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If you consider how many people the FCC has gone after for "illegally" sharing a GMRS callsign, or, how many GMRS users the FCC has gone after for.. anything... You might find a little "wiggle room" .. But if you're worried about it after doing your research, you could just have the non-licensed members use FRS radios and the licensed members use GMRS radios.. That is, assuming they don't need to use a repeater.

There are a few websites on this topic, but I just had a fun experience and thought I'd mention here what was involved. Background: The ISS operates an amateur repeater. The downlink for that repeater is at 437.8000 MHz. What you will hear on that repeater is mostly people trying to make DX contacts through the repeater. As an example, if I can hit the repeater 400 miles away, and someone else can respond back, from 400 miles away, we could have 800 miles between us (not counting the 260 mile trip to space and back). An 800 mile contact over VHF through a single repeater is kind of cool, so amateurs are working this repeater constantly as it passes near enough to reach. Today's pass, the one I heard, was never any closer than Calgary, Canada (I'm in Salt Lake City). The measuring tool on Google Earth put the land distance at about 850 miles. And if you calculate the hypotenuse of 850 miles base plus 260 miles elevation that's about 888 miles. Accounting for the curvature of the earth changes the angle of that 260 mile leg, changing the shape of the triangle, and making the hypotenuse (the distance from me to the ISS) closer to 950 miles. I wasn't trying for contact; I assumed it was too far away, which it probably was for my setup. But I started hearing it before it hit the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, and kept hearing it all the way to New Brunswick. That's well over 2400 miles maximum distance. How do you know you're hearing the ISS repeater? First, you'll hear it starting to show up at the approximate fly-by time here: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/tracking_map.cfm Next, you'll notice that the transmission is coming in off-center from the downlink frequency. This is due to the Doppler effect of the ISS moving 17,000+ miles per hour. Today when I first started hearing it, it was coming in at 437.8065 MHz, and by the time it faded out, I was listening on 437.7935 MHz. That's a 13kHz Doppler shift (+6500Hz to -6500Hz). Sensing that Doppler shift pass from above the center frequency to below the published center frequency is a dead giveaway you're dealing with the ISS moving 17500MPH. But here's what's cool, in my mind. My setup wasn't extravagant: RTL-SDRv4 (<$40) with SDR++ software (free). Cheap no-name (<$20) inline linear amplifier powered by the Bias-T setting of the SDR. And the big massive antenna? Hold onto your britches: Comet CA2X4SR-NMO mobile antenna ($80) mounted on a Midland magnetic mount ($30) stuck to an old 16" square steel griddle. Laptop computer to run the SDR and its software. Total cost (excluding laptop): $170, all of which I have cobbled together already. My technique was just to look up the fly-over time, and set the SDR++ software to just a few kHz high, then start watching the waterfall and listening. When I started seeing the FM signal in the waterfall I centered on it and listened. And by watching the waterfall I was able to continually adjust the frequency center through the fly-over until it was out of range. It was amazing to me that I was able to follow it all the way from the west coast of Canada to the east coast, and that I did it with a simple mobile antenna just sitting on the window sill -- not even a yagi. I wasn't expecting to hear anything at this time since it never got closer than about 950 miles. The pile-up on the frequency was pretty heavy, so I imagine the people getting through are using good, directional antennas to transmit with. I don't expect to be able to get a contact out of it without a directional antenna. But it was impressive to me today to be able to hear it over such a great distance.

Ahem https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-1000m.html

No. Licenses are issued to individuals only in the Personal Radio Services. However, you can use FRS freely within your group.

While not as noteworthy as working the ISS or working through the ISS repeater, I've made a bunch of contacts through the SO-50 AMSAT repeater. The first few were using a $10 DIY dual-band Yagi and a UV5R, and after that using my Arrow dual-band Yagi and a Yaesu FT-60. The process is the same with the ISS. Pretty fascinating.

It’s $369 (sales tax is simply a function of the state you live in) and it appears to be a retuned and reduced power version of the kg-1000g, which is $389. They probably didn’t start all over from scratch, and parts is parts, so with the possible exception of a couple of smaller final output transistors it would be priced similarly. The deletion of the higher priced finals could account for the $20 lower price. And @WRXB215 has a real point, they probably don’t anticipate selling a ton of 2 watt mobile radios so economies of scale play a small role. I’m less surprised by the cost than I am by the fact that they built the product at all. I wonder if they simply retooled a commercial radio.

