gortex2

We sold our motorhome this spring and in our new camper I used a Jackery for all power. Simple and effective. I would have to loose alot before I need to use the battery but its a nice add.

Yup long ago our area used hams alot for the stuff. Over the years that has been used less and less. Our SAR team supports 5-6 events a year. One event is managed by the county EMO and we use the TLMR system. All others we use our SAR public safety system and SAR is the IC for the event. All communications are run out of our MCU as well as mapping and FA support. Mostly because we know it works and again we dont run into issues handing a person a portable radio. The other issue they had was hams not showing up and not knowing how to use equipment. We got called in years ago to support an air show and the hams flipped. In the end we had the proper gear and knew the ICS plan and such. Sadly that event went away but we did 2 years of it for them. Its different all over the US. I think clubs that are Public Safety mindful and work with the counties or municipalities normally are used more but some sit at home waiting for the big call and it will never happen. You have to market your service and complete the task when asked or you wont get used.

For the most part I see no reason a government entity would put up a GMRS system unless it was a public thing thru a CERT team or something of that nature. Government and Public Safety have many other systems they can use and don't require a person to get a license. Our SAR team still has a GMRS repeater at a county park that was provided with funding from a grant via the county years ago. Other than an occasional user its pretty quiet. All park staff use the TLMR system as well as all public safety.

I know of a few folks that have removed their repeaters from all listings online. Its not a surprise that its missing.

The GR1225 Repeater used at 45 watts will most likely last less than a year. Have repaired, installed and removed many over my years. The 45 watt rating is "pre" duplexer meaning from the transmitter port on the radio. Depending on the duplexer you could see almost 3db of loss (cheap china stuff) which would effectively leave 20 watts out. The GR1225 runs very good if you turn it down to 25 watts (with a 45 watt PA), and with a good quality duplexer you can expect 15-20 watts out to the antenna port. A quality duplexer such as the Sinclair is spec'd at 1.2db of loss. Add in a jumper cable and your at about 16-18 watts. The GR1225 is a great home repeater but was never intended for long conversations and continuous service like the MTR or Quantar. I run 4 different sites with the GR1225 cut back to 25 watts and have been on the air for years.

A lot of information in these forums if you do some searching and reading.

The Leixen UV-25D is not a GMRS certified radio. Secondly from what I find online (ebay) the radio sells for around $100-125. Add in ammo can's, repeater controller, cables and 2 $35.00 antennas adapters and such and your not far from the cost of a RT97.

And this is why I don't argue with folks over licenses. The hams all know better than most in regards to GMRS. Its really no different than the hunters that use 2m channels while chasing the dogs. I try to educate when I can. And yes he was the one using the crappy mobile that was distorted as heck and basically the only guy we couldn't understand all day. So the bubble pack rule doesn't apply on his Rugged Radio. After his "excuse" of why he doesn't need a license I went and opened a beer by the campfire. Your never going to get everyone to get a license as much as you say we should. Unless it comes in a box with a "mail your check with this form" it wont happen.

I agree to a point. We used channel 7 and 21 for the trails I was on. Most folks had bubble pack that requires no license. I did talk to one guy last year about the license stuff and he brushed me off. This year I asked him again (same guy) about it and he said he had his ham license and didn't need a GMRS. I tried to explain to him the difference but he didn't want to discuss. The issue with GMRS use is the guys who buy mobiles and either dont think they need or dont care about the license. I did ask the "sales" lady at the event that was selling mobiles if she told folks they need a license. She said the paperwork says you do. So I think their take on it is its Midlands deal and not theirs. This is my issue with them merging the services together. IN the end as said GMRS/FRS is a much better option for trail use than CB was. I still run a CB for other events. Greenbrier is in a few weeks. Hopefully my transfer case is back together in time.

So being I just got back from another JJ event and have another this month thought I'd share my experience. Friday group had 3 mobiles and all rest were portables. All radios were midland 275 mobiles and a mix match of bubble packs with one CCR mobile. I didn't see a model number but it came from rugged radios. For 90% of the comms all was good. Had one guy who sounded horrible all day. At the end of the day realized it was the RR radio and was set for wideband and everyone else was narrow. We had 15 of us in the group. Saturday everyone had either a 275 or a bubble pack. I used my Motorola T265 as did one of the guides while they were out of the jeep (as I did also). We had a decent group of about 15 again. Did scan some other channels from the event on my 275 but had my T265 locked on the channel for my trail. I didn't ask everyone about licenses but the couple folks I asked had no clue what I was talking. I plan to take another case of the 265's I have on the next event in case anyone needs one. JJ had a box of the midlands for folks who forgot their radio. No CB was used at all.

99% of the users on simplex are narrowband. Its a simple fact. Every FRS radio is narrowband. Why would midland change it when every other radio is narrow. I guess Im wrong by running my repeaters in narrowband then huh ?

Once you unlock the radio it is no longer certified for the service. It would not be legal to use on GMRS.

Have you checked the VSWR on the mobile yet ? I'd verify it is good also. What is the VSWR on it ? NMO mount on the roof or some other place ?

What he said. Your biggest hurdle will be the permission issue. If they allow it they are going to require insurance and other stuff that most people can't provide. You may want to try to find a private individual that owns a piece of property there and work with them. The TR97 would be ideal for your use case.

You mention your base but what is the car using for an antenna ?

As said depends on use. I run a 1/4 wave on the JK on the front fender. Was at JJUSA this weekend. Both days everyone on my trip that had a mobile had the Phantom antenna. We had no issues on our trails. Half the group had handhelds and I could here everyone on my trail with no issues.

I would imagine something of pretty big nature would have to occur for SAR Sat to not get an activation. Garmin has its own dispatch center that will reply to any SOS from an InReach. Additionally many of us have multiple contacts setup for a trigger to an SOS (SAR Chiefs and Officers, Spouse, other important folks) that is in addition to Garmin/SAR Sat folks handling the emergency. The actual devise communicates directly to the satellites in range. The Mission Control centers are in 6 different locations around the world. For actual use I can say in a normal incident area (hurricane response) I have sent a message via my InReach and the other party got that message within 5 minutes. This was a message only and not an actual SOS Emergency trigger. In everyday use I have seen messages populate on my cell (text and email) within 5 minutes in testing and training missions. For those that are in the rough country and routinely don't have cell signal the units are very reasonable for safety plans. I have one in each vehicle all the time now. Lots of the US that has little to no cell still. Garmin has a video on this that we show to new users -

SAR in NY is on licensed public safety frequencies. Very little ham use in SAR in NY other than chit chat. With all the other training folks do very few go after ham. And to be honest its normally not worth it. The SAR Repeater system is as good as public safety in some areas. Most of the command posts have marine in a bank but its not common at all.

Who said anything about NY ? Thought he mentioned Wyoming. But being you brought up NY, many SAR folks carry Garmin Inreach for emergency contacts. Very few if any will monitor GMRS/FRS unless it is known the subject has one. Most only carry a VHF radio as thats what SAR uses.

Sorry looked like the link got doubled. It is fixed. But all the links above are all the same manual. There is a new manual but wont see it in the online world for some time I imagine.

This comes up here and there so thought I'd share a PDF on best practices. This is the older manual but many of the items are helpful. Especially for repeater sites. Motorola-Standards-and-Guidelines-for-Communication-Sites-R56-Manual

Substantial discussion over on another forum last year when this was announced. As said good and bad. For those in that area its good. Just dont expect it to be in every area.

I agree the GR series wasn't a power house but works well for a home GMRS repeater. I still have 6 of them on the air. All are 45 watt models moved down to 25. I wouldn't put them at a tower site with other equipment but we did have an LTR system with those for 15 years on the air with TPL PA. My only complaint with the XPR-8400 is its essentially the same as the GR series using 2 mobiles in the box. I have bought a few where the decks got swapped because one PA was burnt out. That's the biggest complaint with those. An MTR or Quantar is the best choice if you can swing it. -If you still want to use the GR repeater just spend $20 on a back to back radio cable and its back on the air. Its really only 3 wires that are used from each 16 pin. (Ground-Ground, PTT-COR, Mic High-Discriminator).

LDF4-50A CommScope 1/2" hardline is 1.4db of loss at 450mhz. LDF4-50A I said before use the LMR and the ham radio antenna and find out how bad it works. Then either leave the hobby disappointed that it doesn't do what everyone on here says a repeater can do or go spend funds on he proper stuff to do it right. I'll leave this topic and go back to real radios now.

To be honest you can probably get a GR1225 for the cost of a decent controller so if your looking to upgrade that may be the route. Otherwise just throw a cheap controller in the GR and deal with the ID.