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Welcome and happy GMRS ing.. Family, friends, enemies.. whatever, just have fun and enjoy..

Correctly? You can use it to talk to anyone who will listen & respond.

Personally, i don't care what language is used.. A lot of people do for whatever reason but i find this is why the ch knob was invented.

Here are the rules for the 10 meter DX contest. https://contests.arrl.org/ContestRules/10M-Rules.pdf Yes, a serial number is required and apparently serial numbers are required for some DX contests, but unfortunately I couldn’t find where the term is defined. It might be as simple as the serial number corresponding to your logbook or to a log of contacts for that particular contest, in which case, since he was your first contact it would have been simply ‘1’. But I don’t really know. There are FAQs, glossaries, and “Getting Started” articles and none of them (that I could find) define “Serial Numbers” even though they use the term. I think that’s a stupid oversight. I have written to the contest director at the ARRL asking for such terms that they take for granted to be added to a glossary that the rules reference.

For GMRS, the FCC allows plain language voice communications: 95.1731 Permissible GMRS uses. The operator of a GMRS station may use that station for two-way plain language voice communications with other GMRS stations and with FRS units concerning personal or business activities. Earlier, in the overarching Personal Radio Services definitions (which apply to all of the personal radio services) the FCC tells us what is meant by plain language voice communications: 95.303 Plain language voice communications. Voice communications without codes or coded messages intended to provide a hidden meaning. Foreign languages and commonly known radio operating words and phrases, such as “ten four” and “roger,” not intended to provide a hidden meaning, are not considered codes or coded messages. Even with an executive order to establish English as our official language changes to the above rules would need to be made if the government determined that radio communication must be done in English. Of course legislation could do it, assuming it withstood a constitutional challenge.

This picture, which I believe originated from Laird, shows how much or how little placing an antenna base off center, or even at the corner of the roof actually makes: 0.02 dB less when moved to a corner of the roof. I don’t believe any of us would even notice that. Moving it from the roof makes more difference of course.

Your contact was looking for a serial number that YOU assign to your contacts during a contest. In your case above, you could have given him any number, but 001 would suffice. If I am responding to CQ calls on any given day, I number my contacts starting with 001 and if anyone should ask, I tell them what number I have assigned their QSO. Typical QSO verification involves: Call signs Band/Frequency Time Signal reports Serial numbers

You thought wrong. The only requirement regarding language is that your callsign be announced in English, and even if there was a requirement that you use only English on repeaters, it wouldn't matter because the FCC does not enforce the rules (ie; they dont care). Welcome to the exciting and dynamic world of GMRS in the L.A. area!

Yes, just click on the map option and zoom in to where you are.

Okay, found this definition on the ARRL website: Actually, after everything I have read in the ARRL 10M Contest Rules pdf and learned reading other ARRL website stuff, I probably should not have responded to his CQ. I was not in the contest and so would not have submitted a log to ARRL, which they would have compared to his log. So he would have lost the QSO. So this rookie has learned a lot today. Thanks for all the input and help!!!

Which is exactly the how the comm went. I think perhaps (after scanning the ARRL pdf page 3 item number 4.3) looks like a "foreign" DX station is sending some kind of serial number. Perhaps he thought I was in the same boat as he. But we did exchange callsigns, I sent him a 57 and "Delaware USA" as I normally do with a DX station.

That’s how I read it also.

Here it is, from ARRL: Good morning, The serial number is a sequential number, starting with 1 for your first contact, 2 for your second contact, and so on. In the case of the 10 Meter contest, stations located in the US, Canada, and Mexico send their state or province abbreviation, not a serial number. In the ARRL International DX contest, as a US station, you'd be sending a signal report and your state abbreviation. It's customary to just give a 59 (or 599 if CW) as a signal report and then your state. The DX stations will send a signal report and their serial number, when then goes in your log for cross checking (we check to see if you receive the number they sent you correctly by comparing the logs.) I can add that term to the glossary which is located at the end of the contest rules PDF files on the ARRL website. 73, Paul Bourque, N1SFE Contest Program Manager

Thanks Steve. I will download the pdf and read through it. Good idea to get a definition for serial numbers added, for us newbies.

Seriously? The 1000s of pages of regulations that are "interpreted" to mean one thing during this case and another during the next? You read them and understand them as best you can and then you might get corrected because of your wrongful interpretation. No one, not even the smartest guy at the eff sea sea knows all the rules and regulations pertaining to even a single class of radio and understands them to the fullest exception of the interpretation of the different people who will eventually rule on them on an individual case basis.

