WRYZ926

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.

@WSDU214 I will also suggest using some guy rope to help guy the 10 foot pole from moving around or falling over. You will want a rope that is UV resistant. This is what I use for guy rope and it works well. 1/8 inch Black Dacron Polyester Cord - 500 foot spool Here is a photo of how I guyed my 6 band HF cobweb antenna. I used a satellite j mount and an 8 foot piece of fence post. The tie off point for the guy ropes is a few inches below the antenna.

Are you guys using the latest version of CHIRP Next? Are you making sure that the programming cable is pushed all the way in? I have used CHIRP to program the UV-5R GMRS and GT-5R radios I own without issues as long as I make sure the cable is pushed into the radio all the way. I also have programmed a couple of UV-5RM radios and UV-9R radios again without issues. I used the latest version of CHIPR Next and the OEM Baofeng programming cables for all of them. I programmed the two UV-5RM radios a couple of weeks ago and programmed the UV-9R radios yesterday. Note: the UV-9R uses a Motorola type connector and not the usual Kenwood type connector.

Yes it is annoying. There is one repeater near me that does not run any tones.

I know the 27 MHz walkie talkies were set to CB channel 14 but man would they mess with all of the 27 MHz remote control cars. I always tried to stick with the 49MHz remote control cars.

Wall warts will only put out 12 volts which will cut back on the radio's power output. Plus most wall warts are very noisy as far as RFI and EFI goes. Where do you plan on using the 25 watt radio at? If you plan on using it in your vehicle then it can be powered by a the cigarette lighter/accessory outlet. Though connecting the positive wire to the battery and negative wire to a good chassis ground is the preferred method. Or as mentioned , you can run it from a battery or portable power station.

That's how I feel about the MTX-500 I had and my brother felt the same way about the MTX-575. Neither one of us own a Midland radio anymore. One can update the firmware on the MTX500 if they want. But the MTX-575 is just like the MTX-275, you have to ship them both back to Midland for any firmware upgrades.

You should be fine with RG8, LRM400 and equivalent, and the M&P cables @SteveShannon mentioned with a coax cable of 25-30 feet. I did calculations using 30 feet of RG8 and LMR400 using the kv5r coax loss calculator I used an antenna with 3 dBd of gain. This was with a 25 watt radio. RG8 - 36 watts ERP LMR400 - 41 watts ERP Remember that antenna manufacturers advertise using dBi which is higher than dBd. The kv5r calculator uses dBd. Subtract 2.14 from the dBi to get the dBd. Most coax is going to pretty lossy on UHF frequencies, there is no way around that. Unless you want to spend big money for the proper air core coax cable like used on towers.

You could be getting noise from several sources. The obvious one is the alternator. But it really could be anything. I had an occasional whine on my radios in a 2023 Ford Escape until I put clamp on ferrite beads on both ends of the cable going from the alternator and the battery. I also put ferrite beads on the positive and negative wires going to the radios. Make sure that the negative wire from the radio goes to a good chassis ground and not the negative terminal of the battery. And if putting clamp on ferrite beads on the power cables does not work then add some to the coax cable. One can also add a grounding strap directly to the alternator and a near by chassis ground too. PS: it's not going to really matter what brand of radio or brand of antenna one uses, modern vehicles with all of their electronics and computers are noisy. Hybrid and all electric vehicles are worse and why vehicle manufacturers are trying to get rid of AM radios.

I still have a set of Sears Walkie Talkies and they work. The problem with those old walkie talkies was the there was no squelch adjustment on most of them. And one was lucky to talk from one room to another inside. I would hope that the wrist watches work better than those walkie talkies did.

I was worried about my GP-9 too. But it has done just fine through high winds.

There are no American made GMRS radios. Even the Midland radios are made in China. If you stick with well known name brands sold by American resellers then you will be fine. I doubt you will have to worry about Baofeng radios sold by B-Tech. And I also would not worry about any radios sold by Buy To Way Radios. I haven't had any of my Baofeng, Icom, TYT, and Wouxun radios blow up on me.

So far this year I have experienced shear wind at 50 to 60 MPH and all of my antennas did fine. I have a Comet GP-9, Comet CA-712EFC, and a 6 band cobweb antenna. The standard GP-9 is 18' 6"t long while the GP-9NC is 16' 9" long. If the longer GP9 does fine then the GP-9NC will be fine. For those that don't know, a 6 band cobweb antenna is a horizontal multi band wire antenna with a wire for each band. Mine is about 8 foot wide.