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Those are the "Sad Hams". They have been pissed off and angry for a long time since Thrifty Drug stores closed up so they can test their radio tubes with the tube tester and get a 5 cent ice cream cone at the same time.

Depends on who you ask. It turns out there really isn't one. Before it was generally accepted to use 20. Now people are advocating for 19, and others don't use either one. It's turning into a bit of a mess since people simply can't agree on one and stick with it.

It's like this... If you're in the U.S. and you're talking to someone else in the U.S., and you knowingly interfere with RF operations in Canada, you are in violation of a U.S.-Canada treaty. You're not likely to get caught and even less likely to receive any actual punishment, but you're still an asshole. If you know you're close to the border, dial the power down to the least wattage that will do the job, and if somehow you do find out that you interfere with Canadian airwaves, find another frequency. It's unlikely that of 22 frequencies, all of them will cause interference at any significant distance. Possible, but unlikely. The Canadians know about GMRS and they probably avoid putting any sort of critical RF-based infrastructure operating near those frequencies close to the border. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, but I would be considerate.

Well, not officially, although tradition probably makes it a more prevalently used tone. it used to be when there was a travel channel, but there no longer is. Here’s Marc Spaz’s far better explanation:

Why are you telling this to OP who already IS a licensed Ham?!? I am convinced that some of the members of this Forum think they get paid by their sheer number of posts!!

the lack of volunteer frequency coordination to manage the GMRS repeater spectrum will kill any chance the FCC will even come close to consider permitting linking. And i honestly don't think it would take to many complaints about bandwidth hogging to awake the FCC sending out a few letters to the BIG abusers. Especially with some of these guys whom blatantly advertise what they are doing while taking money to do it. They don't affect me so i quite making noise about it, but i have been in cities where these guys operate and i can see the problems they create.

...because too many of them tell lies and fairy-tales to make themselves look more important...

There is no rule or regulation that says these frequencies must be "transmit blocked", and, nobody asked anyway..Stop making up lies, its making you look ignorant.

They are two separate logins, but once you’ve logged into both you should be okay.

Good question.

It might seem pedantic, but if you’re on channel 19 on a 95E certified radios, you can’t transmit to the repeater. If you can’t transmit to the repeater it’s not a repeater channel.

Do you have an AM/FM CB and if so did you notice anyone using FM?

I get what you’re saying but it is fairly common (really common) for people who are new to GMRS to not realize they are in fact different and try and change all their settings to make the simplex channels talk to a repeaters when they’re not grasping the concept. I think @SteveShannon is just trying to avoid putting out info that is confusing and point out what may be obvious to some to those that don’t know.

Channel != frequency. First day on the internet?

Nope, you're the Steve I was yacking to.

program one of your buttons for squelch defeat.. or Monitor

I've experienced the same kind of thing. The extra steps for this kind of thing sometimes makes it worthwhile to just keep a real Microsoft junker around

Ditto!

I can't add much that hasn't already been stated except, welcome to the Forum!!!!

I've been a user on MyGMRS.com for well over a decade, although I went a few years without using it more than once or twice. A couple of months ago I got back into being more active and using both the radio and this website more often. Last night I was googling something and one of the links happened to be a post here. It was from a bit less than a year ago -- not really ancient, but not new either. I started to enter a reply on one of the comments and the site prompted me to log in. I started to log in and the site treated me as a new user. Now MyGMRS.com seems to have two separate accounts with the same display name and the same email address.

Maybe I am missing something... I rarely use the phone app for MyGMRS but had a need to check it today, and it seems like there is no way to get to, browse, or post to the FORUMS via the phone App. Is that true or am I just missing it? Seems like you can only access the repeaters on the phone app.

@TrikeRadio I agree with you on this. I see the other person point.. but a a simple link “Discussion” would be nice… I mean.. why have the app, if all you need is a browser?

Most preferred? Sure. Single? Absolutely not. There's a bunch of GMRS repeaters just in my area that aren't on here but are published elsewhere.

Thank you for the reply.. that isn't what I was asking about.

