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Background: A friend has a 10,000 acre ranch in the middle of nowhere. Cell phone reception is spotty at best. We were looking for a reliable way to be able to communicate while at the ranch for quick status updates and for emergencies. About 2/3rds of the land is fairly flat with the other 1/3rd being draws and ridges that limit line of site. The challenge was threefold; 1) to find a location that allowed "line-of-sight" to as much of the ranch as possible, 2) to have a repeater located at said spot to "see" down the draws, and 3) to limit costs for an occasional use system. Equipment: Red's Engineering Simplex Repeater - $61.00 Boafeng UV-5R GMRS radios - $31.00 (2pk) A 15' pool cleaning pole - already had from previous project The Red's Engineering Simplex Repeater features from the website: Web based configuration via cell phone Works with the Baofeng UV-5R radio DTMF detection, enable disable repeater Fox Hunt Transmitter Mode Periodic Station ID 45 second message record time Station Identification (Morse Code generation) LED Indicators show current status Shield type enclosure design USB Power / Charging Open source software OTA Firmware Updates (WiFi) Long battery life, ~12 hours talk time, ~10 month active standby Set-up After charging the repeater and radio, the set-up was straight forward and is easily done through the app. You plug in the supplied cable to the repeater and radio. On the initial startup you must press the reset button. Turn on the radio and wait a few seconds, turn on the repeater, set the volume to about 50%, and you're ready. Within just a few minutes I had the repeater programmed, connected to the radio, and bench tested. In the app you can change the record time, toggle remote enable/disable function, program callsign and ID transmission, and a few other things. Since we are very remote and the likelihood that anyone else would ever find the repeater is slim to none, I didn't go through some of the whistles and bells. They may come into use later but I left most everything pretty basic. Real-world testing - Home After scouring Google Earth, Radio Mobile Online, and SCADACore line of sight generator I determined what I thought was going to be the optimum location for the "tower". The furthest we would need to transmit and receive would be about 5 miles. I unceremoniously duct taped the radio and repeater to a telescoping pool pole, ratchet-strapped it to the fence corner post at home and drove just over 7 miles LOS. I transmitted on channel 5 and heard the repeater, well, repeat back my message. Since 7 miles was well outside of the limits I needed I felt it was a good test and waited until the next trip to the ranch. The radio was wearing the Abree AR-771 antenna that came with the radios. Real-world testing - Ranch In a couple of weeks we went to the ranch. Still using the high-tech duct tape and pool pole, I found the location I had identified and set up the repeater. Over the course of two days, we tested the repeater at all the blinds we had around the ranch and routes along the way. We found that the repeater worked as expected and better, hitting one blind that we were skeptical of hitting. The repeater and radio were left up overnight and the batteries lasted both days. We were not carrying on conversations, mainly just checking the repeater function and checking in with each other occasionally. If we had 15 minutes of total talk time I would be surprised. I was very impressed by the simplistic, but reliable, function of the repeater. Take Aways This is a simplex repeater. You must accept that you will, at minimum hear your own message repeated back to you. In some cases, if you are in simplex range of the other radio, you may hear the original message and repeater message of both yourself and who you are talking to. While some find this cumbersome, it is just the fact of a simplex repeater and if you know it is going to happen you learn to deal with it. Personally, I didn't find it to be a problem for what we were trying to accomplish. For about $100 I don't think it can be beat for what we wanted to accomplish, basic communication for status checks and emergencies. We also accept that there may still be locations that simply cannot be reached due to terrain. That is why we stress that we let everyone know where we are going and when, within reason, to expect us back. No amount of technology should replace a simple "flight plan". Future plans I am now in the process of piecing together a weatherproof housing and solar backup. The internal batteries will last about three days (not using any of the power-saving functions) at our communication frequency, maybe more. In the event we are down there for more than a couple of days, solar will allow the batteries to remain topped off. Additionally, I am looking at "tower" options that allow us to put the repeater up and down when we come and go. I'm heavily leaning towards a 30' telescoping flag pole (staying with the limiting cost theme). That will allow us to have a permanent location that is easy to run up and down. All in I think I'm probably looking at about $300, radio, repeater, pole, solar, and bits and pieces. While I tinker with a lot of things, this is my first foray into repeaters, albeit very limited. The Red's Engineering gets my initial thumbs up. I hope to be back with updates soon.

