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But yet in parts of the country you will be lucky to get 50 miles even when the repeater antenna is at 450 feet above ground. Some areas are lucky to see a 20 mile range with antennas on mountain tops. Foliage has a big effect on UHF. When one talks about the Appalachians, Smokey Mountains, Ozark mountains, etc, there are no tree lines to get above. There are also no large flat and open areas like out west. And most lakes, outside of the Great Lakes, are smaller and surrounded by forested hills. Our GMRS repeater antennas are on the same tower as our 2m and 70cm repeaters antennas. The radio tower is on one of the highest points in the immediate area. The GMRS antennas are at 400 ft above ground and the 2m/70cm antennas are at 900 ft above ground. We only get about a 35 mile radius of coverage from our GMRS and 70cm repeaters with plenty of dead spots due to local terrain and forested areas. The 2m repeater has a 80-95 mile radius of coverage. And just because radio A can hear radio B doesn't mean that radio B can hear radio A. There are plenty of variables involved.

Using the YouTube video as a reference point, at about 17:20 in, you see the Radioddity software: If you double click on the "double caret" below the word "More" for the Channel you want to edit, it should bring up the window for changes: Does this work for you?

When I was restoring a lot of old military firearms, I bought that stuff by the bucket. Removing the barrel from a 70 year old M1 rifle can be...interesting. Much cursing was involved. When I put the rifles back together, barrel threads and other metal-to-metal screws got some anti-seize. So, I'm right there with you on that.

My background is petroleum industry and water treatment. Always use anti seize. That one fastener you think you will never have to remove and decide to skip coating is the very one you will have to take apart. Anti Seize (the brand doesn't matter, they all work) is about the cheapest sanity insurance you can buy. And take it from experience, it will save lots of skin. Also, always repeat always make every electrical connection (even those in "water resistant" housings) as water tight as humanly possible. Long story short I grabbed an electrical conduit that had been out of service for a couple of years. Lit me up like nobodies business. Two lessons learned, never believe lockout/tagout tags, and never trust an electrician unless you verify it yourself. Water had gotten into the conduit.

the only foliage i see is a 3' high tumbleweed .. In the evenings i can see the glow from the lights coming out of Las Angeles 130 miles south.

As usual somebody has an over the top mobile radio installation. And some here complain they can’t find a place to mount one or two radios? Maybe they haven’t tried hard enough.

That’s right; the software works differently than Chirp. As others said click on the caret. Disregard Socialmisfit. In fact add him to your ignore list. He never has anything useful.

Will Rogers never met you in person, either!

I did get the software to work. I had a problem at first, with getting the right driver. The only issue I remember with the software programming was with channel 39 which I had originally programmed for simplex using the buttons. I don't recall any issue with entering tones. Can't you change the tones using the buttons?

try watching this video

The 5RM is a ham radio, and there is no "type certification" as such. Amateur radio licensees aren't limited as to what equipment they can own or use, only what frequencies they can transmit on. I just don't program in any frequencies which are outside those authorized for my technician license.

My understanding of "official language" is that it will be required on all government documents, web sites, etc. and official documents can't be required to be provided in other languages. As far as I can tell, it won't prohibit government sites from providing translations in other languages as long as an English version is provided. Which, TBH, seems pretty reasonable to me. Since TV stations, radio stations, etc. aren't usually government-run, they'll be unaffected. Since GMRS and amateur radio are mostly private endeavors, I can't see the EO affecting our radio usage. Nobody owns the GMRS channels, and short of a change to FCC regulations, nobody can dictate to me that I can't use whatever language I like. A repeater is a bit different. Since it's privately owned, I support the owner's right to decide what language users must speak. I'm not sure how you'd enforce that, but in theory I support it.

My guess is that it's a holdover from military and commercial radio where fixed stations communicating with other fixed stations can be pretty common. Less so now, with modern equipment, but at one time, a lot of -- usually remote -- military installations had radios that only talked to the "mother ship" somewhere else. I think FCC just carried over the idea and the language to GMRS where it's rarely applicable.

The radials arrived in the mail yesterday, so I'm ready to stand up the mast whenever I can wrangle some help. A couple of friends who are GMRS users have volunteered to help; we just need to find a day we're all available. My location isn't ideal for a repeater, but it's pretty good, and I'm not in a position to rent space on a tower. If my calculations are correct, 50' should get me over the hill to my southwest, which is the only major obstacle for a considerable distance. If I can get over the hill, I should be able to reach the family farm west of town. East and north will have excellent coverage, but my biggest goal is to reach the farm.

Negative Nancy AKA REEH-TARD, aka Mr 250 miles needs some serious professional medical help! @BobDiamond glad you figured it out and I'm sure ShowMeCables will take care of things for you.

I think that the nursing home took the hint and changed to a different channel, I haven't heard them on channel 17 for about a week now. I decided to talk to another guy on channel 17 one day and we are both using 50 watt radios. I'm sure we were blasting their FRS radios.

I highly suggest a quick phone call to Comet, they are very friendly and will answer your question. My guess is use it if it makes you sleep better at night.

The question was never “what do you want us to do?” The question is “How can we simplify the regulations or get rid of unnecessary regulations.” Almost all of the suggestions in this thread actually increase the complexity of the regulations.

If they do, there's nothing about it in the instructions that came with the antenna. It seems like a good idea, though.

That's why.

I guarantee that dude has never seen real boobies in his entire life...

I don’t recall ever saying that you are using the wrong coax. I pointed out that RG8x has a foam dielectric and RG58 has a solid dielectric and that’s why RG58 is frequently used for mobile installations. RG400 also has a solid dielectric and a tiny outside diameter. It’s expensive though. A person could build a Frankenstein cable using RG400 where needed and something with less attenuation elsewhere to make up the necessary length, but the splice points reduce reliability and potentially add losses. Also, nothing I’ve said has been demeaning or critical of you or in any way personal. I’ve tried to stick to factual information, demonstrating how I did any calculations.

Im just trying to help and little, but i think there is benefit to watching this video. I put it together for some new Hams in my club, but the Amateur frequencies in UHF are close enough to GMRS, that the demo is still very valid.

I reran the numbers using RG-58, RG-8X, and RG-8 with the length of 15 feet since that is the average length used in vehicle installations. RG-58 RG-8X RG-8 Now most mobile antennas will not have 5 dBd of gain so you will have to adjust that number using the calculator.

Kind of irrelevant since most of us won't be using 100 meters of either in our mobile instalation anyway. Again, using the right coax for the job is key.

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

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!

The other day I did a statewide search on the FCC GMRS license search site for "Terminated" licenses ("Cancelled" is a different field). There were 10 of them but it doesn't say why they were terminated. 5 of them appeared to be legacy business licenses and were cancelled 10-15 years ago. The 5 relatively recent were kinda obvious - ended in "666" or had "WSEX" as a prefix. Somebody does have WSEX666 though!