hfd376

I ordered my h3 plus as a GMRS version to play with the Bluetooth programming. I did  manage to get my h3 plus to program the ham stuff simply by selecting h3 in the program tab at the bottom of the OD Master app. I think I read the radio and made changes in the programming and wrote to the h3 plus. I haven't explored updating the firmware as I don't have a programming cable. Hope this helps.
Doug

Socalgmrs lives in a great area for UHF.  He really needs to take a trip out to the NE and experience hilly and mountainous regions where sometimes 50 watts won't get you 2 miles.

AH! Why didn't I think of that! yeah the old NASA transmissions to the astronauts all had the beep!
Funny that today the beep is considered "not professional sounding" when the origin of it was very much professional with NASA!

The roger beep originated with the U S Space Program in the 1960's. There were no radio services that I'm aware of. Sometime in the early 1980's, someone came up with device be installed in CB radios. The rest is history,

The roger beep originated with the U S Space Program in the 1960's. There were no radio services that I'm aware of. Sometime in the early 1980's, someone came up with device be installed in CB radios. The rest is history,

SYSTEM:
The Hampton Virginia repeater is new, is a Vertex VDX-R70, 25 watt system located near Mercury Blvd and North King Street in central Hampton. It's currently in BETA testing mode and is owned by me; a retired law enforcement officer and disabled vet. I am working closely with a couple of great individuals in Portsmouth and Surry to accomplish this goal. In late November 2024 we requested The Chamberlin Hotel / Harmony Assisted Living center on Fort Monroe to allow the installation of this repeater in the building with a roof-mounted antenna, and were told they would do all they could do to get it done; we are still awaiting a response. As secondary and tertiary locations, we sent a request December 10th to the Fort Monroe Authority to utilize space there, as both locations are on the water, have higher structures, and will reach Norfolk. I have also reached out to Hampton University Real Estate Foundation this week requesting a 2nd alternate location at 2 Eaton Street in downtown Hampton. 2 Eaton Street is a 14 story building and would give very ideal coverage.  I'm open to other possible locations in Hampton with the height requirement to attain a 20 mile service radius. The system is currently being BETA tested at my Hampton residence with the antenna installed at 30 feet until it can be installed at one of the top three locations in the next 90 days.
ROLE:
This repeater's PRIMARY role is to provide radio distance access to Disabled Veterans and military personnel with low power radios in Hampton, Portsmouth & Norfolk who utilize GMRS as a hobby or to speak to someone other than F2F and have no repeater access. It will however be open to any licensed user. The SECONDARY role will be utilized for emergency communications for a group of volunteers, the majority of whom are DV's, active duty & retired military personnel who require solid communications when volunteering during hurricanes, flooding and other disasters on the peninsula and northeastern Norfolk. This repeater will be restricted to essential personnel only during these incidents.

I was in the process of my routine quarterly updating the radio codeplugs in all my mobiles and portables the last few days, and this morning, I had four Astro Sabers, model I. II, and IIIs, to finish up and I discovered that they were not transmitting the Inverted DPL Codes. I spent about an hour trying to figure out if it was a setting in the CPS, or the radios were way too old to transmit inverted DPLs. The radios did fine with the normal DPLs.

I did have the Inverted Box Checked in both the conventional personality transmit and receive menus. The Astro Saber Radios would decode the Inverted DPL from a couple of my XTS5000 radios, but the XTS5000 Radios would not decode from the Astro Sabers when the XTS5000 decode feature was enabled. However, the XTS5000 radios would receive the transmission from the Astro Sabers Radio if the Decode feature was disabled and set for CSQ.

I went over and over the CPS Conventional Personality and Zone Assignment settings in both the Astro 25 Portable CPS and the Astro Saber & XTS3000 CPS and everything was set correctly, at least I thought it was, and then a thought came to mind what may be contributing to the cause of the problem. As I was staring at the displays of both the XTS5000 and the Astro Saber Radios, I noticed that the "Talkaround/Direct" symbol in both displays was indicated on both radios, which they should be.

Although, I do know for a fact that with the XTS1500, 2500, and 5000 series portable radios if you have a simplex channel selected, the Talkaround/Direct symbol (→) will automatically be displayed. After, I went back to a repeated channel with the Astro Saber radio and then back to a simplex channel, I noticed that the (→) symbol was not being displayed. Ah Ha!

