WSFN703

Not to derail the thread but to provide accurate information. I was under the impression that linked repeaters were shut down by the FCC in the last year or so. Has something changed?

The antenna is a Nagoya UT72G. When I get to the car wash I just pop the antenna and magnetic base off the 3M backed steel disc and lay it in the back seat. When I get through the car wash I pop it back on. No big deal. The coax is run through the back door and down the B pillar. Probably not the best thing for longevity of the coax but for a $35 antenna I'm not real worried about it. My F150 has an aluminum roof so the disc was needed for the magnet to hold.

I used one of these for my little magmount. The 3M tape has held up good for the last 10 months. Hot summer, dry all the time, car washes. Seems to be doing fine.

Looks like the closest potential repeater is down in Morgantown. https://mygmrs.com/repeater/10130 Also found this, Join the Greater Pittsburgh Area GMRS Community! Connect with fellow radio enthusiasts, share your experiences, and stay updated on local events. https://www.facebook.com/groups/gmrspgh/ You might try hitting the repeater or getting in touch with the Pittsburg group.

If you are trying to work a repeater you will need to enter the tones for that repeater. If you are just listening to others on simplex it could be you are picking up transmissions that you can't reach with your HT. The folks you are hearing may also have tones set on their radios so they can't hear you without you setting the same tone. Are you inside or outside of a house or vehicle? I can hear our repeater while in the house but I can't transmit to it reliably, if at all. Same with a vehicle a lot of times. I don't have the Plus but I figure the repeater channels are the same as on the UV-5G, channels 23-30. These channels have the built-in offset for the repeater. Set the appropriate tone for the repeater you are trying to reach. Let us know a few more details about what you are experiencing.

Hard to argue with this. For the price, they let you get your feet wet right now, learn how to do a little programming, and figure out what you want to do. Then, if you decide to move up, you can use them for friends or family or throw them in the vehicle or drawer for a backup. Amazon has them for $40/pair. You may be able to get them cheaper if they run a sale. Then follow Steve's advice and watch YouTube reviews. For me, the Baofengs have been more than enough. I don't need anything fancy. I can hit my local repeater from my house (18 miles), holds a decent charge, weren't hard to program, and they work. There's probably a hundred other radios that can do that. Do your research and know that as soon as you get what you think you need a new radio will come out next month and you'll think you need that one. Welcome to GMRS.

That makes sense. My Yaesu VX-7R has a female connector.

I ordered a couple of pairs of UV-5Gs for family. When I got them out of the box a few minutes ago to program them I noticed they were sporting female sma antenna connectors on the radio. The older ones that I have are the male sma connectors. Anybody know why they changed or why? I don't guess it really makes a difference.

Amaff and Steve just about summed it up. If you're looking to make contact and the channel is quiet, then call-sign and "monitoring", and someone may answer. If a chat is going on, then gauge as to the appropriateness to jump in. If appropriate, wait for a break, call-sign and "comment" or " question". Then let them invite you in. We have a pretty active repeater so everyone knows that any conversation is likely being listened by several folks and conversations are, mostly, open to general conversation. There are a few exceptions. The other night a father and son (adults) were talking about Christmas plans. I listened but let them have their "private" conversation without interruption (not that I had anything to say). On the other hand, a couple of guys were talking about places to go fishing and I realized that one of the lakes they were considering was private, so I broke in appropriately and let them know. The appreciated the information and we chatted for a minute then I backed out and let them finish. It all is about appropriateness and respect. Welcome to GMRS.

You may also look at Red's Engineering for a simplex repeater. I have a SRPT-03 and it works fine.

Edit: Others beat me while I was looking at maps. You don't have much in the way of "real" repeaters around you. Most of them look like rooftop farm repeaters. The one in McDonough (members only) may be promising but it will still be hard for an HT to get there. A mobile in your vehicle will probably be a little better but you're still fighting short repeater towers with limited range, terrain, and vegetation. It's going to be hard in a single story apartment to get anything high enough to get through the trees.

Big Hoss beat me to it. If you are looking for something very basic, but also cheaper, then a simplex repeater can work. We have one we deploy at the ranch when we go down. Here's a review I did on my Red's SRPT-03 build. A Retevis may be in our future but this one works fine for the limited amount of use we demand of it. We simply check in on it. No long conversations or jack-jawing. I did the whole build for about what just the Retevis unit costs.

I have a 2023 F150 crew cab and the center rib of the cab runs down the middle so drilling in the center of the roof is not a good option. I also just didn't want to drill a hole in my roof, at least right now (I did on my F250 for a 220/70 antenna and didn't have any problems). The newer cabs are aluminum so I bought a stick on mounting plate and a mag mount antenna off Amazon. Located it centered front to back and just off center left to right on the driver's side. I'm not going to pretend it is the greatest or end-all setup but it works good enough for me. I can hit the repeater (approx. 275' tall) at 35+ miles over flat terrain (haven't tried it any farther) with my cheapo DB-20. Again, nothing special or earth shattering. Easy to remove before going through the car wash. It's not as slick as running it through the roof but I haven't found that I care that much. Just an option, even if it's not the best.

