SteveShannon

Same on my iPhone, but my iPad did just fine.

My name is Steve. After buying 2 Motorola Talkabout GMRS/FRS combination radios, 2 Midland combination GMRS/FRS radios, and 1 Garmin Rino, I finally surrendered my soul to the addiction. Now I am a ham radio operator (AI7KS).

I agree that it came off as whining about @OffRoaderX. It renders correctly on a tablet, but certainly isn’t legible on a phone. Here are the last several paragraphs that you couldn’t read, with all rights belonging to GMRSlive.com: ”You have many other groups that used it as a money making thing. Hell before Texas did what they did they told me they had thousands in the bank. These groups charge for everything. Membership fees, advertising and fees for using there repeaters are just a few. GMRS Live had none of this. We didn’t allow advertising to make money off our users. I promoted one company that makes a good product but we were in no way part of them. They did send a node for me to try out. For just over 4 years I accessed and maintained this network daily trying to keep it running smoothly. In the beginning we paid all the bills. We finally had to add a donation button. Be we didn’t hound anyone for donations. We didn’t bring it up. That was not the purpose. Some did send donations and we thank them for that. It helped to support the server costs. But with over 800 nodes online you would think more would support the network. So above are some of the reasons I have made this decision. I have looked for years for someone I could give the network to if I got tired of it or if anything ever happened to me. I had a few good prospects but for one reason or another it didn’t work out. I did have people email and tell me they wanted to help out or how much they liked the network. We appreciate the kind words but it isn’t easy to teach or know what a person is capable of. And with thousands of members how do you find out? On Monday the Registration Server, HUBs hosted by us, DNS Server, Email and the Website will be turned off. The VOIP Live Server and No Sad HAMs will stay online. There are other small groups out there that I’m sure a bunch will go to. Just be careful and check things out. And unless you have real deep pockets and can afford large fines and attorney fees be careful what you connect to. Or get your HAM Ticket and find us on NoSadHAMs.com”

I understood that. I also understood that you could enter air band channels from the front panel. I’m suggesting that you could maybe use the software to do most of the channel entry as regular channels, the tedious part such as channel names, etc. Then, from the front panel convert those regular channels to air band channels by changing the frequency and modulation. I just thought you could make it slightly easier for yourself. Good luck in either case.

The process is pretty much the same on any GMRS radio. Pick the right repeater frequency pair. There are only eight to choose from and for off the shelf radios they are programmed into your radio. If you’re on one of the preprogrammed pairs with no receive tone you should be able to hear the repeater, if there is any traffic. A lot of the time there is no traffic. Pick the right CTCSS or DTCSS transmit tone or code. Leave the receive frequency unset until you you know you’re hitting the repeater. Push the PTT button, give your call sign and ask if anyone can hear you.

Maybe you can use the factory software to create the air band channels you want but using frequencies in the two meter band. Then all you have to do from the front panel is edit the frequencies and change the mode to AM and then save.

Unless you have enabled squelch tail elimination, It’s mostly up to the repeater programming whether you hear a squelch tail. Not all do. As long as you’re within range for your output power, on the repeater channel, and transmitting the right tone there’s really nothing else to prevent you from activating the repeater.

It says Title 47 was changed; for GMRS there have been no changes to the rules since 8/24/2022. To see the changes click on Timeline over on the left and you’ll see this. If you click on the words “View Change” you can step through the actual changes. They’re minimal and have nothing to do with Linking:

How were they changed? 95.1733(a)8 still prohibits passing messages through a wireline control link. That hasn’t changed. 95.1749 still has the same language regarding telephone networks.

That’s what it looks like. Try changing to one of the channels where narrowband is required. What does it look like on that channel?

But again, you’re quoting the most recent FCC interpretation, not the actual rules. That’s why this argument hasn’t been settled. The rules say one thing and the FCC interpretation says another. For the record I am not in favor of linking GMRS. I am against government being overly restrictive in their interpretation.

It seems clear to me from the regulations that the most common kind of scenario foreseen by the FCC in writing the regulations would be like a family going on an outing or working together in a family business and the licensed adult handing out handheld radios to everyone else in the family so they can stay in touch. Access and control by the owner/licensee can be achieved by being able to communicate with those who have been provided with a radio by voice command. “Gil, stop talking about good looking women on the radio!”

Yes, it looks like you’re doing everything correctly. Maybe have your friend from AZ test the radios with you. As Gil suggested above put 50 feet or so of distance between you to avoid desensing.

@Slufooted, If you don’t set the right tone for transmitting, nobody on the repeater will ever hear you.

Does the 275 need to have repeaters enabled before the repeater channels appear?

A node is simply a unique point that’s identifiable in some way. Applied to GMRS it’s a unique location on a network of some kind. The node identifier makes it possible to address the node individually. Because networking GMRS stations has been more strongly interpreted as prohibited by the FCC, nodes may no longer have usefulness.

It might just be the radio. Get the manufacturer to send you a replacement.

It’s possible that the OP is on one of the simplex channels. They share the receive frequencies with repeaters. Nobody on a repeater would ever hear him because he’s not transmitting with an offset. Or, it’s possible that the OP is on the correct repeater frequency but transmitting with the wrong tone or possibly no tone. Or it’s possible that he is simply out of range. A repeater has a much greater range than a mobile and the OP already said it’s “super far distances.”

Obviously it’s no longer short range, so it is contradictory to the express purpose of GMRS according the regulations. Good luck getting them to change the rules.

Very few of us with repeaters on mountains own the mountains they’re on. We have agreements whoever are the stewards of the mountains, usually US Forest Service, sometimes BLM, or possibly some state agency. For the most part they are very familiar with repeater sites and even have policies that enable us to use their facilities, such as old lookouts. Second, if it’s a building similar policies may be in your favor. The tallest buildings in cities often have a wide variety of antennas on them.

There are standard offsets. Many radios are programmed to automatically use them. Yaesu calls their Automatic Repeater Shift. For 2 meters the shift is 0.600 MHz. For 70 cm it’s 5.000 MHz. For 220 MHz it’s 1.25 MHz. For me anyway the question is whether the shift is positive or negative. I don’t know if there’s a convention that specifies that. But usually the information for a repeater will include either a plus or minus sign near the receiving frequency.

With those numbers I agree, go with the most durable cable that is easy to route. The difference in ERP is nearly undetectable. Plus, RG58 has a solid polyethylene dielectric rather than an easily damaged foam dielectric.

I don’t know the going rate. I would watch to see if your local ham club has a swap meet.

Maybe. You do the calculation and see whether it’s worth it to you. https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/

Look, that’s a great tool, but you can go broke buying tools to strip and prep hardline. Every manufacturer of connectors has its own selection of tools that are designed to make the installation of their connectors easier for a professional. Some are intended for a production environment where time is money. Stripping and prepping might require tools. Installing the connectors usually only requires a couple wrenches. It’s nice to have the hardline but if you don’t need a long length of cable it might not be worth the investment. How far do you have to span? I tried to include links to less expensive and home handyman methods of preparation in my previous posts. They should give you an idea of what’s involved. Tools like your link aren’t worth it to do one or two connectors.