SteveShannon

This!!! I’m always surprised by how many people spend many minutes and sometimes hours researching and asking others questions that could be answered in less than a minute by trying.

Almost all repeaters adhere to the +5 MHz offset, but all the regulations say is that repeaters transmit on the 462 MHz main channels and receive on the 467 MHz main channels. Thus, repeaters transmit owners are not constrained to use exactly 5 MHz. Unfortunately, certified GMRS tend to use the exact offset. So, sometimes you find a repeater that is off by 750 kHz, but sticks to the channels established by the FCC. It’s very seldom though. I’ve mostly heard of it happening near seaports where some channels are shared with maritime communications.

I think it depends on population. We have lots of mountainous areas in Montana (fourth largest in area, with only a million people) with no cellular service. I suspect Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, and even parts of eastern California, once you get away from the interstates and population centers, have significant areas with limited access. We have 158 amateur repeaters in Montana and only 8 GMRS repeaters. Alaska is much larger but according to RepeaterBook has 6 GMRS repeaters and 114 amateur repeaters. I don’t know how accurate that is but obviously neither state has sufficient coverage for emergency purposes. I don’t believe repeaterbook is as complete for GMRS repeaters as MyGMRS.com.

Well, 120 miles each way or so is a little far, but I truly appreciate your offer. I might even take you up on it! Thanks!

Another really good training method (I really enjoyed it) is HamStudy.org. All of the questions are presented along with lots of reference material that unwind the concepts or reasoning behind the answer. It works really well for those who want to learn the material. You can choose how you want to be presented the questions, a section at a time or randomly. You can take practice tests as often as you want. It’s all free online or for a very low price you can purchase the app and take it on your phone or tablet even when you’re offline. It tracks which questions you get wrong and goes back to them more frequently to help concentrate your studying.

I’m a volunteer examiner. We’re not allowed to place conditions like that on testing. We tell people about our club, but only as information they might enjoy having.

He never said that he did. He is a longtime ham (second sentence) and describes the radio’s power under 2 meters and 70 centimeters. But even if he does use it on GMRS it wouldn’t upset me.

Thanks, that gives me a little confidence.

Excellent! Well done.

I wouldn’t. It can cause a breathing background sound.

Our rocket club all uses 7-6 (channel 7, tone 6) on our Garmin radios. We’re miles away from the nearest town. We basically bring our own support group. We mostly use the radios to guide people towards where we saw their rocket descend. If someone had a medical emergency (a fall or heat exhaustion) they could let us know, so in that sense it’s useful, but only because we have a group of people monitoring the shared channel. Our most likely emergency is a grass fire. For that we have used cell phones to summon help.

Based on past statistics that seems like it’s probably right.

And a blanket statement like that is why every illiterate appliance operator is screaming about "muh rights". But his statement was not a blanket statement. An example of a blanket statement would be a statement that isists that government agencies are always right or always wrong. His statement simply admits to the possibility that government agencies sometimes get things wrong.

I don’t believe it would be useful. In fact I think it would be a drain on emergency services and do more harm by creating a false sense of security. How would it work? Strictly a voluntary simplex/peer to peer effort or something officially established? How would it interface with public services: 911, police, fire? How would it be monitored? Remember, GMRS regulations have no government agency licensing. All licensees are individuals, so every person who might have to communicate with the GMRS radio would need their own license. For public service employees that would also mean an additional radio to be carried. Given finite tax dollars, which other emergency services would receive less so GMRS users would have their own emergency channel? That’s not to say that having GMRS might not be be helpful in an emergency as a last resort. I just think it’s foolish to rely on it when planning a risky endeavor, unless you create your own response system.

That must mean I’m a random person

Yeah, when the temperature gets higher I hope to do my truck and 4Runner but the headliner is the thing that intimidates me. I haven’t done that before.

Good idea.

The antenna I use for ham radio is 2.15 dBi. I’ve communicated thousands of miles on 50 watts with it. Gain matters, but the nulls in the propagation pattern have more of an effect. Don’t obsess over the extra 1.5 dB. Instead, look at the pattern of the antenna. Are there nulls? At what angle do they appear? Then do the trig to figure out how much higher or lower than you a station would need to be in order to be in a null. I doubt you’ll ever see that happening.

Or put it on scan.

One of the real self-gratifying myths of radio, not just GMRS, but also ham radio, is that in an emergency (or the SHTF scenario people get so giddy about) it will save you. Unless you have already arranged for someone to actively monitor for you to send a SOS on a specific channel, it’s really just BS. The fact is these frequencies are not actively monitored in most places.

Exactly. When the commission released their interpretation that made it clear they were against linking repeaters, they listed the harms done by linking repeaters: In my opinion (worth nothing), streaming the sound for the sole,purpose of listening does not have any of those negative consequences. But I can’t predict how the FCC might rule. I wouldn’t be afraid to try it though. We all know that a person would simply receive a letter first anyway.

It is a good question and you also make a good point. In the United States the limitations on monitoring signals are very limited. Almost all of the regulations are aimed at transmitting.

I don’t know, but I was apparently wrong in my interpretation of the actual rules anyway. This sentence from the commission’s interpretation might indicate that sound cannot be streamed:

It’s really difficult to advise you. I have my opinions but so much depends your personal situation. I live in the mountains and I find that a 20 watt Radioddity db20g and some hand held radios is all I need. Having more power won’t necessarily get you much more range, but it definitely costs more and drains on the battery. But if i did want 50 watts the radio you’re looking at is probably the only one I would recommend. As far as antennas, the Midland mxta26 on a magnetic mount is ideal for me. But the magnetic mount doesn’t work well on a plastic Jeep roof. You might be best getting an inexpensive handheld first, just to learn the basics like setting tones, and when you need them. What an offset is, and etc. Watch a bunch of YouTube videos by Notarubicon. They’re pretty good and cover everything you need to know about GMRS. Everything you learn on a Baofeng radio or Wouxun kg805g (one of my favorites) directly translates to using a mobile radio. Welcome to the forum.

Welcome!