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By the grace of mine own self-worth and sarcasm and by the bounteous authority vested in me, THE QUEEN OF ALL THAT IS GMRS, I doth hereby decree, with much pomp and stupidity, that one @SteveShannon, a stout fellow of questionable repute but unquestionable GMRS knowledge, be forthwith and forevermore dubbed a member of the Most Esteemed Order of the HERD (which, perchance, standeth for “Higher End Radio Dork,) Let it be known across the static-ee airwaves of the peasantry to the lofty frequencies of the saddest of H.A.M.s that Sir StevenShannon, clad in naught but his wits and an FCCs permission slip, hath stumbled bravely and fortuitously into the fray of tomfoolery and emerged victorious—or at least not entirely trampled. With this proclamation, he is granted the sacred right to put the title "HERD" after his name, to wield a UV-5R on GMRS channels, and to confuse all who inquire as to what a “HERD” truly be. So sayeth I, THE QUEEN OF ALL THAT IS GMRS on this fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord XENU two thousand and five-and-twenty. Let the roger-beeps blare, and may the Sad H.A.M.s tremble in his presence ! So it is written, so shall it be done. Arise good Sir @SteveShannon, member of the HERD!

I have big clumsy hands making it easy for me to accidently key the mic when grabbing for it. To address this in the past I have modified mics with stiffer or additional PTT button springs, but with Wouxun KG-XS20G+ design I can't make that solution work. Luckily, I think I found an alternative. First of all here's the stock KG-XS20G+s MIC's PTT pull weight which comes in at about 11oz. This first thing is to get a gromet of dimensions D=7/16", I.D. = 0.336", O.D. = 19/32" T = 0.049. (Available in a Harbor Freight gromet assortment box) Next, use a razor knife to CAREFULLY cut off one side of the gromet. The cut needs to be as clean, flat and flush with the gromet half's side as possible. Discard the other half. Now, remove the four screws holding the two halfs of the mic body together and carefully separate the them taking care not to stress the mic's speaker wires. Remove the PTT assembly and place the gromet half as shown in this pic. Note the flat side of the gromet half is facing the PTT button. Re-install the PTT assembly taking care to keep the gromet half in place. Lastly reassemble the mic and secure it with it's 4 screws. With the modification my mic's PTT pull weight now measures 1 lb. 10 oz. CONCERNS - The addition of the gromet is putting additional lateral stress of the PTT button. Over time there is at least a possibility it may bend the button assembly back making PTT unreliable. The additional stress could also cold work the button's solder connections to the PCB. With these concerns in mind, I tested the modified mic by pushing the PTT button firmly 100 times with no ill effect. I also banged the mic as hard as I dare from different angles, but I was unable to displace the gromet half.

I thought that might happen so my sig only refers to the Medium End Radio Dork Experimeter (MERDE) level.

Can I add HERD (higher end radio dork) after my name now?

Recording of DMR on analog with call sign..m4a To me those short sound files sound like DMR. Here is a longer sample, followed by a Morse code ID. I recorded it from our 70 cm DMR repeater.

Well, After studying my butt off for several weeks, I took the test Saturday for General class and passed (35 out of 35). I do have to say thanks to the guy who gave me the link to hamexam.org where you can do flash cards of the questions, it really helped!!! Now on to new bands... maybe I will try out 17 meters or 20 meters in the coming weeks.

The repeater on RP20 is part of the Texas GMRS Club and requires a specific CTCSS Tone or DCS Code and a Club membership to access the repeater. The Texas GMRS Club has repeaters throughout Texas and it would be worth while for only about $24/year to be a member and get access to a lot of repeaters statewide. The vehicle and radio equipment you're using is great for starting out. Just bare in mind that the MXT275 is a 15 watt radio and is limited in the number of custom programming channels. The MXT575 is essentially the same radio with the same channel limitation, but with 50 watts of output power. The MXT500 has 99 channels and also is a 50 watt radio. You might want to try the Midland MXTA 26 antenna that may give you a few more farz in some cases. The Midland Antennae are great GMRS antennae and will give you good VSWRs on GMRS freqs. That guy in the video drives a Nissan Grocery Getter with chrome wheels and moon hub caps and cruises Pico Rivera looking to chat with strangers on the radio, but his stuff in the videos is very informative and helpful.

