Billy

From what I understand is that all local emergency comms are via VHF. The UN has established a Net on 20 Meters 14.205 Mhz Upper Side Band for stations around the world to assist. I am picking up periodic traffic from some very strong stations accross the world on my end fed HF wire. Here is a link if anyone is interested. https://www.amrron.com/2015/04/27/ham-radio-emergency-net-for-the-nepal-earthquake/

Its called the Bluecomm system. Go to the repeater database and look for the Alpha and Beta systems. Those and a few others are in the system if you are looking to make contact.

My numbers were a little better but that was my experience as well.

They look very interesting, I am going to wait a month or two to see some more details and quage performance. I am just happy to see someone adressing the GMRS market. Same goes or MURS, there is an untaped market in the MURS arena.

Cheap they work. I have tested a few, they generally do not put out the advertised power, 2.5 watts is about the best you can expect. They are good radios for the glove box but not a quality radio. That said they are less than $20. I am not the radio police but the versions I have handled did not have any FCC Certification what so ever.

There are several good ones in the area. I doubt mine will be of any use to you in Bayshore with a HT to West Babylon (ENIGMA, my repeater). It does have very good HT coverage at Robert Moses if that is where you are Kayacking. This website has a very good repeater database. Give it a look and see if something comes closer. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Welcome Thomas, can you be more specific about what part of Long Island you will be operating out of. I may be able to help you out and directing you to a few repeaters when you are ready. Bill

"Nearly all of the Ritron VHF radios are MURS accepted. Even their little intercoms are type accepted for Part 95A and Part 95D operations (as well as Part 90)." Ritron is the only company that I know of that applies for 95A acceptance from the get go.

There are several programming services that advertise on Ebay. They range around the $20 for programming a radio. Worth a look.

You are a mad scientist, in a good way. Great Job so far! That shed should give you a nice surface and angle to mount the solar panels.

Yes absolutely, this is the place to list your repeater if you wish for it to be somewhat public. The main reason is for band cooperation. So others know who, what and where the repeaters are so that nobody sets up on your doorstep. Repeater cooperation is very important given the limited bandwith allotted to GMRS repeaters.

Glad you guys enjoyed the QSO last night. Basically what happened is we were repeater skipping. You were listening on simplex but talking through your Philly repeater, which myself and Kevin (a member of my repeater group) were able to pick up. In return we were were talking through our repeater group WB725NY to you and hearing your repeater on simplex. If that makes sense, It was fun and maybe something we could try again. I am not sure if it was weather or just how out systems are alligned but according to Google the systems are about 126 miles apart as the crow flies, the majority of that being over the water. It was fun and great to talk to some of the group from other states. BTW, the PL's for our machines do not match, no security issue for me.

My Ritron Patriot HT's, a little big by todays standards but true 5 Watt radios with excellent audio, great battery life and are true FCC Part 95 Type Accepted. This one is late 80's vintage. My two CB's in the garage from my youth. I like to listen to skip while working outside. I have a Hamstick Dipole mounted in the attic that does a great job pulling in the stations. One is a Midland and the other is a Lafayette with Power Supply/External Speaker combo. Both work great.

Just curios as the area and the repeater you are trying to access?

A few quick things, if you have the 462.600 simplex channel set for no PL/DPL then you will hear all chatter regardless of what code they are using. So when you attempt to return the conversation their recievers set for a PL/DPL will not hear you. Second and I get this many times with my repeater system. Some members love to test to see if they can "hit" the repeater but never actually try an audio check. Hitting it and being heard are two different things. So it appears that if you are "hitting" it you have the proper PL codes in/out because you can detect your own signal. It seems you just need more power, elevation, the basics to get that audio to be detected. Putting your HT's too close to one another may also cause a situation of temporary desense. Try putting them in different locations within the house or outside, at least 20 feet away.