SteveShannon

You definitely want split tones if you’re trying to secure your tone, otherwise your repeater is transmitting the code to everyone who listens.

I didn’t say it was easy. That’s an absolute modifier. I was making a comparison. I said it was easier than getting a license for ham radio. Navigate FCC site + $35 = GMRS Navigate FCC site + $35 + Test = Ham

That’s what I tried to explain the other day. Xmit frequencies are fixed but it doesn’t matter because a person can still edit the receive frequencies. Just pick a channel with the correct xmit frequency and edit everything else.

Hi Bob, For each repeater you’d like to use, go the repeater part of this website and request permission. Welcome to the forum!

It’s the same for both ham and GMRS so it cancels out.

Ham radio is aimed at people who are interested in the science and technology of radio communications. People who just want to communicate have to jump through some hoops to become a ham. GMRS is easier, covers your entire extended family, and doesn’t require jumping through hoops. Just pay your $35.

That’s too bad. There should have been and it should have been just as public as the insults.

No, because scanning for the input tone isn’t as easy as scanning for the output tone. Make them different. Also, most people are honest and will honor your rules. But if you’re thinking about making your repeater a money making scheme beyond costs you might want to review the regulations.

Did you insult him in a PM?

I never get any feedback after I report a post. Usually the response is that the owner, @rdunajewski contacts the poster (you).

Unless you never transmit to it you can’t because any transmission can be scanned. That has nothing to do with the repeater brand or model. If you need security neither GMRS nor ham radio are appropriate.

I’m a member of a 40 meter net that meets three times per week. One guy was always getting on and complaining about various problems until one day he died. Perhaps talking to us about his problems was comforting to him in some way but it certainly didn’t improve his situation. Maybe he should have been communicating with his doctor instead. Frankly, I think it’s stupid to announce medical problems and other personal information on-air. It makes you more vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves. Not only that but it is often disgusting. Fortunately, with ham radio I have a multitude of alternative frequencies and even bands. With GMRS, the hapless users are limited to 8 repeater channels.

Excellent suggestion! A vertical antenna can be easily hidden inside or alongside a fiberglass flagpole.

You have three problems that team up to cause you problems. Length, resistive losses, and mismatched impedance. First, RG6 is the wrong impedance. It’s 75 ohm, which matches television equipment but not two way radio equipment. For very low loss cable that would not automatically be a problem but as WRYZ926 pointed out you’re working with UHF here which leads to: Second, it has high resistive losses. The losses for 100 feet of RG6 are a little more than 6 dB. That’s 75% of your signal that would be converted into heat by your cable. So if you’re using a 50 watt radio the antenna would only ever see 12.5 watts. That’s on transmit. The same thing happens on receive. Your antenna is acted upon by a certain number of micro volts of RF but only 25% of that reaches your receiver. A mismatched impedance alone isn’t a kiss of death but combined with a lossy cable it is. I absolutely agree with LScott that you should use at least LM400 or a high quality similar cable like M&P 10 mm Ultraflex. Either of those will “only” cost you 2.7 dB of the signal, or just under half. And I agree with LScott that LMR600 (or its 13 mm equivalent from M&P) would be much better.

It can take up to a week. My belief is that there’s a weekly update of the my GMRS database. I think you’ll be recognized within the next two days.

Welcome!

An SWR of 2 on a handheld radio is nearly meaningless. I wouldn’t worry about it at all. All the power will still go out the antenna.

Having an RX tone will filter out all transmissions that don’t have that tone. Leaving the receiver tone out will allow you to receive everything transmitted on that frequency.

Well probably not. But maybe you can use it to pull in some LMR-400. What length?

I wouldn’t for gmrs. That’s something that ham radio operators frequently do and the regulations in many countries support foreign hams operating while visiting, BUT many (perhaps most) countries do not have such reciprocity for any other service.

Not really because you still lose the power. If you lose 6 db in your cable you’ve lost 75%. If you use a 6 db gain antenna it gets you back to where you started, but only in the direction of the 6 dB gain. But you can reduce the loss through the cable by using a better cable. Welcome!

So pick the channel with the correct transmission frequency and edit the receive frequency. I suspect that’s how they maintain their 95e certification by locking you into the specific channels.

Menu 15 adjusts TX compander. Menu 16 is for RX compander, or noise reduction. I would play with them both to see if they help. They use gain control to perform their their actions. Interestingly to me the Retevis radio includes a menu 14 Scramble. The manual for the DB20G skips from 13 to 15.

I’ll report your post to the owner. He can help.

You’re overthinking it. It’s true that there must be a good electrical connection between the roof of your vehicle and the chassis ground or you may get noise issues, but the antenna base electrically couples to your roof like a big capacitor. High frequency signals pass through capacitors.