WRAK968

An easier solution would be to just ask the neighbor what tones are being used. They could tell you if they are using the same tone for RX/TX, or if its a split tone for a repeater (Ex, 141.3 RX 67.5 TX) Some people use a split tone to prevent unauthorized access to the repeater itself.

iAdams, Not true at all, and if you or others would read the directions, there is always a chart with a list of what number goes to which code. 99% of the bubble pack radios I have used all used the same number and codes, from motorola to cobra to midland, even older radioshack radios use the same frequency's and code lists. Older radios may not have all of the codes available, thus there are times discrepancies exist. This may have changed but I do believe channel 20 with no code/pl is the emergency hailing channel, much like CB channel 9, however this was mostly a courtesy than a rule and should not be relied on.

Point is, you should be prepared for the trip. Ensure you have a cell phone, bring your radio (and a way to charge it or spare batteries,) but most of all do research. If you know you are going to hike in a particular area, look up the emergency contact information as 911 may not be able to help locate you and could take longer to deploy SAR. While doing research, look to see if there are any GMRS repeaters in the area, or if people use a particular frequency and code on simplex. Lastly always have a fallback plan with family or friends should they not hear from you by a particular date and time. Be sure they know where you were headed and what your goals were. This helps should you find yourself unable to call for help and unable to make your way to safety.

In the end, it works off of common sense. Part of that is understanding that GMRS was not designed with the primary goal of emergency communications, it was designed to keep family members in communication with one another.

Welcome to MyGMRS

To start out with, The Amps rating on the radio should always be lower than that of the power supply. The Kenwood 880H (nice choice as this is the only radio I run BTW) uses 12.8Amps when transmitting on high power. Using a 15 amp or higher power supply that delivers 12.5-13.5 volts should be fine. I use https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EWG6YT8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this power supply for the house "base" radio. I do get a slight hum when the fan turns on, but for the most part it works without an issue. The whine should go away if I use a choke on the power wires but I was too lazy to order them.

I do not know much about Ed Fong antennas to really give you much advice on them. They seem to be custom home built antennas, which could be hit or miss. There are commercially available antennas for the 460-470 mhz range that may work better. I originally used a diamond 200U with good results, Now I use a comet 712EFC which has higher gain and is working great. One thing to note about mounting however. Keep in mind the primary use of a fire escape. You will need to run your feedline and mount the antenna in a way that would not interfere with an emergency evacuation should it ever occur. You would not believe how many times I've seen ham radio operators and CB'rs just throw the feedline across the fire escape completely blocking it should people need to evacuate. Or they mount Yagi antennas (a directional antenna) that block the escape. When I talk to some of them it seems their concern was that they could escape and the hell with the rest. They just don't realize they could be charged if someone is hurt or killed should a fire break out. So be sure to take great care with that for everyones safety!


 

Welcome to MyGMRS

To start out with, The Amps rating on the radio should always be lower than that of the power supply. The Kenwood 880H (nice choice as this is the only radio I run BTW) uses 12.8Amps when transmitting on high power. Using a 15 amp or higher power supply that delivers 12.5-13.5 volts should be fine. I use https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EWG6YT8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this power supply for the house "base" radio. I do get a slight hum when the fan turns on, but for the most part it works without an issue. The whine should go away if I use a choke on the power wires but I was too lazy to order them.

I do not know much about Ed Fong antennas to really give you much advice on them. They seem to be custom home built antennas, which could be hit or miss. There are commercially available antennas for the 460-470 mhz range that may work better. I originally used a diamond 200U with good results, Now I use a comet 712EFC which has higher gain and is working great. One thing to note about mounting however. Keep in mind the primary use of a fire escape. You will need to run your feedline and mount the antenna in a way that would not interfere with an emergency evacuation should it ever occur. You would not believe how many times I've seen ham radio operators and CB'rs just throw the feedline across the fire escape completely blocking it should people need to evacuate. Or they mount Yagi antennas (a directional antenna) that block the escape. When I talk to some of them it seems their concern was that they could escape and the hell with the rest. They just don't realize they could be charged if someone is hurt or killed should a fire break out. So be sure to take great care with that for everyones safety!


 

We do the same, except because we have family in two different zones, we use 1xx and 2xx. On my repeater, when someone asks to use the system, I typically assign them a set of numbers as well, which allows everyone to have different numbers. Basically, it ends up (Callsign) 101 to 103 (for family) or (callsign) 101 to 241 (someone in zone 2 outside family) So far the system works. Remember the callsign is just to identify your license to transmit on that particular frequency. Unit designation codes just identify who you are looking for

For less than 50' RG8X is ok (I've used it for ham radio for years without an issue) anything over 50' and I seem to get signal issues.

