What repeater is this?

[WRPB665]

Hi!  New to GMRS, my Jeep club is changing over from CB to GMRS.  I've been interested for a long time, but the change gave me the impetus.

I'm trying to figure out which repeater I am receiving. Please help if you can.

I'm located in Westfield, Indiana (18 miles north of downtown Indianapolis.  I'm receiving on 462.6250Mhz and when I do a tone scan I consistently get a DCS tone of D411N, however I seem to block the signal when using that tone.

My closest repeater on that frequency is Venom625, but that is not the tone he is using.

Through the repeater network I have heard people from central to north/northwest Indiana, southern Michigan, and several places in Wisconsin.

 

 

[MichaelLAX]

Hello and Welcome to GMRS and myGMRS Forum.

Obviously someone in your area with first hand knowledge would provide the most accurate information.

In the meantime, here are the Repeaters for Indiana on 625 from the myGMRS database, with maps listed in order:

 

Be aware that the repeater you are hearing might be using split tones: that is a different tone on the input than on the output.

If you can travel closer to where you think the repeater is located, listen to the input on 467.625 and tone scan anyone you can hear on the Input, you may discover a different tone.

Also, for now, I recommend that you do not use a Receive Tone; leave that open to all communications for now.  You only need the Transmit Tone to gain access.

[MichaelLAX]

Also: check out this Repeater in Southwest Michigan: this would be my educated guess, based upon your reception patterns:

 

Another tip, if your Tone search does not gain you access; is to drive near the repeater and transmit simplex on 625 when the Repeater is not operating and ask for information about the repeater.  Perhaps a Repeater user will hear you simplex on the Output and respond either simplex or through the Repeater, and in either case, you should hear their responses.

If they come back to you through the Repeater while you are transmitting on the Output simplex, be sure to wait for the Repeater's RF signal to go offline before transmitting again, as the Repeater would probably overwhelm your signal with the FM "capture" effect.

[gortex2]

Also remember repeaters don't need to be listed anyplace. None of my repeaters are listed at this time as I got tired of dealing with unwanted folks on them. There are repeaters out there that have coverage and are linked that may not be open to other users. Remember not all repeaters are open as in ham radio. 

 

Here is a link of a GMRS network that may have something in your area - https://midwestgmrs.com/

 

[MichaelLAX]

Good point @gortex2!

Actually some repeaters in Ham radio, at least here in Southern California are closed, for various reasons, and many closed repeaters arose because of the unwanted interference/jamming problems of the 80s and 90s that affected 2 meters (before it was cleaned up by the sanction of the so-called First Amendment repeater on 147.435).

[WRPI514]

WRPB665 - I am in Westfield as well.  I am new to GMRS like you and am trying to figure everything out.  Let me know if you want to do any testing.