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Yes.. That's what deSense does.. The reason you hear the beep is because that happens AFTER you let go of the push-to-talk trigger, so the radio is no longer desensed.. Get the radios at least 25 feet apart and try again.

Yes, this is exactly what you want to do.

Well, it's provoked. Just maybe not here. If you happen to log into eham and look in the EMCOMM section, you can see a multipage show about how StarLink is now going to replace ARES and hammie EMCOMM. And me trying my level best to explain that the ONLY thing that will bring about the end of EMCOMM in ham radio is the narrow minded ham operators that feel that EMCOMM can ONLY take place on the ham bands, with some sort of voice communications. If a microphone isn't involved, and it's not in the assigned frequency spectrum of the ham radio allocation then it's 'not real EMCOMM'. And they just keep coming out of the woodwork furthering the narrow minded thought processes. But they refuse to see StarLink as a possible tool in their EMCOMM toolbox for data transfer and instead poo poo on the idea of it completely. Bringing up that ham radio is ad-hoc and redundant and in their minds will still save the world from the evil Motorola radio systems. Mind you.... and I can't believe I am saying this. I agree with Randy on a good bit of his view on ham radio and the SAD HAMS thing. Keep in mind that on November 6th, I renewed my license for the 3rd time.. I have been licensed since 94, making it over 30 years a ham. But I keep getting reminded. Just the other day, I actually heard a couple guys using the repeater. So I piped up and attempted to join in. I finally got recognized, and even after being recognized and spoken to, the two original members of the conversation would continually short key. When I said something about it, the guys reaction was, "yeah, I tend to do that most of the time". fully admitting that he steps on everyone else and just doesn't care. I took the high road and left the 100 watt radio in low power and tried to maintain a turn, but they just weren't having that. I choose to take the high road and maintain two ham repeaters. Keep tossing my call out on the local repeaters to see if there is anyone to talk to. And maintain a presence. Which is more than most it seems.

When you are at this dialog box, just as you enter radioreference from Chirp, change the zip code to the location you want:

Not that simple. And since you didn’t watch it (clearly) your statement falls flat.

I would recommend at least watching the video before commenting on it. The problem discussed has nothing to do with a radio, but the fact that all parties involved did a very poor job of communicating and coordinating with each other. Taking unprovoked digs at Hams for no reason is in poor taste, too... though I'm not going to try to tell you not to share your opinion... I'm just mentioning it.

You spelled 'retard' wrong.

So I think I'm beginning to see a trend here. 1) CB is for citizens to talk to other citizens whether they know each other or not. 2) GMRS is for co-workers / family / friends to talk to each other IF they know each other, but not to be mixed between the categories. ("Don't cross the streams." ~ Egon Spengler, PhD) 3) HAM is for talking to random strangers. Is that about right? Give me a minute to grab a snack... I've still got a lot to learn here.

What @OffRoaderX said exactly, the fact that you heard it on the other radio after you let the button go is why I thought this.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure how you were testing between radios. The reason is if you are on the repeater channel with both you should only hear between them if they go through the repeater because the transmit is on a 467 and the receive is on 462.

This video was just posted to YouTube. I have no affiliation with it but I have seen the presenter’s videos before and he follows the science of things. I have long been fascinated with the Amelia Earhart story and this video largely focuses on the radio aspects of her final flight. I thought you all might enjoy this. Cheers

Not all repeaters kerchunk. Yes, if you want to talk through the repeater, you must be on the correct repeater channel. Until you fully understand what you’re doing I recommend leaving the RX Tone cleared out. That way you’ll hear everything on that channel. Once you know you can receive the repeater you can always add the tone or code for RX. If you want to talk directly to another radio, you and the other radio must be on the same simplex channel, which are 1-22.

Use Repeater Book. You can specify listings by highway in each state you are planning to visit.

Keep in mind the H8 is 10 watts ONLY on VHF. For UHF, it's 5 watts. I've confirmed this with three different radios.

Also, don't forget to try turning on "stale" repeaters. Just because the info hasn't been updated in a year or more doesn't mean the repeater is down or no longer exists.

No, you need to be in Mem(channel) mode. Most GMRS radios will not let you transmit in VFO mode.

I use several zip screws at each joint. I use 1 5/8' fence post couplers. I went overboard and have three wall brackets along with the guy ring at the top. While fence posts and fence top rails aren't ideal, they do work. Just make sure to properly secure them to your structure and at each joint along with some guy ropes/wires. And keep the weight and wind load down with the antennas. I normally only put 1 antenna on each fence post mast.

I suggest using something like this EZ 43-A Adjustable 3 Way Down Guy Ring for up to 2-1/4" Mast - Heavy Duty placed right below the antenna. You can use some good Dakron rope such as 1/8 inch Black Dacron Polyester Cord for your guy rope. I like using Nite Ize CamJam Cord Tightener - Tie Down Rope Tightener with Carabiner Clip to tension the guy ropes. I use 1 5/8" fence posts for my antenna masts along with satellite dish j-mounts and guy each one with all of the above going to eye bolts or other tie off points. The biggest antenna is a 6 HF cobweb antenna that is a 8 foot square antenna. The antennas will still sway in high winds but I haven't had any issues even with 50-60 mph winds.

