WRQW589

If you have a UV-5G you should probably be using it in memory mode, not VFO mode, to talk to other GMRS and FRS users. VFO mode serves more advanced needs, like allowing you to listen to any frequency within the devices range, and to go directly to a frequency, without the convenience of memory slots. You can still only transmit on the GMRS frequencies, which are pre-programmed into the memory slots in memory mode. Later you may set up a PL or DCS tone for a GMRS channel to have quieter communications between you and the other radio. And at some point you may find a repeater to use, get permission to use it, and then set up your equipment to efficiently access that repeater by programming a memory slot for it. You can do that painfully through the keypad, or more easily with Chirp software, though even that requires a little technical understanding to get it running and to use it correctly.

Obviously you're already aware of this, but for those who aren't: Wide open deserts aren't conducive to 50-60 mile range from a handheld, because the curvature of the earth puts you out of line of sight. Handheld to handheld over perfectly level ground, each antenna at 5 feet height will yield about 6+ miles before the curvature of the earth blocks the signal. Pretty good range can be achieved over a desert if two parties are on plateaus over a desert valley, though. In that case, 50-60 isn't impossible. (update): And reading a little further in the thread I see you mentioned curvature of the earth, too. I wonder how the flat earth crowd explain the RF horizon.

https://mygmrs.com/repeater/6370

So you have the radio in VFO mode, and while scanning through frequencies near the GMRS channels, you overheard talk on 462.6200, which is 5khz below 462.6250, GMRS channel 18. The bandwidth at GMRS channel 18 is 20khz. So by being 5khz below the center, you would still be able to hear channel 18, just at a lower quality than if you were actually listening on 462.6250. 462.6250 with 20khz bandwidth spans 462.6150 to 462.6350. The freqency 462.6200 is within the +/-10khz bandwidth (20khz bandwidth overall) of 462.6250. Imagine the old days when you would tune your FM radio with an analog knob, and see the station you're on using an analog indicator sliding along a transparent rule with markings on it. You basically turned the knob just slightly to the left. You still hear the transmission, it just doesn't sound as good because you're clipping off the higher frequency end of the transmission's bandwidth.

Tone has nothing to do with it. If you are picking up on 462.620 you are possibly just tuned off-center for channel 18, 462.6250. If you configured your radio to 462.6250 you would probably hear a better quality version of the same transmission. What GMRS radio are you using?

462.620 is 5khz below GMRS channel 18 / 462.6250. Given that GMRS channels are spaced 25khz apart, with 20khz bandwidth, someone transmitting on 462.620 would fall within the bandwidth range of 462.6250 (which would be 462.6150 to 462.6350: 462.6250+/-10khz). It doesn't make sense that there would be an FCC approved device legally transmitting within the bandwidth of a GMRS channel which is approved for 20khz bandwidth.

Agreed. I think the OP must be thinking that the convenience of a handheld unit around the house, not be tied to the base station is the motivation. Otherwise I'm at a loss for why he asked if he should put up a repeater, everyone essentially said nah that's not going to help you. And he followed up by saying he's going to do it anyway. It's a little baffling why the question was asked in the first place if the decision to put one up was a foregone conclusion. ...so my take is there's something we're not being told, such as, not wanting to have to sit around the base station all day, but rather, use the repeater with a good antenna to allow for more mobility around the house by providing a link for a handheld.

Put up a base station. Put up an awesome antenna. Attach a VOX digital recorder to it. Go driving around in your vehicle, checking in with your base station from various locations. Review the recording. If you find that some of your checkins weren't captured, or were too difficult to hear, you will have saved yourself hundreds of dollars by identifying that a repeater wouldn't be any help in your situation. If all of the transmissions did make it through, then you may be on the right track.and you can repurpose your base station and antenna hardware as parts of the repeater system you build.

The Amazon listing for this item states: "Supports CHIRP programming (select "UV-5G Plus" under Radioddity.)" That aligns with how you would also select the UV-5G (not Plus); it is listed in CHIRP under Radioddity instead of Baofeng.

