Introduction

[WRTT642]

Hello everybody, 

My name is William (WRTT642), I have lived in Alaska since 2012. As I have said before I am completely new to GMRS and radios in general, but I have been researching more about them and have become very interested in them. What really got me into looking into other forms of communication was last winter when we had that big wind storm down here in the valley and it knocked out my power for 3 1/2 days and the KFC lol! Not fun, especially when my youngest son was only 10 months old! So I started to take a couple things a little more serious and less for granted. Like communications for example, amongst other things. Love to hunt, hike, fish blah blah blah, all the typical Alaska stuff. Funny enough I don't physically own any radios yet. I have ordered 2 Baofeng UV9G and they will be here Tuesday. I do have C Crane CC Skywave SSB and love scanning through all the channels. I have a beautiful wonderful wife and four kids. My oldest son is about to join the Army in a few months so excited about that. My wife is awesome and is actually cool with me doing this whole radio thing. Next week Ill be pre ordering the Wouxun KG-UV9Gx. Cant wait for that. Well anyway got to head to Anchorage. Hope to hear from you all soon. Take care!

[dogfarts2021]

Hello I'm Rick I'm a Mat Su Valley guy off Fairview Loop in Wasilla. Looking to expand and learn more about GMRS. I'm a former military engineer and I currently work in Emergency Management and before that was a prepper, and semi professional firearm and outdoor gear reviewer. Looking forward to hearing you all on the nets 

[Craws907]

Hi. Im jeff, down in the kenai area. Im a life long commercial fisherman. We've always had tons of radios and coms on fishing boats from cb,2meter,10meter,ssb, vhf, sat coms, you name it, so I've always like radios and after the 2018 earthquake then the covid stuff i decided to get into gmrs for all the options like repeaters and different antennas and not having to get ham tickets for me and the wife. Thats about it for my intro.

Anyone still catching coho?

[WRVL467]

Hello there, I'm Connor from Eagle River. New to GMRS like the rest of you, but I'm trying to get my local friend group onboard as well. My primary use is for offroad comms and road trips, but I have been trying to monitor the Eagle River 575 repeater during the day.

[WRTT642]

On 12/27/2022 at 10:33 AM, WRVL467 said:

Hello there, I'm Connor from Eagle River. New to GMRS like the rest of you, but I'm trying to get my local friend group onboard as well. My primary use is for offroad comms and road trips, but I have been trying to monitor the Eagle River 575 repeater during the day.

Hey Connor! Nice to have you join this group. I have been away for awhile, but now I'm back and hopefully will get some more info updated on here. Keep your eyes out and welcome!

[WRVV646]

I'm Ryan based out of Anchorage. New to GMRS myself and still figuring out everything and finding a working repeater in Anchorage seems to not exist unless someone can correct me on it.

[WRTT642]

Just now, WRVV646 said:

I'm Ryan based out of Anchorage. New to GMRS myself and still figuring out everything and finding a working repeater in Anchorage seems to not exist unless someone can correct me on it.

Hey Ryan, thanks for joining the Alaska GMRS club. I have posted all known repeaters under the Alaska Repeater tab on the top of the page. If you click there it will show you all the repeaters that are up and running here. Check it out and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

[WRVV646]

1 minute ago, WRTT642 said:

Hey Ryan, thanks for joining the Alaska GMRS club. I have posted all known repeaters under the Alaska Repeater tab on the top of the page. If you click there it will show you all the repeaters that are up and running here. Check it out and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

Actually I do if you you know if I have this is correctly set up for WRCA670 on 462.700 MHz?

[WRTT642]

1 minute ago, WRVV646 said:

Actually I do if you you know if I have this is correctly set up for WRCA670 on 462.700 MHz?

Yes, that looks correct.

[WRVV646]

1 minute ago, WRTT642 said:

Yes, that looks correct.

Copy that will give it a try in the morning monitoring throughout the day when I can.

[WRTT642]

Just now, WRVV646 said:

Copy that will give it a try in the morning monitoring throughout the day when I can.

Sounds good. Come back on tomorrow and see if you can hook up with any of the other members. I believe a couple of them live in Anchorage and Eagle River so maybe they can make a contact with you over the repeater. I plan on doing some meet ups once all this snow goes away, would be great to meet all you guys.

