MarkInTampa

FYI - here's a actual violation letter from the FCC, not from this incident but they do somewhat enforce GMRS rules and regulations - or at least this time

I spotted this on the FCC website, the "or any other network for the purpose of carrying GMRS communications" line caught my attention....

If you setup your repeater based on the config I sent you.... YES (maybe??). If not, disregard below. The VXR7000 config I sent you was for a repeater I picked up for cheap ($100), configured it for a somewhat local repeater that was running on a couple of old Johnson mobiles and donated it to them under the disclaimer "It's programmed, if it works it works, if it doesn't oh well". They still have the repeater online, but it is way over modulated (it will wake the dead on CWID), receive CTCSS tones work fine but they had to disable output CTCSS after I had programmed it because of hum or something else. I'm 35 miles away from the repeater and honestly the old Johnson setup worked better for me but the repeater owner wants to to run the VXR7000 because "it's a real repeater". I honestly don't know if it's something in the config file I sent you or if it's the repeater itself needing a bit of tuning, I never adjusted anything other than than the frequencies and tones, never messed with the TX or any other adjustment but it sounds like you have the same problem he does. A lot of the TX adjustment is done via software with the config file and have never messed with it but who knows what the previous owner did. Drop me a note if you figure it out and I'll forward it over the the guy how owns the repeater now.

There is already unlicensed digital, analog or mixed modes on a couple of GMRS repeater input frequencies - it's just not GMRS. It is for "On-Board Vessel Communications" and covered under ITU (ITU-R M.1174-4) regulations in conjunction with the FCC. Since the band and channel plan already exist, it would be cool to open it up to GMRS.

Spotted this amp on eBay... https://www.ebay.com/itm/126545075186

Drop me a PM with your email and I can send you a saved config file of one I did to see if it helps - just make sure you save your existing config first. You could also have a bad receive board in the repeater itself. You can download the service manual for it from repeater builder. Take a look at page 30 and see if you have proper voltage on the VCV check point on the RX unit. It's there is no voltage, the receive board is dead.

Not all linked ham repeaters are done IP. Here in Florida we have a really nice 70cm linked network done in conjunction with and riding on DOT towers, linked via microwave. Florida is a big state and DOT runs its own fiber and microwave network.

What's sad is if they do have to disable the primary input, it then kills off 3/4's of the users as well for a few days at a time. Their radios don't support a custom split of 462.575/467.725 and/or split tones (DPL on input/CTCSS on out) but most just don't know about the secondary input. The secondary info is posted on the repeater website (but NOT MYGMRS website) and is the recommended frequency to use. They just kinda freak out thinking their radios aren't working when they can receive but not transmit to a repeater that was working the day before.

Not always.... The strongest by far repeater in my neck of the woods on 462.575 has two input frequencies - 467.575 AND 467.725 on a different PL. The repeater gets interference on occasion when ships are in port that use 467.575 and they have to shut down the primary input, but both normally run at the same time. There are a few GMRS channels that are also shared for on-board vessel communications, in particular 467.550 and 467.575 (the one we get interference on) and is legal per ITU regulations.

According to the president of the GMRS Alliance club that shut down, Carl, the club has around 226 members The club does NOT have it's own repeater system, they were provided site access to a "simulcast multicast system" as club members that was hosted by a un-named "different person or entity's" network along with a few "member repeaters" also part of the network The "custodian" of the simulcast system got the email asking to shut down the network - NOT the club or or any of it's members, although the club president was CC'd on reply to the FCC The email was real - the repeater custodian and the FCC agent that sent the email have a working relationship It sounds to me like the whole network was ran by somebody else - most likely leased from regional business band radio provider with multiple sites. The custodian gets a email from his FCC buddy that said shut it down and he did before they came knocking at the door. I'm sure that GMRS doesn't pay the bills in commercial radio arena and he doesn't need to make a enemy of FCC if they want to say on the good graces of his company's governing authority. At least he got a warning. As far as the FCC wanting a list of call signs that use the repeater, I can kinda see that as well. They were provided site access to a "simulcast multicast system" as club members and the FCC might want to send a warning letter to the users about the situation but I'd think they would get the message once the repeater network is off the air.