Here's what would need to happen. It's likely that if one had access to Midland's MXT-575 firmware source code (which is probably a proprietary, copyrighted trade secret), they would probably determine that the "channel" frequency configuration is hard coded into the firmware, while other variables such as PL tones are configurable through the keypad. And the firmware does not provide a protocol for altering configuration by way of programming cable. There is probably a bootstrapping system available for Midland to tie into for firmware updates, but that system would be for the purpose of overwriting the entire firmware. If you look at other embedded systems such as home routers, you'll see that there is an open source software project called OpenWRT that allows enthusiasts with sufficient technical understanding to load OpenWRT firmware onto their router (as long as they own a supported router). This OpenWRT firmware is designed to provide configurability in areas that stock firmwares from manufacturers of routers don't typically provide. OpenWRT sprang into existence for *routers* because routers are a large market, they typically, internally, run a tiny version of Linux, and have a lot of potential for firmware improving their configurability. In this case, what you're desiring would probably require a custom GMRS radio firmware first, that exposed capabilities not built into the stock firmware. Such a firmware could provide programming capabilities via USB cable. The problem is that this doesn't exist. Midland GMRS mobile radios are too small a market to spawn a group of enthusiasts to develop their own firmware, engineered to leverage Midland's boot loader and to fit within the hardware constraints of Midland GMRS radios. In the case of routers, it's a huge market; every home has one or more router. But GMRS, overall, is a smaller niche market, and there are options from other manufacturers that allow for programming without going to all the trouble of creating custom firmware for a Midland radio. So this side-loadable firmware just doesn't exist. Enthusiasts of GMRS don't go to the trouble of building custom firmwares to side-load into their GMRS radios. They buy radios that have the capabilities they need, and get a CHIRP profile added for that radio. The MXT-575 is a very useful radio, easy to use, nice quality, nice design. But for a radio that provides programmability via USB cable, and that provides 999 memory banks, a KG1000G-Plus is $389, and an MXT-575, in good condition, should fetch at least 250 on eBay, freeing up a little cash to use to obtain a model that is better for your needs. (When I say "that doesn't exist", I've looked; I checked Github, where many open source projects store their code, I've searched using search terms that would be common in such projects, I've looked in PyPI, CPAN, Node repositories, Java repositories, C++ repositories... I'm a software developer, and while there are millions of places to look, I've covered the ones that would usually matter.)

What's funny about this is they advertise "3-mile" range. I assume it's 500mw. But it seems like that was the state of marketing in the 90s before companies started claiming 16 miles, 18 miles, 22 miles, 38 miles, on radios that were inferior in terms of their antenna, and equal or only slightly better in terms of transmit power. Three miles was a real-world "out in the open" estimate, and is a LOT more accurate than blister pack radios nowadays claiming 22 miles of range.

Welcome to the Internet, where the strongest opinions are the ones who prefer to shoot down the question rather than leaving room for it to be answered by those who may have ventured beyond the immediate obstacle. I do have one observation, though. The MXT-575 has a total of 23 "channels", where a channel is a frequency (simplex) or a frequency pair (repeater). You get one configuration per channel. Configuration on all simplex channels consists of PL/DCS tone or code, power level (which is limited to Low for channels 1-7), and channel bandwidth (narrow band - default, or wideband). On the repeater channels, you add both Tx and Rx tones or codes to the configuration. The 23 channels are directly tied to immutable frequencies; 1-7 and 15-22 for simplex, and 15r-22r for repeater frequency pairs. Channels don't get to be named. What I'm suggesting is that the configuration is very simple, to the point that you wouldn't have as much need for CHIRP or other software support. Radios that benefit more from supporting uploads from a computer generally have 100+ "channels", but in their case, the channels have configurable frequencies within the range of GMRS frequencies. So if you take a Baofeng UV5G radio as an example; each of the 100 channels can be set to any frequency within the radio's range. You may have all 100 channels on the came frequency if you want, each with different permutations on tone/code, power, and memory bank name. The point being, many radios equate channels to memory slots. And the memory slot can contain name, frequency, power level, bandwidth, tx tone/code, rx tone/code, and possibly squelch. And there will be 100-999 memory slots. Compare that to an MXT-575; it has 23 memory slots, and the slots do not allow you to set the frequency or a name. That means you get only ONE repeater on "channel 15", or on a particular frequency. One could argue that this reduces the need for programming capabilities, though I can see the opposing argument that if I'm heading across the country and want to use repeaters local to the map I'm travelling within, programability would be very useful, to avoid having to change "channel 15r" again and again manually to the repeater tones in use in that area for that frequency.

