SteveShannon

The repeater outputs that tone but it’s received by your radio. However, if you leave the receive tone empty (or choose TONE instead of TSQL) then your radio will reproduce everything, not just transmissions with the tone.

Definitely check out the clubs to find out when they hold tests. You don’t need a license for that and in fact the clubs are usually pretty welcoming to anyone with a pulse and who is interested in ham radio. As far as studying, clubs can help with that also, or you can do it on your own using printed materials, YouTube videos or my personal favorite HamStudy.org. It’s free unless you buy the application which allows you to study anytime and anywhere on your personal device.

Ha!

You bet!

DN is normal. DI is inverted. Unless it says inverted use the normal. DPL is just Motorola marketing language for what others call DCS or DTCSS. PL is just CTCSS. Again marketing crap.

Amen!

As others have already commented, the only frequencies that GMRS operators are licensed to use are the 30 listed in the regulations. All of the in-between frequencies are off limits to us for GMRS. That’s unlike most of ham radio where ranges of frequencies are available. For the authoritative reference, here are the official regulations: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E

Our two meter repeater has a phone patch.

It sure makes it easier to replace.

I don’t know that it makes any difference to battery life, but there is no appreciable benefit. Now if you filtered on different tones for the two different channels it would make a difference. For instance, if you know that the repeater uses 100 Hz as it’s CTCSS output tone you might want to program that tone into 26. If you discovered that there were people transmitting on 18 using 143.3 Hz and you set that tone for 18 then you could tell which is which, usually.

I suspect your receiver is listening on both channels (18 and 26). If it’s a dual VFO receiver the two VFO’s are sequentially polled at a brisk rate. If your radio is on 18 when the signal is detected it identifies the signal as being on 18. If it’s on the other VFO at the time it identifies it as 26, but in reality unless you know two different transmitters use different tones or transmit signals with different characteristics, like a Roger beep on one or ANI on one, it’s probably not possible to distinguish.

It probably never could be perfected. With one PL tone locked out and hundreds others potentially being used, whenever one of the other tones is present, squelch is opened, allowing the strongest station to be heard.

I’m not an authoritative source but I haven’t seen any GMRS radios that allow blocking a single tone. But apparently some scanners do allow a tone lockout: https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/sds-how-to-block-specific-dcs-ctcss-from-non-tone-protected-channel.414445/

Network connection. Connection of a Personal Radio Services station to the public switched network, so that operators of other stations in that service are able to make (and optionally to receive) telephone calls through the connected station.

After flip-flopping on this like a very lively fish, I have to agree with the logic and concern about poorly written rules expressed by 73Blazer. 95.349 covers all of the personal radio services. It prohibits connecting to the telephone network but allows exceptions in the rules for each service.. It doesn’t mention other types of networks. 95.1749 is the exception baked into the GMRS rules, but as 73Blazer says the exception listed there is poorly written. The phrase basically allows us to connect to the telephone network or any other network only for the purpose of remote operation. But connecting to any other network was never prohibited in 95.349 or the first clause of 1749, so I think the FCC’s interpretation under the Operations Tab on that other page is wrong. That might be what they want it to say, but wishes don’t make rules.

Welcome to the forums!

No

That’s just fine. And don’t worry about desense on your RT97. Nobody has ever reported desensing the RT97 at factory power levels in this forum. Now if you started running an amplifier between the transmitter and the duplexer I could see it happening, but the RT97 actually consists of a completely separate transmitter and receiver. For your purposes it should be fine. Take your repeater and handhelds someplace clear and flat and see how much range you get.

“Is a repeater considered a "station?" Yes

It says nothing about IP. It simply says other networks. There are many other kinds of networks. But I agree; any enforcement action must be based on the CFR. Many trials occur because of differences in interpretations.

Absolutely 100% agreed. Here’s the actual paragraph: You can expect a communications range of one to twenty-five miles depending on station class, terrain and repeater use. You cannot directly interconnect a GMRS station with the telephone network or any other network for the purpose of carrying GMRS communications, but these networks can be used for remote control of repeater stations. It must be pointed out that that is the FCC’s interpretation (which counts! ) of 95.1749. I don’t have a dog in this fight. I don’t have a GMRS repeater and if I did I doubt that I would link it. I think it boils down to this, based on the definition of remote control, I can connect to a repeater and remotely control it via the Internet. But connecting one repeater to another repeater to carry traffic between them over the Internet goes too far for the FCC. But my understanding should not be taken as any kind of authoritative source.

The phrase “or other networks” has been present in 95.1749 for years. Here’s a post from 2018 that quotes 1749:

On the Airspy groups.io, there’s a post that includes the following advice: DO NOT use the local NOAA transmitter. While it may be on frequency, it could be off frequency by several kHz. DO NOT use the local FM Broadcast rock station transmitter. The frequency will deviate far off frequency. A talk station might be usable if you can hit it during a "silent period", but they are overall not recommended. There are better alternatives. https://groups.io/g/airspy/topic/69841361

In Windows, you can either do the three key chord shift-window-s keys to bring up the snipping tool or you can use alt-prtscr or ctrl-keys.

Now you’re off on a bit of a tangent, but I agree that a 10 dB increase is very significant.