Citizen

When I knew I would be traveling to the Denver area, rather than contacting each individual repeater owner, I contacted the Denver GMRS club as a non-member, and asked for permission to use the various repeaters around Denver and Co. Springs. Their response was a friendly [paraphrased] "Why don't you just join us? We get lots of requests for travelers (e.g. temporary repeater users) and we encourage them to just join up, which gives you access [tones] to ALL or our repeaters, no permission necessary." So I signed up, and used their repeaters, and talked to the guys there. What a great bunch. They were welcoming, friendly, talked freely, etc., all to a stranger and temporary user of their system. I thanked them publicly, and promised to be back, and so I am retaining my membership with them. I highly encourage responsible local GMRS clubs. ...

What radio are you using? The only 550 repeater that I know of in Houston that is online and not stale, is Memorial Park. It uses a DPL. Join/Log into TexasGMRS.net (it's free) to find the correct DPL (don't reveal tones in open forums like this that can be viewed by the general public, because unlicensed trolls can find them and abuse the repeater). Set your transmit DPL to the correct tone you previously found. Note the "N" or "I", for Normal or Inverted. If not specifically stated, the tone should be Normal. The Memorial Park repeater has great range, but still make sure you are close enough to it (drive to within 5 miles for an initial test if possible). Beware that currently this repeater is experiencing some technical problems (like timing out to soon), but it still does work, as people still do use it. If all else fails, PM/DM me and I will help. I live in the Houston metro area and use the Memorial Park repeater occasionally. Note also that there are other linked repeaters in Houston that you might be able to use, depending on where you are in and around Houston. Good luck. ...

I have one RT76P. It is my go to radio for an HT. I like most things about it. For simple changes, it is super easy to program on the fly right on the radio front panel. This is an advantage over so many other (mobile) radios that have such difficult menus that you must program using software, and complicated HTs that require you to take a copy of the instructions with you. I hate that. And the RT76P seems to take beating, and keeps on ticking like the Energizer bunny. I have used it hiking in the mountains and it performed well with the original antenna. I was able to contact the Front Range Metro (Denver) repeater from Mt. Falcon. (Yes, I was high in the mountains, but still obstructed by trees). Also, I used it locally on the Chatfield (Littleton) repeater with crystal-clear coms both ways (distance unknown, but not high in the mountains). To change from narrow to wide band on any given channel: Press menu once Use arrow keys to find menu item 5 “bandwidth” Press menu again Use arrow keys to select narrow or wide (on mine “wide” is misspelled as “width”) Press menu yet again to SAVE Press PTT once to exit menu (or just let it time-out, approx 5 seconds) That’s it! Yes, for about $40, I think it’s a good choice. Sorry, I don’t know anything about using the RT76P as a repeater, or the Tidradio Bluetooth working with the RT76P. But you really don’t need it, the RT76P software is free from the Retevis site, why not just use it? You will however, need the cable, if you are going to only program from a computer. Good luck. T. ... PS. BIg Thank You to the Front-Range GMRS guys & gals for letting me sign up and use your repeaters, as I was a visitor there (and loved my visit, and just like Arnold, "I'll be back"). : )

The Midland MXT115 has been a useful and reliable radio for me. I own two of them. I very much like the small size, which Midland has coined the term “Micro-Mobile”. It is rugged and seems to be very good quality. The only complaint I’ve heard from other people is that they can’t hear me as well (or as loud) as people using wide-band radios. So Midland has now upgraded the MXT115 (and added 10% to the price). The newer MXT115 is (reportedly) wide-band capable and can do split tones. I’ve considered buying two more of these just for the wide-band capability (I currently have no use for the split tone capability, but may in the future). It’s just such a shame to decommission my two existing radios and I hesitate to do so. There’s just got to be a way to convert the older MXT115’s to be wide-band capable. I know it’s my problem, and cannot expect anyone else to do my work for me. But I don’t know where to begin. Does anybody have any leads on if or how this could be done? Maybe the Chirp guys are working on it already, he said hopefully…. ...

+1 I also have repeater input frequencies programmed in my scanner. With 200 channels available, I struggle to find frequencies to scan, so why not put in the repeater input frequencies as well? Also, if I hear someone on a repeater input frequency, it tells me they are close enough to me that I could talk to them on simplex, possibly even better than using repeater duplex, as the repeater may be 10 or 20+ miles away. If I can hear his repeater input, he's probably within just a few miles from me. ...

