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Some require an application be filled out and a fee paid, also.
 
AntiSquid Disclaimer: All posted content is personal opinion only and may not imply fact or accusation.

I would also bet that many of these new repeaters in PR are based on standard Part 90 mobile radios powered by high capacity deep cycle marine/RV batteries with both 110 vac charging and solar backup. That’s what I’d do if I was building a system to function for long periods when the power grid fails.

I'd say so. They realized that Cellular networks take weeks and months to repair, and the least populated areas are the last ones to have service restored.
 
I had a guy who was buying up all the old UHF wideband radios I could find & shipping them down to Puerto Rico. He stopped buying stuff about 6 months ago, not sure if he found another source, or just saturated his market. 

So I went and got the 33cm rig today. And here's a cool kicker: the guy I bought it from also has an unlisted GMRS repeater, and gave me permission to use it!

LoL, so the answer is yes.

Hi, I just read an article on another radio forum. (E ham.net) The FCC is suspending most operations during the government shutdown. Most important to us is as of Jan 3, GMRS and Ham licensees will be accepted but not reviewed, and entered into their data base until after funding is resumed.
 
Thanks for listen
Keith T

I already have 222, and have had for years.
I've joined a 33cm discussion group, and buying a Kenwood TK-981 today. We'll see how it does.

Yes we had this happen here in South FL on our freq. 600, I recorded the comm's and managed to get the name and e-mail of a local coordinate. I e-mailed him a copy of the FCC charter and notified him of the fines and penalties for such illegal operation. He stopped communicating with the party immediately, and the rest stopped within a few hours. I agree this needs more attention, having a high power output on our input is catastrophic to even basic comm's.   

Well, I wasn't really grumping at you... but I have a (excuse the expression) hair trigger on gun issues. (To be clear, I am most definitely not a member of the NRA).

I would imagine Fort Lauderdale gets slammed with the same stuff we get here.
 
The problem here was affecting another person's repeater - we are not on .550.  But they were completely unaware of it.  With internet access at the site its relatively easy to monitor out input. 
 
Greg   

That is a very nice looking radio!
 

I have definitely seen this, but they were usually very distorted - these users were right on frequency. 

Never had a problem, never even had to pull them out for inspection. this included HT's, antennas, headphones and scanners. I have even watched the screen when the bag crosses, looks fishy to me, but they never notice. Now my vape pen, that they want to inspect. lol

2w vs 4-5w makes very little difference anyway. The main thing the additional wattage does is heat up the radio and drain the battery. A good antenna is far more important.

I'm part of the North Ga GMRS group and that repeater is working.  Can you check to see if the radio has the correct PL tones entered?  You said the manual said it was pre-programmed with the correct ones but you never know.   I have a GMRS V1 that keeps turning off the transmit setting.  You may want to check on that.  Since you said you could reach the repeater with your Baofeng, listen for the weekly net and ask for help during that time.   Everyone is very helpful on the net.  If they don't know the answer, someone will find it for you.   I think it is now on Thursdays @ 8pm.   Good luck.

How are you testing to see if you are hitting the repeater? Are you are expecting to hear a beep or squelch tail (a short period of carrier after you unkey your transmitter)? While those features are typical, they are not required and, in many cases, not present. Sometimes the only way to tell if you are activating the repeater is to listen on another radio -- one that is as far away from your transmitter as possible. 
Other than that, there are several possibilities...
- Have you ever heard any traffic on the repeater? It may not even be working.
- The PL tone may have changed from that listed in MyGMRS.
- You may have set your radio to require a PL tone on receive, possibly a different tone than the repeater transmits or forwards - or the repeater may not have PL on the output at all.
- Your signal may not be reaching the repeater. Try driving to some location that is line-of-sight from the repeater and see what happens.
- And, finally, just as a test, you could give your Baofeng a try. You will not get arrested.
 
Good luck, keep trying.

Check out the Baofeng GMRS-V1 for a decent handheld radio. It's a pretty good radio for about $55 shipped from Amazon.
And, it's type accepted and therefore 100% legal.

Most quality radios are offset capable, However for GMRS you might want to consider a radio radio is part95 certified and offset capable.

Others may disagree with me but that's a brave and compassionate man to order his crew off of the tower and remain there himself to figure out the problem.

