wayoverthere

I have almost the same one, but with uhf connectors. I've found the readings to pretty much agree with the vna as far as I've seen

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Truthfully but understandably...yes, overthinking a little. ? GMRS and 70cm ham bands are still UHF, and quite similar. There's no reason you couldn't do the mount of your choice, either mag or hard mount, and swap antennas at will. NMO mounts and NMO antennas are plentiful, and almost anything meant for UHF that covers the 450-470 is usable, whether or not it states GMRS. A SWR meter will be a very good thing to have, though more to double check than necessarily tuning. Most mounts, whether hard mount (bracket or drill through) or mag mount will come with cable; you'll find a few options on connectors, along with unterminated, but most radios will be uhf connector (pl-259 is the male side, so-239 is the female side). Not familiar with the swivel mount, so I'd be a tad wary about the antenna bouncing against something when folded, and might lean toward swapping to a shorter antenna off-trail. depending on your trails, having a short antenna available might not be a bad thing anyway (more trees and brush on the trails here). i currently swap antennas on a midland mag mount; it's gone through a variety of antennas, both gmrs and ham. I mostly run a Browning uhf 5/8 over 5/8 wave which trades some gain for more frequency flexibility; it plays nice with both 70cm and GMRS. Since the Browning is a little tall at 33" above the roof of my truck, it gets changed out for one of two (70 cm or GMRS) Laird 1/4 waves as needed for clearance (which are only 6"-ish tall). radio wise, i previously used a mxt115 for GMRS, and various handhelds for ham, but recently put in a mobile that covers both (90/95a certified Vertex).

Good point...that makes a little more sense why there's more than one G6.

Based on the descriptions, it looks like the repeaters are part of a linked network, and those are just a form of numbering the nodes on the network. i also found G-5 Spokane Mountain G-5 the repeaters i think the OP is referring to are: East Wenatchee 700 G-7 East Wenatchee 575 G-2

agreed. not to say the btech is a bad radio if the limitations aren't an issue, but there's a lot of compelling options that have been introduced since that pack all of the features (except, in most cases, power), less of the cons, and for the same or less money, both on the base/mobile and handheld sides of the coin.

Only major complaint I have with the 50x1 (and btechs in general) is their method of locking it down, which gives you the base 30 channels, and anything you add beyond that is Rx only...so no adding extra repeater channels that can tx. If you aren't trying to use more than one repeater on the same channel, with different tones, it's a non issue.

Given the OP'S location, he may be talking about one of the SWCRS repeaters. Hate to keep dragging him into threads, but @JeepCrawler98 is the only one I know of that may have the behind the scenes info to look into the issue and maybe who might have hands on the repeaters involved to get it sorted.

Yes, BTWR shows both the 771g and the 701g available with SMA Male and SMA Female connectors, plus bnc. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/nagoya-na-771g.html?___SID=U

I will caution that, unless they've updated it, the way the btech radios are locked down for gmrs is that you can only transmit on the preprogrammed set of 30 channels (1-22 simplex, 15-22 repeater), and anything you program beyond that is receive only. I was banging my head on the wall trying to figure out why mine wasn't working when I discovered that limitation with my 50x1.

You're on the right track ? I'll say they SHOULD all be on those channels, as that is the normal convention. As far as I know you can set your radio to display frequency or channel; if there's a repeater transmitting on the channel/frequency you're listening to and you have no tones set, you'll hear it. On tones, think of them as a filter on what gets heard. Most repeaters use an input tone, to limit both accidental access and interference; to use the repeater, you'll need to set your radio to use the right tone to get through the filter. I believe the menu item will be "t-ctcs" for ctcss/pl tones (two names for the same thing), and 141.3 Hz is a common one. If the repeater didn't require a tone, yes it'd be as simple as going to the right repeater channel and transmitting, and (assuming it's in range) the repeater would rebroadcast your audio. You can also use tones to only hear certain signals. For example, a couple repeaters I use on Channel 16 use the same input and output tone; they each have a receive channel set in memory with the appropriate tones, and I change the tone settings on Rept16 based on which I'm using at the time (the btech radios only let you transmit on the preset channels; any more beyond that are receive only). Most of the listings on the site include information on what tones are required (for open repeaters) or an option to contact the owner/trustee for permission; they'll generally provide the tones or information on accessing them online when granting permission.

Not quite. Channels 1-22 are referred to as simplex; you transmit and receive on the same frequency (462.725 is ch 22). 23-30 are duplex channels, where the transmit frequency is different than the receive; this is to work with repeaters, which have to retransmit on a different frequency they receive so they can retransmit in realtime. On the duplex channels (23-30), you radio transmits 5 mhz higher than it receives; the receive frequencies are the same as the simplex 15-22. Rept22 is 462.725 receive, but 467.725 transmit, and a repeater on that channel would be listening on 467.725, and retransmit the audio on 462.725 (where you're receiving). Because of how the radios are set up (and locked down), trying to talk direct radio to radio on the repeater channels isn't going to work;it's designed for bouncing the signal via repeater.

