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I bought one of these cheap, Chinese spectrum analyzers and I was pretty successful in tuning the flat pack duplexers. I tried tuning one, then took ot to a local guy that had REAL equipment and he was surprised at how close I had it tuned. They are a pain to work with though! https://www.ebay.com/itm/353219998270?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=_4IuJVqfS0m&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=0zihXCkJQWG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY This will give you an idea of what it looks like while tuning

This. You have to buy radios and use them or there is no traffic on the band. Be one of the few - next thing you know, you will be one of some, then one of many.

I did go back and add the spring as there are some low hanging branches in our neighborhood, but too the pic before adding the spring. Let me see if I can find one. EDIT - went outside and took a couple with spring. Very stable at highway speeds. EDIT 2 - Yes, I know it's a 2M/70CM antenna, but it does work great on GMRS.

Kind of a chicken and the egg...less use because of less equipment, but less equipment because of the double whammy of less traffic and NA being the only market for 220. Edit: this gave me the nudge to go ahead and email BTWR about future availability of that UV920p. Maybe if we can show some interest we'll get another run? Edit#2:heard back from BTWR, indicating the 220 version is discontinued the remote head would be a big win. Too bad the uv980 can't trade 10m for 1.25

Article for those who may be interested.

I appreciate where Ken is coming from and you as well Steve, I’m just trying to put some perspective of the guy who’s trying to figure it out and needs a hand and had the guts to ask after only joining moments before. He may or may not be here because he’s into radios but he needs the tools to work for his situation. It’s all good. Coffee is on me this morning ️

Calling this persons radio a POS isn’t helpful. It didn’t even address the problem. This was their first post… this person literally just joined the forum and immediately got hammered for their choice of radio. Who knows if they will return after the warm welcome. Diplomacy matters if you want your opinion to be heard as information rather than insults. As for someone who is having trouble getting acquainted with trying to program repeaters… I’m gonna have to say maybe they’re not at a point where recommending getting a professional grade Motorola is really helpful. Or maybe they are used to working with Motorolas that have been programmed for them and they are now working with a local CERT for the first time and they aren’t radio dorks. Our local CERT recommends type certified radios for GMRS so maybe he’s following what he’s been told. Again none of this matters as it relates to the help they were seeking.

I have to agree with everyone else, I would not try to tune a duplexer using a NanoVNA. We have member in our local club that retired from Sound Solutions and he still has access to all of the proper equipment to tune duplexers for us. A person really does need the proper equipment if they want to do it right. @WSGB808 I suggest reaching out to any local amateur radio clubs near you and ask them.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have disagreed with Ken in the past, mostly about his characterization of all Chinese made radios as being the same shoddy quality. But that’s his opinion, informed by his experience with commercial quality radios, and I think we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath water in this case. Ken is very familiar with the high reliability of commercial radios such as Motorola. They are produced to a much higher standard than Retevis or Ailunce products and people responsible for emergency management should be made aware of the difference. And the second part of his statement was similar in ultimate meaning to yours and frankly we don’t know that this is a volunteer organization (although that’s probably a safe assumption) or how tightly incorporated it is to public safety: I understand that sentiment. An Emergency Management Team which is affiliated with a Public Safety entity should have better equipment, perhaps hot brand new Motorola, but used Kenwood commercial or Motorola. Finally, IP67 is no measure of reliability or quality although it can contribute to reliability. I would be more interested in statistics regarding mean time between failures and metrics like that.

My comment on the post being uncalled for was over the way it was presented. I agree that SAR and EMA teams need good quality radios however, they do not need "public safety" grade radios in a volunteer organization. Public safety grade units are desirable however they are not required. Commercial grade or quality consumer grade radios are just as effective and have the advantage of being more available. Often, the only technical difference between the radios is the temperature range of the units. An IP67 grade radio is an IP67 grade regardless of who manufactures it as the comparison is to a standard not a brand.

You're on the right track with repeaters, for the most part. With linking declared "not allowed", you and the other station would both need to be in range of the same repeater. Previously, it was allowed to connect repeaters to each other across the internet; if you were in Maine in range of a repeater that was connected to another repeater in PA, you could talk to someone in range of the PA repeater and vice versa. On your tones, you'll want to set the tone mode for that repeater to 'tone' rather than 'tone sql'. That way you send the tone on transmit, but the radio isn't expecting to receive one back (opening the squelch). Think of tones as a filter. Tone squelch only lets through signals with the right tone, be that hearing your buddy across the field, or that other station over the hill via the repeater. If the sender doesn't use the tone the receiving radio is expecting, it doesn't get past the filter. In the same vein, even for the reoeaters that do have an output tone, you can choose to run without a receive tone (known as "carrier squelch). You'll hear all signals on the frequency above whatever threshold your squelch is set to, since you effectively have no filter in place. If there's no other traffic on that frequency, no issue, but it can be nice to sell which signals are simplex traffic and which are from the repeater, since the repeater output frequencies are also simplex channel frequencies. (Sorry that turned out longer than intended, hope it helps.)