GMRS has only 22 official channels to use. Out of those 8 are reserved for repeater operation, with the matching 8 input only frequencies. If there is no traffic on the output frequencies they can be used for simplex. Normally the purpose built GMRS radios have the channel frequencies builtin by the firmware. At best you can select which access tone to use. Various radios allow duplicates of the repeater channels with different tones to accommodate traveling around different areas. Also the repeater channels you find the builtin ones are set for a +5MHz split. However the current FCC rules allow any of the 8 input frequencies to be paired with any of the 8 output frequencies, which results in a non standard split. Most repeaters stick to the standard +5MHz.

Marc, while I believe that you had that conversation (I've never had reason to doubt you) and find it interesting, it isn't however the official reason the FCC put forth with their clarification. Thus I think using "sending voice over POTS / Broadband is considered theft of services" as an antiquated idea argument wont go very far. Perhaps that was the genesis of the reason some time ago for not linking GMRS but it's clearly not the reason they put forth recently in writing despite what this engineer says. It certainly is an easier argument to fight in this day and age it just isn't the one I think would sway the FCC because it dosn't address what they have publicly stated as the reason. In addition to violating Commission rules, linking repeaters is not in the public interest. Because GMRS spectrum is limited and used on a shared “commons” basis, the service only works well on a localized basis when users can hear each other and cooperate in the sharing of channels. Linking repeaters not only increases the potential for interference, but also uses up a limited spectrum resource over much larger areas than intended, limiting localized availability of the repeater channels. GMRS and the Family Radio Service (FRS), which share many of the GMRS channels, are intended for individuals such as family members and friends, scouting troops, emergency response groups, and hobbyists to communicate with each other over short distances, directly or through a repeater station. Linking repeaters, via the internet or other networks, undermines the purpose and usefulness of the GMRS and FRS.

Does this site have the ability to send notifications on new repeaters being added? I'd love to get an email anytime a new repeater comes online in my state.

Nice; appreciate it!

This ^ is correct. It's menu setting 21 & 22. MDF-A and MDF-B, hit the Menu button again to get the cursor down and then push the up or down arrow to toggle between Channel and Name. ETA: I see this has already been answered.

But that's in Chirp! You asked how to do it after uploading, so the answer was referring to using the radio's menu, i.e. pushing buttons. [Everyone should read the regs carefully yourself, not take advice from random internet people.]

Disclaimer: I'm still on CHIRP Legacy, so this may be different on the current/new CHIRP Open your UV5R file in CHIRP, click the Settings tab, then click Basic Settings, you'll see Display Mode (A) & Display Mode (B), click there, you'll have the choices of Name, Channel, Frequency Select Name, save your file, re-upload, & you won't have to go into the menu settings It's been my experience that on some, not all, radios, that if you change something in the settings through the menu, the radio doesn't/won't keep it If you make your edits in the software & upload them, the edits are remembered & kept YMMV 73

On my oldest UV-5R: menu 21 MDF-A, menu 22 MDF-B (A & B correspond to the 2 displayed channels) *All those things you mention need to be transmit blocked to stay w/in regs. And you need a ham license for talking on ham frequencies.

No, but that’s a myopic view. The U.S. government has regulations against conducting radio communications on the U.S. side of the border that violate international treaties that they have with other countries. So even though the communications you actually interfere with are in Canada, you can be penalized on the U.S. side.

I remember using pulse dial and even party lines.

I used to hang around a bit with Kevin Mitnick back in the day building 2600Hz boxes until he started doing really crazy stuff.

I have the H3 and it's easy to program it. Are both input and output tones the same? If not reverse them just to make sure you aren't mistaken which one is the repeater input tone. If both are the same then leave the Rx tone at none so you will receive the repeater output no matter what.

Yes. Try getting closer to the repeater and/or confirming that you have the correct code and that the repeater is actually online.

