OffRoaderX

My personal best in my Jeep is 93 miles to hit a repeater (over 150 miles if you count the guy I was talking to that was also using the repeater).. I did it once, and used the airwaves for about 45 seconds to do so.. But I still use GMRS to talk with all of my friends/acquaintances using their GMRS and FRS radios, within a mile or so of me, while offroading.. Something that is impossible to do legally with a ham radio and ham radio license.

accepting you have a problem is the first step in not being part of the problem.

Nothing wrong with that, and we all do it, but that is very different from "rag chewing", aka talking for several minutes at a time without unkeying the mic, for hours on end, about nothing - basically, talking to hear themselves talk, or just to try and demonstrate to everyone how smart they think they are, how many fancy and expensive radios they own, how long they have been in "the business" (implying they cannot possibly be wrong about whatever they are talking about), and listing how many different jobs they've had working on complicated and technical things ... You know, just like the long-winded, overly-complicated, multi-paragraph off-topic posts that you you see in this forum every day..

According to the FCCs of these United States, GMRS is intended primarily as a short-range personal type service, however "some people" often feel the uncontrollable urge to do their long-talker 'rag-chew' shenanigans wherever they can - like a dog peeing to mark its territory. Just like the dog-pee, "some people" stink it up for everyone else. ..Can't wait to see "some people" reply here.. You will know them when you see them.

Huh? Maybe its the allergy medicine, but this makes zero sense to me. Lets try this again - Yes or NO: Are you transmitting on one of the pre-programmed repeater channels? Yes or NO: Are you transmitting on a simplex channel (15-22)?

Are you SURE you are on the correct "repeater channel", and not on the simplex (Ch15-22) channel? Are you SURE you have the correct TX tone? Are you SURE you are in range of the repeater? Just becuase you can hear it does not mean it can hear you

Because a lot of people on this site are looking to talk with strangers, and on Grindr there are lots of strangers just waiting to chat.

Congrats! I use that same antenna on my Jeep. But, are you sure there are "other operators" in your area? GMRS is generally a BYOB (Bring Your Own Buddy) service, and is not really intended primarily for reaching-out to other operators. For finding strangers to talk with ham radio or the Grindr app are probably better choices.

Looks good but you have the wrong channel! Everyone knows it should be CH19.. But, also, i think the "average" GMRS/FRS adventurer probably does not know what a "PL" is, and probably does not know how to set/change it. Of course, the radio-dorks do, but nobody wants to talk with them.

Up until 90 days ago, the fcc actually never did do anything to enforce the rules against simple violations by non-business users since 2012.

Double-check that there is no tone set, then try turning-down your squelch.. If you are still not hearing anything, then you're either doing it wrong (wrong frequency, not actually hitting the repeater, or any number of other things) or the radio is defective... and i doubt its defective.

My guess is that you have the wrong tone for receiving set in the radio. Remove the RX tone and try again.

I have seen several comments on youtube videos with people complaining about this, so it seems like a defect. I would suggest contacting the manufacturer for support or a replacement that works.

As Steve & @marcspaz mentioned, GMRS is a "Bring Your Own Contacts" type of service. Very utilitarian. If someone is looking for strangers to chat with, I always recommend using the Grindr app.

"Some People"...

your example, Ch107, was a 3-digit number.

Select Menu #9 for receiving DPL tone or Menu #11 for transmitting DPL tone, select tone from list, confirm, enjoy. Pro Tip: DCS, DTC, & DPL all refer to the same thing.

When in channel-mode, if you want to go to channel 107, just hit 1-0-7.. if you want to go to channel 16, hit 0-1-6 ..

Make sure you are at least 50 feet apart when testing. Try that and report back.

Probably because one of them (the one that is not receiving) has tones/codes/privacy settings/subchannels set... Remove all tones/codes and try again, then report back.

I put together a repeater with two KG1000G radios, and desense was a real issue, even after separating the radios by about 10 feet and adding makeshift shielding.

That sounds serious! What kind of serious trouble?

Pretty much what @marcspaz said: They are not consumer radios, they are difficult to install, they are large/bulky, usually very expensive and are VERY tricky to program IF you can even get the software. They are also not "FCC legal" for GMRS, but since the FCC doesn't care, neither do I.

I am a Jeep guy and many people would say I am also a radio guy. When discussing antennas and ground-plane, "Some People" get very confused between the phrases "will not work" and "may not work 100% efficiently". I mount my antenna on the rear tailgate, which the experts have proclaimed "will not work" because of the poor groundplane. And it is true, the groundplane IS poor, but the SWR is (barely) below 3:1 and the radio works fine - On simplex i can get over 30 miles, and I have hit a repeater at over 90 miles. Put either antenna anywhere on your Jeep (within reason), and based on my experience with leading (literally) almost 1,000 Jeeps with radios on off-road runs over the last several years, it will work fine for off-road and around town. All that said, my buddy with a 3db ghost antenna mounted on his roof-rack can receive signals slightly better than I can with my 6db antenna..although I can transmit slightly more farz.

Geezus..Learn to read the room dude.. In my Jeep I started with a BTech GMRS 50X2, after a year or so i upgraded to the KG-1000G which I used for a few years and then replaced that with a Motorola XTL5000 (NOT recommended for most people).. IMO, the KG-1000G is the best choice for most people in this forum. The entire time I have been using a Midland MXTA26 antenna. A simple setup like this (any of the 3 radios I've had) will work more than well enough for most people, no need to learn about db gains or noise reduction %%.. Those terms, when over-used, are most often spouted by "some people" that feel an uncontrollable urge to try and show everyone how smart they think they are.