Alaska GMRS Users or Networks

[dogfarts2021]

I just got my Wouxun KG-935G here in the MatSu Valley and been trying it all night on all freq. No one calling back, NOAAA weather works but other than that nothing. I'm too far away to get the Eagle River repeater and I am not sure I have it dialed in  correctly ? Any Alaskans want to help a new guy out 

[WRFP399]

If you are up in Wasilla the ER repeater can't hear you due to Mt.Baldy. It blocks the signal. Think of the coverage circle on the map as more of a Semi Circle.

 

I attached a Nautel Radio Coverage Map that is fairly accurate.

 

If GMRS had more of a formalized user group up here I am sure we could arrange to get a repeater at one of the wide area sites like Mt. Baldy, Site Summit, or Grubstake Mountain.

 

 

[dogfarts2021]

Finally heard Jeepers today using Channel 20 here locally. Someone got super stuck and broke parts. I didnt jump their traffic but first time hearing something other than school recess or construction crews. 

[WRFP399]

If it is worth anything I try to connect into the national net on Sundays from around 4PM to 9PM Alaska Time. If you drive into the coverage of the ER repeater you could participate.

[dogfarts2021]

excellent I will do that. 

[Craws907]

Nice to see more Alaskan people here I'm down in the kenai area

[WRFP399]

The main 625 repeater is "off" as it ran low on power from all the "abuse" I was putting it through. While that is off and charging I am thinking about putting up the second RT97 tonight near Mt. Baldy to see how it works with that national net. Just gonna drop it on the ground somewhere with a battery and roll up J-Pole stuck in a tree. 

[WRFP399]

It's up for the evening as just a simple "throw down" repeater. I would assume Palmer, Alaska is blocked a bit by some terrain features but who knows. Give it a shot.

 

I will be collecting this tomorrow.

[AKDrifter]

Hi guys thought I'd say hi to the fellow Alaska GMRS guys. Just started in the GMRS world for communication in the local Anchorage area though I'm from Eagle River. My brother in law wanted to sell me on getting a HAM license but figured I'd start with GMRS in my Jeep. So hoping to hop on the E.R. repeater and hopefully hearing some traffic. Channel 20 has had some traffic, but otherwise its been pretty quiet.  Hope to hear from you guys and thank you WRFP for setting up repeaters that's super cool and handy.

[Craws907]

On 12/28/2021 at 7:33 PM, AKDrifter said:

Hi guys thought I'd say hi to the fellow Alaska GMRS guys. Just started in the GMRS world for communication in the local Anchorage area though I'm from Eagle River. My brother in law wanted to sell me on getting a HAM license but figured I'd start with GMRS in my Jeep. So hoping to hop on the E.R. repeater and hopefully hearing some traffic. Channel 20 has had some traffic, but otherwise its been pretty quiet.  Hope to hear from you guys and thank you WRFP for setting up repeaters that's super cool and handy.

Nice! Ive been hoping for more gmrs people up here, it's practically radio silence on the peninsula except for spernard builders supply or the odd snowmachiners with a rugged radio. So where are you on the 19 or 20 travel channel debate?

[WRFP399]

FYI. Anchorage 625 is down for now. Something went sideways at winter solstice. I am unable to get to it to trouble shoot it until spring.

[dogfarts2021]

sounds like spring/summer should be good times. Anyone know a shop to help me install my new 50W in my 1997 Dodge Adventure Ram. We are building up a slightly tame overlander and of course GMRS will part of it. 

[WRFP399]

Anchorage 625 is back up.

[WRFP399]

On 1/9/2022 at 9:41 PM, Tyeandjeff1979 said:

Nice! Ive been hoping for more gmrs people up here, it's practically radio silence on the peninsula except for spernard builders supply or the odd snowmachiners with a rugged radio. So where are you on the 19 or 20 travel channel debate?

I noted that a lot of the Alaska Off-Road Facebook group tends to use Channel 20. It seems to be a popular channel in the Knik River Public Use Area as well.

[Craws907]

I saw a youtube vid of some guys from Anchorage or eagle River 4x'n using channel 20 last month,  now that you mention it. I'll have to do some scanning a bit more and see if I can find the popular channels around the peninsula. 

Are you still using the same tones on the repeater? Did you go up and fix it or did it just get sunny enough to come back on?

