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Let's beat this dead horse some more. It should have been turned into mush a long time ago. If you want to talk on linked repeaters then get your amateur license. We don't need to have linked repeaters on GMRS. I live in Mid Missouri and I sure don't want to have my local repeater clogged up by people from outside the area. Linked repeaters defeats the purpose of GMRS which is local communications. Stick with amateur radio or use one of them phone apps that gets mentioned if you want to talk to people all over the country/world. Okay back to trying to get the excess blood out of my caffeine system.

SO, I guess I better stop telling my wife "I'm on the way now - traffic was bad".

That could be a really good thing or it can open up a can of worms that we don't want. I say that because we all know some people want to turn GMRS into HAM Lite. We don't have enough frequencies/channels available for linking repeaters or different digital modes, etc, etc. I would hate to see GMRS turn into what the Chicken Band (CB) has become.

This was my handy work at a custom camo paint job on GM-21.....be kind

I’d for sure say ask the repeater owner but yes like already said that is what gmrs is for. It happens all the time on our local repeaters.

It looks a lot like German flecktarn pattern.

Hot Damn, This Horse is one tough cookie.. Damnnnnnnnn

Get that now and again with one group, as I have an 01 Explorer I run with the "Jeepers" (skid plates, 31's winch recovery gear), but we also have Toyotas, an occasional Samurai, Pathfinder, whathaveyouthat'snotaJeep. But when we hit the trails and they see we can off road with the best of them, they take it in stride. And we of course respond in kind with the insults, much like good friends do with each other. As far as who pulls who out of the Stuck, it's like being out boating, you always, I mean ALWAYS help out a fellow off-roader. We're talking moderate off road trails here, not rock crawling or King of the Hammers or mud bogging. The help you give today may be the help you need tomorrow.

That’s an ignorant comment.

Not necessarily true. Different dipole antennas have varying elevation patterns.. Some antennas mostly high gain commercial have low elevation patterns making them ideal for mountain top applications where signal is radiated more downward where many non commercial is just the opposite. Some antennas are designed for optimum performance at a typical 40' heights and others work better mounted on 200' towers sitting on mountain tops. The commercial guys know this and do their homework when selecting antennas. Likewise i think most of us settling up home brew repeater systems should research antenna patterns and select something that works for their applications.

What exactly is the end goal of this? Being able to sit at home and talk to some random person also sitting at their home using a radio? I am pretty sure ham radio has accomplished this with the many link systems in place. This can also be accomplished using Zello alone, no radios, no GMRS licenses needed just an app on your cellphone or PC and you can talk to as many random strangers as you want.

Any Tidradio that was defective was replaced within days of me complaining. They never ask for the old radio either so no hassle with returning it. Although I think the quality control could be a lot better, the service I get from them is just fine. And they seem to stand behind their radios. If you are complaining about a $25-30 radio that comes with antennas, battery, charger, instruction booklet, USB power pack and cord you really need to think about what a great value that is for someone who isn't looking to spend $200+ per radio just for quality. When you get a good one it stays that way, well... so far.

For just making sure your radio is generally transmitting about as much power as it should be, to make sure your antenna is not shorted and the SWR is "good enough", the SW-102 is perfect. Ignore all the propeller heads trying to tell you that you need to spend hundreds or thousands of $$ because they have no idea what it means to just do a quick-check on something without the need for adhering to mission-critical IEEE standards nor can they comprehend that your self-worth is not measured by how precisely-tuned your antenna is. Same thing goes for the need of a dummy-load.. You can measure the power of your radio with antenna connected to get a "good enough" power reading, if you even care about that. ..."some people" could over complicate a door-knob and they love to spend other people's money.

Maybe out of line, but when an agency feels threatened they usually do something to punish the public. Happened here when voters drastically reduced property taxes in the 70's. Eliminating regs could chaos and that could be the punishment for having their power and numbers reduced. If this is unacceptable, mods please eliminate the post.

We need to get FRS off of 15-22 for starters. Then we need dedicated repeater frequency pairs that are not shared with simplex. Then we need the fcc to enforce the rules that are already in place.

@OffRoaderX (aka Notarubicon) tested this myth on his YouTube channel and found that looping the cable didn't affect the SWR at all. That prompted me to test it myself with two different pieces of coax and three different radios from 5 to 35 watts, and I also found no change at all in SWR or transmission range. I'm about to put an antenna on my truck and I plan to leave a few extra feet of coax so I change the position of the radio, plug in an HT, or whatever else may come up. I'll just coil the extra into a loop and secure it with cable ties.

Am I the only GMRS user who is kinda frustrated with linked repeaters on gmrs frequencies. The more I’m using gmrs the more I’m realizing the frequency allocations for it just doesn’t leave enough space for linking on this service.

I live in a port town. For my entire life I have driven past a marine electronics store. Not needing "marine" electronics (radar, sonar, gps and its predecessor LORAN, and of course radios). I never had a need to visit. But as it turns out the store carries all sorts of GMTS, FRS and HAM equipment. And not just for boats. i called yesterday and found out that not only do they have probably everything you find all your needs met in one place. Plus and more importantly, they are more than to share decades of knowledge and experience. Heading down tomorrow with a list of needfuls and more importantly a list of questions.

