Raybestos

Weird things do happen. Please see my edit to my above post. In the mid 1990's, I worked at a police department that operated on 460 MHz. One night, we had one of those weird and rare, "pea soup" fogs that was very RF friendly. For about 2-3 hours, another department was coming in loud and clear. It used the same PL as our department as it broke through on our PL decoders on our ht's and mobiles. We could hear their dispatch and some of the cars coming through our repeater. Likewise, some of our cars and ht's would key up their repeater and make strong interference where our repeater just barely came over it. I wanted badly to ask them where they were but knew I would probably get a butt chewing from one of the Sergeants or Lieutenants given that our whole city was dispatched on that channel and was very busy. We never heard that department before or after that, so it must have been at some distance. We regularly heard other departments 100 or so miles away, if we turned off our PL decoders.

It can and does happen, but usually not very often. It certainly is not likely that it would be recurring for around a month. A friend worked in a VZW call center about 20-25 years ago. He told me that periodically customers would call from South Carolina, complaining that they were billed for roaming and long distance when they were talking to someone inside of their local calling area. He said the bill, and their database showed the call as having been made on a tower in New York state. He said his Customer Svc representative was arguing with a customer about this. He told her he would handle the call. He explained to the rep and the customer what happened. The call log showed the customer making or receiving calls within thirty minutes before and after the disputed call. They were on local towers in South Carolina. The disputed call had obviously hit a weird condition, "band opening", or "skip", which allowed the pocket-sized phone to hit a tower in New York state, incurring the roaming and long distance charges. There was no way the customer could have travelled from SC to NY, and back to SC in such a short time frame. He issued credits and apologies to the customer. He said they had a handful of such incidents over about a two year period of time. If that can happen at 800 MHz, it can happen at 462 MHz.

Is it possible that you are getting bled on by a repeater more close to yours and that the people in Indiana you hear are on a linked system that a more local to your repeater also is on?

That is an interesting thought! I was unaware of that possibility.

Browsing My GMRS repeater listing just now, I noted the number of repeaters listed for SC had jumped from 41 to 43, but I saw no new listings. Finally, I noticed that the listing's for Hopkins and Palmetto GMRS Columbia 725 had "duplicates" with the "duplicate" listing in all lower case letters. The information for both differed somewhat from the legitimate listings to include a coverage map for Ft Meyers, FL for each. Looking around, I noted similar weirdness on other states' sites, to include the Kershaw, SC repeater being listed on the North Carolina page as being Lancaster, NC. Again, the coverage map shows the Ft Meyers, FL area. Under the Georgia repeater listings, there is a lower case listing for "camden", again with a Ft Meyers coverage map. Not sure how widespread this is but I wanted to make you aware of it.

Even the Baofeng UV5G has a better channel setup than the GM-30. The UV5G allows for setting up additional channels such as repeater channels with whatever PL tones you might need or even simplex channels with whatever tones you may need in addition to the standard 30. I get that there are some people out there in the world who will only ever use their GMRS radios to communicate simplex with one-another and some of them may actually never use the PL on their radios. More power to them. I find it difficult to imagine the majority of GMRS users will not at some point, either from personal curiosity or with encouragement from more technically savvy friends, decide they want to use performance enhancing features on their radios like repeaters and PL codes. For those people, such a poorly designed radio as this will be virtually useless. I gave mine to a GMRS newcomer who had expressed interest in buying one so he could see what he would have been getting and to save him the aggravation.

