marcspaz

I have one and out-of the box, as long as the squelch is at least 1 or higher, it scans when I press the scan button. Don't do a press and hold. Just do a quick press and release. If there is a dot between the second and third characters, that means the channel is included in the scan. If there is no dot, then the channel is excluded. You use press and hold if the scan button to add or remove channels from the scan bank.

I wouldn't call it lazy. Just another part of the the community. Every once in a blue moon, I'll do C4FM through a Wires-X node and do the same thing.

All phone. I am not a digital fan an I haven't done any CW since 2002. Plus, it's hard to do anything but voice while driving. Some guys bang the paddles on thigh rigs, though, which is pretty darn impressive. I lost interest in digital pretty quickly when I found out people set their stations up and then go make a sandwich, go to work or even go to bed and just let their computer rack up hundreds or even over a thousand contacts in a day.

@WRQC527 you did a much better job of saying what I was thinking. LOL I have only been working HF since November of 2019. I have worked 90 confirmed countries from my Jeep, using an FT-857 for a few months, but primarily with a 100w FT-891 and a Diamond HF20CL hamstick.

Contrary to common beliefs, once you step away from the keyboard and ignore the internet, you will find a vast number of Hams are GMRS operators and vice versa. In the hobby portions and in the community service areas, GMRS and Ham not only coexist, but work together with great success. At least when I have been for the last 20+ years. Now, there may be some individuals who don't play nice and use GMRS v Ham as an excuse to show their behinds... but that is a "them problem".

Hmm let's see if this thread comes to life. LoL If I could only pick one, it would be 20 meters. FM line of sight performance is great and many of my local friends have both mobile and base stations for rag chew on FM. During solar minimum, night time performance is trash for skywave, but you can work the planet all day with a fairly small antenna and just a few watts. But that's only for a couple of years. As we roll into the new solar cycles, night time performance becomes very good, too; with very little Blackout time per day. I would say 40m would be a ridiculously close second for me. Only because I love DX and for the most part, I hear folks that are state side more than anything else. There are a fair amount of DX stations on 40m, but nothing like you see on 20m or even 17m. The only reason 40m beats out 17m for second place is because of reliable NIVIS during most of the day. Even right now, at 10:30 PM Eastern, the MUF is over 7.5 and extraordinary is over 8.5. Now that we are coming out of solar minimum, I noticed the MUF is consistently over 3.5... usually not dropping below 4 MHz. During solar minimum, I had a hell of a time using anything over 1.9 within 2 hours plus or minus twilight everyday.

@gortex2 I really need to get to TN. Between the Tunnels and Winrock, I am missing out on a lot. I have never been to a JJ event. They look fun, but always seem so crowded and I have trouble justifying the money, when I can wheel the same place outside of JJ either free or really inexpensive. What do you have done to the JT? I have a Metalcloak 3.5" True Dual suspension, Adam's drive shafts, Fusion 4x4 2.5 ton AL steering and some 37" Mickey Thompson ATZ's. Working with a local shop to build some custom East Coast Dana 60's for the front and back, with 5.13's and Ox lockers. Once the 60's are in, I am going to either a 40" or 42" tire.

That's awesome! Do you use Ham or GMRS to support events? Ham is really popular around here, but occasionally I see REACT and a few others use FRS/GMRS. I love working the bike events. We have one coming up soon. 100K fund raiser for Willing Warriors. Can't wait for that one.

@gortex2 that's awesome that you have so much time in. There are not many people I have met that stay that dedicated for that long. Stinks to hear SAR in your area is lacking. That is such an important role. Honestly, the last SAR/USAR training I have done was over a decade ago and the actual use was almost 21 years ago. About 3 days of rescue and about 3 weeks of recovery. I hope I never have to use those skills again, but with the weather we get, we should still be training. The JT and JK sound like they are decked out very well. If you ever do any offloading and want to make a weekend trip to Rausch, AOAA, Uwharrie, etc.. drop me a note. I am a member of a few clubs and we do a group trip at least monthly. I use a Z Automotive Tazer to control my factory lights, auto park, and some other features. All of the commercial lights came from LED Outfitters in NY. I have been using their hardware for about 5 years and I am very happy with them.

I've shared on a few occasions that I do volunteer work using amateur radio to help out. The other day I did some volunteer work with the Marines, supporting the Marine Corps Marathon Historic Half Marathon. Part of what I did for the marathon is sweep the course to make sure everyone was clear and safe. I know I have shared pictures of my radio setup before, but I also have emergency lighting. Since I work with DOD as well as law enforcement and other emergency services, I can legally run yellow and white strobes while assisting the served agency. Unfortunately I was way too busy to shoot any pictures or video while I as working, but when I got home I popped a couple photos and a quick video of the Jeep with the lights going. Thanks to the repeater in my Jeep, I was able to run my HT most of the day. It was a really good time. Does anyone else volunteer? Any pics or video you want to share?

I am just south of you in Woodbridge. A friend of mine has 5 unlisted repeaters in Seven Corners, Gaithersburg, DC and Haymarket/Gainsville. They are all pretty quiet. One is used by a local CERT team and even that one is pretty quiet. The one my friends and I use is the one in the Haymarket/Gainsville area. If you PM me, we can put some time aside and test on one we can both reach. Also, I can give you the details on the Haymarket/Gainsville machine and you can see if you can reach it. He just doesn't what the info on any websites.