Because they only made one.

To wrap up their semester of activities, the Campus Amateur Radio Club at Iowa State University (W0ISU) will be launching an experimental amateur radio payload on a high altitude balloon in conjunction with the HABET M2I engineering group this Saturday, December 7th, 2024. The payload will consist of an FM voice crossband repeater controller coupled to a set of VHF/UHF handheld radios using a BNC whip antenna, The payload is estimated to be in the air around 8:30 CST (14:30 UTC), but could be delayed at most two hours due to weather conditions. EXPERIMENTAL REPEATER INFORMATION: Uplink TX Frequency: 446.375 (no tone) Downlink TX Frequency: 146.480 (no tone) CARC will operate the payload in a CQ style fashion so that new members can make as many contacts as possible across the Midwest. Please be courteous when responding to their calls. Courtesy of my Friend Matt, K0LWC at Minnesotahamradio.com for this report.

Dont be silly! @WSAE603 - you should make a new forum topic post, asking about the best way to go about linking GMRS radios/repeaters via Asterisk - I think it would be a great discussion topic and a great way for people to learn and discuss new ideas.

I will add that if you want to talk to the ISS, you will need a dual receive dual band radio. And it doesn't take much power either. People talk to the ISS all the time using a 5 watt HT and a hand held dual band Yagi antenna. And the ISS also does slow scan TV at times too. A fried is setup for slow scan TV and was getting pictures from the ISS to show his grandson a few weeks ago.

I should also mention: What YOU need to be able to do this... Although an SDR is really, really convenient for listening, because it allows you to observe the waterfall, I have also listened to the ISS with a Baofeng amateur radio (AR-5RM), the same antenna, a few adapters, and the same tiny linear amplifier, this time powered with a micro-USB cord. You still have to set your frequency step as narrow as possible in VFO mode, start high, and step down as the Doppler shift sweeps down. But it's not hard to do. Turn off squelch. Parts list: AR-5RM (<$30), LNA (<$20), antenna ($80), mount ($30), a couple of adapters ($10): still about $170. (And you'll need your Amateur Technician license -- ham)

I guess @WRWT612 could legally adopt all the people in his 501(c)3 organization, but it’s probably easier and cheaper to just pay $35/license. That’s only $3.50/year each.

I certainly hope so, because my mag mount that works so well on the vehicle is worthless stuck in a closet on a pizza pan. An HT with a rubber ducky is better. Time to run some cable out the window I guess.

Maybe, but maybe not. It’s not just a two watt radio; it has an easy to see display, controls that can be used without removing gloves, and it can be made more rugged than a handheld simply due to the physical size. Plus it stays with the piece of equipment in which it’s mounted. A company might prefer it for those reasons, especially if they have had handheld units walk off accidentally. If you’re running a business and MURS radios have proven to work for you, and you want to permanently mount a radio in your forklifts, backhoes, or even the office, this form factor works better than a handheld. The simple fact is that businesses don’t care much about RF output as long as it’s enough. $369 for a radio used by a business just isn’t very expensive at all when compared to Motorola commercial radios.

Yes getting a good antenna AND getting it outside will make more of a difference. As @WRTC928 said, there are many ways to camouflage an antenna if needed. Even a good mag mount antenna on a cookie sheet will do so much better outside versus inside. And I too have found that going from a 20 watt radio to a 50 watt radiate home does not increase the distance. I am using a Comet CA-712EFC with 30 ft of LMR400 coax at home and have tried both my Wouxun KG-XS20G and KG-1000G hooked to that antenna. What the extra power does is it allows me to be heard better on the farther repeaters. My antenna is only 20 feet above the ground at the base and kind of under a maple tree. Now I would get out farther if the antenna was up higher and away from the tree.

It looks to me like both the KG-1000g and the KG-1000m look like the ham KG-UV980P. I don’t know if there are more versions out there or not.

Make sure the FRS radio doesn't have a tone set on the RX

Yeah, that's the hard part. We had two windows today, but it will be a few days before the next good one, and probably in the middle of the night. A few weeks ago I heard Sunita Williams taking questions from school kids and answering them. I guess some ham operators were volunteering at various schools to facilitate. This wasn't on the repeater, it was on their 2m/70cm amateur frequency pair. Pretty cool. From what I've read, the ISS repeater and amateur voice downlinks are transmitting at 25w. Pretty amazing that a 25w FM voice transmission over UHF can reach me over 2000 miles away and be readable, when I'm using nothing more than a mobile antenna and a small LnA.

