SteveShannon

Look up the call sign, look up the owner, write a letter. GMRS call signs and thus GMRS Stations, are individual, not club held.

5 MHz. And the certified 95e mobile and portable radios all have 5.000 MHz programmed in. There’s no regulation that says it must be exactly 5.000 MHz but the regulations limit radios to transmit on the 467 MHz Main channels to repeaters and limit repeaters to transmit only on the 462 MHz Main channels. So the difference is almost always about 5 MHz Some repeater owners complied with the regulations but deliberately selected channels that are not exactly 5.000 MHz apart. That effectively blocks radios that are 95e certified, forcing a person to either use an unlocked ham radio or commercial radio.

Channel 17 and channel 17rp both receive on the same frequency. That's why you hear the same chatter on both channels. But the channels marked rp differ in their transmit frequencies. They are for specifically configured for repeater use. A radio set to channel 17 receives and transmits on the same frequency, 462.600 MHz. That's referred to as a "simplex channel." A radio set to channel 17rp receives on 462.600 MHz, but transmits on 467.600 MHz. That's the 5 MHz offset Randy (@OffroaderX) mentioned. The repeater receives on 467.600 MHz and is designed to simultaneously transmit what it receives on 462.600 MHz. Transmitting and receiving at exactly the same time is called duplex.

Their market isn’t radio aficionados. They build radios that are easily programmed from the front panel for a single repeater on each of the repeater channels. They’re just right for a family farm or family recreational activities.

Or stock up on enough toilet paper and trade it for batteries!

Like almost every such general question, the only possible answer is “It depends.” For short range communications to a group, FM VHF and UHF (including GMRS) shine, if and only if you have plans for what to do in the event of a disaster, interference, zombies with RDF equipment, etc. You must have backup plans as well and backups to those. Yes, I believe you need ham radio in the mix and a way to monitor shortwave and broadcast bands. The news you eventually piece together from a GMRS handheld using simplex and its short ranges might be like playing the teenage game of Gossip.

Never feel like you have to apologize for asking a question, especially after trying to find prior threads. Welcome to the site.

You’re pretty negative towards other people’s posts lately, cherry picking things to be snarky about. Is everything all right?

GMRS uses FM, frequency modulation. One of the characteristics of FM is that a receiver “captures” the strongest transmitter on a frequency. It will do so regardless of the tone, because the CTCSS or DCS has nothing to do with reception. The tone is only used to determine whether or not to audibly reproduce the received signal. So, if your wife and somebody else who is closer to you are using channel 17, you might never hear your wife. That is why aircraft do not use FM. Instead they use AM or amplitude modulation. An AM receiver can receive and reproduce multiple signals on the same frequency simultaneously, allowing a person to break into a conversation if needed.

Not at all. Midland markets entire systems to the agriculture sector as nearly plug and play systems. I wouldn’t be surprised if their GMRS radios make up half of the market.

I didn't think a person could sign up more than once per call sign. In this case your call sign is your username.

Coax should always be as short as possible. Tuning the coax to a wavelength is not necessary. At the center where the two quarter wave halves of the radiator come together, unless you use a gamma match or delta match. I don’t know them well enough to attempt to explain them. Straight dipoles are usually about 73 ohms at the center. If you have an analyzer you can splay them slightly like an isosceles triangle. That’s a delta match I think. In an inverted vee configuration you can reduce the impedance to about 50 ohms, but usually Yagi antennas have straight radiators. I doubt you’ll see less that 50. I wouldn’t worry about it.

Remember, as soon as that wire leaves the coax, it becomes part of the radiator. Any length there either adds or detracts from the radiator. A dipole radiator has a length of one half of the wavelength times the velocity factor, and then tuned for the lowest VSWR. Dipoles are usually (but not always) split in half and the shield is attached to one half and the center conductor attaches to the other half. Both shield and center conductor are attached to the inner ends of the two quarter wave halves of the dipole. I don’t understand how you would have long wire anyway unless you use a balun and feed the dipole with ladder line.

I’m not a mod, but just in case you don’t know, there is a classified ads area on this site.

All of us who read this thread.

You did, back on February 27. This forum is sometimes confusing when the posts get sorted according to votes rather than by date.

You’re right. The wire leading from the center tap of the SO 239 becomes part of the radiating element. For that reason they are usually connected directly to the radiator or with a very short wire.

It’s entirely possible that the repeater has a courtesy beep programmed. Some do. If so, you should also hear it whenever anyone else transmits. It’s also possible that your radio is programmed with a Roger beep as 709 suggests. If it’s that it will beep every time you transmit, regardless of the channel. Rather than depending upon the beep, try asking if anyone hears you while you PTT.

So RG11 truly is 75 ohm cable, but that is not terrible. It just means you’ll never get the VSWR below 1.5:1. Losses are 2.65 dB over 100 feet. That’s about the same as LMR400. Measure your power output at both ends of the cable and you’ll really get an accurate measurement of how much power you lose in the cable.

It sounds like you’re doing everything right as far as the repeater. I don’t know if the repeater you’re using is networked and you’re hearing someone connecting that way. Nor do I know what you must do to connect to them.

There’s actually a Radio Shack in Bozeman that never closed. From their ads it appears they mostly sell RC cars.

Used to be able to go to Radio Shack.

HRO carries 300 ohm ladder line: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-016485

I completely agree that the DIY aspect is fun. Just think what you could do in ham radio where your experiments are not limited to accessories and antennas. In ham radio you can make your own radios, linear amplifiers, etc. I just picked up an old Amateur Radio Handbook. This was the 20th edition (the hundredth is the current printing). It was printed during wartime, in 1943, and it has plans for “wartime radios.” It’s a fascinating look into the past. Of course transistors hadn’t been invented yet.

Transmitting 10 watts, actually up to 50 watts, on a handheld is allowed on all of the main GMRS channels, just not onthe interstitial channels. On 15-22 and 23-30 you could transmit 50 watts as long as your batteries held out and you were crazy enough to transmit 50 watts inches from your head. It’s simply the fact that it’s not designed and certified for 95E that makes you a rule breaker.