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.
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You are not allowed to enjoy a GMRS communication; those are limited to FRS ?

Scanners can monitor the repeater input freq just as easy. I have repeater input freq programmed on my radio for RX as I can then scan for the tone/dsc for that repeater input as well.

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

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.
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This is a very good thread, and well worth our time, so I'll add my comments.
There has been for some time now something called the 3-3-3 Plan, which in an emergency situation, everyone who agrees adheres to.  Basically it advocates turning on your emergency radio for 3 minutes, every three hours, on channel-3.  More info can be found here: https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/3-3-3-radio-plan-for-shtf-communications/
It's a more detailed read, so here is an excerpt of the best benefits of the plan:
1. Easy for everyone to remember the “Rule of Three”.
2. Conserves precious battery life for walkie talkies.
3. Gets everyone on the air at the same time.
4. Sets a schedule of 8 times per day to call each other.
5. Avoids impractical hourly schedules that can be a burden in real-life scenarios.
6. Enables the use of short transmissions for optimum success and security.
7. Three hours between contacts is enough time to rest in a survival situation.
8. A person can walk 8 miles in 3 hours, the practical distance limit of handheld radios over average terrain.
9. 3-3-3 is fully interoperable and compatible with the alternative 3-2-1 plan.
"Channel 3 is CB-3, FRS-3, or MURS-3.  CB, FRS, and MURS are the most common types of radios used by survivalists and preppers."  FRS-3 is the same frequency as GMRS-3, so is available on GMRS radios.  Could also include Marine-3.  The site also mentions Ham national call freqs, since Ham doesn't have channel numbers. 
In summary, I think there is no need for us to reinvent the wheel trying to decide to use FRS-1, or GRMS-19 or 20, or CB-19, or whatever.  If everyone agreed to the 3-3-3 plan, there would no need for all the back-and-forth discussion about what to do on what service and on what channel.  Agreeing to this 3-3-3 emergency plan does not negate, promote or interfere with the GMRS channel 19 or 20 travel channel debate, IMO.
Thomas
...

This is a very good thread, and well worth our time, so I'll add my comments.
There has been for some time now something called the 3-3-3 Plan, which in an emergency situation, everyone who agrees adheres to.  Basically it advocates turning on your emergency radio for 3 minutes, every three hours, on channel-3.  More info can be found here: https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/3-3-3-radio-plan-for-shtf-communications/
It's a more detailed read, so here is an excerpt of the best benefits of the plan:
1. Easy for everyone to remember the “Rule of Three”.
2. Conserves precious battery life for walkie talkies.
3. Gets everyone on the air at the same time.
4. Sets a schedule of 8 times per day to call each other.
5. Avoids impractical hourly schedules that can be a burden in real-life scenarios.
6. Enables the use of short transmissions for optimum success and security.
7. Three hours between contacts is enough time to rest in a survival situation.
8. A person can walk 8 miles in 3 hours, the practical distance limit of handheld radios over average terrain.
9. 3-3-3 is fully interoperable and compatible with the alternative 3-2-1 plan.
"Channel 3 is CB-3, FRS-3, or MURS-3.  CB, FRS, and MURS are the most common types of radios used by survivalists and preppers."  FRS-3 is the same frequency as GMRS-3, so is available on GMRS radios.  Could also include Marine-3.  The site also mentions Ham national call freqs, since Ham doesn't have channel numbers. 
In summary, I think there is no need for us to reinvent the wheel trying to decide to use FRS-1, or GRMS-19 or 20, or CB-19, or whatever.  If everyone agreed to the 3-3-3 plan, there would no need for all the back-and-forth discussion about what to do on what service and on what channel.  Agreeing to this 3-3-3 emergency plan does not negate, promote or interfere with the GMRS channel 19 or 20 travel channel debate, IMO.
Thomas
...

