amaff

"RTFM" is a really common answer but when you're NEW new, a lot of it is just gibberish until you learn the 'language' of radio jargon it's written in. So, don't feel too bad about that one. Is this a "you can hear them, they can't hear you" situation? When you say "22-2" that implies channel 22 with "privacy tone 2". Those privacy tone charts aren't standard across the industry, so knowing what actual frequency that tone is could be helpful. Have you tried setting the TX Code (looks like menu 2) on your radio to the 2nd option? Tho, what the 2nd option is might vary. With no tones set on your radio, you should be able to hear them without issue, but they won't hear you (as their radios are listening for the correct tone in order to actually play a transmission on that channel through to the speaker). Your radio doesn't appear to have tone scanning, which will make this harder, but if you can get with one of your club members and sit down with your radio and theirs, and then scrolling through your first handful of transmit tones until their radio wakes up when you key up yours, you should be able to sort it out.

I like my DB20-G. The software to program it is a little clunky and the manual is *thin*, but there's plenty of user support out there (there's a few good thread on here regarding the DB20-G and the other Anytone 779uv clones). It's a bit restrictive in how it wants you to program it in GMRS mode but if your needs are for something a bit more open, it's easily unlockable if you're comfortable programming in the GMRS rules yourself. (EDIT: Note that there are versions that do and versions that don't come with the programming cable. The DB20 did. I believe the Retevis did not. Just keep an eye on the listing to make sure it includes the cable) I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT recommend the BTech GMRS 20v2. The interface is a mess, changing the volume involves hitting the MONI button and then tapping down the volume while listening to the speaker scream from static, and the speaker sucks so it had to be near full volume for me constantly. That was before it just stopped working after a couple weeks. So...that one went back to the rain forest from whence it came.

Amateur Motorsport comms, and now lots of other Activity Comms. Hiking or road tripping with the family. Talking to my kid on the pit-wall (or talking trash to another buddy on track). Talking to friends or family on a road trip in the other vehicle. I'm fortunate to be somewhere fairly repeater heavy, so it's also nice to have as a backup when hiking in case someone gets hurt where there's no cell service but I can probably hit 1 of the repeaters on a mountain top, which is nice. And sometimes I go overlanding. I'm new to it though, and I doing this right?

I guess if the only thing you use GMRS for is the repeaters, sure. I'd been using GMRS for a while before I ever spoke through a repeater. And even now, for me it's mostly for emergencies (if I get hurt out hiking without cell service, etc). Almost everything I use my gear for more regularly is simplex.

I say "collapsed" because I'm honestly not convinced that's actually what happened. The hard "BY TONIGHT" deadline, and asking for call signs, smells of something else. Maybe one day the owner speaks up, or the 'FCC agent'. Maybe he was clever enough to spoof an e-mail from his 'FCC buddy' to get a bunch of people off of his gear for whatever reason. Who knows. Maybe I'm wrong and a whole bunch of GMRS repeater networks get shuttered in the coming weeks. But the whole thing just smells off.

What the world really needs right now is more threads about this

Supposedly this was a pre-warning warning, and, apparently, the owner collapsed like a house of cards. Under what seems to be, basically, zero pressure. So who knows what the story actually is there. The more stuff comes out about that, the more questions I have.

Short answer: yes, you're wrong. Longer, more nuanced answer: It depends on where you are and how comfortable you are being solely reliant on cell service if something goes wrong. I spent most of last week in areas with at best spotty (but usually no) cell coverage running GMRS radios for car-to-car and hiker-to-hiker comms. Worked great. FRS radios would work for most of that, but there are places without cell coverage where I can talk through some of our mountain-top repeaters that, were I or someone I was with to get hurt, we could call for help even without cell service. That's an edge case of an edge case, mind, but it's nice to have as a backup.

and a transmit offset (or using a Repeater channel on a GMRS radio, which will have the offset built in).

That still doesn't totally add up. If it was just a friendly head's up, what do they need a list of callsigns for? Or the hard "TODAY" deadline? That's less friendly and more potentially scare tactics. It's not like e-mail headers can't be spoofed. I'm still leaning towards 'ol boy wanted a convenient excuse to get the club off of his gear' but who knows. I mean, he knows, but he's not talking much, apparently.

That still doesn't add up. If it was just a friendly head's up, what do they need a list of callsigns for?

The 779UV is an amateur radio. You need to put it in the correct mode to allow it to work on GMRS. The GMRS frequencies are 'out of band' for an amateur radio. While holding down the V/M button, turn on the power. Use the Up and Down arrow keys to change to the GMRS setting on the display.

Yes. But you're responsible if they muck about too much and piss someone off.

I'm less "base station GMRS" and more "in the backpack and car GMRS" haha I don't really have any kind of antenna except for a nagoya mag mount on the top of a cabinet in my office. That said, I've had an HT with me all morning, and I'm up on the hill overlooking the valley so usually if it's out there and has decent punch, I can hear it, and so far I've got nothin.

Right, but breaking the links and running them as distinct repeaters seems like it's an option, ass-u-me-ing it's legit. ...................what?

Your Encode vs Decode is correct. You can leave Decode blank while you troubleshoot. Do you have the offset programmed in for the repeater? IE: Is it transmitting on the +5 MHz frequency?

I can pretty much guarantee that if you went to the store, found the owner / manager who set all this up, and said "hey could you not be on a repeater frequency" they'd say "...what's a repeater frequency?" They buy a cheap radio, set it on a random number that's quiet when they set it up, and never touch it again. Which, in fairness, is pretty much how GMRS / FRS is set up to work lol

https://youtu.be/HYiDSZxZa68? My money's on either they got trolled, or whoever runs the network needed an excuse to shut it down. That story is fishy as hell.

The comment section never fails to deliver

What was "it"? I didn't see this pop up anywhere else but here so I must've missed it

"Is the FCC that shut down a repeater for being linked in the room with us right now?"

2 KG-905Gs, 4 TD-H3s, antennas, charge cables (they can all take USB-C), and a couple hand mics.

We just got back from a week in Yellowstone with some family from France. My uncle was considering bringing his pair of PMR446 radios down. I explained why that was sort-of a bad idea (would it have bothered anyone with half watt radios? Probably not) ...but that I had us covered

Nice. I have the mountains above Magna between me and Promontory. But the Capital and Ogden repeaters I can get to easily with a handheld, along with all the other ones here locally in the valley.

Yeah I edited my post when I realized there was a Brighton location right by snowbird haha