jnr0104

Daniel, I see you are in Corpus, at present time only 1 repeater in the whole place, and it is not operational yet, out in Flour Bluff,  when it is online, it May orMayNot coverwhere you live just looking at google maps. First of all, in Corpus there are probably Not going to be many gmrs repeaters up on commercial towers,,So ur HT, is not gonna do a very good job like one will do with amateur radio , with tall towers and 100 watt repeaters. most of the repeaters within 45 miles of you to are 10 watt(5-6watts after duplexer) Retevis RT97 repeaters, with antennas  avg height of 30 ft on pushup poles( american tower company owns nearly all the big towers in the rural areas , and they dont want gmrs ot ham on their stuff( I know because I have one of them on my ranch).They still are goid repeaters, we are getting 15-25 mildes coverage with them( we are located in Refugio, Aransas, and San Patricio Counties, 6 repeaters scattered around up here.)  So  plan on getting a 40 -50 watt mobile radio, either for vehicle,with a midland 6db magnet mount antenna on the center of your roof, or if your lucky enough to live in a house with NO HOA gestapo,a 50 watt radio, a power supply, 50 or so ft of lmr400 coax, a 40 ft pushup pole , good to 30 ft without guying it if attached to eve of house, and a Good gmrs base antenna, i suggest a comet CA712EFC.  Now for the bad news. With either of those setups, you may be able to get into the new flour bluff repeater, its antenna will be at 50 ft I believe, but it is one of the low power repeaters.And its owner id am a ateur radio guy brand new to GMRS, and he will have the same learning curve that the rest of us did getting things Just right to squeeze all the distance he can outta a low power system. That said, Chances are slim that you will be able to hit any of the other repeaters ( possibly Ingleside from certain areas of CC), But you still have simplex going for you.  Over 110 folks in CC show to be licensed, all u gotta do is find some of em.  If you come North of Portland you have much better chance of contacting some of our repeaters oreven catch some of the group on simplex (just about everyday 0500 to 0900 on the Bayside, or ingleside repeaters, and monitor ch19 simplex no tones, and ch 16 simplex no tones.  We try to monitor bayside all day.Look up the repeaters in our area, on mygmrs hit the permission button, and you will get a response.
If you are an amateur operator several of us monitor 146.500 simplex. We can answer questions you may have . Good luck!
WQRJ814/ KF5WTB
 
 

Daniel, I see you are in Corpus, at present time only 1 repeater in the whole place, and it is not operational yet, out in Flour Bluff,  when it is online, it May orMayNot coverwhere you live just looking at google maps. First of all, in Corpus there are probably Not going to be many gmrs repeaters up on commercial towers,,So ur HT, is not gonna do a very good job like one will do with amateur radio , with tall towers and 100 watt repeaters. most of the repeaters within 45 miles of you to are 10 watt(5-6watts after duplexer) Retevis RT97 repeaters, with antennas  avg height of 30 ft on pushup poles( american tower company owns nearly all the big towers in the rural areas , and they dont want gmrs ot ham on their stuff( I know because I have one of them on my ranch).They still are goid repeaters, we are getting 15-25 mildes coverage with them( we are located in Refugio, Aransas, and San Patricio Counties, 6 repeaters scattered around up here.)  So  plan on getting a 40 -50 watt mobile radio, either for vehicle,with a midland 6db magnet mount antenna on the center of your roof, or if your lucky enough to live in a house with NO HOA gestapo,a 50 watt radio, a power supply, 50 or so ft of lmr400 coax, a 40 ft pushup pole , good to 30 ft without guying it if attached to eve of house, and a Good gmrs base antenna, i suggest a comet CA712EFC.  Now for the bad news. With either of those setups, you may be able to get into the new flour bluff repeater, its antenna will be at 50 ft I believe, but it is one of the low power repeaters.And its owner id am a ateur radio guy brand new to GMRS, and he will have the same learning curve that the rest of us did getting things Just right to squeeze all the distance he can outta a low power system. That said, Chances are slim that you will be able to hit any of the other repeaters ( possibly Ingleside from certain areas of CC), But you still have simplex going for you.  Over 110 folks in CC show to be licensed, all u gotta do is find some of em.  If you come North of Portland you have much better chance of contacting some of our repeaters oreven catch some of the group on simplex (just about everyday 0500 to 0900 on the Bayside, or ingleside repeaters, and monitor ch19 simplex no tones, and ch 16 simplex no tones.  We try to monitor bayside all day.Look up the repeaters in our area, on mygmrs hit the permission button, and you will get a response.
If you are an amateur operator several of us monitor 146.500 simplex. We can answer questions you may have . Good luck!
WQRJ814/ KF5WTB
 
 

Another "Expert"....and you guys think I make this stuff up.. I didnt even mention that he only has a ham callsign..