So I have these Tidradio TD-H5 radios. They're OK when there's only one party or group on simplex, but if there are multiple groups or repeaters then they aren't so great. As seems common in this generic-frame-locked-for-GMRS model, the manufacturer seems to have defined channels by simply configuring memory slots for the 22, then defined eight memory slots for the standard repeaters/shift with no tone, then defined three sets of eight for those same standard repeaters/shift with the ability to configure tone. The problem is that in order to preconfigure the use of tones for simplex for selective calling I would have to overwrite the memory slot for the stock/toneless channel I'm configuring, because the three sets of eight memory slots I referred to have frequency-shift baked in where I cannot change them. While I have the ability to go into the menu for a given memory slot 1-22 for channel 1-22 to change tx and rx tone, I do not expect that a young or old family member will readily be able to do this. Meaning if we're convoying and not using tone, but find that channel use is heavy enough that we need to switch so tone squelch avoids us having to listen to other groups, I can't just tell the rest of the group to switch from Channel-X to DIY-X using the up/down keys. What ideally I'd like are mobile and HTs that can be programmed for both selective calling on simplex (ie CTCSS and/or DCS tone/tone-squelch) and busy channel lockout, without having to overwrite the default 22 channel memory slots. I would like the keep memory slots for channels 1-22 without any other programming intact, plus be able to save frequencies for channels 1-22 in higher-number slots with tone and busy-lockout without having to have repeater shift enabled. Any suggestions for radios that can do this would be appreciated. Unfortunately my e-mails to Tidradio to seek assistance with this have gone unanswered, I expect to be returning the TD-H5s shortly while I still can.

MURS Mystery Noise Hey there! So i am an owner of multiple radios, some GMRS and some MURS, and a HAM Radio (No License for ham, just listening). I was flipping through MURS Channels (I have programmed into a radio specifically to find frequencies being used) and came across MURS4 Being Used (154.570, AKA BlueDot, Previously Business Band but now grandfathered in to any citizen can use it) and when I decided to Key on it, I received a tone similar to a tail on GMRS Repeaters, but then was surprised when My voice was repeated back to me. It was not a one time thing, and will happen continuously. I have yet to find anything on it while researching it, and figured i would try here. Thanks for all help! WRVG593 P.S If it helps i'm in SouthWestern Ohio, in suburbs, somewhat near a city. Although i don't see any way MURS could ever reach the city.

I posted elsewhere that I'd like to establish communication between two houses 7 miles apart, separated by lots of hills and forest. The consensus in the comments was that, based on the terrain, two GMRS mobiles 40-50 watts each, with decent external antennas should do the trick. I'm looking to purchase two Wouxun kg-1000g radios but if I'm reading the channel plan correctly, you can only transmit 50 watts on the Repeater channels. Is this correct? But these use offsets and are not simplex. If this correct? We want to transmit 50 watts simplex. What GMRS channels can we legally use? And can the Wouxun kg-1000g transmit 50 watts simplex on legal channels? Thanks for helping out a noob! Jim Barr wrnq679 / n9onl

Hi Everyone, I'm relatively new to the site. I have been searching older threads and haven't seen my exact question answered so here it goes: I am hoping to set up a backup communications system so in the event of an emergency, I will be able to communicate with my parents who live about 12 miles away and my in laws who live about 16 miles away. We are all in northern Dallas area suburbs, in a highly developed, and fairly flat area. I have my technician license and GMRS. I haven't done much with either. That will change. But for now, it is what it is. A fellow CERT member programmed my BaoFeng UV5R hand held. If it weren't for that I would have zero experience w/ HAM. Thanks to his assistance I have been listening to several DFW repeaters, and jumped in on a couple of CERT nets. It looks like we have several GMRS repeaters in the area, some of which could potentially cover an area that should reach all 3 households. The Baofeng is the only radio I have at present. From what I've read on these threads, I should not be using that for GMRS bands. Good to know! My family members have zero chance of getting a technician license, otherwise our distances would not be an issue. My reading of GMRS rules indicate they could probably be covered under my license but just to make sure there are no issues, I plan to pay for each house to get their own GMRS license. I also plan to buy each house their own radio. I'm leaning toward the Midland MTX400. My hope is that with these fairly powerful radios (40 watts), and some decent antennas we will all be able to communicate in an emergency via repeaters, and hopefully via simplex. So I guess what I'm hoping to get from posting is some ideas from some of you who are much more experienced then me on the feasibility of my plan. Does anyone have any experience getting these newer midland radios to link up with repeaters? Is it complicated? Does anyone have any experience using MTX400 radios for simplex communications in a comparable environment? If so what kind of range can I expect? I don't know if I should expect 3 miles or 20. Any suggestions on an affordable off the shelf antennae that will work well but be easy to set up? 2 new licenses, 3 radios, and 3 decent antennas is a significant investment for me. Any recommendations on cheaper or more importantly better radios to meet my objective? Simplicity is the name of the game here. I am pretty new to the radio world, and my family members know even less than I do. Any ideas you could pass along would be much appreciated!!!