This is a very good thread, and well worth our time, so I'll add my comments.
There has been for some time now something called the 3-3-3 Plan, which in an emergency situation, everyone who agrees adheres to.  Basically it advocates turning on your emergency radio for 3 minutes, every three hours, on channel-3.  More info can be found here: https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/3-3-3-radio-plan-for-shtf-communications/
It's a more detailed read, so here is an excerpt of the best benefits of the plan:
1. Easy for everyone to remember the “Rule of Three”.
2. Conserves precious battery life for walkie talkies.
3. Gets everyone on the air at the same time.
4. Sets a schedule of 8 times per day to call each other.
5. Avoids impractical hourly schedules that can be a burden in real-life scenarios.
6. Enables the use of short transmissions for optimum success and security.
7. Three hours between contacts is enough time to rest in a survival situation.
8. A person can walk 8 miles in 3 hours, the practical distance limit of handheld radios over average terrain.
9. 3-3-3 is fully interoperable and compatible with the alternative 3-2-1 plan.
"Channel 3 is CB-3, FRS-3, or MURS-3.  CB, FRS, and MURS are the most common types of radios used by survivalists and preppers."  FRS-3 is the same frequency as GMRS-3, so is available on GMRS radios.  Could also include Marine-3.  The site also mentions Ham national call freqs, since Ham doesn't have channel numbers. 
In summary, I think there is no need for us to reinvent the wheel trying to decide to use FRS-1, or GRMS-19 or 20, or CB-19, or whatever.  If everyone agreed to the 3-3-3 plan, there would no need for all the back-and-forth discussion about what to do on what service and on what channel.  Agreeing to this 3-3-3 emergency plan does not negate, promote or interfere with the GMRS channel 19 or 20 travel channel debate, IMO.
Thomas
...

This is a very good thread, and well worth our time, so I'll add my comments.
There has been for some time now something called the 3-3-3 Plan, which in an emergency situation, everyone who agrees adheres to.  Basically it advocates turning on your emergency radio for 3 minutes, every three hours, on channel-3.  More info can be found here: https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/3-3-3-radio-plan-for-shtf-communications/
It's a more detailed read, so here is an excerpt of the best benefits of the plan:
1. Easy for everyone to remember the “Rule of Three”.
2. Conserves precious battery life for walkie talkies.
3. Gets everyone on the air at the same time.
4. Sets a schedule of 8 times per day to call each other.
5. Avoids impractical hourly schedules that can be a burden in real-life scenarios.
6. Enables the use of short transmissions for optimum success and security.
7. Three hours between contacts is enough time to rest in a survival situation.
8. A person can walk 8 miles in 3 hours, the practical distance limit of handheld radios over average terrain.
9. 3-3-3 is fully interoperable and compatible with the alternative 3-2-1 plan.
"Channel 3 is CB-3, FRS-3, or MURS-3.  CB, FRS, and MURS are the most common types of radios used by survivalists and preppers."  FRS-3 is the same frequency as GMRS-3, so is available on GMRS radios.  Could also include Marine-3.  The site also mentions Ham national call freqs, since Ham doesn't have channel numbers. 
In summary, I think there is no need for us to reinvent the wheel trying to decide to use FRS-1, or GRMS-19 or 20, or CB-19, or whatever.  If everyone agreed to the 3-3-3 plan, there would no need for all the back-and-forth discussion about what to do on what service and on what channel.  Agreeing to this 3-3-3 emergency plan does not negate, promote or interfere with the GMRS channel 19 or 20 travel channel debate, IMO.
Thomas
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As this is a GMRS forum, some readers here who are not Hams may not know, so just to clarify:  446.000 mHz is designated as the national call frequency for UHF (for VHF it's 146.520 mHz).
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Thank you for the welcome and the kind words.  Life has been very busy for me at work and at home.  I dropped out of GMRS and amateur radio for some time.  I am just now getting some relief at work and at home, so I am getting back into it!

WELCOME BACK! ?
I have read many of your well thought out posts and wondered where you went...

As this is a GMRS forum, some readers here who are not Hams may not know, so just to clarify:  446.000 mHz is designated as the national call frequency for UHF (for VHF it's 146.520 mHz).
...

