WRYZ926

And that is why I will always recommend a Part 95 certified GMRS radio for those new to radio. As you said, they work right out of the box and are easy to program.

Oh my, mister stickler for the Rules is recommending a 100 Watt radio for GMRS when the power limit is 50 Watts???? I wonder if he actually read the regulations like he tells everyone else to do. And as @OffRoaderX stated, the Wouxun KG-1000G and KG-1000G Plus radios are the only Part 95 certified consumer grade radios with a removable face plate. And they work right out of the box and are easy to program through the radio or with the Wouxun CPS from Buy Two Way Radios. Yes you can buy an amateur band or commercial band radio and open them up to work on GMRS but then you get into the whole Part 95 Certification. And we will leave that argument for another time.

A good Weller or Hako soldering station with adjustable heat and different size tips is a must. I use the smallest tips possible with the heat turned up when soldering tiny wires to tiny solder pads and tiny components. I want to get the pads/wires/components up to temp quickly without heating up surrounding components or solder joints.

One of the best purchases I have made in the last few months was getting a digital microscope. Here is what I ordered: TOMLOV DM9 Max Digital Microscope: 20MP 10.1" 1500X HD IPS HDMI. And here is a photo of a digital command control board for n scale steam locomotives. Those are either 28 or 30 gauge wires that have to be soldered to the electric motor and lights. Here is a photo of the Arcom RC-210 board. \ I had to solder everything onto the board. At least there weren't any tiny toroids that I had to wrap like on my QRP EFHW antenna. As you can see, skills learned from other hobbies transfer over to amateur radio. There are many different facets to amateur radio that one can explore. Having your general license opens up so many doors compared to a technician license.

I forgot to mention that I was voluntold to assemble the controller board once the club realized that working with small components doesn't bother me. I learned my lesson not to talk about soldering tiny digital control boards to N Scale locomotives or showing off any radio/antenna/CW practice oscillators to club members

Nice clean install, good job. What matters in the end is that the setup meets your needs. The Tram antennas are nice and easy to tune. I use the Tram 1174 for GMRS on my Ford Escape. I stopped tuning/cutting once I get the SWR to 1.2 on 462 and 1.4 on 467

I did not study for or feel comfortable taking the general test when I took the technician test. I did pass the general test about two months later. It was pretty easy. And having your general definitely opens up more for you. I'm still trying to study for the Extra but I keep getting distracted and chasing other squirrels. Right now I am busy with an Arcom RC-210 repeater controller. assembling the board was the easy part, understanding the programming manual and actually getting the controller programmed is another story. Plans are to connect the main 70cm repeater, a 70cm Allstar node, and our GMRS repeater to the RC-210.

200 miles can be a stretch even for VHF frequencies depending on location, terrain, height of the antennas, etc.. The antennas for our Motorola 2m and 70cm repeaters is at 900 feet above ground. And we are only getting around 85 mile radius on 2m and about 35 mile radius on 70cm.

I try to avoid poison ivy/oak when possible. It's weird that sometimes I will breakout in a rash and other times I won't. One thing that will also help dry it out is put some epson salt in your bath.

Well noob is politer than NUG or FNG And we all learn everyday as long as we aren't hard headed know it alls.

Poison ivy and poison oak can grow in bush form or vine form. It is very easy to identify as a vine versus grape and other types of vines. Poison ivy and oak vines will always have a lot of air roots that clings to what it is growing on versus free hanging.

If you are using a Verizon Orbic RC400L cellular hotspot then you are definitely using RF and also using the cellular service to connect the nodes. I see that you are having issues connecting the nodes through your cellular hot spots and since you are talking about DMZ, ports and IP addresses then you are connecting the nodes through the internet. All of which is prohibited by the FCC on GMRS. So you won't get much help here on this GMRS forum. Plus the attitude won't get you very far either. I can tell you that @SteveShannon is definitely not a noob to GMRS or amateur radio. Best of luck figuring out your networking issues.

A well setup repeater will have battery backup and generator backup power. Granted one still has to be able to get to the repeater site to keep a generator fueled and running. Hurricane Helena is just one example of properly setup repeaters with backup power kept running even when everything else was down. We have battery backup and generator backup at our main repeater site that has our 2m, main 70cm, and GMRS repeaters. So far we have not had to run the generator even in the bad storms with tornadoes.

Yes ignoring them is the best as sometimes killing them with kindness only makes them worse. For GuestPG3, you had some sad person messing with you, just ignore them too. As mentioned, police don't use GMRS frequencies.