What I didn't realize is that with the Astro Saber and of course the XTS3000 Series Radios that is not the case now. So, with the (→) not being displayed maybe that has something to do with the "Talkaround/Direct Menu in the Astro Saber & XTS3000 CPS, I went into the CPS and sure enough the menu was not properly setup for the Inverted DPL codes for transmitting if the TalkAround/Direct Feature was enabled.

With the Astro 25 Portable CPS when you have a simplex personality programmed, in the Zone Assignment Menu the T/A Direct column is grayed-out and you are restricted to making any entries, but that is not the case in the Astro Saber & XTS3000 Portable CPS and is not restricted, if the "TalkAround" Box is checked in the Talkaround Menu and the portable radio talkaround/Direct Feature is enabled, the radio will functioned as set. When I disabled the Talkaround/Direct Feature on the Astro Saber, the XTS5000 Radio was able to receive the Astro Sabers' Inverted DPL transmission when the decode feature was enabled. Problem solved.

This will be the case if you reprogram a previously programmed Conventional Personality from a semi/duplex configuration to a simplex configuration which was in my case. If you add a new Conventional Personality, the box in the Talkaround Menu will not be checked.

Over time and after programming a gazillion XTS and XTL radios with both the Astro 25 Mobile and Portable CPS', who would have thought that going back and checking the Talkaround/Direct Menu to disable that feature in any of the early CPS'. Well now, that will be something that I will be doing from now-on.

What I did was I created my own problem. As I was going through checking my programming on the various channels, I activated the Talkaround Feature on the Astro Saber Radio so I wouldn't activate a repeater nearby on one of the channels, because I didn't want to take the time to connect the radio to a dummy load, and then I went to a Zone with all simplex channels and some of them with Inverted DPLs. The end result of this was the fact that the radio worked as designed and all I had to do is go back in uncheck a few boxes. Lesson learned. At least, I figured it out on my own.

Same here with the sellers "no returns" or "as-Is", but eBay guarantees that you are getting what is advertised.  That means if the listing doesn't say "Parts Only" or if it says does not work, etc. than it is guaranteed by eBay to work.  Some will say that it worked when it was shipped and that doesn't matter what the seller says.  Don't forget to request a returned shipping label when you contact the seller for a return.  If the contact page does not allow you to return than contact eBay and they will take care of it.
I have bought new, still in the box, never-used Motorola stuff at great prices like a Repeater Station, chargers, Battery Maintenace System, and various accessories, XTS5000 portables, and recently a Kenwood Mobile.  Those new, never-used, still in the box stuff do pop up every so often. A lot of these deals are hard to pass up and that is why I have more radios and stuff than a normal human being would ever need in a lifetime.

This is wisdom earned the hard way. 

That is the nicest compliment I have gotten in months! 

I was thinking about a good response to the original post, but I don't know that there is one. Radio is so diverse in it's use that I think any answer would be anecdotal at best. For example, it seems very much like a hobby where I live, but in other areas I travel to, it is very much utilitarian in nature. Which one represents the majority trend? No idea.
 
When I look at the purpose of the service, at its core, it is "for facilitating activities of individual licensees and their family", whatever that may be. If it seems to trend in one direction or another, I don't know that it really matters. That fact that it is a somewhat basic service that doesn't require a vast knowledge of radio is really not a factor. There are plenty of other services that have been established for us to use that don't require any more skill than what is required of GMRS. So I don't believe that is relevant. 
 
Bottom line, if some people make a hobby of it, then it's fulfilling the need of the licensee. If it's a utility for others, same thing, it's fulfilling the need of the licensee.  As the service grows, use patterns will change, but ultimately it doesn't matter what is happening around the country. The only thing that matters is if it does what you need it to do.

Just drill a hole. My F150 has 6 NMO mounts and 2 GPS. It had 12 miles on it when I tore the truck apart. 

I disagree.  "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" was pretty precise... nay concise,  but citizens and the government continue to F that one up pretty regularly.

Im a constitutional scholar with a gifted IQ, but my wife said I can't comment on this because it's mean to make strangers on the internet cry.

Just another Tuesday at the MyGMRS forums..

There are some problems with your logic.  First.. Amateur radio rules have exactly zero to do with GMRS rules.  Don't waste time comparing them. 
 
