SteveShannon

You’re right, it’s case by case, but I would lean towards getting the antenna up a little higher.

It will depend entirely on the type of cable and how well your system is performing now. Every type of cable has a characteristic loss figure that is much higher at the UHF frequencies of GMRS. It’s usually specified in terms of dB loss over 100 feet and the loss is linearly proportional, so for 50 feet you would expect half that loss. Getting an antenna with some gain and getting your antenna up in the air can make up for that though. Using LMR400 you lose 3dB over 100 feet. That’s half of your output power and half of your input signal strength that you would be losing. That doesn’t mean that you cannot use it, but be aware of the limitations. So, over 50 feet, using LMR400 you would expect to lose a quarter each way. If you have a good strong signal both ways you might not notice. Switching to better cable will reduce the losses. Getting your antenna in the air will also.

Maybe that was MURS. If you can’t use the FRS channels because they’re busy, you won’t be able to use GMRS. With the exception of the repeater input channels they’re exactly the same frequencies. And you’re not allowed to use the repeater input frequencies for simplex between handhelds.

This! If people don’t know the rules they don’t have a chance of following them.

Will 2 watt MURS or FRS radios work for your purposes?

Welcome! You’re pretty fired up over a two year old post. You’ll fit right in here. ?

I agree completely and I believe that’s exactly what was intended when the FCC used the language “under the authority of the individual licensee.”

I agree; it’s a language issue. I understood that you were not advocating for government regulations, but when you state up front how you want people to behave, those are rules that you are attempting to impose. And that’s absolutely fine for your repeater, but you started this thread hoping to gather support for wider support of the constraints you enumerated. They may only be house rules or in this case specific to your personal repeater, but by definition they are still rules and if you expect anyone to respect your rules you should start by obeying the official rules. Do I care that you break the rules? Not usually, but this comes across as self serving hypocrisy for business purposes. Just buy your employees GMRS licenses and you’ll be compliant. Or do as @gortex2says. If you truly cannot afford $35 for each employee with a radio, buy them FRS radios or MURS radios and just buy GMRS licenses for your team leaders if you need a little bit of extra range.

But you should understand that because they are operating under your authority, you share in the legal responsibility for them to obey the rules. In fact for minors it’s specifically spelled out (at least for base and repeater usage): § 95.1743 Minor GMRS operators. Operators under the age of 18 will not be held personally responsible, pursuant to § 95.343, for improper operation of a GMRS repeater or base station. The holder of the individual license under which the minor operates is solely responsible for any improper operation that occurs while an individual under the age of 18 is operating the station

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnstile_antenna

One of the grandfathered corporate licenses or association licenses can allow its employees to use their stations and call signs. Of course no more corporate licenses will be issued under the current rules. As we all understand, under the current rules, only family members may be allowed to use a licensee's call sign and station(s). But, I do think it's funny that @WQWX838wishes to implement rules dictating behavior when using GMRS while knowingly violating the actual AHJ's rules for GMRS. However, I am guilty of using GMRS before I had a license and I continue to talk to friends who don't have GMRS licenses so I can't shake my finger. I think we all need to relax a little, including me.

Business use on GMRS is fine as well as long as people are properly licensed. There's no prohibition against using GMRS for business purposes, but you may not charge someone to use your GMRS station. § 95.1731 Permissible GMRS uses. The operator of a GMRS station may use that station for two-way plain language voice communications with other GMRS stations and with FRS units concerning personal or business activities.

I’m curious. How are you stretching the letter of the law?

Sometimes "privacy" means "We want fewer interruptions." Privacy tones help in that sense, but they do not prevent you from being overheard.

Well done!

It doesn’t appear to be limited to GMRS.

Look at Notarubicon’s website and videos: https://www.notarubicon.com/wouxun-kg-s88g-gmrs-hand-held-radio/ https://www.notarubicon.com/ham-radio-extreme-durability-test-wouxun-kg-uv8h-kg-935g/

I would agree. These jokers don’t play the siren because they want to hear it. They do it to get a response. A complete lack of response might result in their boredom and moving on to torturing bugs.

It depends on the nature of the comments and the response by the “someone” who played a siren. Ideally a single comment by the repeater operator would be sufficient, but life is never ideal.

Map view works for me as long as I leave it on “Satellite Street” view. I see colored dots with numbers signifying densely located (for the scale) repeaters and if I zoom in the individual repeaters appear on the map. If I change to “Light Street” or “Colored Street” views it says that a problem occurred and dumps me back to the zoom level showing the entire USA in Satellite Street view. I’m using an iPad with an older version of iOS. It’s old enough that I cannot upgrade to newer versions of software for some things. Perhaps my problem, but in any case I do see the repeaters on the map. It took a little while (maybe 30 seconds to a minute) to populate the map at first, but now seems quicker so I assume, that they’re locally cached. Worst case let me know what area is in your route and I’ll zoom in and get you some screenshots showing the repeaters.

Without some kind of update the site doesn’t know the repeater is running. Presumably nothing needs to be changed; just touched to inform the site that the repeater is running.

Look at the repeater directory that this site provides. You can search by city.

The simplex frequencies are exactly the same as the frequencies the repeaters transmit on. Unless you hear a repeater ID you might have no way of knowing they are not simply talking using simplex.

A repeater that hasn't had an update in over a year.

He ended up replacing it with a real repeater: https://youtu.be/0pRKQFuJJ9o