wayoverthere

your understanding is correct. The 50x1 will only transmit on low power on 1-7, and your choice of level on 15-22 and the 15-22 repeater inputs (gmrs 15-22 and Rept15-Rept22)channels. everything else, including 8-14 are receive only.

Took a quick look, this tyt looks quite similar https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CY6CRZH/

Realistically, if you don't have pl tones input on the simplex (15-22) channels, you'll hear any traffic coming from the repeaters as well, since the receive side of the repeater channels 15-22 is the same as their simplex counterpart. Not exactly convenient to respond to something on that repeater, I admit, since when you come off scan it goes to whatever you were on prior to scanning

Miklor.com has a lot of good info on a variety of baofeng/btech models. The baofengs I have, I got the cable off of amazon at the same time, and it came with software, though chirp covers a lot of models as well (chirp.danplanet.com)

It was one of those "its time to replace it anyway" things, and I already had the replacements on hand...seemed like a good time to get some foolishness out of my system.

Glad to help. It's definitely been a learning curve for me too. there's a ton of useful info here to digest (and helpful people) that's applicable to more than just gmrs, if the interest takes you that direction. One thing I will give btech credit for is at least getting instructions translated (or wholly rewritten) to reasonable English compared to what you get with the average baofeng stuff.

his username is bluemax49ers. Looks like he's on Amazon as well. https://www.ebay.com/str/bluemax49ers

Glad to help!

Here's a little info specific to the gmrs v1 : https://www.miklor.com/BTGMRS/BTGMRS-FAQ.php#TransmitterReceiver And the main info page: https://www.miklor.com/BTGMRS/ Looks like the menu item you want will be named r-ctcs...that either needs to match the repeater's output tone, or be set to none/off to hear the repeater (the tones are effectively a filter; the MONI button bypasses that filter).

Photobucket is pretty bad now as well. As of late, I tend to use imgur.

this one is a cool alternative. i've always used the scadacore one, but that one does require some work to get the points right (either a lot of click and drag, or looking up coordinates).

Online is the main source. To my knowledge, the only repeater capable radios likely to be found in stores are the midland mobiles, I know Walmart and home depot list them online. I don't know of any handhelds they make that are repeater capable That said, do some reading, as they do have their own set of limitations (as most do).

Coming back for a second look, I start to wonder about details of the underlying situations. Is it a case of incorrect programming on the part of the op, that's being interpreted as a directed action? Someone that was trying to have a convo and activated tones to filter out the op? Some inexperienced user actions that annoyed someone? (Roger beeps? 'kerchunking' the repeater?) It doesn't change the tone of the original post, or that the op's only other post concerned using a ham radio for gmrs, but trying to see both sides and possible resolutions.

No offense, but no one is stopping you from using the service you paid to use, all 22 channels of it. They absolutely do have the option of deciding who uses their equipment (repeaters) though, for whatever valid or silly reason they may have. It was a harsh realization for me too, but gmrs isn't a hobbyist oriented service, it's primarily aimed at families and groups having comms within their groups with minimal technical knowledge needed, and outside this bubble we have here, it's pretty much how most people use it, as a utility among their group, and stick to their group....which means they'll generally have their tones set not to hear outsiders. I've had a total of one contact so far, as there's basically almost no hobbyist traffic here either. Also recently got booted from a gmrs group on Facebook, because one of their "instant ban" rules is no mention of other radio services (ham, cb, Murs, etc); guess I slipped and forgot which group I was replying to and supplied some info about online testing availability for ham tickets (in addition to that one, I'm in a couple gmrs groups and few ham groups as well).

Uhf is pretty line of sight, what is your antenna situation? That will have more effect (especially for receiving) than more power. The other issue in a big city environment is noise, and the tendency for the receiver to desense to avoid overload, it may not entirely be a problem of signal reaching, but also picking it out of the noise. If there is a repeater in range of both of you, maybe focus toward optimizing for that? Granted vhf and uhf behave a bit differently, but 5 watts on vhf can reach the space station when conditions are right https://www.qsl.net/ah6rh/am-radio/spacecomm/getting-started-iss.html

I will also agree with mbrun's take, speaking a 50x1 owner with a couple different repeaters in range on the the same frequency. It's kind of a pain not being able to save more tx entries, even if within bounds for gmrs. Midland are very plug and play, and generally well supported, but have their own limitations;if repeater access is desired, the xtalkers are likely out. The wouxun handheld is solid, and easy to set up. I have high hopes for their mobile to be similar, and the remote head is a bonus, but it's slightly pricy, and still a bit of an unknown. Among the 3 options, I think wouxun is the best. If you're willing to mix, you could do a Midland base and wouxun ht. Axorlov also raises a good point about the commercial options being good alternatives.

what are your mounting situation and clearance concerns like? Nagoya folds, midland doesn't, but depending where it's mounted that may not matter. both midlands i have have been decent (unity and 3db whips). i'd also wonder how well the tuning on that nagoya fits; amazon listing says they tune for 460, but what will the swr be like on the repeater channels? there's also the Nagoya NL-770g, intended for gmrs, but you'd need a nmo to uhf adapter with that one.

One of them, yes...I forget now if it was the one linked, or their other listing. I honestly debated for a bit on grabbing both pairs. And thank you...I'll see what I can figure out, but I may take you up on that.

Lots of good points and info, thank you. I've backed off the idea of standing up a repeater for now (state of gmrs in my area, and others available), but I hope it builds information (and options) for others to consider. (On a side note, I should be the new owner of a couple evx-539's in a few days)

What do you think of this one, gman?

I sympathize with the OP.. coming into things with the mindset of seeing cb and ham, and probably the atmosphere here, and hoping for a "ham lite" (with a hobbyist mentality), when the reality is to most users, gmrs is more like "frs plus", where people stick to their groups, and don't talk to anyone else. As others stated, a lot of users simply view it as a tool, rather than a hobby. 99% of the traffic I hear here is either schools or businesses with bubble packs, though there are a couple repeaters in range, just rarely anyone on them.

thanks for clarifying...guess a lot haven't bothered filling that field in, and i didn't look around enough to notice someone else that had.

i'm about 50/50 between posting from mobile; looked at some profiles from the desktop, including my own...am i missing where it shows up? i don't see an option in the profile settings to toggle visibility of location. i can see it on my own profile, but not on anyone else's...yours, for example. or is it tied to if you've added someone as a 'friend' on the forum? screenshots here

Personally, i can see arguments for sides of this issue. on one hand, location can be helpful in resolving some of the issues and questions that come up (what repeaters are near me? or i can't access this repeater..), and like mbrun, i've used the callsign lookup to get that context. On the other hand, like Berkinet mentions, the expectations with GMRS are generally a bit different (and more restricted/private) than in the amateur radio arena, in most cases...so i understand and respect that some users choose not to share their location. I've also seen posts elsewhere where people noted the callsign lookup on this site, and wanted to know how to remove their information from the site (the responses indicated it was just an automated lookup from FCC, not info on the site). I do think there's a good middle ground, though. I'm not familiar with the admin side of things for this board software, but i know "location" is one of the profile fields, but it doesn't appear to be set to display, and i don't see a privacy option to display it. if it would be possible in the software to display it, ideally with an option to whether (or not) to display that field, that would be another option for those willing to share their location (less specifically than a call sign gives). Those that chose not to could continue to opt out.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1402-you-just-got-your-gmrs-license-now-you-want-your-own-repeater/