SteveShannon
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Posts posted by SteveShannon
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49 minutes ago, WSIS981 said:
First off, before I even get to the question, gotta say, from a mapping and data perspective (my day job), awesome job overall on the site!
I was wondering, really just curiosity, what are the possible options for, and definitions of those options, in the “Repeater Type” field? I’ve seen Open System, Permission Required, and Members Only, but I was wondering (even with these being largely self-explanatory) if those are the only possible types, or if there’s more, or detailed definitions for the types.
As in much of life the easiest way to find out is to try it. So, I started to add a repeater and then cancelled after discovering what the drop down list contains. I think they’re self explanatory:
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42 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:
Yea I'm familiar with the Find Me app but i don't think it works with phone calls or off your phone directory. In fact, i just checked my phone directory and i don't see a 'share my location' however i do on the find me App. I don't think Find Me provide a bread crump option like the Rino. I've used the Garmin Rino's but never through a repeater. The Rino has a bread crumb feature but you have to upload through their map program, i forget what it was called. I remember it was kind of a pain.. The phone app we used (i think it was Log GPS) was pretty cool, we used it at work for a ton of things, even for logging USA fiber routes. It tied into your camera and you phone log. The app we used was somewhat custom also, It has an option. if you are code savvy, to write some of your own parameters. ... We had someone that did that for us.
Once you turn on the ability to use repeaters, the Garmin Rino turns off digital data.
Last choice on the contact ^. Right after “Add to Emergency Contacts” -
3 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:
The RINO (not Republican
) sends your GPS position each time you xtmt to other RINO users and vis versa. Apple has an App that does the same thing on iphone's, each user has to have it installed and set up in their call directory, it adds a toggle to include people in your direcoty to your locate list. It does some other cool things like include coordinates on pictures with time stamps and an export tool to upload to Google Maps.. We used it at work a lot for outside plant stuff.
You don’t really need an additional app with Apple. You can simply go to a person in your contacts and choose the last option “Share my location”.
For the Garmin Rino if you transmit to a repeater or if you select the option not to share your location the radio won’t. The first is required in order to comply with regulations. The second is (as I pointed out earlier) simply an option.
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7 hours ago, ULTRA2 said:
Don't Garman have radios with GPS and will save location of the user in memory?
Yes, the Garmin Rino. I don’t know whether the location is stored in memory unless you activate breadcrumbs or create waypoints, but your instantaneous location is live at any given time. But you can tell it not to share your location.
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Okay, check your email to see if you received a password change link. Follow it, bla, bla, bla.
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The duplexer is passive. It can’t command a transmission. Presumably you powered off the radio before connecting to the duplexer because the noise generated while connecting it to the antenna port could cause VOX to activate.
Second, although the duplexer might filter it all out, I recommend turning off your B channel. You almost have the national calling frequency (146.520 MHz) tuned for both radios.
I’ve not built a repeater using two handhelds so I can’t answer your other questions, sorry. But you make me want to try just to learn.
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2 hours ago, Guest UserTrying2Register said:
I have been on mygmrs.com before, registered my callsign and have requested some repeater access in the past. When trying to login here on the forum I am greeted with a red box saying that I have not signed in before and need to create and account. I have tried several times over the past few months to register an account here on the forum and after I put in my callsign to verify, it comes up and says my callsign is already registered and shows me a green squared window with all my information in it. Underneath the block where you verify the callsign it states in red that my callsign is already registered to my callsign. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Screen shots can be provided if needed.
I’ve reported your issue to the admin. He’s the only person who can help. What’s your call sign?
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On 6/16/2025 at 6:49 PM, MJR346 said:
Thanks for come back, looking at the master copy I kept from his radio, I think i may know, even though most radios have functioned with difference. Had pulled the tones, but forgot to set my radio for narrow band (as I was testing on 462.5625 simplex) and maybe the radio wasn't picking up cause of the wide (even though I have run narrow over a wide repeater a few times) but didn't think about wide over a narrow signal.
