SteveShannon

The DB20G also wasn’t supported by RT Systems until just a few weeks ago, but now it is and it works very well! I would suspect Chirp support will follow.

Are there different Roger beeps and did you change your Roger beep to one of the others?

#2 - If you don’t hear them when you have a tone programmed, it’s because either they are transmitting with a different tone or they are not transmitting with a tone. #1 - If tone scan isn’t stopping on a tone, one possible cause is that they are not transmitting with a tone.

That’s a wonderful model.

Thanks, Marc. Allowing students to press the PTT and operate GMRS radios probably would never hurt a thing and I truly can’t imagine that it would bother most reasonable people, but unfortunately we live in a world with its share of jerks who always find something to complain about. If that happened to one of the students, or worse yet the instructor received a letter from the FCC, that could result in students not wanting to learn about radio. Amateur radio is specifically structured to foster such experiences including allowing very young people to become licensed. And the opportunities to use it in a school setting far exceed any other radio service. Using ham radio my youngest daughter was able to ask a physiology question to an astronaut on the space station 23 years ago due to the efforts of her science teacher and although she never became a ham radio operator she did go on to get an advanced science related degree. Recently, I held the microphone while my nine year old granddaughter spoke during a 40 meter net during Christmas break. She identified herself using phonetic characters and wished the other net participants a Merry Christmas. Her eyes lit up. Will she become a ham? I don’t know, but she literally could study the questions and answers and become licensed now. She and her five year old brother also use my FRS radios when they’re here. I see these services as supplementary to each other, rather than competing, but the rules favor ham radio in the classroom.

One thing to check is that they are in phase with each other. Otherwise one channel will destructively affect the other. The same thing can happen acoustically with out-of-phase stereo speakers.

No, but the amateur rules expressly allow third party communications under the constant supervision of a control operator (97.115). GMRS regulations have nothing similar to that.

So the teacher pushes the PTT while the students speak?

I know that’s true for ham radio operations, but is it also true for GMRS? I don’t recall seeing anything that says that in the regulations.

Check your feedline. It sounds like maybe it or your coax connections are separating when they get cold. That’s just a guess of course. An antenna analyzer would tell you what’s going on probably.

How do you like it so far?

Here’s an semi-interesting video about the problem with the cp2105 USB chip on the ftdx10: The chip itself is less than $7 at Digikey: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/silicon-labs/CP2105-F01-GMR/4069046

Why not? These aren’t nuclear secrets.

I have the ftdx10 and really like it. The complaints I’ve heard about it consist of three things: 1. Buttons are too close together and too close to the tuning knob. 2. Buttons are not backlit. 3. Too many things require using the menu. I acknowledge the veracity of all three of those, but none of them bother me anymore.

Great job!

No, for simplex you use the same frequency. A typical repeater must transmit at exactly the same time as it receives, so it must receive on one frequency while it transmits on another. In the case of GMRS the difference is 5 megahertz. So you transmit to the repeater on a 467 MHz frequency and the repeater receives them and immediately transmits on a 462 MHz frequency for your friends to hear.

There are 30 numbered channels on that radio (plus a bunch you can customize). 1 through 22 are simplex. 23 - 30 are reserved to transmit to repeaters. Those eight receive on the same channels as 15-22. Some manufacturers label those eight channels with the letters RPT-15 through RPT-22 to display the common receive channel. So, the channel labeled RPT-19 is actually number 27 in your radio. You shouldn’t delete the channel (and I doubt you can delete any of the first 30, but I don’t know that for a fact. You must have the correct transmit tone or code programmed into your radio to open up the repeater or it will not repeat your transmission. You’re doing the right thing in learning to program your radio from the front panel. It is easier to program with a computer but it’s much better to be able to program without having a computer. Don’t give up. Look up the tone needed for the repeater (PL or CTCSS, same thing) or code (DPL, DCS or DTCSS, they’re the same thing). Don’t worry about programming a tone or code for the receiver, at least not yet. Leaving it open will allow you to hear everything on frequency 19. You can always add a receive ton to match what the repeater transmits later, but leaving it off for now might simplify things as you learn. Don’t get down on yourself. Once you see how it works you’ll be fine.

I think you probably intended to say the db20g wasn’t certified for MURS. It is certified for 95E, GMRS, as shipped.

I think I have five GMRS certified radios, beginning with a Motorola Talkabout set of 2, nearly twenty years ago, then 2 Midland handhelds. At about that time I got my FRN, but the $70 for five years seemed too high. Then I felt I needed a Garmin Rhino because my rocketry friends had them and used the location sharing feature. Then, in 2021, I got my GMRS license at $70 for ten years. About then I started watching Notarubicon videos. My interest in radios was rekindled and the following year I got my ham license. Then I bought two more GMRS certified radios, both DB20Gs, but I converted them both to ham frequencies. They’re the only 95e certified radios that I have capable of operating on ham bands and I no longer use them on GMRS. If I buy better mobile ham VHF/UHF radios I’ll probably revert them back to GMRS use. I’m not sure what I was supposed to be a perpetrator of.

On startup it can be configured as either GMRS or wide ranges of frequencies, including ham, but when you do all the memories are wiped out. As it ships it can only do GMRS, in compliance with regulations.

Slip the battery off the radio when stored.

Also this Compactenna from DX Engineering: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/can-2m-440?seid=dxese1&gclid=CjwKCAiAh6y9BhBREiwApBLHC1IcGA0rH-N1a1wQXIhDuTekfGba_nQh9ZEpj9l1uJz_W3QNi1ECGhoC2kUQAvD_BwE

I don’t have firsthand experience with this but L-Com isn’t a fly-by-night company: https://www.l-com.com/144-430-mhz-omni-antenna-4.5-dbi-gain-nmo-connector-black-abs-radome-lcanom1081?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Shopping - PMax - All Products&keyword=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD9ns-k-oAGD00ZYuX-bs141csFCp&gclid=CjwKCAiAh6y9BhBREiwApBLHCxp5d-GsMPw5o8VbQPxZGLsAhj2PdPREyFZJINegJsie_crDDwZ-0hoCJg4QAvD_BwE

Welcome!

I guess I think the premise of this thread is wrong. It’s not up to me or anyone else here to say whether someone else is using GMRS “as intended”, as long as the regulations are followed. And it’s not up to me to enforce the regulations I’ll gladly help somebody understand the regulations (as much as I can) but I don’t get to reinterpret them to fit my ideas of how GMRS is intended to be used. If you want to have a conversation on the repeater with someone you’ve never met who announces they’re “monitoring”, it’s not my place to pass judgement. If you want to run your family ranch, good for you! If you use it while you’re out boating or hiking, do it. I think there are way too many people who want to decide what’s right for others to do