rdunajewski

You have an Amtateur callsign, not a GMRS callsign. A GMRS license is required for this site and to operate on GMRS frequencies. An Amateur license does not grant any privileges. A license lasts for 10 years and covers your immediate family members as well, no test is required.

https://community.allstarlink.org/t/concern-about-gmrs/15549/73?u=n2dlx He started with his nonsense over on the Allstar forums. I felt the need to do a little damage control since these loosey-goosey networks are doing all kinds of stuff that can reflect poorly on GMRS linking in general. Behavioral health is not an area I have expertise in, but this guy definitely seems to have some serious problems.

Ah, yes. Corey will have lots to add here as his dealings have gone much further. Long story short, the guy is a nutcase and I had to ban him from myGMRS after constant nonsense. It started with him trying to list dozens of fake repeaters claiming he has hundreds of repeaters he was going to personally finance and put up all over the country for everyone to use for a fee. Needless to say, he lives in a trailer in the middle of nowhere and everything he said was a lie. Don't send any money whatever you do! If you're going to waste perfectly good cash, at least go spend it in our store so you get something in return, and not empty promises.

Thanks, just remember they need the discount code as well. It's not automatically discounted. Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

We have some big news regarding our new online store! myGMRS is now an Authorized Reseller for Midland Radios! This means you can be certain you're purchasing original product properly sourced from the manufacturer and they will stand behind their warranty should there be any issues with the product. With many manufacturers, if you don't buy from official channels they will not honor their warranty, which puts the consumer in a very tough spot when they have a problem. We now carry the MicroMobile series (which are repeater capable) and some of the X-TALKER series handheld radios! These are Part 95 certified so you will be 100% legal on GMRS. To celebrate, we're offering 20% off all Midland products from now until February 1st! Just enter the discount code MIDLANDLAUNCH at checkout to get the discount. No limit on number of items! Midland MicroMobile MXT400 40W Radio Midland MicroMobile MXT400VP3 40W Radio Value Pack Midland MicroMobile MXT275 15W Radio (Remote Head) Midland MicroMobile MXT115 15W Radio Midland X-TALKER T290VP4 Radios (2-Pack) Midland X-TALKER T295VP4 Radios (2-Pack) Midland MXTA12 Antenna Mag Mount Base Thanks for supporting myGMRS.com!

Unfortunately with shipping that's a better price than I could give on these. I can sell them, but only the DB404-B is currently listed on the store for $499 plus shipping. I have one of these, and it works very well. I needed a folded dipole antenna that wasn't too tall as it was going on the roof of a condo where penthouse owners had roof access, so having a large antenna in their sight line was a problem. All of the Decibel antennas have worked well for me, definitely worth the price. Shipping estimate is near $175 due to the size of it, so that sounds like a decent deal if it's from an authorized reseller.

I have one of these units but I haven't had the chance to throw them on the service monitor yet. Danny from BuyTwoWayRadios said they selected this model because it wasn't a radio-on-a-chip design, so the performance should be better than a lot of the CCR's. I haven't been able to independently verify that yet. The radio does work, I programmed it for a repeater a couple miles away and I was able to talk between my Kenwood NX-5300 and this radio side-by-side via the repeater. So even with the obvious desense, they still worked. That's about the extent of my testing aside from scanning around the FRS/GMRS frequencies to see what else I pick up (which isn't much as this area is very quiet now). myGMRS is also selling these on our shop, and we're working on reseller arrangements with several big names that are in the final stages. The goal is to have a GMRS-friendly shop where you can find type-accepted equipment and some non-GMRS equipment as well, like Part 90 and Amateur equipment. But if you're new to GMRS and have no idea what equipment you can buy, we'll have a clearly-marked GMRS section so you can buy something legal without worry.

