wrci350

Radiodditty GM30 (decent basic GMRS radio). $23.19 Radioddity MU-5 MURS radio $27.99 TYT UV-88 amateur radio (IMHO a step above a Baofeng). $26.39 or 2 for $47.99 I won't be buying any of them because I already have them, but might be good options for others.

This would appear to be the relevant rule in Part 95 E: (3) A station may be shared only: (i) Without charge; (ii) On a non-profit basis, with contributions to capital and operating expenses including the cost of mobile stations and paging receivers prorated equitably among all participants; or (iii) On a reciprocal basis, i.e., use of one licensee's stations for the use of another licensee's stations without charge for either capital or operating expenses.

That's because it didin't.

It's obvious that some are reacting to the shutdown of this network with extreme glee, and are expecting the FCC to drop the hammer on every other linked GMRS system any day now. Could that happen? Sure. Could that NOT happen? Yes. But many of the allegations that are being thrown about are simply not true. This was not a multi-state system. I have no idea where that idea even came from. The system used ONE repeater pair (hence simulcast). There were (and are) a number of other repeaters in the region using different frequencies and some pairs that are vacant, so the system wasn't crowding anyone out. The system was not owned by the club ... the club had permission to use it. Yes, the club collected dues ... but so do most if not all amateur radio clubs. Did some (or all) of those collected funds get used to support the repeaters? I believe so, but since I was not a member I cannot say for sure. But this was NOT pay-to-play ... the repeater system was open to ANYONE, club member or not. I know, because I used the system, and am friends with others who WERE members. As others have pointed out, this was NOT precipitated by an official notice from the FCC. The owner of the system got a "heads-up" email from someone at the FCC and reacted as they felt best. I also find it interesting that the letter seemed to call out the voting receivers specifically, rather than the liniking of the repeaters.

If you are suggesting that the GMRS repeater network in western/central NY was shut down due to DMR (or other digital format) being used, I think you are incorrect. What brought you to that conclusion?

It's long, it's stiff, it's ugly, and I still haven't figured out how to make it fold! But ... I was using it on a magmount on top of the roof of my crew cab truck and had a good SWR on GMRS and MURS as well as 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm amateur frequencies. The only place it went above 2:1 was at the very bottom of 70cm although it was between 1.5:1 and 2:1 on the entire band. It worked well for me ... but it's long, it's stiff, it's ugly (did I say that??), and I now have a permanent NMO mount on my truck and I'm using a Larson NMO2/70SH which is only 19" long (less than half as long as the Comet) and actually has a *better* SWR not only on 2m/70cm but also on GMRS and MURS. It IS a unity gain antenna which may be good or bad depending on the terrain. And it's nice to be able to go through a drive-thru without taking my antenna down!

Yes. That tends to work a lot better than an HT (with rubber duck) inside a vehicle.

Take a look at the Alinco DJ-G46. My experience has been that it has a better receiver than other GMRS radios I have.

Leo, your call sign is WSCI776. That's the letter "I", not the number "1".

Sweet. What are you doing for an antenna?

Just one more note on the DJ-G46. RT Systems has released their programmer software for it. I purchased it this past Monday evening, downloaded and installed it, and right away I noticed a bug. I read the programming from the radio (that I had done with the Alinco software) and the frequencies for the custom repeater channels I had programmed were totally off (578.xxx receive and 583.xxx transmit). I contacted their tech support via email Monday night, and after I supplied a copy of my programming file via email (which was delayed because I was away from the radio and computer on Tuesday) they found and corrected the problem and issued an updated version of the software by Wednesday morning! As I said in my review, this radio doesn't have a 'menu' system so the changes you can make without programming software are quite limited. The Alinco software is "ok", but I would highly recommend the RT Systems software and cable instead, not only because it is more polished but because of their excellent customer support. I really like this radio. Hopefully it will be a success for Alinco.

OK please pardon the ignorant question, but what is the orange bar on top of the hood? Nice looking vehicle and radio install, BTW.

It's not designed to be tuned, but it IS designed to have an SWR of 2:1 or less on GMRS. I have one and it sweeps at < 1.7:1 on 462 and 467. So should work out of the box on GMRS. It's a tall and ugly antenna though!

If by "private" you mean, "no one else can use the repeater" (or at least "someone needs the non-standard tone to use the repeater"), sure. If by "private" you actually mean PRIVATE, like no one else can hear you, that's absolutely not the case. Anyone listening to the repeater with squelch tones turned off can hear everything. But you knew that, right? Keep in mind that someone doesn't need your secret tone to jam your repeater, either.

Some of the models will; some won't. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-805g.html Scroll down and there is a table listing four. 935G does, 805G, 905G, and S88SG do not. And having a dedicated NOAA radio that runs off AA or AAA batteries is a good idea. That way you aren't dependent on the battery in an HT.