[Noob attempting to hit repeater]

Hey guys, Im new, and off to a bit of a rough start. I got my callsign and permission to use my local repeater, but I am unable to make contact with the repeater, and I think my settings may be the issue.

 

Gear:

Motoraola MS350R

Midland MXT400

Baofeng BF-F8HP

 

Repeater settings:

Output: 462.675 141.3hz

Input: 467.675 141.3hz

 

I have a Midland MXT400 with the Radio tuned to GMRS20 Repeater, with the tone set to 141.3. I have my Baofeng set to 462.675, + 005.000 for offset, with both the RX and TX tones set to 141.3. With these settings I can TX to the Midland from the Baofeng, but not the other way round. Have I made a setup error? Thanks in advance for the help.

Make sure you put some distance between the Midland and the Baofeng. Remember the Midland is putting out as much as 40 Watts of signal on 462mhz,. This is likely crushing the ability of the Baofeng to hear what is coming from the repeater on 467mhz. As it is, the Baofeng has crap for filters, but even a high-end ht would likely have the same problem with that scenario. Try getting someone to listen to the ht while it is farther away from the mobile... Maybe down the block a bit.

 

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[GMRS-V1]

Is it normal for this radio to show the wrong frequency when first turned on? For example, when I first turn it on it says the wrong frequency. Then when I change the channel and go back to the original channel it is correct. This happens regardless of which channel I turn it on in the beginning. Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior or did I just get a defective one. If this is normal I'm just going to get a TR-505 instead.

I've seen similar behavior. It seems to happen for me when I disable dual PTT. Probably a glitch in the software.

 

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[New to GMRS]

So basically I just say "this is WQYY816, do xxxxxxx copy"? And then if I'm transmitting for longer than 10 minutes I just say "this is WQYY816 on the air"? Lol like idk exactly what to say. I know I'm suppose to use my call sign but is there a certain thing I should say with it?

Close. The accepted radio procedure-not a rule but a way to keep everyone on the same page-. Is to say the station you are calling then your own call sign. For example if I were trying to contact you, I would say

 

"WQYY816, WQYQ485"

 

You would answer by saying

 

"WQYQ485, WQYY816 go ahead"

 

Then every 10 minutes....

 

"WQYY816"

 

Then when you are done with that conversation..

 

"WQYY816, clear"

 

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[New to GMRS]

Congratulations, and welcome to the GMRS community. The first thing to know is that you must identity with your FCC issued call sign. At the beginning of your transmission, then about every ten minutes. The ham world has a whole world of protocols some of which apply only to certain bands. GMRS is much simpler. Just remember to ID when transmitting.

 

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[Radio advice needed]

I must have misread your original post. One of the problems with skipping the type acceptance and having the FRS -only channels programmed is that those frequencies are the interstitials on the 467 side of things- so, adjacent to repeater input frequencies. I would be less than pleased if you were operating a radio like that and unintentionally jacking with my repeater because you were running 10 times the power allowed on a very narrow adjacent frequency. Food for thought.

 

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[Radio advice needed]

I think that by adding the FRS only channels in your requirements, you are severely limiting your options. Having those channels basically leaves you with a bubble pack radio that is locked down tight, not to mention it ensures you have a permanently attached cheap antenna and forget the ability to program the radio at all.

 

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[Looking for info on my icon handset from RK Leef]

I believe the gentleman passed away some time ago,his business has been closed for some time...William

Oh wow. That's too bad. Real nice guy. He had good quality stuff at very fair prices.

 

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[Boafeng GMRS-V1]

I got mine in late November and have used it occasionally. No problems so far. One thing I noticed is how quick the stock battery charges - 2.5 hrs. 8.2 volts. I left it on (scanning) for several days before it needed recharging. I put up a quick and very 'amateur' Youtube video up on Nov. 25. I'll probably do another video later when I get a better cam.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y6Fa1Tu97I

That video actually helped me make the decision to purchase mine! Thanks for posting it. For the money, it's a hard little radio to beat.

 

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[Boafeng GMRS-V1]

I've spent the last 2-3 days playing with the V1 I just received.  I don't have equipment to test the actual wattage this thing is putting out, it does have an option of selecting Hi/Low power on a per-channel basis, and the simplex channels are all set to low power by default whereas the duplex channels are set to High. There is however, nowhere in the manual nor on the radio itself that specifies what High TX power vs Low TX Power actually is.  That said:

 

I found the build quality to be far superior to a typical bubble pack radio, however short of the ICOMS I own (F21GM and F4TR1) and the Motorolas I used back in my days as a paramedic (Big bricks that could be thrown, full force against a brick wall and still keep going).  Overall I think this thing could take the beating of normal wear and tear, but I doubt that it would stand up to hard core duty on a daily basis.  Still for ~$55 it's hard to beat.  

 

Simplex transmission is clear and loud on the receiving end, the supplied rubber  duck is good enough, but I swapped it out with a Nagoya 701C and the difference was undeniably noticeable.   In fact, with the 701C, I was hitting a distant repeater much more consistently and on the RX side, I was receiving weaker signals than I was able to do with my ICOMS which ARE 5 watt radios IIRC.  I don't know if it is the wattage or the fact that the 701C is tuned better than the antennas on my ICOMs, and in the end I can't tell you if this is legitimately a 2 or a 5 watt radio, but I would be just as comfortable talking through one of these in an emergency as I would my ICOMs.

 

Programming from the keypad is not difficult, but getting the programming cable and doing it via chirp would probably be easier.  Everything is selectable and modifiable except that you can only TX on the GMRS frequencies. Tones can be programmed directly from the keypad and you can program additional channels VHF and UHF bands for scan-only operation. The one problem I had is that I could not program my local NOAA weather channel.  I can switch to VFO mode and enter the frequency and receive the signal, but when it came time to saving the frequency to a channel, it would not do it.  Any other frequency seems to save without a problem except for that one.  

 

I haven't had it long enough to comment on battery life but they do take the larger BL-8L 3600 mah battery that you can get for the uv-82 HP's

 

One thing that surprised me was how compact this radio is.  It is tiny and I am seriously considering the larger battery just to make the thing more substantial.   

 

Hope that helps.  I'd be glad to update this later with more info if anyone is interested.  I know there was a lot of curiosity about these radios.  For the price of a pair of bubble packs, this radio has been a real pleasure to use so far.  

[Boafeng GMRS-V1]

It's cheap enough I have one coming. There seems to be some conflicting info about this radio all over the interwebz. I'll try it out and see what I can do to add to that noise.

 

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[Introduction]

Hello, I'm not new to GMRS. my original callsign was WPUE603, I am back after a long break and now have a new call sign. I am happy to see the community still exists and that the FCC backed off making the service license-free. I notice the service is not as congested as it once was, in my opinion, that is not a bad thing. Looking forward to being part of this group.

 

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[Looking for info on my icon handset from RK Leef]

I bought a great handset a long time ago, an ICOM ICF4TR1 pre-programmed for GMRS use from a website called RK Leef. At the time, he included an instruction sheet on all the different functions, a majority of which I've figured out, but there are some that I don't remember. Did anyone here have that particular radio?

 

He was active on the gmrsweb.org forums. I don't have the ability to read the radio, so I was hoping someone else may have that set of instructions or maybe knows how to get a hold of RK Leef - their website is no longer there.

 

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