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I guess I think the premise of this thread is wrong. It’s not up to me or anyone else here to say whether someone else is using GMRS “as intended”, as long as the regulations are followed. And it’s not up to me to enforce the regulations I’ll gladly help somebody understand the regulations (as much as I can) but I don’t get to reinterpret them to fit my ideas of how GMRS is intended to be used. If you want to have a conversation on the repeater with someone you’ve never met who announces they’re “monitoring”, it’s not my place to pass judgement. If you want to run your family ranch, good for you! If you use it while you’re out boating or hiking, do it. I think there are way too many people who want to decide what’s right for others to do

When I travel, I monitor all 15 GMRS 462 (main and interstitial) channels. I do not monitor the 467 channels. Also, I program all the repeaters channels as presets for the areas I intend to travel through for the just in case. I've had a GMRS license since the mid 90s and as of this date, I have only on a couple of occasions had the just in case situations to report a serious traffic collision when there was no cellular telephone coverage. I have never heard any trucker traffic, or at least I couldn't identify any trucker traffic because no one was talking about their Jake Brakes or putting out smokey reports or asking if the coup is open. I have never had engaged in any exchange of radio traffic anyone while traveling. Most of the simplex traffic appears to be FRS for a very brief period of time as you are within range. In the larger population centers there appears to be a lot of traffic on the various repeaters for the area. Essentially, most of my radio communication use is when traveling or wheeling with groups and it is usually on GMRS simplex. If it is my private travel group, we will communicate on either VHF or UHF Business Radio Service freqs.

I’m not in it for free energy. My interest is backup emergency power and portable applications.

Agree! I can count on half of one hand the number of times I've used the repeaters in my area. I got into GMRS in 2017 (cue the "I've been a H.A.M. for (years") and at the time was not active as an Amateur Operator, although licensed. I got it for using in Northern MN where, at the time, there was zero cell phone coverage. Used to talk from Cabin to boat and back, to talk mobile to cabin and around the resort area. Current usage is that, as well as on off road trips, solo or group, around the house (beats yelling) and with a small group of friends in the neighborhood to chat on occasion on simplex. On the amateur side of radio, got back into that in 2020 and about 99% of activity there is on HF, and most of that on digital modes. Talk all day at work on two-ways, so like to chat via keyboards to those random strangers Randy warned us all about! If you're getting into GMRS as a "gateway" or "Ham Lite", it's not really where it's at. OTOH, not my place to tell people what to do, so those that do, it's their choice.

The Radioddity MU-5 has 20 slots so you can definitely have with and without tones. One thing to note is that slots 6-20 are just the five MURS frequencies repeated three times so you can't (for example) have 151.820 with 8 different tones, but you could have each frequency with no tone and then three more times (each) with a CTCSS or DCS tone.

I rarely use GMRS simply because I rarely have any occasion to do so. I don't have any family in the immediate area, I don't participate in an off-roading group, and when I travel, it's usually just me. If I were traveling in a convoy with family, I'd give them radios, but it hasn't come up. I do use ham repeaters when I travel just to alleviate the boredom. There's usually someone willing to have a chat with a stranger passing through.

I totally agree with this comment you have 8 Channels and most of them is very quiet there are times people drives through and uses it to communicate with other groups that there with that's what these frequencies are for communications!!! I monitor 700 (CH 21) and I hear traffic

Speaking of solar, I drove by a solar farm today, still 70% covered with snow/ice. It hasn't snowed in weeks.

Nah, not on the GMRS. The problem is that the radio nerds moved into GMRS as a novelty, not appreciating that is was for the casual appliance user. It became so prevalent they started to make themselves at home here. When they hear traffic, they get on to let us know they're monitoring . Moral of the story,... I want the wives and kids to be able to grab a radio that we set up, key up, and call eachother. Callsign is label maker printed on each mic, but frankly, do we need to even be about that? If my son raises me on the radio for some minutia communication, and rando Dave jumps in to ask for a callsign ID, am I wrong for feeling like that guy can kind of F off? We've got our call and IMO that's between us and the FCC.. I AM a radio nerd. I'd equate myself to a highly informed and motivated Tech class (despite not being one). But I understand and appreciate that the fam (and fams in the plural sense at large) aren't going to be. And we should be ABLE to set the radios up within our circles and do the GMRS thing without the ham types getting mixed into our practical comms type situations..

