citizensoldier16 Posted January 7, 2020 Report Share Posted January 7, 2020 First time posting, and I got my FCC license about a week ago. I live in the Blythewood area of SC, near Columbia. There are a number of repeaters in the area, including NE Columbia, Lexington, Little Mountain and Hopkins, yet I never seem to hear very much traffic on any of them. I have made a few contacts here and there, but its mostly silent every time I transmit. I'm on the repeaters probably 2-3 times per day. My usual times are 0500-0545 and 1800-1830, but it varies every day. Some days I'm on during the day even. Currently I'm running a Midland MXT-115 mounted in my vehicle, but I plan on buying a Baofeng handheld in the near future, as I have been educating myself on using the CHIRP software. Quick question about that - does CHIRP work on a Mac computer? If anyone here is in the central SC region, I'd love to hear from you! I go back and forth between the Columbia/Lexington repeaters (linked) and the Little Mountain/Hopkins repeaters (also linked). Jason D.Blythewood, SCWREX979 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elkhunter521 Posted January 8, 2020 Report Share Posted January 8, 2020 Hi Jason, welcome to the forum.Midland radios are tough to use on gmrs. They are narrow band. They do not support split pl tones. I have 2, a 275 and a 400. Midland decided to make them the same as their handhelds. Most repeaters you will find are wideband. They will also support split pl tones, Midland will not. I also have a baofung hand held, its not a bad radio, people here will say otherwise. My advise to you is to read every post about ccr radios (Cheap Chinese Radios) and decide from an informed view point AFTER you have read their input! RCM and RayP 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quarterwave Posted January 8, 2020 Report Share Posted January 8, 2020 Hi Jason. I don't want to repeat the previous reply, but I'll support his response. Midland has told me they intend to "update" the product line this year and that the Micro Mobiles will be wideband capable. They basically screwed the pooch. and didn't mean to, on those, with the oversight being that wideband GMRS repeaters (which are 99% of them) don't play nice with narrowband only radios. The split PL thing has never been a big deal to me, as in 30 years of working with radio commercially, and being a GMRS licensee for 25, I have never used or setup any repeater in any service with split PL's. I see the reason why someone would, but I have not. I own a good many mobiles and portables, and a MTR2000 repeater...all have a "M" on them, so I am spoiled. I have a couple of Boafeng 888's that I kind of play with on a secondary repeater, and a UV5R, they all have their place. It's all about expectations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WRAF213 Posted January 9, 2020 Report Share Posted January 9, 2020 My personal repeater runs split tones, and several other private repeaters around me run split tones. It's almost exclusively commercial radios being used on those. That said, nearly all of the GMRS activity happens on repeaters without split tones. Having that capability isn't essential for a first radio, but a need might arise later on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n4gix Posted January 14, 2020 Report Share Posted January 14, 2020 Three out of five GMRS repeaters in my area use split tones. This is done mainly to keep unlicensed folks off of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cfelde1970 Posted Sunday at 05:26 PM Report Share Posted Sunday at 05:26 PM On 1/6/2020 at 8:05 PM, citizensoldier16 said: Orangeburg sc29115 wrzk635 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cfelde1970 Posted Sunday at 07:33 PM Report Share Posted Sunday at 07:33 PM 2 hours ago, Cfelde1970 said: Cfelder wrzk635 orangeburg sc FelderCharlie4@gmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cfelde1970 Posted Sunday at 07:42 PM Report Share Posted Sunday at 07:42 PM Cfelder 1970 WRZK635. Columbia sc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cfelde1970 Posted Sunday at 08:02 PM Report Share Posted Sunday at 08:02 PM WRZK635 Cfelde 1970 columbia peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cfelde1970 Posted Sunday at 08:12 PM Report Share Posted Sunday at 08:12 PM 9 minutes ago, Cfelde1970 said: WRZK635 Cfelde 1970 peter Orangeburg sc29115 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleYoda Posted yesterday at 12:18 AM Report Share Posted yesterday at 12:18 AM What are you trying to do? Are you able to get into any repeaters? Orangeburg is about 35 miles from Columbia, so which one is your location? If you have a question, ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cfelde1970 Posted yesterday at 01:14 AM Report Share Posted yesterday at 01:14 AM 5 hours ago, Cfelde1970 said: WRZK635 5 hours ago, Cfelde1970 said: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cfelde1970 Posted 10 hours ago Report Share Posted 10 hours ago On 4/21/2024 at 3:42 PM, Cfelde1970 said: WRZK635 orangeburg sc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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