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Once again, if he weren't being an ass and interfering with official operations, he would have never come to the attention of the FCC and they would have never known what kind of radio he was using. Don't be an idiot.

Generally speaking, the "don't be a dick" principle will get you about 98% of the way there. Despite what you might run across on here...

You can quit using your cellphone. It’s based on wireless two-way radio and digital voice technologies.

Maryland's cell phone law says "cell phone". Someone got a ticket using his ham radio, took it to court and won. Precedent set, in MD, using a 2 way radio while driving is OK.

I regret to say I haven’t mounted it yet, but will start with a ghost antennae.

FIXED!!! I had MENU #54: RPT-MODE enabled to RPT-TX. I must have done that by accident as I was walking through all the menu options. I turned that to OFF and now everything is working properly. My mistake!!

Pretty much. Now a couple of us that are veterans will occasionally use military radio protocols just to message with others. In reality, just talk like you would with people in the same room as you. FCC regulations say to ID at the beginning of your conversation, and again at the end of your conversation. You also need to ID every 15 minutes if you are in a long conversation. This is standard procedures when using most repeaters. Most people don't worry about adhering to the ID requirements as much when talking on simplex channels. 100% correct.

We keep things pretty simple on our repeater. We want you to ID as required and no cussing since we do have kids that do use the repeater. We aren't going to go after someone for forgetting to ID as often as they should. Other than that, we don't want religion or politics discussed on any of our repeaters simply to keep conversations civil. No one likes listening to grown adults arguing like little kids.

On the topic of proper GMRS etiquette, I was in a heated conversation with one of my friends and was overcome by a bad case of flatulence and had to let it rip during my train of thought. Fortunately, I had proper upbringing and was taught to extend my pinky on the hand holding the mic. It was a real tear jerker.

yah, try that in this neck of the woods and we will berate you right off the channel - go try to impress people somewhere else.

This ^ .. the etiquette is, there is no etiquette..

I hope you stick around and I hope you do ask questions. Some are more difficult than this one but sometimes people just need to chill and remember that they weren’t always so perfect.

And most phone land lines are now VOIP which is also digital.

At one point there was a free upgrade to the bigger white display for the original 87. All you had to do was send them a postcard with the serial number of your 87. I carried and used mine everyday for over 25 years until just about everything was worn out. Bought a new series V about 6 years ago. I bought the original when I was trying to resolve a harmonic problem that was overheating and blowing fuses on a rooftop HVAC unit. After the fuse there was a coil of excess length feed wire that had suspicious melted insulation in a reoccurring pattern. I removed that and it didn't help, so I made a slight change to the wire before the fuse and all was resolved. I bought the Fluke because someone told me the Beckman 110+ I was using wasn't enough to measure what was going on.

This is true. When you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

I really like the Ghost. It performed much better than I expected it to. It does seem like a good choice for heavy equipment.

Not quite, fixed stations are primarily used to pass DATA between two fixed locations i.e. flood monitoring stations and monitoring posts. "Base" stations are control sites which activate repeaters or fixed stations to report. Base stations are at either permanent or temporary locations and are used to pass both data and voice to other base stations or mobile stations either through repeaters or directly. This implies there are three classes of stations, fixed stations reporting to another, single, fixed station, control stations, which may serve as both control and base stations and mobile stations which have no permanent location.

Hi Dave, Gil, @wruu653, pointed out that the repeaters appear in a search if you turn on Stale and Offline repeaters. But then I found something weird, a mismatch (I think?) between map view and tabular view. If I do a tabular data repeater search to include stale and offline, both repeaters appear on the map. But if I go to map first and turn on those two switches for stale and offline, the repeaters don’t appear on the map. I have written to Rich, the site administrator, to learn what I might be doing wrong. Anyway, if you do a repeater search to include Stale and Offline repeaters, both Eureka repeaters appear in the list, allowing you to select them. If you do that they appear on the map and more importantly the owner’s call sign is available for you to contact him. You might want to contact the owner and ask him to update his data on the site.

