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a long time ago i shelled out some good money ($45) for a Comet (i don't remember the model) HT dual band antenna. I never was able to ascertain the difference between that and the standard stock antenna. I gave up spending money on HT antennas and just use what came with the radio.. And honestly, considering they are HT's never been dissatisfied .

If you choose not to comply with regulations that’s your choice, but it’s wrong to belittle someone else who does a good job of explaining the regulations to someone who might not understand them.

Me too... I HAD two brand new RT97L's that I could have used to test this.. but I gave them both away.. Now i'm kicking myself and I wish I was not so kind, unselfish and loving toward my fellow-man... Never again!

Here is the image they provide on the product page showing the channel pairs used. They basically suggest using both the 600 and 725 repeater pairs as a means of setting this up, repeating to and from 600 and 725.

Yeah, it was just a joke. sorry. I was just visualizing a mag mount flying off a plane... must have been late last night when I was posting.

Well that's how the regulations work. Myself if a family member, non resident, wants to use GMRS I would "suggest" they get their own license. Legally they could use mine, but if they had their own any issue with the FCC would be their problem not mine.

No need to update firmware for your uses. You can if you want but not likely to change anything for you that is important. Just a note... since you say you are new to GMRS and Radio... Unless the other coaches are your family relatives, each one of you legally should get your own individual GMRS licenses. If they are family you can share, if not each person is licensed, not the radios. Another alternative, if the others use FRS radios (which use the same frequencies/channels as GMRS) but are lower power), they would not have to be licensed (FRS is a no license required service). You would be able to use your GMRS radio to communicate with FRS radios, and your family could use your GMRS radios with your callsign. Besides this, if you are only communicating from one side of the athletic field to the other, you probably don't need anything more powerful than FRS.

I have the RT97S and it's easy enough to program them to receive and transmit on different frequencies. But the reverse setup of receiving on low and transmitting on high would need a differently tuned duplexer. I guess you could just reverse the cables on the low and high sides on one of the repeaters.

I was asking myself the same question and have been reading the rules and so far I don’t see a problem. It’s not simplex, it’s through repeaters. I could see a situation where HT One is hearing both from HT Two through both repeaters and from say a third HT only going through the first repeater. I don’t think I’d want to do this but I’m with you on the thought exercise. Mc Escher drawing only with radios?

If the SWR is acceptable, it may work well enough for what you want. It won't be ideal, but hams use all kinds of weird crap for antennas and get a signal out. I saw a guy on YouTube use a bridge railing -- still on the bridge. If you put it on a 20' mast, you'd probably get 3 miles. It will never work as well as an antenna tuned for the GMRS band, but it may do what you want. "Good enough" is a valid concept.

Marc ▪︎ Roger. Sounds like the snubnose 19-inch rack is going to be fastened down for greater installation hardening. That'll truly add an even mkre customized appearance with the added benefit of fastening everything down. I supposed you could consider some short heavy duty springs between the brackets and 19-inch rack to arrest resonance and vibration ... especially during trail events. Peter

That's awesome to hear! Once all the brackets are made and the cosmetics are done, I have to get some fresh images out!

Marc, Much appreciate the thorough answers to my questions plus the additional info and background as to how/why this all came about. This PW County site seems to be well situated and for a good cause. The heat map predicted reliable coverage is excellent and whenever I install a base station omni at our DC residence [to replace the current configuration comprised of unity gain "rubber duck" antenna sitting on a pizza pan], I expect to be able to hit the new repeater. Glad to hear that the subject GMRS station will be open during other than emergency operations periods. "See" you on the airwaves and [hopefully] at the next meetup whenever and whereever it'll be. [P.S. I must've shown the photo of your Jeep's rear-seat-mounted multiband repeater to a dozen telecom friends. Awesome and unique integration work]. Regards | Peter | WSIC582

Thanks, that’s very helpful. So each repeater is capable of receiving on two different frequencies and repeating on one. Interesting. I learned something new today. I’d like to hear from someone who actually has tried it.

Only quick way to find out is test it with an SWR meter. Some of these multi band antennas show oscillation in the SWR across a range of frequencies. You might get lucky where the GMRS frequencies falls into one of the low SWR valley. The link below is a test I did of a favorite wide band mobile antenna. Usable. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/268-ca-2x4sr/?context=new And this link is for a test on a Ham dual band mobile antenna to see if it was usable. Doesn't look good. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/283-sg7500a-swr-scans-2jpg/

The only way to know for sure is to put a meter or portable antenna analyzer on it and test it.. But, like the @mb523 said, its not going to work very well.

