WSEN246

See, I had considered that, decided against that. My reasoning being that the hut is in an open field that is only used for hunting a few weeks out of the year. No one lives on this property full time, so I don't want a permanent instill that could grow legs and walk off, and I don't want anything too large that would cause the deer to be spooked by a strange new thing. That's what's leading me to a smaller magnetic roof antenna on the hut for the week I'm there, and it can be removed when I'm leaving. Should be small enough to not be too noticeable across the field by the critters, and can be easily put up/ taken down with a ladder.

Thanks guys. Sounds like I'm about as set as I can be. I'd like to do some experimenting prior to my actual hunting trip next month, but I live on the other side of the state for work. If I can get a weekend free, I'll pop down and try it out. I appreciate the feedback!

Good evening folks, I'm just looking for some advice, and hoping you can educate my ignorance. I bought a set of Baofeng GM15 pros a couple of months back to get into GRMS, and I'm loving them (see the other post I made a few weeks ago). I think I've gotten a pretty good grasp of how the settings work, what frequencies I need to use for certain aspects, and have picked up several conversations in my area of construction workers going about their day to day. Pretty cool. Now on to the next step. I bought the kit on Amazon that came with the standard antennas, but also with some Abbree AR-771 GRMS antennas. I have been using the 771 almost exclusively, and they seem to work great around where I live. I bought these radios with the intent of being able to keep in contact with family members during hunting season as we live in West Virginia (keep that in mind), and we hunt in a area that has yet to be graced by the wonders of cell phone technology. My father is too old to venture into the woods much anymore, so he sits in a hut he built in one of our fields, and I'm not getting any younger, so I figured comms may not be the worst of ideas. Now like I said, this is West Virginia, and I hunt down in the mountains. I won't be too far from the old man, a mile at best, but I'll be in the woods, maybe in a hollow, or on a ridge, hard to say. I'm wondering if the 771 antenna will be ok, or if there is something I should look for otherwise. I've tried doing research, but every video has a different answer. One says "height is might" so if I want to go that route, I can get a decent folding antenna, again from Abbree, that fits my radio, is tuned to GRMS, and unfolds to 42.5 inches. Another person says that in hills and dense areas, a low gain antenna would serve better, so maybe I need something lesser in size and the smaller rubber duck that came with it would be better? What says the hive mind? Just a little more information to add, my dad should be golden in his shack. I also purchased a nagoya UT-72g for my Jeep, mostly because I kept hearing it mentioned everywhere, and I figured it would be a good bridge to allow me to use my handheld radios in my Jeep until I decide exactly what I want to purchase as far as a mobile unit goes. I'm going to take that antenna since it has a magnet mount and stick it to the roof of Dad's shack. That way he has an external antenna and shouldn't have any interference. He won't even have to open the door or anything, and we cant let the heat from his propane heater out now. And lastly, there's a repeater that I can tag onto with a pretty good success rate not terribly far from where we will be, but if I'm down in a hollow, well we all know that success rate will drop.

Hey, so it did, and better than I had anticipated. Long story short, I got caught up in some of that hurricane carnage that swept through where I was going, and I didn't get to check all of the spots that I wanted to between my limited time there, and dealing with the weather/downed trees/flooding/flat tires. HOWEVER, I am happy to report that the larger range repeater can be pinged from my parents' font porch, and radio checks several miles away also allowed it to be pinged. I wasn't able to hop the mountain to our hunting grounds to see if it can be pinged over there, but from the areas I could hit it, that gives me hope since I was hitting it from further away with a mountain between us. The best news out of all of this is I went down for a wedding, and of course the show must go on right? A lot of out of staters were coming in for this wedding, and the location for it was kind of in the back woods. Some of the family was staying there the night before with the bride and groom to get ready for the wedding in the morning, No cell phone service and downed lines made communication impossible for last minute needs when it comes to the things they left states away. The family was super impressed that I had a set of radios that could communicate just fine across a pretty good distance with no power or cell service needed. All in all, I would say it was a success.

I appreciate the suggestions folks. When I head home Friday, I'll get out with my father and play around with that longer range repeater to see what I can come up with. Thanks again for the support!

Good evening folks, I got my license a few weeks back, and got myself a set of 2 Baofeng GM-15 pro radios, and 2 Baofeng G11S radios. They looked like decent starter sets until I get the hang of what I got myself into. They have already come in handy when the girlfriend's bird escaped the house, and we were able to split up but stay in contact while on opposite side of our little town. That was very impressive to someone that has only ever used the cheap bubble packs from Walmart. (Yes, we got the bird back safe and sound) I wanted to get into this for hunting season here in West Virginia. Long story short, I hunt with my father, and one other friend when he is able to go. My father's best years are behind him, so he sits in a self-made shack that might as well be a hotel room at the edge of one of our farm fields, while myself and my buddy wander through the woods. I grew up in these woods, so I'm not too worried about myself alone out there, but my buddy came here from Arizona, and is not so seasoned. We have tried to use those old bubble pack radios to stay in contact, but we all know those things have pretty limited range on a good day. I would like to get my radios set up to allow all of us to stay in contact in case of any issues, and I know that with no obstructions, we would be grand, but this is WV, and flat land is not exactly a hallmark of our state. Here's the kicker. We do have a repeater nearby that is open access. The owner is either pumping all the power to it, or it is on top of one of the higher mountains in the area as it claims to have a 70 mile range, right in the heart of the mountains. Now I know the mountains and hills are limiting factors, but this one particular repeater is at the end of the valley we will be in, so I am holding out hope we can reach it. I will test this coming weekend when I go back home to see. So now that you know the situation, on to the question. I have a repeater near where I live, but have yet to run into anyone on it to verify I am set up on it properly. I want to make sure I am so that when I go home this weekend, I don't have my settings incorrect. The one I have local to me is as follows: Frequency 462.625 MHz Output Tone 141.3 Hz Input Tone 141.3 Hz I have set it in my GM-15 pro on channel 26, which should match the frequency given. I have set the Tx tone to the 141.3 and tried the Rx tone at the 141.3, but never received anything. At the suggestion of another page in the forum, I removed the Rx tone, and now when I kerchunk, I get a response making me think I am on the right track. I have tried turning another radio on, but when I do a check on the repeater channel, I get nothing on the second radio with the same settings. I know that there is a frequency offset, so I know that when I transmit on channel 26, I am technically transmitting at 5 MHZ higher, but I should be getting the response on the repeater channel as well as channel 18 correct? I just want to make sure I don't need to have the other radio on a separate channel to receive. In case it helps any, the repeater back home I would like to make contact on this coming weekend is this one: Frequency 462.700 MHz Output Tone 100.0 Hz Input Tone 100.0 Hz Again, I have set it on channel 29, with the Tx tone of 100.0 and left the Rx tone open. Sorry to be so long winded with this, I just want to make sure I am doing this correctly. Thanks in advance for any advice, I really appreciate it!