BTW this is from the file I took out as base line for the radio before I modified it, and only thing I could see was wide vs narrow.
May have to try again later on again.
Thanks all.. been using my uv5r as a licensed operator for years and gotten very familiar with it, but think I forgot differences.
Anyway trying to get friend to go GMRS and buy radios where he can get more range for him and his wife so..
WRQD955
The configuration you pasted definitely has tones set: 67.0 Hz for both encode (TX) and decode (RX). Did you have the same tone set on the UV5R for transmit?
If you were transmitting from the UV5R with no tones that would explain why you didn’t hear it -
Using compander adds some audio elements that are not always pleasant. There’s almost always some background hiss in audio. That hiss is compressed along with the desired audio at the transmitter and expanded at the receiver. Some refer to the sound as resembling loud breathing or pumping. I started with compander turned on but didn’t like the sound. I have turned it off now.
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3 minutes ago, dosw said:
Also, you cannot design a radio to have a maximum effective radiated power of 0.5w if you don't control what antenna is used, since antenna gain is a factor in ERP. So it might be an oversight but I don't see in the regulations where it says that on 8-14 the antenna must be a fixed antenna.
It’s not really an oversight. The manufacturer simply has to present data for certification that shows adherence to the ERP value as manufactured. Users are required to comply with the regulations but don’t and as we know, the FCC does nothing about it.
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On 6/17/2025 at 8:25 AM, Lscott said:
As pointed out FRS channels 8-14 are low power, 0.5 watts max. That's why mobile radios don't include them since they generally can't lower their power to the legal limit
Manufacturers could design mobile radios to put out half a watt, but because FRS regulations require handheld radios and because GMRS regulations limit 8-14 to handheld radios, mobile radios could not be certified, even if they complied with the output power requirements.
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4 hours ago, WRYS709 said:
Generally speaking, FRS HTs cannot be set for the offsets required by repeaters.
In practice, if you have the programming software, you msy be able to offset the transmit frequency by +5 MHz.
The allowed channels for FRS in 95.563 do not include the eight repeater input channels. Although it might be possible to program in those channels, it would be a violation of regulations. Of course the FCC never enforces that, but it’s always a good idea to comply.
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42 minutes ago, CoffeeTime said:
Trying to assist someone...
He is looking for a mobile radio recomendation. He wants a Mobile rig to use with FRS at 2 Watts and GMRS 5Watt and above for Comm with his rock climbing friends. They all have Rocky Radios and he wants a Mobile that will work with Rocky Radios.
He threw out around a 10-15 watts unit-ballpark.
Any ideas on a Mobile rig that has that 2 watt pwr. option for TX on FRS and is not locked out on FRS?
Thank you!!
Best Regards!
His request doesn’t make sense. Any GMRS mobile radio will talk to FRS radios except for channels 8-14 which may only be handheld portable units by regulation. GMRS handheld radios can talk on 8-14.
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6 minutes ago, LeoG said:
No reference to my-450-sqg-50 on the interwebby
And the other number had no reference either.
If you broaden your search to “SQG duplexer” you’ll find several hits.
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3 hours ago, MJR346 said:
Had a friend ask me to make his Retrevis rt22frs radios compatible to talk to other brands of radios. I have a TIDradio Bluetooth programmer I use for my own radios and I removed all Tones from all channels. Then decided to test and found that the radio could talk to my uv5r but couldn't hear it back (simplex channel no tones- I'm a licensed user). And then couldn't talk to anyone else's radio till I restored it back to original. Wondering if anyone knows what is up?
The logical assumption is that there’s are CTCSS tones or DTCSS codes somewhere that you don’t realize are there, either on the FRS radio or on your other friends radios, or the radio is transmitting on frequencies the other radios are not receiving. We can’t really know for sure without more information, such as you posting a screenshot, a chirp file, maybe a device like the SW102 showing the output power and actual frequencies of the transmissions that others are not receiving. But we can speculate a bunch:
Bad programming.
