WSAH999

Group is no longer being maintained. Please go and join The West Michigan GMRS Union for a more active group. Their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1394255534616125/ Their myGMRS Club: https://forums.mygmrs.com/clubs/81-west-michigan-gmrs/ Thanks! - WSAH999/KF8ALE

I unfortunately don't have an HF transceiver but I did run my SDR with a homemade inverted V dipole wire antenna and was able to pick up California/Mexico very easily. (Am in Michigan) and I just had the wire elevated about 10 feet. It was more of a proof of concept as I am surrounded by trees so I wanted to check for future use. I heard mainly 20m, 17m and 15m. Was going to go to our local clubs field day, unfortunately it seems to have been rained it, but that's alright. All in all not bad. Hopefully by next year's field day I'll have a HF rig.

Weird. I know of one other op in the area who also said they had a similar issue with the UV9G. Perhaps a bad one in the batch, or more likely I just did something stupid and didn't realize Well, we call these "learning moments"

Repeaterbook, I find, doesn't accurately represent my area to it's full potential in terms of repeaters. Sometimes the HAMs in the area are also GMRS. (A guy known for his HAM repeaters in my area ALSO has a GMRS repeater not listed on RepeaterBook, only here. Considering GMRS is very popular among hikers, groups, families, etc. I'd assume Joshua Tree would most likely have a GMRS repeater. I don't know what radio you have, but some are able to detect CTCSS tones on a repeater, and then subsequently set your radio to the correct tones. So perhaps hit up the repeater channels. See if you get anything back.

Be careful when/if using CHIRP to program the UV5G. I've bricked that radio before using it, I believe there is a specific software that you can download from Baofeng. Again though that could've been a fluke on my end, but I still warn others.

Yes you can. You could even use the myGMRS Network to do so I believe. I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject, nor the FCC rules surrounding it. But that's the basis of this website is sort of founded on.

Also to answer the main question with something I remember someone telling me: A $2000 Radio with a $20 antenna might as well be a $20 radio. A $200 radio with a $2000 antenna might as well be a $2000 radio. Of course the differences USUALLY between a $200 Radio and a $2000 radio is quality of life features (Not including digital modes)

I second this, I personally would recommend the Anytone AT-778UV (Yeah it's a 2m/70cm HAM radio, but they make a GMRS version.... or you can unlock that one, either way.) Most people in my area on GMRS have one, and love it. It's perfect for hitting the repeaters and without breaking the bank. Perfect little radio.

Unfortunately that user doesn't seem to have ever posted to this forum. Is there any other form of contact to reach him? Some repeater owners in my area also usually have a phone number somewhere. Also I'm not at all going to tell you to do this, but there are ways on certain radios to detect CTCSS tones of a repeater that it's hearing. Only other thing I can suggest is finding a way to test that it is still there. With the FCCs more recent... interest in GMRS repeater linking a lot of GMRS repeaters went down, not only off the network but just off in general. Again I don't ever advise or recommend using a repeater that requires permission, however if you've tried all options. One last thing: ask people on other repeaters, it seems like you can view who's authorized on their repeaters on their website, perhaps if you run into another operator who has access, maybe they have more information. I don't personally think this guy has any vendetta against you, especially given that he has never even posted on this forum.

https://socalgmrs.org/ Looks like that's where you request access. Also in looking at the repeater owners profile, he hasn't logged on in 16 days (honestly fairly common for a lot of repeater owners in my area. It took me like a month to get accepted once. Just depends on how often they check mygmrs as opposed to their own website database. The owner might also get notified when you request access via their website. Worth a shot.

Considering the comments on it from this month are from people asking about what's up with the repeater, and the comments that are a month+ old talk about the repeater working, my guess is he might have taken it down, or made it private. It happens. Well within his right as the repeater owner. However have you tried the website they have listed in the description?

If you have a GMRS lisence and the FCC database has been updated, it still may take some time for myGMRS to see it.

When you get your GMRS callsign and myGMRS can actually see it in the FCC database you'll be able to register and when logged in you'll see whether or not a repeater is open or restricted, and you'll see all (if any) the CTCSS or DCS tones (they say unlisted to people not logged in to prevent people without a lisence from accessing)

One thing also to note if you do eventually get an amateur radio lisence, that radio should do pretty well there especially at 10watts, as well. And in SHTF situations it's also good to program in the amateur call frequencies, because in the case of life or death I'd rather have as many options as possible.

In actual SHTF you're not going to worry about hitting repeaters, you're going to worry about your immediate family. The thing that's nice about GMRS is that your lisence covers most of your immediate family, which means you can supply them with radios. Perhaps you don't want to have someone use your callsign? That's 100% fine, pick up a cheap FRS HT from Walmart, you'll be able to use your own GMRS radio to communicate with it. After securing your family, if you want more communications with the outside world, use Ham, specifically HF bands, without using a repeater because as @WRXB215 said