OldRadioGuy

You'll really like those radios. I'm very happy with mine. Do realize that if you are on a repeater and too close (throwing distance) to your contact one radio will desensitize the other one. This is pretty normal with anything but the most expensive radios. Even ham stuff would have the problem. There are some nice antennas that are worth having. The Nagoya 771G is a 14" flexible antenna. The Smiley Super Stick for 465MHz is a telescoping antenna that can be used either fully retracted or fully extended. I also like having a BNC adapter so I can use a mag mount in the car. Many ham band 70cm/440Mhz antennas are a decent match with GMRS. So lots to pick from. Vince

My vote for the Wouxun 805G. I love the reasonably priced accessories available too. Vince

You will probably find that just getting a Wouxun 805G for $80 is a lot cheaper than trying to find some special triple band radio. Many commercial radios (I think) can only be programmed with a computer. I'm also a long time ham and bought a pair of 805G's so I can use with the wife and fishing friends etc. It just worked out best that way. You will find that your 440/70cm antennas work well though. Also, Wouxun works with some Kenwood accessories like speaker mics. Vince

I the $70 is a real deal breaker you have a chance to bail out when you get near the end of the process. It will display the fee and you can stop right there. They will keep your application on file and you can re-visit it up to a month later. After that it will just delete it so you start over - no big deal. As of last week it was still $70. No idea how long it will take to change. Vince

I'm a long time ham and just bought a pair of Wouxun 805G radios. They are only 5W but here's the big deal - external antenna connector. You can put the Nagoya 771 or Smiley "super stick" 465MHz anennas on then. You can also adapt to a mag mount car antenna. You can get a speaker mic which makes them easier to use in the car. They are pretty darned nice radios for the money. I can hit a repeater 15 miles away with the factory antenna. The Midland mobile radios I think are pretty popular in the 4WD clubs for mobile use. BTW, I'm familiar with the Tacoma area and know that terrain is the make or break. 50W with a hill between you and them is not going to cut it. So maybe the 5W radio with a decent antenna will often work about as well as the 50W radio. Vince

Thanks, I didn't see those buttons before. Vince

I have noticed that the repeater listings show quite a few repeaters that do not show up at all on the map. So I guess it's best to use the listings and search filters rather than the map. Not sure if the map will get updated or if the repeater owner chooses whether or not to be shown on the map. Vince

For anybody wondering.... the fee was still $70 as of last week (Feb 7) I just went ahead and paid it. As others have said $7/year is still pretty cheap. Use your stimulus check to pay it. Vince

I would contact one of the local ham radio clubs and see if they can help. Some of them are pretty good at using direction finding antennas. Here's an idea but it's a bit involved. Get an Arrow "hand held" portable beam antenna made for 70cm or 440MHz ham band. These run about $75 and are VERY directional. You need a radio tunable to RX the repeater INPUT frequency so probably NOT your GMRS radio. Lots of ham radio HT's and scanners can be tuned receive on the input. If you have software and the cable you may be able to program your GMRS to receive on the repeater input. The frequency will be 467.xxx where xxx is the last three digits of the repeater output freq. The antenna will point you the direction of the jerk. Use a compass and draw lines on a map. Just keep triangulating and getting closer each time. It may take weeks or months but it can be done. Vince

The choice between ham and GMRS is sort of complicated and does not just depend on you. I've been an extra class ham since 1985 and just got my GMRS license. The reason is that radios are most useful to me for outdoors outings and traveling with others. My wife and fishing buddies don't have a ham license so FRS/GMRS is the way to go. Ham repeaters seem to be very quiet these days and maybe sort of "clicky" or unwelcoming. They are not hostile but not really interested in making new friends either. They mostly want to talk to their club members. They also tend to just talk about medical problems and complain about things. It varies quite a bit though. The bottom line for me is that they probably will not do me any good when I go out on my bike and want to talk back to camp. Even in an emergency I may not be able to reach anybody because they simply aren't listening. Once you have your GMRS license you can log into mygmrs.com and then the repeater tones are mostly posted. If they are not posted they may not be open repeaters but you can usually get to an email through mygmrs. Vince

The exact cable length does not matter. Shorter is better. The only exception would be if you were using a matching network on the radio end of the cable. But still, it would have a random effect... as long as your radio is pretty close to nominal 50 ohms (non reactive Z) I won't get into smith charts so just trust me. Pasternack makes custom cables and Digikey might also do customs. Not cheap but maybe worth it for the quality etc. Digikey would be cheaper than Pasternack. Keep in mind you could use a much heavier cable outside and run something smaller for the last few feet coming into the radio. Mix and match can make sense. Vince

Pasternack (and Ham Radio Outlet to a much lesser extent) sell short, thin, flexible cables to adapt an HT (BNC or SMA) to a heavy cable (N or whatever). Pasternack does customs for whatever you want but they are sort of expensive. Maybe try Digikey as well because they have some. RG141 is very flexible and fine for a couple feet. I always like to use a right angle connector on the HT to allow more movement. Also, consider getting a speaker mic on the HT so you don't have to move the radio around so much. If your HT is a Wouxun that Powerwerx speaker mic is really nice for $15 on sale. Vince

