WRKC935

Couple places and it will depend on what you are wanting to learn. If you are looking to learn about radio in general, get an ARRL handbook. Yes, it's for ham radio..... but the important part is the RADIO. UHF radio, be it ham, commercial or GMRS is still UHF radio. That's where to learn how antenna's have gain, what coax loss is and how it really effects your signal. Important stuff that is all in one book. They also printed a VHF/UHF operators manual that covers those parts of the spectrum fairly well. Lastly is the FCC web site and the specific regulations and discussion of part 95 (the GMRS service). That will explain a lot of the rules and what you can and can't do specific to the GMRS service

First, I have a Suburban in that model range. Thinking your luggage rack bar's are plastic coated. Meaning you have no ground. That will run your SWR high and make the signal going out and coming in SUCK. Honestly, bite the bullet and put in a through hole mount. Yes, it's a hole in the roof. But it's a 99 Chevy Suburban. If you told me it was a 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit I would say something else. But it ain't. It's a good vehicle but it's not new or even close. The performance you gain will be worth the effort. But DROP THE HEADLINER part way to know where the stiffening ribs are at in the roof so you don't try to drill into them. That will ruin your day. NMO or SO239 mounts are your choice. But the NMO mount will offer more of a selection for antenna's. Figure out if you want ham and GMRS or just GMRS. Choose the antenna based on that decision. I have mentioned elsewhere that the super gain mobile antenna's are great for their designed frequency range. But SUCK when you are 10 Mhz away from it. Lower gain antenna's will have a wider frequency range. And contrary to the popular belief 3 or even 6dB of gain difference will have little effect on the real world performance of the antenna when talking on the radio.

Forgive me but I am a bit lost here. When you say send the 'repeater' a command. Are you referring to outputting DTMF from the audio interface of R-Pi to the actual repeater/secondary controller or are these internal ASL commands to be processed the same as if they came in off the air? I do the radio stuff fine. I am one of the people that has very successfully taken a CM108 audio dongle and built a proper working interface for the repeater and got my levels all correct so it don't sound bad on the air. But my Linux abilities are a bit lacking and my ASL knowledge is worse. But I do have a thought / request if it could be implemented, scripted or however it would need to be done. My network connection to the tower site is a Microwave link, and it can drop from time to time. Of course this boots me off the system. If a script could be created that would look at ASL and see if I am attached to a specific node and if there is no connection run a script to connect me back up that would be VERY handy. Second issue, for some reason, and it might be the network dropping, don't know. My Pi will occasionally go dumb. Stops running ASL, almost like it has a memory leak or the CPU gets overloaded. I can log into it, but rebooting it is impossible from the command line. To the point sudo commands that are suppose to panic the kernel don't work. If there was something that would auto reboot the Pi, although I don't know how it would work, and then reconnect the node that would be a God sent as well.

Well, while you seem to have some understanding of this from a high level, the repeaters have little to do with it. The linking happens at an IP level across the Internet, not RF site to RF site. Tenn, does actually have some linked GMRS repeaters but not on the MyGMRS system. They run a private system that I know for sure exists in the Gatlinburg /Pigeon Forge area at least and extends into two neighboring states. That being said, there is nothing restricting you from putting up your own repeater and linking it to the My GMRS system from where ever you land in Tenn. But, Tenn may NOT be considered a "MidWest" state and you may find out that the system fathers prefer you link to one of the eastern hubs and not 169. But that is not my call. Just a reminder before you go put a bunch of money down on a repeater system to find out you can't put it on MidWest. reason I bring that up is you specifically posted the linked "MidWest" repeaters on your attached photo. I would discuss with the major players of the MidWest system Your intentions prior to committing to purchase of equipment. I am trying to grow Ohio currently. I am actively hunting sites to install equipment on and look to put up at least two more repeaters in the central Ohio area myself this year. That being said, this is not an activity for those that are not well versed in radio communications equipment and the support of it. I work as a commercial radio tech. GMRS and Ham radio are my hobbies. But I can speak from first hand experience that finding assistance for repeater site support and equipment repair and maintenance if you can't do it your self to run right around 100 to 150 dollars an hour for that service. That is going to be a pretty consistent number. If you find a tower site and are required to have professionals (most always the case) do the climbing and installation of an antenna system. That cost can easily run 4 to 6 thousand dollars for a single days work. And we haven't talked about the cost of antenna's, feed line, duplexers, a repeater or any of the other costs involved including a mandatory requirement for an Internet connection at the site for the actual link. And the state to state, town to town communications that you see as being such a wonderful thing is only as good as the ISP level of service at your site and the site you are linked to. If either are down fro any reason, you will be down until the Internet service is restored.