A typical 5-watt (GMRS/UHF) signal can easily reach 15-50 miles in the right conditions. The moral of the story is that the topographical conditions in your area determine farz more than power. Source: I have tested ~100 GMRS/UHF radios.

Like some of you I usually quote a post or a portion of a post so the context of my comment is clear. On occasion I have written a comment, thought better about it and backspaced to the beginning of my comment to start again. Sometimes I backspaced one too many characters and I end up inside of the quote block. If you add your comment there it’s not easy to know what you quoted and what you commented; both appear within the quote block. At first I couldn’t figure out how to get out of it. It’s not always possible to click below it. But then I discovered that if I just go to the very end of any text or spaces in the quote block and hit a couple of returns, the forum software would move my cursor out of the quote block and underneath it, right where I wanted. You probably already knew this, but just in case you didn’t, I thought I’d mention it.

You normally want the antennas to be at least a 1/4 wave length apart which is not going to happen with the CB antenna as you would need 8 1/2 feet. My brother runs a Comet 2x4SR multi band VHF/UHF antenna on the top of his truck cab with a Tarheel HF antenna mounted to the left front corner of the truck bed. Has has at least 3 foot of separation between the antennas and he has no issues. You might find that the CB antenna does act as a reflector for the GMRS antenna being 1 1/2 foot away which can cause the GMRS antenna to be more directional. The only way to know for sure is to try it out. You should not have any interaction when it comes to transmitting since we are talking about 11m vs UHF.

Nope. No issues at all. Totally different frequency range. Plus the gmrs uses ground plane and the cb does not.

Looks like where I’m at we’re due to get hit with some significant snow fall starting around 1/2 PM Wednesday. Got my LFP packs on chargers to make sure they’re ready just in case. The black brick is the 40 amp-hour LFP. Have a smaller 8/9 amp-hour K2 and several 3 to 4.5 amp-hour LFP’s. The big LFP pack has a 45 amp power pole it came with. I salvaged some of the same type from dead server batteries they trashed at work. Saved a few bucks that way. Also use Anderson Power poles for interconnections between pigtail adapters.

The Wouxon KG-805M has 128 slots and looks like you can program the same MURS frequency as many times as you want. I would have included that in my ealier reply but I had to charge mine first ... some of the Wouxun radios (including the KG-805M) are notorious for having a parasitic battery drain when stored. I think the Baofeng Tech MURS-V2 will let you do what you want as well, but I don't seem to have the programming software installed, the download from the BTech site is broken and won't install, and I don't feel like installing CHIRP so I cannot test on the one I have.

Got the FT-710 a week ago Saturday...

I like this one, but it only tolerates 30 watts max. My mobile can do 50, and there might be a time when I wanted to use it. I'm probably going to go with the Compactenna eventually, but right now, my Comet is working just fine, so I'm not strongly motivated to replace it.

If you are hearing crazy old guys talking on Sat night over ch 20, you're hearing a repeater. They won't hear you if you call out on simplex. You would need to figure out what repeater they're using, program your radio with the correct TX PL/CTCSS/DCS tone to access the repeater, and then retry. Step one: Find the repeater listed here in mygmrs, hopefully. Step two: Set your radio to repeater mode for that repeater's frequency/channel. Step three: Set the PL tone you learned from finding the repeater listed on this site. Step four: Call for a radio check.

I've been licensed for 30 years. Had a repeater about that long. Back in the day, no one around here had even heard of GMRS let alone have a radio or use it. We used them for the farm. Several years ago I opened my repeater for public use, and let it fly. Had couple of guys get on now and then. Some silly stuff went on. It basically wasn't being utilized to an extent that it met the value of time and expense I put in it. I sold the repeater last Fall. Really don't use my radios much. There are more people around here with them now, but nothing very organized as far as groups or people using them for a purpose. Casual BS now and then, and a lot of monkeying around. A few farms - that's probably the most productive and practical use for them here.

I can see Randy writing in "Nunya" on the form!

Sounds like govt. And after they cash the check then maybe they'll complain about your intent.

