Publicizing My GMRS Repeater

[JeffRandall]

Vertex VXR-7000

[JohnE]

nice machine. you can do a lot w/that. my suggestion if you want to do multiple tones, is to monitor your radio for traffic and leave the others closed. as a general rule I leave my radios in monitor all the time. the exception being when my other half is in the car.

[captdan]

John,

 

When you say leave the radio in monitor - do you mean no PL tone ?  

 

I have a few channels that I have set up with the PL tone to open the repeater on the TX side and no PL tone on the RX side so I can hear everything said. When I don't want to listen to everything I switch back to the channel that has PL on TX and RX.

[Guest spd641]

Dan,

What he is saying is to monitor the frequency prior to using it,when you have more than one set of PL tones someone else may be using it at the same time you wish to.It will keep everyone from talking over each other and you can monitor from your radio not the repeater.

 

When you set up your radio it usually has a momentary monitor button to push to see if the frequency is in using before making your call,I believe that is what John is referring to...William

[captdan]

got it - thanks !

 

Dan

[JohnE]

thanks William.

Dan most radios have a way to them into "monitor". Motorola's can be programed to to be either "open"(static) or silent (squelched) and in addition can be mometary or toglled to stay in monitor. my Kenwoods have the monitor "off" or "on" . in addition to that most will also have some kind of visual indication that there is activity on the channel (LED or icon of some sort) this is how most of my radios are set up.

[Shriekmau]

When you have a radio turned on and there is no static it means there is some sort of active squelch. A receiver will always make a static noise with the squelch turned off. John is referring to turning the squelch off completely. This causes the radio to make that annoying static sound, but it also allows you to hear transmissions that might not break the squelch otherwise.

 

A trained ear can hear a transmission and possibly make out what is being said even if they are below the noise (the noise is louder than the voice). 

[PastorGary]

Off Topic a bit - forgotten fact about WEAK signals...

 

The aircraft control network worldwide uses AM equipment almost exclusively for a very good reason... HETERODYNE EFFECT.  If aircraft used FM equipment, and two planes keyed up at the same time from different distances, the tower or FAA controller would only hear the closest transmitter in most cases due to the receiver's  'capture effect'.  However, using AM equipment, if two planes transmit at the same time, there is a BEAT whistle (heterodyne) that the operator hears from the plane farther away, so he knows that another aircraft has a message and can address the second plane's transmission.

[jikey]

Thanks for asking this Jeff, I had wondered the same thing.

 

Ok, I have a dumb question since I'm new to this repeater business. Can I set two different tones in the repeater. And if I can, will one be a "private" tone for the use by only the folks on the farm here and the other public so other folks can use the repeater also? And if that is possible can these two different tones be used simultaneously? In other words, can my private conversation be used at the same time as the "public" conversation? I know this is probably a dumb question to all of you who know this stuff, but I'm new here so go easy on me

[PastorGary]

Dean - Thanks for registering and for joining us at the Forum.  Welcome !!

[Unit61]

I know this topic is a little old now but I just wanted to add that I still use CB almost every day.. I Also use Amateur Radio and General Mobile Radio just as often.. Not a damn thing wrong with CB Radio I always say "If you don't like what you here stay off AM”. In the last 15 years I have only turned my radio to AM three times I run strictly SSB and don't involve myself with the trash on AM and yes at this point in the solar cycle there are some that manage to find their way onto SSB as well but not nearly as much as AM and when they do I turn on the 10 meter rig and leave 11 meters to cool down. In my area there are a number of 11 meter SSB operators that meet up weekly in the evenings and are very respectful of the band and others using it. We even hold a SSB net every weekend.

 

Also for Jeremy M you will have the option of 10 meters once you have your ticket.. It's much like CB but without the trash and due to the fact there is a lot less RF floating around in the world on that band you will reach further distances with less power.. Just a couple months back I made a contact on 10 meters SSB into Georgetown Guyana South America using about 60 watts from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the mobile.

[Shriekmau]

Unit 460,

 

Thanks for the heads up! I have had my Tech ticket since September and upgraded to General in November. I have been operating on 10, 12, 15, and 17. I hope to get a couple more antennas up so I can get into the 20, 40, and 80. I should be getting my Extra before the end of the year.

[gdavis316]

I installed a repeater on our farm last year on a 40ft tower, and added another on a different tower that covers two counties, and is listed on this site with with multiple pl's.  I have not had any traffic, or any problems with any unauthorized use...........and i hope it stays that way.

[Guest spd641]

I believe he and I spoke on the radio this morning, as well as having some email comms. Wanted to make sure I could reach him from the area the repeater is going in. Like I said, I'm new to this whole thing and the more I research the more confusing it becomes, esepcailly when you start reading all the FCC rules and regs. I always do things "by the book" so it's taken me some time to dive into the repeater but well on my way now. As soon as I get it up and working I will post it here on the site.

 

Much thanks for the welcome!

I do believe we did talk and it sounded good from your area.Sorry for taking so long to answer and I wondered what your progress was now I know.Hope you enjoy GMRS and you know you can get into my repeater with no problem and hope you get decent range from your repeater...William

[quarterwave]

For what it is worth on the multiple PL question. I run an MTR2000 and a Zetron panel. I have remote programming via DTMF. I have the DPL that we have used for family and friends for years turned on. I also have a PL turned on, which allows me to keep a separate "group" active so I can test, or use when I don't really need to bug the others, as they keep in PL mode all the time. 

 

This is the old Community Repeater concept, where many user groups could share the repeater and paid for it per radio (some paid per air time, etc), but it was one frequency and they each had a separate PL/DPL. You had to monitor and wait your turn when it was "busy". 

 

I used to turn users on and off when I worked for a M shop. Went to the sites and plugged in PL/DPL modules/codeplugs on Micor and MSR style repeaters. At the time, our shop had a repeater we owned, (versus most of them M owned) and ours had a dial up remote access via a Zetron panel, which was handy as it was 45 minutes from the shop. 

 

So, yes it can be done with the right equipment, and as long as the others are not "monitoring" the channel (are in PL mode) your conversation will not come through their radio, but it is on the same freq and is no "private". 

[mainehazmt]

Many years ago in my early years as a career firefighter. I was awaken at night with the proper tones and all due to skip on 33.9.   Was a pain esp in winter get half way to the truck and figure out it was skip  lol

[wqhk941]

During the 1998 fire season here in Florida a group of North Carolina forestry firefighters were disiplined for improper use of their low band equipment while deployed to Florida.  Their home base heard them loud and clear...

[PastorGary]

Hello, Robert, and Welcome to the Forum.   Low band systems these days have much less channel traffic. but with the sunspot cycle as it is lately, low band traffic can be heard for hundreds of miles... just turn on any CB radio during the daytime hours. 

 

Thanks for posting.