OK, thought more on this. The nodes need two different UDP ports. So right now they are assigned 4569 right? Assign one to 4570 or something else and then try again. Remember that you will need to configure your firewall for the second UDP port for passthru and if you are using the remote SSH you will also need to change the passthru and port on the Pi to 223 or something other than 222.

Static on receive is typically caused by one of two things. First is signal levels from the transmitter (repeater) you are listening to isn't sufficent to fully capture the receiver you are using to monitor the transmitter. Second possibility is that something is loose in your antenna system and not making 100% contact all the way from the antenna to the radio. This could be a bad coax, loose antenna or part in the antenna, or even a loose RF connector on the radio. Go through the system, verify the cable isn't pinched or damaged in any way and that all connections are tight.

Wow, that is the most truthful, accurate, and spot on post I have seen from you. Don't really care about the ham license thing,,, well that and I watched about 2 minutes of one video and dismissed the guy, so not really living rent free in my head. But others,,, yeah, I can see that. Oh, and he seems to actually favor those cheap import radios.... what's up with that?

Well the node controller should have control of the PTT on the repeater. And it will allow local repeat function, so I would highly advise you to set the repeaters as base stations and run them that way. Are these both in close proximity to each other and have a similar coverage footprint? If so you might consider running one as a linked repeater to the system of your choosing and leave the other one as a stand alone for local traffic. If the coverage is the same of very similar then it's a waste of resources to have them both linked to the same system taking up two different repeater pairs with matching traffic on them.

OMG..... THIS AGAIN?!?!?! Talk about the beating of a dead horse and we are 5 pages in AGAIN. Not typing the reply again. Go read it here. You really don't want DMR on GMRS. You might think you do.... but the problems it will cause will quickly set you straight.

Make sure that the repeater is configured as a base station and not a repeater in the programming. There is an audio delay in the system from time to time due to network latency where you can hear yourself. But for it to be there twice indicates a loop of some kind. Also make sure if you have multiple repeaters, they are NOT BOTH linked to other repeaters creating a loop. Meaning don't link your repeaters together and then individually link each repeater to a third repeater, or in the case of a large system like MidWest, link them together and then individually to other repeaters in the system thinking you are setting up some sort of redundancy. It creates loops. The proper way of linking repeaters if you have multiples. Link YOUR repeaters together in some fashion. Either a STAR configuration where multiple repeaters are all linked to the lowest numerical node number you have or link them in a line where repeater A is linked to B, C is linked to B, D is linked to C. DO NOT link them in a mesh configuration where A is linked to B, C and D then B linked to C and D and so on. Maximum of TWO links per node if linking in an A <> B <> C <> D configuration. Then link ONE repeater to a HUB or State Node. And don't link to more than one HUB unless you are getting permission from a higher power and other repeater owners on those HUBS as you will be tying them together through your links.

Ham testing will NOT go away until the rest of the world agrees to it. The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) set the rules for all countries to follow with regards to radio communications. One of the biggest things that allow's GMRS to exist with no real verification of knowledge is the fact it's UHF and low power. Other than Canada and Mexico, no other countries are going to be in the communications range of any US station (other than MAYBE Russia and users in Alaska, but even that's a big IF. Lower frequencies especially HF stuff will carry for extremely long distances when the conditions are right and that happens much more often than band openings in the UHF region. So it's really not as easy as the FCC just handing out ham licenses. The ITU was the reason that the Morse Code requirement hung in so long. And it was the maritime industry and regulations for ship to shore communications that was the driving force. A bit of history. Just prior to the ITU lifting the International code requirement, ships over a certain size were required to have a licensed radio operator on board that knew Morse Code for emergency communications. That requirement was lifted a year or two before the ITU met and recended the Morse Code requirement for ham licenses. The whole idea was that a ham operator would be able to receive and handle emergency traffic from a ship at sea that was having problems. With the full implementation of the EPURB satellite system and a new requirement that all ships were required to have on board emergency radios that would automatically give location information via GPS to the monitoring stations for the system, there was no longer a need or requirement for Morse Code. So ham radio requirements were lifted for the first level of ham license (No Code Technician) and the flood gates opened. The higher class licenses still at that time had a code requirement, mostly due to the older hams raising hell claiming that it would be the end of ham radio,,,, of course that didn't happen and the requirements for code were lifted for all ham license classes. I actually started as a No Code Tech, and held that license for over 10 years. I did finally upgrade to general, but I am yet to get my Extra class license. I may do it at some point, but I really don't know that I care enough to bother. Regardless, I will maintain my current call sign as I have had it now for almost 30 years (originally licensed in 1994). Point is there is a reason that hams have to test. And those are the reasons. With GMRS on UHF we don't really have much ability to interfere with other services in other countries. With Ham radio on HF or even 50 Mhz (6 meters) there is that possibility and operators need to know where they can operate and where they can't. And remember, GMRS radios are NOT suppose to have VFO's, or be programmable one any frequency outside the bounds of the 30 frequencies we are allocated. Ham radios are not that way. Granted, they do have transmit blocks in the newer radios. But the old tube gear was smile and dial so to speak.

