GreggInFL

(Couldn't find an existing thread...) Considering travel to Japan, Taiwan, mainland China, S. Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Should I bring a radio?

Thanks Steve. Makes sense. I'm guessing I shouldn't use the 30 year-old coax which is conveniently attached to my now-unused DirecTV dish, right?

I've been told that HTs lose a large percentage of power pushing through the cable of an external antenna such as a j-pole. I get that conceptually, but does the better antenna make up for the power loss? (<-- New to this.)

Where did you find the name field? I just checked the software and ran dry.

Anyone not using a Farzometer 2000 is a loser.

I bought this last fall: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09TPZ221K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Seems to work well, though I haven't done anything that would resemble scientific testing.

I have the same radios. As someone recommended, forget the repeaters for now and just start talking via simplex, i.e. radio to radio. Put both radios on the same channel and push the button. These are dual-band radios so be sure the little arrow is pointing to the same channel on each radio.

I was going to say "UV-5R" but didn't want any heads to explode.

He makes a good point. I'm new to this as well and noticed that I didn't know what features I wanted because I'd never used one. Nothing wrong with buying a $20 CCR and turning it on. You'll soon get a feel for what you like and don't like -- and probably end up with a Wouxun. You can chuck the CCR in the glove box.

I didn't realize "stale" was a word used generically wrt databases. Then again, I haven't written any code in decades, so I must also be stale. Thanks, Steve. Helpful as always.

I'll bite. What's a stale repeater?

This is my profile to the local repeater, which is challenging to hit with a 5W given the vegetation. You may be fighting some elevation issues: https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/

While GMRS is a bring-your-own-contacts service you can bump into strangers. It's not like amateur radio but it can still be amusing. I'm new to this and when I first connected to a local repeater my radio check was picked up right away by a trucker who uses HAM, GMRS and CB. He was legit in his usage but also ID'd with his handle; “This is XXXX123, a.k.a. 'Roadrunner,'” or something similar. Since my HT was fresh out of the box the roger beep was on and he gave me the Sad Ham treatment about it. “I'm gonna call you Mr. Roger Beep.” I replied, “Yeah, I've heard that some people don't like the roger beep.” He came back, “Hey, I've seen that 'Some People' guy. He's good!” Roadrunner: Hey, Mr. Roger Beep. You out there? Me: WRYP592, a.k.a. Mr. Roger Beep monitoring. Rested and ready to beep. And we're off...

With all the water in Florida I guarantee you can find GMRS users who have added Marine VHF to their radios.

Welcome, Mike! Thank you for your service. I'm new here as well. I suggest you buckle up 'cause this crowd knows what it's talking about. The ham input is icing on the cake.

I hear the local pet boarding kennel.

This new guy should have picked up on the licensing issue. Good stuff, guys. Thanks. (I love this bar.)

I assume you are referring to offering products for sale. How about internal business operations; e.g. Walmart running its stores with GMRS (assuming the company would want to)?

This conversation reminds me of the decades spent on Marine VHF. 25W with a large antenna will reach a loooooong way.

Exactly, a middle man acting as agent. In the group discussion I mentioned repeaters and everyone got glassy eyed except a friend who got his EE paper from MIT. He has zero radio experience but after less than a minute of me explaining offsets, tones, 50W base stations and real antennas he got it. He was curious about range so I invited him to stop by for a little demo. Using the worse radio I could find (UV-5R w/stock rubber ducky antenna) I explained that if we hit the local repeater we'd “hear a hiss and Morse code.” For someone trying to push a 2W FRS transmission through the woods he had a hard time believing the GMRS transmission was being bounced nearly forty miles – until we pulled up the map on this site. Sorry to go off topic, but I found it interesting that while many here think that hams dipping “down” into GMRS business is not helpful, many FRS users would enjoy moving “up” to GMRS if the transition were made simpler, all with no interest in additional features.

Love it.

Agreed. We spent the weekend with friends who do a lot of FRS on RVing and backcountry/hunting trips. When the wife and I pullout out the GMRS HTs the questions started ("How come that antenna comes off?"). By the end of the conversation everyone was eager to upgrade. The biggest problem was licensing; not that it was costly, but that it was so cumbersome. "Well, first you need to establish an FRN, then you need to apply for a GMRS license..." I loved one response: "Amazon should sell the license." Which is not a bad idea.

Welcome!

You can do this manually on the GM-15 Pro for that PA repeater. Not sure what repeater Alejandro is working with, so the values will probably differ. WN2XFO should be repeater channel #8 on your radio. It will specifically show as "RPT-8" in memory location 030. Go there, hit the menu button, find the "Rx CTCSS" and "Tx CTCSS" values in locations 10 and 12 respectively. Set them both to 107.2. Get out of the menu and back to channel RPT-8. Hit the PTT button, put out your call sign and ask for a radio check. If you're set up correctly and someone is listening you might get a response. If you're set up correctly but no one is responding, you will hear a hiss from the repeater after you release the PTT button. This means you've connected to the repeater and all is well. The repeater may also also transmit an ID, sometimes in Morse code. This all assumes you are close enough to "hit" the repeater.

Welcome Alejandro. I have the same radio and use this cable to program with a computer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V4D6F5F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. The software is the one used for the Radioddity GM-30. You can find it on this page: https://www.radioddity.com/pages/radioddity-download. You can program manually off the screen, but I've found the computer to make life much easier.