radiozip

Hey, Peter!  Great questions.   BTW... if you hear us chatting, you are always welcome to join in!   I appreciate the interest.  We talked about it a little at our last get-together, but just touched on it.  So, I'm happy to give more details.
 
I am a volunteer radio operator with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES).  I serve on a few teams supporting DHS/FEMA, US Marine Corps Quantico (MCCS/MCM), Loudoun County, Prince William County and the Virginia state EOC in Richmond.  ARES is a nation-wide group attached to the American Radio Radio League.  Our organization has formal MOUs with local, state and federal agencies across the nation. 
 
Our team provides a full spectrum of auxiliary (and on occasion, primary) communications support for the aforementioned agencies.  That would include, but not limited to, voice traffic, independent email services, wireless LAN/WAN both in an affected area and relayed outside the impact zone, video, GPS and signal tracking, and much, much more.  We have had great success in drills and real-world service for more decades than I have been alive, and I am happy to be apart of the organization.
 
These relationships have afforded our teams some special privileges in the radio world.  Hospitals, government agencies, and private business all appreciate the services we provide to the community, and to help us provide the best possible services, these agencies/businesses have allowed our groups to install VHF and UHF repeaters on there buildings, commercial radio towers, and on high-elevation properties.  We even have repeaters and towers installed in national parks for areas known to frequently need our support.
 
I mention all of this because it is relevant to what is happening with the proposed GMRS repeater.  The Prince William County government is allowing us to install a new amateur radio VHF and UHF repeater on a county radio tower.  The intent is to have the amateur radio equipment available to all licensed amateurs, while ensuring priority use for ARES supporting the county, state and federal government.
 
Since we are going to have both a VHF and a UHF antenna, we figured we would gang a GMRS repeater on the UHF antenna, having it support both systems.  I proposed the use of the GMRS repeater to the county under the same assumptions as the amateur radio repeaters... they will be open to all licensed users, with the county and other served agencies traffic taking priority during drills and emergencies, and the county EC agreed.
 
Keep in mind, we are in the early stages of planning.  We need to design the system, acquire hardware, and coordinate frequency use.  What we are planning is subject to change... but the proposed details are as fallows.
The availability date is currently TBD.  As mentioned, we are still gathering parts and the facility is currently in the end stages of renovations.  We cannot build until construction is complete. The tower is in the south-eastern part of Prince William County.  The base of the tower is about 155 feet above average terrain.  The arm the antennas will be on is about 300 feet above ground.  We are going to use high-gain folded dipole antennas for all repeaters.  We are planning on legal limit for the power output on GMRS (and 100w for the amateur repeaters). The channel is TBD, pending coordination. This will be a publicly accessible repeater, open to all licensed operators. Again, if the repeater is needed for emergency use, we will terminate public access until the emergency need is over. We hope that amateur gear will be sufficient so local families/residents can use the GMRS repeater in a local communications outage. We have not settled on a tone yet, but it will be CTCSS.   We will ask local users to use whatever the primary tone we select for day-to-day use, but we will also have 141.3 for emergency/traveler use. The coverage area is theoretical at this point, but below is a projected coverage map showing 99.9% reliability.  As we drop down to 70% reliability, the coverage increases dramatically.  

I'll add to the anecdotal Wouxon thread here. No PL issues with these Wouxon radios I've had,
KG-UV3D bought new at the Dayton hamfest 12+ years ago. Charger base croaked after 5 years though.
KG-805G bought new around 5 years ago, everything going great even with a cracked screen.
KG-935G bought new around 2 years ago, no issues.

I'll add to the anecdotal Wouxon thread here. No PL issues with these Wouxon radios I've had,
KG-UV3D bought new at the Dayton hamfest 12+ years ago. Charger base croaked after 5 years though.
KG-805G bought new around 5 years ago, everything going great even with a cracked screen.
KG-935G bought new around 2 years ago, no issues.

I'll add to the anecdotal Wouxon thread here. No PL issues with these Wouxon radios I've had,
KG-UV3D bought new at the Dayton hamfest 12+ years ago. Charger base croaked after 5 years though.
KG-805G bought new around 5 years ago, everything going great even with a cracked screen.
KG-935G bought new around 2 years ago, no issues.