That is always a good option if no repeats are needed. The whole "immediate family" thing gets thrown out if you are in Arkansas. Everyone there is related to each other. Just kidding about that. Individuals still need their own licenses.

I used a mag mount antenna for 2m/70cm on a 9x13 cookie sheet mounted to the outside wall and it did just fine. Yes it was a bit directional being so close to the wall. So make sure to get your antenna up above everything if possible to have the best omni directional pattern.

I have several H8 units and all of them perform just fine. The one thing I don't do is upload a Chirp file from a different H8 radio, even if they are identical. I always download a fresh file from the radio and then copy and paste from another Chirp file. Honestly, I could probably upload Chirp file A to radio B with no issues.

Deja Vu ?????

Now it's let me in!

My Icom IC-2730A will run circles around my Wouxun KG-1000G. And the ICom is $80 cheaper than the Wouxun. The problem is that the Icom is NOT certified for use outside of the amateur radio bands. So kind of a moot point since we are talking about radios that are FCC certified for MURS. And non certified radios will only go down to 5 watts which is more than allowed on MURS.

This is what you're looking for: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-J "The highest point of any MURS station antenna must not be more than 18.3 meters (60 feet) above the ground or 6.10 meters (20 feet) above the highest point of the structure on which it is mounted." Other interesting sections: "A grant of equipment certification will not be issued for MURS transmitters capable of operating under both this subpart (MURS) and under any other subparts of this chapter (except part 15)." (We know this; MURS type approval precludes being approved for transmission in other bands, and vice versa.) "Each MURS transmitter type must be designed such that the transmitter power output does not exceed 2 Watts under normal operating conditions." "A MURS transmitter must transmit only emission types A1D, A2B, A2D, A3E, F2B, F1D, F2D, F3E, and G3E. Emission types A3E, F3E and G3E may include selective calling or tone-operated squelch tones to establish or continue voice communications. MURS transmitters are prohibited from transmitting in the continuous carrier mode." What do those mean? A1D = AM, 1-channel digital without subcarrier, data, telemetry, or remote control A2B = AM, One channel digital with subcarrier, telegraphy (such as teletype) A2D = AM, one channel digital with subcarrier, data, telemetry, or RC. A3E = AM, one channel analog, voice. F2B = FM, one channel digital with subcarrier, telegraphy (such as teletype) F3E = FM, one channel analog, voice (this is what most people are buying 2-way MURS radios for) G3E = PM (phase modulation), one channel analog, voice "The occupied bandwidth of emissions transmitted on the center frequencies 151.820 MHz, 151.880 MHz, and 151.940 MHz must not exceed 11.25 kHz. The occupied bandwidth of emissions transmitted on the center frequencies 154.570 MHz and 154.600 MHz must not exceed 20.0 kHz. The occupied bandwidth of type A3E emissions must not exceed 8.0 kHz." (Narrowband FM for channels 1-3, Wideband FM allowed for Blue and Green, AM has to be 8kHz or less.) This section talks about unwanted emissions: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/section-95.2779 ... and it has some interesting information about audio filtering to avoid interference.

Filling a niche almost no once else is in? may be good or bad depending if there's a market for mobiles or not. At least it's based on a decent quality radio and looks to be properly certified and legal, unlike the forklift one: https://forklifttrainingsystems.com/product/forklift-roger-radio/

MURS is limited to 2 watts. I dont know about that mobile unit posted above but that is very uncommon. Most MURS units then are HTs. There is a height maximum of how high you can put an external antenna (can't find that at the moment) and the typical range you can expect is maybe 10 miles at most. so... yeah. More info onine: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/multi-use-radio-service-murs

I think what trikeradio is talking about is the practical limitations, not the rules limitations. Also there is an "About" paragraph on the FCC website that was probably written before the $369 (plus tax, which duh, is a function of the state I live in) mobile radio that talks about its use with portable handheld radios.

Yes the KG-1000G and KG-1000M are the same radios as the KG-UV980P. Wouxun did take some of the menu items out of the KG-1000G when they went to the Plus model. And the KG-1000G can't be unlocked either. or at least I have not found anyone that has done it. So I am sure that the KG-1000M is also locked down tight. And to answer the original question. GMRS license are for individuals only. The local amateur radio club I belong to is actually a non profit organization. And we have to keep an individual's call sign assigned to the GMRS repeater where as we use a club call sign for the 2m and 70cm repeaters.

