[Won a Baoefeng DM32UV radio]

16 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

I am very familiar with Baofeng DMR CPS programming and how OpenGD77 (only available in a “limited” number of DMR radios) improves upon that experience.

I have no experience with either Hytera or Harris DMR CPS software.

Since you express so much enthusiasm about these Hytera and Harris programming benefits, now being utilized by Baofeng in the DM-32, I was hoping you would share those benefits with us. 

You assert that the “new” Baofeng DMR CPS software is a game changer on the DM-32 and I am trying to access whether another $75 purchase for this game changer is worth it. 

Can’t you download the CPS even though you don’t have the radio so you can see what you think?

[Any one close to Bushnell, Fl?]

8 minutes ago, Mrsig said:

The 50-3 Pure Copper Coaxial Extender Cable says it's "

• It is extendable that boosts the signal of your repeater significantly
• Super Gainer Low Loss Coaxial Cable
• Suitable for Retevis RT97 repeater
• Material: pure copper
• Impedance: 50Ω
• Return loss: VHF≥20dB  UHF≥15dB
• Connector plug: SL16
• Cable diameter: 5mm / 0.2inch
• Cable Length: 15 meter
• Weight: 660g"

So Is this good or true? Or should I go and spend more cash and get the Browning BR-400 Low Loss RF Coax Cable?

It might be true but none of it really means much. 
I wouldn’t use it. 
Edited: I searched for 50-3 cable and found one on Amazon that appears to be the same cable. The part you neglected to copy and paste is the cable designation: RG-58.

15 meters of that on GMRS is worse than worthless. It basically converts your RF into heat. 
As Leo said, buy good quality cable from a place that sells radios. Order the necessary length fully made from DX Engineering or some other radio dealer and don’t buy cheap. 

[SWR of 1.75, can i do better or leave it as is?]

5 minutes ago, TxHunter777 said:

23-30 came in at 1.6

I was a bit confused, as my Tidradio H3 Plus shows channels 23-30 as 462 channels vs 467. So i was basing everything off of that. 

 

Thanks!

23-30 transmit on 467 and receive on 462 to allow full duplex operation by the repeater. 

[Over use of call sign announcements on GMRS]

12 minutes ago, UncleYoda said:

I agree as far as topic of conversation.  I'm not sure we need ham style nets though.  And to compound that, people are checking in from base stations a 100 miles away and bragging about the distance while breaking the rule.

I agree that we don’t get to tell people what they may discuss. I like Nets though because sometimes they’re a great way for people who are just starting out to learn how to use their radio. 
 

[Over use of call sign announcements on GMRS]

54 minutes ago, WSJJ679 said:

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! Yes. First day here and I'm here for this.

Welcome!

[Repeater Off-Sets are different with HAM.]

35 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

That is always an option. I would like to keep everything self contained into one case if all possible. I am also trying to avoid any unnecessary holes in the case if possible.

I have enough room to mount a 15" portable monitor and the remote faceplate of my radio into the lid of the Apache 5800 case. The 5800 has standoffs in the lid for mounting stuff. 

I'm still in the planning stage right now with the setup. I did buy some 1/8" x 1" aluminum stock to mount the monitor and faceplate to the lid. I need to get the radio main unit and mini pc mounted and then see how much room I have left. The Beelink S13 runs off of 12v DC.

 

PS; sorry for the thread drift.

Sounds great!

[SWR of 1.75, can i do better or leave it as is?]

1 hour ago, TxHunter777 said:

I think I will have to program my unit then (still learning how to use it) as the only 467 mhz channels that are pre-programmed are 8-14 which the unit will not transmit on. Will do some more research and report back ! 

Thanks!

Won’t it transmit on RP15-RP22 (aka 23-30), the repeater channels?

["Illegal" radios]

1 hour ago, WRTC928 said:

Go back and read what I said. I didn't suggest doing it. I said it's not likely to cause someone else problems so I'm not going to get worked up about it.

I think his statement was directed towards Randy, not you.

[Radtel RT-880 vs Quanssheng UV-TK11(8).]

42 minutes ago, WSAA635 said:

I'm actually leaning toward 6M over 10M because of antenna size.

