quarterwave

I use my UV5R as a scanner and GMRS radio...but I can't hear much anymore. I am looking at a Uniden 325P2 so I can get back in the "know". I leave my UV5 at work, because it is cheap and if it came up missing I would not be out much. I usually use my M gear for real comms. Although I did recently pick up a NEW pair of Unidens (about 2006) model GMRS/FRS radios that had a scrambler in them. Nice little radios. I have had a set of Audiovox for years, but these are really nice. I use them on vacation, etc. I wanted to try out the scrambled audio feature on the Unidens, even though those were discontinued right after they started selling them. They had FCC cert but then there was a misunderstanding between FCC and Uni about the scramble, and they lost the Cert. I like them, and will be looking to get another pair for reserve. So yeah...a purpose built radio is best.

I still have one NIB too! I have the other on the work bench as a control station, used to have it in my pickup. Good little radios. Is the CPS for the CM/PM radios available or subscription only? I haven't needed any mobiles for long time, but updating a little would be good...assuming I can self program. Back when I radio-ed all the time and worked in the industry the old RSS was guarded like a gold bar...now no one cares.

Public safety repeaters are the only ones I ever worked with that ID'd 24/7. Most commercial setups, and even my own GMRS ID was/is based on use. So in other words, if you don't key the repeater for a period of time....3 hours, 3 days...3 weeks....it never ID's. If you key it up, it ID's after receiver drop, and again if use continues beyond 15 minutes. Setting up for continuous ID is a waste of air time. And I just realized how old this post was....

I would check water tanks, building tops, maybe you local telephone co. most of them in rural area's all had repeaters at one time they used, may not now but if they own a tower you might be able to get on. You have to be sure you express that it is non-commercial use, and could be used in a community emergency, etc. As long as they know you don't and can't money from it, they may be more open to it.

I think the issue will be the receiver in the MRE verus anything else. If you can get the antennae as far apart as possible, and use as little power on the CDM as possible (If you don't have hi/lo programmed on it, get it set for 10 and 40 then you can switch it) and use 1/2 watt on the MRE you may get better results. I have done all sorts of projects in commercial/public safety and sometime you would be surprised what a better antenna position and LESS power will do. I know when we used to service PAC-RTs as MRE on Low Band MICOR radios...the VHF PAC-RT's ran at 250mw and the HT600's were 1 watt. Of course the Micor was low band, but it was blasting 100-120 watts on a long whip 2 1/2 feet from the VHF antenna. In band is tough, not alot of options, but worth playing with. I had a case to (oops!) leave a 1/2 watt FRS on VOX laying in front of my Uniden 780 scanner in my truck and listening on my P1225 while out of the truck....worked great, even when the 780 was picking up 453 and the FRS was Txing 467. I could get 1/4 mile away in a building and still hear it. Didn't do that much, but had some stuff going on once that I wasn't going to miss...needed LB, VHF, UHF and 800 all together.

yes

No, I am not questioning whether closed repeaters should exist, I have one, and I know what it costs and what I want it used for, and more importantly what (who) I don't want on it, so I have no issue with closed repeaters. My comments were only to whether it makes sense to list repeaters no one but the owner and his friends use. Yes, it can help with channel finding, but that can be done other ways more reliably, as it's the unlisted ones that will pop up just when you think you know what's around given a "listing". In commercial radio, when choosing from new frequencies sent over by a coordinator for public service or commercial use, we would always set up a receiver at the proposed tower site, a recorder and a clock-timer triggered by carrier, and leave it on the air for about a week per frequency to capture the audio and amount of air time on the frequency, if any. When we narrowed it down to the one we wanted, we ran it for another week, just to be sure. Did that with PL decoding for distant stations sharing same freq as well. But, back to the issue...I just had wondered about how legit what I saw was.