By accident. Apparently there is a 625 repeater that I know about, but he also has a 600 repeater I didn't know about. My repeater operates on 600 with a PL of 100 and apparently his is on 103.5. I can trigger his repeater on occasion when I key up. I noticed when I keyed up the other repeater would activate and it's a much stronger signal than mine. It would block out mine for a second before it released. One day I moved my TX PL and found it was only 1 click up from what I was using. Not sure if my radio PL is wobbly or the selectivity of his repeater is lax. Either way I've decided to change my PL to stop the interference.

Same here.. that should never been enabled.. I guess now we know why.. although my NEXT suggestion would have been to do a factory-reset, which would have set that setting back to off, thereby fixing the issue, so technically, given a long-enough timeline, I was right.

GMRS is very very informal. If you expect find users talking like you are used to in the military and the associated protocols you will be disappointed and a bit surprised. Like others said. Do some monitoring on the repeaters to get a feel for the usual flow of communications on that repeater. Familiarize yourself with the requirements to self id and your responsibility if immediately family members are operating on your license and you will do fine. I would avoid being too military on the radio, or you will just be made fun of. I am retired military and LE, and really had to commit to just using plain language and continually remind myself not to sound like some overly tacticool individual. Now I can sound like some rag chewing old man like the best of them if I want to. LOL

Glad I was able to help you. I didn't even think about repeater mode since I have never messed with that setting. The radio is set to receive or transmit mode when in repeater mode.

Glad that you figured it out.

TDR should work as intended in channel mode. Getting the double beep sure sounds like the radio is locked. I tested the TDR on my KG-100G Plus and the only time I get the double beep is when the radio is locked. Double check menu #47 AUTOLOCK and make sure it is set to off. Other than that, I really don't know what to tell you. I tried duplicating your problem and the only way I get a double beep is when the radio is locked.

Well Negative Nancy, I will correct myself as far as needing to ID at the beginning of your transmission, That is not required. Everything else I stated IS correct. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E That is directly from the FCC. As you can clearly see I have absolutely no issues admitting to my mistakes and did post the correct information. Now stop being such a negative asshat to everyone.

So the civilian version of what I'm used to. That was one of the other questions I had. How often to ID. I'll wing it and mimic what I hear till I have more experience.

Just talk. You will be fine!

If you want to talk on repeaters listen for awhile and you will learn what is ok for that repeater. Otherwise just talk normally and you will be fine. GMRS is designed for normal people so radio etiquette does not really apply. Remember that FRS (Family Radio Service) shares our channels so vulgar language is a no no. Kids playing in their yard don't need to hear that! I hope this helps. I am a ham and etiquette is a big deal in that service and even so it varies depending on who you are talking to. Using NATO phonetics and pro signs on GMRS will elicit various responses...most of them hilarious and filled with LOL and FAIL. FWIW

i don't think there's any 'etiquette' for operating on GMRS.. Get on the the ch your friends and family hangout. Say your call sign if you wish and talk. Now if you hang out in a 'Club' then i guess you'll have to follow their 'etiquette', which is sometimes pretty comical.

Yes indeed. They play Battleship by Radio on the Gallatin repeater at 462.650 (141.3Hz in/out) on Wednesdays at 730pm. The Gallatin repeater bleeds over with the Brentwood "Grasslands" repeater (same frequency, different tone).

Then Folks Should Refrain On Commenting "Not Quite" If They Are Siting An "Example / Opinion" Of Documented FCC Definitions.....

No, it’s an example.

Fixed station. A station at a fixed location that directly communicates with other fixed stations only. This statement would seem to indicate that a repeater is not a fixed station as it does not communicate with only fixed stations. Therefore talking to it is not the action of a fixed station. I will agree that this topic has been discussed for what seems an eternity. With some grasping the rules and others arguing the perceived vagueness. I would agree that for a radio service intended for friends and family the FCC could or should have written the rules for such. That said, all the debate is for what end I have no idea. Who is being affected negatively here? As Bill Murray stated in Meatballs it just doesn’t matter.

I'd give 10:1 odds there's someone in the club who would be glad to help. IME. most hams aren't actually hostile to GMRS, but the ones who are make a lot of noise. Most hams love to share knowledge. I'd be glad to help if I lived close. In exchange for the tone to your repeater, of course.

