gortex2

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. 
 

Sorry no. Its was @WRFP399
His repeater is here - https://mygmrs.com/repeater/4893
One of his posts on battery stuff is here - 
 

A good repeater is a significant investment. It is up to the owner to decide how open it is. Yes, it would be nice if it was all easy but repeaters are not a primary part of what GMRS is intended for. Repeaters are just a side benefit. I use a repeater almost every day and I'm glad they are available but I'm not about to demand anything of the owners. Rather I am very grateful to them for making the repeaters available even if I do have to dig a little to figure some of them out.

No,, its the truth....

Why not just use the automatic CW-ID that is built-in on the VXR-7000?

Well, the truth is the antenna system more than ANYTHING else.  You can have the most expensive repeater on the planet with an antenna at 50 feet and I can out distance you with a couple garage sale M120 radius radio's and a repeater link cable and an antenna that's 400 feet in the air.  And you have to understand there are three measurements of height when it comes to all this out.  First measurement is AGL.  That means Above Ground level.  If the antenna is on a 300 foot tower but mounted at 200 feet the antenna is 200 feet AGL.  Then there is AMSL or Above Mean Sea Level.  That is the height at the ground where the tower is above sea level PLUS the AGL level of the antenna.  Then the most important one that is really important. That one is HAAT.  Height Above Average Terrain.  Now this one you are not going to measure with a tape measure.  It's a multipoint averaging calculation.  To figure this out, you create a circle around a tower out to some distance.  I believe the FCC uses 20 miles but it could be more.  Then you draw circles within that circle, typically 5 that are equally spaced.  Then you draw a cross and an X through the circles to create the points of reference.  The lines can vary from every 22.5 degrees to every 5 degrees depending on the type of calculation you want to do.  You then get a topographical map of the area in the circle and document the ground level heights at every one of the intersecting points on the map.  Add all those together, divide by the number of readings and then subtract the number from your AMSL.  That will give you HAAT.  The FCC website will do this for you, so don't think  you need to do it manually. 
This is why an antenna on a 500 foot tower that sit's in a 1500 foot deep valley can be out talked by an antenna on a 10 foot mast pipe on any top ridge of the peaks above that valley.  Sure the 500 foot antenna will talk gangbusters in that valley, but not at all outside it.  And the 10 foot one will talk then entire valley plus down into all the neighboring valleys. 
 
We have one repeater on the MidWest system (Crete600) that talks 120 miles across it's coverage area.  I have personally verified this by starting in Chicago and driving over half way to Indy before I fell out of the coverage area of that repeater.  And it all has to do with the height of the antenna. 
Interesting EXTREME example of this.  Ham radio has satellites that are repeaters.  The repeaters are limited at 2 to 4 watts.  They are 200 plus miles above the earth and you can hear them on a portable radio (HT) with a meager beam antenna.  And you can also talk on them with the same portable radio and beam antenna.
 

I have a Repeater and my Repeater setup is as follows:
Repeater - Vertex Standard EVX - R70-G7 403-470 MHz 40-Watt Analog/Digital - Tx - 462.625 MHz/Rx - 467.625 MHz
                   Receiver Port Connector - Female BNC
                   Transmitter Port Connector - Female "N" Connector
Antenna - Laird FG4605 5 dB Omni-Directional tip at 30 Feet AGL
                  Transmission Line - Times Microwave LMR400 27 Feet Total Run from the Polyphaser to a Termination Point at                       the Duplexer.  From the Polyphaser to the Female "N" Connector at the base of the Antenna approx. 20 Feet,                         including a drip loop, not to exceed total length of 25 Feet.
                   Polyphaser Lightning Arrestor with Gound to Existing Earth Grounding Point with 8 Gauge Wire.
Duplexer - EMR Corp #65316-0/MC(5G) - six cavity duplexer with female "N" Connector ports.
Duplexer Jumper Cables - Times Microwave Low Loss RG-8X Coaxial Bulk Cable 100 Feet in length ordered.
                   Receive High Port - 14 Inch Cable Length with Amphenol #112533 BNC Male Solderless Connector (Repeater)                      and Amphenol # 172135 "N" Male Solderless Connector (Duplexer Connector)
                   Transmit Low Port - 12 Inch Cable Length with Amphenol #172135 "N" Male Solderless Connectors on both                           ends.
                   Antenna Port - 12 Inch cable length with Amphenol #172135 "N" Male Solderless Connector (Duplexer) and                           Amphenol #18211510 PL259 UHF Male Solderless Connector to Mate with Antenna Transmission Feedline with                     an Amphenol #AML-83-1J Double UHF Barrel Connector.  (The Antenna Installer did not have a Female "N"                           Connector for a LMR400 Cable at the time of install so I was stuck with the PL259 UHF Male Connector)
NOTE:  ALL JUMPER CABLES WERE FABRICATED/ASSEMBLED BY A LOWLY LICENSED GMRS USER (ME) IN THE OLD                       PEOPLE COMMUNITY OF SUN CITY WEST ARIZONA

