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WOW!!! Looks like some people could use a Snickers Bar about now. We can't blame it on people being cooped up in the house due to cold weather either. We aren't sticklers on the use of call signs on our repeater. You can either give your call sign at the beginning of your first transmission or at the end of your first transmission. I know the rules only state every 15 minutes and at the end of the conversation. But it's a curtesy to give it in the first transmission since we have a lot of people with the same names or they sound similar on the radio. It makes it easier to know who we are talking to. The only time we say anything about someone NOT using a call sign is if they are kerchunking the repeater. It' not hard to just say "your call sign testing". And if they want to give their call sign at the end of every transmission, we won't say much about that either. This is especially true if there are a few of us on the repeater talking as a group.. To each their own.

I'm afraid that I am not familiar enough with that topic to make a video about it..

Why do I catch this nonsense first thing in the morning and feel compelled to even bother to say something? First off WTF are you talking about? Are you referring to someone putting out there call sign on a repeater to see if others are also on the repeater? You answered that question in your own before anyone else ever could, THEY ARE BEING SOCIAL It's sort of HOW THEY CHOSE TO USE THE SERVICE. WTF do you care? You decided to post about it here so it must really effect you. Do you loose sleep at might over it? Does it plague your dreams? Is effecting your performance in the bedroom? The cure for any and all of that is tuning your radio to a channel without a repeater and turning off the scan function. Then you will NOT hear those pesky SOCIAL GMRS users calling out their ID's morning noon and night being social. And Randy, if you are looking for a topic for a video how about No being a TROLL

Why does it bother you?

Roughing it has gotten a lot easier. Reminds me of people claiming to go camping when they really me glamping.

It kind of seems to me like so many GMRS users are eager to police what other people do on the air. Why?

Everyone does things a little different. Go with what works for you and your repeater.

Hello all, I have been in here for about a year. I enjoy all the discussions. Many have help greatly while others have left me in amazement. To clarify (not justify), this is a hobby and a tool at the same time. I interject humor because there far more things in this world to worry about. Therefore "don't sweat the small stuff". this is not a place to die on the cross. Sit back enjoy the conversations and learn a little along the way. I am as excited today as I was on 8/31/24 when I joined. Yeap, new to ya'll but not jaded yet but I do not believe I will become that way as a sense of humor wins. I ask that if you see a post from me which isn't polarized or even doesn't make sense, I would hope you would take a second to reevaluate your passion for the topic and learn what to let go....Justa sayin' WSEL330 - Former Jarhead

They have a mental/emotional defect that makes them crave power and control - often because in their life, they have none.

If you're keying in the frequency, then you're probably on a channel that has transmit disabled or in VFO mode where some radios also have transmit disabled. Kerchunk is the sound you hear from the repeater when you press and release the push-to-talk button.

UV-5G and 5G Plus are GMRS radios and come configured with channels for repeaters that are already with the +5MHz offset. You should only have to add the tones. First, how are you testing? If you're testing by keying up one radio and wanting to hear yourself on another radio, that won't work. If the radios are within a block of each other, there's a good chance one is desensing the other. Think of it this way: If your wife is talking to you in a normal voice from the next room, you will hear her. Now turn on the window air conditioner in your room and keep listening. You can't hear her. Her voice is just as loud as before, but your ears and brain are desensitized by the fact that there's another loud noise nearby. Radios work similarly; if a radio is transmitting on 467.7000 (repeater input) at 5w and another is listening at 462.7000 (repeater output) only a few feet away, the dreaded "spurious emissions" and the "poor selectivity" of your radio are such that it's like the transmitting radio is shouting in its ears, so the listening radio cannot hear the repeater 20 miles away that is only whispering. So you have to adjust your test; someone needs to take the listening radio a block away. If you've done that and still aren't getting through, turn OFF the tones on your radio and keep them turned off for a few days of listening. Do you hear people occasionally? If yes, then your tones were probably wrong. If no, then you haven't learned much; it could just be a quiet repeater. If you determine your codes were wrong, check them again and enter them more carefully. Retest. What about a kerchunk? Do you hear that when you key up the repeater? If not, take antenna out of the mix. Get in your car and drive closer to the repeater. Set the tones that the repeater needs before you leave the house. Drive close to the repeater, and key it up. Do you hear the kerchunk? Yes? You're good. No? You're not configured correctly. Now let's assume you get the kerchunk meaning you're configured correctly. Drive back home. Now do you get it? Then your antenna is also adequate. Not getting it? You're out of range. A different antenna *may* help, but more probably won't help.

