berkinet

Nice setup, nice system all-around!

When you say "low" do you mean low audio volume, or signal strength? If the issue is volume, make sure your channel is set for wide-band (12.5kHz deviation). If the issue is signal strength, try an outside antenna. You won't need anything fancy. You can just make a simple 1/4 wave antenna and attach it to the top of a painters pole to get it up off the ground. For coax, just use whatever you can find or buy inexpensively. For a short run, even RG58U would be fine. Then, all you need is an adapter from your radio to the coax and the right connector on the other end of the coax to connect to your antenna. If that works, then you can start thinking about a better antenna, one with more gain, either omni or uni directional depending on your needs. If you want to get the antenna up higher, you can also think about better coax. But, don't try to wring every 0.1dm loss out of the system, it won't make any practical difference. Here is one site with plans for a home-brew antenna, there are many, many more: https://www.localmeridian.com/2016/06/build-your-own-antenna-14-wave-vhf-ground-plane-antenna/

It has been reported on this forum that the MXT400 can be user programmed to wide-band. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1837-midland-gmrs-product-updates/?p=17118

If you do you not have the tools and are not comfortable inside the radio, I would strongly suggest you take it to a local radio shop to be repaired. As noted previously, it is likely a problem with the power supply, but it could be something else as well. A well-equipped shop will be able to quickly diagnose and repair the problem. However, one thing to keep in mind is, unless the radio is simply an OEM repackaging of some standard product made by someone else, it is possible that parts, particularly in the power amplifier section, might be difficult or impossible to source. It will likely not be something terminally serious, but it’s best to be prepared for what they might find

And, if the problem is the power supply, which as @WRAK968 suggests is a likely, it is then very likely to be caused by bad capacitors. In a well built piece of equipment, which your radio seems to be, the capacitors should be fairly easy to change. At least for someone who is comfortable with a soldering iron inside a radio

There is an issue with the GMRS-V1. You can only program repeaters in specific channel spaces (memory locations). I do not have a V1 with me, so I cannot tell you for sure. However, if I recall correctly, they are locations 15-22.

FYI. The official website to search for FCC Compliance reports is: https://www.fcc.gov/oet/ea/fccid For the Woxun radio being discussed you would enter Grantee Code: WVT Product Code: WOUXUN16 The site fccid.io draws their information from the FCC site.

I would differ on this view. It depends on what the goal is. If you want to know the maximum possible useful GMRS range in an area, then yes, equipment will matter a lot. However, if you want to know your maximum useful range, then you, by all means, need to test with the same equipment you are going to use. An old developers saying goes something like: Test what you will use. Use what you tested.

Well, the continental US (lower 48 states) are around 3,119,890 square miles. If all the repeaters in the listing were active, that would still only be 1 repeater for every 1,853 square miles. And then, many repeaters serve the same general area, especially in larger cities.

Why not get an appropriately long copper rod, drive it into the ground as close to the base of your existing pole as possible. and bond the two together? But first, are there stations, mobiles or repeaters you think you could reach with a higher antenna that you cannot reach from your attic antenna? If the answer is no, you are done.

All P1225s are repeater capable.

Before anyone spends any money on an antenna you should really try a simple 1/4 wave dipole. They are cheap to buy, and easy to make on your own (lots of instructions online). The simple fact is that as a Line-of-Sight service, GMRS/UHF doesn't go very far anyway. It makes no sense to spend money for gain to create a signal that will not travel any further. Of course, there are many cases where a gain antenna (uni or multi directional) makes sense. But, the vast majority of applications can be well met with the most basic of antennas.

Recently learned about this site that has an excellent user guide to GMRS and FRS radio. Thanks Christiaan. https://www.k0tfu.org/reference/frs-gmrs-privacy-codes-demystified.html

Interesting juxtaposition. It seems obvious both groups are using electronic communications. From text messaging on up. Where I would expect to see a clear difference is in the level of the planning. The protesters tend to be ad-hoc groups, perhaps started by some organized core, but generally attracting most participants at the last minute. On the other hand, the prepper/militia groups seem to better organized, tend to plan, and meet regularly. So, I would guess thoseorganizations would have more sophisticated equipment, be better trained to use it and have better included "security" in their plans.

Some radios already have that feature, either voice of morse code. However, using such a feature would probably make you pretty unpopular pretty quickly. You will soon develop the habit of giving your ID on a regular basis. Most people start with an ID after initial contact and then more or less every 10 minutes.

Well, at times you might wish to listen to the radio, run the windshield wipers, turn on your headlights, and maybe even start the car

You got it right up to... Every station needs to identify, both you and your son in this case. Since your sou son-in-law is operating under your license, he can just use the same call sign as you. If you want, you can add identifiers. Like WYZ123-dad and WXYZ123-son. Or, unit1, unit2, car1, etc. but, the identifier is not required and it is OK for all stations to simply use the same whole sign.

1 - our local CERT group's.

Just for a different take on this, since the frequencies you want to transmit on are looking good, and you are never going to transmit on 465, I’d just let it go and give it a try.

Thanks for the tip. To save others the task of finding it on the Scadacore site, here is the direct link: https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/

That is not exactly the case. While licenses can only be issued to individuals, there is no prohibition against the use of GMRS for business purposes. If you had a business and each of your employees had a license, you would be perfectly legal.

Two quick .comments. GMRS is closer to 64cm than 2meters (~144mHzj And, when considering signal strength and safety, keep in mind that the intensity of radio waves over distance, like light, obeys the inverse-square law, which states that intensity is inversly proportional to the square of the distance from the source. I.e. double the distance, and you get four times less power.

FWIW, I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Group Mode feature was for signaling other radios, but not for talking.

Look a bit upthread, Jones beat you on that. Though, he was a bit cryptic.

A sprinkler head is also a useful analogy. Particularly for a directional antennas.