WRXB215

Like it or not, you have to admit the threat of beating or death keeps the child-labor QC results very high on these things!

This is literally the first time I have ever heard of a UV-5R that was DOA.. I've purchased over a dozen, and know probably 100+ people that have also purchased them, so it is likely not a pattern.
That said, virtually anything is a step up.

This is poor advice. You don’t jump on someone’s repeater unless you have permission to do so and you certainly don’t just use it until told otherwise. 
 
Some repeaters may still be leftovers from when businesses were licensed on those frequencies, and regardless,  at the end of the day, the repeaters are private property of the owners.  While the airwaves are not, the repeater or this method of using them is, and by using a repeater without permission is basically  unauthorized use of private property.  
 
This is the same as coming across someone’s yard or land, and just using it until you are told otherwise or thrown off.
 
Until you identify who’s repeater it is and make contact with the owner or responsible party, treat it as a closed repeater and stay off it.  
 
 

 
 

Hey folks. I just wanted to take a minute to thank the members of MyGMRS.Com for the support and well-wishes.
 
I know sometimes we bicker among ourselves, but at the end of the day we're all human, trying to enjoy the hobby and help we're we can. All of the messages, emails, etc. have really shown me what a great group we have here and how when someone is truly down, the petty stuff gets put aside and concern for a fellow member becomes the priority.
 
Again, thank you all. - Marc

Almost 7 pages of nothing more than pure self-absorbed grammatical masterbation and, as expected, nothing actually accomplished.
Great job everyone, you're making GMRS a better place!

There’s a conversation about that from maybe eight or nine months ago. Technically you might be able to do something like that but you tie up more channels. Done incorrectly you end up with an infinite loop. 
But the regulations don’t allow repeaters to transmit on the 467 MHz frequencies so it’s not really possible. 

People started telling me about this a few months ago and I thought they were full of it, but I finally saw the listing on Amazon...  My biggest issue I see is the confusion it will cause when telling "some people" that you're using a UV-5R on GMRS - "some people" wont know if they should report you to the FCC or not.
Rumor has it that a very popular and beloved YouTuber will be making a video about this in the coming days.

Oh, one other important point that very seldom gets mentioned is the quality of the coax cable. I'm NOT talking about signal loss in the cable. Coax cables are not perfect and will leak a little RF along their length. When your TX and RX cables are in close proximity signal leakage from the TX side coax can get into the repeater's receiver section AFTER the duplexer. That sort of defeats the whole purpose of using one.
Smart repeater builders will use multiply shielded coax cable for this exact reason. Yeah, it might be more expensive, but it's the difference between a great performing system verses a poor one.

That's more important than you think. Remember one of the functions of a duplexer is to "isolate" the RX and TX sections since they are both using the same antenna. A receiver can only tolerate a small level of signal before the AGC, automatic gain control, in the radio reduces the internal signal level to keep it within the operating range of the electronics. The gain can be reduced to the point were a weak signal is reduced to a level where the FM detector can't work. That's desense in action. As strange as it sounds some repeater owners discovered that REDUCING transmitter power improved the receiver sensitivity!
Why is that? Well consider the duplexer has a FIXED attenuation. Those cheap Chinese duplexers don't have a lot to begin with anyway. So if the transmitter power is increased the signal level feed into the receiver's front end increases too.  As I mentioned if it gets too high then the AGC kicks in big time and your receiver goes deaf. That's why higher power repeaters use duplexers with 100db or more isolation. They have to use it to keep the signal level into the receiver below the point were desense occurs.
Finally if the repeater is installed at a site with a bunch of other high power transmitters, which are in close proximity, all that power is trying to get into your repeater's receiver too. The duplexer has to keep all that crap out as well.

I have used one and it worked great.  If you get it from your link they will tune it the the specific frequency you want when you order it.
Just dont put the full 50W through it as it probably wont last long.. If you burn it out using a 50W radio they will replace it within the warranty period, but if you limit your power to ~30Watts or so, it will last much longer.

1 thread (pun intended) about a screw and there's a run on the store.  hahahaha

Were you outside with clear skies? Many GPS signals tend to be too weak indoors. (By design, GPS is a spread spectrum signal just above the noise floor at the frequency used).

One other thought, channel 22 is simplex (TX on 462.725) are you on the repeater equivalent which would/could be channel 30? Most GMRS Radio have the offset built into the repeater channels putting the actual TX at 467.725 and RX at 462.725. So if you were actually on channel 22 you would not be on the input frequency of the repeater.

No, but you can download the brochure for it here.
https://www.icomamerica.com/en/downloads/DownloadDocument.aspx?Document=202
It looks like a simple stripped down GMRS radio, 15 channels with no display. IMHO that's way too much for a radio in this class with so few features.
I would look at some of the other commercial UHF radios for that kind of money you're talking about. Myself I use a Kenwood TK-3170. These turn up for sale used for the money you're talking about with a battery pack, antenna and a charger base. The programming software is easy to find on the internet and the programming cables are cheap.
https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/9/TK-2170&3170Brochure.pdf

Wouxun KG-UV9GX GMRS SHTF (906 Channels)
GMRS Two-Way Radio & VHF/UHF “S#it Hits The Fan” Scanner Custom Programming Chart

Rosa Parks was sitting in seats marked for "colored" and not in seats for "whites." She refused to move from her seat when a white couldn't find another seat. 
Now, if you are going to make statements about historic events you need to verify your facts first. 

Pure..Gold....
I cant thank you all enough.

I was kind of on your side but this is headed down the wrong path.

Nope, nope, nope, nope
I enjoy my QSO's on GMRS, I'm good with those
I actually have no interest in conversing with train engineers, boaters, cops, firefighters, etc
Maybe in person, not on the radio
I'd rather spend my $$$ on radio equipment, not FCC &/or civil fines thank you very much

I was kind of on your side but this is headed down the wrong path.

I was kind of on your side but this is headed down the wrong path.

Wow! Hahaha... I have never seen someone publish wrong information, about such a well-known event, so proudly before! This is elementary school level stuff that you got completely wrong. Well, maybe not completely... there was a woman named Rosa Parks and there was a bus evolved. The similarities end there.
 
Then there's the whole point that fighting oppression and hate has NOTHING to do with following the polite rules of society. You are not oppressed because to play nice with everyone on a specific group of frequencies, you have to use a radio you don't want to, even when it's physically identical to the radio you want to use, but with different firmware. Just not making the connection. 

Oh please…  Such suffering you are enduring.
Arguing the use of a “properly configured ham radio” for a service where certification is required doesn’t make technical sense. 
Being allowed to use a type 95E certified radio as a ham radio makes more sense (and is allowed, but not simultaneously), but still has nothing to do with civil rights and racism. 
 
 

Rosa Parks did not have permission to sit in the bus's front row seats. Was she wrong to knowingly violate the rules? Had you been there, would you have sided with those against her? Would you have created a Public Service announcement cautioning all the "colored" people like her?
Sometimes, a law is so invalid, so egregious, and so unenforceable that it defies logic why it even exits. While using a properly configured Ham radio on 462.550 is less of a moral correction, a correction none the less it is.
Thank you GMRS community for your support.

@pcradio I understand your desire to have one radio for both ham and gmrs. I don't have my ham license yet but do hope to get it one day soon and it would be nice to be out and about with one radio for both services legally. Right now that just is not possible. If you will start a petition asking the FCC to change this, I will be glad to sign it.