Newb here in GA.

[ROBV60schwifty]

Just got my license and am awaiting my radios. Hope to get on the air soon and check things out. I have a general access question regarding north Georgia: Does anyone have trouble connecting and using various open repeaters throughout the state? Given that most of the repeaters I see on the map are behind a pay wall, how is the reception throughout the state when using open repeaters? Do they get drowned out by the more powerful, far-reaching, membership-driven systems? Im not too keen on paying a yearly fee to use GMRS airwaves as a subscription service, that's why I have a cell phone. But, If I must....

[WRXB215]

Welcome to GMRS. Can't say concerning repeaters in Georgia. I live in Texas and most repeaters here (both GMRS and ham) are free to use. Repeaters that cost are not necessarily better or more powerful that the free ones. None of them (GMRS) can be more than 50W anyway. There is a real good chance that the free ones are just as good in most cases and the paid ones.

[ROBV60schwifty]

Im not really concerned about the quality of the free ones, just whether or not they get "overtaken" by the more powerful ones, that I can't access without buying a membership. Seems there is an organization in GA who have a lot of repeaters, covering the vast majority of the northern part of the state, that restrict access via a membership. My understanding is that they may be using most of the available 8 repeater channels. Maybe Im thinking about this wrong, I am quite green with all this. 

[Sshannon]

20 minutes ago, ROBV60schwifty said:

Im not really concerned about the quality of the free ones, just whether or not they get "overtaken" by the more powerful ones, that I can't access without buying a membership. Seems there is an organization in GA who have a lot of repeaters, covering the vast majority of the northern part of the state, that restrict access via a membership. My understanding is that they may be using most of the available 8 repeater channels. Maybe Im thinking about this wrong, I am quite green with all this. 

The repeaters, tower space, utilities, and  real estate, whether rented or purchased, all cost the owner money. They’re allowed to charge enough to cover their costs but not to make a profitable business out of it. 
People who incur those costs and then freely share their repeaters with others deserve a higher place in heaven. 

[WRXB215]

44 minutes ago, ROBV60schwifty said:

Im not really concerned about the quality of the free ones, just whether or not they get "overtaken" by the more powerful ones

Are you sure the paid ones are more powerful? Remember, GMRS is restricted to a maximum of 50W.

[ROBV60schwifty]

I don't really have an issue with them charging, its their equipment, I just don't necessarily want to be compelled to join because I cant connect to anything else in the area because someone may be monopolizing the channels. Doesn't really matter all that much, as I only got into GMRS mainly for emergency simplex communication, but it would be nice to, say,  get some traffic updates or something like that when Im in the car, that might require connecting to a repeater, from time to time. I imagine it wont be an issue if the repeaters don't overlap and/or they use different tones.    ....?

[Sshannon]

26 minutes ago, ROBV60schwifty said:

I don't really have an issue with them charging, its their equipment, I just don't necessarily want to be compelled to join because I cant connect to anything else in the area because someone may be monopolizing the channels. Doesn't really matter all that much, as I only got into GMRS mainly for emergency simplex communication, but it would be nice to, say,  get some traffic updates or something like that when Im in the car, that might require connecting to a repeater, from time to time. I imagine it wont be an issue if the repeaters don't overlap and/or they use different tones.    ....?

If the frequencies are different they shouldn’t interfere with each other. 
Two nearby repeaters on the same frequency could cause interference with each other regardless of whether they have different tones. Tones don’t prevent interference. 
 

[ROBV60schwifty]

I see, thank you for the clarification. 

[ROBV60schwifty]

4 hours ago, Sshannon said:

The repeaters, tower space, utilities, and  real estate, whether rented or purchased, all cost the owner money. They’re allowed to charge enough to cover their costs but not to make a profitable business out of it. 
People who incur those costs and then freely share their repeaters with others deserve a higher place in heaven. 

I've no idea how much it costs to maintain a network like theirs, I imagine its quite expensive. I do know they said they had 400 new subscribers last year, according to a video from 3 months ago. So, 400 users times $90/year is a pretty good chunk of change, ( not counting existing users, the website says they have 550 active, not sure if that includes the 400 new ones or what the total is of active/non-active. ) but when they say it costs ~$9000 just to install and support ONE repeater site, that $36k from the 400 new members would only support 4 of their 29 sites! So, I certainly get the need and desire to charge for access. I wish it were a little more affordable for ME, though, haha. I mean its only $7.50/month but with my lack of travel and there being a good, available and open repeater just 6 miles down the road from me, I don't know that I can justify it, yet. I'm cheap.  As I travel more, It may be worth it going forward just to have the access because their coverage is quite extensive.

[ROBV60schwifty]

On 3/12/2024 at 1:33 PM, WRXB215 said:

Are you sure the paid ones are more powerful? Remember, GMRS is restricted to a maximum of 50W.

Maybe I should not define it as "more powerful," but rather, "greater range/higher elevation/LOS"   ...?

[WRVR303]

So I'm a member of the NGGMRS network, because getting access to 20 linked, professionaly designed and maintained repeaters, covering a few thousand square miles for around $90 a year is one heck of a bargain in my book!

[ROBV60schwifty]

On 3/15/2024 at 4:10 PM, WRVR303 said:

So I'm a member of the NGGMRS network, 

Im about this close to joining ->||. I have been able to hear traffic from their repeaters from pretty far away on my HT, and was able to listen in on the Net the other night. Right now, funds are going to a base station antenna/setup.

[WRKW564]

I too am a member of the NGGMRS network and find it is definately worth the membership fee to have access. Network is not over used so there is plenty of time for you to check in or make contact with friends on the net. I have a home station but find using my HT from my couch works just as good on the repeater for weekly check ins.