gortex2

I miss the "old" GMRS days. It was much simpler and no one was on my repeaters unless I wanted them on them. And when they were they had a real radio.

Short distance, and primarily with users all under the same license (family farm, small business) -- licensee to licensee was extremely rare if not actively discouraged. It's really only after the FRS fiasco that the "General" in GMRS took primary aspect (rather than the "Mobile" -- it used to be that base-station to base-station was not permitted at all, and base-station to repeater was [and may still be depending upon how one interprets that "base-station" is listed under the 462MHz simplex category, but not under the 467MHz repeater category -- essentially, the base-station would have to BE the repeater with a microphone front-end attached... and again that means only 462MHz outputs ? [) also not permitted.

Alright,,, damn.  Make one little comment about ham radio membership not being what it once was and y'all are looking to burn me at the stake.
So lets preface this.  In 2024, 2 years away, I will be renewing my ham license for the second time.  Which of course means in total I will have been a ham for 30 years at that point.  And I have sat and watched the technical abilities of hams decline over the years.  Now, do I think it will kill ham radio?  No, I don't.  And I will NOT be one of the asshats like those that sat around complaining about the dropping of Morse Code and how that would turn ham into CB radio, or that the decline in actual radio knowledge will do it in either.  But in 30 years, I have met a bunch of hams, some of them are damn knowledgeable.  But I am not seeing that as much any more.  And I am not hearing serious technical discussions being had on the air.  Of course, I don't hear much of anything other than on HF any more.  And I am not seeing much interest in learning about radio in the ham community either.  The move has been to DMR hotspots where the sum total of the RF communications begin and end in less than 20 feet.  Using the Internet to bridge the distance.  So as long as you can program a radio and configure a hotspot, you can communicate.  For all of 20 feet.  You realize you don't even NEED an antenna to talk that far.  And yes, I do find all that disheartening.  And what really gets me is all that demand for knowledge and wanting to learn is right here in GMRS and the service is limited to less than 1 Mhz of total frequency allocation and is ONLY wideband FM.  We have no SSB, digital, packet, none of that.  And we are fine with it.  And I am good with it too.  I just wish since there is so much interest in radio and how it all works here, that we have one little bit of one band to mess about with.  Mind you, GMRS ain't ham radio.  Never will be.  I just wish that ham radio had the sort of participation that GMRS is now enjoying.
 

I didn't touch the West books either -- but also didn't touch the skinny ARRL Q&A books. I preferred the thicker versions that had explanatory text and theory while stuffing the question pool in the back of the book.
Spent two weeks reading the General book when the code requirement was officially dropped... Found an online practice test site -- verified that I could pass every General test I took on the site. On a whim, I then tried the Extra class license tests, and passed 75% of those I tried. Two days later, I attended a VE session and passed both (granted, the Extra was by just one question) -- spent the following week actually reading the Extra class manual I found in my book backlog.
ADDENDUM: Something to consider regarding GMRS license plates... Original GMRS was basically designed for family (eg: large farm) and small business usage. Talking to someone with a different license was extremely rare, mostly limited to Emergency&Traveller Assistance. Hence, no purpose existed to label a GMRS license holder on vehicles. In contrast, Amateur has long been focused on making contacts using minimal power at long distances, radio experimentation and circuit development, and backup service in the event of emergencies.
As for vanity plates... Well, consider the following:
KRO3607
KAF6045
AF6VN
and (please forgive me for grabbing yours S.Shannon, but it was staring me in the face during this edit)
WROM258
WHICH of the above are GMRS licenses? Okay, AF6VN sticks out like an amputated thumb -- but can you, just on sight, tell the difference between KRO3607 and KAF6045?
Answer: KRO3607 is the class D CB call sign I held from 1976 to whenever the FCC dropped licensing CB radios. KAF6045 is an OLD GMRS license, from back in the day when one was authorized for only two of the eight main frequencies (and when they came out, the seven interstitials). With only two main frequencies, the odds were good that any other GMRS user wouldn't have any frequencies in common -- so again, "advertising" a call sign would have been relatively meaningless.
Here in Michigan, license plates are commonly a 3x4 (Alpha x Digit) -- so a regular license of KAF6045 could easily have been issued already. Amateur licenses have a easily recognized feature -- they only have ONE digit surrounded by a TWO [very rare, mostly special events] to FIVE alphas; such a pattern doesn't really appear in any state's regular license scheme (CA was something like 9AAA999[9] [they may be squeezing 8 letters onto plates by now]). It is unlikely that, even if a state could be persuaded to issue a GMRS-marked (as Amateur plates are marked) plate, that they could issue one with letter/numbers matching an existing plate. They'd have had to reserve all Kxx9999/Wxx9999 and Kxxx999/Wxxx999 numbers for use as call signs. (And maybe sequences starting with A...)
 