There are quite a few repeaters in the Ohio list these days, that is good to see. I have one on there myself. However, another member told me he emailed the owner(?) of the larger group of repeaters, which are marked Private, Paid, Members Only and such...and was told not all of them existed. The member thought maybe the owner felt he could "reserve" channels by posting them. Secondly, Do we want repeaters listed if they are only for the owners or private "members" to use? I have an open repeater...but I also have a "private" one, that I do not list. I'm not saying it "should" be one way or another, but just asking what others think. Maybe that owner can chime in and tell us what's up as well. I guess I just lean towards..if you are going to make a repeater known to the public, then it should be open or request-permission type of thing...but paid, membership, private? Just seems to make me think of someone trying to look good on paper. "I've got an ice cream cone...and you can't have one" Could just be the mood I'm in today, though.... ha ha ha.

No. No corssband / cross-service allowed in GMRS or MURS.

Good One.

http://www.batlabs.com/msf5k.html

Yep, that's the standard old MSF. I run a MTR2000 (newer generation of the MSF) and it is awesome. Turned it down to 50 watts and it will run 100% duty cycle with no fans (probably at 100 watts too!)

Agreed. This UV5R is no gem in the RX department. I got a new truck and I have talked myself out of installing a Bearcat HP2 right now...I was wondering how the UV82 is for a receiver, would like to put a dual band portable in the truck with a battery eliminator to get my UHF stuff on but also hear city and county fire channels on. My UV5R is deaf once in the cab, but my P1225 is fine. Would rather leave a radio I can afford to replace in the truck these days...people will steal anything.

I would have to look at my CHIRP file at home, but I have a UV5R working with one of my repeaters using DPL. I think what you showed there is right. So, you are saying you can talk through the repeater ok, but you cannot TX from the repeater radio and break the squelch on the portables? Later that day... Change your DUPLEX to (+) and your offset to 5.0000, and then the frequency to 462.6000. The way you have it set it is going simplex on the high side, so the other other radio, provided it is programmed the same, is hearing it simplex, but it is also keying the repeater although you are not hearing the actual output of the repeater. I see your HAM repeater below is set up correctly as a (-) duplex and 600k offset. Let us know if that fixes it.

https://midlandusa.com/new-extended-range-and-ultra-slim-midland-mxt100-micromobile-gmrs-2-way-radio-allows-you-to-stay-connected-to-everyone/?avad=55963_c911208a

Update. I did swap to a M120...and I run about 8 watts to hit the repeater from my house. It tests and alerts for my area (FIPS/SAME coded) reliably for a couple of months now. I am limiting the TX to 45 seconds now which give you time to hear the core of the message if it's a severe alert. Still pondering making a base out of it at the tower site...just make it go out on 675 rather than be on one of the repeaters. I guess the big takeaway is the very simple setup using a minimum of equipment works well.

It could be a licensee, or some rougue radio dealer that setup and unsuspecting customer with SCADA-like or simple remote controlling hardware, it could very well be simplex. You can use DTMF encoder/decoders to kick on relays for various things, setup/knockdown repeaters, etc. The receiver radio basically has an output that drives a relay and then things that can be done are many...high and low voltage switching. It could also be a trigger of some sort sending the DTMF, and the receiver just goes into alarm to signify something happened....could be an alarm, alert, water level, power out, door that opened...etc. Those are some more elaborate examples, but in the radio biz I setup a fire departments' big siren on the roof of the FD to blow by remote, also setup thier garage doors to go up when a certain code was used, and a real cool one...gas pumps active for 15 minutes after a code was put through. If you are hearing a rapid string, it is pre-programmed and is likely intentional. Legit use of the freq? Probably not.

Sounds like DTMF remote control, if it's a string like that. Is there a repeater on that freq?

Nice! Glad to see more in Ohio.

I always skipped the RICK (it was just another way for M to get another $300 out of a customer) and built my own, or used one from MRE1032 (MRE Direct) on eBay. I run one of those on a couple of M208's right now, it has a delay and adjustable audio. You can also use a 5 Pin for the TX as they use the RJ45. I think the only issuse using a 5 Pin for RX was getting COR to the RJ45. I didnt' want to modify the radios, so I never did that specifically.

