jerrym58

I have no idea but Motorola doesn't even make a repeater-capable radio that is FCC certified for Part 95E GMRS even though nearly all of their UHF Part 90 radios will work great on GMRS if programmed correctly.

Hello, I'm just curious about this. I would like to hear from someone in Puerto Rico on this subject. Why are there so many GMRS repeaters in the small island territory of Puerto Rico? A search on this site showed over 180 and there must be many more that are not registered here. In Oklahoma, we cover most of the state with less than 20 repeaters on a local ham radio UHF linked repeater system and Oklahoma is many times larger in land area than PR. Thanks in advance, Jerry WQWM239

In my opinion Yaesu's Fusion for Ham radio is the most user friendly for non-technical folks, plus it adds some useful capabilities like GPS location and callsign display and unlike DMR, the actual callsign of the calling station is displayed instead of a programmed interpretation of a digital contact number. DMR is VERY complex for the average non-technical user to understand and set up. On the other hand DMR does make IP repeater linking much easier and it makes automatic roaming possible whereas Yaesu's WiresX linking leaves a little to be desired. I think P25 would just be too expensive for a personal radio service. Whatever digital format is used, I think it would be best to allow it on only specific channels while preserving analog-only on others, because while it is possible to mix modes, those modes compete for air time. Dual-slot DMR could allow as many as 4 time-slots on a single 25 KHz channel, but I'm not sure how beneficial that would be to GMRS users. I designed and built several dual-slot MotoTrbo DMR IPSC systems and while I think it's a great technology for commercial use, I've never liked it that well for ham radio even though there are now a lot of DMR Ham repeaters on the air. I think I would like DMR for GMRS even less. After all, Part 90, 95, and 97 have different purposes. But I can imagine a Yaesu FTM-100D with GMRS firmware and part 95 certified. That would be pretty cool.

Deplorable? ?

I have several Kenwood TK-840 radios that are FCC certified for GMRS but they can be a real pain to program, depending on how new your computer is. I also have a ham license and usually want to do ham and GMRS on the same radio for convenience and the TK-840 allows me to do this legally. However, I don't lose any sleep over using a non-GMRS certified radio on GMRS. For example, I frequently use Motorola Part 90 radios on GMRS. I do however make sure I am following the FCC rules in all other aspects. The FCC reacts to complaints. Don't give anyone a reason to complain to the FCC about you and you will be fine using a non-certified radio.

Yes you can do it but it requires an Isocoupler, most of the time. https://www.radioworld.com/industry/how-to-use-am-towers-for-other-stuff The only time you don't need an isocoupler is where the AM broadcast tower is shunt fed, meaning the tower is grounded and fed at a near mid-point on the tower for impedance matching. All other AM towers that I have ever seen have a base insulator and the entire tower is the antenna. The isocoupler is basically an air-core capacitor that provides DC isolation while passing the desired RF up to your antenna. However, ANYTHING added to an AM tower will de-tune it and the station engineer will have to schedule downtime during off hours and completely re-tune it. I would think that the AM operator that would allow you to do this is extremely rare unless they are getting rent or free use of the repeater or something like that.

I have a FT-60R and it works fantastically on Ham, GMRS, FRS, and MURS and any other service within it's frequency range following modification. I'm not going to say here whether or not I actually have ever done it because it is not certified for non-ham frequencies and therefore it is not legal for Part 95, 90, 80, or 22 use, but that radio can also be programmed for the exact Part 95 power limits for each Part 95 service and frequencies as well. It is much better at this than any of the Chinese radios regardless of certification. It is almost as if Yeasu knew going in that there would be responsible Hams that also wanted to use it on GMRS, MURS, FRS, Marine, Commercial, and Ham radio. For example, you are allowed 5 watts on GMRS/FRS splinter simplex frequencies on FRS channels if you have a GMRS license (and type-accepted radio). The FT60 will do this. Furthermore you can run wide or narrow bandwidth. Current GMRS rules require narrowband emissions with a 5 watt limit on FRS channels 7-14, for example if you have a GMRS license. There is also a 2 watt power level setting which just by coincidence is the power limit for MURS, an FCC licensed-by-rule service like CB radio. There is also a 1/2 watt setting that can be used for pure FRS, but once again, not legally. The FT60 is very good at maintaining these power levels across it's band capability regardless of frequency. There is a very simple diode-removal modification available from many sources if you google "FT60 Mod" to do this but you have to have a very steady hand so you don't destroy the radio because the diode is almost microscopic. I encourage anyone doing this to do their absolute best to conform to emissions requirements, including power, bandwidth, and spurious emissions for any band you plan to use it on, keeping in mind that is not legal to use it in the USA on anything but Ham frequencies. Also keep in mind that there are 2 bandwidth requirements within the MURS band depending on which channel you are using. Personally, I am OK with using the same radios across radio services as long as you conform to ALL of the other FCC regulatory requirements including RF emissions, but that is up to the individual to decide if that is an acceptable thing for them to do because it is not legal due to FT-60's lack of FCC Certification. I also like having maximum frequency range transmit capabilities in case of a life or death emergency, which is allowed by the FCC. Here's a review of the FT60: https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=4286#:~:text=Battery%20life%20is%20excellent%2C%20easy,trip%20the%20%22wires%22%20key.

