wayoverthere

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/

i will agree with that point as well. there's a wide variety of quality levels. that said, i see mobile as jumping into things a little deeper than just a HT, so more of a situation where if you can get "good" instead of "subpar", for not much more, it's worth considering.

I'll give the low end manufacturers credit on one point; they DO do a pretty good job of marketing toward new users. Wouxun also seems to be pretty willing to work with the resellers on the feature set/programming, as evidenced by their part 95 certified offerings. that said, as gman covered, the receivers are where they fall short to varying degrees, either in sensitivity (picking up signals at all), selectivity (picking the signal you want out of the background noise) or both. i have the gmrs 50x1, and while i don't have any major complaints (other than how they locked it down for gmrs), you don't know what you aren't hearing, so to speak. the transmit side works solid so far, even with less than perfect antenna placement. there's also the factor that the uv50x2 isn't part 90 or 95 certified, so not actually legal to use for gmrs. all in all,while my personal experience hasn't been noticeably bad, i did jump in without enough research, and now know i could've done better; there's lots of lightly used part 90 stuff out there for the same money or not a ton more that will be a lot better. the fact that you should still be within the return window for the BTech may be an opportunity to try again (if you choose to) and only maybe being out the cost of shipping.

CCR = Cheap Chinese Radio. in short, there's a lot of inconsistency in quality, a lot of counterfeits and fake certifications, a few decent ones, a lot of complete garbage, and sometimes no easy way to tell which a product is before you buy. one member (gman1971) has done some direct testing that showed just how bad some of them can be. suffice to say, like many others you've found, he isn't a fan of them (prefers motorola). if you take a look in his past posts, he's gone into some detail on his testing..

It seems more like a little bit of both sides taking the easy way out....fcc saying "if it's configured like this, fast track for approval", so the manufacturers go with the easy way of passing for approval. Where the wouxun (at least the 805g) is a little more set up for real world usability, not just "the test" Reminds me of something I read about certain cars being geared to minimize shifts needed for 0-60...made for better times (slightly) to hit 60 at the top of 2nd gear. However, for real world driving, that huge gap from 1st to 2nd was a pain, and required winding out 1st to be anywhere near the poweband in 2nd.

I just want to say I greatly appreciate the level of information here compared to some other places online. A similar topic came up related to someone measuring swr on HT antennas, and while there was a LOT of "you're doing it wrong" posts, even the long winded ones blathering about needing better equipment gave zero hint as to WHY what was being done was the wrong way to do it.

(ii) is the one you're thinking of related to ham equipment. the closed to ARRL i see is (iii) under a definition of "teaching" §97.113 Prohibited transmissions. (3) Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer, with the following exceptions: (i) A station licensee or station control operator may participate on behalf of an employer in an emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill. Tests or drills that are not government-sponsored are limited to a total time of one hour per week; except that no more than twice in any calendar year, they may be conducted for a period not to exceed 72 hours. (ii) An amateur operator may notify other amateur operators of the availability for sale or trade of apparatus normally used in an amateur station, provided that such activity is not conducted on a regular basis. (iii) A control operator may accept compensation as an incident of a teaching position during periods of time when an amateur station is used by that teacher as a part of classroom instruction at an educational institution. (iv) The control operator of a club station may accept compensation for the periods of time when the station is transmitting telegraphy practice or information bulletins, provided that the station transmits such telegraphy practice and bulletins for at least 40 hours per week; schedules operations on at least six amateur service MF and HF bands using reasonable measures to maximize coverage; where the schedule of normal operating times and frequencies is published at least 30 days in advance of the actual transmissions; and where the control operator does not accept any direct or indirect compensation for any other service as a control operator.

Overthinking a little, but understandably. Valid considerations if you were setting up a non gmrs radio. The part 95 stuff (btech and k805g) has a lot of it covered already, though. Assuming stock programming, channel "rept15" already has the +5MHz shift set. Just set the radio to that channel, go into the menu and look for the "t-ctcss" option, and set the tone accordingly, and hit menu to set. If you want to set it on the receive side as well, look for the r-ctcss option next, and set the tone there as well.

to be fair, the Btech GMRS 50x1 (also supposedly 95e certified) has a V/M button as well, and it will happily let you scan through and receive a big chunk of the VHF and UHF bands. However, it doesn't let you transmit on anything other than the hard coded 1-7 and 15-22 (simplex on 1-7, simplex or duplex on 15-22)...the Retevis may be similarly locked down the frustrating part about implementing the lockdown this way is that even if the extra stuff you've programmed is in bounds for GMRS, nope, rx only.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! Or, if you don't celebrate it, a nice day off at least.

i'm not familiar with the model (i'm sure there are some here that are) to tell you exactly where to find the setting. that said, since it works when you hold the 'monitor' button, that sounds like it's something with your squelch setting, either looking for a tone, or level set too high. there's some info on page 6 here (if you don't have a manual) http://www.repeater-builder.com/kenwood/pdfs/tk-880-svc-man-rev-e.pdf