SteveShannon

Welcome!

Yeah, no matter what you do some people will complain.

I have the ft5d. It works great for me, but a blind friend has the ft3d and a touchscreen is extremely difficult for a blind user. He’s great about learning to use keyboards. A sighted vendor tried to talk him out of getting a vx-6. He thought it would be too difficult, but I sent him mine to try for a few weeks. He loved it and bought one for himself. He still has the ft3. Sometimes he’ll FaceTime me so I can steer his fingers to use the touchscreen. Lately I’ve been wondering if the ft70 would work better for him for fusion rather than the ft3.

Fortunately the FTM-500 can easily be used as a basic analog radio. Dual receive and the dual display could be temporarily disabled to reduce a little confusion and then re-enabled as the user’s skills grow.

And unfortunately that’s sometimes the issue. People buy an expensive high end digital radio that’s so difficult to use for regular analog communications that they get frustrated and give up (and as a bit of a confession I realize my statements don’t make him feel any better about it). I almost think he might be better served by boxing up the FTM-500 temporarily, picking up a basic dual band radio such as one I mentioned, and learning all he can about basic analog communications.

I agree there’s nothing wrong with wanting, or even buying a really good radio. One thing I see though is people buying something that is way over their heads when they’re just starting out instead of getting something simple at first. I absolutely understand wanting to buy something that’s quality made; nobody want the bitter taste that accompanies a poor quality piece of crap that other people deride and which fails prematurely. But as your VEC pointed out and you and @WRXP381 are correctly passing along, there are some inexpensive basic radios that are great starter radios and which will do a great job of allowing a person to learn the basics without getting lost in the extra features. A radio that uses DMR, YSF, or D-Star is just about the worst way to advise someone. If a person wants a mobile ham radio to use as a stepping stone, there are some really decent ones that can always be converted into go-boxes as they grow into more expensive radios with more features. And if a person wants to buy one radio that will be the only radio they ever need, they should prepare themselves for either a steep learning curve up front or being frustrated later on because when you first get into ham radios you have no idea what will interest you later and you don’t know what you don’t know. For a new ham wanting a name brand dual band radio that will be a workhorse for many years, the Yaesu FTM-6000, the Icom IC-2930A, or the Alinco DR-735 would all be very reasonable as starter radios that will continue to give great value over the years. The FTM-6000 is only $210 right now! If a person doesn’t feel the need to buy name brand, things like the Radioddity db20g can easily be a great starter radio for either GMRS or ham radio.

We are in a sense. We hang out at the same forum. Stop in for a coffee, pop, or even a beer!

Better yet, watch this video:

DTMF frequencies are in the range of voice frequencies. I wouldn't expect something to appear in the specifications. As all ham radio folks say: Try it!

A configuration that receives and retransmits is a repeater, even if you call it two base stations. But if you’re asking about using two duplex Fixed Stations to extend communication (rather than any kind of “network“) between two repeaters that might be acceptable to the FCC. At this point since the FCC’s interpretation has flipped in the past seven years (see the post by @WRKC935 where he included a communication from the FCC saying it was fine) I would make sure to get an interpretation before going down that path.

Are you saying that the Retevis RT-97, RT-97s, and the equivalent equivalent Midland repeater will not pass through DTMF audio?

Welcome!

@WSDW477 Let’s get back to basics. If radio A transmits with a tone of 67.0 Hertz (not MHz!) radio A will have T-CTCSS set to 67.0 Hz. Radio B will only reproduce transmissions from radio A if all of the following conditions are met: It’s on the correct channel, It’s in range (but not too close because of desensitization, which is when a receiving radio is swamped by the transmission and becomes deaf.), AND Either It is set to break squelch when a matching CTCSS tone 67.0 is continuously embedded in the transmitted audio (Tone Mode = TSQL and R-CTCSS = 67.0 Hz) OR it is set to disregard transmitted CTCSS tones (Tone Mode = TONE, doesn’t matter how the R-CTCSS is set), in which case the radio will break squelch (audibly reproduce) for everything it receives on the channel. If you want fewer interruptions (which is one definition of privacy) from other people on the same GMRS channel, you must set the receive tone (R-CTCSS) to match the transmit tone (T-CTCSS) (condition 3 above) of the radio or radios you want to hear and you must set Tone Mode to TSQL. But keep in mind that’s only one aspect of privacy. Others can still hear you and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it.

This is one of the best posts I’ve seen on this subject and should be pinned.

Shawna, The quoted message from Boxcar is one of the best posts I’ve seen on this forum. It doesn’t over promise but it’s accurate. If you can get in with one of the local ham clubs and learn about emergency messaging, which is an important aspect of ham radio, you’ll have a better chance of getting through to your daughter if something bad happens.