 

Lots of people talk about getting a radio(s) for emergency communications. During hurricane Ian how many really needed their radio equipment verses cell phones?

A regular radio is just not an option in a vehicle that cant be secured. So the Midlands make for a good option. And the installs are so clean. 

One of the other things that I haven't seen discussed here is the fact that government entities typically have a number of licensed LMR frequencies already that could be used.  Part of those being Public Safety frequencies that they would have somewhat exclusive use of in their jurisdiction.  So the jurisdiction would need to own and maintain a cache of radios for this purpose or require registered volunteers to acquire radios for the frequency band in use and get an MOU from the jurisdiction indicating they had permission to have that channel or channels programmed in their radios.  And this can be anything from VHF or UHF single repeaters to trunked system radios.  I personally have programmed system radios for a city we do work for that issue radios to established neighborhood watch groups. 
Point is, I am really not sure WHY a government entity would NEED a GMRS license as they have other resources available that are exclusive use.
 

Because many years ago, when technology wasn't what it is now, Amateur radio was a vital part of communications when things went south.  Having an Amateur Radio license indicated that you had worked hard and studied electronic theory, laws and regulations and were somewhat proficient in communicating with Morse Code. 
The real question is why are they STILL a thing. 
Because having a Ham license now means you bought a book with all the answers to the questions, read it for 3 hours and took a test so you could get on the air with your 30 dollar radio that makes all sorts of beeps and crap and irritate the guys that did it right back in the day. 
Just sayin.

The other issue with this site and many sites that list repeaters is lack of participation. At one point folks were telling others to list a repeater even when they never had anything on the air. Unless a repeater is up and available for use in my opinion it should not be on the site or require a annual update to keep on the site. Its been an issue for some time. For those that require access they should be replying to folks. Its been an issue for some time. None of my repeaters are any longer listed for part of this reason. Changes happen for everyone. So in the end the person who listed it may no longer have the email associated or it just goes to spam. 
As far as using others repeaters as others said try it and if someone is on the air ask if its open for use. Some don't care some do. Those that do have many options to limit use if they want to. 

That's why I got my GMRS license besides the fact it was cheap at the time, $70 for 10 years. I had another GMRS call before this one when it cost $85 for 5 years. Never used it so I let the license expire. When the cost dropped, and in particular the term increased to 10 years, I got back into it again. Now that's it dropped to $35 it's basically a no-brainer.

I have an old Motorola Spectra repeater kit that I used for when out and about. Subscriber units can be whatever one brings though, shown here with my Motorola XPR7550e and Anytone "878" as examples. This along with a tripod, a couple of deep cycle marine batteries on an RV tray (let's you connect two batteries in an easier to move sled type of configuration, and a dipole antenna 20 feet in the air gets signals out well enough. I also have an old GR300 desktop repeater that had Motorola GM120 radios in it initially, after putting XPR4550 mobile Trbo TDMA radios in it, I now have narrowband and two slot TDMA possibilities in a portable package. Lots of possibilities when it comes to portable comms. 

Another tool in the toolbox....I know many AUXComm/Emcomm/support elements that assist government agencies and private industry at all levels that have thought about bringing GMRS into the fold. Right now HF is big with the push for DHS SHARES, a program to link sites across the country via HF and data over these links during large disaster situations. GMRS is also on the table, but the first step now is still to get workers back into the office. My employer has 54 cities linked via radio across the nation (Motorola Astro/Trbo and analog conventional, Kenwood NXDN sites, and HF Radio over Internet Protocol), but if there were a real incident, it would still be only the few that are already at work and near one of the radio stations. Covid proved that, and I and my crew were in the office every workday as the federal government considered our public safey and fire interop with 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points to be critical. That was the reason I went and purchased a GMRS call sign and joined this site, so the station in my building would then be able to also use GMRS.
As other have said, government GMRS is most likely through a user that ends up as the conduit for the service, and may bring their own gear, or have some provided. In my own use case, what this meant was for one person at each site to get licensed for GMRS, DHS Shares registered, AFMARS license, amateur licenses, FEMA ICS trained, and anything else to make it realistic to have these government affiliations. Then each station made sure to separate the commercial company comms and the interop radios. It is a little odd to see GTR8000 repeaters racked in a corner, and high end Motorola and Harris radios on a bench, and then go to the other end and see Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, and SGC tuning equipment for the amateur side in a support role. 