Newsflash (at least to me) -- Kenwood has at least one other Grantee Code: K44. TK-8180H, TK-8160, NXR-800K, NX-800H, etc are under that Grantee Code. Also, it seems like if you search for Part 95 vs. 95A you'll get different results. Some were submitted under plain ol' 95 and some have the subpart code. With the latest Part 95 rules, GMRS is actually Subpart E now. So older equipment will have legacy Subpart A certification but new grants and Class II Permissive Changes will be under 95E going forward. Yay, confusion!

Honestly, it's just enabled that way by default. It wasn't a conscious decision. It's probably for the best, like berkinet said. Someone will go crazy and like every single thing one day and just get annoying.

We now have four-letter words for people like that.

I just don't see the ban going on for much longer. I think we as a community need to step up and make a convincing case, on the record with the FCC. When they denied the requests to permit digital voice, they specifically mentioned that there was insufficient discussion about it in the record, and thus they could not make a ruling. Once a Petition for Rulemaking is filed with a very narrow set of requests (not the kitchen sink arguments that were flying around last time -- mostly due to so so many proposed changes by the FCC, we had to defend all of them), key GMRS groups and radio manufacturers will have a chance to discuss it officially on the record and the FCC can make the determination. Even still, the main issue I see with allowed digital voice is that no Part 95 equipment (to my knowledge) is even capable of being programmed to enable it. Maybe one or two models exist that carry dual Part 90 and 95 certification. Assuming the FCC even decided to lift the restriction on digital voice, one of three things will need to happen: The manufacturers will need to begin adding digital to their lineup of radios. This is not impossible, as some low-cost dPMR radios exist for Europe, but I don't see it as something they want to jump at right now. I think the tide will turn within the next 5-10 years, but that's quite far off. The FCC would need to permit GMRS licensees to use Part 90 equipment. We've been down this road before, and they pretty much completely shut down the argument. Their position seems to be that the manufacturers just need to submit their equipment for type certification and there would be no issue. The manufacturers will need to begin certifying their equipment for Part 95 as well. For whatever reason, the manufacturers seldom cross-certify for Part 95. We're only just now getting some of the Chinese radios to have Part 95 certification (much to the chagrin of some of us), but getting Motorola, Kenwood, Icom, etc to follow suit has not been going very well. GMRS and FRS were lumped together so GMRS radios ended up being seen as bubble pack radios to sell at Walmart, not for more robust communications. Hopefully now that the combo radios are no longer able to be marketed, that means GMRS will finally get some non-bubble pack love.Digital formats are finally working their way into cheaper radios (mostly DMR at this point), so hopefully the market for digital personal communications will continue to grow and the manufacturers will get serious about meeting the demand. I think this lack of motivation will be a driving factor in the FCC not permitting digital formats in the near future. I also think the bubble pack manufacturers will sit back and moan that digital doesn't do anything special and they don't want to hear complaints of interference. It will need to be a concerted effort to get this done, but I think the case can certainly be made. Everybody needs to be on the same page and the argument eventually has to be had on the record, not just online in forums.

I disagree, on FM this isn't an issue. If the 2 stations are far enough away that they do not interfere on analog, they would similarly not interfere on digital. It's only a problem when the two systems are close enough that analog interference would occur, then the digital signal would cause nearly identical interference. The problem is when a digital transmitter is transmitting all the time (like with trunking control channels), because the analog users would hear constant noise on the same channel (no matter how faint), rather than intermittent transmissions on a normal voice channel. Remember, a digital radio transmission is NOT a digital waveform, and therefore is no more harsh on FM than an analog transmission. The wave is still a sine wave, but the modulation being applied to it results in one of a few levels of frequency shift, since it's FM (commonly 4-level FSK is used). That means that the carrier (present whether on analog or digital) is going to shift either up one of 2 frequencies or down one of two frequencies to represent 2 bits of data (00, 01, 11, 10) rather than only one (0 or 1). What you're hearing on an analog receiver is actually the rhythmic fluctuations of the modulation, shifting up and down as the bits are transmitted. By contrast, analog is rather chaotically modulated by the actual audio being transmitted (a much messier wave, but conveniently one that you can understand as a sound wave/speech/tone/etc). At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what is modulating the carrier wave on FM. A digital signal doesn't actually go any further than an analog signal, it's just that a digital receiver can more easily distinguish, for example, one of 4 frequency shifts on a faint carrier than it could with 8 kHz of audio (including a CTCSS tone) to open up squelch. Hence, most digital radios have better sensitivity on digital (at the expense of a higher error rate in decoding the bits [known as BER - Bit Error Rate]).