Check your Device Manager to make sure that the cable is recognized and that the appropriate port is selected in Chirp. If your Device Manager shows a "yellow" symbol for a specific port than you may need to load the FTDI driver so the computer recognizes the cable. Also, try using the Radioddity programming software for that radio. You may not experience the problems you're experiencing by using the factory programming software.

I agree with TrikeRadio, I have two DB-25G's and use Chirp, exclusively, to program them with not a single problem. One nice feature of the DB-25G is during up and down loads it gives visual indication of its progress so you can see it begin, progress and finish. Only thing I can think might be problem, only because I've done it, is accidently plugging the programming cable into the HEADPHONE socket next to the identifically sized DATA socket. The DATA socket is silver and the one closest to the fan.

Hi thanks, I used some paint I had laying around from old project. Its Rustoleoum camo paint. The key is sparing no expense on the applicator, I used a Q-tip lol Here is another photo of a radio I did a few years ago in slghtly different camo color, but the same Rustolem camo paint and Q-tip method. The approach is to use 3 (or more) colors. Considering the case is black, that counts as one color. Then add in the darkest paint first, leaving plenty of black spots showing. Then add in the lighter color. Repeat back to the dark, then light again until you get a mix you like, keeping some of black showing. At first you will be saying to yourself "What the heck am I doing?". But push on. It dries to the touch in just an hour or two, but give it a good day before handling too much. Be careful not to get paint in the mic hole or speaker, and around the buttons.

I have a repeater that is 204 miles away and it comes in crystal clear and it’s not linked. It’s running a 50w radio and a 12db gain antenna radiating about 780watts at 6000ft and I’m at 4500ft I check in on it all the time. Sooo not impossible in any way shape or form. As a matter of fact I’m 204 miles to the west and a buddy was in a 3rd state 190miles to the repeaters south east and we could talk to each other no problem. Line of sight and a good antenna is key

It was my pleasure and I am glad to see that it benefited another person.

MFJ stands for Mighty Fine JunK. And they have earned that nickname. No consumer grade SWR/power meter will be super accurate. As others have said, they are designed to a certain price point and also designed for a wide frequency range. Bird Wattmeters are expensive but very accurate. They also use specific slugs for a small frequency range. And that is why they are more accurate. As I stated in my first reply. The SW-102 works just fine if all you are doing is testing the SWR. Sometimes simple is best and the SW-102 is about as simple as it gets. There really is no need for a NanoVNA or antenna analyzer if all you are doing is testing the SWR on mobile antennas.

Yah right, BS. How did you confirm that accuracy? Did you compare it with another Pandaland POS instrument? I had a 849 that was far from being accurate and it was sent back to MFJ for a recalibration and 9 months later, I finally got it back saying it was recalibrated, and it was still far from being accurate. I ended up putting it in the garbage. Also, I had a MFJ269 that I sent back for recalibration. They had that instrument for four months and while I was waiting, I had my Bird 43 recalibrated and purchased a RigExpert. The RigExperf appears to be a good unit. I ended up giving away the 269 to Sir Steve because I no longer had a need for it.

People. It’s government. They aren’t ever going to make anything better.

It was down in yesterday morning when I saw this post, back up in the afternoon. The FCC data base is and has been SLOW for a long time. I just looked up my call and it took 11 seconds. I ran a query of all active licensed GMRS users in my town (92 of of them) and it took 10 seconds. Weird. Edited: Just for fun I ran a query for all new GMRS licenses sorted by Grant Date in the last 1 year. Left off Call Sign, Name and FRN from screenshot. 28 in total. What I found odd is that we normally see 2-4 new licenses a month. Only 2 so far this year.

This would tie up comms across the country...

I had no problems looking up license information an hour ago or so.

I didn't have any issues. I did a lookup, and even logged in, no problem. Those errors are pretty frequent however. That website either needs more backend horsepower or more bandwidth or something as frequently over the years I get timeouts and the error shown in the 1st post. It's very random as to whose request go thru and who gets an error.

Was on the Glomar Explorer when it took a lightning strike to the derrick. I was on the port bridge wing. You could "feel" in the air just before. Really disorienting afterwards. That's as close as I ever want to be to a strike.

this is geared to de-regulate the big TV/telecom/internet industry and will have zero impact on GMRS.. So to the folks that think this is their gate to 'heaven' to loosen the rains on GMRS,, think again, the FCC will not waste a second reading letters that we need Linking, etc..

That rule will NEVER be rolled back from 2017 - the entire reason it was changed was because no one was getting their license for their 2W bubble pack radios as it was. There's literally zero way that Pandora's Box will ever be shut again at this point. As others have said - this is for DE-regulation. The FCC I guarantee will not be hearing stuff about GMRS and linking and other hand-wringing issues that could have been in their own NPRM/petition that no one has bothered doing until now anyway. This is not the "lazy way out" of doing your own due diligence as the GMRS community as before. I am surprised that yet again I have to comment about how FCC rulemaking works, but I am sure a bunch of armchair experts that have never dealt with the FCC outside their amateur/family service licenses will come once more to say how I am wrong. I will be sure to pop come popcorn and come back in a month or two to see the hilarity that ensues as always.