This is especially true if the license that the OP seeks to renew is one of the grandfathered licenses. FCC has made it very clear that those licenses, which carry with them privileges that newer licensees may not exercise, must be kept up. Once expired they will not be renewed.

Hello @JHENRY, as mentioned already it’s permitted. Repeaters are privately owned so there’s that. As for our resident idiot petulant child SoCalgmrs that feels the need to chastise people, tell them their radios are junk and profess to getting 250 miles on his very fine radios in the desert. Feel free to ignore him. This info really should be part of the welcome packet. One last thing, some people view all caps as a form of yelling. Thought I’d mention it in case you were not aware. ️

Awhile back, when renewing my license I ran into a issue where somehow my old Gmrs license had a different FRN number, resulting in 3 FRN numbers. The new one I applied for, plus the FRN for my ham license. I Called CORES, and they removed the third FRN and got me all set again. Easy Peasy! Here's the number directly to CORES: 1-877-480-3201

for 70cm i think all you need for a perfect ground plane is something in neighborhood of 6-8 inches and yes ground plane does help in radiation pattern for long distances . https://m0ukd.com/calculators/quarter-wave-ground-plane-antenna-calculator/

if after 360 some odd days, i think it would be easier and faster to apply for a new license.

Well, unless your using this product, your antenna won't be top notch

I RECENTLY USED A GMRS REPEATER ON MT. WILSON 462.600 MHz WITH A 167.9 Hz PL TONE. IT WAS SPANISH -ONLY, AND WHILE USING GOOGLE TRANSLATER TO TRANSLATE WHAT I WAS HEARING, I WAS CURSED AT FOR SPEAKING ENGLISH. I THOUGHT FCC REGULATIONS REQUIRED ENGLISH ON GMRS REPEATERS. CAN OTHER LANGUAGES BE USED?

Whoops

Kenmore is a washing machine or refrigerator; Kenwood makes radios (and made stereos back in the day).

I think the Kenmore (Kenwood- whoops) plug is easier to use than the USB. There are some USB cables that won't work properly with programming. The cable that comes with the radio works for programming. Cheap cables only designed for power might not work.

Lots of good options have been discussed here. All work relatively well. For a base radio, pretty much any 12 volt battery will work. Keep in mind that TX power can vary greatly with battery voltage. 1-2 volts can mean the difference between 35 watts and 50 watts, depending on the radio. Granted, this is only a couple of dB, but those may be the dB's you need. Battery power for base radios can be pretty easy, and all the options above are pretty good and will work for your application. Repeaters are a different story, while you control the use of your radio, repeater use can vary quite a bit and be a lot more demanding. A typical radio is built to TX with a 20% duty cycle, a repeater is built for a 100% TX duty cycle. I run a 50 watt GMRS repeater with a large footprint, a 100 watt 70cm HAM repeater, and a remote RX station for a very large 70cm HAM repeater out of my "repeater shack". The GMRS and remote RX are Kenwood TKRs which run on 13.8vdc, the GMRS has an amp for duty cycle at 100%, and both are running pre-amps at 13.8vdc. The power supply for them is a Astron 50amp with built in battery backup. Its battery backup is 12vdc. The 100 watt 70cm repeater is Motorola MTR3000 (100% duty cycle at 100 watts), which requires 28vdc and a battery reverting charger (its also equipped with a pre-amp that its built in supply handles). Battery capacity is sized to run the repeaters under full power with moderate usage for at least 24 hours before they have to transfer to an inverter generator (regular alternator generators produce very dirty power). Its essential the 70cm remote RX stays on the air because its part of the SKWARN network. The other HAM repeater may join it in SKYWARN service in the future, likely in digital or mixed mode. Its also pretty important the GMRS repeater stays on the air because users have expressed they want and or need it for emergency comms with family and friends. Currently I have to transfer power to generator manually, but I'm planning an auto start and ATS project for that so its all auto. The best power / battery backup option for you is one that works for you and costs what your willing to spend on it.

Copy and paste is your friend. That was the only way I could get anything in there. Low power on the repeater is 5 watts I believe.

So if I have this correct Steve, OP would have responded with “call sign” then 59 and DE.

Check youdtube as well, there are tons of radio specific videos out there.

Yes. I think @WSEZ864 probably nailed it but it should still be defined somewhere easy to find.

Welcome to the forums! I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome To the forum @MarkTheNewf

about two years ago i was making a trip to Bass Pro with some friends i was visiting in Glendora. My brother was meeting us there, we was coming in from opposite direction. We were using a 'local' repeater to communicate then jumped over to Ch 7 when we got close enough. When we started talking, no one was on their air, we soon got jumped on by two spanish speaking individuals. Two of the guys with me from Glendora speak Spanish fluently. They were relaying what the two spanish guys were calling us gringos.. quite comical once the two spanish guys got hold of the mic. I think the guy with the local repeater even made a few comments.

