Need help setting up a repeater for our church security team

[WSJC630]

Our church security team is currently using old motorolas that can barely transmit through a brick wall. All of our team members have purchased GMRS radios and have all gotten our licenses. There are 32 of us. I am wanting to switch us all over to a private GMRS network at our church using our own frequency. What all would I need, completely, in order to do this and not interfere with our local repeater. If someone can break this down, step by step for a new guy, I would greatly appreciate it. I am looking at a midland MXR10VP repeater bundle but not sure if thats what I will need? I am not a technical guy by any means so this will have to be simplified. Thank you!

[WSIA835]

One, there's no such thing as a "private network" on GMRS.

Two, have you tested the new radios on simplex (aka radio to radio)?  You might not even need a repeater, which would only futher complicate things.

[SteveShannon]

Just now, WSJC630 said:

How would we go about testing radio to radio without interfering with our local repeater? Again, my apologies for being so naive on this, really trying to learn here. We are mainly using Tidradio h3 plus's and a mixbag of Baofengs UV5s. Thank you!

Channels 1-14 will not interfere with local repeaters.  Channels 15-22 transmit and receive on the same frequencies the repeaters transmit on.  Repeaters receive on higher frequencies.

So, just stay on 1-7 (if you want to use five watts) or 8-14 if you want to keep your power very low. Your radios should automatically adjust the power output.

 

[amaff]

I'd be shocked if you couldn't cover a church's grounds without issue with 5W handhelds.

But, also, what was said above. There's no such thing as 'private' on GMRS. You can block out others' transmissions on your radios with 'privacy' tones, but they'll still be able to hear you on an open channel on their end.

[WSIF574]

1 hour ago, WSJC630 said:

Thank you! I apologize to everyone for really not knowing my stuff yet, I am a paramedic, not a tech guy by any means haha! I am going to mess around tonight on chirp and re-do my radios with these channels to see if this will work. The less headache, the better.

Once you have your radio connected to chirp and in the radio tab down load from. Just go to file - open stock config-US frs and GMRS. Then load it to your radio. Repeat upload on every matching radio  may need to move the list down one spot if the radio starts with 0 instead of 1  the easiest way is to copy and paste the the list to your original downloaded file/channel list 

[WSJC630]

How would we go about testing radio to radio without interfering with our local repeater? Again, my apologies for being so naive on this, really trying to learn here. We are mainly using Tidradio h3 plus's and a mixbag of Baofengs UV5s. Thank you!

[WSIA835]

Yeah, I was going to suggest testing on a  channel between 1-7 as well.

Have people at various spots in and around the building.  Assign each spot a number, and then have each spot count off over the radio.  Hopefully every spot can hear every other spot.

[WSJC630]

how would I program our radios to transmit on channels 1-7? Right now, channels 1-7 on my radio are local stations for county fire, EMS and police. I programmed all of our radios on Chirp.

[amaff]

3 minutes ago, WSJC630 said:

how would I program our radios to transmit on channels 1-7?

I mean...

3 minutes ago, WSJC630 said:

I programmed all of our radios on Chirp.

Pretty much the same way you did this....but with the correct frequencies for GMRS / FRS 1-7.
Which, if you're using Chirp, you don't even need to look up. They are there in the tool.

[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, WSJC630 said:

how would I program our radios to transmit on channels 1-7? Right now, channels 1-7 on my radio are local stations for county fire, EMS and police. I programmed all of our radios on Chirp.

Into which channels did you program the standard 30 GMRS channels?

 

[dosw]

2 hours ago, WSJC630 said:

Our church security team is currently using old motorolas that can barely transmit through a brick wall. All of our team members have purchased GMRS radios and have all gotten our licenses. There are 32 of us. I am wanting to switch us all over to a private GMRS network at our church using our own frequency. What all would I need, completely, in order to do this and not interfere with our local repeater. If someone can break this down, step by step for a new guy, I would greatly appreciate it. I am looking at a midland MXR10VP repeater bundle but not sure if thats what I will need? I am not a technical guy by any means so this will have to be simplified. Thank you!

There's no such thing as a private GMRS network. And there's not one single local repeater (unless by coincidence there's exactly one in your area). Anybody with a GMRS license can put up a repeater on any of the eight repeater frequencies. None of the frequencies are private, none are owned by you, none are exempt from interference by others. All can be heard by anyone within range using a GMRS radio. So-called "privacy tones" do nothing for people who aren't using them. A person with no privacy tone configured can listen to anything you say, and can still stomp on your signal.

 

Channels 1-7: 5w max, no repeaters

Channels 8-14: 0.5w max, no repeaters, handheld ONLY.

Channels 15-22: Up to 50w max, station to station OR repeater. Any channel in the 15-22 range might be a simplex channel for those using simplex, and might also be in use as the output frequency of a repeater owned by anyone with a license. Note: Most handheld radios transmit up to about 5w. A few go a little over, but without any real improvement in their range.