You’re welcome. Doing things as you can afford is smart. It’s way too easy to start buying radio stuff that you only need once. It’s possible to do a manual sweep using your SW-102 by incrementing the VFO frequency a couple kilohertz at a time across the entire range and writing down the SWR for each frequency. Put the two values (frequency and SWR) in a spreadsheet or put the values on graph paper with frequency as the X (horizontal) axis and SWR as the Y (vertical) axis. You’ll end up with something like these. Sorry for the rotation of the paper one. Neither of these are for GMRS but all the same principles apply.

You know, for someone who is "too good to help people [and] just want[s] to complain about them not knowing anything but, don't [sic] want to help, just start crap," you're remarkably helpful. I was only familiar with the latter part of the definition, the "carrier squeltch" side of it. Today, I have learned a thing.

Gotcha. So the same with CB. You know, all you radio dorks are about to have another member in the fold. I've been talking on CBs for almost 30 years and I never gave it a single thought. They were just channel numbers, not frequencies. Then awhile back I got the President CB in my Jeep and started noticing mHz numbers below the channel numbers. That got me thinking and then I started digging into HAM and GMRS and slowly began realizing why 4 watts was the limit on CB band because HAM techs were in that band on HF and talking across the country. So essentially the Kilowatt Klub on CB is bypassing the FCC in the same way the Pistol Brace Bois are bypassing the ATF and NFA. And then I realized that I really don't have enough contempt for federal regulation. But I digress...

Matching tones (CTCSS or PL) or codes (DCS or DPL) are both ways of squelching the audio. The other way is commonly referred to as “carrier squelch” where the radio requires the signal to surpass some level before unsquelching (desquelching? I’m not sure what the verb is). Pushing the “Mon” (short for “monitor”) opens all forms of squelch so you can hear anything that is on the frequency.

Phrased they way you did, it likely wouldn't. However, in the reddit post, several people implied (or maybe I inferred) that the club/group/whatever has every repeater pair used on their network, making it almost impossible for anyone else to standup their own repeater anywhere in North Georgia due to capture effect on the mobiles in the area. Im sure the capture effect causes problems on simplex and same channel repeater inputs, too. Of course, I am summarizing an interpretation of what I read and sharing an opinion based on that interpretation, assuming it's true.

Why don't you tell us what "best" means to YOU, then we can focus on those attributes.

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.

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 have two Heltec V3s set up on MeshCore. One as a repeater up about 25 feet and the other as a node here in the shack. This works differently because nodes do not repeat everything they hear so the channel does not get polluted with repeat packets. My MeshCore repeater is in Belmont Michigan. If you are near by and want to try MeshCore with your LORA rig...

I just thought they could at least provide a link in the app to the forums in the menu (that could take you to the browser / site... but I guess you would have to re-log in again anyway. oh well.

The Midland MXTR10 and the Retevis RT97 will work just fine. Compare the specifications on both and also the prices and go with which one suits your needs at the best price. PS: Ignore Negative Nancy, he hardly ever has anything positive to say.

Unfortunately you can't conduct business activities on the Ham 2M band. About range comparisons between MURS and FRS radios in the open I don't expect a huge difference between them. However if one is using external antennas that would be different, but FRS that isn't allowed to use external antennas so the tests would be between MURS and GMRS radios. From a very basic technical view point the typical antenna on a GMRS HT is nearly a quarter wave long, about 6 inches, and the body of the radio is large enough to make a fair ground plane. Compared to a VHF radio around 150 MHZ where a quarter wave antenna is 18 inches long so radio body is a poor ground plane. It's often mentioned the typical 6 to 8 inch rubber duck VHF antennas have a negative 5 to 6 db gain relative to a quarter wave ground plane antenna. Without going through the math using quarter wave ground plane antennas for VHF and UHF the VHF radio has approximately a 9.5 db (a factor or 9) advantage due to "path loss" over a UHF radio. So for a 2 watt MURS radio the range would be equivalent to an 18 watt UHF radio with line-of-sight operation. Now using just the rubber duck antennas the over all gain difference is reduced to around 3 db more or less. In practice you might not even notice it. IMHO this is sort of the way I see it.