WRXB215

I thought this might be a topic with general interest.
How many out there have specifically prepped one or more radios, chargers, battery packs, programming cables, software and computers to safe guard against an EMP event or similar. That would be specifically Faraday boxes etc. to store the above items.
If you have what radio(s) are you going to bet your life on and how did you do the prep? I’ve read about stuff as simple as a “shielded” bag to double storing sensitive electronics in metal trash cans stored inside of another while metallic tape used to seal the edges etc.
The “event” doesn’t have to be human generated. Something like a huge CME would do.
https://www.history.com/news/a-perfect-solar-superstorm-the-1859-carrington-event

This might help:
“After searching online forums, we found we could program our Baofeng GM-15 using the RadiOddity software for the GM-30, along with the Baofeng programming cable that came with our radio. We used the RadiOddity program to input in the transmit and receive tones (QT/DQT) for our local repeater and input a TX tone of 141.3 (a commonly used “travel tone”) for the rest of the repeater channels.”
from https://woofthebeatenpath.com/review-of-baofeng-gm-15-pro-gmrs-radio-and-setup/
 

UV-5R "GMRS" with an old Radio Shack scanner antenna I had in the garage from way back. Home made adapter. Yes, I can actually talk to people with this thing. 😉

Same here. I use 2 radios for my amateur repeater. The radios are RF linked and the up-link and down-link are separated as much as 1/2 mile depending on use case and how much power the transmitter needs to be. I found that even at 5 watts, I need about 100 feet of separation.
 
Cable-linking introduces a whole new level of aggravation. Depending on your use case, it may be easier and more affordable to simply by a low power repeater. 

I expect keeping the wires at non-resonant lengths and adding lots of ferrite beads would help. I wonder if putting each radio in its own metal enclosure (30cal ammocan?) would help. 

I put together a repeater with two KG1000G radios, and desense was a real issue, even after separating the radios by about 10 feet and adding makeshift shielding.

The duplexer doesn’t shield against RF getting into the case. It only filters to prevent the RF from the transmitter from entering via the antenna port on the receiver. 
You might expect that the metal chassis provides a shield, and to some extent it probably does, but every wire that enters the case can function as an antenna, whether it’s the power cable or microphone.
So, like I said, I suspect that some experimentation will be required. Maybe it’ll work; maybe it won’t. 

Thank you for reporting them. 

Thanks for fixing these @rdunajewski 😉

A RT97/Midland with 3' of LMR and antenna is ideal for what you want to do if you have 110V at the top of the silo. 

Coincidentally, someone started a topic a couple of days ago for just such a question as yours. Enjoy, and if you have any questions, ask away!
 

First off what is a 'channel block'  forgive my ignorance.  I have been a commercial radio tech for going on 15 years and a ham for 30.  Never heard that term.  I see things in zones and channels.
If you are scanning the simplex channels with NO tone, and scanning the repeaters with tone the radio can stop on either one if a repeater is transmitting.  If it's not looking for any tone, then any tone will work as well as no tone at all.  Because it's not looking for it.
No clue what radio you are using, so I can't even comment on the idea of priority scan.  If it's a commercial radio, and it has priority scan running it will look at a channel, then the priority list, then the next channel in the scan list then the priority list again, then the next scan list member.  This can slow scanning down a good bit, and commercial radios are NOT good scanners.  They are not fast with standard scanning, and when you turn on priority scanning they get really slow. 
 
My advice, if you are gonna be scanning, buy a scanner.  In fact as long as the stuff you are scanning is analog and not P25 trunking, buy several scanners.  If you do have trunking stuff you are wanting to monitor, get a scanner for that too.  Analog scanners are dirt cheap because they don't listen to the police any more in many places.  But if you are wanting to monitor GMRS, ham or other analog stuff they work great.
 And trying to figure out what a radio in scan mode is doing by looking at percentages of when it stops and opens up isn't really gonna work out for you.
 
 

There are several mobile GMRS radios.  Any of them will work with the UV-9G radios.  You just have to tune to the same channel.  If you set a CTCSS tone on one you have to do it on the other.
 

Welcome to MyGMRS! Thank you for your service!
250 acres is a nice size parcel (I wish I had it!), but depending on its shape and topography you might be able to get by without a repeater.  In fact, unlicensed FRS radios might even be sufficient.  A square mile is 640 acres; a 250 acre square is 3300 feet per side.  
Of course thick vegetation and hills could drastically change the range you get and maybe you intend to go outside of the parcel.

Hello all.  New to GMRS, but not new to radios/comms.  Spent 12 years in USAF as a spook, reverse-engineering communications systems from DC to daylight.
A friend has a 250 acre plot of land that we will be hunting on.  Lots of hills and valleys.  No cell phone service, so we both opted to go the GMRS route to stay in touch while deer hunting.  We both have Baofeng UV-5X3 radios, and are in the process of building a self-contained solar powered repeater  that we will be installing in one of our blinds t hat is on a nice high point on the property.
Looking forward to learning how it's done in the GMRS world.  This sure seems to be the place for that.  Thanks for having me.
 