I bought a GM-30 earlier this year and found it to be a total piece of crap. Instead of giving you "extra" channels you could configure to your own needs as the Wouxun radios do, the GM-30 gave you a few sets of eight (repeater/50W simplex) channels and ONLY those channels. The only channels fully configurable to your specs were the thirty standard GMRS channels. I forget how many sets of those eight repeater/50W simplex channels it had, but one glaring glitch was that the odd numbered channels (15, 17, 19, 21) would only allow for simplex use, and the even numbered channels (16,18,20,22) would only allow their use on repeaters. I even got the much superior RT Systems software in hopes it would allow for a work-around, but it did not. My guess is that your group if on a repeater is on one of those odd numbered channels, and if on simplex, is on one of the even numbered channels. If you are trying to communicate with your group and are using the "extra" channels, try using GMRS 15 thru GMRS 22 if on simplex, and GMRS 15 Repeat thru GMRS 22 Repeat (in the first thirty channels) if trying to connect through a repeater. I no longer have that radio, but it seems they had some crazy numbering for the repeater channels like "Repeater 1" thru "Repeater 8" or similar. I thought FCC rules required a standard numbering system for GMRS radios. If you can't get it to work and you still have time, send it back and get a refund. I waited too long to start trying to program mine and by the time I realized it was a dog, it was too late to send it back. I did buy a Radioddity GA-510 and am generally happy with it. It is a ham radio but fully configurable on all channels and will allow programming of FRS, GMRS, MURS, and more. Good luck!

I hope so, too. I wonder if he has any radio gear. If so, knowing that would be helpful so searchers and the public in that area could be encouraged to turn on their radios and monitor for possible distress calls from this gentleman.

Hi Uncle Yoda! In the scope that I have always heard the term "node" used, they are always hooked to a network of some kind and almost always simplex or semi-duplex without a repeater function. That lack of repeater function leads to the enhanced potential for people trying to talk through the node transmitting on top of each other. I apologize for the lack of clarification. When I posted that I was getting a lot of back-to-back phone calls. That may not be a complete definition, but it is how I have generally understood nodes.

Just be cautious in applying that technique. Sadly, it has its limitations. My ex did not buy into my story that the other woman in the house had always been there.

The key is to play it off very smoothly. My last wife, not a radio or a gun person, would occasionally question a new radio or gun in the house. "No, it has always been here. Don't you remember it?" Or, you can try, "It was at my mother's house. She was tired of it taking up space there, so I brought it here." Best of luck on your new acquisitions!

Nodes are kind of like a linked repeater, but in some ways even more annoying. Like a linked repeater, they frequently pipe in blather and useless conversations from other parts of the state or nation, that have little or zero relevance to anything in the local area. Like linked repeaters, they have the potential to tie up one of the precious few (8) repeater pairs/50W simplex channels that GMRS has available, with useless chatter that has no relevance or bearing on the local area. Unlike linked repeaters, people using a node may not be in range of one-another and as a result, will not always hear each-other when communicating with someone via a node. This may result in doubling and unintentional interference in the local area around the node. For instance, you may have a node piping in conversation from another county or state in your local area. You are located fifteen miles west of the node and hit it and receive it with ease from your home. Another guy lives fifteen miles east of the node. Likewise, he hits and receives the node with ease from his home. You and the other guy, however, cannot hear each other. Let's say the two of you are each in a conversation with a third guy who is coming in via the node. Each of you will hear and talk with this third guy. If it is a lively conversation, since you and the guy fifteen miles on the other side of the node cannot hear each other there may be doubling, or stepping on each-other's transmissions when trying to talk to the guy on the node. It will create difficulty for him in hearing the two of you. While there might be legitimate useful potential in having a node at a remote site for limited use by you and close family or friends, most are just a cheap way to clog up one of the few channels on GMRS that are available for repeater or 50W simplex use.

I know it is a pain in the rear, but if you feel up to it, and you really do need to be in the mood to do such, try sending the FCC a request that they address this festering issue. I did last year. They acknowledged receipt but that was the last I heard of it. The more requests they get to fix this problem, hopefully prohibiting ALL forms of repeater and "node" linking on GMRS, the more likely they are to act. Wish I could help with a link or such but once I finished the task and cleaned up all the hair I had pulled out of my head and armpits while trying to navigate the FCC site and processes, I forgot much of it. You are a GMRS licensee so you have some understanding of what I mean about that.

...or better yet, WHY? Is it to make oneself feel important by tying up as many of the eight (and only eight) channels available for repeater and/or 50W simplex use in as many areas as possible, with the same conversation at the same time?