That bundle advertising indicates that it came with the MXTA26 whip, which is a much better antenna than a ghost antenna. Ghost antennas are okay when you have wide open spaces with little vegetation and your truck is up high, but the MXTA 26 has twice as much gain and a larger radiator. Getting your antenna up as high as possible is very important also, usually. You say it’s “mounted correctly” but some mounting places are more effective than others, sometimes much more effective. Where the antenna is mounted can affect the propagation of the signal causing it to be biased in one direction or another. Are you able to activate repeaters when you’re near them? Are you surrounded by vegetation?

Yep, I couldn't get in last night but obviously I can this morning.

Try as I may, I can't figure out why this is a $400 (with sales tax) radio.

The forum was down for quite a while. Rich has been experiencing some denial of service attacks recently. Perhaps it’s related to that. Obviously it’s back up now. Try signing in again.

What I was gonna say in answer to my "Yes, but..." comment. But you got in here first on that! Yes, but needs to be done within the regulations there in 47 CFR 95 et. seq. I'm thinking the "Marco - Polo" version would be the best. They could do 2 for one if the M & P stations traded off being the fox.

According to both theory and real-world testing (a rare occurrence) a more powerful radio won't typically increase your distance much, but it will usually give you a clearer signal at the same distance. Also according to both theory and real-world testing, a better antenna will usually do the same. Since what you need is a better signal, probably either would do the trick. An antenna is cheaper and less subject to failure than another radio. Furthermore, with a better antenna, you may discover some simplex traffic in addition to the repeater. The Ghost Antenna would work, or perhaps even something like a Nagoya NMO-HDG with some plastic flowers wrapped around it or some other form of disguise. My logic is this: I'm 99% certain you'll want a better antenna before too long no matter what radio you have. Getting the antenna out of the house is probably the most significant change you can make. Structures are a significant impediment to RF radiation. There's only one repeater I can reach from my home about 25-30 miles away. I can usually converse on it from my back yard and occasionally from my living room with an 8 watt HT but I can't hit it from the driveway with a 20 watt mobile and 48" antenna. In between is my house. With a better antenna, you may feel the radio you have is just fine for quite a while. Of course, funds permitting, you can certainly do both, but I suspect you're never going to be fully satisfied until you move the antenna out of the house. Stealth antennas are a whole thing in some forums, with a number of videos on YouTube dedicated to the subject. I'm sure you can find something that will fly below the radar.

You’re not missing anything.

One of my area ham radio clubs (they also run a great GMRS repeater) runs an event every month at a local park. Every month is a different theme, one month is QRP and the next may be GMRS but they always encourage GMRS users to come out and participate and always have a GMRS station setup. A few months ago they held a fox hunt theme with three stations. One GMRS, one 2m and one 70cm at different locations. I was out of town but heard they had a lot of fun.

It pretty much says the only way to have any regulations have the power of law behind them is for the legislature to pass the bill and send it to be signed by the president. That the administrative state cannot make regulations, enforce them, be judge, jury and prosecutor like they currently do.