 

So for your purposes, start by using a channel 1-7, simplex (handheld to handheld). If you find that your staff cannot communicate with each other across your property effectively, then you find a central location with good height, and put a repeater up with its antenna high on your property, and switch to using that repeater instead of a simplex channel. Use a low gain antenna; you're not covering a lot of distance, you're wanting signal propagation to be good within the property. The repeater should be centrally located, because it's the middle man between everyone. If person A at the west side of the property cannot communicate with person B at the east side, then putting the repeater at location B is useless. You would put the repeater between them, centrally located.

 

Expect that anyone with a GMRS or FRS radio can listen to you. Expect that anyone with a GMRS or FRS radio that wants to commit a little mischief may figure out the CTCC or DCS tone you are using, and could pretty easily mess with you, repeater or not. If those issues are problematic you would be better served by selecting a system from a communications solutions vendor.

 

 

[HHD1]

Keep in mind that GMRS "channels" are not always the same thing as the channels of your radios.  Especially the uv5r's.  

Use Chirp and program your radio's channels to have these frequencies.  What channels on your radios you use is up to you.

List of GMRS Frequencies and Channels

[HHD1]

Also, I highly doubt that you will need a repeater unless your church is Vatican City or something like that.

[WSJC630]

30 minutes ago, HHD1 said:

Keep in mind that GMRS "channels" are not always the same thing as the channels of your radios.  Especially the uv5r's.  

Use Chirp and program your radio's channels to have these frequencies.  What channels on your radios you use is up to you.

List of GMRS Frequencies and Channels

Thank you! I apologize to everyone for really not knowing my stuff yet, I am a paramedic, not a tech guy by any means haha! I am going to mess around tonight on chirp and re-do my radios with these channels to see if this will work. The less headache, the better.

[SteveShannon]

5 minutes ago, WSJC630 said:

Thank you! I apologize to everyone for really not knowing my stuff yet, I am a paramedic, not a tech guy by any means haha! I am going to mess around tonight on chirp and re-do my radios with these channels to see if this will work. The less headache, the better.

No apologies necessary. This is how we all learned!

Chirp has the ability to populate the entire range of GMRS frequencies in the correct order. 

[HHD1]

25 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

No apologies necessary. This is how we all learned!

Agreed!!!

[HHD1]

37 minutes ago, WSJC630 said:

I am going to mess around tonight on chirp and re-do my radios with these channels to see if this will work.

Do as you wish, but I suggest using the first 22 channels of your radio to correspond with GMRS channel numbers.  Forget about the repeater frequencies for now.  This will eliminate a lot of confusion when working with a group of people.  And it will make it easier for you to understand as well.  1 is 1 and 2 is 2.  Easy.  And if you want any other of your emergency frequencies, start them on channel 31.  I find it easier to remember groups of channels if they start with 1.  Like 31, 41, 51. or 101, 201, 301.

Hope this helps.

[NCJeb]

Much of what I would have said already has been by others, but from experimenting with various channels in various places, for a purpose like this, I’d suggest (again, IF you’re cool with anybody with a scanner or FRS/GMRS radio being able to hear you at any time) using channels 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 (1 and 7 are just a little too popular for a lot of reasons). And, then set a DCS (NOT CTCSS!!!) tone from somewhere in the middle of the options range, the more seemingly random the better.

 

Combining these two strategies should give you the best chances of little interference, and clearest communication with your team.

 

And just to echo, I really would be shocked if a full 5 Watts (or even 2 Watts-ish, “medium power”) can’t do the trick for y’all. If somewhat lower power will do what you need (experiment and see), by all means do that—you’ll be “better neighbors,” and reduce needing recharging a lot too.

 

Edit: to explain my insistence on DCS in this application: it is generally found to be more resilient to radio noise, competing signals, and especially “bleedover” because it has a squelch cutoff tone baked in to it, and is not based on audible sound to function.

[WSJC630]

thank you everyone for your help!! I went on chirp and reprogrammed my radios using the FRS channels above. I set a random tone for the channel and tested it out on low power over a few acres and it worked beautifully. learned something new from everyone! I love this new to me hobby!

[73blazer]

On 11/24/2025 at 11:30 AM, WSJC630 said:

Our church security team is currently using old motorolas that can barely transmit through a brick wall. All of our team members have purchased GMRS radios and have all gotten our licenses. There are 32 of us. I am wanting to switch us all over to a private GMRS network at our church using our own frequency. What all would I need, completely, in order to do this and not interfere with our local repeater. If someone can break this down, step by step for a new guy, I would greatly appreciate it. I am looking at a midland MXR10VP repeater bundle but not sure if thats what I will need? I am not a technical guy by any means so this will have to be simplified. Thank you!

What kind of church is this that requires a 32 member security team? 

[Davichko5650]

On 11/30/2025 at 7:56 AM, 73blazer said:

What kind of church is this that requires a 32 member security team? 

I'm picturing the Orange coat wearing Security Team from the "Daddy's House" guy that posts those reels on FB!

[LeoG]

We have a very large church in a nearby town.  Probably can seat 400-500 people at once. 

I can see needing a team of security for that size crowd.  Or just have 32 people but only 10 or so on at once.  Traffic control, seating etc.