Need Step by Step

[jwsmith2316]

Ok, as you can tell I'm new to GMRS. I desperately want to learn how to connect to a repeater so I can reach a broader audience. I have a Baofeng GMRS-9R handheld. Here is a repeater I would like to connect with once I have permission:

Can you give me a step by step on what I need to program my radio?  Please don't assume I know much cause I don't. 

 

I will be so grateful for any help.

Thank you

John Smith

WRZU215

[WRXB215]

@jwsmith2316 Welcome to GMRS. It may feel like drinking from a fire hose at first but be patient, you will get it just like the rest of us. Mark has a video for learning GMRS. I don't have the link handy but I bet someone will chime is soon with it.

A few points up front:

• Channels 1-22 are "simplex" which means sending(TX) and receiving(RX) on the same frequency.
• Channels 23+ are usually "duplex" which means TX on one frequency and (RX) on another. You will use this for repeaters. (+5MHz offset for GMRS but your GMRS radio should already do this for you.)
• PL tones aren't private, they just filter out any signal that doesn't have the same tone. You will usually use this for repeaters.
• Split tones just means a different tone for TX and RX. Some repeaters use this, most use the same for TX and RX.

Hopefully this background info will help you understand everything else you read.

[jwsmith2316]

Thank you so much. You have helped a great deal!

[UpperBucks]

3 hours ago, jwsmith2316 said:

Ok, as you can tell I'm new to GMRS. I desperately want to learn how to connect to a repeater so I can reach a broader audience. I have a Baofeng GMRS-9R handheld. Here is a repeater I would like to connect with once I have permission:

Can you give me a step by step on what I need to program my radio?  Please don't assume I know much cause I don't. 

 

I will be so grateful for any help.

Thank you

John Smith

WRZU215

OK, let's start with - what is the brand and model of your radio? Because there are different ways to program radios, and sadly, some GMRS radios do not have the capability to do more than talk directly to other radios - repeater capability is not in all GMRS radios.

[UpperBucks]

How Repeaters Work - For Absolute Beginners.

First, let me give a tiny lesson in radio stuff.

Megahertz does not mean "really painful".
If you have an FM radio in your car or home, you already know what "frequencies" are - for example, in the USA, you might have a radio station like "102.3 FM - Dance Hits of the 1780's!" - the "102.3" - that's not just a number, that number is the radio frequency used by that station. In "radio" terms, 102.3 is one-hundred two point three megahertz - we abbreviate "Megahertz" as Mhz because who wants to type "megahertz" all the time? So FM radio stations are 103.3Mhz, or 101.1Mhz and so on.

There are lots and lots of different types of radios and they all have their own set of frequencies. For example, your FM radio can tune to 108Mhz....but there's lots of stuff after that. You've got Airplanes and Air Navigation starting just after the FM band - 108Mhz to 137Mhz - there's lots of other stuff higher than that.

GMRS radios are in the 462Mhz and 467Mhz band.

GMRS is Line-of-Sight. Sort of. Usually. Well, its complicated.

Many kinds of radio signals, including GMRS radio,  travel in a "line of sight" fashion, which means if there are obstructions that are not completely or somewhat transparent to radio waves between two radios, the signal won't get through. "NOW WAIT A MINUTE.." you're telling me, "I USED MY RADIO IN THE BASEMENT TO TELL MY WIFE UPSTAIRS I WAS USING THE RADIO, AND IT WORKED JUST FINE!!"
Well, it's complicated, but think of it this way - there can be small reflections and refraction of the radio waves, and in the same way you can tell that someone left the light on in the kitchen when you're in another room of the house, a radio signal can - and does - reach around (or, since it's not LIGHT) through some objects. But it's important to know that if two radios that are far apart can't "see" one another, they can't "hear" one another.

OK now you are a radio expert. Let's move on to Repeaters.

Ralph and Joe are out Lake Big in their boats, and they are about 3 miles apart. They both agreed to tune their nice new GMRS radios to "Channel 3" (which is 462.6125Mhz on most radios.) They check in via their radios now and then, and all is well with the world. They go home.