That’s a better choice. When you mentioned HF I figured you meant 10 meters.  6 meters is actually VHF (VHF is 30 MHz to 300 MHz).  The Yaesu vx-7 is the radio I would suggest.  It’s no longer manufactured but they’re out there. 6 meters, 2 meters, 1.25 meters, and 70 cm. 

[Radtel RT-880 vs Quanssheng UV-TK11(8).]

6 hours ago, WSAA635 said:

I guess some of you didn't see the $100 total limit that I have. The RT 880 will probably be the one I'll go with if I get anything at all.

Amateur radio is all about playing with radios to see what you enjoy.  The RT-880 might be a gas, but honestly, don’t expect much froman inexpensive handheld that does HF, even without a $100 limit.  The only HF band you could barely do with a handheld with an attached antenna would be 10 meters and even then you’ll be limited.  The simple laws of physics require a certain antenna length based on frequency in order to be effective.  A quarter wave ten meter antenna is going to be two and a half meters long.

Now there are some all band all mode portable radios with built in batteries that I would love to have. One is the Icom IC-705 and another is the Yaesu FTx-1.  There’s also the Lab599 TX500, but it doesn’t do 2m or 70cm.  All three of these are self contained hi end portable radios.  All three require an external antenna of some kind. All three go over your budget by more than $1000.  The battery for the TX500 is $400 all by itself. As long as I’m dreaming there are a lot of other QRP radios to play with such as Elecraft.  And although I haven’t seen it available in the USA yet, there’s a handheld version of the Lab599 radio.

There are good deals on older mobile and radios that show up at ham fests.  I picked up an Icom IC-706MKIIG for a low price last year.  That’s a mostly full power mobile radio that does HF, VHF, and 70 cm.  I’ll put it in a go box with a battery and carry a separate antenna of some kind, maybe an EFHW or my BB7V vertical and tripod.

Anyway, don’t get discouraged by the high price of HF radios.  Deals come along.  A guy in my area said he’d like to sell his FT-991 (not the 991A but the older model) for $300 just the other day.  I don’t know what the difference is between the 991 and 991A, but that’s probably not a bad deal.

[New to gmrs]

2 hours ago, WSJI648 said:

To the OP, I am somewhat in the same boat. My best guess, as it is something that I am only as of late learning myself, is that you are not hitting the repeater. I hear traffic from my local repeater all day and night. I've tried to work it with my HT and have had zero success. I've had simplex contacts out to about 3 miles, but the repeater is much, much further than that. And even though it is atop a mountain, I have no luck.

I've decided to move up to a 50w radio and bigger antenna to try my luck.

Are you using the simplex channel that you hear the repeater on or are you on a repeater channel?

Power is seldom the problem or solution. 

[SWR of 1.75, can i do better or leave it as is?]

Try it on different channels. See what the SWR is on the channels you transmit on the most. Don’t forget the 467 MHz main channels. 
To answer your other question, you can tune the antenna by lengthening or shortening it. Changing the location of the mount can also affect the SWR. Antennas have a dip at a single frequency where they’re tuned best. An antenna analyzer helps you know whether the antenna is too long or too short. There’s nothing wrong with 1.75:1. 

[Repeater Off-Sets are different with HAM.]

33 minutes ago, WSJI648 said:

Permission to ask a potentially stupid question? Why would one have a "couple" of G90's? I understand redundancy. "One is none, two is one" kind of thing, but outside of that, what don't I know? Go easy, I'm new.

 

One for a go box and one for the car or one for the house, etc.

You can never have too many radios. 

[Repeater Off-Sets are different with HAM.]

2 minutes ago, WSAA635 said:

I guess I've got everything programmed properly. I was getting automated returns from some of the local Repeaters and I even got a call back from a YL that said I had a weak  signal with a lot of static, go figure, I'm using my BF-F8HP Pro from inside the house. I'm sure it's only pushing 5 or so watts. At least the HAM Repeaters are in operation, no deal for the Shaw Butte GMRS Repeater, it's still down and out. 

Good job getting that all configured! And congratulations on your new call sign KM7BVY.

[Linking GMRS resources]

11 minutes ago, intermod said:

Did the Commission ever respond to this, or even acknowlege it?  

He only just submitted it 12 hours ago.  The electrons haven’t cooled down yet.

[Repeater Off-Sets are different with HAM.]

