gortex2
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Posts posted by gortex2
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Have used GMRS for over 3 decades. Alwasy used as a family communications system. Few years back started using it for some off road events. Now its either GMRS or CB for all the off road events I go to. Still use it primarily for private communications. Not to sound rude but if someone was on my repeater thant not my user I wont answer answer them and neither will my users. Thats my decision. In a disaster I doubt GMRs would be much use no matter how many claim it will be.
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Why worry about it. If it works further than map shows thats a plus.
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Way back when our county linked the RACES ham repeater to the StasteWide system (all RF days no internet) one had to use a different PL to activate the link. After x amount of time with no traffic local the link would drop. think it was 15 minutes back then. Maybe 30. The goal of the link was to give us outside area help on an event when needed but not to have daily qso on the channel. It worked great for years. Then they linked via internet and since its been non stop chatter from the other end of the state. So basically no one uses the repeater.
Thats been my issue with the GMRS repeaters I have come across that are linked. I have no cares in the world about stuff 300 miles from where I am. In a disaster its different. But not for every day life. If you need long distance traffic use zello or something else to talk on. WE do the samei n the SAR world. We have multiple repeaters across an area but none are linked full time. If there is a need for an incident then they can be patched. If you want to listen to one or the other you go to your zello app and listen in.
As said earlier resource allocation is more of the issue. On top of that is the limited amoutn of repeaters. I have been in areas where I can hear 3 repeaters and its all the same traffic as they are all linked. There is no reason for that. Pick one channel and link it. If you need more coverage build out that repeater site.
- RayP, WRHS218 and PACNWComms
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Linking may have its place but I dont believe GMRS is it. I'm in the same boat of listening to long drawn out ragchewing from guys states away. Ive heard the same on ham. Heck there are times I hear thesame conversation 2 hour apart on ahn or GMRS. I never got into GMRS for contacts or to make a statewide system. I prefer my small repeaters, and use them for a purpose. With a good repeater setup there is no reason a town, county can't have good coverage. As of late I use my Part 90 stuff more and more. GMRS was once a great family/friend service. Linking, nets and all the ham radio stuff is not what GMRS started as. I know things change but you asked for opinions.
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The issue is the CCR market has kileld the Amatuer Radio market and good gear costs more. Before CCR hit the world many of us paid alot for radios. My first Kenwood APRS mobile and Portable cost more than my truck payment. Now stuff costs even more as folks dont buy it. Hams are now cheap. If they could buy CCR HF rigs they would.
My last rig was a FTM400XDR that was over $500. Its what I wanted for the application I needed so I grabbed it. Now they are discontinued. Is what it is.
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You need the radials. Id swap out the coax for a better cable. I did very similar on our campers for years and do the same for SAR on VHF every summer. A fiberglass painters pole works so much better and is lighter. We have a 30' aluminum mast for our SAR repeater but most of the check points use the fiberglass poles. They go up about 15' (ones we have) and work excellent for the antenna. I'd go to lowes or home depot and check out the poles they have. For our motorhome we had a 25' fiberglass flag pole that went in a mount. I tried our GMRS antenna (FG4600) once on it and while it worked it din't gain me any range so went back to the ladder mount. The ladder put it at 12' high already and in the environment the loss in cable didn't help with the height I gained.
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31 minutes ago, WSAH452 said:
I'm New to all of this
Me and a few Friends Go camping in and around the Tri-State and there are Repeaters in nearby towns But we get weak signals I figured if they made a portable How far of a range it would extendAll depends on location. Same with every repeater. I've posted before on my repeater in my Motorhome. Was a GR1225 and switched to the RT97 before we sold it. Worked for a good mile around the camper with some places more. At the wide open race tracks it worked perfect for our use. While camping in the woods it covered most of the campgrounds we were at. If I were camping with that kit I'd grab a 15" antenna cable and stick in on a 10' pole and be done.
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Rich doesn't remove listings from the site. After 1 year of no updates it gets "hidden" on the map unless you click on stale and offline repeaters. It would be great if they dropped after 1 year completely from the site with no interaction as I'm sure many would disappear. Folks don't use repeater book as that's primarily a ham site. Most hams keep stuff up to date but I can tell you many are not valid there either. I'm sure both sites have good info for certain areas but none are perfect. Even LMR licensed stuff may or may not be on the air for a particular license.
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7 hours ago, Ian said:
To be fair, there frequently ISN'T a service that does what we want. I mean, it's 2024, and only NOW is there an elegant way to put the radio I want in the truck I have, and I've been scouring the market since 2015!***
Correct. This is the issue. This service doesn't do what you want but you don't want to use another service for a multitude of reasons. That's not a reason to change this service. There are services that do what you want, either amateur, LMR or broadband. All of which can be done if you want to.
As far as the radio issue you seem to have the radio posted is ham radio and not GMRS so why is that ultimately the perfect radio ? You plan to use ham now after saying you can't use ham ? Are you planning others in your caravan to also get ham license so you can use APRS ?
In the end HAM will do what you want but everyone needs to be a ham to take advantage of it.
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The main issue with this site as well as others is its all about user input. Its up to a user to add, edit and modify or delete the site based on its use. Many come here get all excited list a repeater and never put one on the air. Others put them up, find out it doesn't meet expectations and leave the site and don't remove them. At one point some on the site said to list it before they even had equipment which isn't the best route. To me until a repeater is up, operational and tested you shouldn't put info online. JMHO. But in the end its all about user input.
Lastly I run 6 repeaters along the east coast and none are listed here or anywhere else. They are all repeaters for my and my family use so no need to list them.
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Just program a conventional channel. No need to touch the trunk stuff. Just remember software may lock it to narrowband channels. Don't recall what version works.
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You wont get COR out of them ic jack. Requires the accessory cable.
You may want to look at this thread.
http://www.repeater-builder.com/kenwood/pdfs/tk-805-wiring.pdf
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They will work the same as a CDM, or any other MSI Radius line mobile. The difference is the accessory cable pino ut. You'll need to buy the kit of plug and pins and make your own cable. Also need to program the pins in the radio. Dont run them on high power or they wont last long. Basicaly the XPR 8400 repeater has two of those in the box.
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Really depends on what you looking to listen to. If its public safety and trunking systems the SDS series is about whats there. There are older BCT15 or 996P2 but they all have drawbacks. For air my BCT15 is a solid unit. SDR is great but takes some knowledge in software and scans different than a scanner. In additon requires a computer on all the time to scan.
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All my antennas on my roof and shop are grounded via Polyphasers. In the house the cables enter via a 1 1/2" Galvinized pipe and as soon as the leave the pip go to a brass ground bar with the polyphasers on it. From there a a #2 goes to my basement and out to my main ground rods. All ground rods are bonded together and to my main electrical system.
Shop is done similar but all cables enter thru a standard shelter entry port with a brass bar just inside.
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I'd go to there site and ask questions. Rich run mygmrs linking.
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Which Is Better Or You Prefer, LMR600 Or Andrews Heliax?
in Technical Discussion
Posted
In all my years of LMR work Hardline is preferred. The only time I've used LMR600 is when we had to pull some thru a conduit between two buildings. LMR400 all the time in the control station environment. Even my house has LD4-50A run to my antenna's. In my work environment we use up to 1 7/8" hardline. Connectors for hardline can cost more than your radio and antenna system combined....