nj repeater chat and general lay of the land for GMRS etiquette

[Steve]

I live in north west NJ and for the past few days, I’ve been hearing these two guys talk on GMRS same two guys I heard weeks ago talking about this new repeater, the signal is really strong….  They are talking in a way where they are careful not to say anything personal or private in any way, everythign is very general.   They are going through what sounds like their own repeater that doesn’t ID and one guy keeps saying his call is “WP W203 524 for ID…” which I can’t find in the FCC db, and the other guy mumbles every time his call (as if he doesn’t want anyone to hear it).   All I can get is the last few numbers “509”   …this repeater sounds great here and its just about full quieting on my HT inside the house….   the towns they are talking about being in while talking through this span 50 miles and are close to up sate NY.   I think its ch 3 they are talking on… its really strong.     They refer to each other by just the last 3 numbers, like “hey 524 how are you?” and “this is 509” – they are talking about how they are going to moving repeaters around once the weather gets nice.   They are talking on motorolas with the 1200 burst...

 

So, I'm building a repeater for home and to cover a few miles around my house with my family and it would be nice to reach out to these guys to just say hi, I let them know I can hear them, and maybe share resources or at the very least, find out where they are, and make sure my gear doesn’t mess with their gear.

 

The other traffic I hear is random people fading in, getting strong and then fading out.   Almost all sound like there is a repeater with some kind of tail and roger beep, but no ID.    I tried asking if anyone can hear me on simplex and the input frequencey but no one responds.  They must be far or using PLs.   obviously i dont know the PL of the repeater to try and get in.   and i dont have the equiptment to figure that out.

 

Does this sound like normal GMRS usage around here?      Are they mostly all hidden / private?  The point of all this is I’m trying to get a lay for the land for GMRS repeaters…. And what they sound like, how they are used ,etc.   It seems you don’t have to have the GMRS repeater ID, FCC seems unclear about this.   Should i just ignore all this and use a different channel?   If all channels had traffic like this, then how do you go about making sure you dont interfear with the other guys if you can't contact them?  Do you just try your best to stay out of each other's way?

[Radioactive]

Hello,

This is just purely my opinion, so remember that. First let me tell you this, I've held a ham radio license since 1995, I have had an interest in radio comms since I was very young, I really got interested in ham after some severe storms, and particularly interested in skywarn. Being a young man I didn't know anyone else with a ham license, I listened to all the local repeaters and talked some, the folks were nice and all but I have always been more interested in the utilitarian uses of radio, than "rag chewing". I like to utilize 2 way radio for meaningful communications rather than discussing ailments and ho hum daily errands and such. To me, and I suspect to lots of others using GMRS, the ability to talk with your group of people, or family, without constant random contacts from "strangers" is a major advantage of GMRS over amateur(ham) radio. Now I have nothing against hams and rag chewing, to each his own, but that's just not my cup of tea. I keep my ham license because it also definitely has advantages, more repeaters, more modes of operation, widespread skywarn, around the world communication potential without using repeaters, heck you can even contact astronauts on the international space station, so I'm not bashing ham radio in any way at all. But the people on their repeater even if they hear you, they may be intentionally ignoring you so you will go away, so you won't be using their repeater. I would suggest finding the least used frequency pair and putting your repeater on that frequency. If you want to make random contacts on various frequencies, get your ham license. It's a very very very simple and easy process, the study questions are available and in a few days you will be more than able to pass the test. On those frequencies there are tons of people that will gladly answer your call sign. Good luck!!

[Steve]

Hello,

This is just purely my opinion, so remember that. First let me tell you this, I've held a ham radio license since 1995, I have had an interest in radio comms since I was very young, I really got interested in ham after some severe storms, and particularly interested in skywarn. Being a young man I didn't know anyone else with a ham license, I listened to all the local repeaters and talked some, the folks were nice and all but I have always been more interested in the utilitarian uses of radio, than "rag chewing". I like to utilize 2 way radio for meaningful communications rather than discussing ailments and ho hum daily errands and such. To me, and I suspect to lots of others using GMRS, the ability to talk with your group of people, or family, without constant random contacts from "strangers" is a major advantage of GMRS over amateur(ham) radio. Now I have nothing against hams and rag chewing, to each his own, but that's just not my cup of tea. I keep my ham license because it also definitely has advantages, more repeaters, more modes of operation, widespread skywarn, around the world communication potential without using repeaters, heck you can even contact astronauts on the international space station, so I'm not bashing ham radio in any way at all. But the people on their repeater even if they hear you, they may be intentionally ignoring you so you will go away, so you won't be using their repeater. I would suggest finding the least used frequency pair and putting your repeater on that frequency. If you want to make random contacts on various frequencies, get your ham license. It's a very very very simple and easy process, the study questions are available and in a few days you will be more than able to pass the test. On those frequencies there are tons of people that will gladly answer your call sign. Good luck!!

That's a great good point about they prob just dont care....

 

i have my technical ham.