Update...so far (waiting on a real alert) so good. This went together in about 30 minutes, very slick interface. So, as my luck runs it probably won't stay working...ha ha ha. I can manual key it, and the WX audio is good. So with the WX radio alarm output set to "switch", I have it tied to PTT and Ground through the mic jack, and then also used TX audio there too..so this is all working through the mic jack on a OLD Radius M100. I used a regular LAN patch cord to take it over to a 8 Pin jack, then just tied the lines from the 1/8" jacks down to the appropriate places in the 8 pin jack. Takes a couple minutes to get your pin #'s translated from radio to jack, but it's easy. I used this old M100 I have, because I don't care if I do something to blow it up. I have had it for a long time, it actually was the first "tester" radio the shop got, so it has to be late 80's, when they started making M100's. It's so old, it doesn't look like the M100's you commonly see (or use to), the face is Gray instead of Black, the buttons are Gray, not translucent, as it didn't have backlit buttons, and it has "Radius" screened on the top of the face, which was not on production models. I think this one was a pre-production demo. It was a shop goat for years, then it was deemed parts or junk, and I got it to use for GMRS. That was a long time ago. It has been repaired many times, and used as a guinea pig, don't think it was ever installed in a vehicle in its life, but it is beat up. One of the tech put a new final in it one time, and it's a 5 watt unit now. I can get about 8-9 if I crank it up, but it will TX for several minutes at 5 watts without getting warm. One issue with it is I cannot get into the Radio Wide settings to change the TOT, it is set for 30 seconds. So, I am going to use it to see if this works ok, and then I may have to switch it so I can actually adjust the TOT. I have several 5-10 watt M120's, so once the interface is proven, I can change it out. I set it up this way so that is was a control base or base, and not directly attached to my repeater, I can keep easier control on it that way.

http://www.randl.com/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=71892 http://www.powerwerx.com/two-way-radios/mobile-radios/ The basis for affordable also takes into account that "cheap" may play into it. If you want something you can program, works right out of the box, etc...there are a couple options. However, my preference would be a good Motorola (insert your brand here). Although you may have to do a little more work to get your self setup with software and cables, you will end up with a really good commercial grade radio that will go the distance, and look nice, like a pro, in your vehicle. For GMRS you can't go wrong with a GM300 (or sim) and a 1/4 wave antenna. 40 watts and 16 channel, gives plenty of options.

I found the 1650 on eBay, was just looking for the basic 1630, but found the other one at a bargain price. I'm going to direct interface it to a Motorola Radius (low power) mobile and use as a control base to the repeater. I have worried about having "control"...my repeater is a MTR2000 so it's 100% duty cycle, but has a TOT of course, and I'm not worried about it, but just that something can get stuck on the air. So, I think the control base idea with the right TOT on it is best, and I am also looking at a WeMo web enabled outlet/switch where I could just shut off power to the control base power supply remotely if something were to happen and it hung on the air. Also juggled the notion of just putting this on a separate base station / it's own frequency. I use 2 different pairs now, and always scan 675 in my radios too...so maybe a base on 675 with the wx alerts only would be good. There are no other repeaters anywhere near me...so channel usage is not an issue.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. I talked to another repeater operator who is using WX on GMRS, and he used a Reecom, says it works well, and has good EOM reset. I found the $80 Reecom model on eBay, new and shipped for $20...so I bought it. This unit is supposed to have a alert audio out, and a alert relay out connection. I will start testing it out soon. I intend to tie it to a low power mobile, which I can use to hit my repeater if all goes well. I will share more if/when this thing gets going.

Yep...I've built several, but that little thing is cute...if it works, could be useful in the right situation. I remember working on a FBI style suitcase repeater once, it was basically a couple of Motorola HT's in a briefcase with a battery and little duplexer. I think the portables were HT90 guts....VHF. I also remember some older repeaters for industrial use that were 2 and 4 watt, I think Motorola and Ritron had one...like late 80's early 90's. Motorola had that SYSTEL which was a UHF 2 watt box with interconnect. When I worked at the M shop I interconnected our AT&T phone system to an interconnect on a 5 watt base so our guys could take or make calls from their vans if they were parked outside or close by the shop. It was handy. We also used it to receive a DTMF that triggered one of the overhead doors to open...it was easier and cheaper than buying a dozen $150 remotes! What gets me on these repeaters are these goof balls on ebay hacking together some old used mobiles or portables in what looks like a spaghetti nightmare and calling it a repeater...mostly for GMRS, but some guy has one he demo's as cross band....146 in 467 out....now he knows just about enough to be dangerous.