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Kind of like forum members that don't work very well.

Just because he can hit the repeater does not mean anyone wants to talk to him.

GMRS IS FOR TALKING WITH ANYONE YOU FEEL LIKE PUTTING A CALL OUT TO ! MALE, FEMALE IS IRRELEVANT ! THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH MAKING RANDOM CONTACTS, GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEAD, PLEASE !!

Why are you here? We all already know what an A-hole is, there is no need to keep giving us an example. Shouldn't you be busy talking to all your friends on a repeater 200 miles away.

Sorry to hear getting connecting to a repeater is going slower than expected. The FCC description is pretty wide open for how to use GMRS service and is covered under 47 C.F.R, Part 95 Subpart E and says, among other things.... "The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is a licensed radio service that uses channels around 462 MHz and 467 MHz. The most common use of GMRS channels is for short-distance, two-way voice communications using hand-held radios, mobile radios and repeater systems. In 2017, the FCC expanded GMRS to also allow short data messaging applications including text messaging and GPS location information." "The GMRS is available to an individual for short-distance two-way communications to facilitate the activities of licensees and their immediate family members. Each licensee manages a system consisting of one or more transmitting units (stations.)" While the FCC states it's designed to "facilitate activities," it is your choice to determine what those activities are. Be it for use in communicating as a family, outdoor activities, managing community groups on a family / license holder level, establishing contacts and yes even the controversial chit chatting. So as far as the FCC is concerned they are not going to get into the weeds and render judgement on the legitimacy of your "activity", unless you are violating FCC GMRS rules. There are plenty of us hear on the forum that are not big fans of people making tons of random contacts and rag chewing (endless chit chat). But that is an "opinion." And if that's what your activity is, as a licensee you have the right to the airwaves to do so. And as long as the FCC allows it I will support your right to do so. But would ask people don't hog the channel, stay courteous and allow breaks for others to transmit. By the way, making contacts on simplex seems pretty rare, especially in rural areas. So, don't get get down, and remain excited!

Hi Frank, What is your call sign? Sometimes it takes a few days, but I have also seen where people read and input their call sign incorrectly and go for weeks or even months before figuring it out. All GMRS call signs issued in the past several years are four letters followed by three numbers: waaa000 to wzzz999. One person had a call sign that ended in I776 and he kept trying to enter it as 1776, not i776, getting more and more frustrated when the system failed to recognize it in spite of the amount of time since issuance. Most people using GMRS do so to have family communications while doing family activities. That’s what the licensing favors, but there’s nothing wrong with random contacts with people you introduce yourself to online. As you have seen a few people get their panties in a wad over that. Ignoring them is easiest.

Hello, We did have an issue with the FCC licenses not being updated due to bad data from the FCC. We have fixed the problem and processed all the available license updates. Your license should now be in our system. You can sign up here: https://mygmrs.com/register

We did a "Kobiyashi Maru" style rewrite of the night compass exercise. We zig zagged past the ambush and got a few seconds of stunned silence when we called in "at Point Orange" Every other team followed the exact instructions and were captured, so we got to watch the fun as they were interrogated...

When I bought my house, I went to the neighbors on both sides of me and introduced myself and asked to exchange telephone info in case of emergency. One neighbor was cool, the other was a jerk (in 10 years I don't think I spoke more than 2 sentences to him) and told me "I'm not comfortable giving you my number". Fast forward a few years, I come home from work there are fire trucks in his front yard and they are getting ready to take out his front door with a battering ram due to an alarm. They ask if I have a way to contact him, told them I didn't and they ram down his front door. He pulled up maybe 30 seconds later. He went to the store, left something cooking on the stove that burnt and set off the smoke alarm. Karma in action.

I would like Mr. Queen's take on this, do we now call channels "Frequency Storage Location Radio Positions" or just "Channel" positions?

Congratulations on the least helpful comment of the week.

Not a dumb question at all, just one needing an answer. All your Gmrs Repeaters will have a 5 mhz. plus input. Hence, +5 Ex; 462.675 for receiving and 467.675 for transmitting. Hope this helps.

I asked this earlier, but somehow my sign in info was corrupt. I bought two KG-935G units roughly a year ago when they were first released. Then bought another as a spare. My wife's still works the same as it did initially, but she doesn't mess with hers which may be the reason mine has a problem now. I, for some reason can no longer get my unit into the 462 frequencies. I need to reach a couple of repeaters in my area that are in that frequency. Every time I try and manually type the repeater frequency, it instantly goes to something like 463.02500, something similar. I can't check right now because my radio is downstairs charging. I tried looking at my wife's for a setting that's different than on my radio, but didn't notice anything. I'd like to try a full reset to see if that brings all the original bandwidth back. I use Chirp, but can't find anything on there that will make a restore, even though I've found similar wording. Anyone have any ideas or a known fix?

