WRXB215

With ham you can use more power. When you are trying to penetrate through the trees extra power can help.

He gave you those. Page 48 of your manual (page 48 in pdf anyway) gives this: Use the number next to the code.

I haven't done much mobile programming (mostly desktop) but I have thought about something like this. If I can find the time, I might look into it further.

TX = Encode, RX = Decode. You need to Encode, you don't have to Decode unless you want to filter out everything else but the repeater. It is recommended to leave the RX out until you have everything else working and then add it so you don't have to listing to all the extra stuff on the frequency. BTW: GMRS is not HAM.

Good info. I'm sure @marcspaz will see this.

As far as I know, you can't assign an offset to channels 1-22 on a GMRS radio. Scratch that, I misread the post.

@BoxCar The mic is third picture on the left. BTW, I'm still trying to decide on a mobile unit. Can you give me some links to the 45W you mentioned? Thanks.

@Kirtelliott Welcome! "Middle Tennessee" sounds like a cool place. Kind of like "Middle Earth" from Lord of the Rings.

Forget the radio, this is really what makes me jealous.

Don't make it so complicated. You don't have to let anyone else use your license. Tell them to get their own license. It's only $35 and no test.

Yeah, what he said.

2.5 miles with houses and trees in between is a long way. This is one place where more wattage actually comes into play. An antenna upgrade usually does help. Height is might always holds true. But when trees and houses are in the way, power is definitely a factor. You may need more power to penetrate the trees and houses. Just this Saturday, I proved that to myself by hitting a repeater 10 miles away with 8w that I could not hit with 4w, all else being the same.

A good repeater is a significant investment. It is up to the owner to decide how open it is. Yes, it would be nice if it was all easy but repeaters are not a primary part of what GMRS is intended for. Repeaters are just a side benefit. I use a repeater almost every day and I'm glad they are available but I'm not about to demand anything of the owners. Rather I am very grateful to them for making the repeaters available even if I do have to dig a little to figure some of them out.

10 miles can be a lot or a little depending on what is in between. There are a lot of thick trees in my neighborhood so I need a little extra oomph to penetrate them. Had to have a good ground plane for the mag mount and also had to use 8w vs 4w. Finally was able to hit a repeater 10 miles away. Absolutely. Also, those mics you can get will help. I am using one and also a battery eliminator. External antenna, mic, battery eliminator, these all really helped me get a decent, low budget, versatile mobile radio going.

As @OffRoaderX said it isn't optimal. I have an Abbree 771 UHF/VHF and an Abbree 771 GMRS. The both work for GMRS but I haven't tested them with a meter to see the SWR difference. They are in fact slightly different in length but it doesn't take much to make a significant difference. That being said, the HYS-771N supposedly covers 136-174Mhz/400-470Mh with center frequencies being 144/430MHz. So, going up to 470 covers GMRS but it is up at the top of the range. Also it is still a dual band antenna which will not be as well tuned as an antenna tuned specifically for GMRS.

I can't testify to authentic Nagoya but the Abbree 771 is definitely an improvement to the stock antenna. I would like to get the "tacti-cool" antenna some day and try it out. I've heard that it is the best HT antenna for the Baofeng radios.

I agree whole heartedly with this. This is why so many non-GMRS radios operate on GMRS frequencies without incident. As long as those operators follow all the rest of the rules, no-one cares what kind of radio it is.

Here in the Houston area, it ebbs and flows. Sometimes the repeaters are very busy and other times they are silent. The last week or so have been very quiet during driving time to and from work which is unusual.

It's just you...and me...and everyone else on this site.

This is my understanding of what license sharing is all about. GMRS is intended for small groups so I interpret that as being a small group at an even or on a trip together.

@back4more70 If I did that, my wife would roll her eyes like @OffRoaderX.

I'm going to use fired bricks and build a tower up into the heavens and... ...oh wait, someone already tried that, confusion ensued.

My suggestion would be to not make up new ones. Just use the ones that already exist. The whole point is to have clear communications. That is why the phonetic alphabet came into existence in the first place.

Kind of hard, you've already debunked all the ones I can think of.

I've heard of "simplex repeaters" that record the message and then repeat it when the squelch closes. Maybe that is what this is?