WSEN940

Nice. I had to find a 'no drill' solution. The Subaru is the ladies car, and I'd be in trouble if I started making holes in it!!

What year Taco? I was looking around the rear of the cab on mine and have not seen anything of interest yet, but then, I've not pulled the internal trim either. I have a 2020 Model year Gen 3 and it's actually got pretty good access through the front bulkhead on the drivers side. While I was at it, I pulled a snake line through the passenger side for a later addition

Glad it was useful. yeah! That privacy code thing….yes, it really is just a tone. Worth noting that if you are chatting to someone with ‘privacy tones’ turned on…it’s not private. Anyone without the tones setup on their radio, but on the same frequency will hear you.

Just to note, the GXT3000 is repeater capable. Or so the website says. But without looking, I’d suspect that you’d be pretty lucky if they just happened to have the right codes for the local repeaters. The advantage of these types of radios is that they really are designed to be easy to operate. And TDM872, your usage is typically what most folks probably do with them. I keep a couple kicking around for this very purpose.

Just saw a video by one of our members (I'm talking about you, the Queen of all that is GMRS) and it reminded me to complete the attached document. It's something I started a few months ago and it covers the definition of a channel or Channel. It's absolutely where the problems lie in understanding more complex radios. I know it did for me initially, but hey, I'm a smart guy right!? OK, maybe it took me a lot of reading but I got there. As this is the internet, I will add that this is pretty much a first pass. I am not married to this, so if I got something wrong, or anyone can clarify something, please, please let me know. This is a community that wants to help others, which is what I am attempting here. I got a little more in depth than originally planned, but held back from going all engineering nerd on this. I wanted to keep this beginner friendly. So if you are a novice, read this and let me know if it made any sense. GMRS Channels.pdf

Mmm! Good point. The PMR frequencies certainly have that lower digit numbering, and it’s possible channel 50 got mixed up with PMR channel 7 on my radio. Interesting !

The simple answer, assuming you don’t care about repeaters, is no. Channels 15-22 are just more GMRS channels to use. Which, if your using a blister pack GXT like mine, is exactly how I view them. However, a big caveat! If you do care about repeaters, have more capable radios and want to chat over a wider area see below. Each of the channels 15-22 double as normal GMRS channels AND are your LISTENING frequencies for the 8 allocated repeater ‘channels’. Note that your TRANSMIT frequencies for the repeaters are each of the channels 15-22 with an added 5Mhz offset. I might draw a picture tomorrow.

Thanks TDM827. Appreciate the response. What really got me going was that all of the channels except 50 confirm to this list I got from an online PDF about the channels, below. Note that 50 is listed as having a DTC code and is 462.7250, which is different from your radio as well. With mine, it's only 0.0125 off, so still works....but yeah. Interestingly though, I bought a two pack...and they both exhibit the same issue...so whoever was coding them that day was having a few issues I suspect.

Yep, I'm aware. but thanks for the reminder.

I scoured the net and found that the general consensus is that there are few ways to get an antenna into the cabin of a Subaru without inflicting some damage to grommets, bulkheads and the like. Just for reference, I did discover that above the wiring grommet on the passenger side front door there is a bung. It sits below the upper hinge and above the wiring harness. I popped it off and shoved an inspection camera snake in there and found that there is also a hole into the cabin about 2" below it. Mine was partially obscured by insulation, but, with careful work with the inspection camera snake, I managed to get it in behind the glove box. I won't go into all the gory details, but this turned out to be a really great way to get cable access. I now have a Ghost antenna mounted on a ditch light mount on the passenger side and it's cable runs neatly through the fender into the hole. I mentioned in a previous post about using the DB20-G for when we road trip together in the two cars, now, I can drop that into my lady's rig when needed and it's a clean plug and go! No mag mount and dodgy wiring needed. Hopefully useful info for folks that are considering routing options for the Subaru.

I'm sure he'll be along shortly. I'll be keeping mine, they come in pretty handy when we get visitors and go do some 'vigorous outdoor exercise'!

I will add....that it's close enough to the next channel that it actually works.....but it's also not what's published in the manual. Which is why I had issues to start with!

I was setting up my UV-5G Plus radios with a matching set of frequencies for my GXT1000 radio's "extended" channel list, just gives us more options of pre-programmed 'coded' channels to match up with the Midland crowd. I coded in all of the Midland channels 23-50 and tested them...only to discover that channel 50 is off channel. I tested all the channels between the UV-5G and the GXT and it did not work....so I set the UV to listen mode and lo and behold, the GXT is transmitting on 462.58625! That's not right it's 0.0125 below the GMRS Channel 2....ooops. Anyone else with these radio's, and the ability to check, want to confirm that theirs does it too? I won't bother with hassling Midland about it....I mean, I've never used channel 50, and am not likely too...but wanted to see if this was common. Kind of an odd one to let slip through!