Did you submit the forum?

Seems an odd way to tune a window filter for a RX multicoupler. And damn wide to boot. Mine are 466 to 470 for 461 to 465 inputs. And there isn't any 465 around these parts. We top out at 464 with any license I have dealt with. The other window filter (yes I have two) is tuned to 446 to 450.5 for ham repeaters. And I assume you are on a TX combiner?

This was commented about on the Facebook group and I figured I would share it here. We did have (there were a number of us on the air at the time) an interesting contact a few mornings back. A guy keyed up and said he was coming through the Johnstown PA repeater. Problem was there is no Johnstown PA repeater. I was on the Johnstown600 which is in Ohio and could tell he was coming through that repeater since it has two different courtesy tones. One for local keyup's and one for linked keyup's. So I knew he was on my repeater. It got interesting when I corrected him about where the repeater was and he replied that he was on a handheld radio in Wheeling WV. which was later verified to be 127 miles from my site. Obvioulsy he was on a hill over there and not down in Wheeling since it sits in a big hole. But that's pretty good for a 5 watt portable radio. Yes, the propagation for UHF has been interesting for about the past month.

Not really a wad. spent 450 on a Harris X-100 portable and setup a buy that will happen later this week of an APX 7000 V/U r1 for 1500 but that was about it. Other than that it was dumb stuff. 20 bucks on a Cisco 800 small office IP phone PBX, 50 on an MW800 computer, couple other things. I did buy materials for building two antenna's that are for a customer but will get that money back once the antenna's are built and sold. I am sure there were other things I bought but can't remember what they were at this point. Outside of that, I saw a number of friends that I only see during Hamvention. And one of them I do see a bit more often had my KVL that I got back. Looking forward to the new radio, and getting the programming worked out on the one I have in hand.

I ask the same question on their facebook page. I am gonna guess it's open to all since they posted the PL for it. Or at least that's the way I am gonna treat it until told otherwise.

Google is your friend here. If you have specific questions then feel free to ask, but I really don't want to get into a ground up discussion on here about it.

Interesting.. Would like to hear a recording of what you are hearing. Curious if you have your radio programmed narrow band on the repeater channels or not. COmmon mistake that will cause audio issues on receive and transmit. Truth is that radio is radio. Commercial, Ham, GMRS, FRS, it's all FM modulated carrier. It should all work about the same and sound about the same.

This may or may NOT be an issue with the specific user but instead the repeater. While MOST of the repeaters out there are setup correctly, both linked and stand alone repeaters, there are a few that have audio issues. I recently ran into one while traveling and got questioned about my audio quality. As soon as I got into the coverage area of the next repeater and changed the channel, the issue resolved. Now obviously I didn't make changes to my radio outside of changing the channel and later found out that specific repeater is known for hot receive audio into the system. Point is look carefully at the situation and make sure it's not something else before condemning the users radio. Yes, there are some out there that are running their audio too hot. But there are other causes.

And why in the hell would anyone bother to do that? So that someone else can come in and question what's been said? To throw around their 'years of experience' and self imposed higher understanding of the regulations and try to pick apart what has been said by others? Yeah, gonna get right on that. Wait, I think I DID do exactly that several pages back and then someone got in and questioned what I said. So why go to the effort of trying to explain that or anything else on here for that matter when it's just gonna get argued and claims by others will indicate that's NOT what the regulations say when its pretty damn clear that it's EXACTLY what is being said.

