SvenMarbles

I see them in stock and shipping tomorrow from DX engineering..

I went through this exact question recently. The simple answer is to figure that that radiation pattern looks like a bow-tie coming from the center of the broadside of the antenna.

Decided to dismantle my “tower” one last time before it becomes weather prohibitive, originally for a 712efc, but I decided if I’m going to go through the trouble, why not just get the daddy GMRS antenna for a few more bucks and just be done with this forever . 16.5 foot antenna. We’ll see how this goes..

Ok awesome! 1.4 on the low MURS channels is perfectly fine!

Ok thanks for the report. The thing with MURS is that there’s a bit of a frequency split between some of the low channels and the higher channels. My neighborhood channel happens to be 151.94. So while those 154 channels fit well into spec for the GP9, the 152ish ones are likely to be on the upward swing of that dip. I’ll be satisfied with something 1.5 to 1.8 even, because I’ll be up a lot higher and fed with my LMR-400 line.. I looked at the GP6 as well, but I figure if I’m going to go to the trouble of taking down my mast and re working everything I might as well just spend the little bit more money and get the daddy antenna and be finished with it.

You can only speak to your empirical experience to where you are. In metro areas the repeater slots are essentially full, and when some of them are linked there's redundant traffic on more than 1 of them. It's not good for anyone who might wish to erect smaller or temporary repeaters for their party (the actual designed intent for GMRS repeater alocations from the framers)..

I'm eyeing a GP9NC. I currently have an antenna for GMRS and a separate one for MURS. I'd like to replace this arrangement with GP9, but the VHF side is advertised at 153-157. I need to see if it would be serviceable at 152-ish mhz. Tech literature online for the LMR version of this antenna is sparse. Can anyone help?

Just maybe don’t worry about what anyone’s call sign is. I know that sounds nuts but, again, GMRS isn’t actually for “making contacts”. What anyone’s call sign is is frankly between themselves and the FCC. I’m aware of what the identifying requirements are, but let’s relax.. Did you know that I can rattle my callsign off in CW at 70wpm and be compliant? I’m not obligated to be sure anyone can copy it.

There's definitely a good bit of that as well.

I kind of like the idea of my wife and son being able to raise me on the radio from home to car or vise versa and not have colostomy bag larry "jumping on" to ask my wife about what radio or antenna she's using . GMRS isn't a hobby band. Some of us actually just want to use GMRS for a utilitarian purpose (the correct usage). The repeater slots were getting jammed up with all of these linked systems. I had identical traffic on 2 of the 8 channels where I am. I'm more in favor of more localized standalone repeaters, and frankly maybe not so many of them. Leave some room for some of us who might want to put up a private Retevis thing for our own purposes some day. I frankly don't understand why so many hams got drawn over to GMRS to begin with, but they sure did because you'll learn of them being a ham within the first 2 minutes of talking.. Novelty I guess? Because they have the 440.. Just go do all of this stuff over there. Leave GMRS/FRS for the family/group coms stuff. It got so pervasive with the "WHISKEY SIERRA BRAVO FOXTROT" and "what's your callsign!" stuff that it made things unwelcoming for the casual "family licensees" to just get on and use the radio service that was FOR THEM.

It's alarming how many people believed that the entire point of GMRS was to have linked repeaters and to treat it like ham radio.. You've not been using GMRS correctly the entire time, so yes, maybe it is all over for some people, and I'm kinda glad..

It's curious to me that this prominent feature of MYGMRS is broken and only me and one other person seem to care..

New radio day!! lol. I relate to the excitement.. I think you made a good choice. A 20 watter is pretty much the goldylocks zone for GMRS... There isnt such a thing as a 50 watt radio being able to do something different than a 20 watt radio in 400 UHF (Come fight me if you want lol).... A hill is a hill and 30 more watts doesn't defeat it... So why not keep it to what you can cigarette lighter plug-in? So now you haven't molested your automobile's wiring and you can also choose to remove it and use it around different places.... Is this your first non-ht GMRS radio?

It’s purely speculative on my end, but this issue REALLY sounds like whatever power source you’re using cannot supply adequate amperage to the radio while keyed on high..

This is pretty much my sentiment for linked GMRS repeaters.. It's antithetical to the entire point of everything. Why become accustomed to leaning on a component of the very mode of "mainline subscriber based" infrastructure that might not be intact in a disaster to tie in radio repeaters? The very first thing people need to do is completely remove the idea of very long range comms from their mind as it pertains to GMRS. It's a fallacy to think that these linked repeaters will be of any use in an instance where radio methods of communication are all that remain operational. If you think of things in terms of scale, these linked repeater systems are merely turning our GMRS radios into a big cordless phone arrangement. We possess the handsets, and the repeaters are just the phone base that are then plugged into a WIRE in the wall.... We aren't doing radio when we're doing this!! That wire which is sending the communications traffic is just flowing across the same infrastructure as everything else that we're concerned with being down or overwhelmed in a disaster. So why bother? Just to have this "chat line" for old guys? Like 90's era AOL chat rooms? Firstly, not only is it just kinda lame , but it's also generating a lot of annoying traffic on the repeater pairs around the country. I don't have the slightest bit of interest in chatting with a bunch of randos over a VOIP line, just for the sake of it.. Standalone repeaters in a metro area are at least a much more manageable entity, and frankly are enough. I'm pretty happy to use the big repeater in my area to be able to communicate across a pretty vast area in my region. It serves the UTILITY that I need it to. If people want to make phone calls, do that. I'm sure there's some VOIP ptt application or windows program that people can download to fulfill the same exercise as is being done on the linked repeaters. They can even yell out WHISKEY SIERRA BRAVO TANGO 5 2 2! While they're doing it to continue acting like they're doing a "radio thing".. But i'm in favor of getting this off of the GMRS.

