SkylinesSuck

I will not touch the licensing part of that question as it seems covered. For equipment, I know some won't like the recommendation, but check out Boefang. They make a totally part 95 compliant version of their UV5R that runs under $25 a radio. A Retevis repeater seems designed for your intended purpose. Get yourself a good antenna and a mobile mast to be able to put it up and down with, and you'll be in good business to cover a local town in need.

I was hoping for a similar sub-forum.

I had the same happen here. Thought I was on a repeater in Baltimore about 50 miles away. Turns out it was an unlisted one on a mountain not far from here.

That is more restrictive than I thought. Good info, thanks.

As a matter of decency, yes. Just know that it's not the law or anything. If you put your listed or even unlisted repeater out there and somebody finds it and starts using it without permission (roger beeps and all), they aren't breaking any laws. If they comply with all applicable regulations, don't expect the FCC to do anything but laugh at you over the phone when you call in to report somebody using your repeater without your permission. Nobody owns any frequency on GMRS and if you put your equipment on the air, be prepared for anybody and everybody to use it, because they can. Is it rude? Yes. I don't want people doing it, but they can.

But who is trying to be "professional" on GMRS? Courteous and a good neighbor, yes. Anything beyond that and complying with the rules is just pretending to be something you're not.

How do you like the sound quality specifically of that Android head unit?

I leave mine on for my younger son's FRS HT just so I know it's him. My older son I trust with a GMRS HT and don't use it. They are 6 & 8 so their voices sound very similar, plus it's not going to upset many people only being in FRS toy with very limited range. It doesn't really bother me when people use it though.

I have discovered Chick fil A in my town uses FRS handhelds with their drive thru coordination. I have been sitting in line before listening to them say who goes where. Might try giving myself a shortcut and a free frosted coffee next time ?

That's what I was getting at with my question. I'm guessing no dummy load was used.

What is your test equipment?

There's a small 5w repeater by Retevis I believe that seems like it would suit your needs perfectly. As far as solar goes, I don't know of any integrated radio/solar setup, but a generic home brew solar array for that would be pretty easy and relatively cheap.

IRST stuff, or something else? I'm sure there are probably a bunch of other applications for that tech I'm just not thinking of. That's just so high profile and attention grabbing. Anywho, welcome!

Does anybody make an OTS 12v power supply with an integrated battery backup? I'm considering moving my KG-1000 inside the house since the kids would have all their needs met by a much cheaper radio. I'd like to have it for always available family comms, including when the power is out (and the wife leaves her phone on vibrate somewhere random which is the norm). I guess I could just plug my current power supply in to a standard 120v UPS, but I was wondering if there's anything out there specifically designed for this?

Oh yeah, zero worries about part 95e compliance from me. Already have a Boefang cable too. I'll look into them, thanks! Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

This gets me interested in these, especially the comments about the receive range. I like the lack of ability for the kids to really mess them up. I'm going to look in to them. Repeater capable, right?

Move them father apart. Have somebody take one into the front yard and try.

I don't think mygmrs makes those maps, so you would need to suggest it to the people who do. The maps aren't really very accurate anyways though

Just to close the loop on this, I talked with Ed and he gave me a couple of trouble shooting tips, but none of them helped. Best I can get is an swr of 2.2 with any cable, standing in the middle of my lawn with the antenna above my head, and that's on 2 different meters including a Micro VNA. He said to get back to him and I think he would/will take the antenna back and make sure it's right, but I haven't gotten back to him yet. I instead purchased a Comet CA-712EFC and it's awesome. SWR is no higher than 1.3 and I can easily open up 3-4 new repeaters. This is using all the same cabling so pretty sure the old antenna was the culprit. I'm looking forward to trying some simplex testing to see what's what. Only downside I have noticed so far is my air band reception seems to have disappeared. Maybe because it's so directional now? Not a huge deal for me except now the kids can't listen to me at work.

I had a handheld 8w CCR hooked up to a Jpole 0dbi gain antenna on my kid's treehouse. I upgraded all the cables to lmr400 and put a 50w radio in. I could still only open up the same repeaters. I just installed a 9dbi gain antenna with the same setup and can hit 3-4 new repeaters. I am anxious to test out how my simplex range has changed with a specific other base station I couldn't reach before, but it appears the antenna did a lot more so far than the extra watts ever did.

I haven't done air to ground with GMRS/FRS, but I'm sure it would work great for the intended purpose you describe. Not really helpful to your question, but I was in CAP in the NC wing as a cadet years back. We did lots of SAR related activities and the ability to communicate with random joe schmoes on the ground, especially lost ones out hiking or whatever from the air is great. I still maintain GMRS's biggest advantage over HAM is the fact that it's so easily accessable to so many random people. That can at times be a negative as well, but I think the good far outweighs the potential bad.

I had this speaker sitting in a box in the garage from forever ago that was plugged in to my old CB. It was pretty quiet and not really helpful in that application. For shits and grins I plugged it in to the KG1000 and it works great! Nice and loud. Interesting feature of the radio is one speaker plug does one side/band/channel/whatever, and the other side does the other. While I could see that being a nice option for some people's purposes, I want all external speaker, all the time. I used the Y adapter they sell on B2WRs and both sides of the radio come out of the speaker now. The radio speakers still put out sound btw. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000246VPM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_ZWRXB5TQ4F7YS1KKFZ90?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

That only works with unread content. If you want to go back to a thread you've already viewed to reply later or look something up is when you have to do the little dance. Nothing huge. Just didn't know if there was an easy setting to tick or something.

Yes, that is a super common plug used on many computer and related accessories. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072BYGKZZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_15B035PV8EMTR1R8KZDQ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks!