WSFA200 Posted October 10 Report Share Posted October 10 Hello everyone. I’m new to this, and I’m really looking forward to learning what I can about this hobby. Been watching for a while now, and decided to try this out after going to graves mountain outside Charlottesville, VA. No cell phones out there and our crowd got lost… so here I sit with these BAOFENG GM15Pro radios, and I get decent reception but I’m not sure I’m doing it right. In and around Stafford, I can hear people 30 miles away (around the Beltway in DC). My question is, how can I hear them, but not able to speak back. How do they have so much range, and I can not get out the driveway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveShannon Posted October 10 Report Share Posted October 10 4 minutes ago, WSFA200 said: Hello everyone. I’m new to this, and I’m really looking forward to learning what I can about this hobby. Been watching for a while now, and decided to try this out after going to graves mountain outside Charlottesville, VA. No cell phones out there and our crowd got lost… so here I sit with these BAOFENG GM15Pro radios, and I get decent reception but I’m not sure I’m doing it right. In and around Stafford, I can hear people 30 miles away (around the Beltway in DC). My question is, how can I hear them, but not able to speak back. How do they have so much range, and I can not get out the driveway? You might not be sending the tone needed to open the repeater, or You might be transmitting on one of the simplex channels rather than the corresponding repeater channel, or You’re transmitting with 5 watts and a rubber duck antenna from your driveway and transmissions of the people you are hearing are being retransmitted at 50 watts by a repeater from a high gain antenna that’s 300 feet in the air, or All of the above. kirk5056, WRXB215, RayDiddio and 2 others 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socalgmrs Posted October 10 Report Share Posted October 10 So a 5w hand held may or may not be able to communicate 30miles. Depends on many things including the antenna. Also most likely they are on a repeater. You would need to program a repeater and access tones to be able to talk into the repeater. And be close enough to it to transmit in. WRHS218 and WSFA200 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WRXB215 Posted October 10 Report Share Posted October 10 Also, be aware that repeaters have a 467.### input and a 462.### output. The repeater output frequency matches up with a simplex frequency. As a result, you can here repeater traffic on certain simplex channels. Don't try to program a simplex channel (1-22) to access a repeater. It must be the appropriate repeater channel (23+) which will have the appropriate +5 offset. WRHS218 and WSFA200 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSFA200 Posted October 10 Author Report Share Posted October 10 So, update. With the rubber duck, on a BAOFENG gm15Pro, I was able to reach the repeater 13 miles away, and speak to someone who was about 17 miles from that location RayDiddio 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayDiddio Posted October 10 Report Share Posted October 10 23 minutes ago, WSFA200 said: So, update. With the rubber duck, on a BAOFENG gm15Pro, I was able to reach the repeater 13 miles away, and speak to someone who was about 17 miles from that location Awesome. Good you got that sorted out. Welcome to the hobby and the forum! WSFA200 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socalgmrs Posted October 10 Report Share Posted October 10 42 minutes ago, WSFA200 said: So, update. With the rubber duck, on a BAOFENG gm15Pro, I was able to reach the repeater 13 miles away, and speak to someone who was about 17 miles from that location Good deal. Great to hear. WSFA200 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrikeRadio Posted October 10 Report Share Posted October 10 1 hour ago, WSFA200 said: So, update. With the rubber duck, on a BAOFENG gm15Pro, I was able to reach the repeater 13 miles away, and speak to someone who was about 17 miles from that location Excellent! Yep you never know until you actually try. Glad it is working for you! WSFA200 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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