Davichko5650

Attention grabbing Title, lifted from Tolkien! But driving around town with the new RA-87, I have it set to scan the FRS/GMRS channels. Making occasional contacts on a couple repeaters and via simplex with a few friends as well as the Wife and Son. But mostly I'm hearing a few stations on the same channels during weekdays with some regularity. Located in St. Paul, MN for those who care. Here's where and what I hear very often. Ch 1 - local kids teaching each other "radio etiquette" and otherwise chatting ("You have to remember to say over, over...") Ch 2. - Dispatch and mobile for a DT hotel shuttle bus service Ch 3 - Local restaurant, mostly in Hmong, with occasional bursts of English. Ch 4 - Charter School, bus lady looking for buses and other such traffic. Also an occasional group of construction workers in the DT area. Ch 5 - Local School bus yard office to yard workers. Ch 7 - Factory workers of some sort. Foreman barking out orders with more than occasional profanity. Ch 14 - Flagger Crew for the many street construction projects. As you can see, most of the traffic is in the shared channels 1-7, but I seriously doubt these people are using GMRS radios! What kind of consistent radio chatter are y'all hearing, assuming you're scanning around the channels?

Balance this against the definition of "network connection found in 95.303: "Network connection. Connection of a Personal Radio Services station to the public switched network, so that operators of other stations in that service are able to make (and optionally to receive) telephone calls through the connected station." Nowhere in Part 95 could I find a definition of "other network", so the grayline continues???? The prohibition in 95.349 seems to be slanted towards not allowing autopatch or other types of phone patches to PRS radios. The regs of course predating the explosion of the internet. What is really needed here is a test court case, or a NAL being issued and the response thereto to maybe clear things up in the muddy waters we now have...

You did say "beginner in the Thread title, but any HF rig can be used by a beginner or an expert! But to look at basic, no frills rigs, one still in production is the Icom 718. Has DSP, but no many bells and whistles. Lacks 6 meters. Can't recall off hand if it does FM for 10 meters. Have seen a few at our monthly (non POTA) Hams in the Park gatherings here in the Twin Cities, and am impressed in the RX and TX from this solid rig. Used, you'll be looking at things like the Yaesu FT-450D. Very excellent rigs for beginner and expert alike. It's the mainstay of my Shack and even were I to upgrade, it's never leaving! Internal Tuner, DSP, 6 meters, all modes. A soldier on digital modes. Other used, late model rigs to look for are the Icom 706G MkII. If you're looking to operate mobile, my hands down recommend is the Yaesu FT-891. Have had mine in the truck just over a year now, and it's a solid performer. Lacks an internal tuner (moot point as I run the ATAS-120A tunable antenna) and is a bit menu driven, but the rx/tx results are very good. Older rigs in the mobile area will be things like The Icom 7100 (still in production?, I'm not a Icom guy) or Yaesu FT 857 - 897 - 818 - 818. Hope this helps, Dave WRJG283/ N0TXW

It looks to be listed in the Baofeng area on the Odmaster App. I found the best $22 I've spent of late was the TIDRadio bluetooth dongle, makes field programming of Baofengs a breeze with the Odmaster app! Waiting for them to get the Beta for the Radioddity GM30 worked out to try that as well, although the CPS software from them was a snap to use. Basic difference between Chirp and using Odmaster is that Chirp displays all the data where with Odmaster, you have to open each channel's info one by one. But not having to lug around a laptop makes up for that.

I did go ahead and get the Retevis RA87 - works pretty well, okay Chinglish manual, but pretty intuitive to program on the radio. Much easier with the software on the laptop. Might go ahead and pull the trigger on the DB40 to compare the 2 since ORX hasn't seen fit to do a comparo for us on YootOob yet. If I do, which ever one I prefer or performs better will go in the mobile, the other will be put in the shack for base use. So far, better RX and TX than the DB20 the RA87 replaced, a function on TX side of more power? But seems to have a better receiver than the DB20 I drive around with 3 friends it seems then, having the MXTA26 and a Comet 2m/70cm and a Yaesu ATAS120A on the truck. MXTA is on a mag mount, the other two on diamond K400 mounts.

Or we could have ORX release the Kraken sdr....!

Welcome aboard. I'm a bit in the same boat as far as the XYL goes, except she will never get an amateur license, absolutely zero interest in most any facet of the radio hobbies I engage in. But when we're way up north and there's no cellphones, she will use the GMRS radios. Work well for cabin to boat calls, and other such things. She also has started using them here in town around the house, beats yelling across the yard! As I just got a new mobile rig, the old one is going into service as a base at the house, and the older Midland MXT275 will be thrown in her car. Enjoy, and best regards Dave WRJG283/N0TXW

And as we know, that is WHEN and not IF, LOL. We use GMRS here in MN when going off road at the OHV parks and/or off exploring logging and forest roads up north. Cell service is spotty out there. A lot of us use channel 7 in group runs, as well as channel 16. Also good that there's a couple repeaters with good coverage near a couple of the OHV Parks. Nothing to worry the Moab crowd about, but definately some good rock crawling to be had here, although that's not my bag as I run my daily driver. Have fun, stay safe and SEND IT!