If your only need is for camping, you could get by with Midland GXT1000's if you are OK with simplex only, We use them for hiking. Very reliable, crystal clear coms on low power, very simple to use and durable. ...

I retired from a large company that had numerous buildings, some blocks apart from each other. To their credit, they ran a shuttle bus service, sort of like an airport rental car shuttle bus. They were equipped with business band UHF radios. The base and every bus had the roger beep on. Just wait ‘till you find yourself held captive on one of the buses, and all the drivers and base carry on a convo of short, 1-5 word sentences back and forth at near full-volume for about 10-15 minutes! Yeah, that’s right, you’ll get tired of the roger-beep REAL quick. It’s already been said that the radio(s) belong to the owner, and not me, so I know I didn’t have a say in the matter. So I never complained. And I suppose I didn’t have to listen to the conversation either (I could have just gotten off the bus and walked, right?). But it sure would have been nice if the programmer would have shut off the default roger beep on all the radios before mounting in the buses. And it would have been a heck-of-a-nice courtesy if the driver had turned down the radio a few hundred-thousand decibels, as I'm sure I suffered hearing loss. But who am I to say…. ...

I know, old thread, but I'm just now seeing it. I can second what has been said about the Midland GXT1000 radios. Very good quality, durable, reliable, crystal clear TX & RX. True they are not repeater capable, but if you can get past that, they are my choice for simplex operation. We use them car to car, never more than several miles apart, so simplex works well out where there are no repeaters anyway. ...

Well, I found where I read that the AT-779UV should put out 25 watts, at least in VHF (and only 20 on UHF). I knew I wasn't going crazy.... Let me explain: I have two AT-779UV's that I bought separately. Before I got the radio(s), I donwloaded the AT-779UV Instruction manual. On the last page (p9), under Transmitter Power, it shows "VHF: 25/5W, UHF: 20/5W" (see image). That said, and in conflict, the hard-copy instruction booklet for Transmitter Power shows "UHF>18W VHF>20W". I double checked myself to make sure I'm not mistaken. And these are only what the instructions "say", which probably are not accurate. Oh, the CCR instruction manual writers strike again! Unfortunately, I do not (yet) have a power meter to actually measure the two radios myself, so will rely on @OffroaderX's video as stated. ...

Uhm, I believe the correct spelling would be "Geez". ? : )

I have in my notes that the AT-779UV at high power is actually 25 watts. Don't remember where I read that, but it lead me to specifically make a note of it. ...

Wondering how you might do that? AFAIK, the MXT105 does not allow programming. It also does not allow FRS channels 8-14. And, the only power settings are low/high, 1w/5w respectively. ...

I have two of the Anytone radios mentioned (the AT-779uv), they don't have a lock on the mic. Inevitably, I hit a button I don't want to, and that's while driving or stationary sitting at my desk in my shack. Usually it's the up/down buttons on the top, which changes the freq at the most critical time when I just pickup the mic to talk. Hate that. I also get the welding sound in my vehicle when in motion. When stopped, it does ok. My HTs don't have this problem. Other than those two things, the Retevis/Radioddity/Anytone radios seem to be very good for the price for a 25w radio. Back on topic, as the OP posted about the RT98. This seems to be the base radio from which the Midland MXT115 is taken from. I don't have the RT98, but I do have two of the MXT115's, and I get good performance out of them. Main drawback of the MXT115 is it can't be programmed away from GMRS (that I know of), in case you wanted to use it for Ham. Main drawback of the RT98 is that the mic does not appear to be detachable. On both, I like that there are no buttons on the face of the mic. To me, the attractiveness of both these radios is the size, while still putting out 15w. You'll notice they are both smaller than (almost) any other GMRS or Ham radio on the market (except the MXT105, which is a bit smaller, but is GMRS only and is not repeater capable). I have come to highly appreciate the smaller sizes, in both my shack and especially in vehicles. ...

That absolutely clears it up, thanks! I love radio, but while old, I'm still a newbie. T.

Marc, As low UHF frequencies are actually higher than the high VHF frequencies, I don't completely understand why lower UHF would yield better range/results than higher VHF. In no way am I disputing this, as your real world tests prove, I just don't understand it. Do you have any further insight as to why lower UHF yields better results than higher VHF? Thanks, Thomas ...