Drop your net topic suggestions here. Appreciate any and all feedback

Most of the guys taking the course had spent little to no time outdoors. They suffered and complained. I think attitude was a lot of it. We knew they couldn't kill or seriously maim us. Well, we hoped anyway. There were times we weren't entirely sure about that.

Are you saying there is shooting than just putting bullets in and pulling the trigger? jk

Thanks for your input. Hoping someone can provide something a little more useful in answering my question.

I struggle to understand Steve, so don't ask me any technical questions.

I have only seen new butter bars do something like that . I received a lot of good training while stationed at Ft Devens in 1991. I went through Jungle Warfare in Panama in 1989 and combat lifesaver course while stationed in Germany in 1993. Like a lot of skills, using military radios is a perishable skill after a while. I doubt that I could operate a SINGARS radio now days.

The drunk afterwards was good. But the course? This s from a kid who grew up hunting, fishing, etc. Did you have anyone go exactly 180* backwards on your map & compass work?

I think a more proper term would be RF Frequency Storage Location Position Allocations... If we're going to over-complicate things, we need to overcomplicate theshit out of them at least as well as the H.A.M.s Radios operators do.

Having a plan to "just call anyone" isn't really a plan. As has been mentioned, that's the flaw in "I got my GMRS (or technician) license and bought a radio that I store in a box in case of emergencies but have never actually used it". Rumor has it that there is a TLA agency that monitors "the full spectrum of radio communications" but they are looking for particular types of radio traffic and are not going to send help, no matter what the disaster. There is no way for local authorities to listen everywhere all the time. Chances are they don't have the resources to even listen to a few frequencies. Back in the day, CB 9 *was* monitored in a lot of places, but those days are long gone.

I think the problem is with the radio since the other 8 worked well. I will double check the receive tones in the UV 25. Thank you

Thanks, it only takes a tablespoon of paint and half a dozen Qtips. I had the spray paint left over from an old project. I just spray the paint into a paper cup until there is a tablespoon or so. Its quick and easy. If I were really brave I would do my Glock, but I think I will pass

I'll add to what @SteveShannon said. It is sometimes easier to keep antennas separated vertically versus keeping them separated horizontally. A lot will depend on your locating and setup. Think of the radiation pattern of vertical antennas as a beach ball. The lower the antenna gain the rounder the pattern will be. The higher the gain, the flatter the pattern will be. An example would be comparing the pattern of a 5 dBd antenna and a 9 dBD antenna. The pattern with the 5 dBD antenna will look like a donut while the pattern of the 9 dBd antenna will look like a thick pancake. Keeping the antennas separated vertically works. As Steve said, you can always move the lower antenna down some if you do get some interference.

I use this analogy with the prepper communities. Often when they say they have a radio in case of emergencies, I say, "Who are you going to call?" It's a bit surprising how many of them never really thought of that. They just assume there's some channel where they can call and someone will be listening. I'm not bagging on preppers, I'm just pointing out that they benefit from education, like everyone else. If you get in the habit of using the radio regularly to talk to family, friends, whatever, you'll be much better prepared to use it in the event of an emergency. I wouldn't want to be trying to figure out my rifle or my radio when things have already gone bad. Or my water filter or my fire-making kit, for that matter.

You assume much with that statement.

One of my BF-f8hps has a camo silicone sleeve over it, but that's just because it came in a 5-pack with red, yellow, blue, and orange sleeves and I thought the camo looked kinda cool. I have a black sleeve on an AR-5RM and I like the protection, but it's kinda bland.

Glad it was useful. yeah! That privacy code thing….yes, it really is just a tone. Worth noting that if you are chatting to someone with ‘privacy tones’ turned on…it’s not private. Anyone without the tones setup on their radio, but on the same frequency will hear you.

The best way will be to buy a 2-Meter radio.

GXT1000, GXT3000 are definitely not repeater capable. You can hear transmissions on the frequencies used by repeaters, but you cannot access the repeater and transmit on it. But, technically they are still GMRS radios. If you want to drop some coin on a handheld Mildand repeater radio you are looking at the GXT67PRO. Not exactly an inexpensive option however. But, to each their own.

I too would like to know, but if history is any guide, he will never respond because much of what he proclaims comes directly out his butt... and he knows it.

But.. But... He read it in a Facebook group for H.A.M.s radios operators so it must be true!!

FYI - this is what I use: I always fully power-off the other device when its not switched to use the antenna.