I have had to separate some handheld radios as much as 100+ feet to stop the desense. If you're running more than 1w-2w, you may need more distance than what you're currently doing.

It’s always possible that a repeater could be down.

No worries my friend. We all had to learn somehow. I'm still learning new things. No need to apologize. So, a carrier squelch is just the regular squelch that you adjust to stop the hash noise from coming over the speaker. It won't let any audio come through until a signal is received that is strong enough to break that squelch. So, the repeater requires both a signal that is strong enough to break the carrier squelch, and it needs a tone to be embedded in the signal to open its receiver. You radio has the same ability. If you don't enable the tone squelch on your radio, it is simply relying on the signal strength to allow audio to come out of the speaker. This way you can hear every station. To do that, set the radio to use Tone (TN) instead of Tone Squelch (TSQ). This will transmit the tone to unlock the repeater a d let you hear everything. If you use Tone Squelch (TSQ), then the radio only unlocks when the repeater (or another radio) transmits that same tone. I hope that makes sense.

In the world of radio you'll never quit learning and if anybody tells you they know everything they're probably lying

Let me ask the question here... What were you looking to hear on the scanner? Was it just for GMRS? There would be tons of stuff to hear on that scanner provided it is programmed correctly.

Great reminder!! Thanks!

Its in the package when you download the radios factory cps. Its called powertuner. Its on tidradios website

When that happens to me I click on the Advanced Search Settings and I always discover that there’s something there from a previous search, such as a state filter, which results in an empty result.

Yeah, I don’t think a person can post in the classified section unless they have a Premium membership.

Good catch, I was focused on the Tx and Rx info that fell below his image and missed that. My bad.

Expanding on this with an example ..I think of it like you and a friend in a room, 6 ft apart. In the absence of other noise, you can carry on a conversation at a normal speaking volume just fine. Desense is the equivalent of now you have a rock concert speaker stack playing next to you, while you try in futility to hear your friend....you see their lips moving, but can't hear anything they're saying.

It’s a little known fact that H.A.M. is an acronym for “Hounding Anonymous Men.” No, that’s wrong! It isn’t an acronym at all.

Are you testing with the two handhelds in basically the same location? If so, since the repeater is passing the transmitted audio in realtime it's entirely possible that the audio is getting through, but the nearby signal from the transmitting radio is causing the other radio to desense (or "go deaf"), so it doesn't "hear" the audio coming back. Having done a little testing for/with desense, the behavior in practice is pretty much what you described ...receiving radio shows an incoming signal, but no audio. Unless there's some pretty severe barrier (like a hill/mountain) to the signal (or a pretty bad blind spot near the repeater), getting into the repeater from a couple miles away should be doable.

If you say what part it is that you are feeling lost about the most, it would help others to point you in the right direction. Nobody learns everything at once. As far as getting a response from a PM, you have to realize that not everyone on the forums checks in every single day to get messages and what not. I'm just a novice myself so all I can recommend is to concentrate on the basics. Don't even think about repeaters until you get simplex down pat first. And I make a lousy teacher so take anything I have to say with a large grain of salt.

lolwut

While there has been a significant increase in GMRS license holders and repeaters in recent years. Not every corner of the US has a GMRS repeater. There is always a possibility that you are having issues with what you are doing with the search, it might be that there are simply no repeaters in your area. If you are willing to give a basic location of where you are, one of use can take a look and see if there are any repeaters that you just aren't seeing or if you don't have any coverage in that area.

I like that one too. Spoiler ahead, I really liked the point in the story where they basically point out the importance of using the correct antenna for the job…

Let me get my tinfoil and popcorn for this one.

I just grabbed some popcorn. Please tell us more.

Are you typing in a location or using location near me? If the latter, it’s possible your browser isn’t set with permission to use your location. That’s just a guess.

EDIT: UPON REFLECTION I DECIDED IT WAS BEST TO JUST REMAIN QUIET.

OP's statment he says monitor for traffic not talk to random men and he mentiond channel 19 which has been embraced as a highway channel partially do to Randy. So that's where I interpret the question to relate to vehicle traffic. I guess that's just where my mind goes. zoom zoom beep beep. "What is the best GMRS channel to monitor for traffic; I'm new & I've heard nothing on ch - 19."

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.

Ive used both for checking into nets outside of RF range, in the sf Bay area and Seattle. Both can also be used to access a home radio when travelling, but depends on interfacing a radio to the computer (echolink) or node (all-star)

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

The Ham VOIP image has both Allstar and Echolink baked into it. Allstar is best for linking repeaters together, and hotspot nodes, but Echolink is a nice addition for when you only have your phone and are out of town.

I have "compliant" radios. They do exactly what I tell them.

A mobile antenna on a pie plate in front of a window can do a pretty decent job. If I lived closer I’d help you put one in your attic.

Why would you care what they say? Just tell them that its an iCom and they'll say it sounds great.

How are you testing the power output? What is the output power when the radio is set to low power? There have been reports of Chirp swapping the high and low power settings such that higher output power is observed when the radio is set to low power. I have not seen that myself.

Are you testing on high-power channels? Did you confirm that the radio is set to HIGH POWER for the channels you are testing? IF yes to both and you're still only getting low-power output, then the fix is to send it back and tell them to send you one that works.

As a lobbying group they represent Hams very well. QST Magazine is very informative