New GMRS from Rocky Talkie

[WSEV934]

On 10/5/2024 at 10:54 AM, Socalgmrs said:

Yea you said it 3.5miles.  That’s even more funny.  If an ht doesn’t do 30miles I trash it right if the bat.  If it doesn’t do 30miles it gets tossed in the loner or kids box.    With the antenna alone in that over priced gimmick of a radio you won’t get far enough for any use most people have. Certainly is not going to help save a life or communicate at any  meaningful distance. 

Well with the local repeater I have talked 50 Miles clear, no idea how much farther it will go.   Tell me any 5 Watt handheld that is going to do in a city radio to radio with no repeater.  Line of site I haven't tested yet as my buddy has been down sick for the last 2 weeks. If you just want to trash someones radio then just say nothing at all. As long as the person is happy with what they have that is all that matters. I bought cheap and got what I paid for cheap junk. I paid the price and it beats out the cheap by a long shot! I'm happy and that is all that matters.
Have a nice day.

[WSEV934]

On 2/3/2024 at 12:57 PM, muggz said:

I picked up a Rocky Talkie 5W radio.  Some peculiarities:

1. All channels are set to narrowband by default.  You can however go through a process to change each (high power) channel to wideband, and the change persists across power cycles.
2. Channel 22 had a CTCSS tone configured out of the box.
3. Its "TX beep" is local only, meaning when the beep's enabled it doesn't transmit the beep.  It is not a roger beep.
4. When setting CTCSS/DCS tones you can only see a slot number, not the frequency itself.  Set your repeater tones with manual in-hand before you head out!
5. The scan feature only offers CO mode, continuing scanning a few seconds after carrier drops.
6. You have to enable repeater channels with a special power-on sequence.  Once enabled, they stay enabled across power cycles.

What I like about it:

1. USB-C charging.
2. Solid feel in hand.
3. Battery life should be great, I haven't tested it.
4. Simple enough for any family member to use.
5. Relatively small size.
6. The clip actually is a set of jaws with teeth for traction, unlike most clips that are a single blade that just presses against the battery with a bottom lip.

Honestly I didn't buy this to use it, but I make accessories for HTs and needed this for that purpose.  I thought some of you may benefit from these observations.

Love mine.
I didn't realize #1 above all set narrow.
#2 I did notice that, but thought it was something I messed up.
#4 threw me a curve when setting up connection to a repeater. Yes you need the manual. This should be on the card that came with the radio.
     I did mention that issue to Rocky Talkie
#6 I was aware of before I bought it. Not a big deal.

Great little radio


So what accessories have you come up with for this radio?

[LeoG]

On 10/5/2024 at 10:54 AM, Socalgmrs said:

Yea you said it 3.5miles.  That’s even more funny.  If an ht doesn’t do 30miles I trash it right if the bat.  If it doesn’t do 30miles it gets tossed in the loner or kids box.    With the antenna alone in that over priced gimmick of a radio you won’t get far enough for any use most people have. Certainly is not going to help save a life or communicate at any  meaningful distance. 

Another flat lander.

[LeoG]

I have areas in my town where my 50w can't get 2 miles.

[amaff]

4 hours ago, LeoG said:

Another flat lander.

Or the opposite. My house is at 5000'. All of our repeaters in the area are on even higher mountain tops, with not much more than open valley with some rolling hills in between. 50 miles to a repeater on an HT easily.

But, that's obviously not the norm. If you get into the wrong parts of the back country, yeah, you'll be lucky to get a mile in the canyons

[LeoG]

2 minutes ago, amaff said:

Or the opposite. My house is at 5000'. All of our repeaters in the area are on even higher mountain tops, with not much more than open valley with some rolling hills in between. 50 miles to a repeater on an HT easily.

But, that's obviously not the norm. If you get into the wrong parts of the back country, yeah, you'll be lucky to get a mile in the canyons

I do 21 miles to a repeater.  It's about 1000' higher than me.  We have nothing in the state higher than 2450 ft.  I was playing with Radio Mobile and put a 50 watt repeater on top (Mt Frissel) with a 100' tower and because of all the other mountains in the general vicinity it had very poor performance for distance.  Too many peaks that were close to the same height.