No worries!

Recently purchased the RA87. Comes factory with the GMRS channels 1-22 and the 8 repeater channels. I downloaded the programming software and driver from the website and used the supplied cable to program the radio. Like many HT's I see ORX go off about, the RA 87 had CTCSS or DCS codes on almost every channel. First order of business was to clear those, and set tones for the 2 frequencies we use about the spread so I only hear wifeypoo and the son when they call. Then I set up the 6 local repeaters hereabouts. Added some outstate repeaters we use when Off-Roading and/or travelling to see friends. From what I've seen, the radio is easy to program on the rig, but it was super easy to do on the laptop!. Have only had it a couple days, but so far the extra oomph of the 40 watts has worked well around town. Better than the DB20-G it replaces, which will replace the MXT275 we were using at home. And yes, when you use the software, the first thing that pops up is the Freq. range window - either 136-170 (I think, at work) or 400-490, so yes, this is the same platform as the 900 2m rig it seems.

The mount should work fine. Decent NMO CB Antenna is the Browning BR-140 - 49" length, runs about $60

MXTA26 is not a CB antenna.... Browning BR-140 is an NMO CB Antenna - round about $50-$60 online... 49" length

Most other replies have already noted that the majority of GMRS users don't log contacts. It wouldn't be hard to make a google sheets or excel spreadsheet to log contacts if you do want to do so. Callsign lookup would be easy enough here on mygmrs.com or the fcc ULS database. In my case I can't see the need to use repeaters when traveling except for Off-Road runs, where there's a repeater handy, JIC. Most my use of the service is for mobile to base. In town mostly simplex, with some repeater use, to call home, as does my wife (she has zero interest in two way radio other than this). Up north, it's great for mobile to base and base to boat on simplex as we're out of cell phone range on most areas around the cabin. I do have a couple friends I chat with, very occasionally, on local in town repeaters, and one net I try to check into when I can. But I have no desire or need to log any of this radio traffic. Same goes when I talk to people on 2 meter amateur. Mostly people I know and as most FM and repeater contacts don't qualify for awards, no reason to log them. Dave WRJG283

I have tried it and it did in fact say "fars". Midweek so I don't recall if it said "mygigglehertz"....

And the mailman, er, um, letter carrier, will probably still bring you some of his mail!

I just dole out one of my LXT600 F/GMRS HT's and tell them stay on Channel 8 FRS, I'll relay if you need something from farther up or down the trail... I still have the ancient Travel CB I got years back, and an older, tweaked Cobra 29, but that has sat so long, no idea if it'd even fire up, much less transmit.

I used our unused clothesline pole, it was perfect for mounting a collapsible 33" Channelmaster stainless mast. Up atop that is my Comet CHA250B 80-6 meter antenna. The Pole has a 3 foot concrete base and has withstood sustained winds of 74 mph unguyed. It was $165 well spent. Contemplating a side arm below the 33' mark to put a GMRS antenna up for better simplex base to mobile coverage. Installation took 2 of us; my ancient self and my younger son, but was very easy to do...

Isn't the collector's answer "buy both" ???? Just sayin'

won't be up that way until around 6-8 weekend, but will program it in to try it out!

this is exactly it. Pg. 19 in the manual that I have for it, actually shows it as 59 for "Sq"!

My DB-20-G did have the cable in the box, it's a USB A to RJ-45 cable. Similar, but not the same as the cable for my Kenwood 281a. I'd think the DB40 cable would be the same? Then again, my wife warns me about thinking a lot, so.... Have yet to try the CPS software for the DB20, have read there's somewhat of a learning curve to it, and some driver install issues, maybe? And it's very easy to program right on the radio, so will look at CPS when I've the time

Since the Kenwood is a 2 meter Amateur rig, can't compare, I only have the DB20 set up for GMRS. I've talked simplex a good 250+ miles on it when we've had some tropospheric ducting. Around the city I can get a good 15-20 miles simplex, with repeaters I can talk around the entire Twin Cities metro area. 65 watts of pure Kenwood Fars! But so far with the DB-20G, I'm getting into 3 of the metro area repeaters, two are located about 10-12 miles distant, the other one is about 15 or so distant. The two closer ones come in full quieting, the father out one, in N Minneapolis, I getting about an S5-7 reading back and slightly scratchy audio. Next step is to rig up the MXT275 at home so Wifeypoo(tm) can call me in the mobile, then we'll see what kinda Fars we get on Simplex and with the one repeater that doesn't run split tones

Posted before as to what I drive, here's a couple pics, including the radio installs. The winch is on a hitch receiver and can be used front or rear

Safety gets the Orange Vest - Enforcement gets the Chromium Green Vest!

I actually was watching those well before I got into GMRS. It was his and fam/friends usage on the trails that got me to go with GMRS. Made the best sense for our trips up north beyond the cell phone world in N MN, and then I stated rolling with an OHV groups that uses Ch 7 for trail runs. He's said nobody watched them, but his In4Lo videos have far more views than my crappy YT videos of our runs here in MN!!!!! And the full length Salton Sea video is a must see. You get some back story on the man, the myth, the legend that is NAR or ORX....