Arizona GMRS

[WRYV458]

Looking to find some local people. I am new to GMRS and radios. I have installed a mobile unit in my truck and trying to understand programming for repeaters. But i never hear if anyone is actually hearing me or not. 

[WRQC527]

10 minutes ago, WRYV458 said:

Looking to find some local people. I am new to GMRS and radios. I have installed a mobile unit in my truck and trying to understand programming for repeaters. But i never hear if anyone is actually hearing me or not. 

There's several open repeaters in the general Phoenix area. You can find them listed on this site. I would suggest setting them up in your radio, and throw your call sign out there and ask for a signal report, or just say you're listening. It's a very conversational system, no silly jargon. Generally speaking, there aren't many non-stop conversations going on, but people may be listening, and might just come back to you.

[WRYV458]

Ya i tried that on a few open ones and programmed them but no luck. So not sure on what is the issue. I would assume having a 50watt radio and a 6db antenna should be able to reach a few mile away repeater. 

[jsneezy]

Which repeaters are you trying to get to, and from what area? I'm out in Queen Creek with a 5W HT and can't get to any of the local repeaters because of the hills surrounding me. I have been thinking of trying out one that I occasionally hear outside of Tucson. 

[nokones]

What area are you trying from and which repeater are yoh trying to access? What radio are you using?  If you join the AZ GMRS and/or Southwest Community Repeater (SWCRS) Club(s) you can get plenty of help with your programming needs and have access to a few more repeaters that are not available to non-members. Both repeater clubs have a lot of expert resources.

[WRUU653]

9 hours ago, WRYV458 said:

Looking to find some local people. I am new to GMRS and radios. I have installed a mobile unit in my truck and trying to understand programming for repeaters. But i never hear if anyone is actually hearing me or not. 

It looks like you are in an area with quite a few open repeaters. To figure out what’s going on let’s get some more info and maybe we can narrow down a solution. Are you hearing other people on a repeater? What radio do you have and how are you programming it?  Are you using Chirp? 

[WRYV458]

I am here in Peoria i have a midland 575 radio and what i was reading for either the Glendale 675 or el mirage. i can hear people on the repeaters. I used for Glendale says channel 20 and then go to change receive and transmit to CTCS of 141.3 which for me is 22. 

[WRWE456]

Share as much info on your setup as you can. What radio, antenna, how is it mounted etc? How have you programed it for repeaters or not? Have you tested it with another radio to see if you can communicate at close range?   It's a good idea to have a hand held radio as well. Good for testing as well as portability. Also what have you tried? What is your location like? How close are you to anyone or a repeater you are trying to reach? Have you tried driving around the area to find a better spot? When it comes to diagnosing radios details matter.

[Sshannon]

12 hours ago, WRYV458 said:

Looking to find some local people. I am new to GMRS and radios. I have installed a mobile unit in my truck and trying to understand programming for repeaters. But i never hear if anyone is actually hearing me or not. 

Here’s the nickel tour of GMRS repeaters:

First: You transmit on one frequency, which is in the 467 MHz range and listen on another which is in the 462 MHz range.  As long as you choose a repeater channel on your GMRS radio, that’s automatically done.  If you’re transmitting on a 462 MHz channel you’re not on a repeater channel. 

Second: If the repeater has an input or uplink tone (called CTCSS by most companies or PL by Motorola), you must set a transmit tone that exactly matches or the repeater will just ignore you.  There’s a digital alternative to that called DCS (or DPL by Motorola of course) that might be required instead.

Third: the repeater probably has an output or downlink tone as well.  That’s optional, but if you try to use it be sure to get it right.  I usually tell people to leave the receive tone empty when getting started.  That allows you to hear everything your radio receives.

There are some GMRS nets in Phoenix that I listened to the last time I was there.  That’s a good way to test your configuration because you have a high degree of confidence that there will be signals for you to listen to and it’s a non-intimidating way to test your ability to transmit.  Check out https://www.azgmrs.org/

 

 

[WRUU653]

56 minutes ago, WRYV458 said:

I am here in Peoria i have a midland 575 radio and what i was reading for either the Glendale 675 or el mirage. i can hear people on the repeaters. I used for Glendale says channel 20 and then go to change receive and transmit to CTCS of 141.3 which for me is 22. 

Good info from @Sshannon above. Channel 20 isn't a repeater channel it's 462.675, which is the same receive frequency of channel 28 or as some manufactures refer to repeater channel 20.  As @Sshannon explained GMRS radios have the offset built in to their repeater channels. By programming your tones in the appropriate repeater channel you will then have the offset (467.675) already set by the radio. Hope this helps.