I engineer and install commercial 2way radio systems for a large company and I have a fair amount of experience with the XPR7550e. You should be able to reprogram this radio without a cable, using WiFi. It is possible that you need to purchase an EID for that feature but all of the XPR7550e radios that I've ever touched could be programmed this way. You have to jump through some hoops and it is not real intuitive but once you get your PC set up right it will work. However, if you do have a programming cable it is much easier and faster to do it that way. I was doing a complete re-program of about 200 radios out in a remote spot in Wyoming and the very last radio would not program with a cable no matter what I tried. Then I remembered I could do it with WiFi, and was able to return the radio to service with the new programming. One issue though: All current Motorola Solutions radios are blocked from doing 25 KHz deviation without taking their on-line training course. This is a hassle but it is free of charge. Once you have taken the course, Motorola will email you an EID number that you enter into your CPS programming software to enable 25 KHz deviation. That EID number is only good for 1 computer unless you request more. There's no getting around this because your computer CPS actually goes out on the network to a Motorola Server that logs in your computer name. For that reason you must have your computer on the network to make this work the first time. The last 25 KHz EID I got allows me to enable wide deviation on 9 computers just to cover me in case of computer failures. I'll just point this out in case you care. The XPR7550e is not Part 95 certified but it's quality far exceeds any GMRS-only radio I have ever come across. For that reason, for me using the XPR-7550e for GMRS is an acceptable risk. This is just my personal opinion and you have to decide for yourself whether or not this is acceptable for you. That radio can also do ham frequencies with no problem. The FCC SHOULD be happy about this because there is a greater likelihood that your emissions will conform to the FCC part 95 rules but in reality they probably just don't care unless they come after you for some other abuse and just want to pile on more fines. I have never heard of anyone fined for using a non-certified radio that conforms to Part 95 emissions where that was the only offense. The FCC generally only responds to complaints.

My repeater is a Motorola MTR2000 programmed to operate at the maximum legal power for GMRS of 50 watts. It is FCC part 90 certified for business use and is one of the best and most spectrally clean repeaters ever made but it is not certified for GMRS part 95. The reason is that Motorola didn’t go through the expense of getting it certified for part 95 because they are not interested in pursuing that market. There are few repeaters available that are FCC certified for GMRS so it violates that one rule However in my personal opinion, that since I follow all other rules regarding emissions and I am using equipment that far exceeds the quality of most GMRS certified equipment that It is an acceptable risk to me. If the FCC tells me to stop then I will shut it off. I would like to hear from anyone that knows of a situation where someone was fined for the sole crime of using non-certified equipment on GMRS.

There are a lot of engineering details that go into setting up a repeater. I think if your friend’s repeater is serving your needs and you have an amicable working relationship that you are ahead just helping him maintain his repeater. But if you are going to forge ahead anyway here’s some things to think about. Mountain tops get hit by lightning frequently. You need to ground the antenna support structure and ground the coax to the same structure. Surge protection like a Polyphaser is also needed. All ground rods need to be connected with large diameter ground wire. Motorola’s R56 manual is the Bible for site grounding. I agree with another comment on the DB420 antenna but it is very high gain. When you increase the gain you narrow the vertical beam width. I think that antenna’s gain drops in half at about 5 or 6 degrees down so depending on how high your mountain is there may not be enough power and sensitivity left in the valley below. For sites lower to the ground I think the DB420 is the best UHF repeater antenna ever made. I have put many of these up for business repeaters. On a mountaintop site you may have to select a non-standard PL tone or DCS code to stay out of a neighboring repeater’s coverage area on the same frequency.