GMRS base station and FRS HTs

[Guest GarrettE]

I have a Midland MXT 105 GMRS base station and two Retco 15 FRS handhelds. i have powered up  the MXT 105 with the mobile antenna on my car, but I cannot communicate between the handhelds and the base. Is there something I don't know about GMRS?

[WRXP381]

   are the tones cleared or turned off on all radios?   Some cheap bubble packs have tones pre set.  Some radios need to be 30,40,60 feet apart although I’ve never actually hade this problem.  I’d say the next step once this all gets cleared up may be to get out from under the midland and bubble packs and get into some good radios that won’t have these issues. For the price of that midland you could have purchased a good 20w radio.   And as for the retco15? Radios I’ve never heard of them. Do you have a link?  
 

all gmrs/FRS share the same frequencies so what’s left is proprietary tones or junk radios or some other issue that could be solved with better equipment that is the same price or possible less money. 

[WRWE456]

Channels 8-14 are not available for GMRS mobile radios to use(though it may be able to hear them). Try 1-7 and 15-22 check that all "privacy" tones are off. Read the manuals to find out how.

[dosw]

The RT15 handheld Retevis FRS radios state in their marketing literature that you can communicate with other 22-channel radios on channels 1-5. That tells me that other channels probably have squelch tones set that would prevent you being able to hear other radios on anything above channel 5 (unless you happen to figure out what tone is set in those radios).

 

Set the RT15 FRS radios to channel 1.

Set the MXT105 to channel 1 with no tones set (this should be the default configuration unless you've changed something).

Now they both should be able to hear each other. And they should work compatibly on channels 1-5.

[Guest JWL]

FRS radios can't connect to repeaters. You will need to buy GMRS radios, like Baofeng GM-15 Pro. You can get 2 radios for 60.00 bucks on Amazon. 

[amaff]

23 minutes ago, Guest JWL said:

FRS radios can't connect to repeaters. You will need to buy GMRS radios, like Baofeng GM-15 Pro. You can get 2 radios for 60.00 bucks on Amazon. 

They're not trying to connect to a repeater. FRS radios absolutely can talk to a mobile GMRS radio if they're set up correctly.

My bet is the Midland has some tones pre-set that it's listening for and the FRS radios don't. Or vice versa.

 

Edit: oh hell they're Retevis radios. Retevis LOOOOVES pre-programming its radios with tones. If the walkies can talk amongst themselves but can't hear the mobile radio, my guess is that is the problem. But on the bright side, their manual is also terrible

 

[amaff]

Apparently there is programming software for these. It doesn't LOOK like you can change the tones from the face of the radio, but this would do it. Alternately, it'll give you some idea of what tones are set.

If you watch their video, when they read from the radio to the software, EVERY channel has tones set. I have no idea why they do this.

 

[AdmiralCochrane]

Or program the 105 to the pre-programmed tones on the RT15's

[Alec]

I agree with the previous posts that the most probable culprit is that the RT15 radios are using CTCSS or DCS Codes (see page 6 of your RT15 manual - I found it on the Retevis website here: Retevis RT15 Mini Lightweight FRS for Business Radio, usb charging, license free walkie talkie).

Page 1 of that RT15 manual shows a diagram of the radio and according to that diagram the radio has a "Monitor" button on the side just below the PTT key.  If you long press that button, it should, temporarily bypass any pre-programmed CTCSS/DCS tone code squelch.  So, if you have all radios on the same channel (avoid channels 8-14 as your base station probably will not transmit on those channels) then long press that Monitor button on the RT15 while you transmit on the Midland GMRS base station and you hear the base station radio transmission come thru the speaker on the RT15 you will have pretty much confirmed that the issue is that your RT15 FRS radios have factory pre-programmed CTCSS or DCS Codes enabled.  To solve this issue, you will need to reprogram these RT15 FRS radios to remove the use of CTCSS/DCS tone codes. 

As has been suggested by @AdmiralCochrane, you could also program your Midland 105 base radio to use the same CTCSS/DCS codes as the RT15 are using, but personally, I would not recommend that approach as doing so will limit your ability to communicate with others.

Hope that helps. 

[LeoG]

Or you can put the tones on the base station.