@Blaise , send me a PM if interested.

but... but... but... it's the internet. I'm pretty sure its mandatory. LOL

My favorite lie was "chics dig it". Also, had someone tell me you can't mimic NVIS by bouncing UHF signals off of moisture or debris in the atmosphere by pointing the antenna toward the sky. Nor can we have actual NVIS propagation during major geomagnetic storms and Arora storms. I guess the GMRS gurus know more than the JPL communications scientists that work for NASA.

Let me get this right.... you come in here more than a week ago, make 1 post to stir the pot on a subject you know very well has history on this forum. Act shocked by the same responses that are in every other thread about this and then pop smoke with a backhanded snarky attitude. Does that about sum this up? Did someone put you up to this or are you just terrible at being a troll all on your own?

I mean, in your defense, you said "programming software such as CHIRP" So, I'm a semantics guy and saying use something "like CHIRP" isn't the same thing as saying "use CHIRP". That said, I will agree with the aforementioned that because CHIRP isn't compatible, it can cause confusion for new people by mentioning a platform that doesn't actually work. @OffRoaderX... did this dude just assume your license status? Hahaha

What's RR?

I am curious @WRKC935, if this was a one time thing or has there been some BS and this was the proverbial straw?

It's personal property. We don't owe anyone anything. I think stopping someone from verbally abusing you and threatening you by removing their access to your personal property sounds smart, not immature. Too many people seem to overlook the point that this is personal property and the owner has all the rights and privileges that go with that honor. Just my opinion, rather have the owner hear venting instead of losing their cool. Having people to talk to and work through problems is healthy and we are hear to support like-minded people in the GMRS community. Sounds like the perfect place for the discussion.

As a repeater owner, I support whatever you do. That said, I would have explained that as a repeater owner, you are only responsible for content that originates on your device. You are not responsible for transmissions that originate on someone else's device. If they have a complaint, they need to complain to the originating station. If that isn't good enough for them, its too bad. The level of stress I am seeing in your post is way to high and not worth it. Don't let them get to you. If unplugging the system brings that stress level down, more power to you.

That is 85 aeronautical miles in the hills of PA. The HT isn't going to work.

OP hasn't come back... bummer. @Screech Not sure if you had a chance to mess with the MXT500. It's a nice setup with compromise between "easy out of the box" and advanced performance. I have been recommending them to people who already have a no-frills radio and are looking for a replacement with a touch more to it. Out of the box, it's almost the same as any of the other complete kits, with the exception of it actually displaying your CTCSS and DCS values instead of a sequence number. However, you can enable repeater use, it has 8 customizable channels for programing via the software (including custom names/display options), supports split tones, and can easily be switched between NB and WB, for improved quality of comms depending on what the other person/people are using. When they released this radio, I started thinking they may be starting to develop a product line that will appeal a bit more to advanced users. That said... I really agree with what you feel the mindset is for people getting them. Monthly, I have people with zero experience with radio and they what something for traveling in groups, going offroading, camping, etc. If they don't want to spend a lot of money and understand power/range, battery and speaker limits, I push them toward a cheap HT. If the want more range, battery life and to hear better while driving, then I push them toward one of the Micro Mobile radios. For Hams and advanced GMRS users, I tell them about the the KG-1000 (since its based on a Ham radio) and/or depending on the person, the MARS/CAP mod for existing gear.

Well, I hope my post may help clear things up. I doubt it, but hopefully. I know I stir the pot with some of my posts about this, but reality is, this is my current and typical daily situation while I'm driving around... I'm probably still go a stir the pot when this topic pops up though. LOL

I mentioned this before. I think there is some confusion between two different conversations being had here. I think people are mixing up ORI compared to a standard simplex channel. In early to mid-2000’s, Popular Wireless and the Personal Radio Association came up with the idea of an Open Repeater Initiative (ORI). It was designed to get repeater owners to open up and share resources instead of locking them down, reducing difficulty to get access to a GMRS Repeater system. The idea was to make it easier for a GMRS licensee to use available resources. The ORI standards were simple. ORI epeaters were open to all users regardless of a club/group membership or not. Implementation of the 141.3 CTCSS/PL, which was and still is referred to as the “travel tone”, so people could program their radios as a standard when traveling or visiting different areas. Lastly, the repeater pair 462/467.675 (rCH 20) was to be used. However, as time moved on, it morphed into any repeater pair using 141.3 as a standard PL access and did not require prior permission. Even though Popular Wireless and the Personal Radio Association are gone, the spirit of ORI still lives on today. While many people consider repeater pair 462/467.675 (rCh20) the official travel channel because of the verbiage of "travel tone" of the rCh20 pair, I am not convinced this is what @OffRoaderX and others are talking about when supporting CH19 as the road channel (or travel channel). I believe they are advocating use of a simplex channel with no tone. So, anywhere you go, regardless of if a repeater is around, you have a main channel to communicate on while traveling. Also, if I understand them correctly, using a channel other than 20 is a good idea to reduce confusion and accidental interference from cross-traffic on channel 20, since so many repeater owners are still honoring the spirit or ORI. So, Randy... am I completely off base or does that somewhat sum up what you're discussing and advocating for?

I'm not sure there is any kind of sites that focus around setup. Out of the box, the MXT275 is no more complicated to install or use than a CB. There is an option to enable use of a repeater, which your best source of information on that is your owner's manual. Do you need help understanding what repeaters are or what they do? Do you have any specific questions?