Repeater permission?????

[WSDE681]

Live in the mountains so trying to get access to repeaters. New to GMRS and bought two Wouxun HT radios.

Sent requests to several owners but getting no response...

Any suggestions?  

John in Cloudcroft, NM

 

[WRQD922]

How long ago did you make the request ?  You have to give them some time. Maybe a few days or more. Good luck and enjoy GMRS.

[Guest]

If gmrs communication is important for safety you should consider a base station at the house with hood coax and a good antenna up as high as possible to supplement your hts 

[GreggInFL]

It can take a long time for some owners to respond.  Some never respond; people are busy, I get that.  Unfortunately, it looks like the one closest to you is "Permission only".  When did you submit your request(s)?

If I were the owner I would be fine with someone keying up and 1) IDing themselves, 2) verbally requesting permission and then 3) remaining silent.  But that's me.

[dosw]

If you know the frequency of the repeaters you're interested in gaining access to, you might try keeping your radio tuned to one or two of them (if it's dual-watch) in the evenings. Popular "net" times in my area seem to be evenings between 7pm and 9:30pm, and Sundays around 4-8pm. I know that's a lot of time to cover, but if you can just leave the radio on as you go about your day, you might hear a net start up. It's common during weekly nets for the net control operator to ask if there are any visitors wanting to check in. That's your invitation to state your call sign and introduce yourself, even if you haven't officially been granted access. And at that point you can ask what is needed to gain permission to use the repeater.

 

If there are no nets, and the owner never responds to your request on mygmrs.com, but you DO know the CTCSS or DCS tone for the repeater, you can listen for traffic, and if you find someone having an idle conversation, wait your turn, and then state your call sign and ask how you might gain approval to use the repeater. If they tell you you're not welcome, you just apologize and go on with life.  If someone announces their call sign and states "monitoring", that's also a way that people say they're looking for conversation. You can say "<your call sign> here, my name is <first name> from <city name>. I wanted to inquire about how to get approved to use this repeater.", and just see what happens. If you are polite, they may get you hooked up. Or they may tell you to not use the repeater, but it's worth a try.

[WRYC373]

If repeater access is a big issue for you then I would put up my own, or if cost prohibitive I would at least setup a high antenna and base station.