FYI - Found this posted in another forum:

I thought about it but was on one of my radios that doesn't do tone scan to find what tone there were on.

I've heard a bunch on FRS and simplex GMRS. A bunch of it has already been listed here... School pickup lines, traffic flagmen, 5 year old kids screaming and holding the call button for minutes on end, tree services, crane operators, the nursery next door to me, etc but these are the ones that stand out so far.... Guy called out to his wife while on the stool - "Next commercial break can you bring me some TP? I'm waiting". A local Gym was using FRS for a bit - until somebody started messing with them. Every time they transmitted, somebody else keyed up with a recording of Cheech and Chong's "Dave's not here" skit Last night was a winner though - a man and woman talking on FRS that thought FRS was wonderful. It couldn't be traced like their cell phone and the guy with the ankle monitor was far enough away as not to violate the terms of the personal protection order and still be able to communicate.

Here's a way to double the scan speed up the 1000G+ if you aren't doing it already. Just use both VFO's in scan mode. Setup at least two scan groups in the radio, assign one group to the "A" VFO and another group to the "B" VFO. Start scanning on one VFO, hit the AREA button on the microphone to switch VFO's then start scan on the other VFO. FYI - I bought the 1000G+ the week they came out for the dual scan feature. I didn't think it worked, if I started scanning on one side, pressed the "Area" button on the radio to switch to the other side to start scanning (as according to the manual), the first area would stop scanning. Randy saw my question about this issue and asked Wouxun about it. There is (or was, don't know) a bug that the radio would do this if you pressed the "Area" button on the radio itself but works fine if you press the "Area" button on the microphone. Don't know if this has been fixed or not. You can also name your scan groups to anything you want but must be done from software - not the radio itself.

If you are reading those frequencies from the radio - they are in the radio. The LCD panel DOES NOT show the frequency the repeater is on (just the channel number) and without the software there really is no way to know what frequency the channel number is programmed for. The software appears to be working fine by looking at your screenshot. If it wasn't communicating with the radio, the "Band", "Serial No" and "FW Version" would not be populated correctly but yours are. The repeater has 16 channels - however once programmed the channel buttons on the repeater will only allow you to choose a channel that has been programmed. If you have 3 channels programmed and enabled, you will only have 3 channels on the radio, not 16. My guess is that the repeater itself isn't working correctly. The last guy I helped with a VXR-7000 in this forum could program the repeater fine but it didn't appear to transmit. When he sent me a screen shot of the back of the radio I saw the problem instantly. Somebody tried jamming a SO-239 connector into the Type-N connector on the radio and the center pin of the connector on the radio was destroyed. One other thing that just came to mind - does your repeater have the built in duplexer option? If it does and it's not tuned correctly for GMRS, it isn't going to receive anything. Try pulling the duplexer and see if it receives then. Don't go by the software option to see if the duplexer is installed as it means nothing to the repeater - It's basically a optional note field for a tech. You can usually check if it has the internal duplexer by looking for it through the vent holes, remove the cover, if you only have one antenna connection on the back of the radio or if one of the antenna connections is capped off.

What led's are lit on the front of the repeater when not connected to the computer?

It showed something, just don't remember what. In doing a quick search on the web, folks say one of the two things fix it. First, make sure you are using the proper com port. In Windows, bring up device manager with the radio and cable unplugged, expand the "Ports (COM&LPT)" field, plug in the radio and cable and see what com port the cable is using. It should pop up in device manager in real time if installed correctly. You can change the com port in the VXR-7000 software by clicking "File" on the top left of the screen and then configure to match the correct com port. Second, it's been reported that folks using older versions of the Vertex software have this issue and issues went away with the latest (last) version. In the Vertex software, click on "Help" on the top of the screen and then "About CE-27". Make sure you are using version 1.08. If you not, drop me a note and I'll send you over a copy. I do believe I had to unplug the programming cable from the repeater after programming for it to work otherwise the radio stayed in programming mode. You might try that as well. I still have the software and saved config files on my computer from when I set it up last year and going by memory, but good luck!

