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make sure your radio is in GMRS mode (it is by default), then make sure you are on Repeater Channel 19/Repeater 5 (i dont remember how it is listed on the H3, you may have to refer to the user manual). When you are on the correct repeater channel you do not need to worry about the offset. Whilst on the correct channel, go in to the menus and enter your D072 tone (it won't show N, just find the 072), save it, and you're done. After you have done all that, if it still does not work come back and give us more detail about "cannot seem to transmit" - such as how are you determining that it is not transmitting, and the steps you took up to that point - and please tell us what a "CV" is.

If i have learned anything from this forum it is that "some people" care! They care very, VERY much.. Its sad, but it is true.

Here’s the actual text, but I think you’re reading too much into it. The licensee can maintain control by verbally commanding a person: (2) The licensee must maintain access to and control over all stations authorized under its license.

What you believe may not be what the regulations allow. "Any individual who holds an individual license may allow his or her immediate family members to operate his or her GMRS station or stations. Immediate family members are the licensee's spouse, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, parents, grandparents, stepparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and in-laws." If I had all those people living under one roof with me, I'd go nuts!

I just had one of my towers inspected today and I'm happy to say it passed.

As of right now the KG-935G Plus is $149.99 and the KG-Q10G is $219.99 on Buy Two Way Radio. Both are IP rated; 935G - IP66, Q10G - IP67 935G - SOC Q10G - superheterodyne Q10G has GPS functions - downside is it only works with other Wouxun radios. I have a 935G Plus and a Q10H (quad band model) and I can't tell much difference in performance between the two. Both have good front ends that are not susceptible to front end over load. Both receive well and both sound good when transmitting. So you have to ask yourself if the slightly better IP rating, superheterodyne vs SOC, and GPS function is worth the extra $70 or not. PS: I went with the Q10H version since it is quad band and can be unlocked if I choose to do so. The Q10H covers the 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, and 6m bands out of the box and will also cover MURS and GMRS if unlocked.

I used it all up making high voices.

Yes, correct. But I doubt there's been many lives saved when playing "what if" when trying to determine who can use your GMRS license and where they can use it.

My kids got in the habit of asking complete nonsense "what if" questions for fun. We started replying with "OH MY GOD WHAT IF!?" in an extremely exaggerated way that quickly nipped that in the bud. Which is pretty much my feeling about this thread. If you don't want people using your call sign don't let them. "You" (Royal You, not you WCR725) have no real control over what other people do in their lives anyway, nor should you, so...who cares if some schmoe down the road lets his neighbor use his callsign?

The regulations say nothing about being in the same household. They simply say: Any individual who holds an individual license may allow his or her immediate family members to operate his or her GMRS station or stations. Immediate family members are the licensee's spouse, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, parents, grandparents, stepparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. But they do require that the licensed individual retain control of his/her stations while being used by someone they have authorized.

Doesn’t matter. You can’t reserve a frequency.

Someone has their radio turned on with VOX turned on.

Hi All, I'm a new GMRS user and recently got my license, mainly to allow my family to participate without the licensing exams (my wife would never take the amateur exams) and also to broaden my own communication capabilities. I've been into electronics since the 70s, when I worked on radars for the Army and enjoy learning about radio. I had a CB license back in the day and still have a CB radio, albeit disused. I'm a licensed ham, an Amateur Extra for about 11 years and a volunteer examiner for administering the ham exams with my local amateur radio club. I also hold a GROL+Radar and a GMDSS license, which I decided to go ahead and test for since one of the very few east coast NMEA test facilities is only about 10 miles from my home. I've joined the forum to learn more about GMRS operations and better understand the equipment and operation. Thank you for having me!

Also check that the alternator body has a good ground to the chassis. Normally it just uses the engine block but sometimes you need to add a ground strap from the alternator directly to the chassis. I would try that before replacing the alternator. And I agree to check your spark plug wires and coils. If your vehicle has coil packs that mount directly to the spark plugs then check them too. I've seen coil packs go bad without throwing a code. It's worth checking.

This radio is pre-programmed with all NOAA frequencies. You do not need to program them in individually. To receive the NOAA channel that gives you the best signal, press the button directly under the PTT on the left side.

It's there... but imaginary, just like the lines.

