WRYZ926

This is very true. And the band/frequencies used will make a difference too. I can reach the local 2m repeater that is 21.5 miles away with a HT inside my house. Some brands of radios do better than others. My Icom and Wouxun HT's work the best. But I can totally forget about trying to get into the 70cm and GMRS repeaters from inside the house with a HT. This shows the difference between VHF and UHF. All three repeaters are on the same tower. I can't even get into the 70cm repeater with a HT outside in my yard and getting into the GMRS repeater is very hit or miss. Ouch. The old lathe and plaster walls are going to give you all kinds of grief since most have chicken wire inside the plaster. Your best bet is to pick a spot inside to keep a HT at and run it to an outside antenna.

Older homes with foil backed insulation, aluminum or steel siding and metal roofs can cause issues. All metal buildings are even worse. My brother built a metal building as his home and it acts like a giant faraday cage. He can't use his HT's inside the house even with the repeater being 5 miles or less from him. 70cm and GMRS are worse than 2m .

We don't get earthquakes that can be felt very often here. I would hate to see a big quake along the New Madrid fault since most structures in the area were never built to withstand earthquakes. I do make sure things are securely placed in the house so they don't fall during an earthquake, or at least as best I can. @OffRoaderX I can see you being like Captain Kangaroo with those ping pong balls falling everywhere if your radios decide to fall off the shelves.

Yes I have unlocked my GMRS certified Baofeng UV-5R GMRS HT's. And they transmit just fine.

I have to agree with you on this. We setup our GMRS repeater for local use only. It's intent is for families and such to use during normal times and as a backup to our 2m and 70cm repeaters during actual emergencies.

It will depend on the brand of radios when it comes to the ability to unlock them. And most of that has to do with the firmware on the Chinese radios. I have a pair of Baofeng UV-5R GMRS radios that can be unlocked through the firmware. On the other hand, there is no way of unlocking Wouxun GMRS radios without flashing a custom firmware in the radio. And I have not found any custom Wouxun firmwares. And not all amateur band radios can be unlocked. I have an Explorer QRZ-1 HT (TYT UV-88) that has custom firmware that keeps one from unlocking it. Icom and Yaesu radios require a hardware modification to unlock. Any UV-5R based Baofeng radio is what you seek. And instructions are easy enough to find through the University of Youtube.

That's okay. We all have other things going on in our lives. And yes you are correct that the DX Engineering tilt over base is well made. I've looked at cheaper alternatives and the quality just wasn't there. I would make my own if I still had access to a machine shop and a big enough press brake. It takes a good sized press brake to bend 1/8" thick stainless steel. The one plant I worked at had 65 and 80 ton press brakes for bending/forming 1/4" steel.

They are for me. Any type of over the ear muffs are going to work fine with stock that have a lower comb height. I usually wear my Razors when shooting my Mossberg 500 without any problems. Think more of a chin weld versus a cheek weld. I use in the ear electron hearing protection when shooting rifles since most of my rifle stocks have adjustable cheek rests. To stay on subject. I can definitely see where the Walker FRS radios would work well for groups using the Razors. You are just limited on options versus using coms headsets that you can hook up to any hand held radio. I normally use my unlocked Wouxun KG-Q10H with my headset.

I can say that the Razor ear muffs work well. I use them all of the time for pistol and shotgun shooting. They do tend to get in the way when using rifles with raised cheek rests. I can hear people talking just fine and they are quick to block out loud noises.

I didn't care for a boom mic that is only held on by velcro. That is the only thing I could find where I could put the boom mic on the right side. I ended up buying a headset designed from the get go for active ear protection and coms. Plus I can hook up any HT I want to and am not stuck with just FRS. Nothing wrong with the Walker FRS radio and Razor head set if that suits your needs. The setup definitely works if one is okay with FRS only and having the boom mic on the left side.

I looked into getting one of those for my Razors. Two things stopped me from buying it. One, it is only FRS and Two the mic won't work for left handed shooters.

FRS shares all of the same simplex channels as GMRS. FRS is limited to 2 watts output on channels 1-7 and 15-22, and limited to 0.5 watts on channels 8-14. GMRS is allowed 5 watts on channels 1-7, max of 0.5 watts on channels 8-14, and up to 50 watts on channels 15-22. GMRS mobile radios are not allowed to use channels 8-14 because they won't go down to 0.5 watts output. Most mobiles will only go down to 5 watts on low power. When it comes to hand held radios, FRS and GMRS have the same number of simplex channels. The difference is that GMRS is allowed repeater channels whereas FRS is not. So yes one can program both FRS and GMRS hand held radios with the exact same simplex channels. The firmware on GMRS radios should keep the power down to 0.5 watts on channels 8-14. All bets are off with amateur band radios that have been unlocked.