I used to see this in ham, a lot. At one time, the American Radio Relay League put out a paperback "Repeater Directory" each Spring. Others and myself couldn't wait to see the new edition, each year, curious to see what (if any) new repeaters might have gone up in our area. Often as not, the "Repeater Directory" was full of "paper" and "vapor" repeaters that had either been off the air for years, or had never existed to begin with. For reasons I have never understood, some people got a perverse ego trip from seeing their call sign next to a non-existent repeater or repeaters in the Directory. For reasons few if any understood, the ARRL would only accept the word of the alleged repeater owners or trustees with regard to the status of a repeater (on-line, off-line, never existed, off-line for decades, etc). This enabled the paper and vapor repeater "owners" to keep their names up in lights, so to speak, practically forever. I tended to associate such behavior with the same kind of mental disorder that fuels the stolen valor hacks, who claim to have served in the military, received certain medals or honors, have been Navy Seals or Green Berets, but in real life never did any of those things. Sadly, we see the same illness here on GMRS, too.

I always tell those clowns that while I am an honorably retired cop, I will not contribute to them because most of these organizations speak out against restoration of our gun rights, such as "Constitutional"/ Permitless Carry bills. Funny, they never try to argue. They just hang up on me.

https://www.westmarine.com/icom-m37-floating-6-watt-handheld-vhf-radio-19684471.html?&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=[ADL][PLA] Electronics %26 Navigation_ Control&utm_content=autoag0000x21019817508x19684471&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsuSzBhCLARIsAIcdLm5R3bZDsgyfgwSgHAqaSYQXMVfFFi9lFyQCJLynFeH_nPuZ1HKc94saApobEALw_wcB This might be a bit closer to the model in your pics. Unlike the other one I posted above, this particular radio has three buttons in the center vertical column of the keypad, where the first one I posted only had two, there.

Sorry, this left me hanging, too. My gut tells me this "might" be an Icom product. Not sure if it is or not and not sure what model if it is. Edit: I don't think it is the exact model, but it looks similar to this. https://www.westmarine.com/icom-m25-floating-handheld-vhf-radio-20816591.html?&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=[ADL][PLA] Electronics %26 Navigation_ Control&utm_content=autoag0000x21019817508x20816591&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsuSzBhCLARIsAIcdLm6UnSdYHqjMjU4kjsh8GqP5Ymq9Dwfg_N7UO3JY24gEGz-tpp37MVgaAiTREALw_wcB If you don't mind my asking, is this related to a poaching or trespassing issue?

Why pollute the limited spectrum of GMRS with blather from other parts of the country? A stand alone repeater allows for better, uninterrupted local coms than one linked to a net or other repeaters.

In case anyone missed it, Not A Rubicon has an excellent interview up on YouTube now, with the President of the impacted club in New York State. Things are different than what most of us guessed but it is NOT a hoax. Thanks Randy!

Okay! I will be anxiously awaiting the Paul Harvey on this. Thanks for the reply! Out of "likes" for today but I will come back tomorrow and leave one.

Oh no. That wasn't my meaning at all.

Hi Amaff! In the comments on Not A Rubicon's most recent YouTube video (New Midland GMRS ht's), a poster said that the FCC had shut down a repeater in New York state for "linking to the internet" or similar. Randy asked several important questions in trying to get to the bottom of the alleged issue, with the poster swearing that this really happened. Randy provided his contact info. It appears from the OP above, it may have all been bs.

So, it was just more empty bs?

Aye, but in many parts of the country, this goes on every day. The annoyance these Chatty Cathy's generate on one repeater is multiplied by each additional repeater in whatever network or linking system they are connected to. The thing that makes the whole linking system thing so annoying is that these marathon filibusters often take place on one, maybe two at the most, repeaters; yet they jam up multiple repeaters and pairs in a county, state, or larger geographical area. In areas where these linked systems are prevalent, not only are repeaters in said "network" tied up, but so are other repeaters owned by different people, or people just trying to use those few (eight) 50W Simplex channels to keep in touch with family and friends.