WRQC527

A few things to check. Make sure your transmit CTCSS tone is correct. Make sure that if that repeater transmits a tone, your radio receive tone is set correctly, or turn off the receive tone setting. Make sure you are in a place where you can actually hit the repeater. Sometimes from inside a building or car, or if there are obstructions between you and the repeater, your signal simply can't get out. Let us know how it goes.

They're in the VHF spectrum. 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525, 162.550. Depending on your radio, you *might* be able to access them. The famous Baofeng UV5R, for example, can receive both UHF and VHF frequencies and can be programmed with those frequencies.

In addition to what Lscott presented, remember that a GMRS license enables you to talk like a normal person on a normal radio. No CB jargon, no fancy ham radio lingo, no codes, nothing. ID when you're supposed to, be polite, wait your turn, that kind of thing. Talk to people like you would talk on the phone or in person. Don't overthink it. There are endless threads here where people fall down rabbit holes overanalyzing no end of minutia.

This isn't much of an argument. Wait until you see six pages of debate about an obscure FCC rule. Now THAT'S an argument.

Where are you, what kind of radio do you have, where is the repeater? The more information you give us, the more we can help.

Lol probably not.

21 exclamation points. I believe that's a record. Along with a thread that has generated six pages of responses over 150 days. Wow. Just wow.

"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you do criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes." ~Unknown (by me, anyway)

"It's easy to become confused by these questions. It's hard to know what to do. We should talk about this some more." ~Chief Ten Bears

There's a guy here in SoCal who lives on a boat and uses the same worn-out line every time he gets on, often multiple times a day. He asks for a radio check, and as soon as some poor sap responds, this guy says "I was doing some work on my antenna and I want to see how it's working." Seriously, how much work, and how often, does a two-meter quarter-wave antenna take to keep on the air?

Amen.

I think it's very possible.

Calling CQ in ham parlance doesn't really apply in all circumstances. Calling CQ on a ham repeater, for example, is bad form. As it would be on a GMRS repeater. Also, being "online" is kinda reserved for if you're really online, like I am as I type this. BoxCar and Sshannon have it right. OffroaderX too. GMRS is a very conversational form of radio communication. No codes, no jargon, just stuff like WRQC527 mobile. Or WRQC527 monitoring. Or WRQC527 can I get a signal report. Or something equally conversational. (I hesitate to ask for a radio check, that's how you pay for radios, and every time I ask, my wife says no, find a cheaper hobby). And while we're on the subject of asking for signal reports, or even finding someone else to play with, unless you have someone else who you know is listening, it's probably best to do it on a repeater, because it's more likely someone will hear you than if you call out on one of the simplex channels where no one may be listening.

Dang I was hoping there was a double-secret little-known second GMRS band that only a select few folks had access to with highly-specialized highly-technical dual-band radio equipment like the UV-9G! My bubble is now burst. Bursted? Kinda reminds me of when General Motors stuck a Cimarron sticker on a Cavalier and called it a Cadillac.

Is it just me or does the notion of a "dual band" GMRS handheld seem a bit odd? GMRS is one band. ?

Odd. The Nagoya Ut-72G shows up as a dual-band in some places, but just GMRS in other places, including its own packaging.

That's a question with a ton of answers. It depends on what kind of vehicle, what the vehicle is made of (aluminum, fiberglass, etc), what kind of mounting options (magnet mount, lip mount, drilling into the roof, etc), where you park (garage, outside), what kind of driving (on or off off road with lots of overhead branches or wide open desert), etc. Pretty much everyone here will tell you something different, not because they're right or wrong, but because their use-case is unique. I run a Diamond AZ504 on my van because it (barely) fits in the garage and it works very well where I am in Southern California. Many others use taller antennas because they have more gain. It all depends on what works best for you.

First, welcome. Second, GMRS and 2m/70cm antennas are not really interchangeable. A 2m/70cm dual band antenna works fine for ham radio but won't tune properly for GMRS, and vice-versa. It's unlikely you'd find an antenna that will cover all three frequency ranges.

Welcome to GMRS!

How close to the antenna is the nearest aluminum siding? Slim Jim antennas (and their J-pole cousins) do not like anything near them that can absorb or interfere with RF, especially metal. Not just the aluminum siding, either. If you have any insulation in the attic that has a metallic (foil-like) backing, it can cause problems too, as can metal window frames, etc. These antennas need to be completely in the clear to work best. Transmitting from inside a house with aluminum siding is no different than transmitting from inside a car.

I've also found that dropped screws defy the laws of physics. If you drop one from three feet, it bounces 18 feet. And when you're looking for it, you won't find it, but you'll find the one you dropped last year.

My guess is that with a 1.3:1 SWR your antenna and coax are fine. If you can get the antenna on the roof, it may work better. Some of that RF energy may be blocked or impeded by the roof and roof pillars.

What kind of "club" is this? The radio clubs I belong to don't post anything, in fact we do almost all our communicating by radio. I'm the trustee of one amateur repeater group and an associate member of another GMRS repeater group. We pay for the upkeep of the repeaters.

I'm going to toss in one thing here. Some antennas have a matching network in the base that consists of a capacitor, an inductor, or both. So connecting an ohmmeter at the radio end of the coax across the center pin and the shield *may* give you a false short with good coax. This is how both my ham and GMRS antennas on my van work. If you can completely disconnect the coax at both ends, you will have a more reliable test. Let us know what kind of mount you have.

Welcome to GMRS! The input should go on the TX side. Thats the tone that the repeater hears, telling it to open. The output should go on the RX side. If there's no output tone listed on that repeater, leave it blank on the RX side of your radio.