Scanning Ham Repeaters

[PartsMan]

I am wanting to program the local Ham repeater frequencies into my GMRS HT just to see how much traffic there is.

The local Ham club web site lists there repeaters this way.

CLUB VHF REPEATERS: 145.290 (-), 147.150 (+), 147.375 (+)

UHF REPEATERS 444.400 (+), 444.825 (+)

What frequencies should I be scanning?

[SteveShannon]

Those are the frequencies to scan.  For amateur radio users, the transmit frequencies are calculated by taking the correct offset for the band and either adding it to or subtracting it from the receive frequency, based on the sign in the parentheses.

For 2 meter band the offset is 0.6 MHz.  For 70 cm or GMRS the offset is 5 MHz.

Maybe a couple of examples would help:

For the 145.290 repeater the transmit frequency for hams would be 145.290 - 0.6 = 144.690 MHz.

For the 444.400 repeater the transmitter needs to be set to 444.400 + 5.0 = 449.400 MHz.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Sshannon
To clarify licensed transmissions.

[gortex2]

IF your GMRS radio is UHF only , you can only add 444.4 and 444.825

 

[PartsMan]

No transmitting. I am not Ham.

I just want to receive with this radio.

The + and - are a clear as mud to me.

[WyoJoe]

2 hours ago, PartsMan said:

I am wanting to program the local Ham repeater frequencies into my GMRS HT just to see how much traffic there is.

The local Ham club web site lists there repeaters this way.

CLUB VHF REPEATERS: 145.290 (-), 147.150 (+), 147.375 (+)

UHF REPEATERS 444.400 (+), 444.825 (+)

What frequencies should I be scanning?

As Sshannon mentioned, you want to add the frequencies shown. Those are the receive frequencies that the repeaters output.

The (-) and (+) indicate the transmitter offset, but are only needed when programming your radio to transmit to the repeater.

[axorlov]

The repeater output frequencies are listed. The (+) or (-) means the repeater input offset (+ or -0.6 MHz for VHF, and +5 MHz for UHF). Whether you can add VHF frequencies to your radio depends on the radio. Some GMRS radios can listen to VHF.

[WyoJoe]

1 minute ago, PartsMan said:

I just want to receive with this radio.

The + and - are a clear as mud to me.

 

Just now, WyoJoe said:

The (-) and (+) indicate the transmitter offset, but are only needed when programming your radio to transmit to the repeater.

The transmitter offset is based on the receive frequency, but can be higher or lower, depending on whether it's a positive or negative offset.

As Sshannon mentioned above, for the 2 meter band, the offset is 600KHz (.6 MHz), and can be either added or subtracted from the receive frequency depending on + or - offset. For the 70cm band, the same is true, except the offset is 5 MHz.

[MichaelLAX]

13 minutes ago, PartsMan said:

No transmitting. I am not Ham.

I just want to receive with this radio.

The + and - are a clear as mud to me.

Ignore the + and - for now:

There is an unofficial Rag Chew just about every morning around 7:00 AM local time on the 145.290-(no PL) MHz repeater. This is a good time for new and old alike. The laid back nature of the conversation allows for passing of information; and questions to get discussed about as well. This is a really good wake-up call!

[PartsMan]

A big thank you to all of you.