We need more GMRS Repeaters Deployed

[kidphc]

 
I didn't know about Roland being in the hospital. That stinks.
 
I ha e to run out for a few hours, but I'll shoot you a PM when I get back.

Not Annapolis Roland... but the other one. Haven't talked to him

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[WQZV472]

I would love to set one up but my HOA will s*** themselves if they see an antenna on top of our house. I am looking for alternatives to place the antenna. Thinking about climbing to the top of an oak tree and mounting it at the top then digging a little ditch to run the cable to the house. Any ideas from people with similar situations? 

[kidphc]

I would love to set one up but my HOA will s*** themselves if they see an antenna on top of our house. I am looking for alternatives to place the antenna. Thinking about climbing to the top of an oak tree and mounting it at the top then digging a little ditch to run the cable to the house. Any ideas from people with similar situations? 

My x200a (about 8ft long 2m/70cm ham antenna) is in my attic. Averages out bout 60 miles or so on repeaters, havent tried further. On simplex it seams to get about 20 miles or so.

Roland that I was speaking about earlier, has a tower that is part tree. I have to see pictures, cause I am a bit confused. But I believe he put steps on a tree and then mounted a tower to it. Pretty much everyone in the va, dc and parts of pa, have spoken to him. Commercial antenna 100ft up with the help of M.W. It has some crazy reach.

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[WRTF739]

Thats a great idea maybe sop on setting up a repeaters  I dont know squat how to do that. 

[Fernleaf]

On 8/27/2022 at 10:19 PM, wayoverthere said:

You bet!

Alternately, what about just losing the glass fuses and going to ATC fuses with something like this? The yaesu harness I got from DXE uses blade fuses rather than glass, btw.

https://www.autozone.com/starting-charging-and-miscellaneous-electrical/fuse-holder/p/bussmann-atc-fuse-holder/32415_0_0

Edit: just saw the same suggestion was made in the other thread

Great information! I’ll keep it handy for future reference. 
 

Meantime, buytwowayradio responded and had the exact part I needed. They are a great company. Never thought about asking them for parts. Now I know!

[RayP]

On 8/5/2022 at 8:52 AM, gortex2 said:

^^^^^^^^^^^ 

I hate linking for that point. And its the same conversations on ham or GMRS. The only GMRS repeaters around me are run by hams and just use it as another ham repeater. Drives me nuts. 

YES!  Linking is about done to death on GMRS as it has been on ham for a while!  It has become a major annoyance on 2m/70cm ham.  When I got on ham in 1996, I joined a club that had a great three (and sometimes 4) repeater linked system.  In that day, before everyone had a cell in their pocket, it was a great conduit for family, friends, and social interaction in a 3-county region.  Over time, the linking has gotten out of hand.  One ham radio group I am thinking of has some great, and some not so great, repeaters covering part of two states.  There are around a dozen.  In my state they have a UHF repeater that has phenomenal coverage for that band.  As such, many locals like to use that repeater, but since the owner group insists on 24-7-365 linking, whenever we use it, it ties up the system for all, including those in the other state.  Ditto when they are on there complaining about their hemorrhoids or whatever.  There should at least be a publicly known DTMF de-link/link code for these times.  I know GMRS is not ham, but I see the same problems coming to GMRS because everyone is suddenly link-happy.

I am a member of a GMRS paid group with repeaters in two states, because it is paid, traffic is not very heavy most of the time.  Individual repeater coverage could be better, but they have a decent system.  Every Sunday evening for a couple of hours or so, the system is unuseable because it carries a nationwide GMRS net.  Were I broken down on the side of the road and needing to use the radio to get help because my cell was in a dead spot, I would be a very unhappy camper having to wait for this net to go off.  Some people love hearing the voices from across the country coming through the speaker on their ht, mobile, or base.  After a while, the novelty wears off.

With only eight pairs available, I would much rather see repeaters carrying "local" traffic from a bigger footprint than duplicating a conversation being had 100 or more miles away and stifling local comms.

 

[Sshannon]

If you’re having a true emergency you don’t wait for a net; you declare an emergency and break in.

Break, Break, Break

You are interrupting in the middle of communication because you have an emergency.

The fact that a Net is being conducted actually helps ensure that someone will hear your transmission!

Nets are held to allow people to learn about and practice radio etiquette.  Every person who uses a two way radio should take it upon themselves to learn radio etiquette.  I know some people don’t want GMRS to resemble amateur radio, but basic radio etiquette should still be learned and practiced.  

Here’s one of several sources of information that may help you to know how to break in with an emergency transmission: https://quality2wayradios.com/store/two-way-radio-etiquette

[MichaelLAX]

9 hours ago, RayP said:

Ditto when they are on there complaining about their hemorrhoids or whatever.