I agree that guy is a bit cranky at times. But he does give good information in his videos (most of the time) GMRS repeaters transmit on 462.XXX while receiving on 467.XXX. GMRS repeater transmit channels are the same as the corresponding simplex channels. So yes you can hear repeaters when on a simplex channel. You will also hear the corresponding simplex channel while your radio is on a repeater channel if you are not using a receive tone. This just how things work with GMRS since there are only so many channels available. We had one guy complaining about hearing a bunch of kids on the repeater when no one else was hearing the kids. The kids were on simplex and the guy did not have the receive PL Tone set on his radio.

I agree in principle but very slightly disagree in practice. Instead of buying that adapter I would recommend cutting the cable between the radio and the cigarette lighter plug and installing a pair of PowerPoles. The only reason I suggest that this is better is because the PowerPoles are much less current limiting than the cigarette lighter plug and can be mated directly to almost any kind of power storage device. Your way is easier. My way is a slightly better long term solution (in my opinion ) and less expensive if you have the tool and PowerPoles.

Yes.. that's how it works.. I found this random video on youtube that explains it very well. The guy is kind of a jerk, and I heard he only says what his sponsors tell him to say, but the info you want is in there:

SILENCE! You have no permission to speak! This prestigious award has already gone straight to your head!

The Queen of all that is GMRS has anointed you so. YES go forth Sir SteveShannon HERD

I am humbled by this honor. I’m not sure I’m worthy so I will try a day at the middle level first. Thank you, Queen.

That's not "interference" per-se, that is someone transmitting digital data.. Some of the higher-end radio dorks can probably identify it based on the sound, but its probably NXDN.. or DMR.. Or possibly (although I don't think so based on the sound) P25.

Can you imagine the reaction if you go on a Ham Radio Forum and brag about getting your GMRS License!?!

"Hello, my name is Ed and I have a PowerPole addiction."

Our county emergency communications response vehicle has radio capability in just about every band/mode as well. They join our club for summer Field Day exercises and I have operated from their vehicle. Amazing capability and array of radios. They have retractable VHF/UHF antennas on the vehicle that are run up on telescoping masts, plus they have an exterior connection panel (SO239s) to allow coax connection to any exterior antenna. Pretty nifty setup.

For portable, I bought an unun on ebay (was $15, couldn't build one for that cost) and put it in a PVC box: I then made a 40M long wire, and a 80M long wire, the 40M is in a chalk reel and the 80M is in a rope reel. The second chalk reel has paracord, the intent is to attach the chain link ring to the chosen wire, then toss the chalk reel in a tree, no need to deal with weights, and it keeps things from getting tangled. I think I was out a total of $100 all said and done to have a decent field antenna set that packs away easily, and can be deployed in about 10 minutes.

I agree. I picked my mobile/base 20w and 25w radios partly because their current draw is within the limits of an auxiliary power outlet. When I driving I plug into my front auxiliary power outlet and when stationary on nice days I can plug the radio into the rear one with the hatch open. For emergency and campsite use I have the lesser Jackery 250 which is adequate, but I wish I had the USB-C and extra capacity of your 300! As flexible as the auxiliary power plug & outlet are, I wanted the ability switch out different length DC cables and different terminations. To achieve this my radios have a short fused DC power pigtail terminated in a T-connector. I made up mating cables: For mobile use I have one short and one longer DC power cable each terminated in an auxiliary power plug For home use have a very short cable terminating in lugs so I can connect directly to the rear posts of by DC power supply.