[jenksjr]

Hello All,

Just joined the Club. Conner WRVL 467 let me know about the club. I didn't realize there was a place for GMRS clubs on the MyGMRS site. My not new to GMRS but always open to new information and ideas. There's always more to learn. I actually had a GMRS station in Kenai way back in the 1990's. It was pretty basic and there weren't any other users at that time. I then got into Amateur Radio. About 5 years ago I got back into GMRS while living in the Seattle area. There were quite a few repeaters in the area and were ECOM groups using those repeaters. The was a lot of activity on GMRS. One group was helping people study up (over the air) for the Amateur radio tests. I remember you could put out  a call anytime of the day and you would likely receive a reply. 

I have some info on the repeater situation here in Anchorage. The repeater owned by WRCA670, to the best of my knowledge, is not on the air. However, there is a repeater on the same channel with a tone of 100. Since about Oct of 2021 I have been trying to find who owns the repeater. There is no IDer. It appears to work fairly well all over Anchorage. I have made my calls on the channel but have never received a reply. 

Well it's nice to know there is a group of GMRSers in the area. Hope to chat with all sometime on the air waves!

Jim WQCG 563

 

[WRTT642]

Welcome! I'm glad you found our little group here. I am completely new to radio for the most part. I first received my GMRS license last year then I took the amateur radio test and passed the technician exam. So I do both now which I love doing. I am still trying to learn more about radios and how they operate as well as repeaters and antennas. I recently joined my local ham club here in the Valley called MARA, and I met some really nice people that have helped me out with understanding radio more. Recently went to club meeting a couple days ago and it went great and made some new friends. I really hope to maybe get all of us together here soon, we talked about maybe meeting up mid February, and we can all bring our radios and start getting something going with getting repeaters up and running to connect us all together. I will make some more post about it and start contacting everyone by the end of the first week of February. Hopefully there will be a day we can all meet up. 

Seems like you have a lot more experience in this then myself which I am open to any feed back you might have on how to accomplish a common goal here in Alaska. Any knowledge you have will be very valuable to us all so please feel free to post on here as much as you like. I stay up on the site and active a lot more now. Hope to hear from you more and any ideas you might have will be much appreciated. As myself being so new to radio there is a lot I am still learning and any knowledge you can pass on will be greatly appreciated and this goes for anyone else in our club. Sounds like everyone of you have more experience than me in this field so please feel free everyone to post ideas, thoughts, and comments on how we can get something going. Even though I started this club I don't take it as I am the owner of it, this is a group effort and see everyone of you as equal owners.   

[jenksjr]

Bill,

Thanks for the reply. Will be glad help where ever I can. Would be great to get a wide area repeater up so can expand our presence in the greater ANC area. 

 

[wondergeekak]

Hello everyone. I just joined and by the looks of it, I’m not the only one new to GMRS. My name is Keith and I live in North Wasilla, specifically off of Vine road. I was born in Anchorage and raised out here in the valley. I haven’t purchased my first radio yet but will shortly. I work in the I.T. field as a system administrator and do commute to Anchorage. Looking forward to getting into this exciting new hobby.

[WRTT642]

On 4/3/2023 at 1:52 AM, wondergeekak said:

Hello everyone. I just joined and by the looks of it, I’m not the only one new to GMRS. My name is Keith and I live in North Wasilla, specifically off of Vine road. I was born in Anchorage and raised out here in the valley. I haven’t purchased my first radio yet but will shortly. I work in the I.T. field as a system administrator and do commute to Anchorage. Looking forward to getting into this exciting new hobby.

Glad to have you here. I am new to this as well, but there are some very knowledgeable people on here and that live in Alaska. I live out in Meadow Lakes so not too far from you. If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

[WRVL467]

On 4/3/2023 at 1:52 AM, wondergeekak said:

Hello everyone. I just joined and by the looks of it, I’m not the only one new to GMRS. My name is Keith and I live in North Wasilla, specifically off of Vine road. I was born in Anchorage and raised out here in the valley. I haven’t purchased my first radio yet but will shortly. I work in the I.T. field as a system administrator and do commute to Anchorage. Looking forward to getting into this exciting new hobby.

