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I dont publish the actual/*exact* elevation of my repeater antenna because its connected to my house and knowing its exact elevation would make it easier for all the mentally-ill people that send me threats to locate it.

Actually, no, the rule is that GMRS communications may not be placed onto a network. That extrapolated into not linking repeaters.

Okay folks... Leo sent me a new SGQ-450D duplexer. We gave this one a tune-up and it's looking good. I am very impressed. First, I swept it while it was factory tuned. It looked really good and if it was mine, I probably would have left it alone. On the transmit side, we had a good notch removing the receive frequency at almost -80dB. On the receive side, the notch looked even better at -85dB. Leo asked me to see what I could squeeze out of it, and I have to say, I am impressed with how well it tuned. On the receive side, we got the transmit frequency notch out -95.5dB. On the transmit side, I was able to notch out the receive frequency -95.5dB. Very well balanced. I recorded a quick video of the sweep showing notching as deep as -100.2dB, which is fantastic. The video demos the benefit of a hi-res VNA (mine goes to 1024 points), the sweep results, and the SWR at power. On the receive side, I was at 35 watts, but when I switched frequency to demo the transmit side, I forget to turn the power down. That SWR reading was at 50 watts, even though I said 35 watts. I really hope this helps someone on the fence about buying a B-Tech repeater or the SGQ-450D duplexer. @LeoG, can you share your opinion on the real-world results?

The butt-prints smell fresh so your story checks out.

I will guarantee the FCC knows about all the issues with ham/GMRS radios on the GMRS/FRS channels. Are they going to do anything about it? It's extremely unlikely because the issues are 1) low power, 2) local to a small area, and 3) it's not worth the effort to enforce the rules for something this trivial to the majority of the users.

That's just what they do around here. Its the only way to find out who the smartest one is!

I'll just say that there are many flavors of the SGQ 450D duplexers out there and this particular one came directly from Btech and who ever they use to manufacture them. The original one that came with the repeater had the same numbers but it definitely wasn't made in the same place. The replacement they sent me and the one I purchased are the same. Thanks again for all your hard work tuning these for me Marc

This is the kind of detailed real world data that's useful.

I Would Have To Disagree. Think His Story Has A Crack In It..........

I sign on and off with my callsign and use it frequently throughout the conversation. I don't know why people refuse to believe my callsign is BR549.

Exactly. The only time a person might be cited is if they do something really egregious (like monkeying around with public safety communications) and these violations are tacked on.

Yeah, this. Since the FCC's enforcement operation responds to complaints, the effect is that it operates in a "No harm, no foul" mode. As a taxpayer, I'm fine with that. I would be nice if the rules were formulated to regulate the results, not the process, but that's not where we are.

There's no good reason to not publish height. If the repeater is using a directional antenna, the primary direction should be reported too. But even worse to me is not giving a general location for the repeater. Like height, being able to determine distance and bearing is fundamental to radio comms. Towers can't be hidden anyway so there's little if any additional threat from vandals by letting the users know where it is.

It's not advice. It's a statement of the current reality. So long as you're not egregiously breaking the rules and interfering with others (...and even then...), they don't seem to give a care. hey quick question: ..........what?

The MXT500 programming software requires Windows 10 or 11 OS.

So far real world results comparing the wideband tune and the single channel tune aren't vastly different. My neighborhood is a mix of hit or miss when I'm walking around with my Tidradio H3. I have certain "stations" I stand at and do my repeater testing specifically so I can do comparisons. Time of day and day to day make a difference in my area. I am in LOS but have at least 1.6km of heavy treed areas in the way. My repeater antenna is only up 13m at its center radiating point which puts it in the thick of the leaves. That night when I put it in I did notice the transmission from the repeater seemed a bit more smooth, meaning the background hiss was much more mellow and it seemed like better quieting. It is by no means anywhere near full quieting. I have my base station and I use a digital recording app to record my tests. And just like any night it will vary. I have tests that are LOS and testing areas that are not. Most of the tests last night were comparable to the last couple of tests except for my last station in front of my house. That one usually is nice and it cut out this time. I had other tests that are usually not so good come in better than usual. So like I said it varies. Today when my wife called me on the radio from the home base (50 watt, CA712EFC, 13m high) it came in much better than usual. That was one time and only about a minute of conversation. That too can vary from time to time. So far I can say that the single channel tuned is doing at least as good as the wide band tuned. Was hoping for better, but given my circumstances it's understandable that the 5 watt has a tough time getting through the trees. On the original duplexer I couldn't make it at all, I could trip the repeater but almost never get audio through. The wide band replacement usually gave me acceptable audio and the single channel tuned duplexer does about the same. I still need to do some farther out testing which I haven't done in a while. The goal is to reach my family one town down and that's going to take more height.