Hood lip mount with two antennas that you change out depending on the use-case. Day in and day out, use something like the MXTA25 ghost antenna. It's not awesome, but it will never get hung up on your garage door. And then when you head out for a few days (garage is now not an issue), swap over to the MXTA26. They're easy to swap. Another alternative is to go for a half-wave antenna on an NMO mount. Get the hood lip mount for it. The half-wave is going to be shorter than the MXTA26. And a half-wave antenna doesn't need a ground plane. Select one that is marketed as not needing a ground plane.

ABCD123a, ABCD123b, ABCD123c. I just put a little label sticker on each of my radios with an "A", "B", "C" on it. But TBH usually one of us (me) announces the call sign, and then we just start communicating. If we're in an area where there are going to be other GMRS-aware channel bystanders we'll layer in the 'a', 'b', 'c'.

My sailboat has a marine VHF radio with transom-mounted VHF antenna, which is a terrible place to mount an antenna on a sailboat. My mast is down right now, and I am planning to install a new VHF antenna on the mast head before putting up the mast again. Shakespeare sells masthead antennas that seem to be what "everyone" uses for marine VHF on inland waters. I sail on the Great Salt Lake, so the maximum distance between two boats is going to be a little under 40 miles. And one would never be more than about 35 miles from either of the two shore stations (the two harbors). With a transom mounted VHF antenna, my signal to other boats with transom antennas fades after five to seven miles. With a masthead, which places the antenna 34 feet above the water level, I can communicate with other masthead-mounted VHF installations for about 22 miles, in my experience, and I can communicate with the harbormaster's VHF from pretty much anywhere on the lake. That's VHF. But marine VHF has restrictive rules about how it can be used, and ship-to-shore is not really permitted unless the person on-shore has a land-station license. On the other hand, GMRS doesn't restrict ship-to-shore communications. So I'd like to also get a masthead GMRS antenna. Can I get a recommendation for a GMRS antenna for a 34 foot sailboat mast? Are there any GMRS antennas that have dual-band GMRS / Marine VHF capability? (Realizing that's probably a lot to ask). What cable should I be running for that distance? Consider 34 feet mast head to deck, then ten feet from the through-deck fitting to the GMRS radio. As for radios, I would probably move my MXT-275 from my vehicle to the boat, and then use that as excuse for getting a more feature-full radio for my vehicle. Boat to boat, I would mostly still use VHF, since that's what other boaters on this lake use. But for convenient communications with family members within the harbor, or while out on the lake, talking to family on-shore, or talking through a repeater to family at home, I would use GMRS. (I've verified good repeater coverage for this application.)

You may find that you have very good communications with GMRS on 20 acres over simplex, no repeater. In that case you can put your 2k into the jeep instead. At least test things out as is. See how it goes.