8 minutes ago, WSAA635 said:

So, .600MHz, got it. It's odd that 1.25M is +/-1.600MHz, at least to me it is.

I need to go double check my 2M off-sets.

You’re right.  1.25 meter is 1.600 MHz.  It can get really confusing.  Here’s a link to a chart that makes it even more confusing:

https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Offset

[2 GRMS Repeaters on the Same Frequency.]

49 minutes ago, Mrsig said:

They shut down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuKoknU2ewg

We know, but you told us that you didn’t need to be told about the FCC rules. 

[Repeater Off-Sets are different with HAM.]

It’s frequency based. For VHF such as 2 meters it’s actually 0.600 MHz offset and it can be either plus or minus. 
For UHF such as GMRS or 70 cm it’s 5.00 MHz and for the ham frequencies it can be plus or minus, but for GMRS the FCC put the repeater input frequencies in the regs. 
The frequency that’s given is always the frequency that the repeater transmits and your radio receives. For the frequency your radio transmits you apply the offset. 
You uplink (transmit) to the repeater and you downlink (receive) from the repeater. You really will pick it up. You’re doing great. It’s just that the fire hose is so big right now. 
Edited to add: most of the better ham radios automatically select the correct offset value based on frequency, but sometimes you have to override the direction. 

[Repeater status]

21 minutes ago, WSFR966 said:

Does anyone know a website where you can see if you are hitting a receiver? In Michigan, W8CMN Network doesn’t do that anymore.

For GMRS I don’t know of any.   For amateur radio there’s the Reverse Beacon Network, but you will only get results from receivers that participate.

[2 GRMS Repeaters on the Same Frequency.]

1 hour ago, Mrsig said:

Thanks.

But really, you have two repeaters that are only 4 miles apart in the flattest state in the union and they’re on the same frequency.  They’re going to interfere with each other.  Use just one and get the antenna up another 40 feet.

[Thinking about getting into DMR.]

30 minutes ago, UncleYoda said:

OK, I guess I could have tried it w/o registering an ID and see what trouble it caused.  But even then, I'm a staunch analog defender and I hate the way digital modes were allowed to take frequencies from 2m/440.  And I hear some of it on GMRS too even though not allowed.

I don't oppose what you're proposing for ch. 8-14 as they are worthless to me now.  But I wouldn't buy a $150 HT for that.  If they can include it on the $30 radios, then probably so, as long as the radio still supports analog on the other channels as you said it should.

How were frequencies taken from 2m/70 cm by the digital modes? 

[2 GRMS Repeaters on the Same Frequency.]

27 minutes ago, Mrsig said:

Can any one tell me how to link them?

 

[What are some good frequencies to program.]

39 minutes ago, WSAA635 said:

One radio I'm looking at will do HF with 6M on the standard antenna. 

I’m not sure if you meant that 6 meters is HF. 
Although most (all perhaps) HF radios include 6 meters, 6 meters is technically VHF. 
HF is 3 MHz to 30 MHz 

VHF is 30 MHz to 300 MHz 

UHF is 300 MHz to 3000 MHz (3 GHz)

[A funny thing happened at my ham test today...]

1 hour ago, WSAA635 said:

I was surprised at how easy the Technician Test was after only 3 days of studying on HamStudy.org. That really is an awesome resource for anyone wanting to get their Amateur license.  I ended up with a 34 out of 35 and it makes me wonder why I didn't do this sooner. 

While it’s still fresh in your mind start going through the General material. It builds on the technician test and adds more technical detail. I really enjoyed the studying experience. Upgrading your license doesn’t require additional money to the FCC. 

[Welcome!]

11 minutes ago, Crazy said:

All right, just found this page, a year later. Never saw any notes about activity in here, or how to find this location till just now.

 

Thanks for all the info, and fun sarcasm. I understand it all. I guess I paid for the wrong license first, my gmrs, thinking I could use it most places. Mostly I hear walmart, lowes, home depot and a few others in my travels. And still trying to learn this tid h3 on adding tone in n out.   But am waiting for a replacement as the new hardware update ruined the radio.  I will be stationary for awhile, in the st louis, jefferson county, mo area. So will try to get codes dded to new chabbels whenI receive my replacement h3 gmrs/ham radio.

Happy Monday, first one in August.

Welcome