SteveShannon

Hi Tim, To get right to the point, no, you can’t talk hundreds of miles using a five watt 6 meter or 10 meter handheld radio, except in the most unusual circumstances. Finding a handheld radio for 6 meters would be difficult. Handhelds for 10 meters might be available but they’re few and far between. But you also do not need to pay off the national debt to get into the HF bands. I have a Yaesu FT891, which is about $670 and a wire antenna I built from a kit for $70. I hold the center up with a fiberglass pole about 30 feet in the air. On a daily basis I can usually talk several hundred miles away but not always and not always in the same direction. California seems easy but I can’t reach my friend in Seattle. Mostly that’s on 40 or 20 meters. I hear almost nothing on 10 meters. There are other radios like the Xiegu G90 that is less expensive but has a lot of support. I don’t have one but they’re about $450. I also have a Yaesu FTDX10 that costs about $1300. It’s my favorite for lots of reasons, mostly the ease of use. It’s not nearly as portable as the FT891.

I don’t know, but I doubt it. If you look at the back there are only two feedline jacks. It’s not the way we would use it anyway. We dedicate one repeater to a single frequency pair (TX/RX).

Some of the better quality radios like vertex, Motorola, etc., are well shielded (based on posts from some of the experienced radio technicians here).

Welcome to the site! Technically it is possible to do this, but practically it isn’t a great solution. It would require two radios, a controller, and a duplexer. You would have to ensure the two radios are well shielded from each other. Buying a purpose built 2nd hand repeater will almost certainly be less expensive. Don’t go cheap on the duplexer either, or the transmission line or antenna. Solar power could be used to keep a battery bank charged up. But it is possible. There are all in one repeaters that are only five watts or so from Retevis that include a duplexer. If you have line of sight you might be able to use one of those.

You’re wrong, mostly. I suspect that your complaints are based on something you have read on the Internet, that others complained about, not personal experience. Your complaints simply don’t truly reflect most of the real world. Most repeater operators freely share their repeaters, asking only that you request permission so they have some control over access. In some cases they ask for donations to help cover expenses. In other cases they charge an up-front fee or dues that represents a share of the costs. There are other options, including cell phones if you don’t like it. Regulations prohibit making a profit by sharing a station but certainly allow recuperation of expenses. A repeater is just another station: (3) A station may be shared only: (i) Without charge; (ii) On a non-profit basis, with contributions to capital and operating expenses including the cost of mobile stations and paging receivers prorated equitably among all participants; or (iii) On a reciprocal basis, i.e., use of one licensee's stations for the use of another licensee's stations without charge for either capital or operating expenses. (4) All sharing arrangements must be conducted in accordance with a written agreement to be kept as part of the station records.

Garmin Rhino GMRS radios already do this. https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-01958-20-Rino-Handheld-Units/dp/B0741JFPLM/ref=asc_df_B0741JFPLM/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241981125544&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12003066143149905668&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021317&hvtargid=pla-569512211442&psc=1 I believe the GMRS Pro radios do also.

Welcome to MyGMRS! I hope you enjoy it here.

There are actually two different logins that you must register, one for the www.mygmrs.com website, and one for forums.mygmrs.com.

You seem to be hung up on the fact that one of the repeaters is for 2m. You asked numerous questions about repeaters. The Hytera in the picture is UHF (70 cm, but could be set up for GMRS). The band is simply a choice when you order the repeater. Everything else is applicable. If you wish to do a repeater, and if you don’t want to use one of the inexpensive all-in-one Retevis RT-97s boxes, then this is typical of what you’ll be dealing with.

No, I don’t think you are. For a repeater you only need one of these boxes. It has two female N ports, one for transmitting and one for receiving. Two transmission lines run to the input and output ports of the duplexer. Another transmission line runs from the antenna port of the duplexer to the antenna. For GMRS the banks are meaningless. Banks are a feature but unnecessary for this purpose. Your repeater receives on one frequency and transmits on another that is typically exactly 5 MHz lower. That combination of frequencies is a single repeater channel, such as 15RP or possibly 23, depending on the manufacturer. The channel name is unimportant; only the actual frequency is important. By regulation the 467 main frequencies are reserved almost entirely for transmitting from portable and mobile radios to repeaters. The repeater simultaneously transmits what it receives on the matching frequency in the 462 MHz main frequencies. So, for example a repeater referred to as a 550 repeater receives on 467.550 MHz and retransmits on 462.550 MHz. That is not cross-banding. Cross-banding doesn’t happen in GMRS. An example of cross-banding would be for a radio to receive on one band, such as amateur 2 meters, and simultaneously retransmit on 6 meters. The battery bank is there in case utility power goes off. We have no solar panels. The 70 cm DMR repeater is connected to the Brandmeister network. This is installed in a concrete room at the base of an unused lookout tower at nearly 10,000 feet elevation. There’s no need for air conditioning. Here’s a picture:

This is similar to our Hytera: https://www.atlanticradiocorp.com/products/rd982i-hytera?currency=USD&variant=31742610473048&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&stkn=9fee02560796&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-pyqBhDmARIsAKd9XIN4zuXMugwKG2atz2XCpzXUW6Z--X9t6CX64Z221it2rBdS-OljMT8aAmCDEALw_wcB

The Hytera is the radio repeater: a receiver and transmitter in one box. A duplexer is separate and then hardline, tower, and the tower with multiple antennas systems. There’s also various boxes that connect the repeater to a network for remote management, a bank of SLA batteries, an external repeater controller etc.