I have two MXT-275 Midland radios, and two GTX-1000 radios. They work great, and are easy to use. They lack some things that I might find useful; the ability to configure more than one memory location per frequency (ie, the ability to use more than one repeater that operates on the same frequency, for example)... and I don't think the handhelds are repeater capable in the first place. But for what I use them for primarily, that's fine. I tend to set all my radios to use the same DSC/PL tone on channel 18, and the same one on channel 6. Then I can tell others "go to channel 6" and I know we'll be talking lower-power, or "go to 18" and we'll be talking at a higher power setting. The antennas are pretty good. I have the 3db "ghost" antenna that I use most of the time, and the higher gain 6db antenna that I mount on the RV or use at home. My other radios are Baofengs; two UV-5G radios, and I'll probably get a UV-5G Plus sooner or later. But I don't "need" what they have to offer, I just enjoy the flexibility they offer for tinkering. When it comes to actually using the radios, I'm perfectly happy with the Midlands. Clarifying my use cases: Talking between the RV and family / friends out hiking, keeping our ski party together (sometimes we end up at the base of different lifts), taking trips with more than one vehicle, getting help from my son as I back the tow vehicle (no rear facing camera) up to the trailer, keeping together when we're at crowded, spread out destinations (theme park, shopping districts, etc), kayaking, sailing (ship-to-shore chatter, since VHF Marine Radio is rather particular/stodgy about ship-to-shore communications). I do listen in on repeaters but don't make much use of them; there's just not much need. Either we're within range of each other, or we're out somewhere remote where there aren't any repeaters to help, anyway.

There aren't too many things to get right, for it to work. Check the following: Are you too close to the receiving radio? This may be a little counterintuitive. But imagine you have radio A in the bedroom, radio B ten feet away in the same room. Radio A reaches out to the repeater 2 miles away. What will radio B hear? ....nothing, because radio A is desensitizing the receiver in B by virtue of their close proximity. It's like if you are trying to talk to your friend while standing a few feet away from a jet engine. Your friend won't be able to make out what you're saying because of how loud the jet is, even though voice, and jet engine noise may not even be occupying the same frequency ranges in the sound spectrum. The solution is for radio B to be a block away; you'll have to enlist the help of a friend. Are you using the correct squelch tone (PL, or DSC) to open the repeater? Are you (on both radios) set up with the proper squelch tone to hear the repeater? Sometimes it's useful to set your radio to not have a receiving tone set. What I mean is allow the receivers to hear all communications; don't use a squelch tone for receiving. Later on you can add that, but in the short-term, turning it off eliminates one possible issue. -- You do still need the correct tone for transmitting, or the repeater won't even open. Is your signal propagating to the repeater? (antenna height, obstacles, and distance play into this) Is radio B within signal propagation range of the repeater? (antenna height, obstacles, and distance play into this) If radio A and B attempt to reach each other over simplex within the proximity of a few hundred yards, does that work? (Here we're trying to find out if the transmitters and receivers are even in good working order) Anyway, go through the checklist and see if any of those bullet points help.

That's a really good point. And it wouldn't take a very high powered one. Just good antenna placement, really. I end up going to this spot a couple of times a year, most years, and I can think of a great place for a repeater there, where it would be (1) line of sight over a great distance and (2) permitted on a temporary basis without any problem. Perhaps next time I'm out there I'll consider it.

My primary vehicle: Retevis RA87, 40w with MXTA26 antenna. Sailboat: MXT-275 with Laird B4505N (installation in progress). Handhelds: Two Baofeng UV-5g with Nagoya 701 antennas, and two Midland GXT-1000s. RV: MXT-275 (swapped with boat as needed), and HYS SDN1-T antenna. I also have the MXTA25 3db Ghost antenna. I swap it around with the vehicle's MXTA26 6dbi antenna sometimes. If I'm camping with the RV I'll sometimes put the longer antenna on it, as that seems to make the most sense for base camp. My primary reason for getting into GMRS in the first place was keeping track of my ski party; my two kids, and my brother, as we learned our way around a bunch of different ski resorts, particularly before the kids had phones. It's proven to be useful camping and hiking, too, and for drives that involve two or more vehicles. It's worked out well for those uses. Once I finish my sailboat installation I'll be able to reach between the boat and mobile from most of the vast Great Salt Lake, and across most of the Salt Lake valley. But somewhere along the way GMRS also became a hobby because I enjoy tinkering.