10/4, I think I will...lol

It's very easy - you just state your intended "business use" on the form. It seems they are more interested in taking your money than confirming what you will be doing.

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Channel 20 (462.675) may be a repeater output channel for one of your local repeaters, so if you hear them on 20 and try to talk to them, you're only transmitting simplex and not transmitting on the true duplex repeater input (467.675). IOW, they may be on a duplex repeater channel ("RPT20" on many radios) and you're only working the output frequency. I'd suggest looking up the GMRS repeaters near you on those frequencies and trying to reach them there. You will probably need to program in a CTCSS to open the squelch on the repeater. Good luck and welcome aboard!

I think you will be happy with the TH-7800. I've only had mine since October 2023 but both have worked just fine.

I play. I enjoy it. Ya, I'm one of those. I have 200 watts of panels on my work truck and a charge controller with an AGM battery connected to a 3KW sine inverter. I use my tools off the back of the gate or I can power my house during short outages. I picked up 4 LiFePO4 100Ah batteries and have 400 watts of solar but only a 10 amp charge controller so I haven't don't much with it. I just keep picking up parts and pcs so it I need them at some point I can assemble a power system in an hour or so.

Well yes and no. I use it to keep in contact with my wife. Sometimes I'll give a HT to one of my adult children when we are traveling in separate cars or getting stuff at a big box store when we'll be at opposite ends. And I'll chat with friends that are definitely not family on the local repeater just for the conversation and to find out how everyone is doing in general or their jobs.

Well,.. the whole "money back" thing is if you're foolish enough to get the second mortgage to let a company do a pro roof install. I'm not trying to replace my mains power with off-grid solar that runs the house entirely. I'm more of the mind of having some field deployable solar kit that can get set out in the yard to be a supplement, or bare bones sustenance level capability in the event it would come to it. But I'll tell you what, I've dug into this stuff enough just as a personal interest that I probably COULD extrapolate what I already know how to do and accomplish a setup robust enough to power a small home entirely.. I wouldn't need to spend 100k to do it either...

I have had 2 or 3 50V2 radios and none of them output more than 32W (iirc) .. When I called BTech about it I was told the low power reading was because I was measuring the power with the antenna connected instead of with a dummy load.. So I purchased a dummy load and the power output reading was the exact same... When I measure my KG1000G radio(s), they all read 48-51Watts.. This is one of the reasons the BTech's are inexpensive- because they lie.

Many of the radios advertise an 'optimistic' power output, but 20 Watts does seem low. Yes, the cable would attenuate the signal, so if you were measuring the power with the meter at the far end (antenna end) of the cable, then 20 Watts may actually be what is getting to the antenna, but if you are measuring the rig's power output with the meter right after the rig's antenna connector, especially with a 1.1 SWR, then that is less than half the advertised output, and I would question the seller, although it is now about 2 months old.

It's illogical to say that you doubt what I'm telling you my experiences are. I'm pretty sure that we do not live in the same places. Do you suppose it's possible that what you experience in your location could vary from what I experience in my location? It is in fact what is prevalent here. And it isn't just that it's inappropriate to ask about equipment, It's inappropriate to make the unwelcome contact to begin with. When someone hears chatter on the GMRS, maybe listen to it. If it sounds like a couple of people just exchanging mundane information between eachother, use your non-autistic brain to recognize that it's not a CQ call... This only sounds alarming and insulting if you frame all-things-radio with a Ham radio mind. And therein lies the issue.. Hi, not ham radio...

I use it to recover rockets or for my wife to reach me when I am outside and she needs me or for my grandkids to play with (they get the FRS radios and I listen on my GMRS radio. I might someday put together a Retevis RT97S in a go-bag to extend the range for my rocket buddies. Maybe I would put a repeater at the cabin so the grandkids have more range. I’d have to get them GMRS radios then and train them to ID appropriately.

I mainly have it for off road use. But i have no friends so i keep buying more radios in hopes someone will show up one day to use them with me.

I use GMRS same way I've used it for 30+ years. As a tool for my family and friends to talk. I also use it on trails with friends now.

Around here at least, you don't have to ask. They'll tell you

From just listening I believe the only users of gmrs near me are ham radio operators. Which is cool!

Using GMRS is infinitely better than not. Nothing is gained by having silent channels. If you have long conversations, pause every so often to allow someone else to use the frequency or repeater. Help someone else get started with GMRS.