The amount of traffic our repeater has is up and down. Some days its quite and other days its busy. Using a second radio, far enough away to prevent defensing, is a good way to tell if you are getting into the repeater. I've done that myself when we were testing our GMRS repeater.

I received a Quansheng UV-K5 (8) recently that worked on 2m, 70cm, MURS, and GMRS right out of the box. I tested it on MURS and it works. And the Baofeng GT-5R that I modified for the 1.25m band that also works on MURS. I really have no use for MURS since no one else uses that band except Walmart. I could have some fun sending Walmart workers on goose chases around the store.

And even the standard dual band version of the GP9 can work just fine on GMRS. Each individual antenna can and will vary. My GP9 has a SWR of 1.5 across the 467MHz portion and SWR of 1.7 on the 462 MHz portion. I am at 15 or less for 2m and 70cm.

You have taken the first step on the road to recovery GMRS repeaters listen on 467MHz and transmit on 462MHz. Radios are opposite, they transmit on 467MHz and receive on 462MHZ. So yes you can hear someone using simplex on 462MHZ when your radio is on a repeater channel. But you will not be able to talk to the other radio since you are transmitting on 467MHz when on a repeater channel. This is where radios with dual VFO's are nice. You can set the main (A or B ) for repeater use and still monitor a simplex channel on the other VFO (B). Every HT (except the Icom IC-T10) are dual watch as are all of my mobile/base radios. I always have one side on the local repeater and monitor other repeaters or simplex frequencies/channels on the other side. I have to agree that having a dual watch radio with dual PTT buttons is a nice feature. My Wouxun KG-Q10H (and the KG-Q10G) are that way.

As mentioned already, line of sight is very important. Hills and thick vegetation/trees will effect UHF frequencies. Now with everything being equal, yes a 20 watt radio will get out farther than a 5 watt radio. You basically have to quadruple the power to notice a difference. I say usually since there are always exceptions. My refurbished KG-1000G died so I put my KG-XS20G in its place. There is one repeater that is 50 miles away that I can get into fine with the 50 watt radio but barely get into it with the 20 watt radio using the exact same antenna.

Yes there are way more modes than I listed. I just listed the 3 most common ones used in amateur radio.

While one can run both analog and digital on the same repeater, it isn't always easy to get everything correct and functioning. A lot of it is in the programming of external controllers. We have three 70cm repeaters and all three are running DMR. But only one runs both DMR and analog without issues. The other two are only working on DMR at this time. We are seriously thinking about doing away with the DMR and sticking with just analog and then linking all three repeaters together. But we can't link GMRS repeaters (subject beaten to death). On the repeater with both working, the DMR side does cut the analog side off when someone is using DMR. Again it is a matter of reconfiguring the Raspberry Pi and the controller. This is true even with amateur radio. There is DMR, Yaesu Fusion and also D-Star used by Icom and Kenwood. People will argue which is better. And they are not compatible with each other.

I have several LIPO4 batteries that I keep charged up and ready to go. I have two 10AH batteries for my portable setup along with a 50AH battery in the shack that is occasionally used for my dual band and/or GMRS base radios. I also have a 100AH battery that I use for my pond hopper boat that I can grab in an emergency. We have a generator and battery backup system for our 2m repeater and I am trying to get the club to tie in the 70cm and GMRS repeaters into the backup system. We also have a 2m Winlink repeater and getting ready to get a HF Winlink repeater running soon. I don't know about other states but Missouri EMS likes to use Winlink. Our HF Winlink repeater will be setup for 40m and 80m at minimum. We are looking at being able to run on the other HF bands too.

A lot of people, myself included, started out with a handheld radio and a magnet mount antenna for vehicle use. While range might be limited due to using a 5 watt radio, it allows you to get on the air while figuring out what you want for a good mobile and/or base radio.

I wasn't for sure about that on 70cm repeaters, It is common on 2m repeaters around me.

I have not seen a negative offset on 70cm repeaters. But that is not to say that negative offsets are not used on that band. I know a few of the 2m repeaters in my area do use a negative offset. As mentioned, all 70cm and GMRS repeaters use a 5.000 offset.

That looks like the tilt base from DX Engineering. They are nice but pricey for what they are. I say that as a retired machinist knowing what goes into producing them. DX Engineering OMNI-TILT™ Vertical Antenna Tilt Bases DXE-OMNITILT-2P Yes I have one and they are well built out of 1/8" stainless steel.

You're welcome That photo is of my 6 band cobweb antenna. It is for 6m, 10m, 12m, 15m, 17m, and 20m bands. Here is the clamp I used to guy my 2m/70cm antenna and the cobweb antenna. EZ 43-A Adjustable 3 Way Down Guy Ring for up to 2-1/4" Mast I put the clamp right below the antennas and tied the guy ropes to the clamp and then found spots below to tie the other end of the ropes to.