Hello all! New to GMRS, new to radio in general! I've got a couple of Baoefeng UV5G (PRO and PLUS) that I'm having fun learning how to use. Been working on pinging the repeaters for signal checks, but haven't heard back from the ether yet! I'll get there. Looking forward to learning this new mode of communication.

Sure...keep telling yourself that...while you're literally complaining about something that matters less than the color of your socks.

Could Have Fooled Me......LOL "Some People" Have A Different Opinion On That - Many Folks Enjoy Your Comical Videos......

I don't know about "those guys", but I know that after 33 years in uniform, it feels a lot more natural to use it than not. On GMRS, I try not to use it for the sake of the butthurt crybabies who'll take offense, but sometimes it slips out anyway.

So there it is. Control, and the fact you have none. And other GMRS operators trying to move in on your woman. Maybe it is effecting things in the bedroom. Maybe I shouldn't have gone there. NAAA, your a control freak and want ALL GMRS users to conform to your interpretation of the service. That ain't happening. And worrying about guys that use phonetics for their call signs as a rule... your concerned about them? They ain't seen female reproductive parts since they were born and women don't speak to them like that unless they are getting paid to do so. That's who you are worried about. There are little blue pills for that if you aren't taking care of things yourself to the point those people are a concern. Because it is now an AOL chat room. It's being used as a social communications platform, like it or not. If you don't like it, call the FCC and turn them in. They will laugh at you same as we are. And they will do NOTHING. And telling me to take MY repeater down.... again, keep hoping, but I will tell you that ain't happening either. I invite all users and all types of traffic to my machine. If YOU don't like the content, the channel knob is right there on the front of your radio. Go elsewhere.

I gay-rhun-tee that 98% of the guys doing this have never been in the military, nor would they even be fit to join.

Good afternoon gang. I live in VB around gate 5. I am cobbling together a small repeater but not sure if I can pull it off. Anyway, I am interested in a local group. I am hoping that we could build a community here to support getting a repeater on par with the Hampton repeater. Lets open the dialog see if this is viable.

Just a comment not meant to toll or support any points of view. I was brought into radio protocol via the military. The lessons are hard to break even after multiple boxes of crayons. It is almost pavlovian when I grab the radio. I have washed some of the terminology out but old habits die hard. You are welcome to ignore me or point out when I trip into military mode. P.S. I will not ask for a call sign

So, really it’s not the call sign, it’s that someone is trying to chat with your wife? Maybe he’s intrigued at hearing a female voice on the radio. Try using CTCSS or DCS so he can’t easily interrupt.

I knew that when I wrote my response, I just didn't convey it correctly. In a rush while I was waiting for my last Physical Therapy session, I counted my multiplication factor of the 4 watts as the number of dBs with my fingers rather than the total dBs. That is what I get for rushing myself and using an android device.

Having R-DCS set will block everything that isn’t transmitted with the same DCS code. Leaving R-DCS cleared out allows you to hear everything that is transmitted on that frequency. If you set T-DCS nobody will hear you except those who have a matching R-DCS or those who have no R-DCS. My recommendation for someone who isn’t hearing an expected response on a repeater is to leave the receive tone off but you must have the correct tone or code (remember there’s both CTCSS, which is a tone, and DTCSS, which is a digital code) when transmitting. You might also try getting closer to the repeater. Finally, not everyone using GMRS wants to respond to an unknown person on a repeater. Have your daughter take the other radio and walk a ways away and see if you can hear each other on the repeater.

Using it when you sign off is all that is required, I thought.

More like Goose Pate'

They have rest stops/charging stations along the trail, one at least.. I happened across one in the Holcomb Valley above Big Bear while off-roading a few months ago. primitive bathrooms, shower, and solar panels/batteries and hookups for charging.

well.. some moderate success tonight. I heard a few more folks, one on a repeater and another on Simplex. However, I couldn't get a response when I asked for a signal check. I have my R and T DCS tones set, and I'm using channel mode (not VFO), but no responses. My daughter took one of the radios to another part of the house and we tried simplex, and that worked... I'll just keep trying the repeater over the next few days. Thanks for the help all.