An experience last summer was useful to my understanding with respect to power. Camping east of Zion, a group took a nine mile hike, and a group stayed at camp. The hikers with handhelds kept in touch with each other quite well. Those who stayed at camp radioed to the hikers to check on them, as a storm whipped up. The hikers, later, mentioned that from a few miles out (varied, mountainous terrain) they could hear the campers calling them from 3-4 miles away. But the campers couldn't hear the hikers responding until they were within two miles. The campers were using an MXT-275 (15w) with an MXTA56 (6db antenna). The hikers were on handhelds that transmitted at a little less than 5w, with rubber duck antennas. So, sure, the extra power helped punch through the terrain a *little*. But without the hikers getting up above the terrain, it didn't matter, as they couldn't get a response back to the campers. If you're contemplating a 50w setup vs 15w, just consider whom you'll be communicating with, and in what kind of terrain. I could have had a 50w radio in camp, and it wouldn't have mattered at all; the hikers would have heard the campers from a very slightly greater range, and the campers still wouldn't have heard the hikers responding.

Probably not. Not that you couldn't benefit from a repeater, but standing up your own repeater probably isn't going to be of much use to you. Consider point A (home), and point B (work). Of those points, A is 17 miles from B. Let's assume that radio at point A, and the radio at point B cannot communicate with each other currently. The first question to ask is can I reasonably get an antenna mounted high enough at location A, and at location B, that the radios at A and B can talk to each other? If the answer is yes, then the solution is exactly that; get two antennas, mount them high enough, get a connector and hook it up to your radio at each location. If the answer is no, then you may benefit from a repeater. Next question: Is there a location (C) where both radio A and radio B are able to communicate with C, if A, B, and C have antennas at reasonable and sufficient heights? If the answer to that is no, then no repeater will help. If the answer is yes, then a repeater will help ONLY IF you actually are allowed to install a repeater at that location C. So, do you own a building/house/antenna mast at some location (C) between A and B where you can install a repeater? If the answer is yes, you're in luck. You will benefit by installing a repeater (if you know how, and have the funds to install one of adequate capability). If the answer is no, you have no reason to spend money on a repeater. If you own the rights to put up an antenna at that location C that both A and B can communicate with, start doing some research, and plan out your installation.

Let's just simplify with code A, B, C. To open the repeater you need to use its code. We'll call that input code "A". To listen to that repeater, you can either listen wide open (no code) or you can set your receiver to match the repeater's output code. "B". It's possible for a repeater operator to set A and B to be the same, which is also fine, though often they're different. It doesn't really matter; makes no practical difference once the sending and receiving radios are configured with the proper codes. There is nowhere to insert a third output code, "C", so that a subset of listeners can grab only messages coming through with the "C" tone. It's just not a feature supported by GMRS. It is possible for a high-end repeater configuration to allow multiple input/output tone combinations, though. But that's not as common, and really is up to the person setting up the repeater to configure.

I agree. I mean I don't understand the numbers behind it. But it's a pretty powerful unintentional signal. However, there was no mistaking that sound, whether it's as I lay in the MRI machine, or as I'm driving off with my GMRS radio picking it up. I don't hear it driving past other hospitals, so there must be something different about the Park City IHC hospital / imaging lab.

I'd get three mobile radios, even a MXT-275 (15W output) would do the trick, though there are more capable models that are more loved here. And get three of Midland's 6db antennas, along with three magnetic mounts, and three 12v power supplies. In each of the three homes, place an antenna in the attic or near a window on a cookie sheet for a ground plane. Bonus points if the window you place yours in is on the side of the house closest to your brother and father's homes, and on an upper floor. If your brother and father are able to go with an attic or roof-top antenna that's great, too. The Midland MXT-A26 antenna is the one to get, along with the necessary cable and a means of mounting it. With those "good enough" radios, and those "pretty good, actually" antennas, you'll hit three miles without too much trouble. The mountain could be a problem, but you're already getting past it with handhelds. All the better with a decent antenna. Come to think of it, you might just order the antennas, mounts, and adapters that fit your handhelds, assuming you're using handhelds that have detachable antennas. My UV-5G can hit a repeater 22 miles away with just its built in antenna, but when I hook it up to the MXT-A26 it sounds great.