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/tower-guy-hill-post-auction-repack-should-not-be-rushed-168401

I think you hit the nail on the head, Elkhunter521. IMHO, the current Midland company is used to giving the very least product for the most money. They consistently, probably intentionally, miss the balance between profit and usability. I think they are counting on that Part 95 certification being all important in the purchase decision. For those who know better, it is not. They count on a paper tiger to chase uninformed customers to them.
 
If their products offered what I would consider even baseline performance, I would consider purchasing them. Unfortunately, as you astutely pointed out, they lack the ability to control tone encoding/decoding independently as well as the anorexic memory channel options.
 
It would also be nice if they changed to a more suitable connector for UHF on their mobiles and perhaps added a repeater mode to link the radios. The internal connector is there but the firmware won't allow for Tx on the right frequencies like the China versions of the same radio do.

I just got two of these Kenwood commercial mobiles, from two separate sellers on fleabay. I had made an offer on one, bought another via "buy it now," and then my offer on the first one was accepted. Both showed up today.
 
What attracted me to the 805s is that they are front-panel field programmable; no software required (although they can be programmed that way as well).
 
Both of these rigs came with a mount bracket, mic and mic hanger. The one I made an offer on did not have GMRS channels programmed in; it had two 461 MHz frequencies. It's a little beat up but not bad, and I think the mic is a new replacement. I had to remove the top panel and move the jumper to enable front panel programming. Once I did that, programming it was a snap. I put the 8 repeater pairs in it and set up the aux button to enable "talk around" (simplex). I also put one ham radio repeater pair in it; a nearby repeater that a member here owns.
 
The other one looks like brand new. I paid a little more for it, but still got it for well under $100 including shipping. It came from an actual radio store, and they offered free programming. I took them up on it.
These are 16 channel radios. The seller emailed a Word form for channel information and I had them program the 8 repeater pairs, Talk Around for simplex, and the 9 interstitial channels for a total of 15.
 
These are billed as 25 watt radios, but according to my cheap VHF/UHF meter, both are putting out right around 40 watts. I'll probably turn them down to 20-25 watts to conserve the finals.
 
I've seen a couple of comments online to the effect that after programming, you have to return the jumper to the "user" pins before they will receive and transmit.  Not true. The only reason for that jumper is to prevent the appliance operator from inadvertently (or otherwise) messing with the programming. It works just fine with the jumper in the programming position, and the great thing is that you can pull over and modify a channel in just a minute or two.
 
Bottom line: I like these radios!

I would probably start by listening to your local repeaters to find one that has activity. There appear to be a handful in your area, and you might even be able to reach some of the Dallas repeaters. The Carrollton 550 is listed as an open repeater, if it's still in operation.
I would also look on the map (here on MyGMRS) and contact your nearby repeater owners.
Repeaters aren't the only way to operate on GMRS, of course. But they are the best way to find other operators.
 
Another thing you can do is just announce your presence when you're out and about. Either on a repeater that you have gained permission to use, or one that is listed as open, or just on 675 simplex with a transmitted 141.3 PL tone. Just announce your callsign, perhaps along with "monitoring" or "listening." Eventually you will get a reply. You might even get one immediately, depending on how much activity is in your area.
 
Another thing you might do is find a local ham radio club and go to a meeting. Lots of GMRS operators are also hams, so you will probably meet some there. Of course they will try to talk you into getting your ham radio license too, and that's not a bad thing. You might try this one: https://k5prk.net/

Hello all;
I just received my GMRS license a couple of days ago. I am a ham and have been involved in various facets of radio since the '70s. I've considered getting a GMRS license for years, but prior to 1999 it just seemed too restrictive and didn't seem to offer any real advantages for me. I was much more involved in amateur radio and didn't have the time for what GMRS was at the time, or at least what I perceived it to be, right or wrong.
 
That was then, this is now. I'm pleased with the direction GMRS has taken. I remember when FRS first came out, and in fact I sold some of the first FRS radios before they were widely available. I watched as the blister pack radios became more capable, and heard the buzz about how they would result in the demise of GMRS.
 
I'm happy that hasn't happened, and that GMRS has become a more useful and accessible radio service than ever before.