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I am new to GMRS and recently received my license. I am located in Southwest Broward County, FL (Cooper City). I did not see a listing for any repeaters in my area. Would anyone know if there are any repeaters in my area that I could do a radio check with? Do I need to do something with my settings or get permission to access a local repeater for GMRS? I am using my radio for personal use and considering getting my HAM license. For now, my wife and I are just trying to get familiar with the GMRS and FRS frequencies. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, HowieDewing

I was just wondering if there is anyone in the south Houston Texas area that would be willing to schedule a few on air radio checks. Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes if we can agree on a precise time and frequencies. Since being new to GMRS, I’ve been able to setup & program my radio (repeater capable) and tune my antenna. I’ve double checked just about everything but can’t seem to make contact with anybody. Here are a few tests I’ve run: Ping repeater 1 at low power, nothing received Ping repeater 1 at medium power; Received repeater CW identifier, but Morse code too fast to copy Ping repeater 2 at medium and high power; nothing received Ping repeater 3 at medium and high power; nothing received Ping repeater 4 at medium and high power; nothing received Ping repeater 5 at low, medium and high power; nothing received. Notes: Repeater 1 - distance: 11.3 miles; antenna height: 350’; CTCSS: 141.3 Repeater 2 - distance: 4.6 miles; antenna height: unknown; CTCSS: 141.3 Repeater 3 - distance: 15.5 miles; antenna height: 450’; CTCSS: 141.3 Repeater 4 - distance: 9.15 miles; antenna height: unknown; CTCSS: 67.0 Repeater 5 - distance: 9.6 miles; antenna height: 450’; CTCSS: 141.3 When I say “Ping”, I simply call for a radio check on frequency, with proper published CTCSS tone input to the repeater. My Tx power for Lo/Med/Hi are 10w/25w/45w respectively. My antenna is a Tram 1486 and is roof mounted at about 20’. For test 2 above, I received identifier loud & clear on the base radio (antenna is on roof) with no Rx tone set, but nothing heard on a HT inside the house. I do receive some local traffic on GMRS Ch 1, but that’s not repeater related. I have received network linked traffic from both Arizona and Oklahoma, but of course I couldn't make contact with them. Both my radio Tx and Rx have been verified for the repeater channels above using a separate HT and a separate scanner. So I don’t understand why there is so little traffic in this large metropolitan area (perhaps there is but just I’m not receiving it). Comments/suggestions/volunteers welcome. If this request is successful, maybe we could setup a thread for others in specific metro areas around the country. Unless I am the only one experiencing this. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. ...