The wren, the wren is king of the birds St. stephen's day he's caught in the furze Although he is little his family is great We pray you, good people to give us a treat

Project Update: Upcoming Mast Installation & Repeater Expansion I wanted to take a moment to share an update on the GMRS repeater project. I'm still on track to install a 46 ft telescoping mast, with the installation planned for late winter or early spring. Once completed, this should significantly extend the range and improve the overall performance of the repeater system for everyone in the area. This project is part of a long-term effort to build a sustainable and reliable communication system. It’s being funded entirely out of pocket, but my goal is to make it highly available with redundancy in power, backup equipment, and spare parts to ensure minimal downtime in the future. Additionally, I’m also building a DMR repeater on site. It’s currently operational as a high-powered hotspot, and if anyone is interested in using it or learning more about it, feel free to reach out and I can provide those details. I’ll provide further updates as we get closer to the installation date. - Barry WSDH649

That's a H.A.M. radio, not a GMRS radio, so now you're going to have to do everything manually.. Find a channel, enter the transmit frequency and the offset, and the tones.. I'm sure someone will chime in with all the details, but, I'm out.

Inspections are important. It would seem your inspector is a good boy.

Old school heat balloon.

You don't have helium in your go kit?

My New Year resolution is to use a short run of LMR400, a very short run.

Your title is "Best gmrs handheld radio?" Then you ask what we would "...think would be a decent radio". Do you want the best or do you want a decent radio? I think you have the best, decent radio. Now just use it.

I believe it was 128 channels on the firmware upgrade date fof the MXT500.

The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions is a long-standing practice that dates back to ancient times, with roots in the Babylonian festival of Akitu, celebrated around 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. As of 2025, the tradition has evolved, with many people using the start of the year as an opportunity to reflect on their habits and set goals for self-improvement. According to recent reports, only a small percentage of people manage to stick to their resolutions, with around 64% abandoning their goals by the second month of the year. Ancient Origins: The Babylonians made promises to their gods to pay off debts and return borrowed items, marking the beginning of New Year’s resolutions as a way to start the year with a clean slate. Evolution of the Tradition: Over time, the practice of making New Year’s resolutions has moved beyond religious contexts, with people now setting goals for personal improvement, such as eating healthier, exercising more, or saving money. Modern-Day Resolutions: In 2025, popular New Year’s resolutions include spending more time with family and friends, losing weight, exercising more, eating healthier, and saving money, with many people sharing their goals and experiences on social media.

You can add your own custom channels with the MXT500. I had to do a firmware update on mine to get more than 33 memory channels. After the update, I had either 100 or 199 memory channels to use. I don't remember now. I can't speak for the Midland models with everything built into the hand mic such as the MXT 575. Those models might not have that ability. Others can chime in on that. @Photog1018 as long as your radio has enough memory channels, then yes just add different repeaters on the memory channels above what came stock as long as your radio allows that. You can have as many saved channels as you want with the same channel/frequency and different tones as you want to program.

Gone the way of the DoDo. Mine is the same. Nor do I. I guess none of this ever happened. May I suggest a salute to our brothers and sisters North of Line A and East of Line C by pressing the PTT on channel 19 at high noon using the Roger beep. into a dummy load of course.

Not sure what Mode you have your H8 set to... but if you have it set to the GMRS mode, all the NOAA frequencies are already set up by default in the last channel slots... like channels 189-199 I think.

But I find no mention of it in any announcements on the FCC website. Damned bureaucrats.

Well there is no getting to the repeater for a while with all of the snow and ice we have right now. I did do one test this morning between an unlocked hand held and my base radio. The base antenna is 17 feet directly above my shack. I programmed the repeater input into my Wouxun KG1000G and then used my Wouxun KG-Q10H to transmit on channels 9 and 10. The Q10H puts out 3.5 watts on high power on channels 9 and 10. I had the KG1000G side A on the repeater channel and side B on the repeater input so that I could monitor both. I didn't hear anything on either when I keyed up the Q10H on channels 9 and 10 on high power. I tried with the HT set to narrow and wide band and no difference between the 2 at 3.5 watts. I tried with and without tones set on the Q10H and the repeater input. I never heard anything or saw the signal meter move on the repeater's input or output on the KG1000G while transmitting on the Q10H. I didn't expect to hear anything on the repeater's output since I am 21.5 miles away from the repeater site. But if there was going to be any interference, I still should have heard something on the repeater's input with the HT only 17 feet below the base antenna. I also had another HT on and listening to channels 9 and 10. I did hear the Q10H on the other HT when I transmitted. I will try it again at the repeater site once all the snow and ice is gone. But what I can see from my test this morning, I would not worry one bit about interfering with repeater channels by transmitting on channels 8-14 with 3.5 watts or below. PS: I didn't bother testing with any of my Part 95 certified HT's since they will only transmit at 0.5 watts.