I absolutely hate buttons on the mic (other that PTT of course).  You don’t need it.  Here’s my observations, sorry if this steps on some toes.
1- Base or mobile, inevitably I hit one of the buttons that changes the radio, usually it’s the channel up/down button, and I lose the conversation temporarily.  Very frustrating!  So I have to employ the keypad lock (if available), which also means I have to deactivate it when I DO want to make a change.
2. Very unsafe while driving.  Takes two hands, which takes both hands off the steering wheel.  Now there are those that will say I should be able to do it with one hand, and I can, using my thumb and some dexterity, but with difficulty and while looking at it.  So it forces me to take my eyes off the road to look at the mic.  Very dangerous!  Of course one can say the same applies when using buttons/knobs on the radio face plate.  But I can glance down only for 1 second to find the radio and put my hand on it, and do the rest by feel while watching the road.
When I first got into GMRS, I was very annoyed that probably 98%+ of the radios have keypads on the mic.  So I get it, that’s what the customer wants.  But I’m in the 2% that don’t want it.  One of the few GMRS radios I could find without a keypad on the mic was the low power/simplex Midland MXT100/105, and I have a couple of those.  I like placing them in family cars (other than my own) because it reduces the chances of non-radio-savvy family drivers from messing up the radio accidentally.  But for my own personal, non-family use, I was forced to buy several other radios as well to be able to use repeaters and have more power output. 
Thus, I have a couple of Anytone AT-779UV’s and MXT115’s, and they are very good mobile radios due to size, but I wish they didn’t have a keypad on the mic (I normally pre-program new radios on my computer before installation in a vehicle, so don't need it in the car).
Now for full disclosure, I DO have a Retevis RT76P which does have a keypad, and I very much like that radio for a number or reasons.  But it is an HT, so whenever I use it, I’m either sitting in my chair at home, or hiking, and in both cases I have both hands available and there is no danger from distracted driving.
Just my 2 cents.
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I was referring to Windows 10... I love XP...  Vista was a blunder of its time. but compared to Win10... its a success... nothing comes close to how much the management idiots at M$$ destroyed a perfectly good workflow, that worked great for nearly 30 years...  Win7 is the end of the line for me. I still run XP on a lot of my older machines. 
 
G.

Welcome to myGMRS.

Sorry to hear of your disappointment. Been there, done that. The misleading advertising of cheap radio brands is IMHO mostly to blame for the public’s unrealistic expectations of simplex radio range. In the real-world, range is a very tiny fraction of what the manufacturers assert. In my 20 years of experience with UHF, 1/2 mile HT-HT simplex range outdoors has become my only realistic expectation of coverage. Why? Because I have not yet experience less than that outdoors. It has always been that distance or more. I always hope for more depending local conditions.

I live about 20 miles SE of Cincinnati in an area where the RF noise floor is very low. When I tested range (reported on this forum) between Wouxun (KG-805G) radios and Part 90 radios (motorola and vertex ) there was no notable difference in usable range. .6 miles is all I could achieve reliably in my around-home test. Beyond that it was rapidly downhill, with hit and mis communications out to about 1-1/2 miles. Radios ranged in MSRP price from $30 each to $750. Terrain was mostly flat to slightly rolling, 60% trees, houses every 1-5 acres and some small fields.

Those same 805G radios have achieved HT-HT simplex coverage out to 2-1/2 +/- miles under more open outdoor terrain (fewer obstacles) conditions. Also, when connected to the base antenna above my home, the 805G has on a number of occasions communicated successfully through a repeater 50 miles to my north and whose antenna is many 100s of feet higher in elevation than mine. They have achieved 34 miles through select repeaters while using a mobile antenna on my vehicle, but can’t open a low-profile home-owner repeater beyond 1 mile.

So, my first takeaway from all this is that the more the obstacles between the radio antennas the less the usable distance. The higher the antenna, the fewer the obstacles, the greater the range.

My second take away is this. There is little to no difference in usable range between the inexpensive radios and the more expensive radios when both are used in a low RF noise environment. In my case, purchasing more expensive radios for use where I live would not yield me any more usable range. If I purchased them it would be for other reasons.

My third takeaway. If I were to move closer to the city or into an area with notably higher RF background noise, like perhaps where you live, I would expect my range to be reduced, perhaps even dramatically, and that to improve on that I would likely need to purchase radios with substantially more selective receivers. But even then, I would not be able to better the range I can achieve in a low noise environment. Only fewer obstacles and higher antenna elevation would help with this.

Some things for you to consider.

