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When you're making $505 a month defending democracy, you go cheap! Except for my golf clubs back then...

Send Repeater ID a email they are very nice & helpful. This is what they made for me for mine. Bushnell_pause_added.mp3

Do they just... burst at 50?

Looks like you've done a fair job of researching your options. Lets start with the antenna system. First off I wouldn't worry too much about a few extra feed of coax cable. Likely the mount you will use has RG-58 type cable. A few may use the thinner RG-316, noticeably higher loss, but easier to route through small holes and other tight spaces. With RG-58 the difference between 13 feet verses the typical 17 foot long ones isn't worth worrying about. More on that later. The antenna is where you shouldn't compromise. The same goes for the location on the vehical. Your usage case may justify two antennas. You would use a cheap quarter wave, about 6 to 7 inches tall, for local communications and repeater access. Then a much taller higher gain one for out on the highway traveling. Both would be better off mounted in the clear on the roof. The quarter wave is so short you could almost forget it's there, even when parking in a garage. While swapping antennas is a bit of a pain some of the folks here do it depending on where they are going to spend most of their time. Oh, the quarter wave is likely the best option when traveling in mountainous or hilly terrain. The radiation pattern gives much better coverage when two or more stations are at significantly different altitudes. About an extra connector or two and comments about extra losses. I see people frequently get two things mixed up in that area, SWR matching and power loss. Good quality connectors have very low losses when used within their design frequency range, about 0.1 to 0.2 db. The real issue is the typical SO239/PL-259 "UHF" connectors are NOT really recommended for use above about 200 to 300 MHz, but you see them all the time used on UHF, on the back of radios and on the ends of the coax from antenna mounts. The problem with those is the "impedance" doesn't match the coax impedance of 50 ohms. This results in a higher SWR. The more of these you have the worse the match gets. Myself I try to stick with "N", BNC or RG-8x mini type connectors. Those are all 50 ohm types, and have very low power loss. If you want to go down the rabbit hole with the antenna system design evaluation I did one for my current ride as an example. Most people don't do this, and likely wouldn't need to anyway. I did it just out of curiosity. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/483-cx-5-antenna-system-analysisjpg/?context=new For antenna choices the CA-2x4SR from Comet gets mentioned frequently. It's a good high gain wide-band antenna. If you ever plan on getting your Ham license it's usable on the VHF and UHF Ham bands as is. The price is very reasonable. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/7914-how-is-the-comet-ca-2x4sr-antenna/ There is a very similar antenna now available from Diamond, of course more expensive. Be careful, I see two slightly different model numbers. I believe the one you want is the NR240CA. I see the NR240C sold too, which I think is tuned a bit different. I asked Diamond about this and never got a reply. The spec's for the NR240CA seem to show a slightly wider bandwidth than the CA-2x4SR. Now lets talk about radios. As mentioned a 25 watt radio would be good for most every day usage. A higher power radio would be a good idea if you had to communicate through heavy foliage, trail riding on your 4-wheeler for example. A lot of good recommendations for radios here by other members. Personally I stick with commercial grade radios. A number of the cheaper consumer grade types, including some modified Ham gear, I've played with suffered from poor sensitivity, and worse, poor selectivity and de-sense issues in moderate to high RF environments. The commercial grade radios tolerate the later two much better. I have a large collection of mainly commercial grade hand held radios if you have any questions on these I would be happy to answer them. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/249-my-radio-collection/?context=new This is typical of some of the Kenwood mobile radios. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/250-nx-820ghjpg/?context=new CA-2x4SR.pdf NR240CA.pdf

Everyone has to have a FRN number no matter if they hold a MGRS license, amateur license or multiple licenses. That's why I looked him up using his FRN. And according to the FCC database, he does NOT have an amateur license, he only has a GMRS license. If you go to the FCC website and look up a GMRS call sign, it will not show if they hold any other licenses. If you use the Advance Search and search by FRN then it will show all licenses held by that person the FRN is registered to. That website showed two different GMRS call signs, the last name, middle initial and location are the same but the first names are different. The first call sign is his and the other is listed as possible match.

Would this work?

I thought we were friends but now I see that you hate me.

Ignore the crass comments here on the forum. Everyone is a beginner at some point and sometimes if you are not at all familiar with something, the manual is not as intuitive as we would like. Asking question is okay! Like @WRYS709 Said: Welcome to MyGMRS.

yup, its a good idea to auto identify your repeater station, especially if it is an open repeater. At the end of the day, Its operation is the owners responsibility. Also a good idea to set up for remote access to disable if needed.. I have never had to remote shut down mine but a nearby friend has a few times due to jamming. Another thing he does, that i don't, i probly should, if he is away from montering range he shuts his down.. His is set up for continuous 15 minute ID intervals. I dont like that, i think it is silly, so i set mine for ID on Busy only on 15 min intervals. It's a personal preference thing. He does it so people can find and identity that particular repeate which has a very very wide operational range.

Yes you should not have any issues with RT Systems.

this guy fibured it out

GMRS is actually not bad until you get into the bigger cities..Then it seem's 'Game off' time

The RT Systems softwares is not the same as the free software that you can download. I find the RT Systems software works better.

Except I then see it descending into to mess that CB is today.

Your repeater isn’t required to ID if and only if the only people who use it are people you have authorized to use your call sign and they identify correctly. If anyone with a different call sign uses your repeater, the repeater must be IDed. You can certainly do that manually and it definitely doesn’t have to be Morse code, but the repeater must be identified. Morse just happens to be built in for some controllers. Personally I prefer English language IDs also.

Devin, that is not a very helpful answer is it?

