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Just on one channel or all of them?

Because repeaters are operated strictly under an individual’s license in GMRS, unlike ham or commercial radio, what’s welcome behavior on a GMRS repeater is entirely up to the wishes of the licensed operator subject to the rules of the FCC. Thus you’re apt to see GMRS repeaters that welcome rag-chewing and you’re also apt to see GMRS repeaters that prefer no reg-chewing. A significant number of GMRS users will tell you that GMRS is not intended for random conversations. Another bunch will happily participate in random conversations on GMRS frequencies. Enjoy the ride! Welcome to the forum!

My first thought was squelch as well. However I do have a question, is it on all channels or just one? I ask because I get interference on one frequency in one vehicle. Edit- @MarkInTampa beat me to it.

Are you operating from a vehicle or as a base station? You seem to be describing two different things: “static interference after releasing the PTT” and choppiness and poor quality audio while transmitting. Let’s take them one at a time. First, static interference. Do you mean that you hear static immediately after letting go of the PTT? How long does it continue? Static is always present to some extent. The squelch control turns off the audio when the signal strength is below a certain threshold. Turning up the squelch increases the threshold. Have you tried turning up the squelch?

HTs are the "gateway drug" of the Compulsive Radio Owners fetish (a known BTSM subcategory)!

Something that is commonly overlooked is many repeaters can use several different tones to open the repeater, and can transmit different tones based on what tone was received. For example, on one of my repeaters, there are two tones that can open the receive. Either 141.3 or 156.7. If 141.3 is heard on the input, the transmitter will encode the 141.3 tone. If 156.7 is heard on the input, the transmitter will encode the 156.7 tone. The 141.3 tone is for everybody to use, but if I want to chat with someone and not hear 141.3 traffic, me and the person I am chatting with will switch to the 156.7 tone (which isn't advertised for use). Some GMRS radios don't have the ability to only transmit a tone. So they are limited to a tone squelch that is both transmitting a tone AND requiring a tone to be heard before it opens the audio for the receiver. Still other people will program their radios with a tone squelch. What is likely happening is, if the GMRS repeater you are trying to use is setup the same way as my repeater, the one person who could hear you was probably operating in monitor mode (only transmitting a tone) and can hear everything, while everyone else was using tone squelch on a different tone. So, that one person hear everyone, but is the only person that can hear you.

Wizardry, magic, smoke & mirrors! or is that Wizardry, magic smoke and mirrors?

That makes sense. The local amateur radio club owns the repeater far as I know and does it for a service to the GMRS community as it is listed as open and welcome for use by all licensed gmrs operators. Super cool of them!

WRYZ926 Thank you, My house is a 2-story, surrounded closely on all sides by other 2-stories, so I'm going to try a few transmissions from atop the roof as i understand height is might. Should my location require a much larger antenna then so it shall be. Appreciate it.

That is what we do with our Ham club repeaters. You unkey and after 1 seconds, there is a beep transmitted to show that the timeout time has been reset. The repeater stays transmitting for 5 additional seconds to give someone a chance to start talking again, without the repeater going down and up over and over again. Of course, you are going to want a commercial grade repeater to tolerate the potential 100% duty cycle.

The VXR-7000 UHF version will transmit only from 400-430mhz and 450-480mhz. Remember that if you change the frequency you will also have to re-tune the duplexer .. but an out-of-tune duplexer will not prevent you from making the change. SOURCE: I have one and I read the user-manual.

If you are barely hitting the repeater, then those that could not hear you whilst the host could hear you probably just did not have the ability to discern you voice from the static as well as the host. Because you were on a repeater, other users squelch setting would not affect anything as the repeater is presumably hitting them with a good signal, it was just repeating a weak signal. Also - if you have a weak signal and your radio happens to be transmitting in NARROWband instead of WIDEBand, it would be even harder to make out your voice.. Also, always be sure you are speaking loudly and clearly with the mic no more than 1-2 inches from your noise-hole. More power might help, but a better/bigger/higher antenna WILL help - upgrade antenna first, power second. As for not hearing your own voice, try getting your test-radios at least 50 feet away and trying again.

I really hate people who fast key up on the repeater without leaving at least a few seconds for somebody to break in and ask to use it, or join in the conversation.