Bad firmware.
Both.
But here’s something to try. When it’s transmitting and other people’s radios don’t seem to receive it, put your UV5R into “scan for tones” mode to see if it’s actually sending with a tone that the other radios filter out.
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2 hours ago, Guest Robert said:
Hi I recently received my GMRS license and call sign, which was issued on 6/1/1/25. I am now trying to register on mygmrs.com to get the details to set up a repeater, and get the following message.
"A license could not be found with the given callsign. If it was recently issued, it may not be available in our database yet. Please allow 24-48 hours after the Grant Date on your license before expecting to see your license here"
My call sign is WSIR477, so not sure what is going on. It's been more than 48 hours, coudl it be that mygmrs.com just doesn't have my info yet, anything I can do to get this resolved? Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers, Robert
The extracts used by this site are not daily. You’ll appear in the live FCC database nearly immediately, but it can actually take three or four days for this site to get the data in an extract and sometimes even longer. That affects other sites as well, such as this one which lets a person know whether a GMRS licensee also has a ham license: https://gmrs.app/?wsir477#
The other common thing is that people sometimes supply the wrong call sign. You didn’t, but it definitely happens.
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13 minutes ago, WRDJ205 said:
I've been looking into building a briefcase repeater using a couple of HT's. It's a summer project I'm working on with my sons. It'll be used mainly for personal communication at some rural property where we don't quite get good coverage with HT's. I will probably order a tuned duplexer from BuyTwoWayRadios. The 462.725/467.725 pair is fairly open in the areas where I might be traveling and there are no repeaters near the property.
I can't find a good explanation as to why the duplexers need to be tuned for a specific frequency pair. Why wouldn't a duplexer tuned for GMRS UHF bands be able to cover all pairs as long as the TX and RX radios had the proper offsets on them?
As usual, thanks for your help and Happy Father's Day...
Happy Father’s Day to you!
This might help: -
3 minutes ago, alex911 said:
1. when using chirp program: if the repeater has a tone: ex: 110.9) on the program, under column (tone mode) select tone and under tone column
put the number and that provide me with in and out?
2. ex #2 if the repeater has a DTCS 205 I have to put it under DTCS code column and DTCS Rx code column and Cross Mode DTCS-DTCS or just in one column?
thank you. using chrip program. WRUT292
If the repeater has a DTCSS 205 you must have it under TX. It’s optional under RX. If you don’t have a code under RX you hear everything transmitted on that frequency. That’s helpful when getting started. Later, you might want to add it under RX, but if you do you only hear transmissions that include the same DTCSS code.
DTCSS cross mode is used when you have something different in RX and TX. -
30 minutes ago, WSIK532 said:
one channel is setup 123.0 using tsquelch , the other channel is set with tone option 123.0.
I wanted to see which is correct to get a response from the repeater.
Both will work equally well. With Tone you’ll hear everything transmitted by the repeater, even if your TX tone is incorrect. That’s why I recommend starting with Tone.
With TSQL you’ll only hear radios transmitting on that frequencies using that CTCSS tone. -
Sure, first change your radio to the correct repeater channel. Then set the radio to transmit using the correct input CTCSS tone or DTCSS code required by the repeater . Put your radio in Tone mode, at least at first, rather than TSQL mode. In Tone mode you don’t have to have the receive tone or code set to hear the repeater.
Listen first, to make sure you’re not interrupting someone. Then, when the airwaves are clear, push the PTT and speak clearly into the microphone.
Identify yourself by speaking your call sign at least once every fifteen minutes and when you’re all done talking. Most people will use it as an introduction as well, but that’s not required.
That’s all there is to it. Welcome to the forum! Hope you like it.
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Radio Compatibility
in General Discussion
Posted
That sounds more like they were both set to narrow and the other radios were set to wide.