What

If not friend, then why friend shaped? I think people underestimate moose, too. Saw a female moose and calf at a ski resort in Utah during the summer and the employees were trying to keep people far away from them. They are absolutely massive and have no problems stomping someone who gets too close.

All valid reasons.

More elegant.. easier to move around, less hassle, less wires.. Most important: higher wife-acceptance factor when using on the kitchen table.

Best advice on the internet, today!

I have noticed, though, that there's almost always someone monitoring a GMRS repeater, perhaps because they're personally owned and the owner monitors it.

When I was young, I wouldn't have followed this advice, but I'm older and if not wiser, at least I know a bit more. Don't go into remote areas alone. If you're traversing difficult terrain, do it one at a time so there'll be at least one party uninjured if an accident happens. Make sure someone who isn't going knows where you're going and when you expect to be back. If communication isn't impossible, arrange a check-in schedule with someone who isn't with you. Don't try to pet bears.

The repeater I can hear is quiet most of the day. It picks up around lunch and in the evenings but even then it was the same handful of guys who'd hop on to talk about food and complain about sports. Your radio should have repeater channels with offsets already programmed - you may just need to set the TX tone. You can always announce your call sign and ask for a radio check to see if anyone's listening - when I was fiddling with my antennas, I sometimes got a response from one of the regulars even if nobody was talking. If you're looking to talk to random people with a radio, the 2m/70cm ham repeaters around me get way more traffic. GMRS is geared more towards "I want to talk to people in my group" though some people use repeaters for random chat.

I can hit a local repeater about 25 miles out with a 771 clone that I can't with the stock antenna but a 15" whip is annoying inside a vehicle. I also went down the "big antenna = maximum fars" rabbit hole but it turned out I don't really use it except to be a radio dork and listen to that one repeater - the stock antenna works fine like 90% of the time. I bought an even longer whip for ham stuff which did make a difference, but the biggest boost came from sticking that antenna on a mobile mag mount with 16' of coax and putting it out on my front porch. I'd say hold off on the bigger antenna unless your use case requires it. Edit: that said, the Abbree 771 was also like ten bucks so it's not going to break the bank if you want to pick one up just to mess around with it.

Just wanted to say hello and drop my first post!

This is correct. Anyone can send a message through the Hams. We do it al the time. It's our #1 task with ARES.

Unable to connect to any GMRS nets in my area. Seems the only one is in Fort Pierce, FL. Is that the only one I can connect to? Very new to the GMRS hobby. I am licenced on GMRS and would like to participate in some of these weekly and monthly nets. Not much simplex here in Central Florida area - Winter Garden, FL, 34787 Thanks. Pio Romano WRMG448

No, I don't believe there are any part 97 rules which prohibit ham radio stations from transmitting on frequencies other than the ham bands. There is no certification of ham transmitters (except linear amplifiers). There are rules within some of the services which prohibit certifying transmitters for those services if they can be used on ham bands, and there are rules which prohibit using transmitters which are not certified for the service, but there are no specific rules in Part 97 that say a radio may not be tuned out of band.

I've always preferred to run my antennas center of the cab to give me the most omni-directional signal as possible. I have a pickup truck and was thinking of running my gmrs magmount 5/8over5/8 antenna infront of a base loaded wilson 2000 cb antenna. There would be about 1.5ft between the antennas loading coils. Does anyone know if this setup will cause one of the antennas to become a reflector of the other and make me extremely directional? What other effects might this cause if any? I'm more concerned about their proximity to one another negatively influencing my gmrs range, as gmrs is what I use to do coms with my home base often. And unfortunately it seems I'm always on the fringes of gmrs service so I'm pretty concerned about the negative effects if there is some. CB is only for interstate road trips and takes a backseat to my gmrs all other times. If this is more in-depth than gmrs ever was ment to be I apologize and you can leave this thread to die in the weeds of the forum. I know I tend to get a bit obsessive about details. I apologize.

Osceola 700 and Wedgefield 725 appear to be down according to the notes on their repeater pages here on myGMRS.om Be sure to check for the proper tone, for example 141.3 on Pasco 550 (I only set the tone for my transmissions and not for my reception, as I like to be sure to hear everything available, especially when I am traveling to use distant repeaters):