rdunajewski

Where were you when you heard it? I see you're also from NJ like WRAK968 and I. You may have been hearing his Little Egg Harbor machine or my Mercer County machine. We're working on one in Woodbury Heights as well. It's a network of over 50 repeaters across the US linked via Internet. Everyone is welcome, you just need to be in range of a repeater that is linked into the network.

I seem to think Retevis has a type-accepted intercom very similar to the one WRAK968 posted. I was digging through the OET site and found it. If I have time I'll go look it up and post it here.

I see that your callsign is in our system now. You should be able to register. We screen the guest forum posts so we don't have a bunch of spam show up.

CQ CQ CQ DX NJ

I've seen shady radio shops set people up on FRS/GMRS frequencies illegally, if this is a random repeater you've found and not one you know personally. My favorite was a FedEx hub operating a repeater on the FRS frequencies with a range of like 15 miles or more to cover their warehouse. F-bombs day and night constantly, just shocking crap you'd hear. They thought they had a private channel, meanwhile they were splattering all over FRS. Needless to say the FCC paid them a visit and got them on business band literally overnight. They had a STA grant the very next day for a business pair and their FRS repeater went silent. Not sure if they were fined, but the visit was effective.

And here's a link to our repeater network map: https://mygmrs.network/map

Hey David, Welcome! You were most likely hearing the Bronx Zoo repeater in NYC. We run a network of repeaters which use Internet for linking them together. Every Sunday we hold a National GMRS Net with a given topic, and everyone who is checked-in is welcome to briefly have the floor in a round-table discussion. We stream our nets live on YouTube, and we also have most of our previous nets available on YouTube. The net grew to be pretty popular and it was taking over two hours most nights to get to everyone. Starting last week, we changed up how the net works so check-ins are handled in advance and we can jump right into discussion to shorten the length of the net considerably. Anyone with a valid GMRS license is allowed to participate, there are no membership requirements. You will need a repeater-capable radio (which the FRS radios you were listening on are not capable of), and a GMRS license. A license costs $70 and covers you and your immediate family for 10 years, making it a great option for backup emergency communications. If you're not familiar, a repeater is typically placed on a tower, building, or other tall place and contains a transmitter and receiver to boost the signals from handheld and mobile radios to increase the coverage range. By linking them together, you can get even further range which is how you're hearing people from across the country. To get a GMRS license if you're interested, you can follow the instructions posted here: https://beta.mygmrs.com/help/get-gmrs-license We also sell repeater-capable radios through our shop: https://shop.mygmrs.com/collections/repeater-capable

That's true, the licensee is the one responsible. But consider they choose not to ID at all, you as the licensee would probably not be the target of the FCC. Instead, they would be for transmitting without a license (or, if the family members knew they were covered by your license, could be given a violation for transmitting without station identification). Long story short, just make sure they're capable of following the rules before you attach yourself to it. As long as you're confident they will take it as seriously as you do, it should not be a problem at all.

Unfortunately all the Midland handheld radios are simplex only. They know there is demand for repeater-capable handhelds and they said it's something they eventually plan on doing, but they haven't announced any new models with that functionality yet.

Technically? Yes! As the licensee, though, you'd probably be on the hook for any FCC violations (at least for the kids) but it's not so clear about the adults. As long as everyone is willing to follow the FCC rules when operating under your callsign, yes you can do that even though you won't be present.

Last one was from 2013, time to get with the times. I think this was from 2019. Getting warmer!

I just replied to your PM. Sorry if I missed your email, but didn't log into the forums until just now. I see your email has a typo (wrong callsign) so I just fixed it and emailed a password reset link to you. You should be able to reset it now.

Hi Joe, I think I was just emailing with you and you said you were able to register. Just checking if you're all set?

Glad you got it figured out!

Is that the only system you've tested with? Some repeaters don't encode the PL tone when they transmit the hang time, so you might see the green RX light but the radio will be muted. You should try talking with another radio directly on simplex to see if they are able to work together.