That has to do with the tint that is built into factory windows. Some tint has enough metal in them to mess with reception. I have even seen people have problems with the glass mount antennas like what nokones posted. Granted not everyone has had reception issues with these type of antennas but some have. It depends on the tint used and how much metal is in it.

I have the Larsen Glassmount on the rear glass of my 23 Wrangler Rubi 2 Dr. and I have had and continue to have great success with it for my UHF radio. I can hit repeaters well over 50+ miles and I can definitely hear FRS traffic at least the 5 miles away as a desert buzzard would fly. I really don't have a need to talk simplex except when I am wheeling on the Trail and those distances normally don't exceed a mile, but on one occasion I did communicate simplex and I estimate the distance with a Midland MXT275 that is a 15 watt mobile clearly, about 10 and maybe 15 miles away. My VSWR on 467 Megs is 1.5 - 1.6:1 and on 462 Megs the VSWR is a good 1.2:1 and that is without any trimming. I decided to leave the antenna as is and not trim it. I personally don't see anything wrong with using a glassmount antenna. Decades ago, I have had great success with the Antenna Specialist Cellular Look-A-Likes on both VHF and UHF Fun & Non-Fun Bands. Also, I have used a glassmount Antenna for a CB radio, but the measuring the effective Farz accurately was somewhat difficult and it did depend on conditions. I have never tried using the rear windows defrost to see if it affects the reception performance. We don't get those types of conditions here in the greater Valley of the Sun in sunny Sun City West, Arizona. For my VHF Radio I am using a non-Ground Plane Laird B1442N Base Load antenna on a side fender mount. I was surprised with the performance of this Antenna. I was able to hear a repeater on the roof of a 5 story building about 30 miles away over and around a tall hill. I'm seeing about 1.2:1 with this antenna on 154 Megs. For my UHF DMR radio I am using the Midland MXTA25 Phantom Antenna and I am seeing about 1.4:1 VSWR on 464 Megs transmitting analog emissions. For my Cobra 29 LTD Classic CB radio I am using the Firestik II 3 foot antenna while on the trail and a 5 foot Firestik II antenna for the Highways and Byways with a spring and quick disconnect. I'm seeing less than 1.1:1 with the 5 ft antenna and less than 1.2:1 with the 3 ft antenna. The CB Antenna is mounted in the usual Wrangler JL location.

while there's been lots of valid points raised already, I'll mention something I noticed looking at the specs for that glass mount...wouldn't 1.5dBi effectively be negative gain antenna in the real world? (dBi vs dBd and all) that aside, I've absolutely run into auto glass on newer cars impeding the signal, which would be an issue with that glass mount inside as well. aside from the mentioned "hatpin" (uhf 1/4 wave, which are quite inexpensive), Midland's "ghost" (MXTA25) antennas seem to get decent reviews, and that would be fairly unnoticeable hard mounted on the roof without compromising ground clearance (they're less than 4" tall).

Glass mount antennas suck for UHF. They are marginally better than using a portable inside a vehicle, and I do mean marginally. 800 & 900 MHz work better, but still not ideal. I'd tell you to look for other options before spending money on a glass mount. A 6" UHF hatpin can be mounted in plenty of locations where it's barely noticed. Shark fin antennas made by Stico & others mimic factory FM antennas for the entertainment radio.

I have used the Laird/Larsen version of that antenna in the past for investigators cars as well as my wifes vehicle. All use was on TLMR and not on conventional simplex stuff. On scene of an incident it worked ok (should I can see all the FF's from my windshield). Larsen still sells this antenna - SB450FME12 for 450-470. So depending on your use case its a good antenna. If you can't talk on a HT from inside your car with rubber duck this wont help. Works very well for close by or good repeaters.

Absolutely, because it gets the signal above the terrain.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. The range is not proportional to the power. The signal strength certainly improves with increased power, but terrain is usually the limiting factor at UHF, regardless of power. More power doesn’t make the signal follow the curvature of the earth and UHF stinks at skipping off the ionosphere. Once in a while the troposphere lends a hand though.

important evidence attached for context

Wrong - I think what you meant to say is "it depends on where you are transmitting and what is around you"..