If you are talking to 4 watt portables - who cares how much power gets through the duplexer? A "tight" duplexer tuning that loses more dB is preferable to a sloppy duplexer tune job that gets more power/less dB loss.
Remember, you are using the duplexer to achieve isolation between the transmit and receive frequencies. Isolation is your key measurement - NOT power throughput.
On most of these rigs built with an inexpensive notch AKA compact duplexer and 2 mobile radios, turning DOWN the transmit power will result in better overall range, less desense, and longer equipment life. 
 
 

FYI - I found horrendous amount of desense between two KG1000G Plus radios that were side-by-side. With a Motorola XTS5000 portable radio transmitting 3.7 watts, I only got .7 mile from the repeater on flat terrain, in otherwords just straight down the street before any turns until the mobile could no longer be received by the receiving radio when the transmitting radio was keyed. The TX out was no problem in being received by the mobile or portable radios. With a 50 watt mobile measured with 44 watt of RF output with a 2.4 dB omni mobile antenna with a VSWR of 1.2:1, I got about 1.8 miles.
At first, I thought my problem may have been the duplexer or a cable or two but everything swept out good. I stopped the duplex function and I ran a test transmitting through the duplexer and the same antenna with one of radios in the simplex mode, and received on the other radio with a separate antenna and drove around using a portable and had great results and farz throughout the area of at least 5 miles away.
I reversed the testing procedure of receiving through the duplexer and using the same antenna connected to the duplexer and still had great results as before. That procedure essentially eliminated the duplexer and cables as being the problem. However, I took the duplexer back to EMR Corp to have them recheck it and it was performing as designed and tuned.
I reconnected the duplexer and ran my test again and still no farz with the two radios acting as a repeater. 
I called a friend and asked him to bring over his two Maxon radios configured as a repeater and ran my same test and used the same TX points and we got many farz. This test results proved there must be a desense problem probably due to poor shielding between the two radios. The function of the two radios were also reversed and that did not change the results.
So, I learned my lesson in trying to go cheap. I decided to buy a real repeater station and installed it. On flat terrain, I got about 10-12 Miles with a portable and about 22-25 miles with a mobile radio. And my duplexer is still working great and has not burned out the plastic inserts like the cheap duplexers are doing.
I called the selling Dealer, because the two radios were still under warranty, explaining the problem that I was experiencing and my testing procedure. The Dealer's Tech Support person essentially questioned my testing procedure stated that my testing procedure was not technical and scientific enough for me to arrive at my conclusion. I told him that I am not an engineer but it still was a real world in the environment testing with poor results from the two radios acting in tandem as a repeater unit and fine as separate simplex stations.
Well his candor really gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling that I was in a favorable position so I just requested a refund. He stated that I need to ship everything back so they can conduct their own test in order to get a refund.
Fortunately, I was able to sell one of the radios and for some stupid reason thought it would be a good idea to keep one of them for another base station. That was kinda of a mistake, oh well. Never again.
I sold one of the radios to a Club member and kept one as a second Base radio mostly for monitoring two other nearby repeaters.

yes

My $70,000 F250 has 18 miles on it when I blew in 2 mounts. My F1150 had 100 miles on it when I dropped 6 mounts in it. If done right its worth doing and in the end will get done anyway. Enjoy the proper install and dont worry about it. 

yes

My $70,000 F250 has 18 miles on it when I blew in 2 mounts. My F1150 had 100 miles on it when I dropped 6 mounts in it. If done right its worth doing and in the end will get done anyway. Enjoy the proper install and dont worry about it. 