It’s absolutely the correct use. It’s not a coincidence that GMRS is Family Radio Service adjacent, and that a license is good “for a family”.

Not meant to be a divisive or abrasive topic. It's laid out pretty clearly what the spirit of GMRS is. Not 70cm lite.. Less for "rag chews" and "making contacts" and more for having radios in the family cars to home. Or a group or family on a ski trip, event, or off roading keeping track of eachother... Repeaters meant to be more local to get up over a hill... Not for yelling "WHISKEY SIERRA ALFA TANGO 423 Monitoring!". For people with some other stated goal and using radio as an aid, and not just "being on the radio". Functional use..

No, but you all have to refer to him as Sir Steven from hence-forth.

Mine's been going for a while. Received it Fri, Sep 6, 2024 and it was in operation shortly after that replacing my RT97S repeater. I didn't really have a problem with the duplexer but I had asked the service team quite a few questions when all of a sudden they said they were sending out a duplexer. I didn't think I needed one but after I replaced it the reception was much better than it had been even from the 1st transmission. That was Sept 20th. Before that they said you couldn't bring the voltage above 12.5v. After the new duplexer they said the limit was 13.8v It's been working well for me on 600 with a Retevis 7.2dBi antenna. I have plans to get it way above the 40' it's currently at along with replacing it with a Comet CA-712EFC.

Only the Queen of GMRS can formally bestow such a noble title and you are certainly deserving of it! Not mentioned in my post the DMR intrusion may be more serious than just local effects on my GMRS experience. In Chicago the CPD communicates in the clear on 8 FM channels from 460.125 MHz to 460.525Mhz I scan them when I'm working in my office and I'm hearing the same "DMR" intrusion. Hopefully it just some clown in my immediate area and not worse. Again, thanks for your help!

Set a receive tone so you don’t hear it.

The night before last, Ada Oklahoma got hammered badly by storms. They have an active amateur radio club with a repeater that I can hear and sometimes even use on a good day. It was very interesting to hear them reporting the action in real time, routing volunteers to areas that had just been hit, doing "damage triage" to help decide who needed help most urgently, etc. Radio is greatly superior to other forms of communication for that purpose because the word gets out to hundreds or potentially even thousands of people all at once. Obviously, there's always the potential for some bonehead to screw stuff up by getting on the repeater with extraneous traffic, but I didn't hear any of that. The local club has obviously practiced this; they ran very smoothly. I was impressed.

Very nice. Since I am new at this..... these are end fed correct?

OMG.. THAT is a great idea!

Correct, it does. I should say, the system he is working on is amateur radio, not GMRS, but the concept is not exclusive to any portion of FM radio.

It's not impossible to have low baud data in the CTCSS portion of a wide band signal, but it's very slow data, and you really then need to do modifications to the radios so that you can hear and decode the data in that portion of the transmission. You do loose your signal selectivity of Tone/DCS though. I was talking with a friend who has a 3 repeater system, and he is working on building a data dashboard using the low baud data from the RF links as described above. It is quite the project, and as mentioned, very slow data.

@Suburbazine only posted three times and hasn’t been here since November. That’s not uncommon. I think a lot of people make a few posts and then move on.

I'm going to second what @OffRoaderX said about the Midland Ghost antenna. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. It's not a cheap antenna, but it isn't prohibitively expensive either. The only reason I quit using it is that I got an amateur radio license and wanted a true dual-band antenna. There are some with the same form factor as the Ghost, but so far, I haven't found one that anyone will recommend. I've ordered a Compactenna which is taller (9") and more expensive (~$139) but has numerous favorable reviews/reports. Hopefully I can install it and stop looking.

