GMRS and Iowa

[fodderia]

Are there any active Iowa users? How about nets? I have been listening for a while, but have not heard anyone on the air. Just curious

 

Thanks,

 

John

[axorlov]

I'm not in Iowa, but don't you hear anything at all? You appear to be in an urban area, you should hear something (a lot!). No kids chattering? No road crews with their foul mouths? No construction crews? No schools? No car rental lots or hotels? Either you live in a radio heaven and can use GMRS as your private intercom, or there is something wrong with your equipment.

[fodderia]

I just ran through the channels with a cobra radio, and receiving fine from it.. I pulled the chan list from chirp, and I verified no cts dts codes are entered. I have not heard any kids etc when mobile, or stationary using a 2 meter dipole in an l shape. I can pick up 2 meter trafic and local dispatch channels.

 

 

Thanks,

John

[Logan5]

where is your antenna? inside? out? on the roof or tower? If you are listening to a scanner with rubber spring antenna, take it outside or outdoors antenna with quality feedline. 10M and GMRS are quite different you will want heavier insulated coax for UHF.

[n4gix]

You would probably have better luck with a proper UHF antenna. An antenna cut for 145 MHz just won't work well at 463 MHz

[SteveC7010]

Since the OP can hear activity on a Cobra, presumably a FRS/GRMS bubble pack handheld, I am thinking that the specifics of his antenna and coax need to be set aside. If his radio is properly programmed and working correctly, he should hear the traffic that Cobra is picking up, regardless of the type of antenna. I don't think the Cobra is a 10M CB since he's hearing GMRS traffic. I suppose it might be CB but until he gives us some more specifics, we're all guessing.

 

More likely issues:

• Improper programming - Need to know what radio he has and exactly how and what he has programmed into it.
• Since we don't know what kind of radio, we don't even know that it can be programmed with GMRS (and other UHF) frequencies.
• He's hearing other traffic on the radio on 2M and local dispatch which suggests that the coax is ok and intact from antenna to radio.

There's just not enough information to offer real solutions.

[fodderia]

Radio: BF-f8hp  intro to ham radio

Radio 2&3  Cobra cxt195

 

GMRS chans programmed from chirp default import.

Antenna Falcon Indoor / outdoor 2 meter Dipole connected via rg58a/u

 

I will post the GMRS /FRS config as soon as I pull it on my computer with chirp.

Location Name Frequency Duplex Offset Tone rToneFreq cToneFreq DtcsCode DtcsPolarity Mode TStep Skip Comment URCALL RPT1CALL RPT2CALL

 

99 SKWARN 462.675 + 5 Tone 141.3 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

101 MURS 1 151.82   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

102 MURS 2 151.88   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

103 MURS 3 151.94   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

104 BLUE DO 154.57   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

105 GREEN D 154.6   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

106 FRS1 462.5625   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

107 FRS2 462.5875   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

108 FRS3 462.6125   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

109 FRS4 462.6375   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

110 FRS5 462.6625   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

111 FRS6 462.6875   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

112 FRS7 462.7125   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

113 FRS8 467.5625   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

114 FRS9 467.5875   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

115 FRS10 467.6125   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

116 FRS11 467.6375   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

117 FRS12 467.6625   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

118 FRS13 467.6875   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

119 FRS14 467.7125   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN NFM 5          

120 GMRS1 462.55   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

121 GMRS2 462.575   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

122 GMRS3 462.6   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

123 GMRS4 462.625   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

124 GMRS5 462.65   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

125 GMRS6 462.675   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

126 GMRS7 462.7   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

127 GMRS8 462.725   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

Thanks,

 

John

[Logan5]

Radio: BF-f8hp  intro to ham radio

Radio 2&3  Cobra cxt195

 

GMRS chans programmed from chirp default import.

Antenna Falcon Indoor / outdoor 2 meter Dipole connected via rg58a/u

 

I will post the GMRS /FRS config as soon as I pull it on my computer with chirp.

 

Thanks,

 

John

Is this Falcon a UHF antenna? or, Are you trying to RX/TX on an outdoor 2meter antenna with RG58 feedline?

[fodderia]

The falcon was sold as a uhf/vhf dipole Yes to receiving. Have not tried transmit yet.

[axorlov]

I'm not familiar with Chirp, but does the line below mean that you have receive and transmit tones programmed (88.5)? And the DCS too (23)? That would explain why you do not hear anything. To hear something you need to remove receive and transmit tones and DCS. After that you could choose CTCSS (aka PL or tone) or DCS to hear only your radios and not to hear chatter of others. Or, if working through repeater, you would need to program tones/codes specified for this repeater.

 

Location Name Frequency Duplex Offset Tone rToneFreq cToneFreq DtcsCode DtcsPolarity Mode TStep Skip Comment URCALL RPT1CALL RPT2CALL

120 GMRS1 462.55   0   88.5 88.5 23 NN FM 5          

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Tone-Coded_Squelch_System

[fodderia]

I verified through the raadio and I do not se a 88.5 set, I think it was a bad copy over.

[rgrover]

Ron,

 

I live in Elkader and in Marshalltown, Yes in deed it is pretty quiet in both towns on the FRS/GMRS channels. I hear nothing in Elkader, and in Marshalltown I hear some maintenance workers on GMRS I am pretty sure it is a hotel maintenance staff. Ham radio is way quiet in Elkader and a little more active in Marshalltown. I had a local ham program up a DMR radio for me. It has been pretty interesting to listen although not a lot of chatting other than people talking about the technology. it too is very quiet.

 

In altoona I am surprised you do not hear more. I drove I-80 the other day and have my radio on scan and heard some traffic on GMRS people traveling down the road.. just chit chat.. 

 

I just got legal and got a GMRS license. Not much over in Marshalltown.. but saw there are a few repeaters in your area. I would keep scanning. I woudl do some testing and make sure all is well with your system.. try and talk to yourself or someone and see how your sensitivity is on what you have.. maybe you do have an antenna problem.. but maybe it is simply a very quiet band where you are as well.

 

Your Chirp csv looked pretty normal to me.. next time you may want to do a snip instead it will make more sense to those who do not use chirp.