They are probably using more than one channel. Jump one on 600 jump 2 on 625 and no loop. They state you name your frequency and they program it. You don't have the option to change it.

https://www.retevis.com/products/25w-portable-rt97l-dual-daisy-chaining-repeater?srsltid=AfmBOoqaP81EZD5UCS-Aq0JdALo4gAj3TX5dGPSacv3UlR2TZa6hv5SA

Nicely done - a huge improvement in group run communications! I helped our club migrate to GMRS a couple years ago and it was very well received. It is now a requirement for all club sanctioned events. We've got a thread detailing the change and the pros of GMRS, along with a rundown of our favorite and suggested gear to get folks started. I joke the radio is so you can hear good dad jokes on a long trip but we do a lot of training and guiding, so it really aids with instruction, direction, and safety. I can also run a separate channel on dual watch with the group and my tailgunner so we can talk logistics if need be.

That's why the majority of pilots will just put a mag mount on a cookie sheet in the window...

The belly fat one gets from the beer sticks around a lot longer.

At the last weekend's Two Rivers Off Road Club's 4x4 Blast, the Club made it official, they are moving from CB to GMRS. All of us on Saturday's run used GMRS and were impressed by the transmission clarity. There was a mix of HT's and mobiles.

Like many have already started I have been through many different antennas when I was more active on the HAM side. I spent a lot of money on comet antennas and others. some were good, some maybe not so good. I learned my lesson, some antennas are better than OEM but it depends on the radio and how you are using them. When I started my GMRS journey I forgot the lesson I had learned with all of my HAM HTs. I now have a collection of GMRS antennas. I have determined that it depends on the radio and how you are using them. Amazing, I know. Actually the reason I was looking for different antennas with my GMRS radios was specifically to find a good flexible antenna that was at least as good on TX/RX as the OEM. I have 701s, 771s, Melowave Bandit Gs, a Smiley Slim Line, and even a Signal Stick cut for GMRS. All of them were tested on my KG-935G at specific distances in my mountain area. My big takeaway is nothing new; the longer antennas normally RX better when I'm on the ragged edge RX/TX. Anywhere else they all are about the same. With flexibility being my main desire I have a Smiley Slim line on my HT most of the time. If I am out in the mountains I carry a Melowave Bandit G in my pack in case I need the longer antenna. I haven't really had that need but it is easy to carry. I have found that the OEM antenna that came on my 925G is a very good antenna, but it is very stiff. The stiffer the antenna the more I am likely to catch it on something or poke my eye out again. Your experiences WILL vary.

This! Especially given what I use my GMRS HT's for, very short distance comms on the trail or around the spread or up at the cabin. Money spent on extra spendy fancy antennae is money better spent on boat cooler beer & ice! On the Amateur side of things, I so very rarely use an HT so it's pretty much a moot point, the rubber ducky that came with the radio is more than sufficient to get the farz I needs.

my first guess, they're using HT's . And my second guess, based on where i think they were flying, 25 miles from my location..

How many of those GMRS listeners are gong to record and log your flight path. My point is, the FAA records and retains and the less of any of that bread crumb the less headaches one might endure sometime down the road. The lesser of two evils is what im pointing out

And it's one of @rdunajewski's rules for this site (the belittling part); he just needs to have some form of punishment for the violators. [I hard ignore all the regulars now, but your post deserved a comment.] Having members endorse breaking the rules is not a good reflection on his site. And I do not give a damn what the responses will be.

Nanny state alert.

You can listen to the air band with a UV-5R but it won't sound very good since the radio doesn't have an AM receiver. And FM transmitters won't transmit on AM. Get a scanner if you really want to listen to air band frequencies. The stall speed for planes is around 100-115 MPH. Smaller/lighter planes have a lower stall speed compared to commercial jets. I wonder what speeds a magnet mount will hold up to. They hold fine up to 80 MPH on most vehicles. Plus the fact that most aircraft bodies are made from aluminum or other light weight materials so a magnet mount won't work.

Go ahead and tune your UV-5R to 122.750 and tell us how that works out.

I have 3 H3'S. I haven't updated the firmware. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unless there is something specific that needs fixing, I'll just leave mine as is.

Yeah, I have to agree: seems to turn DMR into GMRS and not in the broader spirit of Ham Radio. But to each, their own...

ISM radios, such as the Motorola DLR200 DLR600 and DTR700 radios, for communicating with other radios you will need to know the Group Profile ID Number and have your radio programmed accordingly. For Direct Connect, you would need to know the 11-digit Private ID numbers of the radios you want to communicate directly with and have that info programmed in your radio. The radios do come with a factory default program and will communicate with other factory default programmed radios, but good luck and finding anyone with a factory default program when the SHTF that is nearby within no more than a mile. These radios cost almost $500.