Today i was in an area known as Eagle Mountain near Joshua Tree and heard a lady calling out to her dog, over the radio, who was helping them find the radio that they had lost in the desert.. apparently the dog could hear her calling him over the radio and led them to it, but it took about an hour.. and we got to listen to the entire show.

Then it is the charger (I suspect). Those little inexpensive chargers are very often terrible RF generators. Here’s a further confirmation: take the battery off of the radio and put it into the charger without the radio. Does it still create noise?

Based on the scope described in the original post I understand that this would be strictly emergency, which implies short duration. People wouldn’t be chatting on it. If it were me I’d do an APRS beacon with a canned message rather than a repeater, but it could simply be a simplex repeater.

Happily, it seems the FCC's already updated it! My household applied for and received a license on 2024-12-25, and the application form no longer included the statement about Line A and C.

I would add the post being chastised for all caps is just shy of three years old and they haven’t been logged on for a year and a half so I doubt it’s going to be a high priority. @SteveShannon funny you mention drafters, that’s what I always think of when I see all caps. For the record my label maker is always set for all caps. HAPPY NEW YEAR or a belated BOXING DAY.

Please, do not type in all caps. All caps indicate you are YELLING and SCREAMING, certainly not your intent. Also, all caps' sentences are much more difficult reading than all lowercase type. Truly, I hope the above helps you and others. Do have fun on this forum.

Other aspects to consider about antenna gain A higher gain antenna does not create more power than the radio produces on its own. Antenna gain increases or decreases signal directionality. Looking at antenna charts demonstrates the signal pattern of an antenna. Notice, the higher the gain the more directional its signal pattern becomes; think Yagi antennae. Consider your location of use, then chose the appropriate antenna. Using an example of an adjustable lens flashlight (torch) such as the Maglite: Remove the adjustable end exposing the bulb only, notice the produced light may fill a dark room; think low gain antenna. This why a lower gain antenna is much better in an urban area, in areas with much more obstructions, in forests, and the like. That is why many folks in locations with buildings, many obstructions, forest, and the like, when switching to low gain antennae have better TX and Rx signal reports as well. Now connect the adjustable section and its lens to the flashlight, adjust it. Notice it is now concentrating the light in a much more directional beam. Now the light does not fill a room with light; it performs better pointing into the room; think high gain antenna. The higher gain antenna performs better in less obstructed areas, such as open roads without obstructions, mostly flat landscape and the like. Thus, in considerably more open unobstructed locations switching to a higher gain antenna will increase its reach. Keep in mind, the radio is outputting the same power to the high gain antenna as it does to a lower gain antenna. The difference is the high gain antenna is creating a more directional signal. Yes, the above is an odd example, however I hope it makes sense.

Yes, this is exactly what you want to do.

The best GMRS channel to monitor is the one in your local area that has the most traffic to monitor. But: If you got a GMRS radio to monitor/listen to people talk or to find anonymous men to chat with, you bought the wrong radio. Using the Grindr app might be a better choice for you.

You can find power supplies on Amazon that put out the correct 13.8v DC and have a 10 amp accessory port (cigarette lighter) that will work fine for a 20 watt radio. I suggest buying a 30 amp power supply just incase you ever decide to get a 50 watt radio to use as a base station. Here is one example: 13.8V 30A Bench Power Supply, Analog DC Power Supply with Cigarette Plug, Ham Radio Regulated Switching Power Supply, Noise Offset Control I know its a generic brand, but that exact power supply is sold under various names and has a good reputation. One thing to remember is that most, if not all, power supplies are marketed at their peak power output. The continuous power output is between 75 and 80 percent of that. SO a 30 amp power supply is really only good for 22-24 amps of continuous use. A 20 amp power supply is good for 14-16 amps continuous and a 15 amp power supply is good for 10-12 amps continuous.