That's one nice bonus of the 701...with the flexibility, it's a bit less in the way than even most factory antennas at the same length, though I wouldn't say it's enough to be worth replacing just for that. If you need a replacement anyway, though, like a couple of mine have...

Quite possibly. The other consideration is current needed to transmit, and if your power supply is only putting out 12 volts, it may not be able to provide enough current. For reference, my mxt115 draws around 3.5A at 13.8v, for a rated 15 watts of output, while the btech and vertex draw around 10Amp for ratings of 50 watts and 45 watts, respectively. What are you using for a power supply, and what is it rated?

Probably need the driver for the cable as well (likely either ftdi or prolific). They have some instructions in their help center, and a couple driver downloads (under accessories) https://www.radioddity.com/pages/radioddity-qa-bank

Or covered "family members" operating under one license? the past business licensing (and the existence of grandfathered licenses) is probably part of why there isn't the blanket prohibition on business use in gmrs like there is in amateur, though.

Another thought occurred to me on the logic behind why the users you can authorize are limited in gmrs compared to amateur bands; since gmrs doesn't have the same prohibition on business use, limiting who you can authorize prevents a loophole for a business owner to get a gmrs license and then authorize their employees, rather than actually paying for a proper business license.

I don't disagree...I'd have loved to be able to say the same codes about "control operator" apply to gmrs, but no such luck. (it's in part 97, not 95)

It's a combination of factors; better antenna is one of them, "more sensitive hearing", as you put it. the second big one is height, "height is might", as the saying goes. many repeaters are sited high above the surrounding terrain; in the flatter parts of the midwest, some of them may be a thousand or so feet up a commercial tower, while in the hillier parts of the country, they may be on top of a mountain. with the right antenna, even talking to satellites on 5 watts becomes possible, and it's sometimes doable on less that perfect. California has a huge number of repeaters down both sides of the valley on top of the mountain ranges; i know of half a dozen, both gmrs and 70cm that i can hit from my patio on a 5 watt handheld, and most of my mobile work was done with handhelds and a mag mount antenna, which only helped both sending and receiving. on the other hand, handheld to handheld on flat ground, you're looking at something around 6 miles before just the basic curvature of the earth becomes an obstacle. now if you and a friend were on top of hills, with line of sight between you? 30 miles between handhelds isn't impossible, and there'd likely be a lot of false advertising lawsuits on some of the radio manufacturers (one in particular) if it wasn't at least possible for their "up to 30 mile range!" in ideal conditions

While I know it exists in the real world (mostly a regional thing, I think), gven that that's not a common phrase used on the forum , that was the first clue to me that it was hyperbole for comedic effect, along with the wording about "with all your fancy...." That said, I won't disagree it was subtle, and I know without the inflections that would go with it in person it's a lot harder to catch

I didn't catch a location for Dave to know if that applies to him specifically or not, but there definitely are some states where common law marriage is a thing...agreed that CA is not one of them. And the emergency provision is in the same section I linked, just a different paragraph from the definition of "family members" (I think it was the next, actually)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/95.1705 This does lay out who qualifies as a family member to share usage of your license. One thing that was brought up elsewhere is the implication of common law status (in states that have it...may come into play for you). While I dont disagree that I'd like a little more flexibility in allowing someone use of my license (like ham offers), the reality is the code is pretty specific about who can. Short answer: unless you can make a case for her being a common law spouse, girlfriend doesn't qualify to use your license.

agreed. regardless of the incidental chatter, the licensee was still in control of the radio...it wasn't someone outside the permitted list being allowed to operate under your license, it was the licensee(s) operating under their license, and there happened to be someone else talking in the vicinity at the same time.

I'll leave it open to those with knowledge of the Front Range network, but this looks to be a "keeping track" kind of thing; the Tucson GMRS group does something similar. There's a link on the front range gmrs network page (linked from that repeater listing) to request access;once they verify you have an active gmrs license, they'll either send the programming info (tones) or provide a password to a protected page with the information.

First, welcome to the site! Most repeaters will require a code (tone); since there are limited channels to use, tones are used to prevent other transmissions and interference from activating the repeater. If you're signed in, you'll see either a decimal number (such as 141.3hz) which is a ctcss tone, or a 3 digit number, sometimes followed by a letter (such as 023N or 023i), which is a DCs tone. Travel tone refers to the Open Repeater Initiative, and generally means ctcss tone 141.3hz. The "members only" thing may come down to their keeping track of who's using the repeater (especially when it's free). That said, it would help to identify a repeater you're looking at so those with knowledge about the specific repeater can chime in.