Logan5

I'm kinda late jumping in to the thread but a ye' ol' Elmer of mine said that if you have any questions on call signs and etiquette just do as the HAM's do. Amateur Radio is a bit more intensive on etiquette but he sees GMRS as an intro to Amateur Radio. Getting used to HAM habits is a step in the right direction.

This is probably the BEST resource for GMRS.. period.  I love the fact that only licensees have access here... It assures only those with the best interests of the service are here.
 
For amateurs, I echo the thoughts above.... but there, sometimes, you have to pick and choose thru a lot of stuff

you should always identify yourself by stating your call sign. This is especially important when given permission to use someone's repeater. I have a few guest that do not and it bug's me, I try not to pay attention to it.

you should always identify yourself by stating your call sign. This is especially important when given permission to use someone's repeater. I have a few guest that do not and it bug's me, I try not to pay attention to it.

Got it...Recieved an e-mail this morning.

Fantastic, that makes perfect sense. Thanks!

Just wanted to let you all know...

If you have a contract for your GMRS repeater with uncle sam, you may want to check on it.
 
Until this month, GMRS was billed as a "PRIVATE RADIO" rate.
For a rural area, this meant instead of a 120 dollar yearly rent like the HAM guys paid, GMRS repeater owner had to pay 5 times that amount.

Not any longer.

If your GMRS is privately registered and not used for business, it will now be billed as "OTHER" which will now make the rates equal. (Like it should have been years ago.)
(You will have to speak up about this to get the lower rate...but once they check with the property manager, it will be adjusted.)


 

There is a cluster of confusion in the rules. You can read the rules like many read the constitution (if it doesn't say you can't do something, then go ahead or by only what is there in print). In Part 95A the rules actually say that transmitters must only be certified for use in GMRS and then in the next sentence it states the rules must only meet the technical standards for GMRS...so the two sentences contradict one another. If you actually dive down into the technical standards, then they actually require a crystal controlled radio (which I might add, most of the FCC OET database only goes back to 1982 when radios began to become synthesized) but we know that since the rules were written in 1989 that Motorola, Icom, Kenwood, Standard Horizion (Vertex), and General Electric (Harris) have all manufactured synthesized radios with 90/95A certification. 
 
As a result, many just run whatever Part 90 radio they can get their hands on (because they meet technical specifications).

America is not the whole world. Really only a problem here. Labeling the outside of the pelican case helps, "ham callsign" repeater, plus frequency.

Location is key. A $20,000 repeater system isn't going to do any good in a garage behind your house (well unless your on a mountain top). I have put repeaters in a shelter on a mountain with an antenna bolted to the wall that cover much better than predicted or expected but height is everything. As for repeaters I would say Quantar or the MTR2000. With that said all of my repeaters are GR1225 with good duplexers and filtering. Powered down and pushed into a expternal amp seem to be pretty solid and reasonably priced. Antenna and Feedline will be almost as important as the location. Spend the money to get the best bang for your buck so to speak, but dont skimp. I run 7/8" hardline on all my repeaters and a few are only 25' up a tower, but i also like the idea of the same parts so spares will work anyplace. 

I would like to hear what your dream bullet proof repeater station would consist of? And for the fun of it, let's consider money not an object.
Thanks

There was actually a glitch in the system yesterday morning that allowed for Part 95 licenses to be applied for without a fee associated with them. It has since been returned to the $65 price point.

I have a 200 foot section of andrew heliax 1/2" hard line for sale.. no connectors on it.
i am in south carolina if you are local you can pick it up, if you need it shipped that will require you to pay shipping via fed ex and a samll handling fees for the shipping materials.
email me for more info and pics,

Hi
 
I’m new to the gmrs spectrum and have a question about using repeaters.  If a repeater has an input/outpout of 462.7/467.7  do I set my radio to transmit on 462.7 with a +5 offset to receive?
 
Probably sounds like a stupid question, but I’m just starting out and want to make sure I understand this.
 
Also, is there a way in the menu to set up a channel to not scan, so that I can have the scan feature bypass that particular channel?
 
WQWH599 
out

We heard about a lady who was ripping off clients financially by holding fake seances... and giving false testimony to the police investigators. This lady, who was 4 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 85 pounds, was arrested and jailed pending a court appearance. However, she was so small that she squeezed through the bars in her cell and walked out the back door to the jail.
 
The police put out an all points bulletin that read, "Small Medium at Large."
 
