WSKT609 Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 My friend and I both own BTECH GMRS-V2 radios. We are trying to talk to each other but don't come in very well on simplex. On repeaters, I can hear others just fine but we keep cutting out. I'm just using the rubber ducky antenna that came with the radio and the TX power is on high. If it helps, we're in Seattle and testing it one city block away from each other. SteveShannon and RoadApple 2 Quote
2 TrikeRadio Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 Most likely adding a different antenna will help. Typically the ones that comes with low cost radios are not the best. It also may matter if you are indoors or not, and if you have a lot of obstructions between yourself and your friend's radio... or the repeaters. Line of sight is key in GMRS. the clearer the line of sight, the further and stronger the signal will be. In an urban area inside a car or home, with buildings and other obstructions, yes your signal will have less reach. experiment with them from different locations. Try to find places where you can get a clearer line of sight between yourself and the other radio if possible. RoadApple and SteveShannon 2 Quote
1 HHD1 Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 5 minutes ago, WSKT609 said: UPDATE: We have solved the simplex problem but are still having repeater trouble. We can hear others on OlyComm-3 but not each other. Here's what I have in CHIRP if that helps (attached image). We're in Columbia City (residential area) and OlyComm-3 is on Cougar Mountain (open system). We could transmit about 3 blocks on simplex, but not any further. Is that normal? Thank you for the help so far! 3 blocks isn't too bad. The reason you can't hear each other on the repeater doesn't seem to be a programming issue from what I see. I would guess that your signals are not reaching the repeater. It's not uncommon for it to be easier to receive a repeater than to reach one. SteveShannon, RoadApple, WSIF574 and 1 other 4 Quote
1 WSHT233 Posted January 1 Posted January 1 That repeater is fantastic, with great range and participation. I'd second what others have recommended, and if you haven't already, get a modest antenna upgrade - I use a Nagoya NA-771G on my 5 Watt Boafeng HH and can hit Olycom3 all over the place, including from home on south Whidbey island! A useful tool for diagnosing LOS conflicts is this website: https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ Depending on where in Columbia City you're at, it might be as simple as a local hill in the way! Good Luck! WSKP613 and amaff 2 Quote
0 GreggInFL Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 How far away is the repeater? There is a good chance your line of site to the repeater is better than it is to your friend. Quote
0 HHD1 Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 1 hour ago, WSKT609 said: we're in Seattle and testing it one city block away from each other. Is this a residential city block with houses, or a downtown city block with big buildings and businesses? As other's have said, line of sight is key. However one block away should be no problem unless that block is filled full of industrial buildings with lot's of metal and electronics. If that's the case, you would be hard pressed to get any brand of GMRS radio to penetrate. Ground level in urban areas is tough for that frequency if you're not on the same street. Try your tests again in an open area at the same distance. If you still get the same results, then maybe you could use the radio for target practice. Not what I would do, but... TrikeRadio 1 Quote
0 WSIF574 Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 Like others have said line of sight is everything. In a down town area you are dealing with large buildings and a lot of RF noise. I would get a abree AR771G antenna for both radios. It might help, might not. HHD1 1 Quote
0 WSKT609 Posted December 30, 2025 Author Posted December 30, 2025 UPDATE: We have solved the simplex problem but are still having repeater trouble. We can hear others on OlyComm-3 but not each other. Here's what I have in CHIRP if that helps (attached image). We're in Columbia City (residential area) and OlyComm-3 is on Cougar Mountain (open system). We could transmit about 3 blocks on simplex, but not any further. Is that normal? Thank you for the help so far! Quote
0 TrikeRadio Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 1 hour ago, WSKT609 said: UPDATE: We have solved the simplex problem but are still having repeater trouble. We can hear others on OlyComm-3 but not each other. Here's what I have in CHIRP if that helps (attached image). We're in Columbia City (residential area) and OlyComm-3 is on Cougar Mountain (open system). We could transmit about 3 blocks on simplex, but not any further. Is that normal? Thank you for the help so far! Try using TSQL in the Tone mode... and 141.3 in the Tone Squelch instead of how you have it. If 141.3 is the correct in and out tone for the repeater that should work. What you have should in theory work but maybe you have other noise in the area on the open frequency? Not sure. or could be you just dont have a good line of sight to the repeater itself. Quote
0 WSIF574 Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 1 hour ago, TrikeRadio said: Try using TSQL in the Tone mode... and 141.3 in the Tone Squelch instead of how you have it. If 141.3 is the correct in and out tone for the repeater that should work. What you have should in theory work but maybe you have other noise in the area on the open frequency? Not sure. or could be you just dont have a good line of sight to the repeater itself. Using TSQL will make no difference other than turning off the speaker for anything not coming in with that tone output. Better to leave it the way it is so to hear any traffic on that channel before keying up Quote