As for your antenna, you may wish to look for something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Browning-450MHz-470MHz-Mobile-Fiberglass-Antenna/dp/B00IDTJ3AS/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=GMRS+base+antenna&qid=1561855637&s=gateway&sr=8-5

The antenna is about 2 feet tall and does not require a ground plane to operate. When I had mine I had no SWR issues, (Typically 1.0-1.1:1) I mounted it on the vent pipe for the sewer with a short 1.5" pole and some straps.

There is two reasons why I would stay out of the gutter. A) the magnetic bases arn't small, even a 3" gutter may have a hard time fitting the smaller of reliable antenna bases in it. This leads to clogging of the gutter which can back up into the fascia causing mold and rot issues. Add to it that most mag mounts are merely water resistant and not completely waterproof and you have the makings for a disaster for your radio and house. B ) The gutter isn't wide enough to give you an effective ground plane which is needed for mag mount antennas. Normally, you want your ground plane to be opposite the radiating element (Like a di-pole) or spread evenly around the element. Using the gutter, you would have two directions with good ground plane and the rest where ground plane is non existent. This affects the signal pattern of the radiating element during TX and can throw SWR off. It also can cause issues with RX as the ground plane tends to reflect signals into the element (much like a satellite dish.) Don't get me wrong, it could work and is a better solution to running a 5 watt portable from inside of the house, but if your looking for longer distances your best bet is to go with a true base antenna.

For less than 50' RG8X is ok (I've used it for ham radio for years without an issue) anything over 50' and I seem to get signal issues.

As for your antenna, you may wish to look for something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Browning-450MHz-470MHz-Mobile-Fiberglass-Antenna/dp/B00IDTJ3AS/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=GMRS+base+antenna&qid=1561855637&s=gateway&sr=8-5

The antenna is about 2 feet tall and does not require a ground plane to operate. When I had mine I had no SWR issues, (Typically 1.0-1.1:1) I mounted it on the vent pipe for the sewer with a short 1.5" pole and some straps.

There is two reasons why I would stay out of the gutter. A) the magnetic bases arn't small, even a 3" gutter may have a hard time fitting the smaller of reliable antenna bases in it. This leads to clogging of the gutter which can back up into the fascia causing mold and rot issues. Add to it that most mag mounts are merely water resistant and not completely waterproof and you have the makings for a disaster for your radio and house. B ) The gutter isn't wide enough to give you an effective ground plane which is needed for mag mount antennas. Normally, you want your ground plane to be opposite the radiating element (Like a di-pole) or spread evenly around the element. Using the gutter, you would have two directions with good ground plane and the rest where ground plane is non existent. This affects the signal pattern of the radiating element during TX and can throw SWR off. It also can cause issues with RX as the ground plane tends to reflect signals into the element (much like a satellite dish.) Don't get me wrong, it could work and is a better solution to running a 5 watt portable from inside of the house, but if your looking for longer distances your best bet is to go with a true base antenna.

For less than 50' RG8X is ok (I've used it for ham radio for years without an issue) anything over 50' and I seem to get signal issues.

As for your antenna, you may wish to look for something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Browning-450MHz-470MHz-Mobile-Fiberglass-Antenna/dp/B00IDTJ3AS/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=GMRS+base+antenna&qid=1561855637&s=gateway&sr=8-5

The antenna is about 2 feet tall and does not require a ground plane to operate. When I had mine I had no SWR issues, (Typically 1.0-1.1:1) I mounted it on the vent pipe for the sewer with a short 1.5" pole and some straps.

There is two reasons why I would stay out of the gutter. A) the magnetic bases arn't small, even a 3" gutter may have a hard time fitting the smaller of reliable antenna bases in it. This leads to clogging of the gutter which can back up into the fascia causing mold and rot issues. Add to it that most mag mounts are merely water resistant and not completely waterproof and you have the makings for a disaster for your radio and house. B ) The gutter isn't wide enough to give you an effective ground plane which is needed for mag mount antennas. Normally, you want your ground plane to be opposite the radiating element (Like a di-pole) or spread evenly around the element. Using the gutter, you would have two directions with good ground plane and the rest where ground plane is non existent. This affects the signal pattern of the radiating element during TX and can throw SWR off. It also can cause issues with RX as the ground plane tends to reflect signals into the element (much like a satellite dish.) Don't get me wrong, it could work and is a better solution to running a 5 watt portable from inside of the house, but if your looking for longer distances your best bet is to go with a true base antenna.

I've only seen VHF/UHF splitters/combiners, didnt know they worked in same band. But we be getting off topic, The more we learn each day

Interesting to hear Corey, I would think that would still cause distortion in the RF signals when they hit the antenna. I know combiners exist (That is after all how trunking systems work) but I didn't think a duplexer would be able to do the same job.

not at all. All duplexers use 1 lower frequency and one upper frequency. It doesn't matter which one is TX and which one is RX. All that matters is that those frequencies are isolated from one another which is what a duplexer does.

not at all. All duplexers use 1 lower frequency and one upper frequency. It doesn't matter which one is TX and which one is RX. All that matters is that those frequencies are isolated from one another which is what a duplexer does.

