GreggInFL

Why? Why would you want anyone not doing welfare checks?

Same here with the same antenna. That mag mount on the truck helps compensate for poor LOS.

^Thanks Brent! Much appreciated. I've handed out some HTs in case everything goes down, though we are more central so we're not expecting much.

You'll like those radios. The wife and I use them. As others have said, put some space between them and try to talk via the repeater.

I hear a couple, sometime three, hams yacking casually on GMRS weekdays between 3:00 and 5:00 pm. One guy hits the gym at 4:00 and signs off from the parking lot. I can tell they are hams from the conversation. If I do a radio check off a big local repeater there will sometimes be a conversation, but it's almost always a newly-licensed GMRSer.

Big time. Our neighborhood was getting quotes for high speed internet and one vendor specialized in RF. They took one look at the pines and no quoted. We went with fiber.

This is hilarious. You win, dude. You have purchased more stuff in one month than I have in a year -- and that's my fault.

This has been happening in colleges where the profs have learned to submit the work to AI and ask if it was generated by AI.

Okay, let's go there. If a family member moves across the country, what's the problem? How does that single link threaten anything? Where's the downside?

It would be local if the mountain weren't there. Agreed, but what if you don't own the mountain? What if this were an urban setting and rather than a mountain the object blocking transmissions is a building, which you don't own? I understand how a bunch of repeaters connected by a bunch of links could cause problems, but in this example the objective is to maintain a normal transmission range, not to spread RF over the continent. What's the downside? Simple wording: "A GMRS repeater shall not be linked to more than one other GMRS repeater."

I agree with all of the above with one exception -- which was first brought up by a poster on this forum, so no credit to me. If you have two local repeaters that are separated by a mountain, seriously limiting the range of both, linking the two should be allowed. More than two, no.

Don't feel bad, I have the same thing happening. 25W mobile with a mag mount is easy 15-20 miles, but I move the rig inside on a pie pan and it performs worse than an HT. Telling Santa I want a real antenna.

They go "stale" after a while; yeah, I think it's a year. The little gear/settings button near the upper left can enable both stale and offline repeaters to show.

I'm in Florida as well and feel your pain, i.e. two miles between handhelds. You could cover that distance by simply plugging into a better antenna. I suggest you try a mag mount antenna on your vehicle and plug it into the handhelds. Cheap way to start and since we're talking emergency only, rather than daily use, the worse thing you'd have to do is agree to drive to a local hill. I've used this with my hand held and it works rather well. Is there a repeater near you?

I hate it when that happens.

^ Thanks, Steve. That's what I expected.

Many appear to be what looks like RJ45 connectors. Is there an industry standard for the wiring, making them interchangeable, or is each mic matched to its corresponding radio? TIA.

The first response people have to the idea of using a radio is, "Why bother, I have a cell phone?" I noticed this with marine radios decades ago, long before GMRS became a thing. New boaters would rely on their phones, solely, often running multiple applications such as maps, music, weather radar, marine specific nav (it's a thing), etc. Then they discover that communicating with other boaters isn't so easy. Calling or texting means those other apps have to get parked. Calling the group requires setting up a conference call, and anyone who thinks it's simple to text in the bright sunlight while bounding over the waves has not tried it. They soon learn that using the radio for comms is not only much easier, it leaves the cell phone for other things. I won't mention all the drama associated with dropping one overboard. Same for road trips.

The joke is that the FCC web site is tougher than the H.A.M. exams. Just getting through it should be enough for a license.

Reminds me of a friend who ended up with a rusty, 500' radio tower as part of an estate. His question was, how do we knock it down? He threw the question out on a forum and much hilarity ensued.

Impressive. What antenna are you using?

Rather than a base station put up a repeater. Just tell your wife it's a base station.

And that's why I keep it off when on my favorite repeater, which is populated with some skilled H.A.M.s, some of whom may be easily triggered.

I have found that new users like the beep because it is a positive indication that the other party has stopped transmitting. The radios I hand out for family simplex all have the beep turned on. Radios I use for repeaters have the beep off. Either way, it's just not a big deal. Edit: Added "simplex" for clarification.

You could always try Craigslist of course. After all, it's free. Since this is a commercial effort you might invest in some ads. I've noticed there are many regional GMRS Facebook groups, like this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1126970474062888