I do not know of any particular RV channel or network on GMRS. Lots of outdoors people do use FRS and GMRS but I don't know how social they are outside of their circle. I have taken my Ham 2M/440 rig camping and gotten very few replies on repeaters. I decided it was kind of useless. I got my GMRS license because my wife and fishing buddies can use FRS/GMRS. I think it will be great to have around camp or when I go exploring on my bike. I can call back to the wife or others in our group. Cell phones don't work out there where we go. GMRS allows external antennas which can be a big factor. Even for an HT you can put a 14" Nagoya 771 on there and improve range further. Smiley makes some telescoping antennas. This can be a big factor over FRS. I have heard that some truckers use Chan 7 on GMRS but have never tried listening. Supposedly that is the highway channel. Or did I also hear Channel 20??? If you go camping with friends you can always hand them an FRS radio to use. They can take on in their truck if you travel together. They are great on the road as long as the lead vehicle does not have a "metal building" behind it blocking the signal. The vehicle with the rooftop antenna should stay in front. Just some ideas. Vince

I'm very happy with my Wouxun 805G's I don't know about dual band or tri band GMRS radios. Or maybe you just mean split freq like for repeaters. The 805G works fine on repeaters. Vince

I got my license just last week. I paid online but can't quite remember how the "pay page" came up. I thought it took me there automatically. There may be an issue that your browser or anti virus blocks pop ups. Try using Mozilla Firefox which is a free browser and generally considered safe. I found that downloading my authorization did not work on Chrome but Firefox asked if I would allow a pop-up from fcc. So maybe try that. There is also a link somewhere to "pay fees". Can't send you a link because you have to be logged in. VK

I really like my 805G's and am impressed that I can reach a repeater 15 miles away on the stock antenna. Switching to the Nagoya 771 antenna improved my signal to that is recommended. I've been a ham since 1985 and my experience is that this Wouxun is a very respectable radio. My radio did "desense" my wife's radio 20' away while I was talking on the repeater. So she did not hear me talking on the repeater - just the other guy. But I think this would be even be expected even on a Ham HT. It's just a fact of life for hand held radios. I really like the available accessories like swap-able battery packs, speaker mics, BNC adapter etc. The powerwerx speaker mic is really nice for the money. I wish it had a power level select button to reduce power at close range. We always switch channels to the .5W group to save power when close. Other than that I really have no complaints. It would be nice if there were waterproof IP7. Nice radios. Vince

I lived in central Oregon (Redmond) so I'm guessing you are talking about LaPine or something. I don't see any GMRS repeaters that you would have a shot at from there. I'm not sure about the network you mean but there is a thing called GMRS network that works on the internet. Here is a video about it. Essentially the radio just links you to your PC and the internet does the rest. You are talking to people all over the US and maybe further. I think the hardware is not too expensive. They have a website here. http://gmrs.network/ I'm sure Bend has a ham radio club if you are interested in that. They usually have classes to get your license.... when covid is not in the way. Vince

I agree that the Nagoya 771G is a very good antenna. The Wouxun 805G factory antenna is not bad but the Nagoya showed a clear improvement. I have had very good results from Smiley telescoping antennas on my Ham radios. Some of them are dual band and should not be fully extended for 440-460MHz. You have to read the instructions carefully. If you really want to "kill it" check out some of the Arrow brand beam antennas made for 440MHz ham band. These are available from Ham Radio Outlet and have BNC connectors so you need adapters and a short cable. I have not specifically tested the SWR but should be fine based on tests of other 440Mhz ham antennas I have. These are take-down antennas that you would put together on site - such as at a remote location. They are large when assembled but transport pretty small like a "pack" fishing rod. You would not walk around with one of these though... or you'd look like a real nerd if you did. Vince

Probably this has already been discussed over the years. I finally got around to testing a couple of my mag mount 70cm or 440MHz ham band antennas on my Wouxun 805G GMRS. The SWR was below 1.5:1 even with a very undersized ground plane. Probably would have been much better with a larger ground - like on an actual car. Both of these were dual band 2M/70cm antennas. So, for my money, these ham antennas will work just fine. Many are tunable so you can tweak them in even better. If your standards are higher you can make your own decision. Since there are many more Ham band antennas available they offer a better selection and price. In my case I already have these antennas so it's a no-brainer. They're free. Vince

The answer is "it all depends". Most receivers (especially HT's) have some protection. But if you put a high enough power close enough something bad will likely happen. I've used my 5W talkies a foot apart with no problem. I would not try this with a 50W radio though. Might be OK or might not. Vince

There is a scheme where you connect an FRS radio to your computer through a small circuit card that they sell. It connects through the internet to other users all over the US and maybe further. It's sort of like an internet based repeater. Maybe you would like that. I saw it on youtube but can't remember the name of it. I'm sure you'll find it if you search. There are many more Ham repeaters than GMRS but many are pretty quiet. So I'm not sure Ham is the answer either. Vince