0 TrikeRadio Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 20 hours ago, WSIF574 said: Using TSQL will make no difference other than turning off the speaker for anything not coming in with that tone output. Better to leave it the way it is so to hear any traffic on that channel before keying up That is why I said: "What you have should in theory work but maybe you have other noise in the area on the open frequency? Not sure. " Thought that if he is getting other local simplex transmissions on the frequency, it might be interfering with him hearing the repeater. But yes the tone only would get everything on receive. Quote
0 WSKT609 Posted January 1 Author Posted January 1 well it turns out we downloaded the duplex wrong got any other suggestions? got any help with this problem Quote
0 TrikeRadio Posted January 1 Posted January 1 1 hour ago, WSKT609 said: well it turns out we downloaded the duplex wrong Not sure what that means... duplex is always +5 Mhz on GMRS. Quote
0 WSKT609 Posted January 1 Author Posted January 1 18 minutes ago, TrikeRadio said: Not sure what that means... duplex is always +5 Mhz on GMRS. well we just did amaff 1 Quote
0 WSKT609 Posted January 1 Author Posted January 1 On 12/30/2025 at 12:53 PM, WRUE951 said: this is the reason i blew the hell out of my BTECH GMRS-V2 with a .308. Worse radio i ever owned. Get you a Baofeng and you'll be much happier. what do ya mean? Quote
0 TrikeRadio Posted January 1 Posted January 1 7 minutes ago, WSKT609 said: well we just did Hmm ok.. but the screenshot you showed earlier of your CHIRP screen seemed correct. Unless you mean you just had the wrong frequency to start with. hope you get it working... or if you have other questions, I hope we can help more. Quote
0 amaff Posted January 1 Posted January 1 12 hours ago, TrikeRadio said: Not sure what that means... duplex is always +5 Mhz on GMRS. I was really trying to figure out how to ask that without sounding like an ass. I'm still not sure what "downloaded the duplex wrong" means but apparently it's a thing one can do Quote
0 WRZK526 Posted January 1 Posted January 1 Invest in a good GMRS radio, you get what you pay for and you paid for a lot of aggravation. I just got my second set of handhelds from Midland the GXT 3000. I can hit a repeater 25 miles away with perfect clarity. Haven't had the opportunity to go simplex yet but my GXT 1000 got out sometimes 10 miles but that is as far as you can get around here without having hills in the way. One problem around here is we have a digital signal interfering with one channel we do not know where it is coming from but it is 462.537 interferes with 462.550. You probably have lots of that too. Put your monitor mode on and change channels if you have a stray digital signal you will hear it, will be different from the static sound. Quote
0 WSKT609 Posted January 2 Author Posted January 2 alright everybody we fixed it! any comments? Quote
0 SteveShannon Posted January 2 Posted January 2 37 minutes ago, WSKT609 said: alright everybody we fixed it! any comments? Yes, good job! Please explain how, and happy new year! Quote
0 HHD1 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 On 1/1/2026 at 7:38 AM, WRUE951 said: it means that I stood the BTECH GMRS-V2 on a large boulder, steeped back about 200 yards 'give or take', pulled my Armalite AR10 from my truck bed, loaded her with a magazine full of 168 grain Horaday cartriges , carefully zeroed in the crosshairs with my NIGHTFORCE ATACR scope, took a slow deep breath-held it, then gently s q u e z e d the triger on the Armalite. She made a 'BANG' and the BTECH GMRS-V2 suddenly exploded in many pieces. I've never had to worry about that stupid radio since. But there are starving children in Africa that don't have radios... SteveShannon, WRUE951 and PRadio 3 Quote
0 HHD1 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 14 hours ago, WSKT609 said: alright everybody we fixed it! any comments? Yes, please tell us how you fixed it so that other's may learn from your experience. That's what this forum is for. Quote
0 WRUE951 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 14 minutes ago, HHD1 said: But there are starving children in Africa that don't have radios... well, I guess I'll just have to lear how to help that situation. HHD1 and PRadio 2 Quote
0 HHD1 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 8 minutes ago, WRUE951 said: well, I guess I'll just have to lear how to help that situation. took me a second but... good one! Quote
-2 WRUE951 Posted January 1 Posted January 1 9 hours ago, WSKT609 said: what do ya mean? it means that I stood the BTECH GMRS-V2 on a large boulder, steeped back about 200 yards 'give or take', pulled my Armalite AR10 from my truck bed, loaded her with a magazine full of 168 grain Horaday cartriges , carefully zeroed in the crosshairs with my NIGHTFORCE ATACR scope, took a slow deep breath-held it, then gently s q u e z e d the triger on the Armalite. She made a 'BANG' and the BTECH GMRS-V2 suddenly exploded in many pieces. I've never had to worry about that stupid radio since. gortex2 1 Quote
-6 WRUE951 Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 this is the reason i blew the hell out of my BTECH GMRS-V2 with a .308. Worse radio i ever owned. Get you a Baofeng and you'll be much happier. Quote
Question
WSKT609
My friend and I both own BTECH GMRS-V2 radios.
We are trying to talk to each other but don't come in very well on simplex. On repeaters, I can hear others just fine but we keep cutting out.
I'm just using the rubber ducky antenna that came with the radio and the TX power is on high.
If it helps, we're in Seattle and testing it one city block away from each other.
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