The next day, Ralph is out on Lake Big, and Joe is on Lake Small, which is on the other side of a huge hill.
They are still only 3 miles apart, but there's this huge hill that blocks their radio signal.
Joe, from Lake Small, calls Ralph, on Lake Big,  over and over on 462.6125 (called "Channel 3" on their radios), to no avail.

Ralph and Joe know a guy named Bob. 

Bob lives on top of the big hill. From his place on top of the hill, Bob can see both Lake Big and Lake Small.

Bob also has a GMRS radio, and he tunes it to 462.6125 (Channel 3) and he hears Joe calling Ralph.

Bob radios back to Joe - "Hey, I think Ralph is on Lake Big today"

Ralph, from his boat on Lake Big, says, "Hey, Bob, I can hear you! Please tell Joe I'm on Lake Big right now!"

Bob repeats what Joe told him, "Joe, Ralph is on Lake Big right now."

Joe replies, "Bob, please tell Ralph I will meet him at McStarbucks at 3PM"

Bob repeats what Joe said, "Ralph, Joe says meet him at McStarbucks at 3PM"

This goes on for a while, until Bob gets tired of listening to them and repeating what they said.

Now, let's replace Bob with a "Repeater" and you have the basic idea - a "Repeater" can "hear" (receive) many radios that can't hear one another easily.

Repeaters also can "talk" (transmit) back to all the radios that can hear the repeater. This is typically because they are positioned in a place that is high up and has "line of sight" to a wider area than a radio down low on the ground.

With a repeater system, your radio is set up with a "Talk" frequency that the repeater is listening to, and a "listen" frequency that the repeater is transmitting on.
There are various important reasons why the repeater INPUT is different than the repeater OUTPUT, but basically, a repeater-capable radio means that it can talk on one frequency and listen on another. As an end-user, all you really care about is the "listen" frequency, the radio is programmed with the correct transmit frequency (which is 5Mhz higher than the listen frequency.

I'll keep going with more Repeater Basics if anyone cares to learn about "Privacy Codes" (they do not make your conversations private) and how they work.

 

 

[WSAG845]

Like @jwsmith2316, I'm a full-on GMRS newbie! @UpperBucks, thanks so much for that post! 

I've been researching a lot and I've (I think) successfully connected my BTECH GMRS-V2 radio to a repeater (BRIDGEPORT 700) after requesting/receiving approval. I'm now trying to communicate between my two radios, but I'm not hearing my own transmission. My setup:

• Both of my radios are connected to the repeater using the same settings (screenshot of my setup in CHIRP). (Summary of setup: T-CTCS is enabled and set to 77.0Hz)
• Both my radios are in the same location (at my home).

Should I now be able to just operate the radios in the same manner as in simplex mode (i.e. just push-to-talk and hear the transmission on other BTECH GMRS-V2)?

Thanks in advance!

[WRXB215]

52 minutes ago, WSAG845 said:

Should I now be able to just operate the radios in the same manner as in simplex mode (i.e. just push-to-talk and hear the transmission on other BTECH GMRS-V2)?

No programming required to do that. Just select the same simplex channel (1-22) for both radios and talk. Of course they need to be some distance apart to prevent that old desense thing from happening.

[WSAG845]

12 minutes ago, WRXB215 said:

No programming required to do that. Just select the same simplex channel (1-22) for both radios and talk. Of course they need to be some distance apart to prevent that old desense thing from happening.

Thanks @WRXB215! I just researched "desense" so now I'm (loosely/kinda) schooled on that .

My goal for current testing purposes is to communicate from one of my radios to the other of my radios, all via the repeater. The repeater frequency is 462.700 MHz, which translates to Repeater Channel 21, so I thought each of my radios needed to be set to Repeater Channel 21, not simplex Channel 21.

[WRXB215]

@WSAG845 My apologies, I misread your question. Yes, same repeater channel for both or same simplex channel for both.

[WSAG845]

13 minutes ago, WRXB215 said:

@WSAG845 My apologies, I misread your question. Yes, same repeater channel for both or same simplex channel for both.

