SteveShannon

That’s my thought as well. If you’ve never put up a repeater, don’t list it prematurely; you don’t know what you don’t know. If you have done a half dozen successfully, go ahead and list it.

It’s not that it’s too minor for the fcc to react. The restrictions in ham radio are against encryption, not proprietary technology. The debate seems to center around an opinion that proprietary standards amount to encryption and thus violate the spirit of ham radio. I thought GMRS users were also restricted from using encryption. If so, how is it different from amateur radio in allowing MDC?

Any digital signaling on gmrs is subject to the restrictions listed in 47 CFR § 95.1787 - GMRS additional requirements. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/95.1787

Without defining what you mean by “best” it’s impossible to even try to answer that question. What features do you want? Do you want a handheld radio or a mobile radio? What do you hope to accomplish? Simply put, there is no one best radio or antenna for everyone.

Just ignore him. This seems to be the only reason he joined.

That’s a good point, but if that were the problem you should see it in the SWR and the reflected power. Assuming the SWR meter is reasonably accurate neither of those are seem to be an issue. This simply looks like the Rt97 has a very low output power. He needs to contact Retevis.

It takes a few days sometimes for the forum software to be able to access your license information. Plus the changes the FCC implemented to fees for ham and GMRS licenses has caused some problems with processing (at least for ham licenses). Besides this site there’s also repeaterbook: https://www.repeaterbook.com/gmrs/index.php?state_id=none

I have no experience with this. I put together a pi device. ? There are other devices made for Echolink or Allstar that might be okay also.

https://www.orionsystemsinc.net/radio-over-ip-roip-device/

So I think what you’re trying to do is have some kind of simple Raspberry Pi device that listens to gmrs and ties it to a network on the internet? I have no knowledge of that for GMRS, but I’ve done similar things with a Pi hat for digital mode ham radio so I’ll follow along.

That’s definitely low and the manual doesn’t mention a low power setting but does say you need a power supply of 12-24 volts. What does the incoming power supply voltage look like when you’re transmitting? Is it sagging?

I probably shouldn’t have said IP is okay, since that’s just the protocol. I think the FCC (or their lawyers) would argue that if it’s on a cellular system it violates the spirit of the regulations that prohibit placing digital GMRS signals (which aren’t supposed to be a digital mode anyway) onto PSTN. It certainly occupies a certain amount of bandwidth which someone might otherwise wish to use to place a cell phone call. In any case I wouldn’t try it. But I am risk averse.

GMRS is prohibited from being networked via the telephone network, which cell phones use. They can be networked via IP though.

Or, does it only happen in your car? Many modern cars have some kind of wireless devices.

I don’t know. I just want to make that clear up front. It may be noise from some device in your house or in a neighboring house (assuming you live near someone else.) But here are some things you can try to discover the answer for yourself: See if another GMRS radio is affected as well. If not, then perhaps it’s a problem with your radio. If another radio is affected or if you cannot easily check, then turn off all the power to your house. Do you still receive the static? If so, turn your house mains back on then turn off your breakers one at a time to try and eliminate the circuits that are not causing the problem. If you find a circuit that is connected to the static do some detective work to determine what’s plugged into that circuit. I would suspect an LED light or fluorescent light with a solid state ballast, a computer or other device. If turning off the whole house power didn’t help, go for a drive. Do you still receive the interference when you’re away from your home or neighborhood? Good luck!

https://www.allstarlink.org

Thanks for getting that from them. That sounds like a real botched delivery.

Rohn makes towers that hold up antennas. They have a tilt base that can be installed. I don’t know if Rohn makes a winch for it, but they’re pretty pricey. You still need an antenna to mount to the tower. if I were you I would call Cushcraft or DX Engineering, tell them what you have, and ask what they recommend. I would certainly do that before sending the Cushcraft back and ordering a Rohn tower. The Rohn towers are free standing I thought, so no guy wires needed for most shorter heights but a poured concrete base is part of the installation. Rohn also makes round tubing masts that would have guy wires or brackets depending on the installation.

Removing the receive tones allows you to be certain that you’re on the correct receiving frequency. With no Rx tone your receiver reproduces everything on that frequency. I’m not sure it you’re describing a roger beep or a station ID when you say the repeater occasionally beeps at you. Is that when you transmit or when you hear someone else’s transmission? A roger beep can be programmed to sound at the end of every transmission. A station ID is required to sound every 15 minutes while the repater is in use and at the end of a conversation for GMRS. It’s frequently done using Morse code so it’s more than a beep. Is the repeater programmed to sound a roger beep? That would be unusual, I would think, since many people feel roger beeps are annoying. But if the repeater were programmed to give a roger beep and if you’re reliably hitting the repeater you should hear the roger beep with every transmission, so the fact that you only hear it occasionally would seem to mean that you’re not able to reliably hit the repeater. Or you only occasionally hear a beep because only occasionally does someone who has programmed a roger beep transmit to the repeater. Clear as mud, right?

DX Engineering sells winch kits for some of their vertical antennas: https://www.dxengineering.com/search/product-line/dx-engineering-manual-winch-add-on-raising-kits/part-type/hf-vertical-antenna-pivoting-fixture-manual-winch?fr=part-type

I’m in Butte, so SW Montana, but as far as ham radio there’s a DMR repeater on 70 cm in Eureka. I assume you’re in that area, maybe Troy or Libby. It’s networked to the Brandmeister network so you can literally talk to people all over the world. https://www.dmr-montana.net/radio-site-data/eureka-dmr.html Ham radio is much more active than gmrs in Montana although Billings now has gmrs repeaters. Good luck!

Before you programmed the repeater tone did you hear it when someone else used it? I always recommend leaving the receive tone unprogrammed at first. That way you’ll hear everything on that frequency. Then concentrate on getting the transmit configuration right. It’s possible to have the transmit right and still not hear anything until someone responds. How are you testing your settings? Do you have a friend who can go half a block away and listen on a different receiver set to receive on the repeater frequency to see if you’re getting through?

Your other three radios would only receive from the repeater; they don’t receive on the frequency you’re transmitting on. Now if you mean why don’t they receive from the repeater when you’re transmitting to the repeater from within the same room, you’re receivers are doing something called “desense” which is when they are swamped by a nearby transmission (even at a slightly different frequency) and thus cannot hear the repeater. Give one of them to a friend and have him travel half a block away and I bet all three will hear the repeater.

In your case the 0.698 w is the power going forward, from the transmitter towards the antenna. You see it also in the FW value at the bottom left of the screen. RW shows the Reflected power, which you want to minimize. On yours that’s shown as 0.000w which makes sense given your low SWR. If you had a high SWR your reflected power would also be high.

The ham licensing process is also dependent on the VEs and when they submit to the FCC. I took the ham tests at 7 pm one night and before I awoke the next morning my license was ready to print, so it can be quick. However, I just got word that the fcc process for ham licenses is experiencing a glitch right now.