the answer.

Don't know if it is small enough but this is what I use. I've seen some people on this site complain about this antenna but it has been working great for me.

TMI brother...

Remember that the repeater outputs are the same as simplex channels 15-22. If you have your radio set to, say, Repeater 16, and it's listening for tone 67.0. If someone is nearby is transmitting on simplex 16 and transmitting the same tone, your will hear that transmission. IE: they're almost certainly not actually using the repeater. (also, a side tone and privacy tones / codes are different things) (edited for clarity because even I couldn't figure out wtf I had written... I knew what I was trying to say, but what I wrote was nonsense )

I would take a look at the Icom V10MR , it’s a Murs radio so it should be good for building job sites. It’s built like a tank. Not to much use on the channels. Check out their stress test marketing video, they beat it up pretty good. The cost is high but less than the Rocky Talkie GMRS although more than their FRS version. It’s license free, professional grade, military spec, waterproof and dust proof. Best of all no buttons and no screen, just knobs.

Kinda sounded to me like he planned on leaving voluntarily.

Well if you phased them together then you would have a directional antenna instead of an omnidirectional antenna. And using a duplexer/diplexer will actually cause you to loose output power. You are better off just using the better of the two antennas by itself. Also make sure to use quality coax designed for VHF/UHF frequencies.

You’re sure welcome. And pay no attention to the guy who has thrown away more radios than Baofeng has manufactured. We all just understand that he only feels good about himself when he’s sniping at others.. The range you’re getting is reasonable inside a city with trees and buildings. He lives on the edge of a desolate valley and apparently doesn’t understand the difference.

I know many people are reluctant to drill a hole in the roof of the vehicle. I agree with the fact that a roof mounted NMO antenna is the best in performance, followed by magnet mounted antennas. Glass mounted ones however are still viable assuming you don't have passivated windows. I'm not going to install a NMO antenna mount ( I've had them in previous cars and trucks) and don't like having a cable visible leading into the car interior, including the possibility that its can be difficult to find a suitable route for it into the interior Thats why I decided to install the Tram 1192 glass mount 150-154 vhf / 450-470 uhf dual band antenna. Mounting is easy on the trucks back window, and the interior module has a tuning set screw that allowed me to get the SWR down to 1:1.3 in the 462M frequency and near 1:1.9 at 468 M Once mounted I attached a 5-watt HT to it and was able to connect with the same unit that was inside the house from 2.5 miles. For comparison, I was able to get 3.5 miles when the house unit was connected to the outside antenna on the garage up around 15 feet. Eventually I will install a mobile unit into the truck, but for now I'm satisfied. Edited - thanks for the tip on how to edit. I changed the antenna spec to 150-154 vhf instead of the typo 150-150 vhf

Now that I think about it, i think its about time i invite my neighbor back over and pay her $200 to wash mine again:

Thanks assuming reason could not connect and communicate via repeater, although do pick up traffic here in there based on line of sight in areas.

You expected me to read the entire post?

Actually if Grindr and Tinder were mentioned, now that would be all-inclusive.

It's hard to find a super small wide range antenna for daily and of course have a much larger appropriate antenna for my MXT as well as a ghost antenna. But wanted a small one for the H3. So i have one of my H3's mounted in my truck and hooked up to the cheep Midland GMRS antenna that comes free with the/my MXT275. I mostly use it with my H3 just to monitor frequencies my Midland can't (LEO/EMS/FD) and was wondering if using this GMRS antenna of this low quality would be an issue for like 154.80000? Seem to pick up fine, of course better on 460 vs 150. H3 MXT GMRS antenna

The only idea I ever thought about for having two live antennas at the same time on one radio... was having a general antenna plus a yagi pointing specifically at a further away repeater that your main antenna cant always hit. But that could just cause a lot of problems too ... I don't even know if that would be practical or a good idea. I will leave it to others with actual understanding of the technical aspects (which I do not have) to comment on this idea.

It’s a single band UHF antenna so I wouldn’t expect good transmission from it. Without measuring the SWR it’s difficult to say. Maybe someone who has both an analyzer and that antenna would measure it. I tried using an MXTA26 for 2 meters and a friend six blocks away couldn’t hear me with 20 watts.