 

i am very much like how you explained yourself, i like the radio system for the utility and usefulness to connected who i want to connect, but to just talk about what i was eating for lunch is ... well, its like facebook, i dont post i just read a few things and see how my friend and family are doing.  i post a few family photos during special events so others can see the kids and stuff... again, for the utility of it.   I def dont see the point of the "contestor ham" to just see how many contacts they can get, that sounds stupid to me.   that might explain why i'm looking to set up a GMRS repeater, i just want something i can connect to at home.... and for the experience of building it.

 

thanks for your feedback

[Radioactive]

Derp, just saw your (and my) call signs listed by our users names. Lol. You have been a ham longer than me and here I was "explaining" it and how easy the test is to you, my apologies. Good luck with your GMRS repeater, I wager you and I are a lot alike in our concept of radio comms. Talk to you later!

[Steve]

Derp, just saw your (and my) call signs listed by our users names. Lol. You have been a ham longer than me and here I was "explaining" it and how easy the test is to you, my apologies. Good luck with your GMRS repeater, I wager you and I are a lot alike in our concept of radio comms. Talk to you later!

 

  it happens.

[Steve]

They are Bluecom.... case closed.

 

they sound like they are based in up state NY but their signal is so strong, i get it here in north jersey... really clear inside on my HT about 40 miles from NY border., and they keep saying "down in jersey" ...sounds like they are just expanding their network of repeaters.

 

well, i can't use ch3 anymore.... their signal is almost full quieting to my house and they talke every day on it now.   this just started a week ago.    well, am still trying to pick a frequency for my repeater project... i still have ch 1 and 2 with no activity on it.

[Radioactive]

They are Bluecom.... case closed.

 

they sound like they are based in up state NY but their signal is so strong, i get it here in north jersey... really clear inside on my HT about 40 miles from NY border., and they keep saying "down in jersey" ...sounds like they are just expanding their network of repeaters.

 

well, i can't use ch3 anymore.... their signal is almost full quieting to my house and they talke every day on it now.   this just started a week ago.    well, am still trying to pick a frequency for my repeater project... i still have ch 1 and 2 with no activity on it.

Well I'm glad you figured it out. I'm not from the area, what is bluecomm? Maybe with one of the 2 clear frequencies you can put an OT ctcss pair or split dcs/ctcss and have a fairly "private" frequency for a while. Good luck!

[Steve]

I have no idea other than what i read online about them.. just a closed and priveate group of guys who call themselfves bluecom, the group has been togehter since the late 90s.... some are on the poice fire ems, rescue, etc, and they use GMRS to talk with each other whie at work and at home. i guess the idea is they have their own network to inner comunicate if needed, etc.   I'm sure they have access to some great towers and repeater locations. just from listening it sounds like they have many repeaters in the area and are able to reach very very far.  also i assume they want to be private becuase they dont use names, only numbers.    its really made me stop and wonder becuase the signal was so strong, full quieting, and they are taling about bing in the next state over, so natually i was like "how is that possible?" ... i still dont know how, but i guess if they are high enough and powerful enough, it would reach me down in NJ... its technically possible to pick up a repeater from 75 miles away... its just really clear, like full quieting.

[zap]

Line of Sight communications. Doesn't necessarily rely on power. I'm hoping to get a repeater up on a SO's tower in Colorado, 12k feet above sea level. Ran some path loss calculations on it in Splat. With 10W output (going to a DB420) I assumed 158W ERP...it spat back decent signal reports as far away a Colorado Springs which is almost 70 miles away. Path loss on a 70 mile hop on 467.675 is 67 dB. So really, even a HT at 1W 70 miles away "should" (under ideal conditions) be able to make it into the repeater.

[Steve]

true.... i guess its all about the terrain. 

[deputycrawford]

     I wonder since they are using call signs that don't match a data base and the other mumbles his that they may even be using the repeater system without licensing. Just a thought. Many ham radios can scan for PL codes but if you don't have one that will be useless. You can turn on each PL code in your radio on receive and watch for the signal. If no audio then go to the next. When audio pops on then you have found it. Then ask them if you can use it. You might look up Bluecomm on Facebook or somewhere and try to find them. They might not have anything listed to keep it a closed, private repeater. Many thing to think about there.

 

Jerry

[Steve]

nah... ive figured out its all good... its a private group... sounds like a bunch of older service personal guys like cops or emt's who want to comunicate without using the company radios.  they might have some linked up but as far as getting in, i dont care to, and i'm sure its too far for my transmitter even if i had the pl or dpl code.     i'm sure it will come in handy in the next storm...

 

reminds me of last time i was driving back to NJ from PA and i was able to get into the linked pa college repeater system, it has linked repetears along the pa nj border from north nj to de.   i was able to drive for a good 30 minutes while talking with some guys on there using my little $30 HT  The explained that its a big network of repeaters but they were unsure how they are able to receive me from one end of the state to another.... i was asking about the receivers... i looked it up online, there are different input nodes all over, so you just dial in the one that is closest to you, and it repeats out on all other nodes.   i think.  anyway, that's cool if that's how it works in PA.     as for this bluecom one, it was more of a mistery of who was able to hit my HT from inside so clearly when they were talking so secretively.  

[Billy]

Its called the Bluecomm system.   Go to the repeater database and look for the Alpha and Beta systems.  Those and a few others are in the system if you are looking to make contact.