Thanks for joining! If you do end up getting a mobile rig, feel free to give me a shout sometime when you pass through Eagle River. I'm usually monitoring the Eagle River 575 repeater and channel 20.

[WSHC425]

Hey everyone, my name's David, I'm in West Anchorage. I just got my first radio and license this week, so I'm pretty green on all this.  I am into a bunch of the outdoorsy things that we love here in Alaska and wanted a reliable way to communicate on ski trips and such.  Trying to learn about repeaters and such right now, it's cool that there's a community around GMRS here.

[WRTT642]

On 2/13/2025 at 11:33 AM, WSHC425 said:

Hey everyone, my name's David, I'm in West Anchorage. I just got my first radio and license this week, so I'm pretty green on all this.  I am into a bunch of the outdoorsy things that we love here in Alaska and wanted a reliable way to communicate on ski trips and such.  Trying to learn about repeaters and such right now, it's cool that there's a community around GMRS here.

Welcome to MyGMRS Alaska! Glad you have joined us. Chc out the repeater list, I know we have some Repeaters out in Anchorage and you can make some contacts out there. I live out in the Valley but if you ever have any questions do not hesitate to ask. There is a great group of guys on here that are very knowledgable and are more than happy to help you out. 

[Whiskey907]

Hello everyone! My name is Kurt. I got my radio last week and installed it in my truck. (wouxun kg-1000g plus) I am an avid outdoorsman. I travel a lot in summer and I do snow plowing in the winter so I spend a lot of time in my truck. Im hoping to be able to connect with some people while I am out. I go out to Knik a lot and being able to have coms out there would be wonderful! Also being able to talk with other snow plowers or trucks in the winter to help in those pesky situations. Glad to be part of the group and hope to hear from yall soon!

[WSLN402]

A little bit isolated from you fine folks, but happy to see Alaska involvement.  I am over on Kodiak and enjoying learning about GMRS and HAM.  

[WSLP818]

Howdy,

I'm Alex and live in Anchorage. I used to be very active with Ham Radio in the early 2000's when I was living in Texas. Moved to Alaska in 2020 and became inactive. Second time on GMRS, first license expired in 2016. What drew me back to GMRS is that I'm a biker and I'll be doing a coast-to-coast ride in May (Run For The Wall) and the group uses GMRS radios for comms. Got me a BTECH GMRS Pro, which is the radio everybody uses for RFTW and got a new license.

Good to hear there are users and some repeaters in this area.

Alex

GMRS: WSLP818 | HAM: KL5BV

[WSLN402]

1 hour ago, WSLP818 said:

Howdy,

I'm Alex and live in Anchorage. I used to be very active with Ham Radio in the early 2000's when I was living in Texas. Moved to Alaska in 2020 and became inactive. Second time on GMRS, first license expired in 2016. What drew me back to GMRS is that I'm a biker and I'll be doing a coast-to-coast ride in May (Run For The Wall) and the group uses GMRS radios for comms. Got me a BTECH GMRS Pro, which is the radio everybody uses for RFTW and got a new license.

Good to hear there are users and some repeaters in this area.

Alex

GMRS: WSLP818 | HAM: KL5BV

Maybe it's time to get back into HAM too?  I am excited to be taking my technician exam soon  Googled Run for the Wall, looks like it will be an amazing event! Ride safe!

[WSLP818]

@WSLN402

Not sure about getting back into Ham at this point. When I lived in Texas, I was heavily involved with the Harris and Montgomery County ARES groups, so amateur radio was essentially required. Most of what I did was on 2m and 70cm repeaters that covered the Houston metro area for emergency response.

I never really got into HF back then because an antenna tower wasn’t allowed under HOA rules. I do have an HF radio up here now, along with an antenna option that doesn’t require a tower, but I’ve never gotten around to setting it up… and I’m still in an HOA community anyway.

Ham definitely opens up a lot more compared to GMRS. With a Technician license, you’re in similar bands, but you get more flexibility, more power (up to 50W vs. typical 5W handhelds), and access to digital modes if that interests you. That said, HF privileges are pretty limited at the Tech level, so if you are going to pursue it, I’d recommend going at least for the General license.

[WSLP818]

@WSLN402

Given your location, I would think if you got on HF, Hams from around the world would be dying to chat with you and get a QSL card.