Any Columbia, SC GMRS users?

[AndyOnTheRadio]

  On 3/7/2025 at 11:16 AM, WSHJ233 said:

Hey Andy,

I'm pretty sure you were my first ever GMRS contact.  Thanks for responding to my radio check last night.  I haven't heard much traffic in this area at all.  It would be nice if there was a Lexington area repeater.  Might have to work on that...

Anyway, I'm new to GMRS, so thanks again.  Trying to get my family interested right now.  We're spread out in Red Bank and West Columbia.

Steve

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For sure Steve! I always want to encourage people and help where I can. I hope to hear you around more.

[MaxHeadroom]

  On 3/3/2025 at 5:53 PM, UncleYoda said:

Any update or is this kaput?  Like most forum discussions, it seems to have died.

 

I just checked and there are 3 different listings for 550 in Lexington Co., none of which are working (2 are stale, most recent is offline).   I'm getting highway flagmen on 575 (I doubt they're using FRS radios because they are a few miles from me).  [Do these flagmen always use 575 in other places too?]  And the occasional activity from Crowders Mtn. 575 repeater is still there. The Lexington 575 repeater is offline too but anyway it was Permission Required with no response to requests.  So I'm looking for a different home base frequency to routinely monitor.  I had an idea that if those in the area would agree on a tone we could use the 600 that mostly sits idle.  So IMO 141.3 would be best to start with (typical for open repeater or travel use).  Without a repeater, my range will be short but we do have several local GMRSers in range if they want to use it.  FWIW, I heard users from Central Time zone on 725 so it is still linked.  I don't know about the 650 and 700 members-only repeaters but I'm not monitoring those anymore.

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Nothing much sadly at this point - tower sites and getting any sort of access/agreement is seemingly the one and only hurdle to overcome. The 600 repeater is one I have access to and know that most members that were grandfathered in are still using it - just its REALLY quiet in the meantime. The repeater is in an odd situation between ownership and site access but I am hoping to "take over" that situation at one point to see what can be done if at all possible.

[Raybestos]

  On 3/13/2025 at 6:46 PM, MaxHeadroom said:

Nothing much sadly at this point - tower sites and getting any sort of access/agreement is seemingly the one and only hurdle to overcome. The 600 repeater is one I have access to and know that most members that were grandfathered in are still using it - just its REALLY quiet in the meantime. The repeater is in an odd situation between ownership and site access but I am hoping to "take over" that situation at one point to see what can be done if at all possible.

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Are you going to the meeting in Augusta, this Saturday?

[UncleYoda]

  On 3/13/2025 at 6:46 PM, MaxHeadroom said:

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nevermind

[UncleYoda]

I'm getting distant repeaters on the same frequency and tone used for local repeaters. (e.g. Rock Hill and Orangeburg)   This seems to be most common with 141.3 tone used for many open repeaters.  It seems like there is a need for at least one more tone to be accepted in common use for open repeaters.  Any ideas?  If we need to contact repeater owners and suggest a different tone, it would help if there were another agreed upon one to select as an open alternative.  (I do realize any other tone would work so no need to suggest just pick anything else, that defeats the point.)  [I can't look up tones used by the repeaters that have them unlisted, so that complicates the process of finding ones that are less used.]