6 hours ago, Sshannon said:

If you’re having a true emergency you don’t wait for a net; you declare an emergency and break in.

From the ridiculous to the sublime! 

[quarterwave]

I've had a repeater up for years...no one uses it. It's for sale BTW, if you need a Motorola MTR 2000 with a Zetron panel, let me know. It's doing nothing but drawing electric. 

[WRKC935]

51 minutes ago, quarterwave said:

I've had a repeater up for years...no one uses it. It's for sale BTW, if you need a Motorola MTR 2000 with a Zetron panel, let me know. It's doing nothing but drawing electric. 

Where are you at in Ohio?  Email me,  mycall sign at gmail to discuss the repeater.

 

[WRKC935]

On 10/17/2022 at 2:58 AM, RayP said:

YES!  Linking is about done to death on GMRS as it has been on ham for a while!  It has become a major annoyance on 2m/70cm ham.  When I got on ham in 1996, I joined a club that had a great three (and sometimes 4) repeater linked system.  In that day, before everyone had a cell in their pocket, it was a great conduit for family, friends, and social interaction in a 3-county region.  Over time, the linking has gotten out of hand.  One ham radio group I am thinking of has some great, and some not so great, repeaters covering part of two states.  There are around a dozen.  In my state they have a UHF repeater that has phenomenal coverage for that band.  As such, many locals like to use that repeater, but since the owner group insists on 24-7-365 linking, whenever we use it, it ties up the system for all, including those in the other state.  Ditto when they are on there complaining about their hemorrhoids or whatever.  There should at least be a publicly known DTMF de-link/link code for these times.  I know GMRS is not ham, but I see the same problems coming to GMRS because everyone is suddenly link-happy.

I am a member of a GMRS paid group with repeaters in two states, because it is paid, traffic is not very heavy most of the time.  Individual repeater coverage could be better, but they have a decent system.  Every Sunday evening for a couple of hours or so, the system is unuseable because it carries a nationwide GMRS net.  Were I broken down on the side of the road and needing to use the radio to get help because my cell was in a dead spot, I would be a very unhappy camper having to wait for this net to go off.  Some people love hearing the voices from across the country coming through the speaker on their ht, mobile, or base.  After a while, the novelty wears off.

With only eight pairs available, I would much rather see repeaters carrying "local" traffic from a bigger footprint than duplicating a conversation being had 100 or more miles away and stifling local comms.

 

As a linked repeater owner that DOES run 24/7 linked, I agree with what you are saying.  The problem is how to deal with it.  I have 3 machines on the air off the same tower.  The one 'belongs' to the tower owner and is public but we tend to steer folks to my local repeater for local comms.  That one is the 675 repeater.  The coverage of all three repeaters matches.  SO there can be 2 different conversations in progress at the same time.  Then there is the 600 which is the linked machine.  I knew going in from previous experience with HAM that the linked repeater needed to be backed up with a local machine for when folks wanted to just chat locally they had a way of doing so that didn't involve 30 other repeaters.  And I ensured that was what happened.  I have made it very public that the linked machine was for conversations that were wide area involving more than one machine, and if users were hearing the same reset tone, mine are different between linked and local TX source, they needed to move off to the 675 and talk because they were tying up 30 repeaters to talk 10 miles.  And the users have always been happy to do that. 

I did look at adding a repeater for the other linked system, but decided that was a bad idea.  First off they wanted money from ME to grow THEIR system.  If I was running some simplex node with an antenna 20 feet in the air, I could MAYBE see that.  If you go look at the Johnstown600 in Ohio on the maps, you quickly realize that's NOT the case.  So I scrapped that whole idea completely. 

At this point I am looking to GROW the coverage of the MidWest system with additional sites and repeaters.  But the plans are to install TWO repeaters at every site.  One will be linked and the other will be stand alone if possible to provide a local radio resource for users to talk in their area without tying up the whole system. 

That may not be possible in every situation, and when that's the case the repeater will be linked.  But I am looking to provide coverage foot print by design, so I will avoid putting repeaters up in area's that someone has linked coverage for the system in, including myself.  So the sites will need to extend coverage footprint of the system overall. 

Right now that's not hard as there are only two of us that have linked repeaters in Ohio.  Mine that covers the Greater Columbus Area and the Findley repeater that covers a portion of the Northwest part of Ohio. 

