deputycrawford

Our repeaters in the Black Swamp area are permission only but he only does that to make sure he can check on licensing. Other than that he welcomes anybody legal to use it so we can talk to more than the 12 registered users that we have on here now. We also love band openings. I believe WQTU240 has all his info on here because he has had multiple people request to use this repeater. Jerry

I checked the Part 95 Rules and found in Part 95.179 that an organization can use GMRS for members. I called my cousin, who is an Eagle Scout, and my Aunt and Uncle, who are both troop leaders and, both Silver Beaver Award winners. They are the most decorated volunteers that I have ever scene. They also Volunteer for the Red Cross and have asked me to help out in emergencies, which I have. I know they are covered under my license but can I ask the Red Cross to use the repeater under proper conditions? I know they would have to have licenses but would the Chapter be covered under a blanket license? I still cannot paste any copied information on this site no matter what it is so I will work on that. Jerry

I think it was just a couple guys on bubble pack radio channel 15 which is usually GMRS 1. They got off right away. Jerry

I just tried everything again and will have my neighbor look at it as he is a really good computer tech. Jerry

I had a company using our GMRS repeater receive frequency very near by. I receive in carrier squelch so I hear them. I politely announce that they are on a licensed frequency and ask for their call signs. They seemed to have moved so it cleared up right away. Jerry

I just tried to use the share section after I opened the pic to full size and it did nothing, then I tried the open full size pic and copied the direct link info from the top internet long bar from the upper left of my screen and still nothing. Jerry

I let PG know in a PM that I can't copy and paste Photo Bucket pics onto this website. I am working on it with my computer savvy girlfriend. I hope I can work it out. Jerry

I took your advise and edited my profile. I removed my call signs so bot wouldn't be able to research and get my address etc. Jerry

Thanks for the words to keep the post going the right way. I read back through it and want to answer a couple questions. We do not have a travel tone on the repeaters yet. Tim has to get his Motorola MSR2000 repeater up there so he can use his good controller. When he use his controller remotely he will add a travel tone to it. We have both of them registered on this site. He might get to the Paulding site first, so he will get that one running first, but he hopes to get the Sandusky, Ohio site up soon and put a travel tone on it. It will be an open repeater for all to use. I will read back through this thread again but I might have mentioned Tim retired from a two way mobile company as their main tech. He still helps them out a bit so the owner has allowed him to put up the GMRS repeaters at commercial sites with most being at the 400 Ft area. All on commercial towers, or tall buildings, and all 7/8 hard line and Super Station Masters already in line. The two way radio company owner has allowed all sites for free, including the use of the antennas etc., and Tim helps him out by doing a repair, or new install, for free once in awhile. Jerry

Tim, the repeater owner, actually got into the repeater From Cedar Point on his portable, and I had a conversation with him for quite awhile from the parking lot from his mobile. Cool beans I tell you. He has a site he can get for free that is 400 Ft in Sandusky that will cover Cedar Point and much more. He has the repeater equipment but has to get it up yet. Maybe in a couple months we will have awesome Cedar Point coverage with a travel tone. Things are looking up. Oh, by the way, I got a new license on the way for another new user, and found 4 more Baofeng 888 radios, correct for part 95, on order for $14,56 each. Things are happening in Ohio. LOL Jerry

Thanks guys for the input. Yes the repeater is 425 FT in the air with a 9.2 DB transmit and a 10 DB gain Channel master in the receive, as well as the 100 FT 7/8 hard line at both ends. It's booming big time for our area. PG I believe it does work better than our old 460.475 Sheriff system used to. I had 6 or 7 users on it at the same time a day or two ago. We did well with short transmissions and everybody got a turn. Things are looking good in our area. We have bad weather possibly coming into our area tonight and tomorrow so I have three people ready to take the mike near a computer to give us weather updates if another is away. I will be on12 hr patrols for the next two days so I will try to spot, or help as I can. We are having a TON of fun with this radio service. Jerry

Update, we changed to the 9.2 DB gain antenna, and put "cans" in the transmit. I know that's not a good term but you know what I mean. This thing sounds sooo good. A friend can also get into it from his portable a couple miles into the next county, and the repeater is located in the center of my county. I think Tim said there are around 8 or 9 new GMRS licensees in our area that are starting to use the repeater. Two of them, my brother-in-law and my son, are mostly through the ham tech book and starting practice tests on QRZ.COM. We have started something here and may have two new hams soon from it. It feels good to make a difference. One guy gets into the repeater from about 55 miles away on a portable that lives on a hill. Very cool. Just thought I would let everyone know. Jerry