My $70,000 F250 has 18 miles on it when I blew in 2 mounts. My F1150 had 100 miles on it when I dropped 6 mounts in it. If done right its worth doing and in the end will get done anyway. Enjoy the proper install and dont worry about it. 

My $70,000 F250 has 18 miles on it when I blew in 2 mounts. My F1150 had 100 miles on it when I dropped 6 mounts in it. If done right its worth doing and in the end will get done anyway. Enjoy the proper install and dont worry about it. 

Did it come with the tiny mag-mount antenna?  If so, that antenna works surprisingly well IF you can mount it on the roof of your vehicle.  If you are mounting the antenna anywhere else the larger MXTA26 works great - Yesterday was at Fremont Peak Rd near Hwy 395 in So.Cal, and was talking to a guy on his mobile radio on a hill above Silverwood Lake in So. Cal, exactly 63 miles away, and he was coming in loud and clear.
You could use any "UHF" antenna, but you would have to cut/trim/tune it before you use it. If you buy a "GMRS" antenna like the MXTA26, you just take it out of the sack and put it on your car, no need for tuning or cutting.

My $70,000 F250 has 18 miles on it when I blew in 2 mounts. My F1150 had 100 miles on it when I dropped 6 mounts in it. If done right its worth doing and in the end will get done anyway. Enjoy the proper install and dont worry about it. 

My $70,000 F250 has 18 miles on it when I blew in 2 mounts. My F1150 had 100 miles on it when I dropped 6 mounts in it. If done right its worth doing and in the end will get done anyway. Enjoy the proper install and dont worry about it. 

Eventually it will be older and then you’ll drill the hole. Then you’ll realize how well it works and you’ll wish you had just drilled it earlier and gotten the enjoyment out of it.
It’s just like houses.  I see so many people who wait until they’re selling their houses to fix them up.  All they’re doing is depriving themselves.

The ID only needs to be sent when the transmitter has been keyed. If the transmitter is sitting on standby and hasn't been keyed in over 15 minutes its not necessary for an ID to be broadcast.

I like the idea of digital repeaters on GMRS..  Just the ability to set up talk groups, i.e. family & friends makes sense..  Also getting more use out of the GMRS spectrum is a big plus.  I would/will support it.   

I think that just because two ham guys were talking about it does not mean it is true or accurate, but assuming it is, just because the FCC is considering it does not mean it will ever happen, and if it does ever happen, it will likely take years before it is approved.  
 

In the early GMRS years, the 462.675 MHz (GMRS Ch. 20) freq pair with CTCSS tone 141.3 Hz was designated as a nationwide emergency channel. In the subsequent years and as GMRS evolved, the same channel and tone was no longer restricted to just emergencies and became recognized as a nationwide travel channel and tone and GMRS organizations recognize and utilizes Ch. 20 as the standard travel channel.
Yes, CB Ch. 19 was recognized as a nationwide truckers channel except for a very small part of California, and in Oregon and Washington State. Three other CB channels were used instead of Ch. 19. Ch. 19 was only used in the California desert traveling north and east from Barstow.
I get it that "some people" would like to designate GMRS Ch. 19 as a travel channel just like CB Ch. 19 was recognized as a nationwide channel on the highways and byways decades ago.
But, why change something that has been in play for many years before GMRS has exploded in popularity in the last couple years. Ch. 20 should remain the travelers channel tone 141.3 and lets not create unnecessary confusion among the newbie and longtime GMRS users.
I kinda like the idea of designating Ch. 19 as a nationwide calling channel but a nationwide travelers channel and tone has already been decided way before most of the newbie users were born.
Keep Ch. 20 and 141.3 Hz CTCSS as the travelers calling/monitoring channel as it has been recognized as such for more years than most GMRS users have been living. 
 
 

I don’t. 
I will sometimes listen to ham radio though. 

16, already using it for off road and I can't be bothered to change the channel 😂 
but seriously even though I'm no where near line "A" I would not choose to exclude them so if I had to choose I'd say 20 but does anyone really use a road channel for GMRS?  Add me to the scanning category.