Amateur radio (HAM) is where you will get buried in acronyms. GMRS follows more of a KISS (keep it simple stupid) methodology. There is a bit of it when it comes to the technical stuff but no where near as much as HAM. GMRS is just more "chill". At least in my novice opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHb5CFGYz1A

BaHaaahahaa.... I thought this was gonna be a (2 Girls 1 Cup) type of topic!

You can use phone apps for Allstar too. We have several guys in the local club that use the Allstar apps on their phones all the time. Both systems require a repeater to have a node connected if you want to access the repeater through your phone. Here is a good place to start reading about Allstar https://www.allstarlink.org

Looks like lots more jeeping next year on my horizon. Wife just signed up for 4 JJUSA events. So on top of other events we do we will be doing more of the JJUSA stuff. Guess I got alot of work to do on the rig this winter.

@marcspaz he may have deleted his account. @WRUI365 lol, that's funny

It only oversteps if it's linked to a 10M FM repeater (yes, there are some). In general, you are ok, because its only 6M, 2M, 70CM and higher frequencies. Its a pretty decent tool when out of town, but its has it's annoyances.

Does that mean I have to stop talking with myself when I have a internal conversation in my mind?

He also has an axe to grind with the broadcast networks. Several times he said they should lose their licenses because he didn’t like the stories they broadcast.

Good morning all, long time listener first time poster. Now that I have time on my hands I plan on learning as much as I can. Hope you all have a great day.

No. I don't have the equipment to determine power loss, nor do I have the interest to do so. I related my experience and results to let others know that a glass mount antenna is a viable option to mag mounted and NMO mount systems. While not the best solution, it is a workable one that might be of interest to others that are unwilling to drill a hole in their cars roof or don't want to have a magnet mounted antenna.

There was no "BS" in that post. I answered the question. If the answer made you sad, that is a you problem.

Thanks for trying, but this is incorrect. GMRS/the FCC rules fully support "i" or inverted DCS/DTC/DPL tones. In a case where N or "i" is not specified, it can always be assumed to be "N" (Normal).

Noob here. I'll be watching this thread as I just dipped my toe in by buying a pair of UV-5Rs mainly for the dreaded shtf incident. Unbeknownst to me, the nearest GMRS repeater is about 15 or so miles away. The ones that I could hit from home with a hand held are not GMRS No idea exactly how close I'll need to be to use one as I have a lot to learn. I got my GMRS license, programmed my radios with CHIRP, but left them locked so that's a start. So, I'm watching and trying to learn from ya'll what I can do with these radios besides taking them with me on my adventure bike to keep comms with my riding partner. Cheers

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.

next you'll be driving a Toyota!

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?

Yep, I know! I probably rambled on for no reason. I realize that was the case with the Town Watch that I was an active member of. I remember, we only two members who held licenses, but I don't remember their call-signs really well. However, their pre-fixes were either KAD or KAD. Our repeater site was on City of Philadelphia's property with a good 50-to-100-mile range. By the late 90s early 2000, we switched from GMRS to UHF business band. The repeater and site remain same, but of course the antenna had to replace or tuned. I still remember the WPMP942, currently expired.

You must use the repeater input tone as your TX tone. Otherwise the repeater will disregard your transmission. You may use the output tone as your RX tone. If you do, your radio will disregard (refuse to reproduce) any transmissions that do not include the same tone. But you don’t have to. If you leave the RX tone out your radio will reproduce all of the signals it hears on 462.675 MHz. The same frequencies are used to receive both simplex and repeater signals.

Wish I'd have read this post before I ran off 'half-cocked' *like I always do!

I am fortunate that a local amateur radio operator has a repeater available. It is done properly on a 400 ft tower. The repeater covers the entire county and portions of adjacent counties. My initial itch for my own repeater was because I live in a low lying area and needed help getting over a hump to reach my wife’s mobile when she is at work. Once I discovered the local amateur radio club, I joined and got access to the repeater. It eliminated all desire to set up my own repeater. Like you mention, GMRS is not wildly popular. For the most part it is only we two who use it, with the occasional visit from one of the hams. If the repeater owner ever decides to stop maintaining the repeater, I may very well become interested in building my own again. Fortunately, my coverage needs are modest, about 10 miles. We probably could blast through most of that distance on 40 Watt simplex, except for the hump right in the middle.