mbrun

If the antenna performs fine with limited or no cable between the meter and antenna, but not well with a different cable, connectors and adapters then the issue lies with the components being used when the value is poor, not the antenna. Quality of lightning arrestors, adapters, cable connectors and damaged cable are all candidates for being the cause of your change. Make sure connectors are tight, and installed correctly. Try taking SWR readers with different combinations of connectors, adapters, with and without the LA to find out which combination(s) leave you with a low SWR and which ones give you an elevated SWR. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Love the fact that they have that there. Sure makes station compliance verification easy for simple stations. I see that they even has the ability to send yourself the results in an email so you can add that to your station records. Oddly enough I had never seen that one before. I have always use other calculators widely available on the net. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

If you purchase a non-repeater-capable Part 95e transceiver it will come with (22) simplex frequencies you can use. These include: - (7) 462.xxxx interstitial frequencies. (Ch 1-7) - (7) 467.xxxx interstitial frequencies. (Ch 8-14) - (8) 462.xxxx main frequencies. (Ch 15-22) All 22 of these are 100% shared with our license-free FRS simplex only siblings. The (8) 462.xxxxx main frequencies however are also the exact same ones authorized for use as repeater outputs. If you purchase a repeater-capable part 95e HT transceiver your radio will likely come factory programmed with the aforementioned frequencies pre-programmed as channels 1-22. The radio will likely also come factory programmed with 8 repeater pairs, pre-programmed as channels 23-30. Channel 15 and 23 allow you to listen to exactly the same frequency. However, press PTT on channel 15 and you will be transmitting on 462.5500. Press PTT on channel 23 and you will be transmitting on 467.5500 (one of the 467.xxxx main channels). Channel pairs 16/24, 17/25, 18/26, 19/27, 20/28, 21/29, 22/30 are similar. The core difference between a simplex-only and a repeater-capable GMRS transceiver is that the repeater-capable one is capable of and permitted to use (8) additional frequencies, the 467.xxxx main channels, to support use of two different frequencies per channel for communication through a repeater. One for Tx, One for Rx. Bottom line, by design and by rule, the 462.xxxx main channels are the holy-grail of GMRS. They are the frequencies which are allowed to be used with the most power. They are also the frequencies which may be used for radios operating in simplex or duplex (repeater) modes. A review of article “§ 95.1763 GMRS channels” hopefully provides adequate clarification over the permitted use of our treasured frequencies. Hope this helps. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Welcome to myGMRS. First, seven miles distance is very doable, even at low power, if the antennas of both stations are sufficiently elevated and minimum obstructions between them. Every single obstruction between the antenna degrades. In my location, semi-rural SE Cincinnati, 60% Trees, mostly-level to mildly rolling terrain, I can just reach my mobile from the home when home antenna is at 56’ AGL. You YMMV because of obstacles in your area. There are four blocks of frequencies in GMRS as you can see in mack jack’s post. (7) 1/2W simplex, (7) 5W simplex, (8) 50W dual purpose repeater/simplex and (8) 50w repeater only input frequencies. The two groups of 8 are referred to as the GMRS “Main” frequencies in the FCC regs. When and if you really need high-power simplex communication, you use the main frequencies in the 462.xxxx range. You can use any of those frequencies. In my case, my home simplex channel is 462.6500 (19). I use that one because there is not a high-profile active repeater in the area that is using it. And if one showed up, I could merely move to a less active frequency. I have 14 others to choose from. I run 5w normally on simplex for normal comms. Seldom do I need or benefit from more. But I do kick it up to high-power when needed. BTW, I am using a KG-1000G in the home, a Comet 712EFC GMRS antenna, real LMR400 coax and a heavy-duty 46’ push-up fiberglass antenna mast attached to the house. Multiple pictures of it on this forum. Rest easy my friend. Yes, you can operate at 50watts simplex on GMRS if you really do need the power. Regards, Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

You will need to do troubleshooting using the process of elimination technique. If this noise is happening in your home, but does not happen outdoors away from your home, you may find the noise source is inside your home. A computer, TV, wifi router, etc.. You can either turn off all circuits in your house to see it still exists and bring them back one at a time, or turn them off one at a time to see which might cause it and then go from there to narrow it down. After you have found the offender then we can talk about options for elimination. Hope that helps. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Congratulations on the 230 miles! 50 Miles is my personal best on UHF. I agree with others that perhaps tropospheric ducting may have assisted in propagation. It would be nice to know if communications is consistently that good between those two locations or if it varies greatly. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Agreeing that technician license is all that is needed. At Field Day this year we had a amateur member focused on communicating CW with the ISS. He had a nice setup. In consisted of a dual band ICOM radio, a homemade circular polarized Yagi mounted on top of heavy duty camera stand. Club members took turns (including myself) tracking the ISS across the sky while using a satellite tracking app on an android. There was loads of traffic to be heard. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I will through in my two cents on this one. I too own the 771G and take no issues with it. But admittedly I have stopped using it as I have reported before. The reason being is its size. I did do some on-air comparisons between my radio’s stock antenna back-to-back after I received it and perceived an increase in range of perhaps 5-10%. What this translates too ultimately is that if you are on the absolute fringe of another radio having it may make the difference between whether you hear only noise or just barely hear audio, and the same for others listening to you. If you are not on the fringe you and others may not notice any difference whatsoever. While I am glad to have it as a backup/spare, for an everyday carry user the performance increase does not adequately offset the inconvenience of the longer whip where an how I use it. YMMV. The point being, don’t expect night-and-day performance differences. Get one, but expect relatively minor, just barely noticeable differences only when in the fringe area of another radio. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

There is a 700 repeater in Dayton that I would speculate you could hit. It is owned by the same person as the Cincinnati 700. Both require a phone call and permission to use. I can communicate through both from my home SE of Cincinnati. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I was able to get into the Cincinnati 700 from a 5 w HT and mobile antenna from just north of Middletown’s Hook airport. I could open the repeater with just the HT and rubber duck, but not sufficiently to hold a conversation. When I switched to the mobile antenna it was sufficient for conversation. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Funny that you ask that question. Last fall I did some subjective comparisons of 4 antennas set up in my driveway. All antennas merely secured to poles attached atop a 6-foot step-ladder, with the middle of each antenna somewhere around 12-14 feet AGL. I then communicated through a repeater for which I am known to be on the fringe. The antennas compared included an Ed-Fong GMRS roll-up, a self-made GMRS 1/4-wave ground plane, a Midland mobile antenna and a Comet 712. I had zero problem hearing the repeater which always (and to this day) constantly varies from near full-quieting to occasional complete loss of signal. The persons on the repeater definitely said that they had a consistently lower-noise signal (closer to full quieting) when I used the Comet and found it difficult to reliably tell any difference between the other antennas because the noise as pretty consistent between them. So while this was purely subjective, it did at least affirm that the high-gain Comet improved signal to the repeater in a perceptible way. Given that I used the roll-up with some success hanging from a ceiling hook for nearly a year, the antenna will remain in my arsenal for use out the garage, on camping trips, and as a backup. Regards. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

While I agree with 236’s post on how characteristic impedance is calculated, what is most import to you is what effect that pinch is having on you in your situation. If you can find a way to eliminate it then I advise doing so. But you may not be in imminent danger. If you have an SWR meter or NanoVNA, measure the effective SWR. If the numbers you get are within acceptable range you can use what you have until you can find a better solution. I will let those that do mobile installs offer further input how you might improve your installation. Regards Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

While I don’t use a 70cm antenna for use on GMRS, I know from posts on this forum that some do. Technically you can transmit into any antenna designed for any band, but how long your radio will last doing so is a complete unknown. If your 70cm antenna has a sufficiently wide bandwidth as to present an SWR that is acceptable to you (and your radio) you can use it. An SWR of 2.0:1 or less is acceptable in many circles, including mine. Even some GMRS antenna manufacturers state their SWR is A wise thing one can do when transmitting into an antenna with a higher-than-optimum SWR is to back the Tx power down. Doing so reduces the actual amount of reflected power to an amount that lessens the probability of radio damage. I just now re-measured the Comet high-gain dual band antenna I use for amateur work and its SWR ranged from 1.6:1 in the 462.xxxx band to a high of 2.3:1 in the 467.xxx band. Your mileage may very. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Absolutely. On the KG-905G you have 256 memories. You can use the same repeater frequencies over and over and any combination of tones and power settings. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Agreed. I have looked at this way. If one has visitors, or is camping or on some other outing together the licensee can lend out their stations to any of these family members and they can operate under their license. If they bring their own, own their own, or go back home they operate under their own license. Not sure I would want someone 50 or 2000 miles away operating under my license, family or not. I am not in control of my station equipment. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Welcome to myGMRS. There is no way to know for certain what will work in your case without trying it. Anything other then that is speculation. What I can tell you for certain is that if your antenna and the repeater antenna can see one another (e.g. no obstacles at all between them) 5 watts will likely get you more than 50 miles. If there are any obstacles between them they distance will be reduced commensurate with the degree and placement of obstacles. Case in point. I have a repeater 50 miles due north of me. There are very few obstacles between me and the repeater antenna. I can hear the repeater well on my HT at all times and I can open it at times from my HT. However with the HT and rubber duck I cannot hold a conversation. Signal is enough to open it, but audio is so low that only on rare occasions can I be understood. On the other hand, if I hook that same HT up to my base antenna, 5-watts is enough to hold on a conversation with minimal noise. I own and have used the roll-up J-Pole antennas too. They are much better than a rubber duck on the HT. They are not as effective as a high-gain base antenna placed 40’ or more in the air. I recommend starting with a base antenna and hooking it up to your HT radio to see what you can achieve first at low elevations. Then raise it higher as necessary to suit your range needs. Hope that helps. Again, Welcome. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Good Day Droopy. Welcome to myGMRS. Admiral Cochrane pretty much summed it up for you. No, there isn’t any special lingo in GMRS. Just much more decorum, respect and order on the airwaves than the legacy CB service. Repeaters are the key feature that really makes GMRS special compared to its licensed-by-rule low-power sibling, FRS. Repeaters on the service however are private property. You may use them with the permission of the owner only. Just because a repeater is listed on this site or another does not mean you may use it unless the owner specifically indicates it is an open repeater free for all to use. The easiest way to gain permission is to submit a request to the owner through this site using the mechanism provided. Some owners may want a phone call from you, and if they do it will either say so in the listing or they may tell you so in your permission request. Respect them. It is there personal investment in the service that makes this service special. GMRS operation is pretty much a local line-of-site communication service. Raising your antenna will nearly always translate into greater distance than adding power. Use simplex communication where you can and then use the repeaters when you truly need the range. There seem to be a lot of amateur radios operators that are also licensed GMRSrs. In many regards this is a good thing because the decorum they learn in the amateur service rubs off on the rest of the GMRS community. I find that refreshing. Keep it civil. Don’t hog the airwaves. Try to keep individual transmissions short. Leave 3-5 seconds between transmissions to give time for repeaters to drop out and time for others to announce their presence. When you want to announce your presence on the airwaves so others know you are now online and available for communications, simply give your call sign followed by “Listening” or “monitoring” or “In the mobile” or “on the handheld”. If you are looking for another licensee on the air waves, announce their callsign followed by “this is [your callsign]” or something similar. Transmit it 2-4 times if necessary to catch their attention if they are monitoring. In GMRS, some areas hold weekly Nets using a repeater on regular days and times. These are used to bring the community together, learn about others, talk about shared interest topics and do radio training. Cincinnati holds one every Sunday night that draws a pretty good crowd. (Side note: A young father is teaching radio and radio etiquette to his 10 year old, and his ten year old ran the net a couple of months ago. What a responsible father.) Enough for now. Again, Welcome! Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Good Day MichaelLAX, Some GMRS radios have a ‘Talk-Around’ feature which affords the ability to conveniently flip from duplex repeater operation to simplex operation using the same main channel the repeater is Tx on. Some GMRS may also have a reverse function as well which is a great feature for identifying if someone you are listening to is within simplex range, same as many amateur radio. None of my current part 95e radios feature the latter (at present), so I have reverted to programming the repeater input frequencies as Rx only channels on all my radios. Each is programmed in a channel nearby the repeater channel in my channel roll so it is reasonably easy to access. If I encounter someone within simplex range, I can use the talk-around feature to hold a direct conversation with them and they can do the same with me. In each case, any two-way conversation is happening on the 462.xxxx simplex frequency, this leaving the repeater free for its intended purpose. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Good Day Roadrunner. A GMRS antenna is no more a magnet for lightening than a tree, television antenna, or utility pole. However, any antenna outdoor and exterior feed-line that is not properly grounded puts your radio equipment unnecessarily at high risk. The odds of your antenna taking a direct hit is statistically very low. If ever it does take a direct hit then your antenna, feed-line and radio will be destroyed no matter how well your stuff is grounded. On the flip side, static build-up from wind and spikes from near-by lightening strikes are the most likely ones to take out your equipment. However with proper grounding the odds of damage to your internal equipment becomes incredibly low. Through an abundance of caution some folks do disconnect there radio equipment from the feed-line during storms. I admit that I do during major electrical storms and when leaving town. For me it is easy to do so I do. All that said I have a TV connected to an outdoor antenna that has been properly grounded for 20 years. Trees 30 yards away have taken direct hits many times yet my TV has never been affected. I attribute this to surge-suppression on the incoming power line and property grounding of the antenna and feed-line before it enters the home. