blastco2

Looking around a little more, I found several "all in one box repeaters" on alibaba. Never did find a definite price on any of them. Interesting stuff for those that just want plug and play.

searching uls by state, 5 years ago from today for the date, and choosing grant date, there are 298 gmrs licenses in Idaho. 140 in Wyoming. How many in your state?

While stumbling around the net, I found this. no price, rather minimal specs, very interesting. near as i can tell, it is full duplex and not the record and playback type. http://www.409shop.com/shop_displaynews.php?id=4235&locate=3

Sounds like some co-phase going on there...

loads of info for those radios at miklor.com he also has info on how a repeater works which, will give you a better idea of what needs to be programmed into your radio. he has directions in the form of PDF files for manual programming. wonderful little radios.... cheap too.

Hello Curtis I concurs with what the guys have said about getting something better than the blisters that you have. I have been playing with the baofengs for a little over a yr now. Have yet to use through a repeater. I'll tell you my experience with them to maybe save you some frustration. The uv3r and uv5r are great radios that come with rather crumby antennas and the receiver is wide open, no freq rejection at all! Not good in busy rf places like probably central ca. There is a 100kw FM transmitter 2 miles from my house, it tears up the 3r and 5r vhf. Renders them useless on vhf. That interference runs to about 5 miles from the offending transmitter. And a little bit of intermittent SQL braking on UHF. The little time that I have use my bf888, it seems to have no problem with rejection. Never breaks SQL until it hear a valid signal. After all of that, I would recommend the uvb5. It has better rejection and comes with a better antenna. Also the speaker audio is some less harsh than the 3r and 5r. Battery life is decent on all of them. Runs all day. If you are just going to use uhf, maybe get one of the 888's to play with. Little dude doesn't look like much but, it will program 16 channels to do whatever you want it to. I think it even has audio inversion. I need to look into that and find out for sure. Go to miklor.com, has more boafeng info than anyplace else. I bought all 8 of my baofengs off of amazon, mostly cause I like their review system. Wow that a lot of typing for me... Hope there's at least something usaful in all that.

I've used the bf-888 in simplex, never through a repeater. My experience has been nothing but positive. Signal carries well and very clear on both tx and Rx. For 17 bucks on amazon, you can't go wrong. Easy to program with the baofeng software. I have mine programmed with 1-8 as FRS, 9-16 as gmrs. I have 7 ccr's. Various models. When my riding friends and I head out on snowmobiles, there may be as many as 12 of us. Keeping track of everyone is like herding cats. Everyone takes a radio and because the blister packs are so prevelent, that's the freq's we use. Vhf would be better for the terrane we are in but I can't convince the guys that spent several hundred bucks on garmin rino's. It makes no sense to me that garmin didn't do murs instead of FRS/gmrs. BTW, the ccr's are better performers than the rino's. The rino's mostly sound like crap. Sorry about the long rambling post....

I have a bf888, 4 uv3r's, 1 b5, 2 5r's. All good radios! So much better than the blisters. Now this is just my opinion... If a guy uses these on gmrs and is careful not to misbehave, there will never be a problem. However the radios that are listed on amazon and eBay ext, get sold to people that know nothing about freq/channel allocation or anything else rf related. These buyers are not even sure what the numbers are on their car stereo. That person is going to get in some big trouble. Not a matter of if, its when and how much. If you get some free time read some of the reviews and the Q&A's on the amazon listings for the bf888. I was surprised and a little dumbfounded. People are Buying these, especially the bf888, and using them as supplied. I wish baofeng would at least ship with the memory empty....

If you have an android and a use for topo mapping GPS, "Backcountry navigator" in the app store, $10, maps are free for the dl'ing. Works WITHOUT cell service. That means several things, works on android tablets, gives you topo mapping on a 7-10" screen. You can gather up an android phone that is cellular disabled, open a Google account, install, WiFi DL the maps and away you go. Install on your phone and tablet for one purchase. I've been using this for snowmobiling and atving for at least 3 years.... Garmin really does not want you to know about this! App is very capable/functional, does everything a garmin will do. The selection of maps that you can DL is amazing. There are also some extra cost addons that can be purchased.. ATV trails for the u.s., snowmobile trails for u.s. and Canada. Govt property lines for 12 western states. Game management unit boundaries. Hiking and equestrian trails. The app will record tracks, store waypoints, export/import data, associate pictures with waypoints, shows and saves more trip data than you'd believe. No, I don't work for them but, I should be getting a commission from "critter map software" because of all the purchases that I've caused....

oops, message got cut off or I just typed too much. anyway I'm registered here and my call is available to those who are also registered. I monitor .550 and .600 (cause thats where the licened locals are) if you happen to be passing through or live near by. question for the group. why would someone put up a repeater, set it to id at seemingly random intervals and never ever use it? I've listened for years and never heard anything but the id?????? has good coverage too. probably 40-80 miles depending on terrain.

hello all! first post here. I mostly lerk but, would like to say thanks to all for this resource. I live in se Idaho and my favorite activity is snowmobiling in the surrounding mtns. back country off trail, boondocking as we call it. I've been a radio enthusiest for as long as I can remember. at this point me and my riding group use these radios to help us stay together in the mtns. the blister packs just don't cut it at .5w. from mtn top to mtn top the blisters will get out, way out. but that isn't what we need. our needs are more, up the canyon, through the trees and around the corners or, the canyon on the other side of the ridge. these radios work so much better than the blisters. while I'm on this subject, the garmin rino GPS/FRS/gmrs, thoroughly underwhelming! might as well save some $ and buy a blister. anyway, I replied to this particular message because, I was perusing amazon, reading the reviews and comments, the radio ignorance is unbelievable. seems to be especially true concerning the bf888. comments like, I bought these for my grandsons and they really like them. also, from another, do you need a license for these? answered several times, "NO"! never any mention that these are not to be used with factory programing, or what a pain it can be to program the very first time. I'm thinking that the FCC will get involved and start looking real close at these radios and their potential for abuse/misuse. all that needs to happen is for some sa kids to interfere with an emergency activity, making the situation/emergency worse, maybe even to the point of costing a life. when that happens, the FCC will come down like ugly on an ape. one other thing, on the lighter side, my call sign, I got lucky, didn't chose it, just what uncle charlie issued. you can go to ruger.com and look it up.