Pull out your pen and say "Open Channel D."

It absolutely is. The FCC will not issue a waiver to regain an old GMRS callsign. Ran into this when I for got to renew a few years back. Tried the waiver application on the website, got nowhere. Called CORES and a quick chat with very helpful person there got me steered into a new license. "You're not attached to that call like your amateur one, are you?"

Maybe not any more. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/designating-english-as-the-official-language-of-the-united-states/

Yep, only proves my point. Way too much overemphasis on seeking the "perfect" ground plane when most people accidentally get it right without thinking about it.

Now let’s talk about the origins of Covid! [emoji1787]

I absolutely agree.

First, don’t mistake SWR for antenna quality. If it were that simple we’d all use dummy loads. They typically provide a very low SWR but have no ability to radiate RF. Second, the SWR meter is not a sufficient ground plane for a VHF antenna. Typically you’d need either a planar surface of metal or an array of radials of at least a quarter wave radius or length to provide a decent ground plane. For VHF that’s much larger than the body of the SWR meter you’re using. The fact is that measuring SWR for handheld antennas is frequently futile and unnecessary. Instead hook up the antennas and see what kind of performance you get.

Yea, it's one of my 2 major pet peeves with GMRS and the two are linked by those who claim to understand but don't really know any more than the rest of us. There are some differences in equipment. Handhelds are even defined by equipment, and per FCC as Steve also suggested, handheld is a sub-type of mobile where regulations don't specify separate rules, Base stations have an antenna in a fixed position. Mobile is normally straight forward but can get a little fuzzy in some circumstances. To me, their clarification indicates it's the linking itself that is not intended, not just use of phone or internet. Linking by any technology has a lot of the same drawbacks (tying up channels, potential for interference, etc.). It's not just PSTN or internet but the linking itself that is a concern. True that they didn't update the regs, but interpretation by FCC is a lot better IMO than interpretation by Billy Joe and Bobby on the internet. For those who want to challenge it because the clarification wasn't incorporated into the wording in the regs, y'all go ahead and see what happens.

It's really easy to unlock. Buy the KG-UV980P instead. Same basic radio, HAM version, Chirp unlocks it to transmit GMRS. Contrary to one persons opinion, these are solid radios (the 1000 or the 980P), they perform very well, sounds great on TX/RX. No you can't just put the 980P config on a 1000, that wont "unlock" the 1000 because as it's been said, the 1000 has additional firmware burned into the thing to prevent out of GMRS bands/power levels/offsets etc. As it should as a part 95 certified radio.

Well now, your treatise on channels might seem complicated to some, but by reading carefully and after digesting the information I have a better understanding. I especially liked the transmit and receive frequencies for the repeater channels. I'm not sure these little GXT's are preset to transmit on the repeater frequencies and thus repeater capable. They do say you can assign a "privacy" code which I take to be the same as a tone. I'm still working on installing the DB-20 but I'm learning a heck of a lot with jst these little handhelds. Keep funneling the information. Thanks.

