nokones

I believe the OP is referring to a group of people to swap lies on the air or form a Club and swap more lies, not build up a group of repeaters. If you become a member of the Texas GMRS Club you would have access to a bunch of repeaters statewide that you don't have now.

It is my understanding that SoCalGMRS is no longer SoCal any longer, but I could be wrong. Anyways, he is just another "Sad HAM"

504 will have very poor VSWRs trying to transmit on an Amateur Radio Service freq with a Midland GMRS specific antenna. Midland Antennae are designed with very narrow bandwidth. Also, I thought that Amateur freqs operate with CSQ on the receiver and simplex channels.

Does Sir Steven get a special name Tag, assuming that this dedication is a paperless thing at least he should receive a Name Tag so he can proudly serve his new position. Congrats, Sir Steven!

What are you trying to accomplish with the firmware update?

Oh, I forgot to mention, although he doesn't drive around with Whitewall tires, but he does use a Tire Dressing on his tires to impress the chick's on the Whittier Boulevard.

The repeater on RP20 is part of the Texas GMRS Club and requires a specific CTCSS Tone or DCS Code and a Club membership to access the repeater. The Texas GMRS Club has repeaters throughout Texas and it would be worth while for only about $24/year to be a member and get access to a lot of repeaters statewide. The vehicle and radio equipment you're using is great for starting out. Just bare in mind that the MXT275 is a 15 watt radio and is limited in the number of custom programming channels. The MXT575 is essentially the same radio with the same channel limitation, but with 50 watts of output power. The MXT500 has 99 channels and also is a 50 watt radio. You might want to try the Midland MXTA 26 antenna that may give you a few more farz in some cases. The Midland Antennae are great GMRS antennae and will give you good VSWRs on GMRS freqs. That guy in the video drives a Nissan Grocery Getter with chrome wheels and moon hub caps and cruises Pico Rivera looking to chat with strangers on the radio, but his stuff in the videos is very informative and helpful.

This radio is a $50 20-channel radio and is a Pandaland radio sold by Pandaland resellers operating through that big warehouse operation. Is there an expectation that these radios are supposed to work at that price? The close proximity of the two radios with one radio transmitting may be overloading/over exciting the frontend of the receiving radio. That problem is typical for cheap POS Pandaland radios, even if they are operating on the same channel. You more than likely will need to give them a lot of "Farz" apart, more like lots and lots of yards.

What readings does the meter show for VSWR and reflected power on both the 462 & 467 Meg channels with the portable radio connected to the antenna on the car? That antenna is a dual band antenna and will not provide optimum service on either band. It is a compromise to be mediocre on both bands. I bet an antenna analyzer would reflect and substantiate those facts. As the Queen stated, the best out of the box GMRS antenna is the Midland MXTA 26. You'll be surprised with the VSWR meter that antenna produces for GMRS freqs.

I would rather spend more money on a better quality built radio one time than some POS cheap radio from Pandaland many times over time. I refuse to buy or give into buying inferior cheap products. There is a reason why low cost products are cheap and POS junk. Buying cheap is not saving money or even your personal time in the longrun. I own a lot of Motorola mobile (12 various models) and portable (47 various models) radios, and that count does not include my one Midland and 4 Kenwoods model radios. A few of my portable radios are 35 years old and still in almost brand new condition and have been used a lot over time in a harsh environment and still check out very well. I doubt that any POS Pandaland radio would even stand up to any of my Motorola radios and there is a valid reason my Motorola radios cost a lot of money and we'll worth the cost. None of my Motorola radios ever had a firmware upgrade, but my MXT500 did receive a firmware update about 2 years ago to expand the channel capacity from 30 to 128 programmable channels. I have owned a MXT500 radio for about 3 years, but it is not my everyday radio now because my everyday radios are Motorola. I keep my Midland as a Loaner Radio for my radioless Jeep Creep friends for Trail runs. I did start out using the Midland MXT 400 many years ago and eventually upgraded to a MXT 500, but my radio needs out grew the Midland capabilities. My radio needs have grown to the use of 43 separate radio zones, over a total of 800 programmed channels, and several radio features that consumer radios do not offer. My Midland still puts out about 48-49 watts today as measured with a calibrated Bird 43 watt meter.

My first GMRS license was KAG0097. Now it is WQJT335.

Because in the larger Metropolitan Areas such as Southern California, Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas, the gazillion 2M and 70 cm repeaters sit idle with virtually no traffic at all. A couple days ago, out of about 30 repeaters in the Phoenix Area only one repeater had about 2-3 minutes of traffic all day long.

Based on what I see what the Amateur Radio Service is all about, I just don't need to spend my time in studying to take exam and get involved with a dying hobby. The Amateur Radio Service is almost dead as is the CB Radio service is today.

When plugging in the microphone make sure you hear a click. Maybe you'll need to push back the rubber protector on the plug then plug in the microphone. If that doesn't make a difference then you have a defective microphone.

Johnson Valley is in Notarubicon Territory. Ch. 16 should be the go-to channel for off-roading.