[WRFP399]

On 6/24/2022 at 12:29 PM, Tyeandjeff1979 said:

I saw a youtube vid of some guys from Anchorage or eagle River 4x'n using channel 20 last month,  now that you mention it. I'll have to do some scanning a bit more and see if I can find the popular channels around the peninsula. 

Are you still using the same tones on the repeater? Did you go up and fix it or did it just get sunny enough to come back on?

Same tones as it was. I went up and "replaced" it in late May. I used a higher voltage panel and a better MPPT charge controller. The controller is rated for colder temperatures and I was able to program it to cut off the load at 12.0 volts instead of 11.2.  It is also running a Laird 5/8 over 5/8 collinear antenna vs the roll up J-Pole. I saw no improvement in reception or transmission with the Laird but I have not done any extensive testing.

 

When I removed the battery and power line from the "old" repeater a month or two later, when the ground was thawed. I found that the battery was at 12 volts still. I examined the power line and found it was broken internally. Corroded and failed.  It is very likely the system failed in December due to that and not due to a frozen battery. Winter will be here in a few months and we shall see what happens this time.

 

Feel free to use the repeater. It has seen very light use this summer.

[WRTT642]

On 7/23/2022 at 1:30 PM, WRFP399 said:

Same tones as it was. I went up and "replaced" it in late May. I used a higher voltage panel and a better MPPT charge controller. The controller is rated for colder temperatures and I was able to program it to cut off the load at 12.0 volts instead of 11.2.  It is also running a Laird 5/8 over 5/8 collinear antenna vs the roll up J-Pole. I saw no improvement in reception or transmission with the Laird but I have not done any extensive testing.

 

When I removed the battery and power line from the "old" repeater a month or two later, when the ground was thawed. I found that the battery was at 12 volts still. I examined the power line and found it was broken internally. Corroded and failed.  It is very likely the system failed in December due to that and not due to a frozen battery. Winter will be here in a few months and we shall see what happens this time.

 

Feel free to use the repeater. It has seen very light use this summer.

Hello sir, I am new to GMRS and just received my license and my radios should be here on Tuesday. I sent you a request to join your repeater and have not heard back. I was just curious if you received it. It shows on my end that I sent request, but it doesn't show in my pending's? Not sure if I did it right. Also, is there any sort of club for Alaskans? If not, how can we get organized up here and get something going like they got down in the states? It would be nice if we were all on the same page and we can maybe all chip in to put up some more repeaters in all of our areas. I am in the valley out in Meadow Lakes area. It would be nice to may be get something going for North of here up towards Hatchers and Willow. If anybody is interested in getting something started let me know, I think it would be great to promote GMRS more here in Alaska. I don't have any social media accounts, but I would be willing to consider getting one if others were wiling to as well. Again, I am new to all this and it would be cool if we can get connected in this way. What do you guys think?

[dogfarts2021]

I think its great to have people on here from Alaska. Hoping to have people around me with them since I am in a dead zone 

 

[WRTT642]

Yeah for sure. I just found out now how to start a club. I cant seem to find any Alaskan clubs, so ill keep asking around and IM people that I see are from Alaska before I go and try to start something that somebody else has already worked on. If anybody has already made an Alaskan club then great I would love to join and help out in anyway to try to get it going. If not I don't mind starting one and see where it goes. It doesn't hurt to try, if it works out great, if not then at least we can say we tried

[jenksjr]

Hello All,

Name here is Jim. GMRS call WQCG563. I agree with WRTT642 about having a club to get some more repeaters up and running in the Greater Anchorage area. Personally, I would like to see repeaters linking Homer to Fairbanks and all points in between. However, that would take great deal of time and money. We would need to get lots of folks from many locations interested in funding these repeaters. But, if we could get Anchorage and the valley linked up with good coverage of the whole area, we just might see a lot more interest across the state.

WRTT642 if your willing to start up a club, I'm willing to help out as much as I'm able. I have several family members who, I believe, would be willing to help in some way.

I have a question for the group. There is a repeater in Anchorage operating on 462.700/467.700 (Ch 21) with tone of 100 HZ. I appears to have good coverage in Anchorage. But, I have no idea who owns it, because there is no ID transmitted. This repeater is not to be confused with the repeater WRCA670 had operating on the same channel. His system has been down for months. I have made many calls on this unknown repeater and have never received a response. It's strange that a repeater like this one would be installed and no one using it? So, anyone out there have any info on this repeater. If we could get a few folks using it we just might find out who is responsible for it. It would be great if this repeater could remain operational and possibly linked to other repeaters in Alaska.

