Billy

I recently attended a training session through the NYS Citizen Preparedness Program and Farmingdale State University. The course itself was only a few hours and being it was the initial session it was mostly speeches by officials, including Governor Cuomo himself. There are a few things in the works that might be of interest to NY'ers. NYS is starting their own weather monitoring system similar to NOAA. The reason being is that due to the recent changes in weather patterns the Governor feels that he needs a better handle on weather emergencies. He states that he has been let down and led to make mistakes in deploying resources due to poor forcasting. This is currently in the implementation mode. There is quite a bit of useful information on the nyprepare.gov website including a way to receive alerts on your smart phone or via email. You can customize this many ways, like amber alerts, weather alerts, terrorist alerts etc. you set the parameters. All in all, I spent a few hours, was fed breakfast, received a nice suitable for framing certificate of completion and a really nice go bag (no joke, it is a good one full of practical things). Cost, free just go to the website and see when a class is coming to you and register online. That will officially make you a part of the NYS Citizen Preparedness Corps (I kid you not).

What is the location and the height of the tower you wish to put it on? There are actually quite a few GMRS repeaters in the area. Mine is in West Babylon but is a small family and friends neighborhood emergency type on 725. There is another big one with very good coverage out to about Seldon/Medford or so that is listed here on 625, that is a pay as you go situation. If you listen well there are actually quite a few more like Nassau React which does it's emergency stuff on one tone and allows personal business on another on 700. A few more individual groups on all the splits. So do your research before setting up completely. You are going to need a tower well over 400 ft of elevation to get out east. For one the Medford Bald Hill area rises in elevation about 150 foot, then drops off, creating a wall effect. That is why the 625 system has trouble getting out there but Johns repeater (which is truly the best around) can get to East Patchouge no problem. You also have to be careful with interfering with NJ and Connecticut stations. GMRS is heavily used in New Jersey, numerous strong repeaters. Your propogation will drift more towards them then the East End of Long Island. Just remember the island is only about 20 miles wide at its widest point but over 100 in length. Doesn't fit into a propogation circle very well. If I was to set up a system trying to cover the entire Island I would try to get a tower in the Medord Bald Hill area taking advantage of the natural elevation. That would cover you to Montauk and NYC no probem without unduly interfering with the NYC and NJ stations doing there thing. Hope this helps. BTW what is your call sign?

Quite a few land mobile antennas that would work. 450-470 mhz. I am using this one as my base antenna, price is right and it works great. http://www.ebay.com/itm/UHF-Gain-Base-Antenna-Ham-or-Commercial-GMRS-/111242039052?pt=US_Radio_Comm_Antennas&hash=item19e68acf0c He will pre-tune it for you specific repeater frequency. Do an Ebay search for GMRS radios and you will se quite a lot of used HT's with people ready to program and set them up for you cheap. Full 2-4 watt radios, old, big but functional. I follow the Ebay listings often and if you need help shoot me a PM. I pick up alot of stuff for my repeater club members.

I have about 12" here, but gone today with the rain and the 50+ degree temps. I had a very bizarre weather weak. I set out from NY to Cleveland on New Years Day to take my wife to see her mother. Drove all of Route 80 in a light snow. Got to Cleveland and it snowed for two days. Home got pounced on with the above 12" and I drove back on Saturday like it never happened. Now I wake up today and it's 58 degrees gonna go down to 7 overnight. Never in my life have I seen a temperature swing of 50 degrees in one day. I never thought it was even possible. I am staying home tomorrow. BTW Cleveland needs a good GMRS repeater. The Parma625 machine was not up and running.

50 Watts at the back of the machine, if duplexer is internal 50 watts at that is how I understand it. Sorry, no leads on duplexers except that I have heard varying reports about the tuning abilities of some of the foreign makers.

Never!

I have had no dealings with them in particular. There are quite a few of the older Motorola repeaters that show up on Ebay daily. Also a bunch of individuals that sell Maxtracs and such programmed and ready to go. Don't rule out the Ritron stuff, a good company and all of their gear is FCC Part 95a type accepted. Bill

captdan, we spoke today on the SHTFLI.COM repeater. Great talking with you. Bill

There is a new repeater up on this site on 725 from the Bronx. Not sure if it can make it to Trenton though. I don't hear it from Central Long Island.

Roger that, I forgot your setup. My machine has a DC trickle charger for battery backup and the switch it internal. So basically all I need is a battery, power goes out it drops down to half output and runs off the battery. My internal power supply is rated at 10 amps (it is a HD one, LOL). Yours is much more complicated.

What is the charging amp output of your repeater John. These units only alow a max of 3.6 amps of charging. That will keep a battery floated very nicely, bulk charge is another story. I know my machine only outputs half of that at 1.8 amps max, basically a trickle charger.

How it works is you take the FCC ID number, such as as Motorola Radaius CP125 HT, the number is ABZ99FT4065. The first three letter, or numbers, in this case letters are ABZ. You enter that, that is the manufacturer code. Then you enter the remaining information 99FT4065 in the product code box and press enter. When it comes up you will see a caption marked "Display Grant" this will bring up a copy of the actual grant, it will look like the link below. https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/tcb/reports/Tcb731GrantForm.cfm?mode=COPY&RequestTimeout=500&tcb_code=&application_id=697926&fcc_id=ABZ99FT4065 We can now see that this radio is only Part 95 type accepted as submitted by Motorola. If I use the FCC ID number for my Ritron SLX-400 HT is looks like this: https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/tcb/reports/Tcb731GrantForm.cfm?mode=COPY&RequestTimeout=500&tcb_code=&application_id=591093&fcc_id=AIERIT21-450 Part 90 and 95 compliant. Good luck, Bill

http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/ea/fccid/ That is the link for the FCC approval. You put in the FCC ID number and then look at the certification. It will tell you what sections a radio is approved for.