Well....I'm sitting almost exactly 30 miles from the top of Mt Bachelor here in Central Oregon. I was setting up one of my mobile radios with a MTA 26 antenna and noted that I was hearing 'ski chatter'. We're getting some good snow today and there are folks up on the mountain making the most of it. You can actually see the mountain from my house (when it's clear), so no real surprise, but I can bet they are all using blister pack HT's! Turned on one of my CCR's (UV-5G Plus) and was still hearing it with that although a tad more crackly. So yeah! A little altitude and a clear line of sight does a 'lot' for communications. There's a HAM repeater on top of that pile of dust, but not a GMRS repeater. Not that I'm too worried as I am a licensed HAM, but even so. Would be useful to have both options!! Image below taken with one of my long lenses. you can see the chair lift to the peak.

I've got mine plugged directly into the lighter. I'm assuming that they thought about power spikes. I do have some connectors coming so I can plug it into the battery though. I'll cut the lighter plug off and re-do the end so I can use either or. @WSHB443 I attached my code plug for the unlocked radio. It might give you a start point. I'd copy off the default one on your radio before you do anything else. This one has my listing of the GMRS and FRS channels and only two repeaters...so you can edit those out and put in your own. This could be useful for anyone else that wants a default setup for GMRS that's not too complex. Note I also have dual watch turned off and only displays a single channel. You will also want to edit the start up message in the config too....it's got my calls sign in there. DB20-G Settings Unlock w Repeater.dat

Appears editing on the site is a bit of a problem. If an admin can fix this....i'd be grateful.

Removed

Just to add. A repeater has a 'listening' frequency and a 'sending' frequency. When you hear the repeater, it is the repeaters sending frequency that your getting. I was messing around with something else on the forum and bashed out the attached to help. Now, I don't have this radio and looked at the manual. But this should help you understand how it all works. If you find the tones for that repeater, you already know the receive frequency, so that should give you a start point. And if anyone has this radio...if I screwed up somewhere, please let me know.

As per my usual approach. Here is a visual showing how to test your radio is setup for a repeater. Admittedly, this does require a second radio. The picture shows a use case with a repeater on 467.7/462.7 with an input tone of 131.8 For simplicity, you can omit the tone on radio 2 (test 2) to check that your primary radio is receiving, and then add it in if you have programmed it on Radio one to test that it's actually OK. That's up to you. All this proves is that your radio 'can possibly' communicate with the repeater. It does not account for the fact that you may 'actually' have the wrong information in the first place. I can't test for that!!! And trust me...i've been there. Hopefully this is helpful.

After all this chatter on the DB20-G, I bought one and popped it into the lady's car for a recent road trip where we were using two vehicles. It's a really great little unit for the price. We're often in a situation where we are using two cars, so this is not a one off. After I got home, I set about doing some programming. Overall, I am pretty happy with it. I also bought a DB25-G for my truck, sadly it stopped working on day two, so that's gone back and I've opted for a second DB20-G. This way, I can keep a common code plug for the radio's. As noted above, you are limited in what you can program while in GMRS mode. I've unlocked it (yeah I know! It won't get used on the HAM bands as I have another better dual band for that anyway) and have programmed it to my specs. I only had two repeaters to code, but I've now named the GMRS and FRS channels as I like, and turned off the dual watch. The color display makes reading the display easy. Perfect for my lady who is not a radio geek! Overall, happy for now and an inexpensive way to chat between vehicles.

Are you looking for assistance? If so, I’ll ask the obvious questions. 1. Have you cloned a working radios settings into the non functioning one? 2. How far are the repeaters from you? Is it possible that you are actually at the radios range limit. 3. Have you tried the following, as you have multiple radios? Let’s call one of the non functioning radios R1 Take a second radio, R2, and program it on a SIMPLEX channel with the input frequency of the repeater(R1 transmit frequency) and with the same tone as the repeaters input. key up R1 and see if R2 responds. If it does, then you’ve proved the radio works and your just not hitting the repeater. let us know how it goes.

I can only think of Monty Python references in response to this welcome, fair sir @SteveShannon to the realm. We will hoist your colors on our battlements. By what moniker shalt though be known on the air of our lord xenu?

I don’t know what radio you are using, but I did a picture for a UV5G plus a while back that shows the programming sequence for that HT. if your using a different radio, it shows the relationship between the tx and rx frequencies and the tones. It ‘may’ be helpful…link below Programming

Something else to try….this is the idiots guide to making sure you’re getting out at least. A troubleshooters guide of you will. set up one radio (the secondary) to receive simplex from the TX channel (from your primary radio) with no CTSS tone to ensure you are transmitting on the +5 channel and receiving it on the simplex channel. if that works, add the CTSS tone to the receiving radio to ensure that you are, in fact, transmitting the right tone as well. if the TX side is working…try the following. set up your other radio (secondary) with the repeaters output frequency…Transmit to the primary radio and make sure it’s receiving on that channel. Hopefully that makes sense…I’m two beers into the evening at a restaurant in Guatemala and trying to type on a small cellphone screen!