Hitting repeaters

[WSCR610]

To start out with I'm new to GMRS, I'm running a hand held unit with an outside antenna. Running a magnet mount, with a perfect match,. attached to a metal pole in the air about 20 ft. I'm unable to to get to any repeaters, is it due to the hand held or I'm missing something. 

[OffRoaderX]

it is impossible for anyone to answer that question with the scant details you have provided, but here are some things to consider:

• You might just be too far away to hit the repeater or there may be something (mountain, forrest, etc) blocking the signal
• The repeater might be offline
• You might have the wrong tone
• You might have the wrong frequency
• You might have the right tone and/or frequency but may have programmed them wrong
• Probably 1,000,000 other things i'm not thinking of

 

[dosw]

With no tones programmed, can you hear the repeaters? Set your handheld on one repeater output frequency with a cheap vox / voice activated recorder attached, and come back in a few hours. Did anyone identify using a GMRS call sign? Hearing activity is the first step.

[OffRoaderX]

41 minutes ago, WRQW589 said:

Set your handheld on one repeater output frequency with a cheap vox / voice activated recorder attached

Considering that the very first 6 words of his post were "To start out with I'm new to GMRS"  I am going to guess he has no idea what you are saying.. But thats just a guess.

The moral of the story: Know your audience..

 

 

[WRQC527]

1 hour ago, WSCR610 said:

To start out with I'm new to GMRS, I'm running a hand held unit with an outside antenna. Running a magnet mount, with a perfect match,. attached to a metal pole in the air about 20 ft. I'm unable to to get to any repeaters, is it due to the hand held or I'm missing something. 

A few other questions: What make and model of antenna and radio, how is the antenna mounted, (you say it's a mag mount on a metal pole, perhaps a photograph to show us how), what kind of coax (RG-58, RG-8X, RG-8, LMR-400, that kind of thing.) 

[WSCR610]

  Most of my equipment is pretty old stuff the cable i'm running is rg-58 100ft to an Nagoya attached to 20ft.  pole in the air, all coming back to a radioddity GM 30 

With any luck I ordered a gound plane it should be coming soon, waiting on snail mail.

 

[SteveShannon]

8 minutes ago, WSCR610 said:

  Most of my equipment is pretty old stuff the cable i'm running is rg-58 100ft to an Nagoya attached to 20ft.  pole in the air, all coming back to a radioddity GM 30 

With any luck I ordered a gound plane it should be coming soon, waiting on snail mail.

 

The antenna might be a problem, but 100 feet of rg58 is a worse problem at uhf frequencies. Less than a tenth of your power ever makes it to the antenna.

[dosw]

4 minutes ago, WSCR610 said:

  Most of my equipment is pretty old stuff the cable i'm running is rg-58 100ft to an Nagoya attached to 20ft.  pole in the air, all coming back to a radioddity GM 30 

With any luck I ordered a gound plane it should be coming soon, waiting on snail mail.

 

100 feet of RG58 could be an issue. You can buy 100 feet of LMR400 and have far less signal loss than with RG58. I'm in the process of assembling the parts to put a GMRS antenna on a sailboat mast, and even though it's rather thick and heavy, went with LMR400 to avoid losing all the gain the antenna produces over the course of a 50 foot run. RG58 will have an attenuation of approximately 10.6db at 100 feet, whereas LMR400 will have an attenuation of approximately 2.7db. It's unfortunate to lose most of the benefit of an antenna through the coax.

[WSCR610]

Hey thanks guys this is what I have been looking for someone to tell me what to do on uhf if you can't tell I'm coming over from the other lower band.