SteveShannon

There are 26 repeaters listed for Wisconsin, with a few in Milwaukee and one in Waukesha that looks like it’s well within range of you. It’s listed as Armored 1 in the list of repeaters and requires permission to join. I used the advanced search facility to look at all repeaters in the state. https://mygmrs.com/repeaters

Unfortunately, Gman1971 hasn’t posted since July 3, 2022. I hope you get a response.

No problem at all. Many radios have the ability to scan for tones, to determine which tones are used. Notarubicon has a video that shows how to do that. I don’t have your radio, so I cannot promise you that your radio does it. You really only need the transmit (also referred to as the repeater input tone) to use a repeater (assuming you have permission of course.) Obviously you already receive the repeater in your area or you’ve heard some people talking on simplex. The offset for GMRS is almost always 5 MHz. GMRS repeaters always receive in the 467 MHz band and transmit on the 462 MHz band. So, whatever frequency you receive them on, (462.???) you will almost certainly need to transmit on 467.??? where ??? represents the decimal part of the frequency. Most GMRS radios have that offset built in when you choose the repeater channels, so you may only need to program the transmit tone. You don’t mention where you are, but posting that might get someone here to help you learn what repeaters are in your area. Did you look in the Repeaters section of this website? It’s probably the most comprehensive listing of GMRS repeaters anywhere.

I don’t know how to disassemble an 805g case, but whenever a piece of electronics gear gets immersed it’s important to remove the batteries, disassemble it, rinse it in fresh water (if you know what you’re doing), or clean it with alcohol on a q-tip (while protecting any components that have ports, like beepers, microphones, speakers, barometric sensors, etc), and then raising its temperature slightly until it’s completely dry. Overnight eight or ten inches from a standard desk lamp works well. Closer is not always better. Even placing a circuit board on top of a power supply or electronic device that feels warm to the touch can do it. Circuit boards and most of their components are not usually damaged by water per se, but powering up a circuit while moisture and dirt are present can really foul things up. However, some of the components on a circuit board might be permanently damaged by getting wet. It’s important to avoid getting them wet. They’re the ones I mentioned above, the beepers, microphones, speakers, barometric sensors, etc.

Lately, there has seemed to be a large number of folks asking for initial configuration files because they have written to their radio and now their radio is not working as expected. In some cases the result is a bricked radio. I don’t mean this to be critical; it’s exactly the kind of mistake I have made in the past. So, I would like to remind everyone who is getting a new radio to always, and I mean always, read and store your initial configuration using whatever software you choose to use. Save it with the date you read it and the name of the software you used to read it. Also, if you’re going to flash your firmware, make a backup beforehand AND after. Second, don’t change software in the midst of configuration. It might work just fine, but it might not. In other words, don’t read your configuration to a file with one software and then try to write a new configuration using that file but a different software. There may be something in that file that makes it incompatible jumping between software programs. Finally, as a last resort, I wonder if we could create a depository of initial configuration files, files that are pristine, just as shipped from the factory. If so, where on this site is a good place? I can contribute a Radioddity DB20G initial file. Steve

If the CPS for a radio supports importation of a CSV file you might be able to export from Chirp to a CSV file (assuming that Chirp exports), and then reformat the file to work with your CPS.

Good point.

If you were using a handheld you should not expect that people can hear you at a distance of 50 miles. It’s not unusual to be able to receive farther than a handheld can transmit. There’s no secret to range: height, good antenna, line of sight, and power.

The updated model of the RT97, which is the RT97S, has an external port for connecting an external controller. It may be possible to connect to it remotely, using a WiFi device. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find updated documentation that describes the added functionality of the RT97S; I can only find downloads for the RT97.

I might be the exception here. Although I’ve been in love with the idea of talking to people half a world away since the Man from UNCLE show, and I intended to become a ham radio operator since the days of the Benton Harbor lunchbox radios (portable 6 m and 2 m transceivers made by Heathkit) I never got around to it. But I’ve been using GMRS radios for rocketry for a long time. A little over a year ago I decided to get legal and I finally bought a GMRS license. That got me interested in the technology again and a year ago I took my ham radio tests and got my Extra license. I don’t see competition between the two except on the forums. My ham radio friends are all interested in GMRS radios as well and I guess I am just lucky enough that I haven’t run across sad hams in person or on the local airwaves. For me, they’re complementary. My grandkids have FRS radios. I can give one of my GMRS radios to my wife. And who knows, someday maybe my kids or grandkids will want to know more about radio.

Regardless of any previous interactions you’ve had with the OP, it’s a politely presented and reasonable question. If you don’t have an answer or don’t wish to comment, that’s easily done without being negative.