A guy on YouTube did a different radio with similar software and it wasn't anything he input, it was some preset codes. All that aside, the radio wouldn't work with the software for programming so I've returned them and I'm going to give the UV-17r Pro GPS radio a try. It's CHIRP compatible.

Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.

30 foot tower & this is my main gate. Good luck getting in....

I'm pretty sure most states have laws pertaining to interference with emergency services operations. The local police can slap that stuff down pretty quickly. A hefty fine and a realistic threat of jail time can serve to modify one's behavior.

That sounds really nice! Mine sounds more like I made it! lol

Three years ago some clown in our city programed an HT to local Police frequency and started to clown around on their frequency. It got a lot of local attention by our HAM groups and on day three of this nonsense the HAM group isolated the location and along with the police were knocking on the clowns door. Never heard what happend to the guy, but problem went away..

Topographical maps for your area are Very useful for this !

There are only 3 possibilities: You're on the wrong channel You've entered the wrong code(s) You're too far from the repeater The repeater is no longer online

Heavens to betsy, I am upstanding member of society....Asking for a friend.

I have a uv5g plus and a uv5r. unless you are literally standing next to me you would not know which i was keying up from when i talk to people on grms because i literally copied my config in chirp. that being said.. i am studying for ham and going to grow my knowledge and in the hobby so i can enjoy both use cases.. if i continue to enjoy it i will raise my "barrier for entry" and buy more expensive gear... but sticking with CCRs until i decide if im going to get bored and toss them in a drawer... but i am having fun so far and people have been,...over all pretty nice.

I hear a lot of Hotels, in many cities, that use FRS... Mostly cleaning service, Ch 3 & 6 are popular.. And then the landscapers.

What I hear is that one guy is going into town to get parts for the tractor or a load of feed. He and his friend get together on 70 cm DMR for maybe 10 minutes every day just to check in with each other. It’s nice to hear.

i have a camp at the lake a half mile down the road on 4 and 5. sooooo tempting to chat them up

I can tell you for sure half of the ones listed dont even exist. And the other half exist but are dead quiet.

The 220 (1.25 meter) band is absolutely still a part of the amateur radio allocated spectrum. It's true it doesn't get a lot of use, and maybe we could lose it in the future, but AFAIK, there are no actual plans to remove it from ham bands. There's a 1.25 meter in Oklahoma City, although it's pretty quiet, and a friend and I use 1.25m as our personal simplex band.

@TerriKennedy If you have any influence with BTech, two things I'd like to see them make higher quality versions of are (1) battery eliminators (my experience is with ones for UV-5R and compatible models), and (2) speaker mics. A third would be earphones with mic button with a more durable cord (I've replaced a bunch of those). I use the earphones indoors but would like to use the speaker mic outside if there was a good one available.

The original UV-5G or the new UV-5G Plus? If it's the UV-5G Plus, it is the same hardware as the UV-5RH and you can flash 5RH firmware to it to turn it into an amateur radio. There's no known firmware file to flash back to a 5G Plus, so this is a one-way trip out of GMRS land. If you press and hold the [8] key while turning on, both a 5G Plus and a 5RH will say "5RH" at the top, some version, and one of "GMRS", "General" or "Part 97" on the bottom. The UV-5RM will say "5RHBK" at the top. AFAIK, switching General / Part 97 is a "magic salute" on these, except for the 5G Plus which seems to have custom firmware that ignores that.

Not worth risking the heavy-fines or possible jail time ! SOURCE: "some people" right here on this very forum.