OffRoaderX

Yes. Try getting closer to the repeater and/or confirming that you have the correct code and that the repeater is actually online.

A road has intersections, stop signs and stoplights.. A highway, aka a freeway, does not.

All the cool-kids use GMRS Ch19..

Not if you bought it on Amazon...

Wait.. How does linking a repeater across multiple states monopolize every channel?

Why don't you tell us what "best" means to YOU, then we can focus on those attributes.

No because i mounted the antenna on my chimney.

I got my repeater up for under $1k .. Not the biggest/best in the area but it has about 900sq miles of coverage.

Me too... I HAD two brand new RT97L's that I could have used to test this.. but I gave them both away.. Now i'm kicking myself and I wish I was not so kind, unselfish and loving toward my fellow-man... Never again!

The only way to know for sure is to put a meter or portable antenna analyzer on it and test it.. But, like the @mb523 said, its not going to work very well.

That page does not come up for me.. But lets also take a moment to remember that Retevis also posted on their website and on Youtube, a video showing/proving that you can add their 25W external linear amplifier to the original RT97 and it will then output 25 watts.. They even showed a power-test on the video to prove it.. ..... Until a big GMRS youtuber came along and called them out by pointing out that it would output more power but it will not be able to RECEIVE anything because the amp is placed after the duplexer....and if you placed the amp before the internal duplexer that was rated for 5W, it would destroy it... Then they deleted everything....

Can you provide a link to this description?

But that's not what he said he has.

Go ahead and tune your UV-5R to 122.750 and tell us how that works out.

You got 2 duds.. I've been seeing more and more reports of this (here and on the big GMRS Youtuber channels in the comments).. getting more and more common with the H3's..

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is a whole lot more to DMR than H.A.M.S radios networks.

No.. Too much risk, not enough reward.

There is an aerial acrobatic group that practices out here every Thursday and they use GMRS (or FRS) channel 6, and I've wondered the same thing... But haven't wondered enough to bother looking it up either.

This!! Testing the SWR of an HT antenna is impossible without very sofistikated equipment, OTHER than confirming that the antenna is not just a dead-short.

I think you are confused about what we are talking about. This is the microphone/handset - these are the only controls on the radio.

uhm..what? The microphone/handset is the ONLY way to change the channels.

ahh yes.. right where someone would intuitively look for that setting.. Any idea if the channel can still be changed when locked?

Getting their repeater up on the tower was probably a few thousand monies to get it installed and probably several hundred to $1k - $2k per month, every month, depending on the location. That's why they charge for people to use the "free public service" which is neither free nor a public service. When I put up MY repeater, open for everyone to use for free, the cost was around $1k .. $500 for the repeater (used Vertex 7000), the coax, mast/hardware, etc and paying a professional to climb on my dangerously sloped 3-story castle-roof to install it all.. (I got the antenna for free!).. But my advantage is that I live atop a golden hillside overlooking the slums below which is almost as good of a location as the very expensive towers very near me.. not quite, but close enough, so i have decent coverage. Sticking your pole in the ground with your RT97L would work, but would not have near the reach as their tower on the mountain.. unless you are like me and have a castle atop a golden hillside.

You should teach them a lesson by putting up your own repeater and letting everyone use it.

Irregardless of where you live, GMRS frequencies are set by the FCCs and have not been changed in forever. TL;dr: NO