1) Put a base radio in your home complete with an external antenna as high as you practically can afford to. Rely on that station for communication between home and your HTs while on foot in the neighborhood.
2) Purchase higher-quality radios if you are able to conclude that your range is truly being limited by off-channel RF noise and not obstacles. Some well seasoned local hams who own spectrum analyzers or other technical radio professionals could help you with this. Contact a local ham club for recommendations.
3) Consider putting up a repeater that is much closer to your home if you or a group of friends have access to a very high antenna location and could afford the capital and operating expense. If the closest repeater is truly to far away for your local use, having one that is within range could be an asset for you and the community. Height is everything.

Good luck on your journey.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

Assuming the meter is working correctly, and installed in circuit correctly then there is a problem with your antenna system (feed-line, adapters and antenna). Now begins the process of elimination. You may wish to try your measurements again using the shortest possible cable length and different adapters as you have them available to see if results change.

I am not a fan of cut-by-chart trimming of antennas. When an antenna is known to be long for its intended purpose, I prefer to trim a little and measure, then repeat as necessary so as to sneak up on the target value. Doing so helps you know where you are getting close (because SWR gets better with each snip) but also when you have gone too far (because SWR starts to rise). Be aware that at high frequencies, minute length changes can cause big changes.

It is possible that you may already snipped it too much, but also that you have not snipped it enough. Further, If you are testing using repeater input frequencies (467 MHz range) and the antenna is actually tuned for 462 MHz range, then the 467 numbers will appear higher than the 462 numbers.

Snipping of course should only be done on a basic antenna, or one that is, by design, intended for sniping and/or you have advanced knowledge antenna designs. I don’t own your specific antenna, so I cannot cannot from experience comment if it is designed for cutting or not.

For what is is worth, there no such thing as an SWR of less than 1. The first number is always 1 or greater, and the second number is always 1. Collectively they would appear as follows: 1.5:1, 1:1, 1.15:1, 4.7:1, etc. So .8:1, 0.5:1, 1.25:2 are all examples of invalid SWR values.

Hope there is a little nugget of assistance in there.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

Michael (and OffRoaderX), I salute you for your generous donations...  This forum is filled with people like you and others who have helped me in the past, and others, and it is greatly appreciated.
(I was going to send kudos to you via PM, but then decided a salute needs to be public).
Thomas
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You make a very good point and I appreciate saying it. How I interpret what you are saying is “with freedom and rights comes even bigger responsibility”.

Thanks to you and all your fellow high profile repeater owners for sharing with the community.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

Michael (and OffRoaderX), I salute you for your generous donations...  This forum is filled with people like you and others who have helped me in the past, and others, and it is greatly appreciated.
(I was going to send kudos to you via PM, but then decided a salute needs to be public).
Thomas
...

A box will be heading your way next week Lou..

Lou:
A box is going out to UPS today with the following:
Baofeng UV-5R5
Baofeng BF-888S
Baofeng BF-T1 and specialized programming cable (USB to USB-micro)
All have been pre-programmed to your 4 repeater channels, two simplex channels and the remainder filled to the other GMRS/FRS channels as space remains.
I did my due diligence and this is a tax deductible 501(c)(3) organization helping out the homeless of Atlantic City and I strongly encourage others here on myGMRS to donate their unused HTs to them (or a local homeless organization that is utilizing GMRS):
https://www.havenstreets.org

boxcar and mbrun, thanks much for those very clear and understandable answers.  Michael, I have a better understanding now about my scanner antenna and why it is good for some, but not all frequencies, and boxcar, I don't think I'll be using it for TX on any radio. 
Thanks again!  Love myGRMS and how people on here are willing to share knowledge!
: )

pcradio, thank you very much.  I did as you suggested: contacted Retevis and they responded with links to the firmware update.  I followed the directions and it worked, as I can now go above channel 30 with the keypad arrows or the dial.  I have not yet tested TX & RX (wanted to come online & give you an update right away).
Just another note:  I did not see two channel 30's, but notice there are two channel 36's, and NO channel 37 (I'm assuming the 2nd ch 36 is actually ch 37--will test that).
Thank you again!
Thomas

Reporting back...
Retevis responded asking for my order information so they could report to their after-sales service support.  I replied accordingly and will await another response.
In the mean time, I did test TX on 2m & 70cm Ham on the borrowed FRS channels.  As reported, RX works great, but no TX.
...