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A lot of repeaters I've seen use separate tones for tx and rx. Use the RX tone only if you don't want to hear anyone that isn't coming through on the repeater. If you don't use it, you will still hear the repeater as well as any traffic on the same frequency transmitting directly to your radio. And being a grown up means you can decide which way you want to do things. Even if it's wrong and you make a mistake, it doesn't make you a child. A child is someone that doesn't realize this yet...

Use it if you want. It’s your radio and there are no rules prohibiting it. It makes no difference. I don’t understand why anyone is bothered by it, but they should get over it. Edited to add: some repeater owners don’t want Roger beeps on their repeaters. Follow their wishes when using their repeater.

My repeater has a roger-beep and I require that anyone using the repeater also has their roger-beep enabled.

Aside from copper wire, I’ve used tape measures and rings from a trashed baby gate. If you use scrap, metal keep in mind, if it is coated in a white or light colored paint, your calculated measurements will be about 10%-15% bigger than what you need. This is because white paint has titanium dioxide in it. Titanium dioxide attenuates RF signal.

"A lot of my friends wreck in beet fields, but I never touch them myself."

You only need the TX tone. The RX tone is optional, and as you can already see, will cause you confusion - so you should ignore it for now. After you level-up to "expert mode", then you can worry about the RX tone.

I guess this is a great time to announce that I will be putting my NotARubicon "Ranchino" repeater back on Zello (just waiting for one more part to ship) AND, as an added bonus, will also be linking it over the internet to my buddy's repeater located in the Glendale area.

Welcome @Bobuff977 and @HHD1 to the forum.

Finally received my GMRS license and now ready for the world of MyGMRS.com. I have been playing around with a few HT's and find it interesting and very different from the old CB's world. I'm hoping to learn more about GMRS all the while finding new ways to communicate with-in GMRS bandwidth. Hello to everyone.

My reasoning is why is it needed ? Public Safety Radios systems dont use roger beeps and have worked just fine for years. Ive never once seen the reason for it in any of my communications. My repeaters are used all the time and users know how to operate on them. I guess its just how you use a radio or have used one. Ive never had a FF or SAR unit walk up to me and say "hey I need it to beep so I know folks are done". You will also not hear it on most commercial LMR systems. Highway departments, water departments, tow trucks, parks and rec departments all know how to use a radio. As said its all up to the individual, but I dont allow it on my repeaters and dont plan to change that.

I have to agree with @SteveShannon on this. I just tested my Q10H with a Wouxun hand mic and it works just fine. I have also used headsets. with my Q10H and 935G and they work fine with both radios. One thing to remember is that the hand mic will only transmit on the channel set in the top area (A) when you have dual channel display. It will not transmit on the area B channel if it is selected. Another issue when using a hand mic or headset is that no matter if you change the two PTT buttons on the radio, the hand mic or headset will still only transmit as if you are using PTT 1 button (bottom PPT button) So lets say that you have PTT 1 set for area B and PTT 2 set for area A, the hand mic/headset will only transmit on what area PTT 1 is set for in the radio's settings.

I don't use it, just because the repeaters I am on don't want us to... otherwise I could care less. But I am just curious what the reasons are for it being stated by @gortex2 that "It is not needed" in GMRS and "Roger Beeps are for CB and some ham radio."

Copper is excellent from a conductivity perspective, but it’s soft enough that a long length of it can stretch from its own weight. One nice thing about copper is that even if it oxidizes at the connections it still has good conductivity. Aluminum is another excellent material from a conductivity perspective, but aluminum oxide is an insulator, which must be dealt with. For a wire antenna, copper clad steel is one of the very best. At UHF current flows on the surface, rather than throughput the material, so copper clad steel wire sacrifices nothing and resists stretching. But constructing an antenna is about more than just the material. A lot depends on what kind of antenna you want to build and just as much depends on the frequency needed. If you want a really good vertical antenna for a single UHF band like GMRS, you can easily build one using copper pipe or aluminum tubing. The lengths are short so mechanical stresses are almost nil.

We used to say “Shits the beets out of me!”

The few who had too many beers before hand likely didn’t make it to the prom I’m guessing. It’s hard to leave the house when you can’t find the door.

Is encryption even allowed here?

Either that or he needs to go see his doctor again to get his medication doses adjusted. He's like a little kid - you never know what he is going to say.

You know. Today theirs is over a thousand linked repeaters. Although not legal, I don’t think anyone cares. - obvisouly.

Well I mean as long as it’s highly suggested…. I don’t see how you can argue with that. Cheese and crackers, “you promised, you promised”. Run for cover the socalgmrs cops are here!

The radios are usually much more equal. The differences are more often in the antennas, the antenna mounting, coax and the users themselves.

Sorry to hear that. I bought both of my TH-7800 radios at the end of 2023-beginning of 2024 and I haven't had any problems with them.

Welcome to the insanity...

I am new to GMRS and I am an active ham operator being a disabled veteran I have time during the day to talk. Looking for an active repeater to use in Chicago I got permission to use PL-600 but nobody answers my calls. Is there an active GMRS repeater in Chicag people are talking and holding conversations? I can even attempt to get users from my radio club I am a net control for a couple of ham nets. I just want a place that is comfortable and easy to talk on what repeater are you Chicagoans talking on?. WSDD265

Thank you.

Hello and welcome!

You do you, boo. The repeater I use most often doesn't have any sort of signal to let you know when it's available and it's not unusual to walk on each other. If everyone had the beep enabled, it would work just as well, but getting 50+ frequent users all on the same page about that seems unlikely. I don't own a repeater, so it's just hypothetical, a thought exercise, if you will.

Every repeater owner has different thoughts about it. My repeater doesn't allow a Roger beep, but it allows MDC-1200 because it's a Motorola.

WARNING! Super Noob Question! What is the best material to construct your own antenna with? I was thinking about the metal part. My mind says Copper. What are your thoughts and experiences?

I think what you’re saying is that the radio transmits fine on both ham and GMRS frequencies when you use the built in microphone, but when you plug in the external microphone you can only transmit on ham radio frequencies, not GMRS frequencies. Is that right? Because that doesn’t make sense. If it simply doesn’t transmit when using the PTT button on the external microphone, that’s probably a hardware problem. Either your microphone plug isn’t plugged in deeply enough or the jack or cable has an issue. Try a different one to see if the same thing happens.

I made a 2 meter ground plane from doubled up solid #12 wire. Worked well, but bent easily, even doubled and soldered for the entire lengths. Birds kept bending the radials down. I'm using it indoors for an SDR receiver and it does fine for broadcast FM and up. @HHD1: A VHF/UHF ground plane is extremely easy to make using an SO239 bulkhead connector and pieces of copper wire. I think mine cost me about $8 to put together. https://mgs4u.com/product/so-239-uhf-female-4-hole-panel-mount-solder-connector-for-0-405-inch-od-coax-7511-uhf/ https://w6af.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/quarter-wave-ground-plane-antenna-building-instructions.pdf I was gifted a homebrew 2 meter J-Pole made of 3/4" & 1/2" copper pipe and it worked fine for what it was and was quite durable. The coax connection points eventually corroded and SWR went pretty high. Instead of repair, I just replaced it with a commercial aluminum ground plane, which seems to work better anyway.

It really depends on what type of antenna you want to build as far as length goes. You typically want 1 foot for a 1/2 wave antenna for GMRS. A 1/2 wave is better than using a 1/4 wave. 1/4 wave antennas definitely need a good ground plane while 1/2 wave antennas do not need a ground plane. You will definitely need a NanaVNA or antenna analyzer if you plan on building your own antennas. Always start a little long so that you can cut/trim to get the SWR correct. Like wood working, it is always easier to cut material off than it is to add material. One of the guys in my local club has built j pole antennas for GMRS, 70cm, 6m, and even 11m/CB. He used aluminum tubing for the 6m and 11m/CB antennas. He had some old 75 ohm solid core coax that he used to make the 70cm and GMRS j pole antennas. Some solid wire around 6 gauge will also work well for a 1/2 wave vertical GMRS antenna. You can always put the wire in some PVC pipe to protect it.

