MarkInTampa

Help me in trying to figure out your list. One of the call signs in my area you have listed show nine repeaters and that is a lot! If I look on the MyGMRS map, it only shows two with that callsign/username and both are at the same basic location. If I look in advanced, it shows the same two, even with stale and offline enabled (for the one or two frequencies I checked anyway that aren't on the map, map doesn't show stale/offline repeaters). Six of them by your list coordinates are on the same property. The other three (again by coordinates) show about 1 mile away from the other six in the middle of the ocean. I'm assuming when he placed the pin on the map it was close enough, the guy is a block or so from the ocean. He only runs (or did, haven't heard it for awhile) one small Retivis repeater up around 40ft on 650 but did play around a year or so ago with a simplex repeater on a different frequency at the same location. Although MyGMRS does show two, only one is/was accurate - not nine. Where did the other seven come from? Six of the locations listed in your pdf... The two listed on the current MyGMRS map with his callsign/username...

Like I said, just don't take the MyGMRS listing as gospel. If you look at the guy that has 9 repeaters in my area they are all at the same location.

It doesn't mean it's real or correct.

Take what's reported as repeaters with a grain of salt. One of the multi repeater sites you have on your list in my area is just plain fantasy. Your listing shows 9 repeaters for the call when there is actually only one low power network (maybe why it shows so many repeaters) hotspot that he runs on rare occasion. There is on the other hand another guy that your list shows has 4 but has 6 repeaters. All of them are stand alone (not linked), on different frequencies (but same tones) and cover most of the west coast of Florida from Bradenton to Naples (around 120 miles spaced around 20-25 miles apart) and a few of them are quite strong. It's kinda nice to be able to drive the I-75 route south of Tampa and have reliable repeaters along the way. At least that's what I know of in my area, others I'm sure are different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGxnlsV9JCE

I have a few scan groups setup, something like this: All GMRS - all GMRS channels GMRS Repeaters - My primary group, GMRS repeaters listed at least twice. Labeled and accessible repeaters and again with a 141.3 tone out for when band conditions are ripe and a few others that are on the same frequency but different tone with tone squelch. GMRS/FRS/MURS - Just what it shows. Haven't used in years but it's there MISC - Usually runs on the second VFO and scans at the same time as the primary. It has a few ham frequencies, ISS (space station) and (what I use it for most) a few of my local GMRS repeater INPUT frequencies. By monitoring the input the same time as output I can listen to hear if a user is within simplex range of me, if there is interference on the input or if there is someone trying to access the repeater but is out of range or not configured right on their end (happens more often that you would think) HAM - a few local ham repeaters around me. Hardly ever used

When I bought my house, I went to the neighbors on both sides of me and introduced myself and asked to exchange telephone info in case of emergency. One neighbor was cool, the other was a jerk (in 10 years I don't think I spoke more than 2 sentences to him) and told me "I'm not comfortable giving you my number". Fast forward a few years, I come home from work there are fire trucks in his front yard and they are getting ready to take out his front door with a battering ram due to an alarm. They ask if I have a way to contact him, told them I didn't and they ram down his front door. He pulled up maybe 30 seconds later. He went to the store, left something cooking on the stove that burnt and set off the smoke alarm. Karma in action.

I'm actually amazed at how well it's done. Each radio group (a-n or something like that) has around 10 users and a group leader for those groups. They pre-check in the group leaders first before the net starts to make sure they are there, start the net and start check-ins starting with radio/user Alpha-1, Alpha-2, etc to the end of the group, ask for relays and then proceed to the next group. Very organized, especially for non licensed users. Some ham nets could learn a thing or two from them.

One of the retirement communities 20 miles south of me (Sun City Center) has some kind of FRS/GMRS emergency network thing on simplex they do every Wednesday morning. Net control starts the net with a preamble of what it is, a website for more information and his GMRS call sign. About all I can hear is net control and their security patrol, everyone else I assume are FRS (like I said, 20 miles away but net control hits me full scale). The users are assigned radios and a id, something like Alpha 1-20, Bravo 1-20, etc and they go through the check in procedure including asking for relays. At the end of the net, they sign off with their GMRS callsign, that's about the only time it's used.

Just for fun... Here's the coverage maps of a location near you. First example is assuming a 9db antenna, 50watt radio and a 50ft mast. Second example would be a 5watt HT with a 3db HT antenna.

It was down in yesterday morning when I saw this post, back up in the afternoon. The FCC data base is and has been SLOW for a long time. I just looked up my call and it took 11 seconds. I ran a query of all active licensed GMRS users in my town (92 of of them) and it took 10 seconds. Weird. Edited: Just for fun I ran a query for all new GMRS licenses sorted by Grant Date in the last 1 year. Left off Call Sign, Name and FRN from screenshot. 28 in total. What I found odd is that we normally see 2-4 new licenses a month. Only 2 so far this year.

I picked up a VGC VR-N7500 50 watt mobile a few years ago just for grins for use as a base station. No display, no mic and everything runs via a app on a Android device and Bluetooth. What is kinda cool (and why I bought the radio) was that you could allow others on the internet with permission and app installed access to the radio, kinda like Zellow. So I setup a spare tablet connected on internet and the radio, installed the app on my phone and was able to access my favorite GMRS repeater from anywhere and it was cheap - like $150 or so, it's hard to find ANY 50 watt mobile for that price. I could have setup multiple users, but I don't own the repeater I had the radio programmed to. IT WASN'T MY REPEATER to do so. I don't think a repeater owner would be very happy to find out his repeater is now a "networked repeater" without his knowledge. I just thought it was cool to be able to use for myself. Used it for a week or so and it worked great. The radio now sits on the shelf unused, I just hated the interface and never really used the radio remotely.

Setup the radio for the Bartow repeater (462.725 141.3 tone). Easy to reach from Lakeland even with a HT and is one of the more dominate repeaters in the area. On Tuesday nights at 7:00 there is a net you are welcome to check into with around 30-35 folks checking in a week. Have fun!

I used to run a Argent ADS-SR1 Simplex Repeater ($90 + $7 for cable) that has both programmable CW-ID or Voice-ID connected to a cheapie HT on 1watt to inject the ID every 10 minutes into the repeater. After configuring the controller, I setup the HT receive to listen on some random unused VHF frequency (after configuring, don't really need the input anymore) to keep the front end of the HT from being overloaded by the repeater and the output of the HT set to the repeaters input frequency. Worked like a champ.

Just got back to my desktop from a cruise. Here's a link to legacy licenses. It lists the license holder by zip, state and city. The list is a few years old but does give you the callsign and you can use the FCC license search to see if it's still valid or expired. I keep it bookmarked just in case. https://www.thepeters.org/grandfathered_gmrs.html