We have an active, polite, and helpful, GMRS community and there are a couple of nets each week on the main repeater. We sort of, kind of, tend to encourage folks to use phonetics when first transmitting their callsign but don't chastise anyone if they don't. We may ask them to use phonetics if we can't understand them because they are talking too fast (or our ears are too slow) or the transmission isn't clear. Other than that there aren't many "rules" or etiquette for general conversation. We have some folks that talk conversationally, others that use more military-type jargon, and the occasional user that sound like they're Smokey and the Bandit. We don't get too bent out of shape and just roll with it. Usually it is an acceptable combination of all three. The advice given in previous posts is good. Don't be a jerk, keep your language clean, and be polite. If you have a repeater you can get on, listen in to see how the users converse. After a while you will start recognizing call signs and voices and how the flow of the repeater works. Most of our repeater traffic goes something like this. -Listen for traffic, if none heard- "WSFN703 Monitoring (or standing by or listening)" - if you're not looking for anyone in particular but open for conversation. You may strike up a conversation with someone. If someone is driving they may say "Mobile" instead of "Monitoring". This can let folks know that you may lose TX/RX due to terrain, buildings, or distance. It also tends to imply that you may not be active on the radio for very long, i.e. you reach your destination. "WXXX123, WSFN703, Fred are you out there?" - if you're looking for someone specific. If they answer, you go on with your conversation. If you know they are listening, just call them by name. "WSFN703, Radio Check" - if you want to see if your radio/antenna is working and how well. Someone will chime in with their evaluation of your signal. If there is traffic and you want to say something, be it a comment on the topic being discussed or a question for one of the participants, maybe an emergency call, or to contact someone else (and then move to another freq. or repeater); -Listen for a break in the conversation- "WSFN703 Break (or Comment/Question)" - Wait a second or two for the other stations to acknowledge your break, then proceed with your comment. "WSFN703 Emergency, Emergency, Emergency" - State your emergency and vital information. 9-1-1 should be used first but there may be cases where cell phone coverage is not available and GMRS is all you have. After your conversation, however brief or extended, is ended. "WSFN703 Clear" - usually means you are signing off but may mean you are done with the repeater and may still be listening but not actively looking for a conversation. The context of the conversation can provide the meaning. "Well, I've made it to work. Good talking to you. WSFN703 is clear." "WSFN703 Monitoring" - I'm done talking but still listening if someone else wants me for something. This is not any kind of official script we follow. It's just how most of us talk when we're on the repeater. It helps keep things manageable. If we are on a net, we let the net controller set the rules. Simplex may be similar but generally it's just you and a friend or two on a channel so it's whatever etiquette you wish to follow. Profanity and vulgarities are still generally frowned upon since children may be listening but I don't know anyone that polices it.

The Red's records off of the carrier signal and not just the audio. As long as you have the transmit button down it will stay open (or until the timer times out).

I appreciate you telling me what I won't be happy with even after I have had satisfactory experiences.

Undoubtedly 50 watt radios would work better, and at twice+ the cost, but that is not what I was trying to do. That's like saying a backhoe works better than a shovel. We needed a "shovel" as an occasional use, put up and take down, simple repeater for very limited TX/RX. So far it meets our needs more than adequately.