The VXR-7000 alpha display just displays the ANI of a radio, if you don't have a radio setup for ANI it's not going to do/display anything except repeater error codes. If you are trying to test it, when trying to key the repeater just look to see if the TX led is lit showing it's transmitting. When I tested mine without a duplexer I hooked an antenna up to the TX antenna port (didn't want to run the radio TX without an antenna or dummy load) and no antenna on the HT at low power used to test it with and nothing connected to the RX antenna since I was sitting right next to the repeater. I got a killer deal on it ($100) but didn't have tower height or will to run my own repeater so I donated it to a local guy who wanted it that had and existing repeater that needed to be replaced.

Are you able to read data from the radio? (rule out something like the wrong com port or bad com port drivers) If so, a few things to keep in mind on the VXR-7000 1st) If you can read the radio and it shows Rx Freq in the 150-170MHz range, you have the VHF version and not the UHF version of the repeater and won't work on GMRS. 2nd) Modify the program startup for dealer mode by adding a -d to the end of the program to enable dealer mode (ie "C:\Vertex Standard\CE27 for Windows\CE27Win.exe" -d"). This will allow you to change the CW-ID of the repeater if you are going to use it. 3rd) Most GMRS repeaters run in wide band. Due to FCC narrow band mandates after 2003 the software forces you into narrowband (you will get a warning when starting the software). Change the clock on the PC to 2002 (make sure to disable clock auto set) and you can enable wideband. Below is a screen shot of one I picked up awhile back and donated. I setup the first 14 channels for every option I though he might need (Channel 1 CTCSS 77, Wideband, Hi Power - Channel 2 same but low power, Channel 3 narrow band, etc). Channel 15 and 16 are on the next channel up and down for testing. Then printed out the config and taped it to the top of the repeater.

It's actually a 2" or 2.5" (can't remember) aluminum 35ft sectional flag pole. I thought by clamping it to the side of the house it should be able to handle the wind load of the antenna without much of a issue without guy wires. The mast is located directly behind my radio and during high winds I could hear it creaking a bit and it swayed a bit more that I wanted. It was really bad when I had the GP-9 on it. I guyed it with some outdoor rated paracord from DX Engineering and it's been great since then. It's pretty easy to put up or take down (one man job), just loosen the clamp on the house and remove/add sections.

All my measurements above were done with 50ft of LMR400 cable and the antenna up 30ft for what it's worth.

The GP-6NC is tuned about as good as it gets for GMRS. SWR of 1.02 at 462.5MHz and 1.05 at 467.5MHz. Also usable across most of the 70cm band. I've also got a GP-9NC but was disappointed with it. It worked a bit better in the VHF bands but a bit worse on UHF. Don't know if its my terrain, height of antenna (30ft), big oak tree near the antenna or what so put the GP-6NC back as UHF is a bit more important to me than VHF. Here's a sweep of the GP-6NC from 430MHz to 470MHz:

Here's a sweep I just did on the GP-6NC per your request...

Here's a quick rundown of repeaters I know of in the area. Is there something on 650 in your area? Pasco has a repeater node on that frequency but it's a really low powered station. 550 maybe? - Clearwater is on that frequency, not sure if you are far enough away though 575 forget it! - Tampa 575 will stomp it 600 maybe? Tampa 600 is on it, but not quite as powerful as the 575 and 675 repeaters are but still pretty strong 625 nope - Spring Hill and is somewhat local to you 650 probably you best choice. There is a monster repeater in Sarasota on this frequency but you are more than far enough away. There might be something else on this near you, I'm 35 miles south and don't know what is around you for sure 675 nope - The new Tampa Bayshore repeater is another monster repeater in the area 700 most likely nope - nothing GMRS is on here but there is an illegal encrypted DMR repeater running on this frequency that has drove anybody trying to do a GMRS repeater away to another frequency 725 maybe? - but you said something is causing interference on this frequency Most of these repeaters except Sarasota sit right between me and you. I can even tell you the height of the antenna and what they are using for a repeater for the most part if you want to know.

Both my Comet GP-6 and GP-9 manuals show a loop at the base of the antenna. I don't know why but I put them in because the instructions showed to do so.