Perfect example of why a commercial radio isn’t ideal for people who just want to buy a pair of radios off the shelf, get a license, and talk to their family while recreating. 

Agree, most people can get themselves in serious trouble if they don't know the programming parameters and the FCC rules and regs pertaining to Part 95, Subpart E, when operating on GMRS freqs.  Programming an Astro 25 Radio is more than just plunking in a bunch of freqs and tone/codes.
They will need to know how to program the Low/High Power Level settings on both the 44 watt and the high power 110 Watt radios when operating on Part 95 freqs.  You won't be legal if you program the 462 & 467 MHz freqs in the 110 Watt High Power Radio with the high Tx power level set above 50 Watts.  You might as well forget about  being legal if you have any of the interstitial freqs programmed in a high power transceiver.  The high power radio lowest power level setting is 24 watts.
As for the 44 watt radio.  You can legally program the 462 MHz interstitial freqs if your lower power level setting is for 5 watts and that you correctly set up the channel personality accordingly.  Forget about the 467 MHz interstitial freqs, you can't make it legally happen and a Part 90 portable radio will definitely be suspect of being illegal even on the low power setting unless your antenna is a POS and the ERP is point five watt or less.
If a person elects to go with an Astro 25 radio set up, definitely, do not wire the power leads to any interior electrical circuits like the cigarette lighter or fuse blocks especially, on a later car with a gazillion computer modules.  Motorola recommends the "Red" plus-power lead be wired directly to the battery and the ground wire to chassis ground, not battery ground.  If you want the radio and control head to switch off/on with the key, the "Yellow" Ignition sense wire will need to be wired to the ignition switch side of the ignition switch or you can home-run the "Yellow" wire directly to the battery, and you will have to turn the radio on/off at the controlhead.  Don't forget to set the programming parameter in the CPS on the option you take with the yellow wire or you won't be able to power up at all.
 
Other than that, the install, programming, and use is essentially a "piece-of- cake and very cool to have.

UV-5R "GMRS" with an old Radio Shack scanner antenna I had in the garage from way back. Home made adapter. Yes, I can actually talk to people with this thing. 😉

I am not speaking for Randy... but I agree it's not for everyone.  The are large, get hot, have more than enough power and programing capability to get you in trouble (if the FCC ever starts enforcing the rules).  You could legit get a surplus radio that wasn't decommissioned correctly or not at all and all of a sudden you can find yourself on Fire, Police or some federal agencies digital encryption system and a lot of trouble.  (Not an I guess or think.  A buddy found a bunch on ebay)
 
Then, one in good shape will be anywhere from $700-$1,000.  You need to acquire one that is new enough that the programing software will run on modern Windows unless you have a way-back machine or are a computer systems engineer who know how to 'fake it' with a legacy OS.  Then, you have to know how to program it once you actually get the software going.
 
I wouldn't tell anyone that they are not capable of accomplishing any of this... but unless you are a tech savvy person with time and resources on your hands, it can be time consuming and frustrating to start with.  Given that many new users struggle with using tones and getting repeater access configured, I don't normally point people in this direction.

I just wedge mine between my seat and the center seat or console. 😄
The attached picture shows the radio in my pickup. 

I'm still new to radio, but for the last year, I too run a Radioddity DB20G, with a Tram through-glass antenna.  Folks will tell you this antenna is garbage, and it may be, but I get a 1.1 SWR with it, and can hit repeaters 40-60 miles away, depending on my altitude, so I guess the 20 watts deals with the 'bad' antenna issues pretty well!
Advantages to the DB20G are that a) it's so small I was able to securely mount its rail to the dashboard with removable alien tape, b) it had a 12 volt plug built in, and c) it's unlockable, so I now I can monitor marine band, MURS, and ham frequencies in addition to GMRS while I drive.

UV-5R "GMRS" with an old Radio Shack scanner antenna I had in the garage from way back. Home made adapter. Yes, I can actually talk to people with this thing. 😉

UV-5R "GMRS" with an old Radio Shack scanner antenna I had in the garage from way back. Home made adapter. Yes, I can actually talk to people with this thing. 😉

Yes I have the Radio. if you unlock the radio  you can enter all the GMRS channels the same as a GMRS setup, then continue to add your Repeaters with different CTC tones for your different Repeaters that you use. Just don't go outside of the GMRS freq's to keep yourself legit, well kind of. Like Sshannon said.

UncleYoda,
something you might try is to first save the configuration from the gmrs profile, then open up the radio so it can cover uhf up to 470.  Then re-upload the GMRS channels you saved.  That might leave the radio open to programming other GMRS channels wherever you want.
And yes, I do have this radio, two of them actually.