Your node needs to allow the connection to other nodes (meaning the node you are connecting to needs to allow your node to connect) I just tested BOTH the nodes you mentioned and BOTH rejected my connection. I will dig into it and see about the node connection setup and get back. Also, your firewall configuration needs to port forward port 4569 from the outside IP address to the internal IP address for the Raspberry Pi. ONE other thing,,, you MIGHT consider hiding the external IP address for your router when posting pictures of your router configuration.

Well, there are a couple reasons. First is the repeater is farther away and has less signal getting to you and the other radio than the distance between the two radios that are talking simplex. If you are talking across a room and the repeater is 15 miles away, that can have a tone to do with it. Second is the repeater isn't setup right. Yes, just because someone was able to connect up some cables and get an antenna up in the air doesn't mean it's actually done right, or that it's a quality repeater. There are a number of repeaters out there that are just two mobile radios taped together with some wiring between them. Nothing correcting the audio levels coming out of the receive radio sending into the transmitting radio. This is the BIGGEST reason a repeater will sound 'bad'. This can also come from the repeater being programmed incorrectly. There are audio gain settings in most repeaters that are of good quality. For the most part these should be left a default, but some don't believe in leaving anything alone. They have it in their minds they know better and 'tune' the repeater for louder audio which just screws up the audio. Another common thing I see is radios that are programmed opposite what the repeater is programmed for with regard to Wide Band VS Narrow Band. Narrow Band radios and repeaters transmit HALF the audio level of a wide band radio and expect HALF the audio level on receive. So if everyone is telling you your radio lacks audio or to speak up and everyone you hear sounds loud and distorted, then you are no doubt programmed narrow band on a wide band repeater. And GMRS is WIDE BAND for the repeater pairs. Again, a simplex radio, especially matching radios programmed by the same person, or true GMRS radios that are factory configured for GMRS only operation are going to have the correct programming in them for the simplex channels that typically never get messed with. But it's a settable option on all commercial radios and many of the GMRS specific radios as well. SO that's something to check.

ANd NO window filter on the RX or running the TX into a combiner or other filtering of any kind?

There is no DIRECT connection for the repeater if that is what you are hoping for. You will need to build or buy an audio interface that goes between the Pi and the Quantar. This is typically done with a CM108 USB sound card and some very precise soldering work. Look for the ASL (All Star Link) or HAM VoIP interface information pertaining to the mentioned CM108 interface.

Yes, there are devices like what you are describing, however, the cost associated with them isn't what most people would consider reasonable. A typical DAS (distributed antenna system amplifier, known as a BDA or BI-directional amplifier for UHF frequencies is going to cost around 15 to 18 THOUSAND dollars. This equipment is meant for providing coverage to public safety personnel when in a building responding to a call for service at the facility. So what are other REASONABLE options for you and your situation that don't cost more than a decent used car? First would be a base station radio with an external antenna. This can be connected to a Zello interface that can be used with your phone and the Zello app. This of course will work anywhere your phone will work if the computer interface is connected to the Internet. Obviously your phone with need either carrier signal or be attached to the Internet wirelessly, but it's a workable solution. A set up from that would be a Radio-Pro interface from CTI products. Coupled to a MotoTRBO radio, the phone app that works with this interface will add the ability to select channels on the radio remotely. This is not exactly cheap however. So I would be looking to find a used interface and hope it works. These interfaces typically come with a SINGLE license for the phone app so it would be a single connection sort of thing. Again, completely workable solution. I have this as well as Zello on a control station as a backup. Both work fine. Both are LEGAL methods of doing what you are talking about. From here it gets into the sketchy stuff from a federal regulation standpoint. NONE OF THIS IS SUGGESTED, while it's a technically workable solution, it runs afoul of regulations pertaining to radio communications. First would be a dual band radio with an outdoor antenna with crossband ability. VHF-UHF and a VHF portable radio for communications to the cross band repeater where the cross band radio is programmed for the repeater on one channel and the other channel programmed simplex to communicate to the portable radio. Second would be a set of back to back radios that did the same thing as the dual band radio. Again, if you go this route, turn the power DOWN all the way on the VHF radio to eliminate (or close to it) the signal getting outside the building on the VHF side.