handheld picks up local reciever great but cannot transmit

[WSEZ714]

I'm very new to gmrs and I have been learning a little as I go. I want to eventually get a mobile unit that can hybrid between vehicle and home. I hooked my uv9g up to a Nagoya magnetic antenna and it picks up the same as the rubber duckies it came with. However I have no better transmission. The repeater in the area stays pretty busy in the afternoon and I have no issues picking it up at my house or at my mom's which is technically line of sight closer. I have put the input tone of 143.2 into the radio on t-ctcs and even had it in the r-ctcs but no luck either way. Looking for advice. 

[SteveShannon]

45 minutes ago, WSEZ714 said:

I'm very new to gmrs and I have been learning a little as I go. I want to eventually get a mobile unit that can hybrid between vehicle and home. I hooked my uv9g up to a Nagoya magnetic antenna and it picks up the same as the rubber duckies it came with. However I have no better transmission. The repeater in the area stays pretty busy in the afternoon and I have no issues picking it up at my house or at my mom's which is technically line of sight closer. I have put the input tone of 143.2 into the radio on t-ctcs and even had it in the r-ctcs but no luck either way. Looking for advice. 

Are you on the repeater channel on your handheld or one of the simplex channels?  They both receive on the same frequency but the repeater channel transmits on a different frequency. 

[WRXB215]

How and where is the antenna mounted?

[Guest]

How far is the repeater from your location.  Like already stated are you On a repeater channel with an off sett?

[WSEZ714]

Thanks for the quick replies I was on a simplex channel. I see the rptr channels on there now didn't realize it made a difference. In terms of antenna I have it mounted on my truck and had it mounted on my metal roof testing as well. I'm about 13 miles from the tower. I'll try the repeater channel and offset when I get back home. I appreciate you all like I said I'm pretty green with this stuff. 

[WRYZ926]

Also make sure to have the correct tone set on your radio for transmit if the repeater is using tones. You can leave your receive tones off for now. You can hear the repeater with no receive tone set but the repeater will not hear you if it is using tones and you do not have your transmit tone set.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, WSEZ714 said:

Thanks for the quick replies I was on a simplex channel. I see the rptr channels on there now didn't realize it made a difference. In terms of antenna I have it mounted on my truck and had it mounted on my metal roof testing as well. I'm about 13 miles from the tower. I'll try the repeater channel and offset when I get back home. I appreciate you all like I said I'm pretty green with this stuff. 

This is a common issue.   The instructions most likely covered this as well as the info you promised you read when you signed up for your gmrs license.   Find some time to read up on repeaters and how they work. It’s a 5min read but will help greatly in understanding and programming repeaters. 

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, Socalgmrs said:

This is a common issue.   The instructions most likely covered this as well as the info you promised you read when you signed up for your gmrs license.   Find some time to read up on repeaters and how they work. It’s a 5min read but will help greatly in understanding and programming repeaters. 

Quit lecturing people on “the info you promised you’d read”.  The information on the license says absolutely nothing about repeaters and your comment is not helpful to anyone.

[WSEZ714]

That's where I was confused because on the simplex channel grms19 I had the tone programmed in for t-ctcs for the repeater but I understand now why it wouldn't work that way. It called for an input of 141.3hz so I had it as the t-ctcs. I understand they take in a signal and bounce it back but didn't know how to set up the handheld. The manual is very lacking as it doesn't say you can't use the regular grms19 channel. I appreciate everyone's time. I'll holler back next week if I cant get it work still. 

[AndyOnTheRadio]

@WSEZ714 I am in the same boat as you are. I have the 9G and the UT-72G. I can hear crystal clear on several repeaters, but people say my signal is week and I'm hard to hear.

Chances are you have programmed your radio right, it's just that no one can hear you to respond. It's frustrating.

Can anyone point us to a video or article on how to boost your transmit on a handheld? If I find something, I'll share.

 

[AdmiralCochrane]

Antenna polarization

Input modulation

[WRXB215]

BTech has an amp.

[UncleYoda]

Amp would not be a good idea where he has the antenna (too much RF exposure).

[WRXB215]

1 minute ago, UncleYoda said:

Amp would not be a good idea where he has the antenna (too much RF exposure).

Some how I missed something. Where does he have his antenna?

[SteveShannon]

34 minutes ago, AndyOnTheRadio said:

@WSEZ714 I am in the same boat as you are. I have the 9G and the UT-72G. I can hear crystal clear on several repeaters, but people say my signal is week and I'm hard to hear.

Chances are you have programmed your radio right, it's just that no one can hear you to respond. It's frustrating.

Can anyone point us to a video or article on how to boost your transmit on a handheld? If I find something, I'll share.

 

Repeaters transmit on 462 MHz frequencies. But you must transmit to the repeater on a 467 MHz frequency. It’s possible that you’re transmitting on the same 462 frequency as the repeater transmits rather than the 467 frequency needed to get into the repeater. 
If that’s the case your signal could sound weak to them if they hear it at all. 
Make sure you use a repeater channel. 

[UncleYoda]

I'll let him explain if he wants to.  The details he's leaving out do matter.  But he asked for a video to watch and that is different than asking for advice.

[AndyOnTheRadio]

Thank you to everyone who has replied! 
 

@UncleYoda has been very kind to run a transmission test with me. I placed the 72G at my window that was not facing the repeater I was trying to hit. In all honesty it was a miracle that I even squeaked through. 
 

I’m working on some new ideas. I understand that in need less interference where my antenna is placed so I will work on that. 
 

I also watched videos on how to create a GMRS base station with a huge antenna on my roof and a lightning rod. However, my budget and housing will not allow me to do things like that. So I’m just trying to figure out something that will work for me and my situation.
 

I am going to go back and read everyone’s comments again and try to fully understand them. I’ll report back later. 
 

I am grateful for everyone’s time! 

[AndyOnTheRadio]

I've done some work this afternoon. A long story short, I tested transmit locations inside and outside my home. The best I got was "weak but intelligible" radio check on a repeater that is 6.5 miles from my house while I was outside. I even crawled into my attic and didn't get great results. The second floor of my home is 290 ft up and my attic is around 300 ft. There a few trees that are higher than my roof, but not many.

I used my Baofeng 9G and the Nagoya mag mount 72G. I even carried the antenna on a 18" metal tray. I must have looked like a goofball. It's frustrating because I read that people say they get great results with this set up and I'm not getting much. I can receive well enough, it's having the power to transmit that still alludes me.

I did receive the advice to put a J Pole in my attic. I've also looked into a Ed Fong antenna as well. Does anyone have any experience with these antenna types?

I like GMRS and if I need to invest in a 20w - 30w base station radio I may be willing to do it. I'd just like to make the 9G / 72G work first. Thanks again!

 

[UncleYoda]

A beam type directional antenna would be best if Gilbert is your main focus.  "Yagi" is a common beam type but not the only one.  A yagi for GMRS does not need to be big.   I know guys in HOAs use attic antennas, but if performance is an issue, you want an outdoor antenna as high as you can manage (with good coax).

 

Your numbers for elevation look off.  Lake level full pool is 360.  The sandhill ridge is around 500.  You should be in between those.

[AndyOnTheRadio]

11 hours ago, UncleYoda said:

Your numbers for elevation look off.  Lake level full pool is 360.  The sandhill ridge is around 500.  You should be in between those.

I’ll look into those antennas. As for the elevation, we are in a hole. We have to have a Verizon network extender just to get a cell signal. I’ll message you a nearby address so you can see. 

[UncleYoda]

20 minutes ago, AndyOnTheRadio said:

we are in a hole.

It would've been helpful to say that up front.  Since you're down that low, there's nothing we can do to help.  If you get to a high spot in that area, you'd probably be in range of 625 from high ground.  And Hopkins 675 may line up well with the downstream river valley.  Even 650 maybe, although it depends on exact line to the repeater.  But from down in a hole, all you can do well is sky reflection, meaning HF ham.