https://youtu.be/AuCT-pSaCuw

I sent an email to BTech to ask questions about the repeater. Figured I'd put the questions and then answers (below) up for everyone to see since it might be something someone would like to know. Hello, I have several questions I was wondering if you could answer about the RPT50 repeater. I've gone through the user manual that I downloaded from your website and I find some conflicting information between what the website says about the repeater and what the manual says. Also have some general questions about the repeater. 1.Is there a squelch for the receiver? I saw no mention of it in the manual. If there is no adjustable squelch what level is the squelch set at? Or is it only squelched by PL tones? 2.I assume it has full CTCSS and DCS tones for receive and transmit. Can it do split tones? ie: different tones for receive and transmit. Does the CW ID signal with tones or no tones, is it switchable? 3. What should the approx wattage output be using the duplexer (RX/TX Socket), most likely will be using 462.600MHz +5MHz? 4. The manual states DC power can be 13.8vdc +/-15% which is what I would consider a normal power supply. On the website it says 12 vdc +/-0.5v which is an odd voltage since any battery system is going to be 12.8v-13.2v nominal. Can the DC power input be used as a battery backup that switches over automatically during a power outage? Or is it just an alternate power supply to the internal 120 volt driven supply? 5. In the manual it says the handheld microphone is functional as a PTT microphone along with keypad for programming. One of the updates says this is only for programming. Is there an optional microphone that can be used for transmitting? Or is there no way to transmit from the repeater without using another radio to interact with it? 6. The manual says the unit has a volume control. Does this have a listenable receiver and a built in speaker to listen to incoming transmissions? 7. Does the repeater come with the latest updates installed? I only have a Win7 computer and I've heard the program only runs on a Win11 OS. Does that mean I won't be able to update or use the software to program the repeater? 8. On the CW ID system is it only a single set time to ID? Or can it be set to ID after 15 minutes of repeater activity and stay silent when there is no repeater activity. Does the ID have a busy function so it doesn't interfere with people talking and waits for a time when the repeater isn't busy? 9. Are the TX and RX sockets active which could be used with separate antennas with proper configuration if you don't want to use the internal duplexer? 10. Are there any plans to activate the 3 separate ports on the rear of the repeater? If so which ones and when might that happen? And then I got a response from Katy the next morning: Hey Leo, Thanks for reaching out with your detailed questions about the RPT-50 repeater! I’ll go through each one to clear up any confusion. 1. Squelch for the Receiver The RPT-50 repeater doesn’t have an adjustable squelch level in the traditional sense. It’s primarily squelched by CTCSS or DCS tones. This means it will only open the squelch when the correct tones are received. 2. CTCSS/DCS Tones and Split Tones Yes, the RPT-50 supports both CTCSS and DCS tones for transmit and receive. You can also set split tones, meaning you can have different tones for receive and transmit. The CW ID can be configured to transmit with or without tones, depending on your preference. 3. Approximate Wattage Output After the duplexer, you can expect an approximate output of around 45W. This is typical when using frequencies like 462.600 MHz with a +5 MHz offset. Make sure your power supply is stable and within the recommended voltage range to avoid any power-related issues. 4. DC Power Requirements and Battery Backup The manual indicates the power supply should be 13.8VDC ±15%, which is standard for many radios and repeaters. However, the website mentions a stricter 12VDC ±0.5V requirement. To clarify, we recommend using a power supply providing 13V to 13.5V, as this will ensure optimal performance without stressing the internal components. While the repeater can handle higher voltages for short periods, consistently using a higher voltage could potentially harm the duplexer. The DC power input can serve as a battery backup that switches automatically during a power outage, but it’s not designed as a primary power supply. 5. Handheld Microphone Functionality The handheld microphone that comes with the RPT-50 is primarily for programming purposes. It does not function as a PTT microphone for transmitting voice. Unfortunately, there isn’t an optional microphone available that can be used directly with the repeater to transmit. To transmit through the repeater, you must use another radio. 6. Volume Control and Built-In Speaker Yes, the RPT-50 repeater has a built-in speaker and a volume knob for received transmissions. You can listen to incoming transmissions directly from the repeater. 7. Firmware Updates and Software Requirements The repeater does not come with the latest updates installed, but to make any further updates or to program the repeater, you will need a Windows 10 or later computer. The software does not support Windows 7, so you might need to find a Windows 10 or 11 machine for future updates or programming tasks. 8. CW ID System Configuration The CW ID system on the RPT-50 is quite flexible. You can configure it to transmit an ID after a set period, like 15 minutes, following repeater activity, and you can set it to remain silent when there’s no activity. It also has a busy function that waits until the repeater is idle before transmitting the ID, so it won’t interrupt ongoing conversations. 9. TX and RX Sockets for Separate Antennas The TX and RX sockets are not active only the TX/RX antenna jack is used. 10. Activation of Rear Ports Currently, there are no confirmed plans or timelines for activating the three separate ports on the rear of the repeater. If there are future updates or plans, they will be announced through our official website or product manuals.

Note that in your screen image, the only difference between the "FRS 1-7" and "GMRS 1-7" is the difference between NFM and FM bandwidth. 8-14 are IDENTICAL -- 0.5W ERP NFM. GMRS is permitted up to 5W on 1-7, and up to 50W on 14-22 (and repeater pairs); true FRS is limited to 2W NFM on 1-7/15-22 (and NO repeaters). If the radio can exceed 2W on any channel, or access repeaters, that radio is classified as a GMRS radio. Oh, and FRS-only radios are license free, GMRS requires a license. The only justification (in my mind) for duplicating the FRS NFM config is that you have a lot of associates using old (pre-2017 "FRS/GMRS") radios with NFM only. Otherwise I'd just strip out the FRS configuration and stick with GMRS FM (remember 8-14 are low power NFM in both services).

My main base repeater is connected to a large LiPo battery bank, mated to a 100W solar panel on the roof. Without the solar panel the pack is large enough to run the repeater idle for ~3 weeks, 24/7, that is assuming the sun doesn't go dark... otherwise that solar panel gives it unlimited runtime. G.