Using radio as repeater?

[Widowsson]

This may be a stupid question. Im finding conflicting info. My radio says it is repeater capable. Is it possible to use a GMRS radio as a personal repeater? For example: I have a radio, my friend has a radio and there is a radio in my truck. We both walk in separate directions away from the vehicle. Can the radio in the truck be used to repeat and transmit the message to my friend?

[WRPL700]

Probably not likely.

What repeater capable means is that if there is a repeater near you and if you set your radio up correctly, you can use your radio to talk through the repeater to another radio.

What radio do you have?

 

 

[Widowsson]

Thanks. I guess I assumed that all modern GMRS radios could talk to repeaters. I didnt think it would be something they would specifically push in advertising. I have Radioddity DB40G. It has a setting: "Repeater ON or OFF".  Why would you want to turn off the ability to talk to a repeater? Just a newbie trying to make sense of it all.

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, Widowsson said:

Thanks. I guess I assumed that all modern GMRS radios could talk to repeaters. I didnt think it would be something they would specifically push in advertising. I have Radioddity DB40G. It has a setting: "Repeater ON or OFF".  Why would you want to turn off the ability to talk to a repeater? Just a newbie trying to make sense of it all.

Not sure on that exact radio but from the ones I have used that have that option it turns off the 8 pre set repeater channels that have the off set already on.  Many many people do not use repeaters and do not need or want that function.  I would actually guess that most gmrs users do not use repeaters.    
 

how far away from your truck would you be that hand helds can’t make the trip?   
 

 

[WRWE456]

Not all GMRS radios can use repeaters.

[WRXB215]

I'm not familiar with this particular radio and not sure why it would be called "Repeater ON or OFF" but it sounds like it may be referring to the "talk around" feature available on many radios.

[WRPL700]

I just downloaded the manual and did a quick scan of it.  I cannot say what it does.  The manual is pretty skimpy on details.  I am thinking that maybe it has to do with allowing channels 15-22 to be enabled to use a repeater (+5Mhz)??? That would be very non-typical. Just not sure though.

 

[SteveShannon]

My favorite Garmin GMRS radio has a setting to enable the repeater channels.  When the setting is on, no digital data (GPS location and text messages) are sent. 

[WRQC527]

7 hours ago, Widowsson said:

This may be a stupid question. Im finding conflicting info. My radio says it is repeater capable. Is it possible to use a GMRS radio as a personal repeater?

"Repeater capable" means that your radio has channels set up that transmit on one frequency when you key the microphone and listen on another when you release it. Repeaters listen on one frequency and transmit what they hear on another frequency simultaneously so other radios like yours can hear you. This is a very high-level view of how repeaters work. There are endless YouTube videos that describe how repeaters work. I recommend that you search them out. Not all radios can access repeaters. They are only capable of simplex, which is when you and your friend transmit and receive on the same frequency. Your GMRS radio is repeater capable. But no, it can't be used as a repeater. Repeaters often have some rather complex, sometimes expensive components. That said, there are some amateur radios that are capable of being used as personal repeaters, but are well outside the scope of your question.

[Widowsson]

18 hours ago, WRXP381 said:

Not sure on that exact radio but from the ones I have used that have that option it turns off the 8 pre set repeater channels that have the off set already on.  Many many people do not use repeaters and do not need or want that function.  I would actually guess that most gmrs users do not use repeaters.    
 

how far away from your truck would you be that hand helds can’t make the trip?   
 

 

I was just using that as an example. I guess a better example would have been to say if the vehicle was on top of a mountain/hill and a person at the bottom of each side could talk through the radio in the vehicle to reach each other if the signal was blocked by the terrain.

17 hours ago, WRPL700 said:

I just downloaded the manual and did a quick scan of it.  I cannot say what it does.  The manual is pretty skimpy on details.  I am thinking that maybe it has to do with allowing channels 15-22 to be enabled to use a repeater (+5Mhz)??? That would be very non-typical. Just not sure though.

 

Thanks. Yeah, the manual is terrible. As a newbie it hasnt helped me at all. A list of the obvious functions but absolutely no description of what they are or how to use them. I have a uv-9g (decent manual) that I have got a pretty good grasp on so far but if I would have started with the DB-40G it would have been a nightmare.

11 hours ago, WRQC527 said:

"Repeater capable" means that your radio has channels set up that transmit on one frequency when you key the microphone and listen on another when you release it. Repeaters listen on one frequency and transmit what they hear on another frequency simultaneously so other radios like yours can hear you. This is a very high-level view of how repeaters work. There are endless YouTube videos that describe how repeaters work. I recommend that you search them out. Not all radios can access repeaters. They are only capable of simplex, which is when you and your friend transmit and receive on the same frequency. Your GMRS radio is repeater capable. But no, it can't be used as a repeater. Repeaters often have some rather complex, sometimes expensive components. That said, there are some amateur radios that are capable of being used as personal repeaters, but are well outside the scope of your question.

I am able to connect to a local repeater. Its tx/rx tone are the same and its transmit/receive frequency are also the same. However there is another local repeater I was granted access to that has different frequencies for transmit/receive. I cannot figure this out. Also the receive frequency is 467.6250 which is not a frequency in the available channels. Totally lost.

[Widowsson]

16 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

My favorite Garmin GMRS radio has a setting to enable the repeater channels.  When the setting is on, no digital data (GPS location and text messages) are sent. 

Does this radio connect through a node? Is that why it would transmit GPS data?

[WRUU653]

5 minutes ago, Widowsson said:

am able to connect to a local repeater. Its tx/rx tone are the same and its transmit/receive frequency are also the same. However there is another local repeater I was granted access to that has different frequencies for transmit/receive. I cannot figure this out. Also the receive frequency is 467.6250 which is not a frequency in the available channels. Totally lost.

The transmit and receive are on the same repeater channel but not the same frequency. Repeater channels on GMRS have a preset (automatic)+5 offset. So in this case your radio is transmitting on 467.625 (which is the repeaters receive) and receiving on 462.625. 

[Widowsson]

10 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:

The transmit and receive are on the same repeater channel but not the same frequency. Repeater channels on GMRS have a preset (automatic)+5 offset. So in this case your radio is transmitting on 467.625 (which is the repeaters receive) and receiving on 462.625. 

Thanks for the reply. So when the repeater owner said: "TX for the repeater is 462.6250 and the RX is 467.6250", this means that the repeater transmits on 462.6250 and receives on 467.6250? So, I set my radio to the the channel that corresponds to frequency 462.6250 and set the tones and I should be good? Or am I missing something?

[WRYZ926]

14 minutes ago, Widowsson said:

Thanks for the reply. So when the repeater owner said: "TX for the repeater is 462.6250 and the RX is 467.6250", this means that the repeater transmits on 462.6250 and receives on 467.6250? So, I set my radio to the the channel that corresponds to frequency 462.6250 and set the tones and I should be good? Or am I missing something?

You will want your radio to TX on 467.625 and RX on 462.625. You will use the correct repeater channel which will be listed on your radio as either repeater 18 or some radios list it as channel 26. Either way make sure to use the repeater channel so that your radio is transmitting on 467.625 and receiving on 462.625

[WRUU653]

1 hour ago, Widowsson said:

Thanks for the reply. So when the repeater owner said: "TX for the repeater is 462.6250 and the RX is 467.6250", this means that the repeater transmits on 462.6250 and receives on 467.6250? So, I set my radio to the the channel that corresponds to frequency 462.6250 and set the tones and I should be good? Or am I missing something?

You got it.