SteveShannon

That looks correct, but I agree with MichaelLAX that setting the downlink tone off is something to resort to in case you don’t hear anything.

Unless you are above Line A, you can use channel 19 for anything your GMRS radio can do. I wasn’t aware that 18 and 20 were reserved for emergency use. Where did you learn that?

I see what you were asking. Yes, a parrot function is nice to have. I have a couple digital radios and I use parrot rooms to test them without having to ask for a radio check. For a repeater that processes voice transmissions in software and which has some small amount of memory, a parrot function which could be activated somehow would be a nice feature.

I thought he was simply saying that if spread spectrum were implemented many more people could simultaneously use a GMRS channel without interference from others on the same channel.

Maybe it’s not something you did wrong. Best wishes!

Well, I sent a report to Rich. He’s good about seeing those. I’m sorry I can’t help you.

Well, you’re obviously logged in to the forums, so that seems to be okay. The other portion of the website requires a separate login. Is it possible that you didn’t set one up there?

I’m sorry for your troubles. Sometimes it takes a while to import new call signs from FCC. I don’t know if your call sign is recent or not. You don’t know me from Adam so I wouldn’t be insulted if you said no, but if you want to send me your phone number in a private message I would be happy to try and set up your account, then all you would have to do is change your password to something only you know.

There are patents for new glass couplers that cite the high losses of capacitive coupled devices. Apparently there are at least four different ways of through glass coupling. https://patents.google.com/patent/US6661386B1/en You also must consider that an antenna connected that way doesn’t really have a ground plane (I presume) so it’s starting with a disadvantage anyway. But as they say, “Any antenna is better than none.” Use it and see if it works well enough.

There’s probably a way with a field strength meter, but I that’s beyond my experience. Is there no way to remove the antenna element from the other half of the coupler? I doubt that the losses are great there anyway. There’s no heating, right?

If you put a watt meter at the antenna connector on the radio and compare the power there to what a watt meter measures when connected right at the antenna you should be able to measure your losses.

I agree with nearly all of this and I especially appreciate the tone much more than the one you typically take against CCRs and “shitty Wouxuns”, which comes across as more of a condemnation of the people who buy them. We should be able to discuss the things that make radios great without needing to constantly denigrate less expensive radios and all who own them. I’d like try a high end Motorola someday to see what it’s like. Instead I have a really nice Garmin that works best for my purposes with it’s built in mapping of other Garmin users and I have Yaesu and Alinco analog/digital handhelds for 2m/70cm. I did buy a couple Baofengs to see what all the hoopla was about and learn Chirp, and they work, but I rely more on the other radios. The Baofengs are good to give the grandkids. I also have some older Midland GMRS/FRS handhelds and a pair of Motorola Talkabouts that were their highest power bubble pack radios at the time. But I don’t have a Wouxun, yet. Thanks for the pleasant post.

Watch these two videos. Really the only thing you need to know at first is power, volume, channel, and push to talk. You can find them all in the manual. Don’t change anything else for now. Then practice. Don’t wait until you need them. Eventually you’ll need to know about tones, but you shouldn’t change them right away.

No. Argentina is in South America (a continent). Argentina is in the Americas (a land mass consisting of two connected continents: North and South America and their surrounding islands. Argentina is not in “America” as the term is commonly accepted. When you hear other countries refer to the USA they frequently interchange “the United States” or “America”, specifically meaning the United States of America.

America is also commonly used to mean the United States of America. From Wikipedia: The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States(U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America.

So here’s the official answer to this question. The only two Yaesu handhelds that support different tones for transmit and receive are the FT-4x and the FT-65R. It’s at about 5:43 or so in this video. https://youtube.com/nyF1bXAAX6Q

Just buy two yagis, two coax cables, and an antenna switch. It still won’t be cheap but you won’t have to deal with 50% signal losses.

There’s absolutely never been a doubt in my mind that Motorola radios have better receivers than Baofeng. My point was (and remains) that most recreational users of the GMRS would be better off with a set of radios they can just buy off the shelf and use, such as some of the Wouxun models or even Baofeng models. They are not well served by suggestions that they buy a used commercial radio and have it reconfigured to work for GMRS. They may not even know what to request, much less be able to find the right CPS, and certainly not aligning a radio. Now for a person who’s interested in radios, a true radio aficionado and especially if they’ve invested in the tools and software needed, these second hand commercial radios are excellent opportunities.

You can do that but it’s much easier to just log in using your FRN and look at the list of licenses issued to you. It’ll show up there immediately.

Have you been under the weather? The vitriol wasn’t flowing quite as strongly over the past three weeks and I was worried about you. I have heard your rants many times but frequently during our network checkins we hear someone really clearly from 30 miles away and it always makes me smile when the net operator asks what mobile they’re using and they report they only have a Baofeng UV5R with a stock antenna. As Randy pointed out you’re full of your own opinions. Not everyone needs a Motorola and those who don’t have one can get just as much use and enjoyment out of their radios. Good luck to you. Being miserable is its own punishment.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding your phrasing. When I hear “We deploy with professional equipment. This is just for our weekly training” it makes me think that you’re training differently than you expect to actually deploy. Why wouldn’t you train with the exact same equipment you would deploy with? Or am I misunderstanding?

Repeaterbook lists one on 550 and one on 725: https://www.repeaterbook.com/gmrs/location_search.php?state_id=19&type=city&loc=Des Moines

RF repeaters can repeat any type of radio signals, such as television, data, or voice.

I don’t know why, but I’ve seen it most often with old stored equipment, including old new stock UPSes. That may be because it’s very recognizable when you plug in a piece of equipment and a cap fails, whereas when they’re being used it looks like it just wore out.

Most mobile radios like to see 13.8 volts. Transmitting requires more current, sometimes a lot more. If your power supply cannot provide that much current the voltage will drop to the point where the radio will reset. I suspect that’s what’s happening. Watching the input voltage like I suggested above would tell you if that’s happening. PUC 1.00 sounds like it could be a firmware revision, which would seem reasonable to display on startup.