[jenksjr]

WRFP399, Thanks for keeping your repeating up and running. I was wondering about your repeater. It seemed like it was performing better in the Anchorage area. Now I understand why - new antenna. What is the gain on that one? I have ideas about setting up an RT 97 in area of Birch and O'Malley. I'm hoping my daughter will allow me to set up the repeater in one of their out building. It's your system that has got me interested taking on the project. 

Thinking ahead a bit, would you be interested in linking your repeater and mine, Or, is it even technically possible with the RT97's?

Thanks,

Jim WQCG563

 

 

[dogfarts2021]

Be nice to have a small network of repeaters, If I could do it at my place in wasilla I would 

Rick 

WRME688 

[WRFP399]

On 8/9/2022 at 4:55 PM, jenksjr said:

WRFP399, Thanks for keeping your repeating up and running. I was wondering about your repeater. It seemed like it was performing better in the Anchorage area. Now I understand why - new antenna. What is the gain on that one? I have ideas about setting up an RT 97 in area of Birch and O'Malley. I'm hoping my daughter will allow me to set up the repeater in one of their out building. It's your system that has got me interested taking on the project. 

Thinking ahead a bit, would you be interested in linking your repeater and mine, Or, is it even technically possible with the RT97's?

Thanks,

Jim WQCG563

 

 

 

The antenna is a Laird LG4603. The "0" gain version is FG4500. The "5" dbd gain version is FG4605. 

 

You can link the RT97s together using the myGMRS network. The RT97S has a port (DB-9) on it to connect the myGMRS node to where at the original RT97 doesn't.

You can get the RT97S at myGMRS.com:
https://shop.mygmrs.com/collections/featured-products/products/retevis-rt97s-portable-gmrs-repeater

Or direct from Retevis:
https://www.retevis.com/rt97s-full-duplex-portable-gmrs-repeater

 

The linking bundle is found here but is sold out due to the chip shortage.

https://shop.mygmrs.com/products/repeater-linking-bundle?variant=31585827848227

 

Obviously the myGMRS linking relied on the internet, so when the internet fail the links fail and it is a stand alone system at that point.  If you have a building at the place where the repeater is and it has access to power, I would very much recommend going with a better repeater. Something like a Vertex would outperform the RT97.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195289552939?hash=item2d782a182b:g:zMQAAOSw8Tpi-wXQ&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoBnQJ%2BCKPCwO8wardYyOb521OxW0d6orfX8eY9KcgYKx4DpoViV%2FtMX5qtLirHrlfZAOLOdDk6fZI62JsC2N%2BDTNZs6XotXvWzN90Bq3guAwQmGTE%2FUNKp3QDRo9%2BkxmGmUrNCfCOsozXmC4dp3zanOq%2B4BvaAlXBkiHGduTrEovYZ20wEFPPluGBheHkbrgE5X%2Fgv8XF9wHwBXNqE%2Fpdh8%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_6q88zVYA

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115365686337?hash=item1adc54ac41:g:4KsAAOSws7dibT1j&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoAzUUUGmyw9qbzeLy4dJ40OWasd7odjVwBdCf1%2BZyOASOg6GL8QbEqfoeFvqw3jAzc5zIvy1irSL1CD0eeUk870A%2Fo6dsRCkX5MWIxOHobzUWq3K5rjiZ43PRhkxHYHcEjJol9h4FcKDHgMttnleCQ0CM4PNlsj2HmRFENwEN%2BEme%2FYjBS4VXo6YSm2VrgmfETl9BHnrsBWR2mKM2hKbs64%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7C4_8zVYA

 

 

The Anchorage 700 repeater is probably up on Flat-Top and part of the Anchorage Amateur Radio Club. 

 

 

[WRFP399]

Frequency change. The EagleRiver 625 is now 575.  I also decreased it's output power. 

[WRQA460]

I was wondering what the coverage is like in Anchorage and the Palmer area I will most likely be in Palmer sometime next year early to midsummer for training for a job I'm currently applying for was wondering what gmr's frequency and tones I would need to communicate in those areas if somebody could please help me that would greatly appreciate you can email me at fire_rescue14@yahoo.com that would greatly be appreciated I would like to bring my radio with me when I go I have radioddiyy UV 5G I have the chirp software to program the tone guards if somebody could help me thank you very much