Blaise

[Don't start fights]

No kidding?

Was it something I said?

That's it! You guys rock.

Hey all, I've slowly been building out a communications system for my family, a mixture of FRS/GMRS handhelds and GMRS mobile units. My goal was to program a channel into each labeled "Family" (well not on the FRS units, but you get the idea), all set to the same CTCSS code. The hardest part of this (I thought) was digging up the CTCSS frequencies for the units that only use a "code" for CTCSS, but I eventually got it all figured out. So now, my mobiles and handhelds all have a common channel which should filter out any outsiders' transmissions. So I started testing... And I almost immediately discovered that my Radioddity DB-20G, on which the channel is confirmed to have a CTCSS tone set (i.e. the "CTCSS/DCS Encode" and "CTCSS/DCS Decode" fields for the channel are both not empty and set to the correct frequency), the channel happily receives transmissions on that channel which have no CTCSS tone set at all... Anyone have any thoughts as to how this could be happening?

I second the BaoFeng BF-F8HP/UV-5R8W. I have four now. I can't see any performance/range difference between the Nagoya NA-771 and Nagoya NA-771G antennas, but both let me communicate easily with a repeater 40+ miles away. Honestly, I can even sometimes hit that repeater with the stock antenna, but it doesn't reliably open for me, probably due to faint signal!

Hey, thanks for the responses. I may just start with one, and see how it goes. I don't think the peak of the tower is tall enough to mount both antennae colinearly, but I still haven't cut the hole and measured yet!

I'm thinking of putting antennae in the tower on my Victorian home. It's indoors, but there's basically nothing around at that height for a mile or so (other than the half-inch of plywood/asphalt), and nothing significant for several more, so I feel like I should get pretty solid range out of the setup. I have concerns, though, about having a cb antenna in close proximity to a gmrs antenna. Will they interfere with each other? If so, how bad would that interaction be, and what kind of spacing is appropriate?

The price of a gmrs license went from cheap to cheaper, so you're glad you got a ham license? Color me confused...

So apparently, it's really happening?

What do you monitor? Do you hit any of the local repeaters?

Is it weird that I read that in your voice?

Hi guys! So just for the moment, to start discussions, I set up a Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/uhgmrs I'm beginning to think we need to cast a wider net to collect enough people to make a community, so don't get hung up on the "upper" bit!

Such empty.... ?

Hey folks, So I'm trying to get a local group together to discuss GMRS possibilities in my area. I'd like to make connections with GMRS operators in the Hudson to Champlain area of New York State. Anyone out there? It's a bit quiet on the airwaves!

Honestly, I can't tell if all the comments are as tongue-in-cheek as the video, of if they really are that religiously devoted to whatever he says!

Hey, thanks for that. I was wondering why those frequencies were on all the SHTF lists the preppers are always building...

That's my experience. You can't even paste a single piece of text into a single field! I had to manually transcribe every frequency by hand from chirp...

I should have been more specific. I meant copy and paste into the software...

Yeah, the blank row thing was my first thought. Sadly, I still have to manually type every input on every line for my 90 or so standard channels!

As always, you guys are amazing, and have data the great Google God can't provide me. My firmware version is 2.33, and this trick works like a charm! Now if I could only find a way to get the software to let me copy/paste!

Really? My DB20-G is so locked down that Tx is only allowed on 22 of its channels, and all of those have preset frequencies! I can't even clone a channel so that I have an open version and a version with pl codes...

OK, so I went and re-measured frequency by frequency in a big, empty parking lot. What I see is that my lowest SWRs are near 462.7, and my highest are near 462.5. My DB20-G prevents transmission outside this range, but it looks to me (based on a naive linear extrapolation) like the optimal SWR will be *significantly* higher than 467. Unexpectedly (to my own hapless self, anyway), on the lower channels, the SWRs span from 2.27 to 2.25, while on the higher channels, whose frequencies span approximately the same range, the SWRs span from 2.75 to 2.69. Am I crazy to assume that this means the electrical characteristics change with different amounts of transmission power? In any event, if my understanding is right (and I fully acknowledge the likelihood that it isn't!), this means that my antenna is too short. Now, my hacker's inclination is to braze on a few inches of stainless rod and trim it back as necessary, but I feel like all my other instincts when it comes to radio equipment have been wide of the mark,so I'd really like it if you folks could give me a sanity check here!

OK, so I guess I was just confused (hardly uncommon). But if FRS radios are allowed on the high channels, why did the Motorola Talkabouts I got 2-3 years ago come with a stern warning that I needed to get a GMRS license to operate on those frequencies?

So here's another dumb question. I've been fitting out my family for local communications without cellphones, and for Christmas, I got my young kids the smallest, cheapest FRS certified handhelds the Amazon was able to provide (Retevis RT38's, $9.50 each!). They are cute, brightly colored, and have very few buttons or features. After the kids played with them on channel one for a while this morning, they moved on to other things, and I picked one up to fiddle. I discovered that not only can they *receive* on GMRS 15-22, they can transmit, as well. At 0.5 watts, of course, but still! I even picked up a repeater ident on it... If the cheapest, nigh-disposable FRS radios I can find are outfitted for GMRS, are there *any* that don't? And are my kids technically breaking the law if they wander into a high channel?