gortex2

Man... what a joke.  If the FCC doesn't spank someone for that, I will lose all respect for that agency.  I think it's wild that here in Norther VA, we have people complaining because they think someone ID'ed in 16 minutes instead of 15 minutes, meanwhile in Castle Rock it's a free-for-all.  It's even in the title.  SMH.

This ^^^^ is what many dont understand about having a good coverage repeater. Some of us pay alot of $$$ out of our pockets to have this stuff on the air. 

I got mine in Dayton as well.  Charger, used battery, antenna and the radio for $420.  One of the guys with the local group had a couple of them and a couple different mission plans to stick in it. 
I found the Bluetooth programming function to be great as I don't yet have a programming cable.  I also need to track down a KVL adapter as some of my personal radio stuff is encrypted. 
I did have one issue with dropping a mission plan in it that wasn't right.  Radio wouldn't boot correctly.  The three finger salute reset the radio and restoration of a known good mission plan got the radio running again. 
 
Being a Motorola guy, I was on the hunt for an APX for seemingly no good reason other than the desire to own one.  I ended up with a 7000 that was VHF/ UHF-R1.  Which is the most desirable option to get for frequency bands.  I was never a big supporter of NAS on a carried radio and I have a legit system ID and radio for work (radio service tech) with direct access to a full system key so I can build any codeplug I want for 'scanning' and when ask what I am doing with a system radio I have a reason to have it.    I mess with the Harris a bit, but I have found the accessories are stupid expensive.  And taking into account I have access to second hand accessories at the office, it's sort of a no brainer to prefer the APX.  I have one RSM for the Harris.  I have at least a dozen RSM's including the 'commander' type with display and channel knob for the APX.  Have the green XE RSM's, have a Pelitor headset and interface for the APX that is noise canceling.  The noise canceling feature on the Pelitor is good enough I can have a phone conversation on the Bluetooth model I have connected to my phone from the gun range I am a member of while I am shooting.   Of course batteries are not at all an issue as I go through the recycle bin and get out of date batteries.  Some that have only been charged a few times and are fine, but out of date.  Fire service doen't use out of date batteries.  This is due to the safety rating for the batteries while in combustible environments and in fires.  My radios are not used in life and death situations on a regular basis, so I am not effected by these things.
I will say that the 'mission plan' design with the ability for the radio to have multiple 'code plugs' that are user accessible is a really handy feature for building travel configurations when you are out of area but not needing to have endless  radio zones in a codeplug.  Sure you can have multiple codeplugs saved in a laptop for the APX and program the radio as needed with them.  But being able to store them in the radio, and switch them on the fly is much handier in my opinion. 
I will also say the programming software is a bit hard to navigate if you are accustom to other programming software.  And in truth it's just a pain all around.  But once you figure it out, it does it's job.  
Congrats on getting the radio, welcome to the Harris owners family and if you really like it a lot, there is a mobile version called the XG-100M.  Basically the same radio in a mobile configuration with some added features.  Might be something to look into.
 

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. 

Speaking of infrastructure. I wonder how many of millions $$$ cumulatively clubs have spent to set up digipeaters.

Just for the end user to have aprs functionality, not talking about the hobbies style with a Pico and baofeng. But rather an actual integrated ht or or mobile. There are no ht units sub $250, avg about $400+. Mobiles are the usually $300+. Higher then most gmrs users are willing to pay.

If the FCC was considering having aprs down the road, I don't think they would of specifically said, ok you get a little digital (thx garmin for lobbying for this, not aure how much you guys paid), but you can't use it on the repeaters. In fact, any radio that has the capability must not have the functionality on the repeater pairs for type certification.

This alone leads me to believe the FCCs attitude to be. You want it? We got a tech license for you to get, they have it.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

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

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

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. 