Can't take the money with me so might as well spend it on something fun. I might splurge and get the new TH-D75A and take the D74A to work and use it on the desktop as a scanner. It has the MARS/CAP mod. I have to see how much the price drops and look for a deal at the Hamvention this May in Ohio. HRO sells them and will do the mod for about $60 and will still warranty the radio. I'm not a big fan of D-Star but I do like the fact it's a full power, 5 watts, tri-band radio, like the older D74A is. https://www.kenwood.com/usa/com/support/pdf/TH-D75A_US_Catalog.pdf If Kenwood offered this radio in a DMR version I'll bet they couldn't keep the thing in stock. The Kenwood sales rep I spoke to there, when the radio was announced, said he had a lot of Hams say, including me, they would rather have a DMR version of the radio.

HT’s are fun since you just pick them up, turn them on and you’re ready to go. They fit in a pocket or briefcase easily too. With mobile radios you need to install them somewhere and require external power and antenna to use. I stumbled on the files for a 3D printed desktop stand for a Kenwood TH-D74A. My sister has a 3D printer and made one for me using the project files. She said according to Slicer it only cost $1.24 to make. Now I have to drive across town to pick it up soon. This is the link for the project files in case someone wants them. https://forums.mygmrs.com/discover/unread/?&stream_date_type=relative&stream_read=all&stream_date_relative_days[val]=365&stream_date_relative_days[unit]=d&view=condensed

Great! Glad that you are up and running. Have fun!

It wasn’t a stupid question.

There is at least one technical reason why FRS would be a better choice: You can get way (wayyyy) more fars-per-inch of the antenna with an FRS than a hand-held CB.. a 5-inch antenna an on FRS radio can get you 10miles in excellent conditions, ~1/2 mile in decent/poor conditions. For those same farz on CB, you would need a 25-inch (just a guess, but much larger, you get the point) antenna on the radio, making a hand-held very unwieldy and a potential deadly eye-poking menace.

Why the Baofeng UV-5R of course! Everybody knows that!

I got it! Thanks for your help. You’d think 53 years of being on this earth I could remove a battery from a radio. But apparently life kicks you in the head every once and awhile!

In the fringes, antenna polarization is critical. The HT antenna must be in the same plane as the receiving antenna. Do not hold the HT sideways. Hold it straight up so the antenna is oriented the same way as the repeater's antenna.

That would certainly make sense. Unfortunately it’s not what I experienced on our repeater. I wish it were because I could understand that.

This comment probable should be under the FCC Rules & Regulations discussion. I think the best radios for GMRS have to be the Motorola Maxtrac series and HT 1250 or even most Kenwood radios. Of course, I realize the majority of these radios wouldn't be Part 95 A or E accepted, but those radios are excellent for GMRS. I have to say the besides the well-known radio manufacturers, I do really like the BTECH GMRS PRO, which I own two of them.

@WSGL997 - I’ve had similar results where I have used a repeater and some people could hear me and others couldn’t. It didn’t seem logical to me because if the repeater was retransmitting my transmission shouldn’t everyone who hears other things on the repeater be able to hear mine? Or was I maybe transmitting on the wrong frequency? But it definitely happened. Radio isn’t always understandable.

Did that when I put the RA87 in the truck and moved the DB20G into the shack. Sits right atop the Yaesu FT-450D just fine! Haven't look at Jailbreaking it yet, but monitors 2m/440 hams bands just fine for now and gets on on Simplex with the local ragchewers on Ch. 18 just fine.

The biggest improvement you can make to your hand held is to use a mobile or base antenna with it. Either way you want to get the antenna as high up as you can. A mobile antenna with a magnet mount stuck onto a pizza pan or 9x13 baking sheet will work well, again get the antenna up in the air. A mobile or base antenna up high will make a big improvement over the best hand held antenna.

I was actually taught the opposite from several Elmers. If the repeater is properly set up, you should hear a roger beep followed by about 5 seconds of hang time before the carrier drops. That five seconds should be long enough for someone else to break in or for you to key up again before the carrier drops. The logic is that the repeated back and forth of the tx and rx are more harmful to the repeater than just keeping it keyed up.

Agreed. The proper way to use the repeater (ham and GMRS) is to let the repeater carrier drop between transmissions, both to keep the duty cycle lower and to allow time for someone to break in.

That helps. Does it only happen when the jeep is running or also when everything but the radio is turned off?

I always thought a repeater is for rag chewing. Just don't be quick to key up and allow time for other stations to break in and join the conversation.

After you pull down the latch, the battery should just slide straight back and off; not too clear in the video, but give it a try. An excellent choice HT, by the way.

Here’s a video that very briefly shows it at about 30 seconds.

I have never heard of such a thing??? What is this… what’s it called? GMRS linked repeater networks? Sounds made up.

Not one reported DB20-G/AT-779UV cigarette lighter plug melting to the date of this post...