I don't think favoritism toward a particular standard would be in the best interest of the public, and likely wouldn't be specified by the FCC. What they are likely to do is specify a very limited set of emission designators which may or may not include the type of digital you're hoping to use (i.e. a TDMA format like DMR). So, if anyone has hopes of using DMR one day, they really need to make sure the FCC permits the associated emission type. For example, here are some common formats and their emission designators. The last 3 digits are significant as they designate the modulation and type: 2-slot DMR (MotoTRBO) voice 7K60FXE 2-slot DMR (MotoTRBO) data 7K60FXD P25 Phase I voice 8K10F1E P25 Phase I voice 8K10F1D P25 Phase II has several designators, of which 8K10F1W is one type NXDN 6.25kHz (IDAS/NEXEDGE) voice 4K00F1E NXDN 6.25kHz (IDAS/NEXEDGE) data 4K00F1D NXDN 6.25kHz (IDAS/NEXEDGE) voice+data 4K00F1W NXDN 12.5kHz (IDAS/NEXEDGE) voice 8K30F1E NXDN 12.5kHz (IDAS/NEXEDGE) voice 8K30F1D NXDN 12.5kHz (IDAS/NEXEDGE) voice+data 8K30F7W We are most likely to see the voice emissions allowed but not sure about the data or combined voice+data modes. Note that DMR is actually FXE and not F1E, which means an oversight (intentional or otherwise) by the FCC could exclude DMR simply my omitting its emission type. Now back to my opinion, I prefer DMR. Early on NXDN was a winner in my eyes, but once DMR became more openly supported and the Ham community embraced it, it has become the clear winner. Since we cannot benefit from 6.25 kHz channels on GMRS anytime soon, narrowband NXDN doesn't do anything for us except minimize adjacent channel interference, which typically isn't a big problem on GMRS to begin with. We just don't want to be locked into a particular standard and then when something new and improved comes out, we're locked in by the Part 95 rules. If it meets the emission designators, it would be open to use. TDMA systems like DMR, however, allow us to use a 12.5 kHz channel (really a 25 kHz channel, but we're occupying 12.5 kHz in this case) with 2 time slots, or virtual channels. This doubles our efficiency on a given channel, even if GMRS isn't so busy to really need it right now. It would be good for putting up one repeater and having 2 distinct usages like a private slot for the individual/family putting up the system, and a slot open for the public to use. The two groups can coexist and transmit simultaneously without affecting each other.

Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully everyone's bellies are full and you're spending time with your friends and family. Now that we're heading straight into the holiday season, I wanted to mention that we have launched a new store. Previously we had a Spreadshirt shop which only sold t-shirts and similar apparel. Now, we're expanding into other categories such as radios and radio accessories. Many of our Spreadshirt items are available on this new Shopify store. We're still working on dealer arrangements with some GMRS radio manufacturers, but in the meantime we have a great Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal: 20% Off your order of $50 or more! Just use the discount code BLACKFRIDAY19 at checkout. If you have ideas for products or designs we should carry, please let me know! https://shop.mygmrs.com/

