SteveShannon

How do you know I haven’t done a MARS-CAP mod on Oscar? ?

The ISS doesn’t do GMRS, but it does converse with ham radio operators. There’s absolutely no correlation between the range between two handy-talkies (HT) going north and the range to a repeater to the west. Different directions, different obstacles. Maybe, maybe not. The best predictor is to tune your handheld radio to the repeater output frequency, leaving tones completely turned off, and listen to see if you ever hear the repeater. If you never hear it you are probably out of range, or nobody is using it. You cannot use FRS radios on a repeater. Yes, at higher frequencies like UHF, foliage definitely absorbs signals. So can rain. So can snow.

That background helps. Some of the FRS channels are limited to only half a watt. Some use two watts. You probably will get better range with GMRS. Now, as far as seeking permission, first you have to get a GMRS license so you can get a full login here. That will allow you greater access to the repeater page. There are two different logins: one to mygmrs.com, and one to forums.mygmrs.com. You must be logged into mygmrs.com in order to request access to a repeater on the repeater pages and you must have a GMRS license, verified to the site via the FCC database, in order to have a login. Sometimes it takes a couple days for the verification process. Once you have your login you go to the repeater page and click on the repeater you want to know about. Then you can click on a link to request access.

There’s nothing wrong with having a conversation and sometimes, in a conversation, a person will circle back to a question for more detail or even out of skepticism. “Maybe I didn’t hear that right?” “But what about this case — it seems different?” And sometimes, those of us who are explaining things answer the question we hear, not the one you asked. So, go ahead and ask as many questions as you want. But, understand that we might get testy if you ask the same question over and over in the same way. Repeaters do not need to be in-between two radios geographically. They just need to be within range of both of the two radios and the two radios must be within the coverage pattern of the repeater antenna. That pattern is usually described as fanning out circularly and horizontally. There are a few characteristics that makes a repeater more effective at achieving greater range: Their antennas are usually placed on high terrain and then installed on towers that raise them even higher, to improve the line of site, Their antennas direct their transmission power outward horizontally (and often slightly downward) to target a specific region. The better commercial repeaters are designed to have better receivers than off-the-shelf GMRS radios, usually much better. Being better quality makes a big difference. They have more sensitivity to pick up weaker signals and they have greater selectivity to help reject interference from other signals. The commercial repeaters are also designed with better transmitters, but for GMRS they are limited to 50 watts. What makes them better is the accuracy of their frequency oscillation and the absence of spurious emissions. Having higher power will help increase the range, but less than you might expect. The important thing is visibility, line of sight. There’s nothing about duplex communications that enhances range over simplex communications. If you and I each have a radio and we cannot reach each other, placing a repeater where one of us is standing, with its antenna placed down low like our antenna are will probably do nothing to help, but replacing one of us with an antenna that pokes out above all the surrounding buildings and hills will help a lot. If the repeater antenna is up high enough, and there’s a straight line of sight between your antenna and the repeater antenna, it’s entirely possible to get 10 miles or further. I live in the mountains. There’s a repeater to the south of me that’s 4000 feet above me and 9 miles away from my house in town. I can travel 16 miles farther north to my cabin and still easily reach that repeater with a five watt handheld radio, even a very cheap radio.. The people I have talked to using the repeater have been as far south of the repeater as 45 miles, as far east as 70 miles, and as far west as 20 miles. But because of an intervening peak of another mountain there’s one direction that’s probably less than a mile. It really depends on terrain, topography, structures, and quality. So the only two correct answers to your questions about flat suburbia and ranges are “it depends” and “maybe.” If you’re willing to spend the money to install a high quality commercial repeater with a high quality high antenna, it’s highly probable to achieve the range you want. In fact, simply connecting high quality antennas to your radios and raising those antennas up high might be able get you the range you need. So, more specifically, yes, a five watt radio can reliably reach a repeater five or ten miles away if the conditions are right. Can it work in your instance? You’re the only one who can answer that. Try it. If it doesn’t work with your handheld antenna put an antenna on your car roof. Or try it with a fifty watt mobile unit and a good mobile antenna on top of your car. Finally, hook up a fifty watt mobile radio to a base station antenna extending above the roof of your house. Please let us know. And feel free to ask more questions.

Correct! Cross band repeat is okay because it’s all within the Amateur Radio Service. As far as I can tell, Cross Service Repeat is not permitted for any of the Personal Radio Services. Definitely repeaters are prohibited in MURS.

The only instance where GMRS repeaters are not required to be separately IDed, are those where the only users are those people who are legally entitled to operate under the call-sign of the repeater operator, and even then they must follow the regulations for individually IDing (which is the ID of the repeater). If those people talk longer than 15 minutes they are required to ID every 15 minutes. Will anybody care at the FCC? Probably not, but the rules are clear.

Sorry, my post above is a moving target. Taking audio received by one radio and transmitting it with another is the definition of a repeater, so regulations prohibit this, but it's simply not feasible to connect two duplex GMRS repeaters using simplex unless you're only going one way and deaf in the other direction. That's still a repeater.