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Welcome to the forum. Lots to learn hear and a lot of folks at various experience levels are here to help. Enjoy. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I just wanted to add to the conversation a little nugget. We talk about the need for type certified radios and what that means for manufacturers. Some figure that if a manufacturer allows, through official software or other means, a radio to do something outside its certification then that’s ok. What is not talked about is one’s obligation, per the rules, as a GMRS licensee. This obligation is to operate fully within the rules. Much like an amateur license where the burden is placed on the amateur to make user they operate with power and frequency limits, so too does the GMRS licensee assume a similar burden. If the FCC were to get pissy, and decided to make an example of someone, they could not only go after a manufacturer for some form of non-compliance, but also licensee for knowingly using hardware in a manner inconsistent with the rules. Even something as simple as operating at more then 1/2w ERP on the 467 interstitials, operating simplex on 467 main channels, or using a non-certified radio in GMRS. While some might argue “the manufacturer’s product allowed me to do it” so it must be ok. But ultimately responsibility exists on both sides. The licensee agreed to the rules when then they applied for and where granted their license. Just like the FCC appears to be unwilling and powerless to go after the manufacturers for skirting the rules, so too are they not likely to come down on the user. My point being, licensee responsibility is equally as important as manufacturer responsibility. Worth mentioning. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I agree with jwilkers. There are no FCC regulations on specific frequency usage within the ham bands. Specific usage of frequencies is governed by national, regional and local band-plan agreements. Use of a frequency outside the agreement may result in local hams on your back, but there is nothing the FCC can or will do about it. Amateur radio is self-policing up until you cause interference outside the amateur bands. GMRS on the other hand is regulated. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I sounds like cost is a top concern. Assuming you want to operate with FCC Rule boundaries, then the least expensive purpose-built repeater is the GMRS version of the Retevis RT-97. Then for new repeater capable handhelds you have low-cost repeater capable choices from Wouxun, BaoFeng, Retivis. If you want to roll your own repeater from new hardware, Wouxun offers the KG-1000G. Two of these mobile units, a duplexer, a few front panel settings changes and you have repeater. I use the Wouxun KG-805G and 905G HTs. Both are type certified, feature ample fully-programmability memories (128-256), are repeater capable, have wide and narrow bandwidth support, feature split tone capability (including custom tones), and have performed exceptionally well in my semi-rural environment. Both work better than bubble pack radios. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Repeaters are not permitted to transmit on 467.xxxx frequencies per 95.1763 © 467 MHz main channels. Only mobile, hand-held portable, control and fixed stations may transmit on these 8 channels. Mobile, hand-held portable and control stations may transmit on these channels only when communicating through a repeater station or making brief test transmissions in accordance with § 95.319©. The channel center frequencies are: 467.5500, 467.5750, 467.6000, 467.6250, 467.6500, 467.6750, 467.7000, and 467.7250 MHz. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Good Day Michael, I think you are hung up on the bending the term “Fixed Station” to our lay definition of it. I get it. I wrestled it as well for a long time also. We are playing with a term that has a steep legal meaning and tradition. While you may have a station at your home that never moves (i.e. is fixed), and you intend to use it communicate always and forever with only one other person that has a station at their home that too intends to use it to always and forever talk only to you, I do not believe it is likely to happen and do believe this meets the FCC’s legal definition and intent of an FCC fixed station. Of course, I am not a lawyer. Given how much manufacturers like to push legal limits, I think it is fair to say if any manufacturer could even remotely conclude that simplex communication on the 467 main channels was legal they would certainly have them already programmed into hardware so they could sell them as 38 channel radios instead of 22 or 30 that they do now. No matter how you slice and dice it, what makes GMRS special is the fact that it allows and supports repeaters. If people start operating simplex using repeater input frequencies the repeaters will loose their effectiveness do to all the interference. Once that happens you are back to bubble wrap radio performance in the service. Respectfully, Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM