WRYC373

Yep the GM-30s / GM-15 Pro are some of the best sub 100$ GMRS radios and I'm seeing more out there in the wild. I think between friends and family we have 8 or so. Super easy to use and charge.

Yep the GM-30s / GM-15 Pro are some of the best sub 100$ GMRS radios and I'm seeing more out there in the wild. I think between friends and family we have 8 or so. Super easy to use and charge.

There's been talk from the ARRL on down about changes to the Tech. license, allowing them more than a couple spots on CW below 10 and the 10m band allocations they now have, easier entry into the hobby, etc., and man, you can see the SH's queuing up to unleash the venomous comments. Go to any hamfest and look at the attendees and tell my that hobby is growing and still in good stead.  The Preppers are getting that Tech. license and sitting on it, that's certainly not growing the hobby.  Granted, there are exceptions, I know several younger men and women in the hobby, but we geriatrics far outnumber them!

I have a 3-legged 1/4 ground plane i built for my house but I am wondering if anyone uses anything else for home usage? Like a 1/2 wave dipole or similar that they have built/bought? Looking for something relatively durable.
 
I can make these 1/4 waves for pretty cheap but I want something a little stronger I am thinking of doing a J-Pole next out of copper piping but I am worried it will be hard to make as the elements are so short.
 
 

I don’t think anyone would argue that it’s the best, with all the other devices that are available, but the fact that it doesn’t rely on special hardware or cables makes it potentially valuable in the absence of those devices. 

You sure get wound up trying to justify your actions by pointing fingers at others. 

Why, this radio doesn't transmit data so the antenna has zero to do with it's Type 95e approval.
This is also a Superhet radio so the radio circuit is a lot higher quality than my $20 Baofeng radios.
Also, not to get off track but I have a UV-5R, 2/UV-82's a Talkpod A36 Plus and a Yaesu FT-65r, all of which get NOAA and 3 of which were in the $20 price range.
The 805g is just my first actual GMRS approved radio.

Blessed may he be who gave the FCC another 35$ to be told "no thou shalt not!".

Some theories some may be wrong:
Street lamps/house lamps causing interference
Tropospheric Ducting or Radiating Inversion causing far away signals to interfere
Heavy night fogs.
The repeater is solar powered only and the battery is on it's last legs. (If no one can talk to each other at night and it's not just you).
 

Some theories some may be wrong:
Street lamps/house lamps causing interference
Tropospheric Ducting or Radiating Inversion causing far away signals to interfere
Heavy night fogs.
The repeater is solar powered only and the battery is on it's last legs. (If no one can talk to each other at night and it's not just you).
 

No, tones don’t prevent interference. Tones are part of the received signal. 
A directional antenna might make it possible for you to selectively use one or the other repeater. 

Nothing would happen.
First of all was it certified when it was sold?  If yes then no problem.  Your covered   
second… what happens to the millions of people using non type certified radios from the beginning?   How many licensed GMRS users have 1,2,5,10 or more radios that they use each and every day and are not and never have been certified?   Nothing.  .this could be a cheap uv-5r or a Motorola xts5000.   Or any thing in between.  I’d venture to say that there are more non type certified radios on gmrs then certified   
 
When this becomes a problem is when a user is being a complete jerk and interrupting other users.  Even then it takes weeks months years or maybe never before the fcc does anything about it.  And if they ever do, a non type certified radio may be an add on charge. 
 

You're entitled to your opinion, but public disregard for the FCC rules is discouraged on this forum.

I'm not anymore but, yes FRS could absolutely be used to teach responsibility and organizational skills along with general radio operator skills (Ie if you press the mic button it takes a second before you should start talking).

Idk how your troop is set up but basically the way id imagine it is you could assign someone to be the radio operator for a patrol / group. It's actually a pretty good position to give to scouts. It makes them feel responsible for something during activities, they have to use it appropriately etc etc. Definitely train all the scouts on radio usage but scouts love being given a special assignment.
Exercise example:
During navigation/rescue practices you can have someone be "injured" and need to be rescued by describing their location over the radio while someone else tries to find them based on the directions given by the injured victim.
 
There's a lot you can do it's basically limited by your imagination.

I'm not anymore but, yes FRS could absolutely be used to teach responsibility and organizational skills along with general radio operator skills (Ie if you press the mic button it takes a second before you should start talking).

Idk how your troop is set up but basically the way id imagine it is you could assign someone to be the radio operator for a patrol / group. It's actually a pretty good position to give to scouts. It makes them feel responsible for something during activities, they have to use it appropriately etc etc. Definitely train all the scouts on radio usage but scouts love being given a special assignment.
Exercise example:
During navigation/rescue practices you can have someone be "injured" and need to be rescued by describing their location over the radio while someone else tries to find them based on the directions given by the injured victim.
 
There's a lot you can do it's basically limited by your imagination.

Let us go through the sands of time as best as I can tell and Im sure i got some dates and or specifics wrong.
1930's LMR is created for business use.
1960's GMRS (Class A CB) is created and is very popular among small rural business use. Ie Family Farms etc. Basically as a subset of LMR and then some channels absorbed into LMR (MURS started similarly but thats another story) 
1970's GMRS business channel pair licensing rule established. 
1987 End of GMRS Business exclusive license's and the channel pair rule
1994 FRS is created near GMRS for people who don't need GMRS and didn't want to pay the fee.
2000's GMRS/FRS combo radio's start appearing and people are using 15-22 unlicensed (who could've possibly seen this coming? 🤓).
Early 2010's GMRS begins to become popular among Outdoors enthusiasts
GMRS communities start forming
Late 2010's GMRS linking starts occurring over the internet.
2012 UV-5R appears.
2017 GMRS/FRS combo banned, free band UV-5R's kinda dealt with from the FCC.
GMRS really takes off and starts to become Ham-lite.
2020 FCC realizes the floodgates that they have caused ensuring HAM-lite is an eventuality.
2021 FCC tries to clarify some rules/definitions to prevent it, its too late.
 
Whether GMRS being Ham-lite is bad or good im not going to comment as I believe GMRS provides essential short range communications, but; also always had the power and design to talk at least county wide. GMRS is also being less enforced by the FCC and being self enforced by users playing nice is telling me the FCC really doesn't want to be forced deal with GMRS.
 
As long as it continues to play nice and not have interference/nuisance issues basically how they currently treat Ham.
Combining FRS and GMRS led to this eventuality and not re-seperating the channels made enforcement extremely difficult and hard for them to justify.
Again im not going to pass judgement besides on the FCC's inability to achieve what they want to whether or not I benefit/lose from their mistakes.
TL:DR:
Issues stemming from the FRS/GMRS combo era mean that the FCC cannot enforce GMRS as strongly as some people wish and the FCC is hoping that people can be civil on GMRS so they do not have to. 
 
 
Like all things in life:
Play nice, Work hard, Worry less.

Only if your radio has gold fringe. Then it's an admiralty radio and you can do whatever you want 

Lets put how our legal system works... or SHOULD work:
Does your action have a direct effect on someone else's life or wellbeing/living? Is your action able to be construed as malicious or harmful? Is your action only going to affect YOU? If you cannot answer "no, no, yes" to the above - the rule exists for good reason. The FCC exists because while you can gnash your teeth about "laws" and "natural phenomena" or whatever else... it boils down to simply this. There is only so much EM spectrum in the current technical realm - and anything YOU can do with it will directly affect someone else's non-malicious use of it as well. The decision will come down to that - pure and simple. The FCC acts as a traffic director more than a law enforcement agency so the idea of "enforcement" doesn't have much weight behind it on its own - but that is not to say the FCC is "useless" or "toothless".
TL;DR: Don't be a prick and do things that will affect how someone else uses the same spectrum you think you have the "natural right" to use. Problem with that is - there's way more people spewing this "sovereign citizen" take than not - which makes me think the FCC's enforcement bureau needs to step up their game instead of taking a knee. I pay good money for my licenses, equipment, and my "time is money" for doing all of it as well, and I will gladly move everything I own 100% to Part 90 coordinated if it means having the ability to go after malicious interference with actual legal precedent at my back as well.
The only reason I even care to comment at this point is because THIS type of BS is what the FCC looks at while an NPRM is open, and will laugh their way to the bank as Midland gets to vendor-lock an otherwise "self regulating" service. So please, either get with the program or find another service like CB that has been relegated to being an RF trash can. 

The pedantry behind the rules perpetuated by the community wanting a straight answer,
and the bureaucracy not giving a straight answer, instead opting to encourage reporting if it's needed,
tells me that the actual stance on the issue as of this moment is "if it isn't a problem, don't worry about it."

First off it's odd that the Tx and Rx aren't simply 5MHz apart. Normally I'd the TX is 467.650MHz the Rx will be 462.650MHz, a +5MHz off set which is standard for GMRS repeaters. 
I know with some radios you need to enter both frequencies and with others you just need the base frequency (462.xxxMHz) and the offset and the radio will automatically raise the Tx frequency to the 467.xxxMHz one. 
You normally only need the TX or input CTCSS to trigger the repeater. You can enter the Rx output tone if you only want to hear the repeater and cut out other traffic on that frequency.  Randy(Notarubicon productions) on the YouTubes has a lot of good videos explaining all of this. If you can check them out and I'll bet it'll clear a lot of things up for you.

Yes, but it seems for it to be a default freq you need to set the special key "12" in the manual to cycle to NOAA.
https://tidodmaster.oss-us-west-1.aliyuncs.com/h3/H3-Ham manual.pdf
page 10 and 11.
First thing when you get a radio is to read the manual. The second thing is try to figure out whether the manual actually applies to your radio and try all the buttons.

Yes, but it seems for it to be a default freq you need to set the special key "12" in the manual to cycle to NOAA.
https://tidodmaster.oss-us-west-1.aliyuncs.com/h3/H3-Ham manual.pdf
page 10 and 11.
First thing when you get a radio is to read the manual. The second thing is try to figure out whether the manual actually applies to your radio and try all the buttons.

Youd want a power meter with a dummy load. VNA can also be used to diagnose this issue and ensure resonance. 

Check out the Radioddity DB-20G a/k/a Anytone AT-779UV: 20 watts, mini-mobile, cigarette lighter plug; controls on mic; 500 channels and easily opens to MURS, Ham 2 meters and 70 cms - $99-$109

The problem is that there is no standard format for the exchange of GPS information between the different manufacturers. Wouxun has their own version in their KG-Q10G too. It's kind of like the digital modes for amateur radio. You have DMR, Fusion, and D-Star. None of them work with the others.