gortex2

There is no solution. Its not part of the service. There are other services to use if you want to use digital. The service has been around for decades. Many of us have had repeaters for decades for our personal use. I don't know why the huge influx to the service happened but its good and bad. Very few places in the US have issues with congestion so I don't see changing a service because one city or state has an issue. There are threads of arguments over a "travel" channel. Its said we cant use certain channels above Line A and folks say who cars its only one state. So in the end every part of the service has pro's and cons for a particular area. JMHO

I use a Jackery 300 for dry camping and SAR stuff. So far it has been ideal for this type of situation. I did not get the "Jackery" panel but used a basic Solar panel I had laying around. Just put correct end on it. When we travel from camp site I charge in Jeep but when sitting at site use the solar panel. For years I made my own battery packs but with the new stuff on the market it costs me just as much to build it. Time is money for me now so its easier to buy done. For backpacking/SAR stuff I just use a portable with a spare battery. I used to carry my AA battery adapter for my APX but its heavier than a spare battery or 2. I can get 12 hours on a charged battery so normally its more than adequate.

Does it change state ? With a Digital Volt Meter ?

Which board from ICS are you using ? The passive board that goes to a DB9 ? There are a couple boards and COR comes out on a different pin for each. Looking at the MTR manual COR is on the system connector on pin B4 or C2 depending on application.

I did read it and was stating the cheap cable he has is most likely the issue. Using the ICOM cable albeit expensive will work. Apparently online radio experts abund here...and folks wonder why those working in the field disappear from this site...

Its a ham radio so maybe ask on a ham site. Sure folks are running them.

I find that ordering the factory serial or usb cable is your best choice vs cheap junk online. I've never had an issue with any of my ICOM stuff using the factory cable. For my 30GT we still have for SAR all use the serial cable.

All depends on location as said. Our UPS driver is useless. If I order amazon next day its 2 days always as they only use amazon or UPS or USMail. Fedex is awesome at my house. I'm in rural america and they are here almost daily with packages for me. I use FEDEX for work so maybe that's part of it.

Send Rich a message

Cut off 30' of cable ?

I have repeaters that sit dormant 6 months out of the year. Is there a reason it should be talking ? Mine are all closed so unless I'm on it or one of my friends its quiet.

Also they could be using simplex with a tone. I do that alot with friends. We dont use the repeater but use a PL or DPL. In that case we dont here you calling.

Many items pointed out above are accurate. I'll add my experience. One of my GMRS repeaters is at a great location. Prior to being a GMRS repeater it was used by a public safety agency on public safety frequencies. The agency had portable coverage over a large area. When it was transferred to our SAR team all I did was change frequency and retune the cavities on the combiner. The old frequency was not far from the GMRS channel I chose. We used it with our LMR radios with no issues. I had other ask about using it and over time finally opened the repeater. One month later all I had was complaints that it didn't work at all or horrible receive reports. Every complaint I went and tested and never saw the issues that were reported on my LMR gear. Many of the complaints were from the same locations the agency used this repeater. Digging in more all the users complaining were using CCR stuff. Those using LMR gear had no issues. In the end I just closed it and removed it from all listings. This is just my experience with true LMR gear and not cheap stuff. As reference when that repeater went into the site it was in the $15,000 range and all our portables were in the $2500 range so none of it was cheap. Can stuff be done cheap, sure and in some applications it can work just fine. As I say to everyone it depends on your application, location and available resources.

In the LMR world we use the antenna that was designed for the radio. Its all part of the design. Changing it may result in loss of performance. Just my experience.

Its the KISS method for a manufacturer. Get certified and sell to a user base. Many don't care about adding other stuff. For years our SAR team ran on MURS and other still do for training and such. Our radio was a 2 channel motorola from graingers. Its no different than FRS in my opinion. grab a radio and go. Know its certified for use and simple. Many of us in the field know better than to buy a CCR thats locked down to a specific use but many do not.

I run factory short stubby on my LMR stuff for certain applications. When on a TLMR system the whip vs stubby normally is not much different. For range yes the stubby will be limited. Depends on useage.

https://mygmrs.com/repeater/7898 The Front-Range Electronics Engineers GRMS repeater is open to all FCC licensed GRMS operators. It is also open to FCC part 97 operators that do not have a GRMS license, those radio amateurs must register with us for an identifier under the license of the repeater owner. Uh....Really....Apparently you didn't read the rules....

There are a few LMR part 90 radios that fit the bill. In both my JT and my Challenger Scat Pac I run an 8500 with O3 control head. If you looked at the Scat Pac you would not know there is a radio in it.

Not to mention the advantage of APRS is the infrastructure. 144.390 is all over the county, albeit lacking in some areas but its the same. We can't get repeaters to work together where are you going to find one frequency in GMRS to use all over the county and not interfere with someone else. Use HAM radio if you want to use APRS

Why not just spend the money on a good used Kenwood repeater ? In the end it will work much better.

Yup. Thats why my repeater are closed and not listed. Even my 2meter repeater is not listed anyplace. I spend lots of time and money to keep these on the air for my use and not others.

Correct. Some repeaters do not have repeater tails or squelch tails. All of mine drop as soon as carrier/PL drops. I do it to stop the "kerchunkers"

I'm not sure if your asking just about the local system or all but many repeaters are not linked and have no reason to be. None of my repeaters are linked or listed on mygmrs. I would assume maybe folks in that area are not interested or cannot find suitable locations to setup equipment.

In the end most normally spend more in parts than grabbing a good used repeater. The last GR1225 I grabbed was $250 plus shipping.

Rules would need changed and someone would have to write software for commercial/hobby use. Most APRS programs are based on ham call signs for registration. Its for ham use.