Thanks Rich. I check in a whole lot and am glad to see to site being updated. You have a fan for a long time. Thanks for everything you do. Jerry

That's a kewl call sign. My buddies is WQTT240. Glad you're back. Jerry

He's got a million of them. LOL Jerry

I don't care who you are, now that's funny right there. Jerry

I used one on ham radio for awhile. With the gain turned up just a tad bit you could hear my ex coming down the basement stairs 20 feet away. They are strong mics for sure. The gnat thing is probably true also. LMAO Jerry

Can an orphan eat at a family restaurant? If a homosexual male and a lesbian get together are they still a gay couple? LOL Jerry

I generally use a unity gain NMO antenna and always have good results. They are just about 6 inches tall and do fine. Jerry

We had some ducting here in Toledo, Ohio. We were getting into a repeater south of Cleveland. The guy in Cleveland asked for our ID's and said we were on HIS PL. It caused a bit of an argument with the guy until the repeater operator explained to him what we were saying about the ducting. I hear it on the ham bands once in awhile so I knew what was going on. It was so strong that we were hitting the other repeater with just a watt or two. Crazy. Jerry

Thanks. I don't want to cause trouble. I just found a good deal and thought I would pass it on without being in it for the money. Jerry

I guess I'm changing the subject a bit for a second but I just ordered 2 extra batteries for $17.69 each, and a battery eliminator for the cigarette charger for another $16.99 with free shipping from Amazon. Then I threw in an 888 for a whopping $16.31 for good measure. That way I can get a proper radio to my much better half that she can use. My friend bought a six pack off the 888 for his family and everybody likes them a lot. I never thought I would like these cheap Chinese radios but they seem to be awesome in many ways. Maybe not the programming, but the operation seems to be flawless. Oh, someone please let me know if adding price and distributor is a no-no here and I will stop. Just trying to help save people some money. I'm not in it for anything more than helping. Jerry

Thanks for the info. I found that you have to turn it on it channel mode, select the upper frequency on the screen, and turn it back off. Then turn it back on while holding the menu button and it will go into VFO mode. Direct dial the receive frequency, then the PL, power, and the other things. Check the menu numbers and find number 28 I think. You have to delete a memory before you can store a new frequency. When you go to save your settings you go to save in your menu, hit the menu button again and it will say in the voice prompt that it is saving memory. Then you direct dial in the transmit frequency and save it again in the same channel spot. The voice prompt will say transmit frequency. Then turn the radio off and turn it back on while holding the menu button again and it will toggle to memory mode. If it went in correctly you will see both the + and - signs on the display. Then repeat just the receive and transmit frequencies, and PL's. Other settings will hold. What a fiasco. I also turned off the dual watch and made both A/B frequencies the same channel number and locked out the DTMF buttons. That way you can hit either side of the rocker PTT button and it will key the repeater the same. I hate the programming but it started to go very fast once I got going on it. I love the operation, looks, larger size, ergonomics, and audio both in and out when I back monitored. I will probably order another one today. Over all I love this thing like crazy for the price. Jerry

Hey all, just wanted to tell the world that a close friend of mine, WQTT-240, and I, have started a new radio club called the Black Swamp Radio Society. We are looking into being a non-profit organization so I have a lot of PDF files to go through about by-laws and charter rules. Anybody have any ideas? We already have two repeaters on the air, and plan to have a two more on the air within two months. They will be in Toledo, Sandusky, Paulding, and are getting parts together for a New Regal, Ohio repeater. He plans to find a legal linking system so they can be linked in emergencies. I have posted before that he wants to be linked so we can help because we are far enough away from a storm situation that we are unaffected and can travel to help because we aren't cleaning up our own area. Lots of plans, and he has worked for a radio company for a living for many years so he has the resources. We are moving fast on this because we are starting our storm season and want to be ready. What do you all think? Hopefully this will start a good long post of ideas. Jerry

My club has two repeaters up. The newest one is on my call sign. Both repeaters are IDing every 15 mins during conversations and on the hour when not in use. We do it with the PL stripped on the output so the users can hear it. It wipes out an operator when it IDs. We also believe it can be a kind of beacon for travelers who are nearing the area. It lets them know they are close enough to start using it. Just one idea. Jerry