I got a marine buddy that build a great antenna from a coat hanger and it’s hanging in his attic. Does about 60 miles from a 40w base unit. I personally don’t have the time to mess with such things.

My hobby is flying big rockets to a few miles high. Hopefully that’s not too boring.

No, if the repeater does not use the CTCSS tone on it's output you will not hear anything! (Not all repeaters use a tone on their output.) As OffroaderX said, you only need to set your transmit for the tone.

Usually within three days but occasionally as long as a week. It’s not checked in real time but against a bulk download. Also, make sure you are reading your callsign correctly. There was one guy who tried for weeks and kept getting shot down. All GMRS callsigns are 4 letters followed by 3 numbers. He misread an L for a 1.

I just got My Wouxun KG-935H and It recives Just fine on Every frequency from ham all the way up to Gmrs and murs But I belive it has A Encode and Decode issue because mine will not TX on any frequency period So not everyone gets a radio that works i have had mine 1 day I have check re checked and checked again hundreds if times through Software from BTWR as well as Chirp Software Using the KG-935G Plus interface to scan it all frequencies and Tones are set Correctly all other radios tranmisit to all repeaters tested with the same PL Tones Between other radios and the KG-935H it just will not hit a repeater will not TX at all It hears fine on everything so I belive its a defective radio. I do wish that btwr had a better solution then just send jt back we will test it and if it test fine we will charge you for waiting our time and also charge you to send your radio back they assumed I was a idiot because they asked me questions like it was user error on why it wouldn't work.

It’s really a simple process and you do not need to download the files from here just look up local repeaters and program them. Chirp has starter files you can down load for the basic gmrs channels then go from there.

You have to be a premium member, which means finish getting your license, which must be done to become a member, then pay the fees ($50 annually I think) to become a premium member, and then run reports to generate CSV files from the repeater database.

fun: (noun) enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure. I just reread FCC 47 C.F.R, Part 95 Subpart E. There was no mention of fun or any of the defining terms for fun. It would seem that the federal government neither endorses nor encourages "fun". So how dare you sir!

Very well said. Here's a novel idea. Just use the radio and have fun!

So now you’re also an expert on propagation of UHF in Connecticut? What is your need to act like such a complete douche?

I didn't say hello on the welcome board yet so... Hello from sunny yet frigid northern Wisconsin. Not much for listed repeaters in my area. Maybe I'll stick an antenna at the top of my 50-foot spruce. Looking forward to learning more about my weird obsession, as well as meeting some of you fine folks.

That's the thing. I'm 100% with you, i started with a TDH3 and loved it and wanted better and got a Q10H and 935G. Every time someone disparages this "cheap Chinese junk" I ask the same question. "What's a good GMRS radio you would suggest? What model?" and i never get a reply. I have a money tree for my hobbies, and yet when i ask a simple question i never get a reply for what's truly the best, US made full featured quality is never mentioned. These "high quality radio experts" really have nothing to say because these cheap Chinese junk radios are kicking everything's ass. If someone thinks an item is bad, give a better suggestion, a solution reasons why its bad and why something is better. That's the whole point of forums. But i also get throwing a shit grenade into a discussion. Why not throw it back. lol

Yes you can. Go to the FCC Manager Help page and scroll down a bit to the "Contact Information" section: https://wireless2.fcc.gov/helpfiles/licensemanager/commonQuestions.html

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.

Fact

If you want to run a roger beep run it. I’ve talked for many years and don’t really notice them. I do find them useful if talking groundwave or dx on other bands. People that are offended by them are controlling and should worry about their own transmissions not others.

I keep my Roger Beep on - when someone complains about it, I remind them that its my radio and nobody is forcing them to listen to me.