Something that forwards audio via RF is a repeater. The fact that you're crossing services is a regulatory problem, but there are technical issues also. How exactly would it work? Two MURS simplex radios connecting two full-duplex GMRS repeaters? From a technical standpoint (disregarding the rules temporarily) that's not possible. The only way to connect duplex repeaters requires duplex communications. Would they be working automatically? Are the two GMRS repeaters within range of each other? If not, how are the MURS radios within range of each other?

That's pretty clever using a quick-link as the core. I'll have to remember that.

Handheld radios and mobile radios are not usually capable of receiving while transmitting. In order to receive distant transmissions, the receiver circuit must be sensitive to millionths of volts. Your transmitter is capable of putting out a lot more than that. They're both connected to the same antenna, so when your transmitter transmits, that power would overwhelm your receiver. So, while transmitting, your receiver is effectively disabled. Depending on the convention (and whom you're talking to) that's either called half-duplex or simplex. Repeaters however, must be able to transmit and receive at the same time in order to do their job. That's referred to as full-duplex. But the problem still remains; how do you keep the transmitter power from overwhelming the receiver. So they transmit and receive on two different frequencies and a special device called a "duplexer" provides even more isolation. So, a repeater transmits into a duplexer. The duplexer filters out everything except the frequency being transmitted (as much as it can) and routes that signal to the antenna. Simultaneously, the antenna is picking up signals over a wider bandwidth, which go to the duplexer. The duplexer filters out everything except the frequency that the repeater must receive, which it sends to the receiver. A duplexer is like a traffic cop. In order for the duplexer to do a good job, both sides of it must be pretty precisely tuned and it must be capable of aggressively filtering both signals. If your handheld or mobile radio had a duplexer, you would be able to hear what the repeater is transmitting at the same time as you are transmitting. That should also make you appreciate the fact that cell phones are full duplex. Does that help?

Try exchanging the antennas to see if that helps (assuming they both use the same gender of SMA connector.) Yes, the tone acts as a filter. No set receive tone means nothing on that frequency is filtered out.

The preset tones would be a real annoying thing. Turn off the display off timer if that’s a setting, but set it for lower brightness and/or pick up a spare battery. I have a radio that turns its display off also and it annoys me also, but I haven’t decided what to do about it. I turn the volume up/down to get the display.

A good rule of thumb is to always leave the receive tones out when first configuring your radio for a repeater. Any tones you enter for receive filter your reception and could hamper your ability to hear the repeater. If you enter the correct receive frequency, but no receive tones, you will receive everything transmitted on that frequency that is within range. If you’re not sure if you’re in range, get closer. Seeing your meter deflect while you press PTT, probably means the transmitter is transmitting, unless it’s an SWR meter during transmit. Your radio does not receive while it’s transmitting. Seeing the meter deflect when you’re not transmitting can be an indication of signal strength, assuming that’s what your meter is set to indicate. Knowing the radio you’re using helps us to help you more easily.

1. Yes, but you only have eight frequency pairs to choose from. 2. Yes, but you’re limited to no more than 50 watts. 3. Yes, or Morse Code, and it must also happen during long conversations and at the end. 4. Here’s where I’m going to let others review what you listed.

Repeaters (well, all stations) are required to be identified using the call sign of the operator/owner. That ID must be transmitted every fifteen minutes during a conversation or at the end of a conversation. The identification can be transmitted as voice or Morse Code (it’s the sound of Morse Code, not truly CW). It’s usually done for a repeater by an automated process as part of the repeater controller or by a separate device such as the ID-o-matic. That’s what you are hearing.

Well, the icom brochure lists them as 5 watts for both the UHF and VHF version, even intrinsically safe models. Are you saying that someone might have turned the output down to further reduce the risk potential? They're nice looking radios and of course I have no idea what the person bidding on them right now wants them for. I don't really need them. I think I'll let the other person have them for a good price. There's no point in just running up the price for them.

4, 5, and 6 are typically sold in a single box, called simply a repeater. If you don’t want much power you can even buy a single box that includes the duplexer. The shopping area of this site has both types of repeaters. So would most commercial radio stores or online radio shops. Good luck!

I haven’t bid on them and I’m not sure I will. They’re up for 3 more days and the current bid is still just $61.

The FCC ID is AFJ289402. Also these are intrinsically safe radios, which I thought interesting, although I have no need for this.

I’m looking at a pair of Icom F4161DS handheld radios at an auction site. They’re NXDN and I might be interested in playing around with them. I’ve got a three days to decide whether to bid on them or not. Do any of you here have the necessary software?

Moved to new thread.

But doing a damned fine job of it!

If your two radios are close to each other when you're transmitting on one, the other may be de-sensing, which is what happens when a nearby transmission overwhelms a receiver. Give one of your radios to a friend and have him go across the street and then see if he hears you through the repeater.

Absolutely he would need guys. But I understood him to say that he has a single 40’ mast that’s 1.25”. Maybe I misunderstood that, but if it’s true his entire mast will flex. Mid-guying would be necessary, but all guying increases the vertical load as well. You have a push-up mast that has a larger diameter base. So the bottom sections are much more rigid.

From the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/repro/nonionizingradiation.html If you are pregnant, exposure to nonionizing radiation is usually not hazardous to you or your unborn baby. However, there are some specific workplaces using nonionizing radiation that could increase your chances of having a baby with a birth defect or other reproductive problems.