Love the old spark gap transmitter.

Stick a penny in that fuse box and you can power a 100 watt radio with a cigarette lighter plug Just keep transmissions brief..

I’d bet dollars to donuts that most DB20-G users use their cigarette lighter plug for power. In my vehicle, I do, and why not?! It’s so easy to unplug and hide the equipment in a zone where I am concerned about someone breaking a window to steal it when it’s in plain sight. And for the one in my shack: the Powerwerx adapter makes it plug and play without losing the versatility of having the cigarette lighter plug, when needed.

Horseshit. There’s nothing wrong with people getting together in a club (or perhaps even a forum) to discuss, learn about, and share enjoyment of GMRS.

Exactly right. Almost every car comes with a power port that accepts the cigarette lighter plug. Although the cigarette lighter plug isn’t what many of us might eventually use, it’s the closest thing there is to being universally available and works well for these low power radios allowing them to be used immediately.

The cigarette lighter plug is not that big of a deal and easy to either remove or get an adapter as shown in the above post. A few 20 watt radios from different manufacturers come with the lighter adapter.

Absolutely not. This is actually a dual band radio that can be opened up. Why would you want to pay more for a radio other than bragging rights? If you feel the need to impress others, just get the label maker out and type in "Midland".

Unlikely.. The 'hoards' can't set up repeaters on CB and make money at it

Agreed.

I'm going to close my post out with something that will piss some people off, and others will say I don't know what I am talking about... so if you don't want to read all of the post, you may want to skip to the END. The reason CB went to the wayside isn't known for sure, but I have a few ideas. Modulation type isn't one of them. I think there is zero chance of CB replacing FRS. I don't think it could even take a significant part of the market, and I will explain why. First, people get extremely frustrated because their mobile CB radio performs so poorly, with regard to range. As mentioned above, that is almost always due to the antenna. The primary problem is, the average DIY person doesn't poses the tools or skills to properly install a CB and antenna, nor verify if it is working correctly. This wasn't always the case, but somewhere in time, this common knowledge kind of vanished, leading people to think they can just bolt on the antenna and life is good. Then, there is the size of the antenna. The shortest proper length for a CB antenna is 104 inches. That's not a type-o... that is over eight and a half feet. Not everyone is willing to put an antenna that big on their vehicle. So, you see everyone using a compromised antenna... like the 4' and even 3' firestik antennas. I own a 4 footer and a 1 footer, but I know they are only going to work for a mile or less. FRS is at a frequency that only requires a 6" antenna, and the installation is way, way more forgiving. Just by it's nature, its not common to incorrectly install an FRS antenna. And when manufacturers put even shorter antennas on them, say a 3", it's no where near the compromise made in CB with a 3' antenna. So, you take a radio and antenna that doesn't install correctly easily and complicate that install with an antenna that more resembles a dummy load than an antenna, and yeah, the performance is gonna suck. Creating an even smaller, overpriced version in a handheld doesn't sound like a good time, either. Now, there is also another issue to deal with. While there are FM CB radios available, FM quality on CB is no where near the audio quality of FRS. FRS radio uses a lot more bandwidth, which means the signal can carry more data, aka higher fidelity audio. Many people will prefer FRS just because it sounds better. END Now to upset some people... I believe that a properly installed mobile CB and antenna or a quality CB handheld will outperform an FRS radio 100% of the time. I also believe that a properly installed mobile CB and antenna AND a quality CB handheld will outperform their counterpart in GMRS radio a vast majority of the time, when it comes to P2P comms. The two top reasons why GMRS has made it to the top of the pile is due to repeaters and the frequency used is ideal for heavily wooded and dense urban areas. While generally, I believe CB is superior in many cases, it seems that US radio use in dense woods and cities are the most common use cases... hence GMRS (and FRS) win over mobile and handheld CB.

Welcome to the forum! But watch out for "some people" that will try to grossly over-complicate things when answering even the most simple of questions in sad attempts to show you how smart they think they are. Superhet receivers are generally "better" than cheap SOC type radios - but most people would not notice any difference.. I would worry more about features/what the radio can do more than the receiver type, but thats just me. On wattage, unless you are looking at a huge difference like 25W vs 5W, you aren't going to see much difference in range - for example, the only thing you would notice on an 8W radio vs a 5W radio, is that the battery will go dead faster on the 8W. For the antenna, almost anything will work better than the rubber ducky on your 5Gs. You didnt say if you wanted to upgrade to another HT or a base/mobile type radio - if you post what you're considering we can give some feedback on the exact model.