Well them I'm about this Mesa Crest Repeater! lol.. But i'm nowhere near that region of the the country.... But if you're telling me that this group built this repeater sort of "on my type of crusade" then I support it...

Also,.. Stop erecting new repeaters for the sake of it.. Just because YOU want to admin a public repeater. If that metro area is well covered by other machines, what even is your motivation for doing a new one, and to the extent that it's annoying another one? It wreaks of a person just wanting to have a "thing to lord over".. Stoppit.

I got into GMRS so that I could have sort of a family radio situation. Big home radio and mobiles in the cars. It would be cool to be able to use it for that, if it weren't full of 40cm ham radio like traffic. Kind of makes it intimidating for the wife or kids to hop on and raise me on my way home with plans, grocery list, or any other pertinent info for a 3 minute radio exchange.. In one case my wife being chastised for "interrupting a conversation" (about nothing in particular). I'm not going to pretend that radio isn't a hobby for me as well, and I definitely nerd out on it and appreciate why everyone else does as well. But guys,.. TECHNICALLY "all of this" isn't the correct use of GMRS.. It's not a coincidence that GMRS is FRS adjacent. The technician ham ticket is super easy to obtain. It's 26 right out of 35 multiple choice. It's like a driving license written test. Just read the pamphlet a bit before you take it and you'll pass. Now you've got endless 440 and even 2 meter repeaters to do the radio guy thing on... The repeater situation is a mess. I appreciate the effort and money that individuals choose to spend on erecting them, but I also worry that they might do it with the mind of the aforementioned "ham type activity". There's some AWESOME repeaters out here, and I love to use them (unlinked). But then made to feel like an intruder for wanting to use it for the purpose I am trying to. The sentiment is then, "well it's their machine".. That's true but it's not their repeater pair. If I were inclined to put something up high myself, like one of those Retevis things, WHAT FREQUENCY PAIR AM I TO USE? Because they're all used up with this kind of stuff... I don't want to fight, but what's right is right (and I'm about 85% certain that I represent righteousness on this issue lol). There's clearly a place for hobby radio and we all know where that is. GMRS is more of a practical use band. When the people trying to use it practically are being made to feel out of place from the ones doing ham radio lite, I think it's a problem.. I don't think "the framers" of this GMRS thing envisioned enormous repeaters, and even linked ones. That's why our current 8 allotted is getting slammed. It was probably more along the lines of a Retevis thing, and in that case, spread around the country it would've never been a problem.. There's a gentlemens solution to it. Yield to the family or group users and be nice. They're the ones actually in the correct spot. Just keep that in mind. Otherwise, it's really easy, inexpensive, and nearly impossible to solve the issue of a person whose decided to wage a war on an obnoxious repeater, and I'll let you interpret that any way that you'd like... So let's all just be a bunch of Fonzies..

It looks like the metro Los Angeles area is pretty well covered under some monsters atop of those mountains.. It there any particular motivation for wanting to add redundant repeaters for the area, to the extent that you're bugging another one? Aside from just desiring to be an owner of a public repeater?

Out of curiosity, is your repeater a public one and does your new repeater provide a new coverage bubble for people in your area that some other repeater didn't already provide?

It truly doesn't matter. I actually don't think there's any reason to have more than a 20 watt GMRS radio under any circumstance.. But it might just be annoying to think your radio wasn't doing what it was sold to you to do...

I can't explain the science of it, but I've noticed that what you have connected downline of your meter matters on your power readings. For example, radio-coax-meter-coax-antenna.... You'd think that the power readout would only be influenced from radio-coax-meter.. But in time with messing with these radios, the things that are connected AFTER the meter have caused variability in the output wattage readings.. I think it has to do with impedance mismatch on the antenna/coax end of the arrangement. If you've got some other antennas, try them and you'll likely notice different output results when intuitively you wouldn't expect that to be the case.. On my current setup, I get 39.7 on high at 467... Through a 50ft run of LMR400 and into a yagi antenna on a pole.

I'd be curious to know if there are people currently that it DOES work for..

I was between the two and decided to go with the RA87 when I found out that you can't alpha program the channels and that the mic keys weren't backlit on the DB40G.

There are actually 0 means of reliable long distance radio comms in a grid down scenario, ham radio included. Key word being "reliable".. Even on HF, you're completely at the mercy of the swirls and variations of ionospheric conditions. When you key up that transmitter on 40 meters, the sky gods either permit it to bounce down 2 states over, or a continent away. It's out of your control. It's not to say that such radio doesn't have utility in a grid down scenario. But if you have Ideas of picking up the trusty radio to raise "Bob" a state or 2 away as though you were making a phone call, it's not a thing. There IS a scenario perhaps where you laid out a "bread crumb trail" of lora nodes between you and him, you'd have something. But that's going to be a lot of pieces of equipment, opportunities for failure, upkeep, needing to stay charged/powered, staged in opportune and safe places.. It'd be a lot to manage just to maintain that capability.. I'd propose re-thinking your priorities. When it's that bad day, IDK about anyone else but I'm not going to have much use for a guy 2 states away... I'd have much more use for a solid and reliable "bubble" of 30 or so miles radiating from where I am located. If we're talking legit Mad Max, end of days, I'll switch on HF pretty much to monitor it and get information. I do keep a QRP inexpensive HF rig and a 40 meter resonant wire stored away. I'm not licensed, but in dire straits I know I can set that up and call on it..