"Times are changing - I have learned recently that illegal transmissions on government frequencies has become such a problem that NYC PD now has personnel trained and equipped to track and identify the source of unauthorized transmissions on duty 24/7 365. Apparently there have been some issues or concerns about this but they do not publicize it for fear of attracting attention and thereby encouraging additional people to try it just for fun." One of the reasons that radios are now individiually assigned. There was a time when cops were getting hurt over the loss of a radio. There is no way to hide it now if it dissapears, you cannot go in the radio room and just grab another.

Can you say "kid in a candy store" , I want that in my yard! Great work John.

Go to the ARRL website and get their study guide. I not only comes with a good book it comes with a exam disk that contains questions, the exact questions that are on the exam. This will cover you for both Tech and General. I think the cost is like $40. Makes the test a walk in the park.

Cool stuff John.

earl here is a list of build ideas. For your budget, if you have the half inch copper a J-Pole should be a easy build. Some gain is better but these antennas will work. http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Antennas/J-Pole/

I could not tell you for sure. Having been there I can tell you that 90% of the cell phone service was down as well as a good portion of the civil service radio networks (Police, Fire, etc.). But, that is what got me into the GMRS, as a backup.

I think the first thing is to find out what area he would like to cover, the purpose and budget. A small repeater system like mine (WB725NY) which is a small emergency repeater can be put up for less than $400. Something with the coverage of ERS650NY now that is another story.

Thanks for the report, I am often tempted by the price as in "hey why not". I took a chance with the Anytone Dual Bander that I did a previous review on, a good radio for the price but I am still not willing to praise it. For my money the best UHF only radio out there is the Icom 6021 128 ($260) channel or its cousin the 6011 8 channel ($220). I have the 6021 mobile and love it. Loud on both ends and very, very stable. Great performers, period!

I have been hearing about GMRS going the way of CB for a while. This is one area where we can thank the FCC and its acceptance of the Bubble Packs. 99% of those radios cannot be heard past one mile. People buy them with high expectactions then get frustrated and they get put away. The only real problem I have ever encountered were grandfathered business' and non-grandfathered using the frequencies illegally with good equipment. The license fee deters most people from using GMRS to its maximum capability like most of us here do. This is a good thing. Anyway, interference from inexperienced persons or pirates has not been a problem. CB, on the other hand works well for the minimal investment. I just hate needing such a huge antenna. I do still have a 10/11m Hamstick Dipole in my attic that I can work either band on if need be. I have a $5 garage sale CB hooked up in my garage and monitor from time to time. Mostly southern linear traffic, that has been going on for 20 years. Some beach 4x4 traffic but that is not constant.

The Uniden model you speak of is limited to about 1/2 a watt of power, does not do repeater splits and has a non-detachable antenna. The advertised distance on this radio is based on a point to point situation with an unobstructed path to each other. Any other variable and the distance is dramatically reduced, but they are great point to point short distance radios for small events of neighborhood communication. The next logical step up from that is a good hand held designed for GMRS/UHF service that can accept an external antenna in about the 4 watt range. This allows you to get that 4 watts elevated from the ground and use an antenna that may have a bit of gain to it. This turns your hand held radio into a small base station and dramatically increases your simplex distance. In buying such a piece I try to recommend FCC Part 95 compliant radios which is required by GMRS. At the very least a good commerical radio with FCC Part 90 compliance. Ham gear that was built specifically to operate on the Ham bands may technically work but is neither type accepted for GMRS nor is it compliant in it's function under the rules by the nature of face on the spot programming and other issues. There is a whole discussion on this site regarding the Part 95 rules and compliance with GMRS. The third step is a good base or mobile with at least 25 Watts, more is better but it is more about the antenna and its height that the total wattage. Just remember as a general rule if you double you wattage you will increase you transmitting distance roughly 20% for every doubling. But if you double your transmitting height you can easily more than double you distance. Get the antenna up high first and than see how much power it takes. My saying is that I would rather have 5 watts at 50 foot than 50 watts at five. One nice thing about GMRS gear currently is the cheap source of surplus radios on the market after the FCC narrowband mandate. They left GMRS out of this and there is a slew of GMRS Type 95 type accepted equipment that can be had cheaply. A comment on the Boafeng. I have a few different models, the UV5R is one of them. You cannot beat them for the price as a backup or throw away. One thing that they will never do is hold a candle to one of my Icom or Ritron pieces of gear. There is a list on this site as well that members have tried to identify GMRS Part 95 type accepted radios. Good Luck.

Also as handhelds don't discount the Ritron Patriot RTX-450's available surplus. A little big by todays standards but a full five watt output, Part 95 compliant and have great audio. I have a bunch of them, some new in the box, and use them frequently on a local repeater and get great signal and audio reports. I have sold a few to local guys because they like them so much. High Capacity batteries are still available. They do require proprietary software to program but if you go that route reach out to me I the software for them.