Second, we (members of this forum and the GMRS community) have been debating on the rules and requested verification from the FCC if linking repeaters over public internet for the use of simulcast is within the scope of rules or a violation.  There are several contradictions and vagueness in the rules about network connections that the user community just can't say for sure and the FCC is refusing to comment. (plenty of posts here about that)
 
Last... this wasn't an FCC action.  It was reportedly two people (FCC employee and a GMRS repeater owner) who are either friends, acquaintances or have some type of professional association, and the FCC employee started some unofficial communications with the GMRS repeater owner.  It's unclear if it was a warning or a courtesy from an acquaintances/friend, or if an agent was subverting processes due to some pre-existing work relationship.  In either case, there will not be any official documentation in the FCC database.
 
Also, I personally am aware of several people in the professional comms world who are aware of this situation and asked their FCC POCs about this specific situation, as well as GMRS simulcast over public internet, in general terms.  Those FCC POCs are refusing to comment on anything.  Until formal action is taken and it ends up in court, everyone is just guessing at the regulation.

@wqnd300 and @WRXP381
You both are being obnoxious jerks. @Lscott has just as much right to be here and talking about what digital might bring to GMRS as either of you. He brings much more intelligent discussions and less judgmental rhetoric than you also. If you don’t agree with him, that’s no problem. He and I have disagreed about digital modes also, but it’s easy enough to disagree without becoming disagreeable. 

Don't know that I would agree with a single transmitter and voted receivers could or should be considered 'simulcast'.  And with GMRS being limited to 50 watts of TX power, unless you had a really crappy transmit site that has a bunch of noise, additional receive sites wouldn't do much for coverage.  Now I know of a couple ham repeaters that are running 300 or better watt's and are over 500 feet up.  Those do benefit greatly from voted receivers.  But when you are on ham running that power level, you aren't gonna be using a duplexer anyhow because your never going to get enough isolation and maintain that level of power through it. 
But if you were in say, New York City, or some other densely populated urban area, and had a high transmit antenna, I could see it helping a UHF 50 watt repeater some.  Still gonna hear better than it talks though. 
The linked repeaters we have through the mygmrs system is what I would refer to as 'multicast'.  And with GMRS of course, we are stuck to the 8 pairs we have, but I have seen multicast systems that covered multiple bands both commercially and with ham.  It's more prevalent, or at least it was, with ham.  Guys would link VHF / UHF and 6 meters, or 900 all together and offer access to all radios that way.  I don't know if that's still a thing or not.  I considered a V / U / 900 system at the tower on ham,,, even thought about it being P25.  But there is so little traffic on ham any more, I don't know that I will bother. 
Your SAR system sounds like two Simulcast systems that are linked... that's different. But whatever works.
 

While I tend to agree, it will still take a lawsuit, deep pockets and the courage to both pursue it and apply those resources to the suit.

I know a few members do emergency volunteer work. Anyone have a legit portable repeater setup?
It's been about a year since I setup my portable "shack". Since the weather was nice today and I have a new repeater to field test, I figured I would do a dry-run at home before I setup in an actual emergency.
It takes about 3 hours to deploy the portable setup with HF, VHF, and UHF amateur radio and GMRS. So, needless to say, unless it's a multi-day drill or real emergency, I'm not going all out, but it was time for that dry-run.
I have a dedicated mast for the homemade 80m/40m/20m/10m OCF dipole, and then an additional mast for the VHF/UHF antenna(s).  In these pictures, there is a Yaesu DR-1X and a Icom IC-7300.
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 
 

Yah.. Sorry.. I'm just learning all this socially ree-tarhd-ed stuff.

Shrug.

I know om my gmrs v1 from baofeng. The firmware allowed me to change the frs memory slots. But I couldn't change the power on those memory slots (stuck in low).

Personally, I would say box the radios up and return them. Get something else that might be inline more with your customization wants.

Maybe a motorola xts?

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I has one.. But I can't talk about it because that might be comparing apples to oranges and apparently that makes "some people" very sad.

I finally watched the entire Salton Sea Walk video yesterday for the first time.  Truly incredible story, gave me a whole new respect for him and his work.  It's too bad that the ending isn't a happy one (yet?).

From the perspective of an amateur radio operator... operator... I love Randy's videos.  I even have a paid subscription with him to help contribute in some small way to the equipment testing and content creation.
Truth is, his content is funny as hell and very helpful to many, including me.  I love that he doesn't take crap from anyone and his socio-political humor is great. 
I have had the pleasure of having some private chat messages / emails between him and I also... and learned pretty quickly that he is a great guy.  People seem to lose track of the point that there is an entertainment persona and then how he is in his day-to-day life. 
Like my wife reminds me when I start griping about inaccuracies in movies and TV shows... 'It's for entertainment. Just let it go.'  LOL