nokones

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.

I'm not sure why you find that GMRS would be any different than Amateur radio. Just like Amateur radio, GMRS repeaters are put on the air by various enthusiasts that are willing to invest there hard earned money and time for various reasons to accomplish some personal radio communication goals. Traveling throughout the country and finding available GMRS repeaters that are open for you to use without obtaining permission would be no different than the Amateur Radio world. For GMRS, you have mygmrs.com to obtain the locations, frequency, and tone information for repeaters and any pertinent information regarding the use of those repeaters just like you can find for the Amateur Radio world with ARRL or Repeater Book. Yes, there are more Amateur radio repeaters than GMRS repeaters and there are only 8 GMRS channel as compared to a Gazillion channel possibility with Amatrur radio. In most areas GMRS enthusiasts do a pretty good job with sharing the spectrum. For an example, in the Phoenix Area, there are about 13-15 GMRS repeaters that are spreadout through the Valley with frequent use and with Amateur Radio, there approx 30-35 2 Meter and approx 15-20 70 cm repeaters with very little use except for one 2 Meter repeater that has some activity and one or two 70 cm repeaters with occasional traffic. As for simplex traffic on the Amateur 2 Meter and 70 cm channels, it is very seldom that you hear anything on the designated simplex channels. As for GMRS simplex traffic, all 14 Interstitial and 8 Main 462 MHz channels are very heavily used throughout the day and there appears not to be any serious conflicts with co-channel uses . In my opinion, there is a lot of wasted Amateur 2 Meter and 70 cm, and probably the 1.25 M and 33 cm channels as well sit idle and are a total waste of spectrum resources and not being used efficiently.

Not between Gaviota and Ventura. Someone needs to put something on both Santa Ynez and Red Mountain for you.

Unless you are living near Piedras Blancos, San Simeon, Los Oso, Cholame, or New Cuyama there are several repeaters up and down the central coast. What particular area are you living in where you think there are no repeaters?

It will depend on the signal level difference between the two signals. It takes about 6 dB or more of a stronger signal level to capture the weaker signal and anything less you will be hearing a bunch of wah wahs and worbles.

That rule existed in the 70s and may have been in existence in the late 60s. Effective February 1999, the FCC allowed all GMRS operate on any main and interstitial channel.

With a real radio you can have a programmable button programmed for PL Defeat/Disable and all you have to do is push the button at any speed while you are driving so you can hear all the traffic on that channel.

The FARs (and I don't mean Farz as in distance) will not allow the use of a magmount on an aircraft.

Why not buy a professional grade Laird base station antenna which is a better quality antenna and be even more pleased then you would be with a Tram.

You will not hear the helicopters. 122.750 MHz is designated for fixed wing aircraft, that means airplanes that have stationary wing(s). If a helicopter (rotary wing) meaning having a wing that rotates and spins around needs to communicate with an airplane then you may hear a helicopter. Aeronautical freqs are amplitude modulation freqs., so I doubt that your Barfwanger Pandaland radio will emit Amplitude Modulation since they are frequency modulation radio devices.

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.

There is a designated Aeronautical channel for private fixed wing aircraft for air-to-air communications. That channel is 122.750 MHz. Private Rotary Wing (Helicopters) have their own air-to-air communications channel.

A few months ago, and on ch. 16, I heard what appeared to be aircraft communicating here in the Phoenix Area talking about should they land at Sedona or Kingman for fuel.

I'm surprised that FR/GMRS does not have any altitude and power restrictions like Part 90 does. Part 90 restricts, or at one time restricted, the altitude not above 5,280 feet AGL and 10 watts.

He also owns Towers 575, Mt. Elden, and Signal Peak. I believe he may also have some interest in Towers 600. The problem has been some silly nonsense going on Shaw Butte, Towers 575, and Towers 600. The silly nonsense also goes on simplex when the three repeaters are down. There has been some repeater traffic on Towers 575 the few days, but I believe he changed the tone and only has given the tone information out to his closest friends. I wished the repeater owner would implement a PT-T ID requirement for authorized repeater access like a couple of the repeaters have on the SWCRS.