I was in the process of my routine quarterly updating the radio codeplugs in all my mobiles and portables the last few days, and this morning, I had four Astro Sabers, model I. II, and IIIs, to finish up and I discovered that they were not transmitting the Inverted DPL Codes. I spent about an hour trying to figure out if it was a setting in the CPS, or the radios were way too old to transmit inverted DPLs. The radios did fine with the normal DPLs. I did have the Inverted Box Checked in both the conventional personality transmit and receive menus. The Astro Saber Radios would decode the Inverted DPL from a couple of my XTS5000 radios, but the XTS5000 Radios would not decode from the Astro Sabers when the XTS5000 decode feature was enabled. However, the XTS5000 radios would receive the transmission from the Astro Sabers Radio if the Decode feature was disabled and set for CSQ. I went over and over the CPS Conventional Personality and Zone Assignment settings in both the Astro 25 Portable CPS and the Astro Saber & XTS3000 CPS and everything was set correctly, at least I thought it was, and then a thought came to mind what may be contributing to the cause of the problem. As I was staring at the displays of both the XTS5000 and the Astro Saber Radios, I noticed that the "Talkaround/Direct" symbol in both displays was indicated on both radios, which they should be. Although, I do know for a fact that with the XTS1500, 2500, and 5000 series portable radios if you have a simplex channel selected, the Talkaround/Direct symbol (→) will automatically be displayed. After, I went back to a repeated channel with the Astro Saber radio and then back to a simplex channel, I noticed that the (→) symbol was not being displayed. Ah Ha! What I didn't realize is that with the Astro Saber and of course the XTS3000 Series Radios that is not the case now. So, with the (→) not being displayed maybe that has something to do with the "Talkaround/Direct Menu in the Astro Saber & XTS3000 CPS, I went into the CPS and sure enough the menu was not properly setup for the Inverted DPL codes for transmitting if the TalkAround/Direct Feature was enabled. With the Astro 25 Portable CPS when you have a simplex personality programmed, in the Zone Assignment Menu the T/A Direct column is grayed-out and you are restricted to making any entries, but that is not the case in the Astro Saber & XTS3000 Portable CPS and is not restricted, if the "TalkAround" Box is checked in the Talkaround Menu and the portable radio talkaround/Direct Feature is enabled, the radio will functioned as set. When I disabled the Talkaround/Direct Feature on the Astro Saber, the XTS5000 Radio was able to receive the Astro Sabers' Inverted DPL transmission when the decode feature was enabled. Problem solved. This will be the case if you reprogram a previously programmed Conventional Personality from a semi/duplex configuration to a simplex configuration which was in my case. If you add a new Conventional Personality, the box in the Talkaround Menu will not be checked. Over time and after programming a gazillion XTS and XTL radios with both the Astro 25 Mobile and Portable CPS', who would have thought that going back and checking the Talkaround/Direct Menu to disable that feature in any of the early CPS'. Well now, that will be something that I will be doing from now-on. What I did was I created my own problem. As I was going through checking my programming on the various channels, I activated the Talkaround Feature on the Astro Saber Radio so I wouldn't activate a repeater nearby on one of the channels, because I didn't want to take the time to connect the radio to a dummy load, and then I went to a Zone with all simplex channels and some of them with Inverted DPLs. The end result of this was the fact that the radio worked as designed and all I had to do is go back in uncheck a few boxes. Lesson learned. At least, I figured it out on my own.

Same here with the sellers "no returns" or "as-Is", but eBay guarantees that you are getting what is advertised. That means if the listing doesn't say "Parts Only" or if it says does not work, etc. than it is guaranteed by eBay to work. Some will say that it worked when it was shipped and that doesn't matter what the seller says. Don't forget to request a returned shipping label when you contact the seller for a return. If the contact page does not allow you to return than contact eBay and they will take care of it. I have bought new, still in the box, never-used Motorola stuff at great prices like a Repeater Station, chargers, Battery Maintenace System, and various accessories, XTS5000 portables, and recently a Kenwood Mobile. Those new, never-used, still in the box stuff do pop up every so often. A lot of these deals are hard to pass up and that is why I have more radios and stuff than a normal human being would ever need in a lifetime.

Welcome!