If you're using the preprogrammed repeater channels, they *should* already be using the correct offset (worth checking in the software though). The other piece of the puzzle is the transmit tone; many of the cheaper Chinese radios call it t-ctcss or t-dcs, some repeater listings call it PL. (if there's a decimal, it's likely ctcss/PL, if it's straight 3 digits, maybe with an N or I, that's dcs/DPL). Needs to be set to the appropriate tone for the repeater to hear you. The final consideration is range...are you close enough for the repeater to hear you? The limits here will depend on the repeater's antenna, and surrounding terrain.

That's one of the big things that kept me from getting a triband mobile. I have a couple handhelds that do, the wouxun is 5 watts, 2m/1.25m, and the yaesu vx7r does 300mW, iirc (220 was unadvertised for that reason, from what I read...it also has the standard 2m/70cm, and 6m. I kick myself for not grabbing a uv920p (wouxun) when they were available, as there was a 2m/1.25 variant with 50 watts each. But for the amount of activity, it was hard to justify the cost of that or the Alinco, plus an antenna. The less expensive route I went was one of the Btech amps, to kick the power out of the handheld to 30 or so watts.

Power and Line Of Sight is not straight forward enough for a blanket statement. Which is why so many answers are prefaced with "it depends."

I have to agree with you on this. Of course we would all love to have MIL spec radios that can withstand a .50 cal hit or an EMP burst from a nuclear strike, but we gotta be realistic and use what we can afford or given. Admittedly, I must say that these cheap Chinese radios will fill the bill for the volunteer to complete their task without difficulty. As for putting this person on the ignore list, I don't feel the need to block anyone I disagree with as it's not the adult thing to do when dealing with "difficult" people. I have always wondered how these people cope in the real world when they have to deal with people they disagree with. And really, if I put everyone on the ignore list in this forum that piled on a newbie there would be zero traffic. Just be helpful, don't jump to conclusions, and enjoy.

Doesn't look like you have the spring option. Is it pretty stable at high speeds?

Logically, if you can communicate through the repeater from a short distance, it must be configured correctly. Most of the time, the difference between short-distance and long-distance communication is the antenna. Either your antenna is inadequate to the task, it is set up wrong, or you're the victim of disadvantageous topography. For example, I can use a repeater 30 miles away to my northeast, but I can't reliably hit my own house on simplex with a 20 watt mobile from 1/2 mile to my west because there's a high hill in between. If you have an unobstructed path to the repeater 30 miles away, you're golden, but if there are significant obstructions, there's not enough power in any HT to go very far at all. Pictures and/or a detailed description of your antenna setup would be very helpful.

If you can hear the repeater but they can't hear you and it has happened on more than one radio, by far the most likely is that either you are too far away or somehow you have the offset programmed incorrectly. Those are almost the only two possibilities. I second the recommendation to go to YouTube for some educational videos. Also, if you're using CHIRP, you can open it, go to "File", select "Open Stock Configuration", then choose "US FRS and GMRS Channels". It has the GMRS repeater frequencies already entered including the correct offsets. You can't program the radio from that file, but you can copy and paste using the "Edit" tab at the top to transfer it to the profile you downloaded from the radio (Radio-->Download From Radio). That should get you the correct programming. If that doesn't fix it, either you're too far away or you have an infestation of gremlins.

My battery was showing 99% when I tested.

What do you mean exactly by a "24 ft room antenna" ? Do you mean your properly tuned GMRS antenna sits atop a 24 foot tower? is it indoors? is the actual antenna 24 feet tall? GMRS antennas are not that tall) Maybe clarify exactly how you have the antenna positioned and what make/model of antenna it is. That might help people give you helpful feedback.

Is the Browning a higher Q antenna? How wide is the dip? You’ve been aiming at 465.xxx MHz. How is it at 467.xxx MHz? Do you have someone you could borrow an antenna analyzer from? A cheap NanoVNA will sweep the SWR so you can see what the response is across a range of frequencies. It could save you the expense of going through antennas. Is it just a piece of stainless steel whip you need to replace the one you trimmed? Sometimes auto parts stores have replacement whips.

Did you enter the tones in the radio for the repeater channel? How are you programming the radio. You may find it easier to use chirp. A give us a little more info to help you.

Congress doesn't have the authority to reassign it's duties. But like you said it'll be a tough fight because the establishment does what it wants to. Congress was only suppose to be part time too. You did your work and went back to your real job. Now they've turned it into a full time position with pay and perks way beyond what servants of the people should have.