TIDRadio doesn't seem to publish release notes for their firmware - I think they just announce it on their FB page and hope you find it. Kind of frustrating. IIRC the latest firmware just fixes some issues with the airband frequencies so unless you really like listening to local airport traffic, it's not necessary (and it's not super exciting anyway).

well, my first guess, most vhf aircraft communictions, espeicaly commercial, is heavily monitored and recorded... My choice to have a somewhat private conversation with someone would be the lesser of the two..

It is perfectly legal to us GMRS radio in aircraft over the US and it's territories. I have talked to a friend of mine while in a private plane. I was mobile in Woodbridge Virginia and they were flying as far away as 47 miles from my location.

95.307…Operation of Personal Radio Service stations in any location outside of those described in the following paragraphs is not authorized by this part. (B)Aboard any vessel or aircraft registered in the United States. With the permission of the captain, while the vessel or aircraft is within or over the United States or its territories, U.S. territorial waters, or upon or over international waters. So, it appears it’s allowed.

There is an aerial acrobatic group that practices out here every Thursday and they use GMRS (or FRS) channel 6, and I've wondered the same thing... But haven't wondered enough to bother looking it up either.

Glad I could help. POTA is fun. Even when band conditions are bad, it's still fun just to get outside and enjoy yourself. Another nice thing about POTA is that it is not a contest and you can work at your own pace. Some want to make as many contacts as possible while others take the time to talk to each person that answers their CQ.

I would do a bit more research before sending it back. Checking the match on an HT antenna is a difficult exorcise. Lot's of ways to do it wrong and get crappy results. I've tried it myself and had trouble getting results that looked reasonable. Read the comments about antenna testing and what the guy observed. I did some simple tests using an older MFJ antenna analyzer. Check out the results for the Diamond SRH320A. The results for 2M are particularly weird. WGP - With Ground Plane WOGP - Without Ground plane. Then I ran some SWR sweeps of the SRH320A using my RigExpert AA-1000 antenna analyzer with a special MFJ magnet mount using an SMA connector for HT antennas. The mount was placed on a large 36 inch by 40 inch flat sheet metal sheet for a ground plane. https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-332s?srsltid=AfmBOoq7AleI5bQc6eePGbJ4paGCA-ZK7sBSZWARn6VL0pTjEjIYgUTy https://old.rigexpert.com/products/antenna-analyzers/aa-1000/ Apparently, I assume, something else must be going on to get a good match on 2M when the antenna is on an HT, held in the hand and close to the body, that the testing I did does not duplicate. https://www.diamondantenna.net/srh320a.html HT-Antenna-Testing.pdf HT Antenna Tests Results.pdf Antenna Scan Results (SRH320A 1.25M GP).pdf Antenna Scan Results (SRH320A 2M GP).pdf Antenna Scan Results (SRH320A UHF GP).pdf

This!! Testing the SWR of an HT antenna is impossible without very sofistikated equipment, OTHER than confirming that the antenna is not just a dead-short.

This! Testing the SWR of a handheld radio antenna is either very tricky or useless, depending upon whom you listen to. Performance is what matters.

I'd open it and test it. Results may vary.

I've tested a few Nagoya and Abbree antennas. I found that it really depends on the brand of radio. I've tried dual band and GMRS antennas. Here are my result with my limited testing of the Nagoya/Abbree 771 dual band or GMRS Baofeng GT-5R and UV-5r GMRS - 771 did better than the stock antennas. Icom IC-T10 - no difference between the 771 and stock antennas Explorer QRZ-1 (TYT UV-88) - 771 just slightly better than stock Several Wouxun radios - stock antennas di better than any of the 771 antennas. I made sure to use the GMRS only 771G with the GMRS radios and the dual band 771 with my dual band radios. I know this is a small sample. As you can see it really depends on the individual radio. You can chase this rabbit all over and spend lots of money and you may or may not see much of an improvement.

Each frequency is its own tuning so if you are looking for the best you can do it will depend on what you are doing. I generally use the stock antenna on my HT radios. If you are trying for more, something like a signal stick is going to help and mono band if you want the best out of one band. I just use dual band mostly as for me good is good enough and I prefer to use more bands over more distance. I have a tri band Nagoya NA-320A that works pretty good for 1.25m, 2m, 70cm, in fact it is better on 1.25 than the dual band stock antenna tuned at 1.25 and 2m. In the end you will have more antennas than radios. Josh’s video that @SteveShannon posted is a good one.

Yes.. LJ...

Bummer. I can't make it due to another commitment.