Okay, 55 years ago it was $20, then it was reduced to $4 (that was when I first considered getting a license because $20 was way too much!) The point is that the government has no problem reducing the cost of the license, even to zero.

The same goes for amateur radios these days.

Not really. CB licenses were $20 each 50 years ago when $20 was a lot of money. Then they lowered it to $4, perhaps hoping to entice more people to get legal.

That is correct. My callsign was KAFU2984. I have no idea why I remember that. Is the same thing happening to GMRS? Well...yes, I believe it is. I think it's largely due to the FCC's ill-advised decision to allow FRS to use the GMRS frequencies without a license. Anyone can buy an FRS radio and use the same frequencies without any license at all. From there, it's just a small step to, "Gee, if I buy this Boofwang radio, I can do the same thing but with more power" so they do. Since no license was required before and it's all the same channels, they don't bother with a license for the Boofwang either. There is still a little bit of "gatekeeper effect" with repeater owners, and using repeaters requires a bit more savvy than the average FRS user has, as does programming a ham radio to operate on GMRS, so it isn't quite the crapshow that CB has become, but I can easily imagine it devolving into that.

This comment has absolutely nothing to do with the question but thank you for your useless reply to the topic.

Yes, it’s possible. They’ve asked us for suggestions for simplifying regulations. Most (by far) of the people who use GMRS now don’t have licenses. One way to simplify this would be to combine FRS and GMRS into a single unlicensed service like FRS is today.

I remember those day too. That's when I had to get out the old whetstone and grind my reeds in the Vibrasender and Vibrasponder to change PL tones. Those were the good old days. You needn't worry about the FCC offering license free services as they will never give up that cash cow. GMRS will safely stay the gentleman's CB band.

It Only takes 10 amps max to support a 50 watt transmitter, so not really true.

I don't want to block any users... but I sure wish the site let you mark a THREAD as something you don't want to see come up in your "Unread topics" anymore regardless of how many new posts get added to it!

You can still see what that guys posts? Man, you gotta jump on the "block that moron" train!

Every jerk and a--hole I know defends him/herself by saying, "I'm just honest." So, here's some honesty for you -- If you find yourself saying that...you're an a--hole.

He would fit right in with the rest of the losers and whacko's on 7.200 MHz

You did nothing wrong. Someone was just trying to bamboozle you. Ignore them. Remember - GMRS shares frequencies with unlicensed FRS where, for all practical purposes, there are no rules, protocols or norms and people will say or claim just about anything. Not that all GMRS users are well behaved either...

My wife and I are making an interstate move and it was great to have a radio in a Penske truck and one of our cars. In addition, we have two handheld radios. That made backing up the truck with a car carrier so much easier! She could direct me when I backed out of our original home. Along the way, she could pull behind me and let me know if there were any trailer stability issues at higher speeds. After a few hours, I had my wife drive the speed limit while I drove at a slower rate (trailer limit). We had some awesome range in Eastern Oregon. We had great range as she pulled away. Our radios have repeater capabilities but we kept them on a simplex channel. We said our goodbyes as she pulled away from the line of site. A few hours later, I caught up at the hotel. We have been long users of GMRS, and the service was awesome for the move. we hope that others get great use out of GMRS.

SoCalGMRS should become an Amateur Radio Operator so he'll be a genuine "Sad HAM" and change his handle to SoCalHam and hang with his new hammers on the Radio Reference forum.

If Guest PG3 lives within 200 miles to SoCalGMRS it very well could be him. Don't forget, SoCalGMRS can talk up to 200 miles.

There. I fixed it for you.

and a fine job at that! Well written, nice illustrations.. i laughed.. i cried.. I learned... Anyone interested in seeing Sir Steven Shannon's excelled work can see it here: (clicky ^^ there)

Done

*Shakes fist in the air

No bueno there my friend. I am fortunate in that I am not affected by PO, PI or Stinging Nettles. My wife didn't believe me about the PI, until I picked up a bunch from a plant in our back yard, and suffered nothing. The hill behind our garage is covered in the stuff. She, OTOH, is very much affected by them all. Makes hiking our river land an adventure in avoidance for her where I just plow on thru the itchweed...

Good rule for Poison Oak & Ivy, but not sumac. Poison Sumac is not three-leaved and is entirely different looking. Sumac leaves are "pinnate" (resembles walnut leaves), with 7-13 paired leaves on a stalk. Sumac is also usually found as a small tree with a woody trunk. [url]https://www.healthline.com/health/outdoor-health/poison-sumac#identify[/url]

Poison ivy and poison oak can grow in bush form or vine form. It is very easy to identify as a vine versus grape and other types of vines. Poison ivy and oak vines will always have a lot of air roots that clings to what it is growing on versus free hanging.

We used them recently with three RVs on a road trip. Sure beats trying to set up a conference call or a group text.

This is true. It is also true you have the on-line personality of soiled bedpan.

Welcome to myGMRS! Just ignore the “Bullies!” Many of us here actually enjoy answering questions, and took heed when our Mothers taught us: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say it!”

Years back I learned Morse Code while debating on getting a H.A.M ticket. I regret it now, as the noise from my ceiling fan at night keeps saying "Im watching you from the AC vent".

I have a Wouxun KG-805G HT that decided to lose all of its programming every time it was turned off. It would revert to the Chinese factory default with only CH01, CH02, etc. and Chinese voice prompts. I kept reprogramming it and would keep it turned on in the charging stand to prevent this. I contacted BTWR.com and they replied that it sounds like the chip that stores the program info has gone bad, but it is out of warranty, so have a nice day. Just my experience. I just turned it off and put it back in the box.