I actually have all three and the Alinco is the one that's in my shack ... the others are in their boxes. I really like it. It only has three reviews on e-ham (two 4 and one 5) so I think that's pretty good. As far as HTs go, Kenwood has a history of putting out tri-banders that do full power on 220 (TH-F6A, TH-D74A, TH-D75A) so I"m hopeful that the mobile will do that too. Pretty sure the TYT TH-350 does 5w on all three bands too. I had one and it's a decent radio, IMHO a notch above some of the other CCRs. The Yaesu VX-6R *does* fit into the "lower power on 220" category though, and that's kept me from buying one. So far.

I disagree on both counts. Although Ken could have been more diplomatic in his post, his point is valid: those Emergency Management teams that are part of a public safety system have an essential function that should require highly reliable systems. By mission definition Public Safety Emergency Management Systems are most necessary when infrastructure is already stressed and possibly in a state of failure. Second, I’m pretty aggressive about adding people to my ignore list. I haven’t even been tempted to put Ken on it. I’ve disagreed with him pretty strenuously but I’ve always been able to discuss things with him.

The problem with most 50 watt tri-band radios is that they will only do 5 watts max on 1.25m. And HT's will be more like 1 watt or 2 watts on 1.25m. That's why I will not buy a tri-band radio. And right now the only two mono band 50 watt 1.25m mobile radios available is the Alinco DR-CS25T or the TYT TH-9000. And there is the 30 watt Bridgecom BCM-220. But none of those three radios get the best reviews, especially on e-ham. It's a darn if you do and darn if you don't thing with 1.25m mono band radios. The big 3 manufacturers don't make them because there is not much of a demand. And no one wants to use 1.25m in most areas because no one makes a good 1.25m mobile. I would use a tri band if we could get at least 20 watts on 1.25m or even a mono band radio if a good quality one was available new.

Congress reassigned their responsibility to write regulations by passing laws that established regulatory agencies. Nobody has been successful in challenging that. You can rant until your eyeballs explode but you won’t change it. The most you can hope for is to gain a little here or there.

Uncalled for!!!

Removing Chevron deference limits the ability for regulatory agencies to reinterpret laws, but does not remove the ability for regulatory agencies to write regulations. Regulations have never been "Law", they have always been simply rules. Where "Chevron deference" caused problems when regulatory agencies chose to change the scope of laws by claiming broad powers to re-interpret what Congress meant when they wrote laws.

Here's some resources on YouTube that will get you started and have a better understanding. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=retevis+ra87+programming

Fun! If you go with HTs, you'll likely need to coach him on how to orient the radio/antenna for maximum range. Perhaps even get a better antenna than stock and maybe need external antennas with some elevation unless using a repeater. I suggest you use this quandary to teach them the various considerations and why you chose whatever you try. That will be a fun learning experience!

I have the Ghost antenna (MXTA25), the whip (MXTA26), and the Comet CA2X4SR-NMO. On my old '95 Bronco I use them with a lip mount on the hood that is just forward of the air-vent cowl. The ground-plane that provides is a minimum of eight inches to the aft, and more in all other directions. I find the best of the bunch on GMRS is the MXTA26. The CA2X4SR-NMO is invaluable as a dual-bander/broad-bander, though; great for 2m/70cm plus GMRS (different radios, sure). I don't really use the Ghost all that often anymore. It was okay. SWR was a little higher than the others, and as I drive around testing propagation by recording at home what the signal sounds like, I just get more umph out of the bigger antennas. Plus, where I have it mounted on the Bronco, my FM Stereo's antenna is still longer than the MXTA26. But the Ghost isn't bad. If I'm in a group where we're within a couple miles of each other, I don't need anything better. And actually if I'm parked in the lot at a ski resort, the Ghost is probably a better option for reaching someone on the slopes, since the mountains can be so abrupt.

Lip mount on the rear hatch. Works pretty well.

Can you provide a definitive reference for the above comment?

To a point you can. But GMRS limited to 50 watts it's not going to get you much farther.

Belated congrats! From a fellow Extra class amateur.

I absolutely agree with @WRUU653. Setting up a repeater just to reach another repeater using RF would probably cause severe interference. In order for your handheld signal to be received by your repeater and transmitted to the other repeater you would have to reverse your input and output frequencies, but then, the signal received from the other repeater would be instantly retransmitted to the other repeater, causing a feedback loop. GMRS Regulations simply do not permit a repeater to transmit on the “467 MHz Main Channel” input frequencies necessary to transmit through another repeater. Just set up a mobile radio in your house with a decent antenna on the roof and configured to hit the repeater.