SteveShannon

I think it was @MichaelLAX who has a post on using a 3 inch test plug with the radio bolted to it. He just sets it in his cup holder. Correction: it was @Newb

Did you remove and replace the battery?

Just curious, since you’re logged in as a guest. Do you have a GMRS license?

We’re out here. After your resume in your first post I was a little intimidated. I didn’t realize you were having problems. ? Unfortunately, I have no advice to offer. Obviously you already know how to troubleshoot network problems so it sounds like the problem might be on the other end.

Very cool! 500 watts, but that’s only 20 dB more than my GMRS HT! ?

Well, real LMR400 has losses of 1.5 dB/100 ft at 150 MHz or 1.9 dB/100 ft at 220 MHz, so I don’t know that I would accept that as better than real LMR400 from Times Microwave. http://www.signalcontrol.com/products/timesmicrowave/Times_Microwave_LMR400.pdf

This^^^^

@WRVC250 - Welcome to mygmrs! As others said better, don’t let the few jerks ruin the experience for you. Listen to as much radio as you can and speak up when you have something to say. Also, don’t hesitate to participate here. I'm just one year younger than you and I live in a place that has no GMRS repeaters, so I would have to establish my own if I wanted to have one connected to the net. Instead, I got my ham license. There are a lot of things going on in ham radio also to get involved with, so for me that’s an interesting place to learn. Everything I learn about ham radio carries over to GMRS. Again, don’t hesitate to jump in here. Maybe the written nature will be easier for you with respect to retention. Happy holidays! Steve

It’s not outside the capabilities of GMRS. You shouldn’t need Yagi antennas. I’m no expert on J-poles, but I would expect to be able to communicate ten miles away easily with a decent mobile antenna on a car. If you have the J-poles already try them.

So you probably have about 50 feet of cable running to your antenna, maybe a little more. What kind of cable are you using? What kind of kind of duplexer are you using? What are you using for an antenna? What seems disappointing about your reception. Is it range or clarity or what?

They make very high quality cables, but as LScott points out there’s much more to it than picking a good manufacturer. Every different cable type has a characteristic which indicates the loss rate (usually expressed as dB per 100 feet) for that cable over distance for a specific frequency. Generally speaking the loss rate goes way up as the frequency increases. If you only need six feet you might not have to be too choosy, but if you’re running 200 feet through LMR400 for a GMRS repeater you could easily end up losing 75% of your power in cable losses. 3 dB loss over 100 feet is the same as losing 50% of your power. 6 dB over 200 feet is 75% loss. So, by all means select from a high quality manufacturer, but look at their complete catalog to see what they have that will work well for your use case. Also generally speaking larger diameter cables have lower loss rates. For professional installations people usually use something called hardline.

You’re right. I should have read the MURS requirements.

I don't believe this is accurate. A transmitter is prohibited to be type certified for both GMRS and amateur radio and a transmitter is prohibited to be certified for both GMRS and FRS, but there's nothing in the regulations that prohibits a combination GMRS and MURS. Here's the relevant regulation: No GMRS transmitter will be certified for use in the GMRS if it is equipped with a frequency capability not listed in § 95.1763, unless such transmitter is also certified for use in another radio service for which the frequency is authorized and for which certification is also required. No GMRS transmitter will be certified for use in the GMRS if it is equipped with the capabilities to operate in services that do not require equipment certification, such as the Amateur Radio Service. All frequency determining circuitry (including crystals) and programming controls in each GMRS transmitter must be internal to the transmitter and must not be accessible from the exterior of the transmitter operating panel or from the exterior of the transmitter enclosure.

Didn’t Randy @OffRoaderX mention something about it last week? Kind of a teaser?

First try swapping the two radios to see if the receiver in one is better than the other.

Yes we can.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Use an ohmmeter to see if the mic ground has connectivity to the radio ground. If it does then it doesn’t really matter. If not, then connect the mic ground to the SM01 ground.

Sounds to me like the repeater has a very slight delay and you’re hearing it. You could program in some hang time maybe or don’t let up on the PTT until a half second after you stop talking.

Not that I know of. Pushing the moni button disables squelch though. For most radios you configure channels with or without tones. I almost always tell people to just leave the tone off on receive. That way you’ll receive everything.

It might help if you tell us which radios you’re asking about. ?

Would you be placing one vertically higher than the other? The frequencies are far enough apart that interference is minimized but separating them vertically will help.

Don’t let this bleak response convince you that an SWR sweep is of little value. Dummy loads look completely different to a VNA than antennas He’s right that there’s more to measuring the effectiveness of an antenna than just SWR, but if an antenna has a very high SWR, that must be addressed.

I didn’t read the technical bulletin. Does it sound like it could be related?

Look at this that I found on ehams: https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=3650 In 2007 our repeater site was apparently struck by lightning, resulting in damage to our VXR-7000 repeater unit. It was returned to Yaesu for repair. Upon the repeater’s return we became aware that the unit was not as sensitive as it had once been. Initially we put this down to band conditions and bided our time. When things did not improve, we began testing our whole repeater installation. We had our duplexer professionally checked out by a fellow ham with access to professional test equipment. The duplexer is totally up to spec. We had the repeater checked by similar test equipment and it was found to be in order. Yet we found the following to be the case: • reception from our fringe areas of the repeater coverage was poor at best, with stations that once easily held the repeater no long able to do so. • a low-volume hum appeared on the background of the repeater output. The hum was not present on the input signals to the repeater. • there was a click generated at the end of each relayed transmission. This was not previously present. As the equipment seemed to test out we reasoned that the problem must be in our cable interface. Accordingly we replaced our repeater/duplexer cables with new RG214 cables with N connectors. These were fabricated by The Wireman in South Carolina. These new cables replaced our original RG8 cables which have PL 259 connectors on one end. We used N adapters to connect to the VRX 7000. We again contacted the Yaesu Service Department and were advised that “In December 2007 we identified a problem in the TX Unit that caused oscillations and feedback when certain duplexers were connected to the repeater. This would cause a 'desense' like problem in the repeater. This occurred within certain serial numbers or when an older unit had the PA Unit replaced with the new PA Unit (as yours was).” “I have attached the technical bulletin describing the fix. We would of course be happy to install this for you here but considering the shipping costs, you may want to apply the fix locally. It is a single component change (adding a capacitor). Please take a look at the Technical Bulletin and let me know what you decide.” After reading the bulletin we had Yaesu send us the capacitor required. We installed it and our repeater is now working flawlessly. The fringe area coverage is, if anything, superior to its previous good state. Should this seem to be your situation, we suggest you contact Yaesu and request Service Bulletin TB0711-1A. If this does not work out for you, please email either Jerry (VE5DC) at jkdixon@imagewireless.ca or Slater (VE5OA) at s.tubman@sasktel.net