The Surecom is not the most accurate but it is the simplest to use if all you are wanting to do is check the SWR. And this is normally good enough when checking the SWR on mobile antennas. I will always suggest getting a NanoVNA or a good antenna analyzer for tuning/cutting antennas. They make life easier when tuning by showing exactly where the lowest SWR is. You will know right away if the antenna is too long or too short. I have a Surecom SW-102 that I use for quick SWR tests along with a Comet CAA-500 analyzer and a Rig Expert Stick Pro analyzer. I use the SW-102 for quick SWR checks and the analyzers if I need to actually tune the antenna.

MFJ is far from even coming close to being accurate. RigExpert appears to be pretty accurate and is an excellent tool. Bird 43s and Telewave meters are accurate, but you have to use the chart to determine the VSWRs.

I second the SW-102

Now THAT's legitimate usage!

I use CHIRP to program my Radioddity DB25-G without any problems. What are you having trouble with? .. just connecting and reading the radio... or have you been able to read it into CHIRP but not update it? define your problem with a bit more for us to go on.

While I can’t stand these radios and totally and completely agree with tossing them all in a dumpster fire, are you totally sure the tones and settings are correct? Antenna tight and secure and not broken? Close enough with good line of sight? All radios on high power? While I don’t think radios should need firm ware updates are they all using the same firmware? With all the problems I read on this site about many different radios and makers I can’t believe tid, retivis, radioddity, rugged , midland, Wouxon are still in business.

Antenna Farm was closed for a while due to the owner's health issues not too long ago. I wonder if that's why people on Radio Reference are bashing them. I've never seen Antenna Farm get bashed on other forums and they usually are one of the recommended vendors. Club members, including myself, have ordered antennas from Antenna Farm without issues. PS: the Radio Reference forum is the radio version of the Glock Talk and ARFCOM forums in the firearms world.

It's not Part 47, it is Title 47.

That can only happen by connecting the local repeater to another network. If the control passes only control codes affecting the ability of the target to carry information, then the connection is valid, however, should any other type of information be transmitted through the connection the connection becomes invalid as different networks carrying information ae interconnected. With a stricter interpretation of the relevant section, it would be an invalid connection even if the purpose were to listen (monitor) traffic on the target radio.

nope.

I think the FCC said it best… In addition to violating Commission rules, linking repeaters is not in the public interest. Because GMRS spectrum is limited and used on a shared “commons” basis, the service only works well on a localized basis when users can hear each other and cooperate in the sharing of channels. Linking repeaters not only increases the potential for interference, but also uses up a limited spectrum resource over much larger areas than intended, limiting localized availability of the repeater channels. GMRS and the Family Radio Service (FRS), which share many of the GMRS channels, are intended for individuals such as family members and friends, scouting troops, emergency response groups, and hobbyists to communicate with each other over short distances, directly or through a repeater station. Linking repeaters, via the internet or other networks, undermines the purpose and usefulness of the GMRS and FRS.

You're still connecting over the internet, and for the purpose of carrying voice. Yes, this ^^^ Others have tried the tactic of ignoring the FCC for profit and paid the fine. The "illegal marketing" by Rugged Radios back in 2020 comes to mind. They don't do that anymore. I expect there are others. The risk you may well find is yours.

At the end of the day, that "wording" was an FCC clarification on what they think the actual rules say, they wished to clarify the point they didn't want linked repeaters on GMRS. The rules themselves are a little more grey than their "clarification" wording,which I take as nothing more than an opinionated blog post. Their clarification means nothing. Only the actual rules matter. It's never been actually tested if someone pushed back on it to the point where it ended up in a courtroom which would be a years long process. The worst that could happen is you get a mean letter from the FCC asking you to stop doing that. But if he set it up as a business for a customer, the customer would be the one getting the mean letter and would probably be upset at Cogent in turn.

Meh not needed for anything I’ve ever done. Meh. went to the web site. Zero information on this. No one on chat at all and no response to email. Scam? Or just bad customer service?

Meanwhile, up in Mammoth today, i ran into a Frostitute

Even I, in all my glory, could not pretend to be that socially mal-adjusted and brain dead..

Unless you are trying to bounce your signal off the moon, just mount your antenna in the best spot you can, as high as you can get it, and it will work fine for for highway/trail comms. My antenna is mounted above the rear tail-light/rear fender of my jeep, below the roofline, where many "experts" warned me it "will not work". and while it certainly does not work as well as it could, it works just fine. I can hit a repeater with it at 92 miles and regularly get 20+ miles on simplex and have never had issues on the trail where i could not hear someone that others could, or they could not hear me. My two words of advice are: 1) ignore the 'experts' B ) - dont over-think it.