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

Why and for what possible good reason?  Once again, it sounds like someone wanting to turn GMRS, with its very limited bandwidth, into "ham radio lite".  Rather than additionally trashing our already scarce bandwidth, why not get a book, study it for a week or few, and get your Technician license?  Then play with gizmo gadgetry where there is adequate bandwidth and existing infrastructure for it until you heart is content

Don't do this. I combined two G+s.....with horrendous results. Just ordered a Bridgecom BCR-40DU w/ an BCD-440. Got to be better than what I tried.
WRXU693
James
 
 
James

One of the more irritating things is when I'm confronted by non-paying, non-member users of my semi-private amateur repeater that has arguably the best coverage in southern California on the rare occasions when it's down. Which is almost always through no fault of the repeater. 

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

This ^^^^ is what many dont understand about having a good coverage repeater. Some of us pay alot of $$$ out of our pockets to have this stuff on the air. 

As @OffRoaderX pointed out alot of what works for someone may not work for you. I can at least give you some data from my time in the Concord area each year, specifically CMS. We had a 35; MH with a GMRS repeater in it. I ran a GR1225 on low power for multiple years. LMR400 (25') out of the duplexer to a Laird FG4503 Fiberglass antenna on my flagpole mount. From Turn 4 parking lot (640' ASL) I could get 3-4 miles to the North up 29. On a portable I had no issues talking to the repeater from the Walmart 2 Miles north. On the mobile it would drop out around parkway. To the south I could only get about 2 miles on mobile. We had one year where we were early and I setup on the South side of the track. It was around 725' there. I had no issues with a portable further south and still had perfect comms on my portable to the north to the Walmart. So height helped in that area. I will also say all comms were on my XTL2500 (at the time) and my APX portable or HT1250LS portable. Sadly since COVID we have not been setup in the camper at that track. We spent 3 weeks on the track for about 5 years and used the repeater a alot when on site. With all the other comms on site I was actually surprised at how well it did work. 
Im in your area quite a bit still but dont seem to hear alot on GMRS when I'm in the area. I have not had time to try the 675 repeater there. Maybe this weekend when I'm down. Could go for some nice Brickhouse Pizza and a cold frosty beverage right now...
 

Location is what matters. Do you have a tower site ? Tall building ? A home repeater in that area will not cover 20-30 miles. 

Well GMRS was never intended to be social media so in the context of attracting young people it may not be easy, other than again for it's intended purpose, camping, boating, hiking, off roading, farming, emergency comms, even some business use etc.  Anyway it is just a tool and if it is not the right tool for the job at hand then find the one that is.
 

And this is the reason the HAM radio repeaters are quiet.  GMRS has in a way turned into HAM radio, going beyond what it was intended for.  The original intent was for situations that you needed communications, but didn't want to go the full route of a commercial license on Itinerant frequencies or MURS.  GMRS is a nationwide license (commercial frequencies outside SOME itinerant licenses are NOT nationwide) you can use with family, and other license holders.  We of course have transitioned beyond that to rag chew when it's not being used for the original intent.  Repeater linking is a lot of what makes that possible.  I have 3 repeaters on the tower.  One is the tower owners (725).  It is open but all users are requested to use my unlinked repeater (675) for local comms unless the repeater is busy.  Then there is the 600 that is linked.  It gets a bunch of traffic.  Some of it is local traffic for the link but much of it is from other repeaters on the system.  The 675 see's maybe 3 hours of use a week and the 725 see's less than that. 
So area of coverage has a lot to do with how busy a repeater system will be.   Stand alone repeaters in medium to low population densities are not going to have much traffic outside the system owners.  Large multistate systems that cover multiple high density population centers (Chicago, Indy, Columbus, Milwaukee, and most of the state of Indiana and Illinois) will obviously be busy because there are more people in the coverage area so you have a higher possibility of people being licensed in the coverage area.  
 
You mentioned pre-arranged comm's.  That's a NET in ham radio.  And we do see traffic during nets on ham.  But very little normal conversation. 
 
And in truth, everyone has a cell phone.  Your wife, the kids, the neighbor down the street.  So when you tell Jr to take a portable radio you get met with "Dad, I have a phone, I don't NEED this stupid thing"  or better yet, try putting an antenna on the wives car.  "That ugly shit is NOT going on MY car."  Figure out how to get past that and you are getting somewhere.  Otherwise, be happy that you have a hobby that you enjoy and hope it doesn't go away in your lifetime.
 