I believe you need the KPG 62D, you can find it here;
https://hamfiles.co.uk/index.php?page=downloads&type=entry&id=radio-programming%2Fkenwood-programming%2Fkenwood-kpg-62d-rss

I don't believe you'll have many issues, Personally I use LMR400 right now and I dont have the issues Berkinet has, though my LMR400 is Aluminum on Aluminum, so perhaps this was an old issue the manufacture has since fixed.
 
One thing you'll want to do is make sure any jumpers you use are shielded well from RF wherever the radios live, And you'll want to label each repeater with a callsign just in-case one causes an issue with interference and is hunted back to your place, you can show that both are being operated legally under their own license. Lastly, while you shouldn't need to go super far with separating the antennas It is wise to put about a 10 foot gap from the top of the first antenna to the bottom of the second to avoid signal distortion when both radios are transmitting. I remember having to do that with the FD antennas when they upgraded from 33mHz to 480. lowering one antenna 10 feet below the other stopped the distortion when PD and FD talked at the same time.

Thats nice but pricey lol. Also I don't have a MOL account (I cant even figure out how to get one) making it difficult to get software, but it is nice to hear Motorola finally moved forward with their software accessibility lol. I still remember the DOS window and the big black box that needed its own power supply.

I use TK880's for mobile units, mostly because the MOL software is a pain to get (And at times requires an out of date OS and a RIB depending on how old the radio is)
 
Kenwood TK880's come in 25 and 50 watt models and the software is easy to get at a low price. The software also can be run on windows 10, and the cable is simple as well (No complicated RIB or anything) I've gotten all three 880's for less than $50, though one or two of them needed some cleaning. To reduce the number of programs I use, I ordered the 380 series portables which use the same software as the 880 mobiles. The only thing I dont like is that you can only store 10 "Tones" for CTCSS/DCS that you can select. I have the travel tone set in there and a few other codes for use when I travel. Outside of that the radios work really nice.
 
 

Welcome from a fellow EMT, WRAK968

I sent a message over explaining my findings. Guess we'll see where it goes from there.

So, I recall a conversation a while back about repeaters that are non-existent or no longer in use. Today while browsing repeaters I came across one whose license had expired back in 2011 and when I checked the map, the repeaters location was in the Atlantic Ocean near Africa. Should such a repeater listing be reported, or allowed to remain on the site?

While I think it is an interesting little rig, personally I would stick to the radios I have. I don't feel the equipment is on par with the better known brands like Motorola, Kenwood, and Icom. Especially since I can get any of the three for less than the asking price of the 50x1 ($180+tax & shipping.)

Perfectly fine, in fact we use MURS as a back-up and BS channel for when the repeater goes down, [Or for when we want to discuss something without the PD or supervisors hearing] MURS doesn't cover the entire property but we can get a few blocks range, especially when on the beach.

Perfectly fine, in fact we use MURS as a back-up and BS channel for when the repeater goes down, [Or for when we want to discuss something without the PD or supervisors hearing] MURS doesn't cover the entire property but we can get a few blocks range, especially when on the beach.

Cellphones cheaper than landlines, Heck, I remember when cellphones were called phone booths LOL
 
Welcome to the group

Over the past few days, I have seen posts popping up with the title card "looking for a repeater near ____"

I have answered a couple of them thinking it was just a new user who wasn't sure how the site worked yet, but being there has been an increase in these posts I figured I would make a quick post about it.

The Admins and Mods that run the forum have made it clear that they DO NOT WANT REPEATER INFORMATION TO BE RELEASED ON THE FORUMS! This is to cut down on non-licensed transmissions on active repeaters. This means no member will post a repeaters frequencies or tone codes in a post.

However, there are tools that MyGMRS provides to you once you prove you have your license so that you can find repeaters near you. First there is the repeater directory which can be found here; https://mygmrs.com/browse This allows you to search by state, frequency, if the repeater is open to the public or not, and will give you most of the information you need to get into a repeater. Likewise it is handy to determine what frequencies are available if you wish to open your own system. Second is the map; https://mygmrs.com/map Which allows you to look at a map of the US and find repeaters that way. Note, you may still need to look up the repeater in the directory to get tone info and request access.

If you can hear a repeater on your radio but cant find it on MyGMRS.com, your next bet would be to scan the tones to see if you can find the one they are using, send your callsign over, and inquire about the repeater to find out if its open access or private use. If you remain respectful, the members usually wont give you a hard time and often will explain how to get permission to use a private repeater.


 

Just want to make it clear real quick, I made this post to A ) cut down on users asking for repeater information and B ) to hopefully save them some time by telling them how they can look such information up. I am not an administrator or moderator nor do I work for the MyGMRS forums or site. I just felt it would be easier to explain everything in one easy to find post rather than constantly replying to new users who are asking for frequency or tone information. I am sorry if I caused any confusion as to my status on the site.