The repeater is a Yaesu DR1. Yaesu had a special for ham radio clubs (years ago) where they almost gave them to the clubs. The guy who does maintenance on it isn’t really a fan of the repeater. He’s hoping to replace it with an Icom or Kenwood. Our 70 cm DMR/analog repeater is a Hytera. He likes it a lot better. Easier to program and maintain.

Repeater channels transmit to the repeater in the 467 MHz range and receive from it in the 462 MHz range. They’re usually numbered something like 16RP or even 23-30. For communicating between two radios directly you must use the simplex frequencies which are 15-22. Both transmit and receive are on one frequency in the 462 range (usually).

Our 2 meter repeater uses an array of folded dipoles. That allows the pattern to be directed slightly downward. When your repeater and antenna are on a mountaintop there’s little value to upward propagation.

I wouldn’t feel bad for Radioddity. They’ve known about this long enough to address it and yet they continue taking people’s money. By now they should have taken them off Amazon and posted a notice to keep people from wasting their money. Once they clear the bad radios from their pipeline they should post another notice. I agree it’s probably as simple as a bit flipped in firmware, but that’s what bugs are.

True, except that sometimes having a second HT in the house fails because the transmission from the first HT is orders of magnitude higher in power than the return signal from the repeater and the second HT is temporarily deafened, which is called “de-sensing.” But if you get someone to take that other HT some slight distance away it would work. And I want to point out that de-sensing isn’t a sure thing. My Yaesu and Alinco radios can be right on the same table and work fine with one transmitting to the repeater and the other receiving from the repeater. So try it. There’s nothing to lose.

We regularly allow the launching of Research motors and I’ve seen many in the M, N, and O impulse range. Our organization doesn’t allow certain mixtures, including homemade black powder motors, but there are people on YouTube and other places who have attempted K impulse black powder motors, often with catastrophic effects.

Unfortunately, volunteers often stay beyond their “use by” date. They might have been very cheerful and supportive when they first started. There’s no excuse for it, but I see it all the time in my other hobby also. We have people who are charged with mentoring participants in Rocketry. Over the years they see people asking the same questions over and over and it becomes irritating. They develop an attitude that young people expect things to be handed to them, or that they’re trying to proceed too fast, or that people rely too much on unofficial, unreliable, and unsafe sources of information*. Over time the attitude becomes worse and worse. Unfortunately, the other attitude that some volunteers develop is “if I don’t do this there’s nobody else who will.” That’s usually incorrect, but I’ve seen it happen. In truth, if they were to retire from their volunteer positions it would leave a vacancy for a more positive person to fill. It’s not just age, but that’s sometimes part of it. Last night we tested two people for ham radio. One was a brand new candidate. He took his time, double checked his calculations, and went through every question twice. He passed his Technician test with flying colors, zero wrong. We encouraged but didn’t pressure him to take his General exam. He was concerned that it would be held against him if he didn’t pass but we assured him that wasn’t the case. He took the exam and although he didn’t pass (he hadn’t studied for it either) he expressed appreciation for the experience. I am sure he’ll be back and pass the General exam easily, maybe even the Amateur Extra at the same time. The other candidate tested for Amateur Extra. I know him and although he didn’t pass this time, he’ll be back too. *If you think that there’s bad advice about radios on YouTube you ought to see some of the homemade rocket motors that are little more than pipe bombs.

Fortunately we’re not all like that. When I took my tests the VEs were very welcoming.

Yes, a person with a decent understanding of electronics and who studies to understand could walk in with no license and walk out with an Amateur Extra license.

Specifically: § 95.2731 Permissible MURS uses. The operator of a MURS station may use it for the purposes listed in this section. (a) MURS stations may be used to transmit voice, data or image signals. (b) MURS stations may be used for telecommand and telemetry functions.

Hi Kent, I’m not near you, but lots of people here are willing to answer questions posted here. What are you trying to do? What kind of radio do you have?

Simply say: “Can anyone hear me? WRPJ403”. If someone is listening they might respond.

This is why I asked the OP what APRS functionality he wanted: many people don’t even know what APRS is or how it works. They may think they want APRS, when all they want to do is see where their wife is while she’s driving home. That can be done with a Garmin Rhino, or even a GMRS Pro, but can also be done with a cell phone. APRS isn’t necessary for that. Or does he want weather stations or the ability to send a text message in the very least convenient way possible?