TrikeRadio

Agree. I played with CB in high school but stopped using it for years (and that was just an interest and a semi-hobby about radios) Currently I got GMRS radios to coordinate and communicate with other cyclists that I ride with as a group. I usually lead the group rides and another rider (who already had a HAM license) follows at the end of the ride group to make sure no one gets lost. So we are using our GMRS radios to coordinate and keep everyone safe. and... it reignited my interest in radio in general.. so yeah someday I may get a HAM license too, but for now it is an interesting tool to use with my hobby of cycling.

Agreed. That is a better indicator of how your radio is set.

I suggest you post a screenshot of Chirp and the settings you are inputing so we can see exactly how it looks. That might help us help you.

I ran into that too. in GMRS it seems that above a certain channel number there are issues of making it both TX and RX... at some channel slot it is RX only and I'm not sure why. I just keep all my GMRS channels below 100 and it seems to all work. Not sure if that is a "Bug" or a "feature". Only thing with using the NORMAL mode is that you do need to be very careful that you are programming things correctly for all your channels since it does not lock out some things that you may not be licensed for and/or could get into some trouble if you transmit on.

I have had two TD-H3s for two weeks, I am a noob GMRS user and have found them to work great. I've used CHIRP to program them, have used the face keyboard on teh radios to program them, have tried the odmaster phone app and... prefer CHIRP but it worked. I've dont the firmware updates - very easy no problem. as a complete noob... I have found them to be very easy to use and they have given me no trouble. Yes, there was a learning curve but I attributed that to my general noobieness. and yes there are a few quirks bout the radio that are a little tricky to understand, like the strangely labeled settings for listening to the A and B bands or setting it to show only one band, but on the whole I have found them easy to use and work with.

I left my original 30 GMRS channels set as they come from the reset without tones. Then I set up any specific repeaters in their own channels with their CTCSS or DTS tones and _5 offsets in channels after that. have not had any trouble with doing it that way.

HAM does not seem like it is much for chatting either. It seems like it is mostly a game of collecting QSO contacts (just the facts) I’m not HAM but that’s what it seems like from the outside.

Do you know the distance to the repeater and do you have a line of sight to it ? Do you know if the repeater only requires a CTCSS code on the TX and not on the output? If they dont repeat transmit with the same 141.3 code and you have it on your RX.. you would not hear it

Hard to tell from that... if you are using the same setup / radio... and the antennae is the only change... maybe the connection to the antenna is the problem? or the coax, or your radio just can't push enough power through that coax and antennae? can you talk simplex through the new antenna to any other radio (if you have two of them?

this is not JEOPARDY! ... I don't think they have to phrase it in the form of a question if we can figure it out on our own.

SPECIFICALLY FOR THE TD-H3: If you want to setup the preset repeater channel for 462.600 on the TD-H3... (assume that is the question) you can go to the preset channel "25" on your radio.. put in the TX and RX (menu items 11 & 13) to 141.3Hz ^^^^ That should be all you need to do... the +5 mhz should already be there. ----- If you want to add this as a separate channel and leave the default repeater channel withoue a CTCSS ... then you would have to manually enter everything and save to a channel that is open on your radio above 30 and below something like 50 something I think. but try the simple version above first if you are not familiar with programming a radio.

That's true. Thanks.

Just because I am new and trying to recognize people in the club I joined. Want to be able to recognize who I am talking to or who is talking if I have talked to them before or not. that is all.

I have noticed that on GMRS it is less typical to state the alpha part of your callsign using the "International Radio-Telephony Spelling Alphabet" words. But I find it tricky to hear and remember (long enough to record) the alpha portion of a GMRS callsign. I seem to get the numeric part but forget or don't hear the alpha part. (of course I have trouble remembering a phone number long enough to write it down too) I think my brain's buffer must only be about 3 or four characters! Does anyone have any tricks or hints that help you, for newbies to more accurately hear and remember callsigns that are spoken quickly?

I don't know anything about them but I googled this GMRS club in your state... https://upstatescgmrs.com/announcements

What about Radio dweebs?

I am a new GMRS user and no HAM experience and got am H3. I found this out when I tried to add some Valid GMRS channels higher up in the channel number ranges where it won't accept them. It also seems to restrict simplex channel entries above a certain channel number. Since I am a noob I can fit all the channels I want into the restrictions they have but yes, I find it weird that the radio does not just simply enforce the GMRS rules but let you place duplicates (maybe with different codes) in any channel slot you want without restriction. Maybe, when I get more into radio, if I get a HAM license, I will just unlock it to "normal mode" to give myself more flexibility. But yes, even a noobie GMRS user like myself noticed this ridiculous limitation. At first I just thought I was not understanding it, but No it is a restriction of the way the firmware/software on the radio works.

Understandable. Yeah I re-looked at all the repeater frequencies in the area and it is pretty crowded. I looked into your club but it looks like it is closed right now until you get all this sorted out? Please keep us appraised. I am in the area and will monitor things there on 700 to see how it is going. Best of luck.

The previously existing (OPEN) repeater ("Mt. Satisfaction") covers all of Lost Angeles well, and North Orange County (until recently it was marked as a 50 mile radius but now they upped it on myGMRS to show 100 miles). The newer Repeater ("Mesa West"), is located on Mt Santiago (paid Club membership) covers more of the Orange County and South Orange County as well ans Riverside areas and is listed as covering 100 mile radius). They do overlap and I am located basically right between them both (Slightly closer to Santiago) but I can hit both of them well and both are very strong coverage. Ideally it would probably be best if they used different frequencies but I agree it seems totally workable that the users would just put their own TX/RX codes in and they could both use the same freq. In general the "flavor" of these two repeaters and the people who are on them most are radically different. The first has a lot of guys who like to chat and walk the like (sometimes cross it) with their sarcasm and "social commentary" shall we call it. (It's an open repeater, what do you expect). The newer repeater is a paid club so their group is much more aligned to what some would term "behaved" I guess. The thing is.. FCC plainly states that no one OWNS the frequency and users should share it as needed. Again that is what squelch and transmit codes are for. From what I can see in the region there are still some open Repeater Frequencies that could be used. seems like this should be something that could be solved if the parties could both discuss it... But it can be interesting to listen to it in open channel if you want some "entertainment"