I'll add to the anecdotal Wouxon thread here. No PL issues with these Wouxon radios I've had,
KG-UV3D bought new at the Dayton hamfest 12+ years ago. Charger base croaked after 5 years though.
KG-805G bought new around 5 years ago, everything going great even with a cracked screen.
KG-935G bought new around 2 years ago, no issues.

I'll add to the anecdotal Wouxon thread here. No PL issues with these Wouxon radios I've had,
KG-UV3D bought new at the Dayton hamfest 12+ years ago. Charger base croaked after 5 years though.
KG-805G bought new around 5 years ago, everything going great even with a cracked screen.
KG-935G bought new around 2 years ago, no issues.

Six months with mine, favorite GMRS radio. Considering the new 935H as well.

Crazy that GMRS advice 10 years ago was buy old commercial radios and software. Today so many off the shelf, errr order online, GMRS options to just turn on and go.

Isn't that icon for the last active area? So either the last area you transmitted, or received something. Helpful if you hear something and just miss what frequency it was on (A or B area). Not sure if it can be turned off, probably not.

Yes "main" notifies you of which area you're currently using. And after some testing I believe you and @radiozipare correct as to it showing the last area that was active. This is some relief. This radio is more advanced than my 905G. When I programed it at work the other day, I wasn't able to hit the usual repeater and I was sure I had a setting wrong. Well once I switched to my Nagy 771 antenna and got outside, all was well. To say the advancement of this radio over the 905G has had me in anxiety, and I don't get anxious for anything, is saying something.

Isn't that icon for the last active area? So either the last area you transmitted, or received something. Helpful if you hear something and just miss what frequency it was on (A or B area). Not sure if it can be turned off, probably not.

I thought main indicated the area you're currently using, so it can toggle between A and B? Whereas the green phone shows what area was just active, either last received a signal or you transmitted.

Before the coffee hit I thought the 5ft CB antenna was used INSIDE the cab! Hopefully the vehicle had a sunroof 😀

If I'm not mistaken it's just the Q10H that can do that? It's cross band repeat, like a VHF to UHF repeater. Would be quite impressive, if not impossible, to have GMRS repeater in a single handheld.

Repeater is open to use.
https://www.howardcountyreact.org/gmrs
PL tone looks good on the screenshot.

Repeater is open to use.
https://www.howardcountyreact.org/gmrs
PL tone looks good on the screenshot.

Repeater is open to use.
https://www.howardcountyreact.org/gmrs
PL tone looks good on the screenshot.

Just got my email of repeater updates.

Just got my email of repeater updates.

Eh. I ain't worried. The ISM band is filled up with so many LoRa devices they aren't just going to suddenly stop it. 
 
Meshtastic has continued to grow and be developed.  The Apps continue to be refined and the firmware for the devices has ever improving functionality. There are a ton more devices on the market and we are now seeing MeshTastic devices ready to go without assembly. 

https://store.rokland.com/products/wismesh-pocket?srsltid=AfmBOopDuYyc38PNZ6uV2JIoHmiSzKw7670XSZsNnOQ2waQAdeyZL-00

I'm the typical radio dork, my family is not. Wanted simple radio communication just in case. Though FRS probably accomplishes 90% of what we need it's nice to have the GMRS power/repeater bump should we need it.

My 805G and 935G+ have no tone issues at all. Nor have any of my 2-way thinking about it.

VHF can do digital modes just like UHF, most clubs just opt to keep their VHF repeaters analog. UHF (ham) repeaters tend to get used less so the "experimental" digital modes get put there to boost activity.

Hi everyone. I have had some things come up in my life that have been taking up a lot of my time. I have not had the time nor energy that NOVA GMRS deserves.   I am going to take a step back from a leadership role for awhile. I'll still be around the group to chat and will be on the air.  However, I have asked Jack Ramberg to take the lead in my absence. He's graciously agreed.   Thanks for being a wonderful group and for all the new friends. Talk to you soon.   Marc

Hey folks, a few months back, I discussed providing a presentation on the introduction to GMRS, to just cover the basics. We held the presentation a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share the video with everyone. 
 
Fair warning, I'm not a pro YouTuber and my collar mic dropped with a few minutes left... please be gentle. LoL
 
This is geared towards people with little to no experience. Hopefully it helps some people. 
 
The PowerPoint presentation is available for download, here...
 
https://marcspaz.com/gmrs/GMRS101.ppsx
 
Thank you to those who helped with content ideas.