GuySagi

Dang that's awesome Riktar. Hopefully some of the info here will sink into my thick skull. The recurring theme of bad cell phone coverage in rural areas is interesting on this thread and certainly educational for me. I know when I lived on the Blue Ridge in Virginia (if I put a repeater up it would have covered Winchester and halfway into West Virginia...dang it) and commuted an hour into Fairfax for work you could see the house if you slid off the dirt road on the ice, but couldn't punch a cell phone call through. Not good at my age, even then, when you leave at 5 a.m. year round. Guess I understood that the whole time, but eight years living on North Carolina's piedmont with topo maps that look like white sheets of paper erased that memory to a point.

I bought and am using a UHF SWR meter for the task N4gix...sorry for the confusion in my reply/post. Good reminder for everyone, though, because I've messed up on some simple things by not knowing or investing the time to double check. And WRAK968, your tip/reminder is a timely one in my case. I finally found a repeater I can hit from the house during the next hurricane/tropical storm (assuming it's still on the air). So I'll be checking I can hit it, then tuning for that frequency—would have meant unneeded additional work if I tuned for the middle of the band, put the antenna and mast up and then came up with that approach. Now if I can clear the rest of the household/yard priorities off my list...

And I don't know if my experience is unique, but I was able to get my CB SWR down to close to 1:1 across all channels. But that's only somewhere around 1 mhz of separation...so tune it to 20 and everywhere on the dials happy. On GMRS I'm pulling my hair out and pretty sure I'll be setting for a few channels sucking at 1:5. I'm probably wrong, but my excuse right now is there's a total of 5 mhz separation on this service. And I didn't exactly go frugal on the setup, either.

Sorry, I phrased my follow-up post poorly. There's a painful lesson in some of the folks attracted to CB radio through hype/marketing years ago, so it would be a disservice promoting GMRS that way. I was just hoping to gain a better understanding how and why people got in (other than myself), the catalyst so to speak that drove them to wrestle with a new semi-technical "hobby" and pay the Fed to do so. I haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet, so let me pre-apologize if this fails to clarify my post. I think everyone's given me solid info, thank you again it's awesome stuff. When national preparedness month arrives and articles appear, if the editor's feeling generous a two-way radio mention might be granted a graf. That's maybe 50 words, could be three sentences. If one's a run-on it can include the aid GMRS can be throughout the year in rural settings, during hunting season or the fact the entire family is licensed. Now readers understand the investment doesn't need to spend its entire life in a go bag that may or may not ever be used. Yes, everyone here understands that, but most people do not. And (God forbid) if disaster strikes a couple more licensed locally is never a bad thing. Comments so far indicate the photos of happy hikers and spotting off-roaders are solid graphics, which is not what I suspected. I don't care to promote or drive sales of GMRS. That's not what I do and personally enjoy the uncluttered wavelengths, where things get done without headache. I sure do appreciate the input and hope everyone has a glorious and safe weekend.

Awesome points everyone, thank you so much. Now how do you convey the serious usefulness in images that stop readers long enough to learn GMRS is a viable solution? Radios on a white background likely appeal only to current enthusiasts (or so I surmise). The environmental stuff I've seen has a few have people hiking in great weather or talking next to a Jeep in bright skies. Tweiss3 I'd sure love to see an ad or article that communicated your point that the whole family is licensed, too. I think that's a great way to encourage participation....dang it. This is a really dumb question, but is there an industry group for two-way radio manufacturers in the U.S.? In the work I do I often coordinate stuff with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents manufacturers, wholesalers and dealers. They initiate some awesome programs based on outside input, hence my question. Heck there's even a flashlight/portable lighting non-profit called PLATO that does similar stuff.

I'll apologize in advance for starting a somewhat self-serving topic, but I'm sure interested in what it is that attracted people to GMRS radios/getting a license/etc.? Please let me know what brought you to GMRS, if you can spare a moment or two. Also, if there was a photo/article that piqued your enthusiasm I'd sure love it if you had time to include a link. Call my questions field research if you like, I do a lot of writing/photography and think too many people are completely reliant on cell phones in emergencies. It's hurricanes in my case and after the last one I could only stay in touch with my quadriplegic daughter not too far away (cell towers were down for days) using MURS, otherwise I might have felt it necessary to brave the storm to check or aid her. No way of punching a long-distance signal out with that service, though, hence my upgrade to GMRS hoping to repeater up (so to speak). Even those articles and images you find are a real turn off are solid info. Thank you for taking the time to consider question and I sure do hope everyone has a glorious and safe day.

Wow, pleasant, accurate and polite exchange of information? Am I still on the Internet? I would have asked the same question in a few days Scarleton. I'm new at this and would love to see a follow-up here on how your radio works with the repeater. And Mr. Jones, thank you for the polite and information-packed response. Happy Fourth of July everyone.

I tried it with McAfee disabled....no luck and no big deal. Thank you so much for the input/help, it was worth a shot! Like I said, other things on the website are more important. And thank you again for making a great website, one family-friendly enough to visit, without stupid blood-pressure raising nonsense. Awesome stuff.

Like I said, no big deal on the photo upload....the other issues being worked on are a priority (especially repeater updates somehow, but Lord know how to get it done to everyone's satisfaction). So let this one go. I just thought I was doing something dumb/wrong on the upload attempts, you know. When I find a few minutes I might post them in a gallery on the website I maintain for my gun writing/photography, then maybe ask for opinions here using the image URL link available in the forum....sparingly, of course. This website's about GMRS, not photos, after all. I DO NOT want to drain energy from upgrades here on a minor problem on my end....so I'm not kidding, push this to the bottom or completely off the to-do list. The info here is too awesome to get watered down on superfluous.

I didn't mean to imply blister pack folks are not or can not be radio enthusiasts. I apologize. Gatekeeping is bad regardless how it's veiled. Radio is more of an afterthought in most of my readers' cases, if that makes more sense...and unfortunately I don't think its rising a rung in stature very soon. Here's the error message I get: Error The server returned an error during upload File size: 175 k File type: jpg, 8-bit color Windows 10 Microsoft Edge for a browser (I tried Firefox, too) McAfee LiveSafe Same message when I try the advanced uploader (I made sure Flash was enabled on Edge, too) If something doesn't ring a bell on my conflict, don't waste time trying to sort it out. I'll be visiting your website early and often (OK nearly daily lately). It's nice to have something decent to read right now about stuff I really enjoy and I'm glad I found it. I was just looking for some input on the photos. Hope you guys have a glorious and safe day.

Can't seem to upload photos on Firefox or Edge....and suggestions. I write for some websites/magazines and they had me create some of radios. I'm more interested in feedback from real radio enthusiasts than the readers who buy blister packs. Hence this note. Thanks and I sure hope everyone has a glorious and safe day.

Hi 49er, I'm moderately close to you—southwest of Fayetteville, NC. I share your frustration. I've nothing to connect with on my side of the border, either, which stinks. I have to ask, did you pickup your GMRS as a hurricane backup system? Not being nosey. I was just hoping to phase out my MURS backup comms with GMRS' repeater possibilities and that's not panning out like I planned so far.