The biggest problem is that you are not just "cross-banding" (which essentially only exists in Amateur usage as that service has multiple bands). You are "cross-service" linking: GMRS -> MURS -> MURS -> GMRS.
That also opens up the problem that, someone with a MURS radio that is configured with the same channel and tone, is going to be picked up by your output radio, and repeated in the GMRS band -- AND DOES NOT HAVE A GMRS LICENSE/CALL.
Also, there are only five MURS channels vs eight GMRS main/repeater channels. Three of the MURS channels are narrowband-only! (4&5 are wideband with narrow optional). Proper GMRS is wideband.

Yes, and as Sshannon pointed out, this concept belongs in ham where one can use the lower frequencies in the 70cm and 2m bands so this horse is already dead. I had already considered the potential ramifications and possible solutions for a “mixed bag” of canned frequencies that were going to be addressed later in the thread, along with linking independent repeaters but at this stage, it’s all moot. I’m absolutely sure that many hams are already doing what I envision, but I dreamed it up myself and I realize that the best path forward for me is to get my ham license. Thanks for your input, and please have a blessed day.

So today I accompanied the young man who maintains our amateur radio repeater. Our repeater is at about 9700 feet MSL, which is about 4,000 above where I live. Our repeater has an amazing coverage on 2 meter, reaching nearly a hundred miles in some directions, despite being situated in a mountain range. Our repeater uses a collinear array of four folded dipoles. Because they are a phased array the coverage pattern can be electronically modified wider coverage or to tilt the pattern by adjusting the phasing harness, but of course wider coverage comes at the cost of lower gain; which is why the Comet has higher gain. Here is a picture of the tower with our antenna being the highest 4x folded dipole array and a picture of the view towards Butte from the lookout. 

I have a DB408 on my house, a 408 on my Rugged 575 TX antenna and a DB420 on my Crete 600 repeater tower and I can say 2 things for certain:
1) A DB408 will run CIRCLES around any amateur/consumer grade antenna.  END OF STORY, it's like comparing a Neon to a Lambo for speed.  Folded dipoles are far superior to any fiberglass stick.  This is the same reason all our public safety systems use them too.  Also why you see VHF dipoles facing all the same way to send RF up and down a long railroad track.
2) LMR400 is garbage compared to actual hard line and is a a *VERY* high loss line at these lengths.  at 50', not even including connectors you are losing at the minimum of 25% of your power.  At 100' of course it's 50%.  Yes, you read that correct.  The correct way to do it would be to put actual 1/2" hard line in.  Yes, it's *SLIGHTLY* more money and you have to know how to put it together but for $200 you can get a correct tool to do this termination.  I also own this tool and I have some spare line I wouldn't mind helping you over a video call.
 
If you're going to go big with a DB404 or 408 and use junky LMR400 that would be like getting a 1,000HP diesel truck and putting a transmission from a smart car in it.
 
Send me a PM if you want to chat on the phone.  I'm not a 100/100 when it comes to this stuff but I do have a bit of experience in putting in high profile repeaters and this is all we use here in the Midwest.  Even if you went with a DB404 you will be SHOCKED at what you can do with it but that LMR *HAS* to go if you're going to a big boy antenna!
 
Thanks!

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. 

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.

Sounds like BTech customer support needs a driver for their clown car. 

In this case Alex is right. The owner of this site probably doesn’t want to have a thread that teaches people to flagrantly disregard regulations. 
Now if you wanted to publish almost exactly the same thread in the ham radio area and aim it at doing a cross-band VHF/UHF repeater, nobody could complain. 

You mean the "gnawing worry"? You free-flying rebels are funny. Keep up your free-spirited, but useless and harmless experiments. Don't forget to keep us all posted, we will enjoy your fruitless hunt.
I ROFLed here. Up to 50 watts, with Baofeng! Crazy stuff, Imma telling ya
 

Why don't we have a dislike button here, anybody knows? Or better, "stomp into cow manure" button.

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.

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.

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.