Welcome to GMRS! The Notarubicon YouTube channel has videos that answers this exact question, including showing how to set Baofeng uv5R radios and repeater basics, but I’ll try to give a short description here that might help you. It won’t be as entertaining as Randy’s videos, but I hope it will give you a foundation. Transmit and receive frequency Repeaters use full duplex communications, meaning that at exactly the same time they are receiving a transmission they are transmitting it at a frequency that’s typically 5 MHz lower. Usually repeaters are listed by the frequencies they transmit on. So, you might find a “550” repeater that’s listed as 462.550 MHz. In order for you to use that repeater you would have to transmit on 467.550 MHz and listen on 462.550 MHz. Different radios program differently. Some require that you explicitly set the transmission frequency in one column and the receive frequency in another. I think that’s what your radio does. Tones The second part of this is tones, which can be the single most confusing aspect. Repeaters are usually listed with Input and Output tones. You transmit the repeater Input tone and you receive the repeater Output tone. Most repeaters have tone activated access. That’s their Input tone. They will only re-transmit signals that they receive using the correct tone. And, to make things worse there are two major tone types, DCS and CTCSS which are not compatible with each other. If the repeater you wish to access has an Input tone, you must program your radio to transmit that tone whenever you’re transmitting to the repeater. For instance, the repeater here that I use requires an input CTCSS tone of 100 Hz. Most repeaters also have an Output tone, which is the tone they transmit when they are relaying a transmission. It’s important to understand that a receiver that has no tones set receives everything. So, if you’re listening to a transmitter that has a 100 Hz CTCSS output, but you haven’t set a receive tone, your receiver will still reproduce the transmission. But, if you have the wrong tone set, they your receiver will disregard the signal. It receives it, but it doesn’t break squelch so you can hear it. For that reason I recommend that you leave the receive tone blank until you have everything working. Hope this helps! As I run across them on YouTube I’ll include links to videos that might help you:

I don’t know, but I’m always game to speculate. Could it be as simple as the fact that they operate in an area where there is more access to a GMRS repeater?

Up above WRVD377 posted the following: May have missed it was me (wrvd377 in a post above) that posted part of an email reply. Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 9:23 PM Hello, We have plan to make 40W GMRS analog repeater, but the available date is not known yet, once we have update, will public to our SNS, you will see that. If this repeater you plan to use in which application scenario? Like farm, or factory, or ? Thanks! Thanks and Regards, Elsa Jin (Customer Manager) Web:www.retevis.com So based on what I was wrote, 40W is coming some time. No reference to any other product or timeline. Trying not to post too much, but they clearly wanted to know uses cases.

You turn it off, then turn it on while holding the top button on the left, then select GMRS.

Suffice it to say that Randy was correct.

The CPS doesn’t work that way. To edit the channel double click on the double chevron on the rightmost end, under the “more” column.

Excellent! Enjoy!

I’m in Butte, Montana. There are no repeaters here. Occasionally I hear the staff of a hotel that’s a couple miles away but I never noticed what channel they’re on.

I can’t take any credit for that.

You can listen to almost anything. Many of the tw way radios have very wide open receivers and limited transmitters. The exception is cellular. You won’t find any approved receivers for that.

I think it’s more accurate to say it’s not type accepted for other services, not bands. The OP might be asking about extending it to work on another amateur band, which would be acceptable. But if the OP wants to use it on GMRS or MURS, then this warning from BTech is relevant: “You may be tempted to use FRS, GMRS, MURS (in the USA) or PMR446 (in Europe) frequencies. Do note however that there are restrictions on these bands that make this transceiver illegal for use.“

In which band do you want it to transmit?

You can run a straight piece of coax through several ferrite beads or you can make several loops of the coax through a ferrite toroid. I don't know that one is better than the other. If you're having difficulties looping the LMR=400 maybe you're trying to make the diameter of the loops too small. Every coax has a minimum bend radius which you should never go under. If you bend coax sharper than that the inner conductor and shield can migrate towards each other and even eventually short against each other. If you don't like the large loops you get with LMR-400, then the ferrite beads would seem to be preferable. The best thing I can tell you to do is to read and possibly re-read the document at Palomar Engineering that I linked above. I'll link it here again. Notice that unun type 2 is what we're talking about and the pictures that accompany this example show both ferrite beads and coax looped through a ferrite toroid: https://palomar-engineers.com/wp-content/uploads/Choosing-a-Feedline-Choke-RFI-Tip-Sheet-RC-1-by-AK6R.pdf

How do you do what? Make a choke? Just loop the antenna end of your coax through a ferrite several times right where it connects to the antenna.