A 100 watt radio needs about 23 amps. A 50 watt radio needs about half that, maybe 12-15 amps.

You can buy either a 12v or 15v. Both have adjustment screws to dial in your voltage.

It’ll have to be wired up, but there’s this. https://a.co/d/05s7uRel

I was reading the CHIRP python code for the RA-87 and spotted a few interesting sections: 1: A listing of the actual (targeted) power level for each of the power settings (low, low2, low3, mid, high). POWER_LEVELS = [chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low", watts=5.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low2", watts=10.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low3", watts=15.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Mid", watts=20.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("High", watts=40.00)] 2: The programming indicates that the "left" and "right" side of the radio have rather independent memories. This is also described a bit in the manual. But to be a little clearer, the radio is marketed as having 200 memory slots for programming, and while this is correct, 100 of them are the left side, and 100 of them are the right side. In the highly unlikely event that you would ever need more than 100 repeaters programmed into your device, for example, you would need to program some of them into the left, and some into the right. For GMRS this is not terribly significant; though there may be a few people who use a lot of memory banks, I suspect that most of us aren't using more than 100. If you need <100 total, then you could make left and right both contain the same things. But I suppose for those who want many configuration combinations for GMRS frequencies, you could burn through 100 and have to start using the left side and right side for separate configuration storage. 3: The CHIRP driver for the RA-87 sets "VALID_BANDS" to [(400000000, 480000000)]. It would be interesting to see what happens if one added more ranges to VALID_BANDS. (Bricking the radio is a possible "what happens", though.) This seems to align with what others have posted, that this radio will scan frequencies between 400MHz and 480MHz but not outside that range. It does look like tuning steps can be set to 5, 6.25, 10, 12.5, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, and 100 (kHZ?). 4: The RA87StyleRadio class definition sets _gmrs = True. I imagine this results in allowing transmission on GMRS frequencies. In searching the code, I do see other radios setting _gmrs = True, or False, and see that other common settings for other radios are _ham, _murs, _pmr... with appropriate bands set in various ways. There is another thread on mygmrs where the question is asked whether the RA87 can scan 2m frequencies (and another comment that the manual doesn't mention any such capability). It is possible that this is simply not a capability of the RA87 hardware, but it would be interesting to modify the CHIRP driver for the RA87 to replace VALID_BANDS = [(4000000000, 4800000000)] with VALID_BANDS = [(1440000000, 1480000000), (4000000000, 4800000000)] ...and upload that to the radio, hopefully not bricking it in the process. I'm sure that adding _ham = True would cross over the no-longer-type-accepted line, though. And who knows if the radio would die a sudden death if one were to key up in 2m. For anyone who wants to look at the CHIRP driver code for this radio: https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/repository/github/revisions/d644af4b89c8edfe1b59f2f4aa929fc725056edd/entry/chirp/drivers/retevis_ra87.py

Adding more power to my antenna in the attic is what solved this problem for me. The handheld alone can xmit to the repeater with good quality from inside my house, but my reception from the repeater was horrible. When I applied the HT to the attic antenna, my receive quality improved but the repeater was receiving a much lower quality and broken/staticky signal. This is due to a longer cable run to the antenna and loss of power that resulted. Now that I have a base station setup, the repeater is getting a great signal from me and I am hearing the repeater well. Problem solved.

To close the loop on this thread. I can confirm through testing that I was likely loosing to much power via my HT through the cable run as mentioned by marcspaz. In testing the same setup with a higher power mobile radio, there was a night and day difference in the repeater clearly hearing my communications. The repeater owner verified I had a very good signal. I even learned my HT performed better to this repeater when not plugged in to the attic antenna. This just confirms more power is what I need to get through the attic space. Now to figure out which mobile station to setup...

If this map is a real map and if I read it correctly, your base camp is at the same altitude as vehicles and not blocked by terrain. This condition is close to ideal, you may not even need 50W to have clear comms. But 50W will not hurt. The mobile mounted in the camper should also have an advantage of better antenna and better receiver than on HTs, so it also should hear better than HT. Other areas might be blocked, like Gibbon Picnic Area in the north, because it's in the dip behind the hill.