With regard to radios and disaster preparedness, there are two major elements to consider. You'll need to be in contact with people in your immediate area and you'll need to be able to get a message to the world outside your immediate area. For the first, simplex is obviously the answer, ideally with a base station and a tall antenna (assuming the storm leaves it standing). For the second, repeaters are pretty much a necessity, with the same caveat that they need to be still functional. Yes, traffic will be heavy, but it's better than the nothing you'd have without it. Many years ago, I was in a remote village in the interior of Alaska when an earthquake took out all the communication for all the villages in a sizeable chunk of the state. Within hours, military aircraft with God's own comm systems were running laps around the state talking to anything that could send a signal -- marine, CB, GMRS, Ham. Unfortunately, that isn't going to be the case in the wake of most disasters. Just knowing that someone out there is hearing you improves your confidence immensely.

Nice work. Congratulations!

You need the specific tone required for the specific repeater you are trying to use, and you have to enter that in the correct channel (presumably CH20). Without that you will not be able to use the repeater - you can hear them, they will not hear you.

3D Printers are a must have..

Welcome to the SAD HAM Club.. Extra is only half hour away..

Which car? The cigarette lighter plug on a 20 watt radio is a great feature and should only be removed as a last resort. For example, in addition to plugging in to my cigarette lighter port in my car, I can plug into the port on my Jackery Explorer 300 for portable/emergency use. Some cars will turn off the electricity to the cigarette lighter port when the ignition is turned off, but many have an "auxiliary" port that is always powered. My EV's port is turned off, but it is easy to power it back on again, when parked. My advice is don't remove what is a great feature of this radio (cigarette lighter plug) and at the end of the day, if you want to connect directly to your battery, get something like this adapter from Powerwerx

The G90 has one of the best tuners I have used. It does better than my LDG auto tuner. The G90 is definitely a nice little radio. I have built a 80m end fed half wave antenna but still need to get it installed and do final tuning. It tested good when I had it up temporarily on a 40 ft telescoping mast. My last antenna project that I built was an ultra light weight EFHW antenna for Parks On The Air. The unun (without antenna wire) weighs 0.6 ounces and is rated for 25 watts digital and 40 watts AM//SSB modes. It will be a perfect little antenna to go with the G90. Here are photos of it when I finished putting everything together.

Good job trying different things. It doesn’t make sense to me either, but based on past experiences that definitely means little. Did you feel any difference in how well the magnet holds for these different locations? The magnetic base couples with the metal to form the ground plane. It would be interesting to see if a non-ground plane antenna worked better in your specific circumstances. Also, play around with your cable. You might have a problem that manifests itself when some portion of the cable is bent or straightened but not others. That could form an intermittent problem that coincidentally happens as you move the base around. Radio is sometimes the most frustrating mystery, but I have found that most problems have simple solutions, propagation being the exception.

Hi all, just getting into the gmrs and here to figure it all. Coming from Warrenville, IL. WSHE743 (Moose)

I had a blast this weekend on 10 meter dx. I was able to talk to people in Italy and Bavaria and a lot of contacts to Texas as well. All on 20 watts and a dipole at 30 feet high. What a fun hobby.

Actually those are all just your feelings. The rules do not prohibit using GMRS to chat about weather or antennas or kids first report card, but if you’ve determined that you must have sole access to radio frequencies for the many emergencies that you purport to swoop in and handle you’ve made a terrible choice in GMRS. One would think that the first emergency might have taught you that.

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.

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.

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.

I use it to talk to my kids and family when I'm out and about town. Keeps things fun and the kids like it. They holler at me on the home base all the time and ask when im coming home, what im doing and if ill pick them up some ice-cream. Is this the proper use of GMRS? Because thats what I'm using it for. I could use a phone but whats the fun in that?

I'm with you brotha! I use it primarily for off-roading and on the trip to get TO off-roading and it busts my britches every time i hear the H.A.M.s radios wanna-be's long-talking on the repeaters.

Nobody is going to drive over and do it for you - you will have to invest at least a little effort. We assume you've read the user-manual and tried but you're stuck/its not working, so give us more info about what part you are getting stuck with and i'm sure we can help. AND, you should probably create a new forum post instead of dragging this one even further into the weeds.