In GMRS, there are 22 simplex channels. 462.600 corresponds with channel 17. In repeater terms, an input frequency is the frequency that a radio must transmit at to be received by the repeater. The output frequency is the frequency the radio must listen to, to hear the repeater's output transmission. Any transmission from a 2-way radio on the input frequency will be repeated back on the output frequency for other radios to hear, as long as the input uses the correct squelch tone. The GMRS repeater channels pair an input frequency 5MHz higher than the output frequency. This means that simplex channels 15-22 are the same as the eight output frequencies of GMRS repeaters. Those output channels in the 462.xxxx range get paired with input frequencies in the 467.xxxx range. So 462.7000 gets paired with 467.7000. And 462.6000 gets paired with 467.6000. Any GMRS type approved radio that can work with repeaters will automatically know the 5MHz pairing. You shouldn't have to set that part up manually. You pick RP17, or RP3 or 25R, whatever your radio calls the repeater at 462.6000. Your radio will now be listening on 462.6000, and transmitting on 467.6000. The correct name for the repeater channel at 462.6000 will be in the manual. That's the first half of the battle. Next, you need your radio to send a tone when it transmits to the repeater. This tone is how the repeater knows you are talking to it, and not to some other repeater that happens to be on the same frequency. You must be on the correct frequency, AND you must transmit the correct tone on that frequency. The tone is inaudible to people, but is heard by the repeater. The repeater recognizes the tone, and opens squelch, meaning starts listening. Whatever a repeater listens to, it retransmits 5MHz lower. So in your radio you need to program tone 141.3 as a Tx (transmit) tone. If you don't program this tone, the repeater won't wake up. It's that simple. As for how to program the transmit tone in a TD-H3, I won't deprive you the opportunity to look it up in the manual the method of programming 141.3 as a transmit tone. You'll find it there, and now that you know what it is for, you may be more successful in setting it. Now you should be able to key up the radio, and state "This is WSDK548 doing a radio check. I'm looking for a signal report if anyone is monitoring." When you release the key, you'll hear a pffffft-click, which people call a "kerchunk". If you hear this, it means the radio opened squelch while you were transmitting, which means you have the correct repeater frequency and tone. If you get a response back from a person, even better. At this point you may also notice kids playing on FRS radios on channel 17, or road crews, or whatever. That's because you only set a TX tone. You are transmitting the tone needed for the repeater to listen to you, but you are not filtering out transmissions coming back to you. You are listening "open." You may not like hearing kiddies pressing the call button and road crews letting ten more cars through the work zone. So now you need to program 141.3 as an RX tone, or an input tone. Once you've done this, things will get much quieter. You will only hear someone transmitting on 462.600 with tone 141.3. There won't be many people who just stumble into this combination, so you won't be hearing much (or any) unwanted traffic. But the repeater, when it transmits back to you or your friends, transmits that 141.3 tone. By setting that as an RX tone in your radio, your radio's squelch will open when it hears that tone, and you'll hear the repeater. ... if you're in range, if you programmed it right, if someone is hitting the repeater that you're listening to correctly. To transmit to the repeater you need the right frequency and the right tone. If you set the wrong frequency or the wrong tone, the repeater won't listen to you. To listen to the repeater you need the right frequency and NO tone, OR the right frequency and the right tone. If you set the wrong tone, your radio won't open squelch and you won't hear the repeater.

First, your radio has 30 preprogrammed GMRS channels. The first 22 are simplex channels, meaning they receive and transmit on the same frequency. Then there are eight preprogrammed repeater channels. They may be numbered 23-30 or something with RP in the name. They receive on exactly the same frequencies as channels 15-22, but when you transmit using one of them they offset the frequency by 5 MHz. Channel 17 receives and transmits on 462.600. Channel 25 (or possibly 17RP or RP17) receives on 462.600and transmits on 467.600. Whatever it’s called, that’s the channel you want to use for the repeater you mentioned. If you tune your radio to that channel you should be able to hear the repeater if someone is talking. The input and output tones are relative to the repeater. Your transmission is the repeater input. In order for the repeater to pay attention to your transmissions, you will also need to program the transmitter on your radio with the repeater input tone frequency. That’s the 141.3 Hz number. Similarly, the repeater’s output is what you receive. If you leave the receive tone empty you will hear everything on that frequency. When you’re first getting started with programming a radio I suggest that you leave the receive tone cleared out. Then, when you’re confident that your transmissions are being heard (activating the repeater) you can try putting in the tone. Then, you’ll only hear transmissions that include the tone. Hope this helps!

@wqnd300 and @WRXP381 You both are being obnoxious jerks. @Lscott has just as much right to be here and talking about what digital might bring to GMRS as either of you. He brings much more intelligent discussions and less judgmental rhetoric than you also. If you don’t agree with him, that’s no problem. He and I have disagreed about digital modes also, but it’s easy enough to disagree without becoming disagreeable.

Mostly just screwing around. There is no repeater in my local area and it's not like it's a lot of money to put out to have some fun. Hoping I can convince some of my friends and neighbors to join in on the fun. It's kinda hilly over here and I live by the river so I'm already in a low spot. I'd like to be able to communicate with the wife from the shop which is about 2 miles away and then with my buddy in his wood shop which is 2 miles away in the opposite direction and he will be about 10' above sea level. I know all about the restrictions of line of sight which is part of the challenge to overcome in my area. It's more of a toy for me at this point. And at anytime when I finally get my antenna up if I find the repeater doesn't work out I can put in a 50w base station.

If you transmit on a GMRS radio without a GMRS license you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison If you transmit on GMRS frequencies on a UV-5R you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison You can legally use a UV-5R on GMRS frequencies if you just lower the power level.. If you don't, you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison You don't need a GMRS license to use a GMRS radio if you put it on low-power and use the FRS only channels. If you talk a non-licensed person on GMRS "the FCC will come after you" (this one was JUST posed on this forum last week!)