Do you have anyone to talk to? Using the radios and then asking questions is probably the quickest way to learn. I would recommend finding a ham radio club, even though GMRS isn’t ham radio, because everything you need to learn about your GMRS radio is exactly the same for beginning hams who just want to use vhf or uhf radios, except for the frequencies and license. Watch videos on YouTube by Notarubicon. There are many and they cover every aspect. If his humor bothers you I’ll find some other channel for you.

R-CTCSS is used to filter out what the radio receives, but on most radios you also need to set the “TONE MODE” to T-SQL, meaning stay squelched until the tone that matches R-CTCSS is received. So, of course any radios that you want to hear must transmit with a T-CTCSS to match.

It can be tested that way. First, put the sw-102 right at the radio and see what your power output is. Then move it to the end of the coax and see what the power output is. The difference is the loss. Another thing to consider is how close your roof antenna is to the roof. It should be up above the high point of the roof at least half of a wavelength or about 15 inches or so, more if possible.

Either the feedline or the antenna on your house is not as good as the one in your car. The first thing I would suggest is that your coax might be attenuating the signal. What kind of coax is it?

It’s something you’re overthinking. Checking SWR on handheld radios is simply not accurately accomplished and unnecessary.

As I recall, there may have been an issue with some GM-30 radios not transmitting on certain channels. A firmware update solved it. But it may simply be the transmitting on that channel is inhibited in the settings. Check that first using whatever method you used to configure the GM-30. One other thing to check is that the channel is allowed to be set as a repeater channel. I don’t know how the regulations are enforced by the GM-30 but there are LOTS of posts in this forum where people were attempting to program a repeater channel where the radio would not allow.

Get better soon!

It’s possible that the GM-30 simply isn’t transmitting on 467.7250. Listen with your other two radios set to receive on that frequency with no tones and separate them from the GM-30 by 50 feet or so to make sure they aren’t desensed.

Welcome! We have all been new at things. It’s intimidating isn’t it. Sometimes you don’t really even know what to ask. So I hope that you’ll read this before posting your question. First, no matter what you post read it all the way through, maybe twice, maybe even more, before hitting “Submit”. Posting a question that isn’t easily understood will do nobody any good. Recently we have seen several questions that were totally incoherent. Second, tell us everything about how you have configured your radio: what frequency you’re transmitting on, the tone or DCS you’re transmitting. If you need help with the radio, tell us what the model is. All the numbers and letters are needed. Don't just say "It's a boofwang" and expect us to leap into action. Tell us the repeater name, the city, and the state the repeater is in. If possible, provide a link to information about the repeater. Be careful not to disclose tones for a private repeater though (assume most are). PL and CTCSS are just different names for tones. We know not all the manufacturers use the same numbers; use frequencies in Hertz instead. Yes, we all know the tones don't protect conversations from being overheard. They can help keep you from being interrupted though. DPL and DCS mean the same as DTCSS and an N after the code stands for Normal, I means inverted; use N unless it’s called out as inverted. No, that roll of RG6 that fell off the cable TV truck isn’t really useful for GMRS. Neither are long runs of RG58 or anything else that's tiny in diameter. Plan to learn about coax losses at GMRS frequencies. No, GMRS isn’t ham radio. Don’t say CQ CQ CQ unless you like being the temporary object of possibly negative attention. Psst: It really is temporary unless you double down; then you get down votes for months. Yes, Notarubicon videos do have useful information, even if you don’t understand the Queen’s humor. No, that’s not related to homophobia. If you just got your call sign from the FCC but you’re unable to sign up here yet, give it a few days. The call sign lookup uses a periodic database dump from the FCC rather than a realtime verification. As such it can take up to a week. And if you still can’t register, double check your call sign. On more than one occasion people have mistakenly entered 1 instead of capital I, or 0 instead of O. GMRS call signs are four letters followed by three numerals. The first letter is W and will be for some time. So WAAA001 through WZZZ999. Also, look over the many posts, use the search function, keep your search terms short and find one of the 5000 other threads where someone asked the same thing before posting the 5001st question about a topic. Really, if you’re a beginner and having a problem, chances are many of us had the same problem when we were beginners and we posted the 3001st or 4001st repeat question. Finally, if any of the above stumps you, don’t even start asking about setting up your own repeater, yet. But when you’ve gotten to the point where you might know enough to ask about setting up a repeater there’s lots of helpful information here. Again, welcome.

First, where is Angleton? It’s meaningless to me and possibly people in 48 other states. Without saying a state you’re less likely to get local assistance. What’s the call sign of the repeater that you’re trying to use? Second, what frequency are you transmitting on and receiving on? Third, what tones are you using for transmitting?