Background: A friend has a 10,000 acre ranch in the middle of nowhere. Cell phone reception is spotty at best. We were looking for a reliable way to be able to communicate while at the ranch for quick status updates and for emergencies. About 2/3rds of the land is fairly flat with the other 1/3rd being draws and ridges that limit line of site. The challenge was threefold; 1) to find a location that allowed "line-of-sight" to as much of the ranch as possible, 2) to have a repeater located at said spot to "see" down the draws, and 3) to limit costs for an occasional use system. Equipment: Red's Engineering Simplex Repeater - $61.00 Boafeng UV-5R GMRS radios - $31.00 (2pk) (so really $15.50) A 15' pool cleaning pole - already had from previous project The Red's Engineering Simplex Repeater features from the website: Web based configuration via cell phone Works with the Baofeng UV-5R radio DTMF detection, enable disable repeater Fox Hunt Transmitter Mode Periodic Station ID 45 second message record time Station Identification (Morse Code generation) LED Indicators show current status Shield type enclosure design USB Power / Charging Open source software OTA Firmware Updates (WiFi) Long battery life, ~12 hours talk time, ~10 month active standby Set-up After charging the repeater and radio, the set-up was straight forward and is easily done through the app. You plug in the supplied cable to the repeater and radio. On the initial startup you must press the reset button. Turn on the radio and wait a few seconds, turn on the repeater, set the volume to about 50%, and you're ready. Within just a few minutes I had the repeater programmed, connected to the radio, and bench tested. In the app you can change the record time, toggle remote enable/disable function, program callsign and ID transmission, and a few other things. Since we are very remote and the likelihood that anyone else would ever find the repeater is slim to none, I didn't go through some of the whistles and bells. They may come into use later but I left most everything pretty basic. Real-world testing - Home After scouring Google Earth, Radio Mobile Online, and SCADACore line of sight generator I determined what I thought was going to be the optimum location for the "tower". The furthest we would need to transmit and receive would be about 5 miles. I unceremoniously duct taped the radio and repeater to a telescoping pool pole, ratchet-strapped it to the fence corner post at home and drove just over 7 miles LOS. I transmitted on channel 5 and heard the repeater, well, repeat back my message. There was static but still readable. Since 7 miles was well outside of the limits I needed I felt it was a good test and waited until the next trip to the ranch. (edit- I later went farther down the road and I couldn't hit it reliably past about 7.5 miles) The radio was wearing the Abree AR-771 antenna that came with the radios. Real-world testing - Ranch In a couple of weeks we went to the ranch. Still using the high-tech duct tape and pool pole, I found the location I had identified and set up the repeater. Over the course of two days, we tested the repeater at all the blinds we had around the ranch and routes along the way. We found that the repeater worked as expected and better, hitting one blind that we were skeptical of hitting. The repeater and radio were left up overnight and the batteries lasted both days. We were not carrying on conversations, mainly just checking the repeater function and checking in with each other occasionally. If we had 15 minutes of total talk time I would be surprised. I was very impressed by the simplistic, but reliable, function of the repeater. Take Aways This is a simplex repeater. You must accept that you will, at minimum hear your own message repeated back to you. In some cases, if you are in simplex range of the other radio, you may hear the original message and repeater message of both yourself and who you are talking to. While some find this cumbersome, it is just the fact of a simplex repeater and if you know it is going to happen you learn to deal with it. Personally, I didn't find it to be a problem for what we were trying to accomplish. For about $100 I don't think it can be beat for what we wanted to accomplish, basic communication for status checks and emergencies. We also accept that there may still be locations that simply cannot be reached due to terrain. That is why we stress that we let everyone know where we are going and when, within reason, to expect us back. No amount of technology should replace a simple "flight plan". Future plans I am now in the process of piecing together a weatherproof housing and solar backup. The internal batteries will last about three days (not using any of the power-saving functions) at our communication frequency, maybe more. In the event we are down there for more than a couple of days, solar will allow the batteries to remain topped off. Additionally, I am looking at "tower" options that allow us to put the repeater up and down when we come and go. I'm heavily leaning towards a 30' telescoping flag pole (staying with the limiting cost theme). That will allow us to have a permanent location that is easy to run up and down. All in I think I'm probably looking at about $300, radio, repeater, pole, solar, and bits and pieces. While I tinker with a lot of things, this is my first foray into repeaters, albeit very limited. The Red's Engineering gets my initial thumbs up. I hope to be back with updates soon. EDIT: 10-21-25 It's been about a year since I first put the repeater together. I thought I would update improvements made. Additions: 23' paint pole from Home Depot - $40 6 Ah LiFePO4 battery from Amazon - $20 17" GMRS antenna from Amazon - $40 50' KMR400 Coax from Amazon - $45 10 amp Charge Controller from Amazon - $25 10 watt Solar Panel from Amazon - $25 Apache Case (Med) from Harbor Freight - $30 Various other bits and pieces to connect it all together. With the taller pole and better antenna I can reach out over 12.5 miles over flat terrain, a 5.5 mile increase. I can hit it with an HT standing outside the truck and the mobile in the truck. There is static at that distance but the transmission is still very readable. I suspect I could go a little farther but I called it good at 12.5 miles. With the solar set up there shouldn't be a problem running the repeater indefinitely. I went a little over my $300 estimate but not by much, and maybe not since I used a gift card for the pole. I haven't pulled the trigger on the flagpole yet, but it is still an option. Transporting isn't too bad. 5 pieces; pole, antenna, case (w/radio, battery, charge controller, repeater, and solar panel attached to outer lid), coax, and stake/guy wire bag. I can strap the coax to the case and tie the bag to the handle if needed. Since I can drive right up to the site it doesn't much matter. No, it is not as handy as a duplex repeater, but it serves a purpose, our purpose. All in, it is cheaper than the duplex repeater by itself. Will I end up getting a duplex repeater someday? Very likely, but this works for now.