[jsneezy]

1 hour ago, WRYV458 said:

I am here in Peoria i have a midland 575 radio and what i was reading for either the Glendale 675 or el mirage. i can hear people on the repeaters. I used for Glendale says channel 20 and then go to change receive and transmit to CTCS of 141.3 which for me is 22. 

If you're using channel 20, it sounds like you might not be on a repeater channel. Also, have a look at the Shaw Butte 725 repeater. I'm not able to reach out to it from here, but I'm able to listen to it, and it seems to be pretty active.

[Sshannon]

The Midland MXT575 doesn’t allow you to choose repeater channels until you have activated them.  That’s covered on page 10 in the manual.

[WRYV458]

Yes i know you have to enable them and i have enabled them. Also when looking at the manual in the back of the book it gives you a list of the frequency that i need to be on and gives you the repeater channel for me it is channel 20 on repeater that is the proper frequency.

[nokones]

There is no squelch-tail or kerchunck sound on the Glendale repeater. There is a squelch-tail on the Shaw Butte repeater but if you don't say anything when you key, you need to keep it keyed for about 3-4 seconds

[jsneezy]

1 hour ago, nokones said:

There is no squelch-tail or kerchunck sound on the Glendale repeater. There is a squelch-tail on the Shaw Butte repeater but if you don't say anything when you key, you need to keep it keyed for about 3-4 seconds

Is there something going on with Shaw Butte that I haven't heard about? It's not showing on the map for me, but as far as I can tell, it's definitely still active. I was just listening to it earlier, and heard activity. It also doesn't show up if I set the map to show stale and offline repeaters. 

[nokones]

No, it's still on the air. Some repeater owners just don't want to advertise their repeaters on this site for some reason. This repeater does link with the SWCRS network with a special input tone for a couple weekly Nets.

[WRUU653]

On 9/24/2023 at 6:02 PM, jsneezy said:

Is there something going on with Shaw Butte that I haven't heard about? It's not showing on the map for me, but as far as I can tell, it's definitely still active. I was just listening to it earlier, and heard activity. It also doesn't show up if I set the map to show stale and offline repeaters. 

Shaw Butte is still on the site and the map. Select stale repeaters via the gear in the upper left corner of the map. Repeaters fall into the stale category if the owner hasn’t updated the info in over a year. 

[jsneezy]

10 hours ago, WRUU653 said:

Shaw Butte is still on the site and the map. Select stale repeaters via the gear in the upper left corner of the map. Repeaters fall into the stale category if the owner hasn’t updated the info in over a year. 

It's definitely not showing for me with stale and offline both being selected. Unless this happens to be a map glitch in the app, which is entirely possible being the beta version of the app, but I also don't remember seeing it on the map when I was looking via the website the other day either. 

[Sshannon]

5 minutes ago, jsneezy said:

It's definitely not showing for me with stale and offline both being selected. Unless this happens to be a map glitch in the app, which is entirely possible being the beta version of the app, but I also don't remember seeing it on the map when I was looking via the website the other day either. 

What map are you looking at?

Here’s what it looks like on mygmrs.com:

[WRUU653]

39 minutes ago, jsneezy said:

It's definitely not showing for me with stale and offline both being selected. Unless this happens to be a map glitch in the app, which is entirely possible being the beta version of the app, but I also don't remember seeing it on the map when I was looking via the website the other day either. 

It shows it on mine.

Maybe it's a cookies thing, but it's there. 

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by WRUU653

[jsneezy]

It may be an issue of the beta version of the Android app not updating when I change the settings to show stale and offline repeaters. I know for sure the repeater is still active because I regularly hear.it when I'm scanning, I just don't have a setup substantial enough to utilize it from 55 miles away. That's most likely an antenna height issue, as I can reach out to another repeater that's about 70 miles to the south of me. 

[WRUU653]

 

2 hours ago, jsneezy said:

It may be an issue of the beta version of the Android app not updating when I change the settings to show stale and offline repeaters. I know for sure the repeater is still active because I regularly hear.it when I'm scanning, I just don't have a setup substantial enough to utilize it from 55 miles away. That's most likely an antenna height issue, as I can reach out to another repeater that's about 70 miles to the south of me. 

Could be. I’m using an iPad and a Mac but not the app. It would be worth giving @rdunajewski a shout out about the app though to help him flush things like that out. 
 As for the repeater reach check out this tool. It can give you an idea of line of site and if you might be able to get there or not, though sometimes I can hit repeaters that look like I shouldn’t be able to.