2nd the RT-97.. Its portable, light, small, rugged, and it works great

This is a very good use for the Retevis RT-97, which is an all in one repeater and duplexer. Add an antenna and cable and you have a small low power repeater. 

No and it adds no privacy either.

Thank you for not HiJakkin me..
Easy answer:  By making decent (not the best) radios and selling them for low-dollars..
And they can do this because of no unions, less/no environmental restrictions, government subsidies ENCOURAGING manufacturing, no/few child labor regulations, etc.. Basically the opposite of what you find in the U.S.

All this country can make is Debt!!!

I dont usually like to post videos here, but I have been so inspired by several of the "experts" in this forum complaining that we should not be using radios made in China that I put together a list of all the American Made radios AND I vow to purchase each one of these American made radios and do a full review of them in the next 30 days..  Thank you to "some people" that opened my eyes about not purchasing radios that are not made in America.
 

"Amateur Radio and GMRS can coexist"

but... but... but... it's the internet.  I'm pretty sure its mandatory.  LOL

In our area of texas 99.9% of people causing problems are construction crews, crain operating crews etc, we have found if we go over to the simplex channel they are illegally operating on and ask if their supervisor is availble, then explain the 2017 rule changes etc, they have moved off to an frs channel where they dont need a license , and we dont hear them on the repeaters anymore. So far all have been good folks

In our area of texas 99.9% of people causing problems are construction crews, crain operating crews etc, we have found if we go over to the simplex channel they are illegally operating on and ask if their supervisor is availble, then explain the 2017 rule changes etc, they have moved off to an frs channel where they dont need a license , and we dont hear them on the repeaters anymore. So far all have been good folks

Good, that is a great idea , since we suggested ch19 for On Road travel!

And you base this on... A guess?  Anyway, you would be guessing wrong as I have tested the MXT400, MXT500, MXT275 and MXT575 on narrow/wideband. I dont have a fancy deviant meter - the difference can easily be heard with a regular human ear.

..Like I said...

Just remember, that as predicted in the proclamation video, "some people" will always and forever spew reasons why Ch19 (any channel, actually) is not "the right choice", and will argue about it as they have for years, accomplishing nothing.. Those people are not invited to join with the rest of us normal people on Ch19..  They can go talk to themselves on some other channel..
 
My name is Queen Randy and I approve this message.

Pretty sure you can just link your repeaters together but then you can also link into the myGMRS Network when you want.
 
I see a few repeater networks on the myGMRS Network map that don't routinely link into the regional hubs.
 
There are three nodes in Minnesota that are all linked. I link into them from time to time as well.

$400.00 But You DO get an NMO magnet mount with an antenna that does a good job if you have a  good ground plain, and if youwant a different antenna , unscrew the shorty and add a different NMO antenna to the mag mount.
My MXT500 arrives this Friday , looking forward to trying it out in my Jeep.
The image, was an answer in the questions on the Midland MXT500 page, looks like they are getting really serious on becoming the goto brand for GMRS!

$400.00 But You DO get an NMO magnet mount with an antenna that does a good job if you have a  good ground plain, and if youwant a different antenna , unscrew the shorty and add a different NMO antenna to the mag mount.
My MXT500 arrives this Friday , looking forward to trying it out in my Jeep.
The image, was an answer in the questions on the Midland MXT500 page, looks like they are getting really serious on becoming the goto brand for GMRS!

I'll give them credit for finally including a proper mount (outside of the additional $$ bundles). That response is also an interesting development. Given their current focus on novice users, almost to the expense of features, I'll stay very cautiously optimistic...it IS nice to see they've finally made some progress in features though.
Rt97 competitor on the horizon?

Oh.. shit.
As it turns out, a AM as stupid as everyone says.  It is also entire possible that I have had too much NyQuil ..
Carry on.

No worries. I think with some of the shenanigans that happened in this form, it's understandable to question what I wrote. 
LoL 

I have been gone from the forum for sometime... came back today to see what the chatter was about this.  I ordered the 500 and it's expected to be here is a few days.
 
I was glad to read that some of you got the programing tools for the 400.  I'm sure that makes life a lot better for those who need the advanced features.
 
I'll probably start my own thread to discuss 500, once its here and setup.  I'm going to bench test it before it goes in the Jeep.
 
Glad you all kept this thread going.  It's a good read.

I've always wondered, if something is "improved," how can it also be "new" at the same time? Wouldn't the item, by definition, be old (older/oldish) if it has been improved?