Reloader762

I've had the Ed Fong GMRS J Pole for about a year now and have been very happy with it. I'm able to hit repeaters in the area, some as far as 45 miles away, or use it for local simplex communication. Of course, antenna height, line of sight from you to the repeater or station you're trying to reach will make all the difference. There are probably better options as far as base antennas for GMRS out there, but I choose mine for easy of mounting.

Most all the 70 cm and 2M hams repeaters around here use a courtesy tone. The GMRS guys frown on roger beeps, but on most all the nets and multiple individual conversations, they are constantly doubling on top of each other. It doesn't bother me one way or the other if an individual uses it, and none of the local GMRS repeater that I'm aware of use any kind of courtesy tone. Personally I think it helps with communication, but I respect the wishes of the repeater owner, but on simplex between family and friends I'll use it.

When I connect an HT in the house to my outside antenna, I use one of these. They come in several configurations as well. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BNN4RV1?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_10&th=1

Radio connector. If your radio has the pin, use this connector. https://www.amazon.com/TUOLNK-Female-Connector-Coaxial-Adapter/dp/B094C31TM1?ref_=sspa_dk_detail_1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1 If your radio has the hole, use this connector. https://www.amazon.com/TUOLNK-Female-Connector-Coaxial-Adapter/dp/B094BZ18MZ?ref_=sspa_dk_detail_1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1 If your antenna has the hole, use this connector. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092ZVQDPZ/?coliid=IN0LY1XE43SRK&colid=3V7FRA4924S52&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_cv_lig_dp_it If your antenna has the pin, use this connector. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CVQJEW6/?coliid=I14W6A1MHQNFDW&colid=3V7FRA4924S52&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_cv_lig_dp_it

https://woofthebeatenpath.com/review-of-baofeng-gm-15-pro-gmrs-radio-and-setup/

There are several repeaters with a 40+ mile average distance from my house that I can hit fairly easily. The one that is most active is the Crowders Mt. repeater, that has an estimated range of 75 Miles. it's fairly hilly around here, so elevation is king.

I've been running Linux Mint since Windows XP went dark, I install CHIRP on my machine back when I bought my first radio, and it's never given me any problems. On the occasion, I do have to use windows to program radios that CHIRP does not support, which is currently only two. I use my wife's Windows 11 PC I put together for her a couple of months ago when her Windows 10 PC HD died and use the radios factory software. Installing the new version of CHIRP on my Linux boxes, once the initial setup was completed, just requires me to do a terminal command of pip install. Then copy and past the newest py3-none-any.whl version in the same line and hit enter. It deletes the old version and installs the new version.

I've had this mount for about eight mounts now https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BRPL2TM9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Requires a SMA Male antenna or the use of an adapter if you want to use the SMA female type antenna. https://youtu.be/lMVlPSW4egw

Just an FYI, I have several H3s and one H8 that I have reprogrammed several times using CHIRP on my Linux desktop, I've also used odmaster as well but find CHIRP much easier for programming. I also found that I can program any HT I have, of which I have different variations of Baofengs, Wouxun, Tidradios, etc. using just the Wouxun PCO-009 WXUSB “Red” Programming Cable that came with my KV-UV9GX radio. Current firmware version I'm using is 240702.

Several repeaters with wide coverage that could possibly serve the Waynesville area depending on location their radio and antenna setup. I live in central NC and can hit several repeaters up in the mountain areas that are forty-five to fifty miles away. BTECH GMRS 50V2 as a base and Ed Fong J Pole twenty-five feet off the ground. My elevation is 840 ft. above sea level. https://mygmrs.com/repeater/5499 https://mygmrs.com/repeater/5148 https://mygmrs.com/repeater/8167

I've had this radio for about six months and have had no issues with it. It's a bit expensive as HT's go, but the reception and build quality is excellent. I found that most of the added frequencies programmed into the radio as to the area I live in had no real use. So I downloaded and saved the original .img file using CHIRP to my computer and programmed the radio to my liking.

I dropped Windows OS when XP went dark and switched to Linux Mint, which I’ve used since 2015. A pretty easy way to do it is using this GitHub page, simply download the Chirp-Install.sh file to your computer, open a terminal in the directory where the downloaded .sh file is and run these two commands. chmod +x chirp-install.sh then run ./chirp-install.sh It will download and install all the necessary dependencies and install the newest version of CHIRP. To update to newest version I simply type into the terminal pip install (space) then right click on the newest any.whl version and select copy link address and paste it into the terminal on the same line as pip install and hit enter. Should look like this.

I received my email in around two days, click on the Licensing Manager link in the email you receive and log in, and it should take you right to your license page, at least mine does. My brother got his in less than twenty-four hours, had to help him over the phone navigate the site. It's bad enough doing it yourself when you have some decent computer skills, it's probably one of the worst government websites to navigate.

Picked up a Radioddity CB-500 CB radio that was $20 off, wanted a newer modern CB to replace my old Sears RoadTalker. FM will be interesting since they didn't have that back in the day when I bought my original radios. Picked up a couple coils of RG8x Coax as well for future projects.

I live over here on the East coast, but I found this list. Hopefully one of these can help you. https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Radio+Repair&find_loc=Kitsap+County%2C+WA