FCC Part 95 Subpart A - 95.303 Definitions: Base station. A station at a fixed location that communicates directly with mobile stations and other base stations. Fixed station. A station at a fixed location that directly communicates with other fixed stations only. The Term "DATA" Is Not Referenced In These Definitions For The Type Of Transmission. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-A

Don’t forget WiFi, Bluetooth and satellite radio/TV.

OUCH!!!! I bet the doctor kicked himself over that. We have an issue with our Motorola Quantar 2m repeater. The inrush when it first transmits will trip the 12v dc to 120v ac inverter. The only way to get around that was to put a line conditioner in between the repeater and the inverter. One of our older club members was trying to catch the inrush to see how many amps it was with an old, but good, analog amp meter. He learned right away that an analog meter was not quick enough to catch the inrush. My new Klein CL800 just barely caught it. We never did find the exact fix for the inverter throwing a ground fault and shutting down when the Quantar firsts transmits. The Tripp Lite power conditioner is the only way to keep that from happening. The weird thing is that our older Motorola 70cm repeater and our Bridgecom GMRS repeater are both plugged into the inverter and there are no issues.

Tune your antenna and they'll just work

All of the Ghost antennas i've tested (more than just one brand) all performed better than the UT-72G antennas I tested them against .. that should give a baseline that they aren't as bad as "some people" repeatedly claim.

After using the 42" and 18" Abbree "tactical tape measures" for a month, I have to say I'm impressed. The 42" gets as good or better SWRs across MURS, GMRS, 2m, and 70cm than the Comet 2x4 and doesn't need a ground plane. I tested it by hanging it from a rafter, so no ground plane was available. I can't say whether it actually outperforms the Comet in real-world use, because in the areas where I use my radios most, almost any antenna can get through. I can say, though, that with the Abbree and the Comet, I can use a repeater 22 miles away on one watt, which I can't do with any other antenna, but the Abbree is far more convenient to lug around. The 18" Abbree performs as well as the Nagoya and HYS 771s. Again, I can't say for sure that one is better than the other, because I don't have a particularly challenging environment, but it's certainly not worse than the others. Plus, a black AR-152 just looks badass with that antenna on it. I liked the multi-band TTM so much that I bought the GMRS version. I also tested it with a Nano VNA hanging from a rafter with no ground plane, and its SWRs were good enough, approaching 2.0:1 below 462.50000 and getting better from there. It's going into the bag with my portable repeater. I figure if I can get that thing 15'-20' up, I should get pretty good coverage. All in all, I'm quite satisfied with them. As I mentioned in the original post, they seemed a bit gimmicky, maybe more "cool" than practical, but I'm happy to report I was wrong.

Martin aka WSCD723 made this post a year ago. I would guess that by now he has confirmed that his radios work.

My bad. Someone musta bumped this old thread and I didn’t notice the date.

Even the best professionals can make mistakes. One that comes to mind was a journeyman electrician who was installing a back of batteries as part of a large UPS system. He somehow became part of the circuit. Lived but never worked again. Sad part about this was though it was through his own failure he sued and won. Bleeding hearts will side with the electrician. But it ended up making the company owner decided to retire. It ended up costing about 30 people their jobs. And destroyed a great company that was pretty well respected.

Looks like an alternative to the Midland MXT575 but the same limitations with a better screen.

Nitrogen Is Used On An Air Dielectric Coaxial Cable To Keep The Cable Slightly Pressurized & Reduce The Chance Of Moisture Infiltration. It Is Never Required For Any Purpose Or Use On Foam Type Dielectric Hardline.

He will only get a Midland if they make a pink Barbie or purple Barney version. Otherwise he will give use 1009+ reasons why one should just throw any Midland or Wouxun radio into the trash.

Thanks I will try them.

Some sad hams hate on other amateur license holders especially the old curmudgeons that had to write essay answers on their tests and had to pass the CW code portion too. They feel that since they had to walk up hill in 2 feet of snow both ways to school that everyone else should have to do the same.

I found the user manual, (attached) looks like that radio is only programable from the front panel and with limited options to program. i.e. selecting CTSS Code etc. User-manual-5349964.pdf

Some folks need to go back and read it again. I could probably find it and quote it but I'm not interested in the argument anymore since it was clear to me.