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My GMRS call sign is a real tongue-twister when just using letters: ....W......Q.......W........U.....626 dub-ya que dub-ya you six two six Phonetics is much easier! Whisky Quebec Whisky Uniform Six Two Six

Oh, in that case look in the manual on page #139 for instructions on how to adjust the display brightness. Menu #6 is the backlight brightness adjustment. Default is "DIM 3". I've set both my radios to "DIM 4" (highest).

I have a dual-band Diamond for my 2m/70cm radio and have all of the GMRS channels programmed into memory. I've had excellent results with it with VSWR (measured by my antenna analyzer) of around 2.1:1, which is acceptable. That said, if I had room for a dedicated GMRS radio in my little Toyota Camry, I'd definitely opt for a mono-band antenna tuned properly for GMRS frequencies.

There are two switches on the right side. The top one locks the keypad numbers. The lower one controls the backlight.

It's too late by several days, but were you using the same exact frequency pair that the duplexer is tuned for? If not, then that was the problem!

No. The 7800 is 2m/70cm only. I does have true "dual receivers" and allows cross-band repeat. The only real improvement that could be done via a firmware update would be the ability to automatically "skip" whatever channel the opposite side is monitoring whenever scanning on one side. For example, I'm currently monitoring my club's main 2m repeater on the "A" side, and scanning memories on the "B" side. Whenever the club repeater is active, the "B" side will stop on the same memory channel and I'll wind up with double the volume! Alternatively, if they would have set memory management similar to my "antique" Kenwood TM-V7a where the entire pool could be divided between the two sides. With this arrangement the user could designate channels 1 - 399 to one side, and the remaining channels 400 - 799 to the other side, thereby being able to set up two totally separate scanning scenarios.

I actually keep an SX-144/430 dual-needle wattmeter inline all the time to monitor my power and VSWR. Yes, at full power I'm getting a full 45 watts out of the TH-7800 per specs. I rarely ever run at hi power however except on the rare occasions I work simplex.

Personally of all those listed, I'd choose the Kenwood TM-V71A. It is the younger brother of the venerable TM-V7a which I've now owned for over twenty years. Unfortunately, the display went funky on mine so use it now mostly to monitor a single frequency. An inexpensive radio with nearly all of the same features is the TYT-7800. I own two of them; one for my shack and the other for my car. They are currently $196.99 at Amazon.

Map appears to be broken. Even though I am logged in, I get an error message advising me to "Login..." http://puu.sh/vJBAn.png Hmmm, I just tried again and it seems to work again! Curious...

Indeed. It should be 25kHz, not 12.5kHz.

No repeater "output tone" is ever required. Furthermore, the absence of a transmit "output tone" will not - in and of itself - cause interference with other repeaters. The looped recording on the other hand is nothing less than malicious interference as it allows no one else to use the frequency.

* illegal *

The FCC will accept any submissions made, but will almost certainly simply file it away. They have no resources left with which to take any real action. We have had some folks working for a well-known major corporation using 146.505 simplex for well over two years here in NW Indiana and the FCC's reply to a thoroughly documented and recorded report was just this (paraphrased): This despite the fact that the illegal usage occurs every day of the week for hours on end... ...and we even know precisely who they are!

I've found the simplest way to explain this is this one simple fact: "A repeater can only repeat what it can hear."

The single most critical part of any repeater is the antenna system! Keep in mind that a repeater can only "repeat" what it can hear. Additionally, UHF frequencies are mostly limited to line-of-sight (LOS), so an antenna that's very limited in height will not really provide much of an advantage over simplex operations.

I am 47 airline miles from the tower and can easily get into the repeater from my mobile (both the TH-7800 dual band and my CS800 DMR in analog mode). I've also manage to get in from my 4 watt XPR7550 DMR in analog mode, albeit not full quieting. Prior to the relocation, I could barely get into it from my radio room using a hi-gain rooftop mounted antenna. From what the owner told me the other day, with the ground elevation taken into consideration, the "height" now is equivalent to around 560'. The repeater is a venerable Micor that's been around for a very long time. Motorola equipment from that era doesn't want to die...

There is an almost daily "community rag chew" on the Joliet, IL GMRS repeater that sometimes lasts over two hours... Everyone identifies with their call even more frequently than absolutely required, just to be on the safe side... It's a phenomenal repeater now that the owner has the stick at ~500' on a new tower location. Previously the repeater had been located on top of a 17 story building... that unfortunately was at a much lower elevation; pretty much in a hole!

While technically correct, 10 minutes will still satisfy the requirement to ID...

Do yourself huge favor and slip an appropriate length of shrink tube over the middle joint on the antenna to provide a much better water seal.

Count the number of crystal filters used to achieve such robust selectivity. This would be ideal for any high RF noise environment, but probably overkill for a SHTF repeater...

BridgeCom Systems BC-40DU

I have been running a BridgeCom BC-40DU repeater for nearly a full year now 24/7 since first power on. Unfortunately my antenna system isn't adequate to really allow the repeater to perform as well as it could, but that's certainly not the repeater's fault!

I agree with Corey. The "Liberty" is the wrong repeater for GMRS purposes. Ritron's "Patriot RRX 450" would be a better choice, although it is limited to 30 watts max @ 50% duty cycle. http://www.ritron.com/prod_patr1.html

Secure your GMRS license Secure a tower space before doing anything else!

You could also read up on repeater building here: http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/