But going forward, that will change, and I will not 'compete' with standing coverage.  To me this is not a contest, it's a service.  And I would hope that others see it the same way.  I know the guy in Indiana is doing his that way.  Sure there is SOME overlap, but there is gonna be some overlap.  You want a bit of overlap to eliminate dead spots.  But you really shouldn't double cover any area, it wastes the limited frequency resources we have.

 

[Photoman5k]

I like having the linked system, I can pick up three different linked repeaters here in SE Wisconsin, one of them is in N. Illinois and the other two are here in Wisconsin. I like the fact that the two here in SE Wisconsin are on the same pair. I'm on the outside edge of one of them, I'm like 20+ miles from it and can pick it up fine and hit it as well with a HT but having one closer now (5ish miles maybe) is even better. The one in Illinois comes in fine but never tried to get into it from here with the HT I'm guessing I probably could though. There are several other repeaters in the area that are not linked which is nice too because it would suck having multiple repeater pairs being ate up by the same traffic from the linked system. I couldn't imagine being in an area that had 4 or 5 or more repeaters on the linked system and hearing that traffic on multiple freqs or not having the ability to have a non linked local area repeater because all the pairs are tied up by linked repeaters. That would just suck.

I don't know if the two here in SE Wisconsin by me were purposefully setup to be on the same pair, im guessing they were, but I like that they are. Because i don't have to hear the same traffic on multiple pairs. 

[MichaelLAX]

On 10/24/2022 at 1:47 PM, Photoman5k said:

I like having the linked system...

Same here: I am a member of a rather large SoCal Ham Repeater system that has linked analog repeaters on mostly 70 cms and it is fun to get communications from so many areas. 

But yes, we have to not rag-chew for too long, so as to not tie up the system.

But they also offer DMR (Brandmeister) and there I am happy to chat as long as I want with so many different "channels" to chose from!

[WRJB532]

HELLO EVERYONE IS MY PLEASURE TO INTRODUCE MY SELF THIS IS WRJB532 REPEATER IN THE NEW LONDON AREA AS N.LG.M.R.S REPEATER IS BEEN 4 YEARS RUNNING LIKE A GOAT IM THE OWNER OF THE N.LG.M.R.S REPEATER THE MACHINE IS A

 VERTEX STANDARD VXR 7000

         DUPLEXER 6 CAVITY 

           POWER 50 WATTS

        ANTENNA COMET 9db

        REPEATER RUNS 24/7 

         USING WINDOWS 10

              TO LINK ZELLO .

   WE ALSO HAVE A LINK NODE

 ON UHF SIMPLEX FREQUENCY.

 NEW LONDON , CONNECTICUT 

                  W R J B 532  

N.L.G.M.R.S - ZELLO CHANNEL 

        ON THE ZELLO APP 

 

 

 

 

 

[marcspaz]

@Tramposo That is awesome!!!  That is a very popular area for visitors and locals to spend time doing outdoors activities.  Great to see its up and running.

 

My daughter lives in Preston, so I end up visiting just about every month.  I have been looking to put up a repeater in the general area, to help cover some of the more rural locations to the north and east (toward RI) with no cell coverage.  I am thinking about asking the people who own Foxwoods if I can put one up on the hotel.  I have been testing different locations and full coverage is actually pretty tough up there.  We'll see how it goes.

[KAF6045]

1 hour ago, Tramposo said:

HELLO EVERYONE IS MY PLEASURE TO INTRODUCE MY SELF THIS IS WRJB532

Just for information -- in many forums ALL CAPS is considered to be shouting. Please disable the caps-lock in any future posts.

[marcspaz]

@KAF6045 I just assumes he was really excited!  LOL

[WRJB532]

You sure you guys are excited 

Do you like it now

 

[jeffsimmons1960]

I live in rural Northeastern Pa., and the are none here. There is a 2m repeater. There are a couple in the nearest cities, but I can't get them from here. 

[jeffsimmons1960]

On 8/5/2022 at 11:13 PM, Gearhead said:

Twenty years ago I worked Germany and the UK almost every day with a HR2510 in my truck.  That was a lot of fun.  When conditions are right. you can work the world on 10/11 with 100 watts.

I recently contacted Birmingham UK and Ireland with a bone stock Uniden 980 with 12 watts. The conditions have been booming.

[KAF6045]

2 hours ago, Tramposo said:

You sure you guys are excited 

Do you like it now

 

Thank you -- much easier to read.

Different browsers may use different fonts. At least on mine, your original post looked like something carved into a Roman temple

[WRQF883]

 I’d love to deploy a GMRS repeater, only problem is the cost.  

[JoCoBrian]

19 hours ago, WRQF883 said:

 I’d love to deploy a GMRS repeater, only problem is the cost.  

Same reason we don't eat beef these days.