Wow. . That really complicates things a whole lot. Another solution looking for a problem. Just set it and talk. What’s the big deal. It’s sooo simple. Gmrs is supposed to be so simple a 90yr old great great grandma can do it. Why complicated it even more. My dad who is not tech savvy at all uses and programs gmrs every day. It really doesn’t take pages and graphs to understand for any one with 1/2 a working mind. And if you have a gmrs certified radio it’s even easier with less head ache.

One of the retirement communities 20 miles south of me (Sun City Center) has some kind of FRS/GMRS emergency network thing on simplex they do every Wednesday morning. Net control starts the net with a preamble of what it is, a website for more information and his GMRS call sign. About all I can hear is net control and their security patrol, everyone else I assume are FRS (like I said, 20 miles away but net control hits me full scale). The users are assigned radios and a id, something like Alpha 1-20, Bravo 1-20, etc and they go through the check in procedure including asking for relays. At the end of the net, they sign off with their GMRS callsign, that's about the only time it's used.

I forgot to mention that fact. Thanks for bringing that up. You definitely do not want to transmit on the radio that is not directly connected to the antenna. So in the case of the repeater, I would make sure that transmit is turned off or just turn the repeater completely off when using the other radio. I know most radios will cut the output power down when the SWR gets too high but why take the chance of burning up the finals.

But @WRTC928, if you do use a coax switch you must keep in mind that one or the other radio (repeater or base) will be transmitting into a very high SWR if activated when the other radio is connected to the antenna. So, when you set the switch to connect the base station to the antenna, I would want to temporarily disable transmit on the repeater. Although it’s unlikely to be activated by a weak signal from another station, it could still attempt to transmit an ID if it was recently in use or perhaps even in response to the use of the base station.

Nope no issues at all. Like already said if you want a repeater then it will only be gmrs. But if it’s simplex (radio to radio) then all is good. We have one of our local mountain emergency groups is mostly FRS. It’s mostly older folks that won’t be able to self evac in a fire or snow storm and the cells and line lines go down all the time so the group got together and every one purchased an FRS or gmrs (and license) radio and they can communicate in the community and out to the rest of us if they need help of any kind. A 91yr old sweet lady also runs a weekly simplex net.

Mmm! Good point. The PMR frequencies certainly have that lower digit numbering, and it’s possible channel 50 got mixed up with PMR channel 7 on my radio. Interesting !

That would be good if we can get the Charlie and tumbleweed repeater coverage maps!

You will definitely want a coax switch. A duplexer will not work for using a repeater and a mobile radio on the same antenna. I have had good experiences with the Diamond brand of manual coax switches. I have a 2 port and 3 port switch. While they are not top of the line, they work well. The Diamond switches are definitely cheaper than Alpha Delta switches. Here is the 2 port coax switch I have. Diamond Antenna CX-210A Heavy Duty Wideband Coaxial Switches CX210A

If by bad habit you mean announcing your call sign at the beginning, I think that is fairly common and I wouldn’t consider it a bad habit. Rather when conversing with family or friends I would say you shouldn’t feel obligated. I like to think GMRS is a little less uptight. I wouldn’t give you a hard time either way.

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

Last month I passed the Technician class amateur license exam. With some studying, the test can be successfully passed on the first attempt. I scheduled my exam with the Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group that was held at a Sizzler restaurant in Fullerton, CA. It cost $10 to take the test. They submit your license to the FCC electronically. I took the test on Saturday, paid my fee ($35) on Monday, and had my ticket and call sign by 1:00 AM Tuesday. It is very quick with their system. Those who pass the exam are given a 5W TYT TH-UV88 handheld radio, already programmed with the repeaters for the Papa System repeaters. They provide it to welcome you to the world of amateur radio. The whole environment was welcoming and fun. The Papa System has repeaters all over the southern California area and they have many modes, analog and digital. It's a great system to gain experience with your new license. They even hold a new hams net every Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. You can talk with others from the Mexican border, out to Yuma, all the way north to Ridgecrest and Santa Barbara on the coast. All of the repeaters are linked, so you can hear/talk over a very wide area. Just wanted to let people know that you can obtain your license in the LA area in an easy, convenient manner if you are in the area. The whole process was smooth and easy.

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.

Test at the connections. You don’t need to remove the headliner if everything rings out well. Look for no continuity between the center and the shield without the antenna. It should be the same on both ends. If you put a dummy load on the end you should see 50 ohms between center and shield.

Sounds like the new mount is defective, maybe a bad connection at one end or the other. Can you check it with an ohm meter and ensure it is not shorted (check resistance between the center conductor and shield) or open (check continuity from end to end on the center conductor and then on the shield). You might also inspect the NMO mount and make sure it is clean and making good contact.

Look for a damaged coax.

I wonder if the frequency limits setting has anything to do with this?