 

One of my project radios is a Motorola APCOR box. Basically a 463 mhz EMS portable repeater, like the orange box you see int he old TV show Emergency. The only issue is that the duplexer is connected with real small rigid coax and it is upside down frequency-wise. It receives 463, transmits 468. But the duplexer isn't symmetrical, it's like 4 notch cavities one side and three teh other. In a duplexer you (most of the time) need to keep the frequency sense the same, one port always the lower, one the higher, regardless what's hooked to it. But the point is that these are self contained and have nicads in them. If you can find an APCOR unit it can be a pretty good portable repeater. They came in 1 watt and 12 watt versions. Oh yeah, the radios are a pair of MX300's. And those are plentiful on ebay, for making portable repeaters.
 
George Csahanin
W2DB
WQEU782
Cedar Park, TX 

Greetings from Metro Detroit!
 
I wanted to stop in and say hello. I've had a fascination With radios of all kinds since I was a little kid. It started with Cb's in every vehicle ive ever owned. I love Listening to scanners and getting the news before it hits the air. I'm hoping to work my way into becoming a ham operator as well to help with the local skywarn group I am a part of. Unlike a lot of people my GMRS life started with my buying a set of uniden radios and reading the instructions seeing that i needed a licence to use the good channels. Now im fully licensed and got the itch to not only get some decent GMRS equipment but also look into setting up a local repeater due to the lack of GMRS in my area. I look forward to learning from you guys!
 
Riley
WQWD609

Hey guys I'm just getting into GMRS and recently purchased a Kenwood TK-8150.  Originally I was going to just use simplex but I was actually able to find a repeater.

I'm having a couple issues connecting to the repeater.
 
I have two radios setup, one being the Kenwood TK-8150 and the other being a Baofeng UV-5R.  

I set both of them up (I think) with the PL tones and I can hear the Baofeng on the Kenwood but not vice versa.  If i talk into the Kenwood I hear nothing on the Baofeng and then as soon as I release the PTT i hear static and the "beep" from the repeater.  So the repeater hears me but for some reason my voice isn't going through?  I am a little confused by the software for the Kenwood. To set the PL tones I set the QT/DQT Dec and Enc to the PL tone for the repeater, is there anything else I have to do?  I read online that QT/DQT is the same as PL/CTCSS.  Do I need to set the "Opt Signal" option?  It shows DTMF, 2-tone, and "Fleetsync" which I don't know what any of these are...

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
Sorry if my terminology is lacking, I've only been into GMRS for a couple weeks.

The filters on the Baofengs aren't too great so they are a little subject to adjacent channel interference (even at 5 MHz of offset). We learned over time when testing Baofengs, put about 20 or 30 ft between the two handhelds.

It's only 5W. Doesn't do repeaters. Only features PL (no DPL or split tones). Haven't seen a price tag associated with it yet. I bet it's also narrowband and not wide to be to spec with the bubble pack radios.
 
If it had DPL and the repeater offsets, it wouldn't be a bad little radio for use as a link radio...

https://midlandusa.com/new-extended-range-and-ultra-slim-midland-mxt100-micromobile-gmrs-2-way-radio-allows-you-to-stay-connected-to-everyone/?avad=55963_c911208a

Hi all, I just paid my money and got my GMRS lic yesterday.  So now I've got my lic. I've got my radio.  So the question I've got is now what?  The reason I went ahead and did all this is my brother's family and mine are going on a cruise in a couple of months.  I though the radios would be good for the trip.  But I've got a new toy and wanna play .  Any suggestions?

I have a couple and use them on occasion, but of the Chinese knockoffs, I prefer the Uv5R.  Having said that I just took a look at both and mine on High are holding at 3.25 watts.  Low power is .98 watt.  There is another one that I saw on fleabay that purports to have 8 watts transmit power.  I am down in Argentina at the moment, but when I come home for summer vacation I want to try the Radio Tone Duplex to see if it will pass the GMRS freqs.  I have one and it works great setting up a temp 2 meter VHF or 440 UHF repeater for amateur radio use.  The Li-Ion batter in it gives you about 24 hours sometimes longer use without power which makes it great for emergencies, however don't know if it will work on GMRS freqs....

The ad in the link is not for dual bander. It is UHF only.

I know this has been inactive for awhile but Sean got ahold of Tim and got into the system. We have also given him a few free reprograms to keep him on the air. Anyone in the club, or area, that wants to use the system legally gets all updates and any help with equipment for free, as long as we have to parts and equipment. We just love a super large group to be able to talk to. We love having Sean on our system. He has been wonderful.
 
Jerry