[OscarWillow76]

Can someone show me how to connect to a repeater with Rocky Talkie?

I'd like to try this one.

 

https://mygmrs.com/repeater/1555

[OffRoaderX]

11 minutes ago, OscarWillow76 said:

Can someone show me how to connect to a repeater with Rocky Talkie?

Nobody is going to drive over and do it for you - you will have to invest at least a little effort. We assume you've read the user-manual and tried but you're stuck/its not working, so give us more info about what part you are getting stuck with and i'm sure we can help.  AND, you should probably create a new forum post instead of dragging this one even further into the weeds.

[OscarWillow76]

3 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

Nobody is going to drive over and do it for you - you will have to invest at least a little effort. We assume you've read the user-manual and tried but you're stuck/its not working, so give us more info about what part you are getting stuck with and i'm sure we can help.  AND, you should probably create a new forum post instead of dragging this one even further into the weeds.

Ive found the correct frequency setting.  462.725= channel 22.

 

The rest Im stuck.  

[SteveShannon]

37 minutes ago, OscarWillow76 said:

Ive found the correct frequency setting.  462.725= channel 22.

 

The rest Im stuck.  

So your radio receives on frequency 462.675 on two different channels.
One is the simplex channel 22. The simplex channel transmits and receives on the same frequency: 462.675 MHz.

The other is the repeater channel. The repeater channel receives on 462.675 MHz but transmits on a different frequency that’s 5 MHz higher, so 467.675 MHz. That’s so the repeater can receive and transmit simultaneously (which is called full duplex).

Unfortunately, different manufacturers choose different names for that repeater frequency. For one radio it might be called rp22. For another manufacturer it might be called 30. That’s where you have to read your manual to see what it’s called. 
You can hear the repeater on either channel because they both are the same frequency. But if you set a receive tone it must be correct or you’ll not hear the audio. For a complete beginner I usually recommend leaving the RX tone blank so you hear everything on the frequency. 
If you want to transmit to the frequency you must do two things: 

First, you must be on the repeater channel, not the simplex channel, and 

Second, you must have the TX tone right or the repeater will not pass your traffic from its receiver to its transmitter. 

Hopefully this gets you going. 

[OscarWillow76]

22 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

So your radio receives on frequency 462.675 on two different channels.
One is the simplex channel 22. The simplex channel transmits and receives on the same frequency: 462.675 MHz.

The other is the repeater channel. The repeater channel receives on 462.675 MHz but transmits on a different frequency that’s 5 MHz higher, so 467.675 MHz. That’s so the repeater can receive and transmit simultaneously (which is called full duplex).

Unfortunately, different manufacturers choose different names for that repeater frequency. For one radio it might be called rp22. For another manufacturer it might be called 30. That’s where you have to read your manual to see what it’s called. 
You can hear the repeater on either channel because they both are the same frequency. But if you set a receive tone it must be correct or you’ll not hear the audio. For a complete beginner I usually recommend leaving the RX tone blank so you hear everything on the frequency. 
If you want to transmit to the frequency you must do two things: 

First, you must be on the repeater channel, not the simplex channel, and 

Second, you must have the TX tone right or the repeater will not pass your traffic from its receiver to its transmitter. 

Hopefully this gets you going. 

The repeater I am trying to connect to is 462.725 MHz.  Then its 365 DPL Input Tone and 218.1 Hz Output Tone.

 

However Im not seeing privacy codes for the Rocky Talkie that match these numbers.   

 

 

 

 

[SteveShannon]

On 12/12/2024 at 1:55 PM, OscarWillow76 said:

The repeater I am trying to connect to is 462.725 MHz.  Then its 365 DPL Input Tone and 218.1 Hz Output Tone.

 

However Im not seeing privacy codes for the Rocky Talkie that match these numbers.   

Don't worry about the receive tone (output of the repeater).

Page 18 in the manual lists DCS code 365 as number 87. DCS is the same as DPL is the same as DTCSS, etc. 

If it doesn't say 365i (i for inverted) then it's assumed to be 365N (normal).