We're working on a new website and this will be one of the first "new" features once it's rolled out. There will be a voting system where people can indicate whether a given repeater is online or not. Using this information, we can get rid of the offline and outdated systems. Right now, we hide anything older than a year from the map page, but that's not perfect. There are systems that haven't been updated in a long time that are still on the air, and some that were listed more recently that are already gone. I think this voting system will be the better way to handle it unless someone has better suggestions. I think requiring someone to log in every year to update the listing is difficult to do, and risks hiding good stuff out there. We could also handle signal reports through this system so you can get feedback on where people are reaching it from and the signal quality.

Guess you weren't a new user but still hit the same problem. Either way, glad you're in!

I just did a big database migration the other day. There's a lookup that happens when a user who isn't registered on the forums tries to sign in the first time, and their account is created off their myGMRS username. Looks like that call was failing. Are you able to log in now?

Until this week! Retevis submitted the RT97 for FCC Part 95E approval and got it. The FCC ID is 2ASNSRT97. The interesting thing is they are only certified for 5W whereas the other RT97's are rated for 10W output. The best part? You can preorder yours now from myGMRS! I have 2 on the way from China and will place an order for more based on demand. Current ETA is mid-June for the first batch, but no idea how accurate that date is. Shipping to the US has been very slow lately due to the lack of flights from China. There are things I've ordered from early March that still haven't left the country, but they were not Express shipments. I think these have potential to explode in popularity for GMRS. Everyone wants cheap repeaters that are plug-n-play, and these are about as cheap as you can get while being type-accepted and not just 2 HTs taped together.

Hi Scott, Welcome! Once you get your GMRS license it will take another 24-48 hours for our website to see it (unfortunately a delay caused by the FCC). So be sure to come back and register as soon as you're able! GMRS repeater linking traditionally has been a contentious issue because the Part 95 rules were not clear on it. The rules were written before linking via the Internet was even a thing, so there were old rules which covered interconnection to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) to prevent autopatch use on GMRS. Rules referenced other rule parts that no longer existed, for example, it was a real mess. Everyone had been confused for many years and the FCC did not provide any clarification until the recent rule changes in 2017. Now, network connection (but still not via the PSTN) is permissible. There are blanket restrictions in Part 95 against linking, but there are overriding rules in Part 95 Subpart E which covers GMRS. This is much clearer than what we had in the past, and opens up repeater linking. There are still other rules to be mindful of, like not causing interference, making sure unlicensed users cannot transmit, cooperative channel use, etc. I have started the myGMRS Network, which uses a customized version of AllstarLink software running on Raspberry Pi computers (although you can also use 32-bit or 64-bit x86 computers as well). These run Linux and use a radio interface to connect to the repeater itself. Right now we have over 50 repeaters on the system across the US, and it's the system we use to run the National GMRS Net every Sunday. Anyone with a real repeater (no simplex nodes running at someone's house) are allowed to join the network. We sell linking bundle kits which give you everything you need except an interface cable to your repeater (and we may even be able to build a custom cable for you, depending on the repeater model). Currently there is no membership cost to join the network. Your repeaters would not need to be connected to any of our other repeaters, it's up to each owner to decide who they connect to and when. You'll see on our linking map that most repeaters are linked regionally most of the time but on Sundays they all link to our National Hub (Node 100) for the weekly net, and then disconnect to go back to being regional systems. The idea here was to have one unified system that is interoperable, but we're not forcing people to link. It's better than every group having their own setup and no common technology. myGMRS Network Map (red lines show which nodes are currently connected, red dots are currently receiving RF traffic, blue dots are offline) myGMRS Repeater Linking Bundle

I think this thread has run its course.

Topic locked for the greater good.

Your callsign was in today's update that just came in. You should be able to register now. Seems the FCC is an extra day behind this week.

As luck would have it, I just found out they are on backorder until mid-May. Midland is out of them, and your order will ship directly from them when it's back in stock.

Use the following link to have a 15% off coupon applied. You'll see it taken off during checkout. Valid thru May 1st, 2020 and limit one use per customer. https://shop.mygmrs.com/discount/MIDLANDBASECAMP?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fmidland-xt511-gmrs-base-camp-radio