 

Oh I know about not being active any more with HAM.  I was very active until I got a job doing commercial radio and it seemed I had all these ham friends that I had never met come out of the woodwork wanting to know about old equipment and what was done with it.  Wanting me to look at their broken radios (for free) and all sorts of other stuff.  Then I ran into the issues of offering to assist with building and maintaining infrastructure (ham repeater) and being told they were different and what I knew about commercial radio didn't apply to ham repeaters (while they were using Motorola repeaters that I serviced daily). 
That pushed me away from the service for a long time.  I am slowly getting back to it and doing my own thing.  The problem it created, is I now ONLY do my own thing.  I help some folks, but those groups I had issue with are shut out.  I refuse to do anything for them.  The one group I even offered tower space and a backup repeater to.  Completely free, their call sign and all on the machine and would only require a phone call to get it activated if their stuff failed.  They balked about it, Said they would need access 24/7 to the site.  ( There are two people having access like that, me and the site owner) when I said they would need to schedule, but their access was not needed as I would host it on my gear as a backup and they didn't need keys to the site they again balked and said no.  So the tower their repeater is on will be coming down soon.  They have no where to put their repeaters and have zero options to stay on the air once the tower is down.  I see it as being NOT MY PROBLEM.
 

Oh, BTW.  If you decide to try independant supplies.  You need to verify that the ground is ISOLATED.  Meaning the battery side output is NOT connected tot he ground pin on he power cord.  If it's connected on two or more of the chargers, the 12 volt power in the batteries will back flow from the adjacent battery back through the power cord, into the building ground and then into the ground of a battery effectively creating a dead short.  With a set of even partly charged batteries, you will cause a fire at that point and things will get out of hand quickly.
 

Thought on this some more. 
Couple more considerations with regards to the battery chargers.  A 48 volt plant is actually -48 volt supply.  Meaning the positive side of the end of the battery string is connected to the ground or 'return' in battery plant speak.  So again, if the output of the battery charger / power supply HAS to be isolated.  So again, you need to be aware of what you are doing and what you are working with if you are going to mess with this. 
But again, 48 volt battery plants have serious current producing abilities and doing something incorrectly when it comes to this level of energy can have disastrous results.
 

No. GMRS is not about that. Thats what Ham is for. 

A 45W mobile can be had for about the same price with fewer points of failure. What's not shown in their ad is you'll need a hand mike for the radio as trying to hold and key a HH while driving is very cumbersome.

The travel tone is 141.3. Its up to the repeater owner if he/she wants to enable the travel tone and allow folks to use it. Long before GMRS became ham lite GMRS users had used different PL tones to keep the channel clear at home. For decades we had a base radio at home and the only people we would hear is a parent calling base. At 2 in the AM we really didn't want joe calling testing his radio. It was used way different then that folks seem to use it for now. 
As others said its costly to put up and maintain repeaters. That's why none of mine are listed. None are open for use other than family and close friends. That was the intent. I use GMRS for other stuff on jeep rides and off road and all comms are CSQ then. 
So the KISS method of standard tone is already there if folks want to use it. Many do not for multiple reasons. I enabled it for a week on one of my sites. After 3 days of two guys rag chewing for hours on end I disabled it. 
 

The travel tone is 141.3. Its up to the repeater owner if he/she wants to enable the travel tone and allow folks to use it. Long before GMRS became ham lite GMRS users had used different PL tones to keep the channel clear at home. For decades we had a base radio at home and the only people we would hear is a parent calling base. At 2 in the AM we really didn't want joe calling testing his radio. It was used way different then that folks seem to use it for now. 
As others said its costly to put up and maintain repeaters. That's why none of mine are listed. None are open for use other than family and close friends. That was the intent. I use GMRS for other stuff on jeep rides and off road and all comms are CSQ then. 
So the KISS method of standard tone is already there if folks want to use it. Many do not for multiple reasons. I enabled it for a week on one of my sites. After 3 days of two guys rag chewing for hours on end I disabled it.