Negative Nancy is that weird 3rd cousin that everyone stays far away from at family reunions. Some complain about the price of the RT systems CPS but the cost is worth it for me. Especially now that they are starting to have more MAC versions available.

The HF bands have been bad for the last few weeks, especially 10m and 12m. I've only used 6m on SSB and digital modes as my antenna is not resonant in the FM portion of the band. There is only one 6m FM repeater in Missouri and its status is in limbo right now.

GMRS users would be secondary to the US military on 46/49 MHz just like amateur radio is secondary on the 6m band. The US military still uses 30 MHz through 88 MHz for VHF FM radios such as the SINCGARS radios. I can see 46/49 MHz being used to link GMRS repeaters. I know its common to use 1.25m/220 MHz repeaters to link 2m repeaters.

You should be able to change the tones for the repeater channels. I'm not familiar with the DB40-G so I don't know if they are listed as CH 23-30 or RPT 15-22. Either way there should not be any reason why you can't add tones to the pre programmed repeater channels. Now as far as why the first 30 channels are locked, some manufacturers do that since GMRS is channelized. And if you can't add/change the tones for the pre-programmed repeater channels, then just add channels above 30 to what ever settings you want. PS: Ignore Negative Nancy, he is off his meds again.

The Missouri Highway Patrol stopped monitoring channels 9 and 19 about 20-25 years ago. Plus channel 9 is pretty much useless with all the ID10T's running amplifiers with the CB radios. I hear at least one station from Puerto Rico blasting away on channel 9 all of the time. He sounds like he is sitting right next to me. And not too many truckers use CBs anymore. What traffic you do hear is not something I would want women and children to hear. When I do listen to CB channels, its usually some ID10T showing his lack of intelligence or guys chasing skip. GMRS is not just for talking to family and friends. You can use it for what ever reasons you want as long as you are not breaking any rules/regulations and you are not causing interference with others.

@GreggInFL and @SteveShannon you two better throw your radios directly into the trash since they won't get 200 + miles of FARz. I can't help with GMRS nets in Florida. We have a monthly net on our GMRS repeater for those that want to participate. And for those that do not want to participate, that's fine too, their choice. A net is a good way to periodically test your equipment and make sure everything is working. I hope we never have to use any of our repeaters in an actual emergency but knowing that we can in nice.

A lot of the GMRS repeaters here in Missouri that are along major US highways/interstates use the Travel Tone of 141.3. It's a different story once you get into the St Louis and Kansas City areas. As Mark and WRUE951 stated, there is not an official travel channel per se. No channels were ever fully adopted for that use on GMRS. You can monitor channel 20 if you want or you can scan the simplex channels while traveling. You can also just program extra repeater channels with the tones set to 141.3. And just ignore Negative Nancy and all of his negative vibes. He is either off his meds or needs to go seek professional help.

Goldstone has us all beat, including MR 250 Miles, on how many FARz they get. I found out the hard way about the extra security on the Goldstones portion of base. I'm just glad security decided to ask me why I was there first since they did have loaded M2's pointed at me. They escorted me back onto Ft Irwin proper. All of the live fire ranges are on the opposite side of the base (north side) from Goldstone. The rotational (training) units use to deploy live mines back in the 1990's, but they were the type that were either command detonated or self detonated after a certain time period. FT Irwin shares its western part of the northern border with China Lake Navel Weapons Testing. We had a couple of Navy cruise missiles that were misguided and landed on Ft Irwin. Luckily no one was on the live fire ranges at the time. The northeast corner of Ft Irwin meets up with the Southwest corner of Death Valley National Park. The winds would blow from Death Valley onto Ft Irwin during the summer. The live fire ranges were always at least 10 degrees hotter than main base.

The Bridgecom repeaters do not transmit the CW ID using tones at all. So the only way one will hear the ID is if they have their RX tones turned off. But there is quite a bit of traffic on simplex that none of us want to hear so we all use RX tones. The Arcom RC-210 will take care of that and allow us to transmit the ID with tones enabled. Plus it allows us to do so much more than just run the ID.

I left Ft Irwin in 1996 so my memory is not the best. The turn off for Goldstone was right after you went through the gate which was after you passed the painted rocks.

Gold Stone is actually inside of Ft Irwin and has been for a long time. I know that there are certain areas around Goldstone that even military personnel are restricted from. I was stationed at NTC in 95-96. One of my first vehicle recovery missions was to the southwest side of base and I accidentally crossed over into the Goldstone area and was met by armed HMMV's with M2's pointed at me. The guards wore solid tan uniforms and no rank or insignia. I was promptly escorted back to the actual training area.