@WRXB215 If there's little to no chatter (i.e. I'm not interrupting anyone), when I'm testing by calling from one of my radios to the other (via the repeater), what's the best etiquette for this? Meaning, should I say "WSAG845 doing a self test between two of my own radios" or something like "Matt for Carson" (Carson has my other radio) and Carson responds with "Carson copies. Hello Matt"? Just trying to get to know the basics and etiquette basics.

Note, I did do a radio check on the Repeater Channel 21 ("WSAG845 looking for a radio check"), but no one spoke back. However,  did get a static response, which I believe validates that I am connected?

[UpperBucks]

5 hours ago, WSAG845 said:

Like @jwsmith2316, I'm a full-on GMRS newbie! @UpperBucks, thanks so much for that post! 

I've been researching a lot and I've (I think) successfully connected my BTECH GMRS-V2 radio to a repeater (BRIDGEPORT 700) after requesting/receiving approval. I'm now trying to communicate between my two radios, but I'm not hearing my own transmission. My setup:

• Both of my radios are connected to the repeater using the same settings (screenshot of my setup in CHIRP). (Summary of setup: T-CTCS is enabled and set to 77.0Hz)
• Both my radios are in the same location (at my home).

Should I now be able to just operate the radios in the same manner as in simplex mode (i.e. just push-to-talk and hear the transmission on other BTECH GMRS-V2)?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, although your radio is going to Transmit on 467.7000 and the repeater will "hear" that and retransmit it OUT on 462.7000 - so the radios are NOT directly talking to one another.

[WSAG845]

38 minutes ago, UpperBucks said:

Yes, although your radio is going to Transmit on 467.7000 and the repeater will "hear" that and retransmit it OUT on 462.7000 - so the radios are NOT directly talking to one another.

Thanks @UpperBucks! Maybe I'm not hearing the transmissions because of the desense-ing (?) so I'll get some distance between my two radios and try again.

[WRXB215]

@WSAG845 

Matt: Carson do you copy?

Carson: Read you loud and clear.

Of coarse use your call sign as well.

You can also ask for a 5 count or something like that.

[WRQC527]

8 hours ago, WSAG845 said:

Both of my radios are connected to the repeater

Just to be clear, your radios are not actually connected to the repeater. They are configured in such a way to activate, so to speak, the repeater when you press the push-to-talk button and hear it when you release the push-to-talk. And yes, if the radios are close together, pressing the push-to-talk on one radio can desense the other and you probably won't hear anything but noise. Like when your significant other is talking loud while you're trying to watch the 49ers spank the Lions. The whole reason for repeaters is to enable communication between two or more radios that are far apart or blocked by terrain or other obstacles and unable to communicate via simplex.

[UpperBucks]

20 hours ago, WSAG845 said:

Thanks @WRXB215! I just researched "desense" so now I'm (loosely/kinda) schooled on that .

My goal for current testing purposes is to communicate from one of my radios to the other of my radios, all via the repeater. The repeater frequency is 462.700 MHz, which translates to Repeater Channel 21, so I thought each of my radios needed to be set to Repeater Channel 21, not simplex Channel 21.

DESENSE: You have a screaming toddler (your radio) in the room and now you can't hear the TV (your other radio).

 

[UpperBucks]

16 hours ago, WSAG845 said:

Thanks @UpperBucks! Maybe I'm not hearing the transmissions because of the desense-ing (?) so I'll get some distance between my two radios and try again.

De-sense Likely the problem - this is the price we pay for the cheaper radios, they are less "precise" in their build and more susceptible to all sorts of interference, including the interference from a nearby radio. 
Really, if you don't NEED the repeater, there's no reason to add that complexity. The only time I use a repeater is if I literally can't do simplex (radio-to-radio direct)

[WSAG845]

On 2/1/2024 at 11:20 PM, WRQC527 said:

Just to be clear, your radios are not actually connected to the repeater. They are configured in such a way to activate, so to speak, the repeater when you press the push-to-talk button and hear it when you release the push-to-talk. And yes, if the radios are close together, pressing the push-to-talk on one radio can desense the other and you probably won't hear anything but noise. Like when your significant other is talking loud while you're trying to watch the 49ers spank the Lions. The whole reason for repeaters is to enable communication between two or more radios that are far apart or blocked by terrain or other obstacles and unable to communicate via simplex.

All makes sense! And...great analogy!