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All the Sky Warn Nets (weather reporting) are normally done on local 2m repeaters. That's not to say a local group could not run a Sky Warn Net on GMRS as long as the repeater owner is okay with it and you have people that can report directly to the NWS. We do not use our GMRS repeater for Sky Warn Nets but most of us do monitor it just incase during severe storms. We were asked about running a Sky Warn Net on GMRS but that would take away from our 2m Sky Warn Net as we are only allowed so many people that can actually report directly to the NWS. We don't have enough people that can report to the NWS to run two nets at the same time.

The new fangled radios are all computers now. And just as any computer might need the occasional reboot so do radios. Having to do the reset is just a step farther. I had to do it on one of my Wouxun radios that was acting weird. Fixed it up and I just hooked it up to the computer and reflashed my channels back into it. 5 minutes and done. But this would be a serious problem if it was an emergency. Good old fashion radio guts with no computer can have an advantage sometimes. Same goes with automobiles.

I received the same email. I want to do some more research to see if they will ID every 15 minutes 24/7 or if it can be set so that it only IDs every 15 minutes when there is actual traffic on the repeater,

I am thinking you need to swap radios on the duplexer ports. Like, I think they are labeled backwards. It would make sense that the case of the HT is letting enough RF leak in to trigger a receive light, but there is not enough of a signal to create usable audio output to trigger the vox operation. If its not labeled wrong and it is wired correctly, you could just be washing out the systems due to being to close to each other and too close with the test handheld. I have seen some HTs so sensitive to RFI from other HTs, that we had to separate them by 75 to 100 yards before the RFI and desense was small enough for the radios to work correctly.

So this is a full spectrum tuned duplexer. Says 550-725 on the label. So have you tried this on other frequencies? How about separating the RX and TX HTs. Put on of them in a metal box to try to isolate it. Maybe the common antenna is desensing the HTs

I think both radios need to be the same brand or use the same compander tech AND compander has to be enabled on all radios wishing to benefit from the tech. Otherwise, it sounds worse instead of better. It's been awhile since I read about it and I don't know anyone personally who uses it due to the compatibility issues.

I thought about that too, but thankfully a reset fixed it. I don't think a reset will help with kill or stun.

My first thought is if the radio received a remote stun or kill. Page 108, 109 in the manual. Though random glitch is probably more likely.

The duplexer is passive. It can’t command a transmission. Presumably you powered off the radio before connecting to the duplexer because the noise generated while connecting it to the antenna port could cause VOX to activate. Second, although the duplexer might filter it all out, I recommend turning off your B channel. You almost have the national calling frequency (146.520 MHz) tuned for both radios. I’ve not built a repeater using two handhelds so I can’t answer your other questions, sorry. But you make me want to try just to learn.

This is not how we radio in a polite society.

yup,, setting to busy only is the key and most of the cheaper controlllers don't offer this flexibility.. . I alwys laugh with i hear a repeater id every 15 mins.. rminds me of a dog p*ssing on car tires

I agree.

Nothing worse than a repeater id’ing every 10 minutes with zero traffic ever.

First off. Are the TYT radios that you are trying unlocked for GMRS? I ask because the TH-7800, TH-7900, and TH-9800 are amateur band only from the factory. Which means they won't transmit on GMRS. Next What antenna(s) are you using and have you checked the SWR on them? How far away are you from the repeater the trying to talk with the TYT radios? I have two TH-7800 radios that have been unlocked and they will connect to any and all repeaters I can reach as long as I have the tones correctly programmed. I've talked on BTech, Bridgecom, Motorola Quantar and other brands of GMRS repeaters without any issue. Double check your setting on the radio as it should work no matter what brand of repeater you are using.

This is such a wonderfully succinct way of putting the differences in intended (and, often, the actual) use cases of the 2 services.

If you are using GMRS to communicate between multiple vehicles in your group, or have any local GMRS repeaters, then using during storm chasing might be useful... but if you are looking for locals reporting on the storms, more likely to find it on HAM frequencies or MAYBE CB -- I would guess.

Just because it looks like it, doesn't mean it is. But in this case I think the cat squished the roof.

@WRUE951 that sounds good. I'm glad you've had good luck with them. My experience isn't terrible, just not ideal results. Since most of mine are EmComm related, I never really ran one for more than a few days at a time, and mostly left them off until I/we need to use them. I know what you mean about learning the hard way. I struggled so much to avoid spending the money on a proper repeater that I probably spent 3 or 4 times more than if I just went for a regular repeater to start. I finally built a full-blown potable repeater system... it can do 2m, 70cm, crossband or act as a base station. It has a built-in 50 amp hr battery system and can run on solar or AC. Retail, it is about $17k to build, but thankfully some stuff was donated and I was able to get great deals on a used repeater and commercial VHF duplexer, which cut the cost down to about 10% of new/retail.

I started out with a KG1000 repeater and never had issues other than desense early on. A couple times a year the repeater got pretty heavy use during nearby off roading events. Yea, they do get hot, but they keep on ticking. I use two Maxons for a portable repeater, they never break a sweat and they are housed in a ventilated ammo can. Now my current Hytera Repeater can run 24/7 with no worries. Amazingly, I paid not to much more for the Hytera radio then the two KG1000’s. I think we all do this, we learn the hard way.

I think it's great that they came up a solution, and as much as I love the KG-UV980P hardware platform, I would never use a KG-1000 nor a KG-UV980P as a full-time unattended repeater. 1.) As good as they are, they are not designed for continuous duty cycles or 24/7 operation. 2.) They may overheat or flat out fail with prolonged use. 3.) The transmit/receive isolation is not as good as a proper repeater, leading to desense issues. 4.) Audio quality and levels can be inconsistent. 5.) VOX or Carrier Operated Switching methods can introduce delays, distortions, and clipping. 6.) There is zero remote monitoring, diagnostics, or telemetry unless you engineer something yourself. 7.) Paired mobiles are extremely inefficient with regard to power consumption. The only time I ever have or ever would use paired radios as a repeater would be for temporary field use and as an emergency backup (maybe). In an emergency, the FCC isn't going to ding anyone for not having the repeater ID on it's own, and for temporary field use the control operator is IDing the repeater every time they ID themselves... so an add-on device is really not needed.