You just got your GMRS license, now you want your own repeater?

[Ian]

On 3/19/2019 at 10:51 PM, Ian said:

Ultimately, my goal with a garage repeater is essentially a chunky base station radio with a pocket-sized "terminal".  But I live in a coverage gap between all the repeaters in the area.  When conditions are good, I can occasionally hear one ID.  95% of the time, I hear nothing from them; 100% of the time, I can't open them up.

 

I think there's a role for the garage repeater, but that role goes away if there's preexisting good coverage.

Six years down the line, and there's good repeater coverage in central Florida.  As suspected, a 50w mobile with a bluetooth hand-mic has scratched one itch, and having repeater coverage at home has eliminated the desire to roll my own, even now that the RT97L makes operating a genuinely nice repeater technically trivial and generally affordable.  

 

Wouldn't have thought of this, but someone reacted to it recently.  

[dosw]

On 10/20/2024 at 10:58 PM, DominoDog said:

Sounds to me like you should spend more time in a book learning how radios work before jumping down someone's throat for having a question. This whole "hams vs gmrs" thing is the dumbest stuff I've seen in a while. It's perpetuated by certain individuals that like to use the phrase some people to stir the pot for engagement and clicky-clicks, but for the rest of us it's getting pretty stale.

There's a good observation here: "ham vs GMRS" doesn't help. People wanting to establish a good GMRS repeater would get a lot more traction on such projects by working *with* a ham club. In my area there are a lot of really good 2m and 70cm repeaters. And the groups operating those repeaters have solved a lot of the hard problems. If you can build a good relationship with them, you might get help navigating the waters of setting up a GMRS repeater.

[marcspaz]

The problem with the whole concept of teaming up with an amateur radio club is that some amateur radio operators despise people with a lower level license than them. There's no way they would accept somebody from the gmrs service as deserving of their time.

 

I have a general class amateur radio license. I am what is lovingly referred to as a no code General Tech. It's a dig that General and extra class license holders use to insult General class license holders who did not have to pass the morse code requirements. I have literally had dozens of experiences where General class license holders who passed their Morse Code test and extra class license holders who have passed there Morse Code test found out that I was a no code General and stopped talking to me in the middle of a conversation because I wasn't worthy of their time.

 

While there is a good amount of people in the amateur world who are absolutely amazing at Radio stuff and love to share their knowledge, there are way more people who are just grumpy old sour pusses who would rather cut a finger off than help someone who isn't "worthy of their time."

[WRXB215]

16 minutes ago, marcspaz said:

I have literally had dozens of experiences where General class license holders who passed their Morse Code test and extra class license holders who have passed there Morse Code test found out that I was a no code General and stopped talking to me in the middle of a conversation because I wasn't worthy of their time.

That is just sad. I guess that is where Randy came up with the term "sad ham." I have been very fortunate that I have not had such experiences. All the hams I associate with are very good people. And many of them are dual licensed.

[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, WRXB215 said:

That is just sad. I guess that is where Randy came up with the term "sad ham." I have been very fortunate that I have not had such experiences. All the hams I associate with are very good people. And many of them are dual licensed.

I agree.  Fortunately, the behavior that Marc described is becoming less common, at least in my area.  I don’t know of any hams in our club who look down their noses at GMRS licensees, but most of us would be very happy to help an interested GMRS licensee become a ham also. For any widespread emergencies amateur radio has an advantage, but for nearby emergency communications GMRS and FRS are much more easily accessible to more people. Ham clubs should be studying how these services can be complementary to each other.

[UncleYoda]

I have experienced what Marc described, but I learned to avoid them so it has no impact on me.  If they are becoming less common it's mostly because the old farts are dying out.  Adding to what Marc described, a lot of HAMs want to only have meaningless social chat, which is not what I got radios for.  I deleted all the nearby repeaters from my channels because I'm fed up with these people.  I asked about joining a club in my hometown and was told no, to start my own.  After I moved I went to the nearest club meeting and was mocked for only doing 2m (and 440).  I've asked about starting nets twice and was turned down.  Gave up on ARES when they made training and deployment as criteria.  Skywarn was moved to a repeater I won't use because of policy.  Really nothing left for me on HAM.  GMRS turned out to be disappointing as well, but I monitor it more now than HAM.

Back on topic, there is a new GMRS repeater only up 30ft but the owner wants to link to a node (did he miss all the brouhaha?).  Same frequency used by other repeaters that likely overlap his area.  From what I recall the linked system owner shut down so I don't know why this is even still available.

[GreggInFL]

2 hours ago, marcspaz said:

...there are way more people who are just grumpy old sour pusses who would rather cut a finger off than help someone who isn't "worthy of their time."

Reminds me of shooting at the range. There are some long-range rifle shooters who consider clays (trap/skeet/sporting clays) to be beneath them. "I shoot at 1,000 yards. What's a long clay shot, 50 yards? Pfft. Too easy."

I'd love to get him on the skeet range with a ringer, a 14 year-old girl who recently hit 197 out of 200 at a national tournament.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, UncleYoda said:

Adding to what Marc described, a lot of HAMs want to only have meaningless social chat, which is not what I got radios for. 

Good edit!

[Jaay]

3 hours ago, UncleYoda said:

I have experienced what Marc described, but I learned to avoid them so it has no impact on me.  If they are becoming less common it's mostly because the old farts are dying out.  Adding to what Marc described, a lot of HAMs want to only have meaningless social chat, which is not what I got radios for.  I deleted all the nearby repeaters from my channels because I'm fed up with these people.  I asked about joining a club in my hometown and was told no, to start my own.  After I moved I went to the nearest club meeting and was mocked for only doing 2m (and 440).  I've asked about starting nets twice and was turned down.  Gave up on ARES when they made training and deployment as criteria.  Skywarn was moved to a repeater I won't use because of policy.  Really nothing left for me on HAM.  GMRS turned out to be disappointing as well, but I monitor it more now than HAM.

Back on topic, there is a new GMRS repeater only up 30ft but the owner wants to link to a node (did he miss all the brouhaha?).  Same frequency used by other repeaters that likely overlap his area.  From what I recall the linked system owner shut down so I don't know why this is even still available.

I'm sorry you're experiencing the grief that you are, in your area.                                                                                             I Wish I could share some of the diversity of the folks here.  Most of our Hams are discussing future antenna projects, current projects, ways to help the younger crowd get started with their stations, and even our local Gmrs guys are discussing antennas, tech projects and ways to improve their hobby ! A growing number of our hams are becoming licensed for Gmrs, and vice versa, with our Gmrs crowd seeking out classes for their Tech and General licenses. Most behave and conduct themselves as adults, and try to help fellow operators.