Sounds like you're looking for a voting system where the yellow circles are satellite receivers, and the audio gets back to the transmitter site (which can and should also have its own receiver, like a normal repeater). Then you need something to evaluate the signals coming in from the array receivers and select which one to use as the transmitter's source of audio to repeat. The voter can switch fairly seamlessly between receiver sites as the signal varies during a transmission. Rather than cutting out when the signal changes, ideally a second receiver will pick up the user and the repeater will grab that other receiver's audio. Traditionally this is done with leased phone lines or microwave links which are very expensive. However, this can also be done over the Internet with one major caveat: timing. When your voter is comparing the signal quality of each receiver, the audio waves need to be in-phase (synchronized) for the comparison to work. For RF or copper links, this is pretty simple to do as everything comes in (roughly) at the speed of light. Over the Internet, however, the packets containing the audio can and will be delayed by variable amounts of time. The only way to line up the audio across various receiver sources is to use an accurate timing system like GPS to "timestamp" each packet and assemble them on the other end. There's a device called an RTCM for Allstar which does this. They're not super cheap but nowhere near the expensive professional grade stuff. You'd need one at the repeater location and one for each additional receiver, plus a GPS for each site. I've done some experimenting with these. You can even achieve simulcast where you have multiple transmitters at the same time, but the RF needs to be in-phase as well or the transmitters will interfere with each other instead of "amplifying" their collective signals. You'd need transmitters which have an external 10 MHz reference signal and a timing source based off GPS ($$) to provide a synchronized 10 MHz clock input. I haven't gone this far, and I think this is probably overkill for GMRS.

I'll be completely honest, I didn't read all of the posts above... But I recommend you make a connector that plugs into the accessory connector which jumpers 12V to Pin 3 so it will work. You might have to hunt around to find the exact part you need, but you should be able to get it from an electronics supplier online like Mouser or Digi-Key. Then you don't have a paper clip shoved in there which could pop out or worse, jumper the wrong pins and cause a short.

I wanted to point our our Community Guidelines for these forums. It's available in the footer of every page next to the Privacy Policy. Please read and understand these rules. They may change periodically if there is a need to curtail any poor behavior, but I expect the basics are good enough. The intent is to keep this a family-friendly place free of drama and argument and adult content. https://forums.mygmrs.com/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules Thank you.

Hi Everyone, Unfortunately, our moderators Gary (PastorGary) and William (spd641) will no longer be volunteering for us. I have reluctantly made the decision to remove their moderator status after some disagreements about how to run the forums resulting in William asking to have his account deleted from myGMRS completely. I appreciate the help they have given over the past few years and I know many of you feel the same as they have become staples of the community. For the time being, all management of the forums will be my responsibility and you're welcome to contact me with any concerns you may have. Thank you for your understanding and I would appreciate everyone's help in ensuring a smooth transition.

I made this new map live. Still a couple minor things to fix, but I think the ability to filter out the stale stuff is more important.

Done!

@berkinet wins the prize for being the first to notice.

Only a bit late... But I fixed these dead links.

I've been working on a new map replacement which will hide old and offline repeaters by default, but still gives you the option of showing them all. https://mygmrs.com/map-new/ I still have a lot of things to add to make it ready to replace the current map, but I wanted to share the progress now and get feedback from the community here. Some outstanding issues are: The label below each icon needs to be styled, so it stands out against a dark background. I'm having trouble getting this to work with the library I've chosen to use on this version of the map, but I'm sure I'll be able to find a way without scrapping anything. Clicking on the repeater icon should modify the URL to point to the repeater ID that is selected. Repeater details (the description field) aren't visible yet. Several repeaters do not have GPS coordinates and show up at 0, 0 which is off the coast of Africa. This is mainly a problem with the database that needs to be fixed, but the map should hide them since it's obviously wrong.At least the performance of loading that many repeaters and toggling the switches on and off seems to be quite good. Let me know if it's slower for you than the current map. I have big plans for a complete site redesign to make it more modern. I've headed down this path several times but got bogged down between work and my personal life, so I never got a complete redesign done. I've been making small changes here and there to support this big effort, so I'm hoping we can get a better site off the ground which will solve some of the pain points like the stale repeaters.

Not true, GMRS can be used for business purposes as long as each individual person is licensed. No licenses will be issued to a business entity, only individuals. So if you have 5 people that need to communicate for the business, you better have 5 licenses (assuming none of them are related, otherwise the relatives can share the one license).

Try clicking My Media in the post editor. That should let you select an image or upload a new attachment.