East Central Florida GMRS users?

[WhiskeyHusky]

After a few hours of research and trying to listen for radio frequencies I haven't been able to find anyone in East Central Florida to talk to. I'd like to be able to test my radio's range and the repeaters nearby, but also to share information with people I can actually meet up with from time to time to help with setups. Since I saw no specific posts for it, I thought I'd give it a go; Fill the comments! (please)

[Socalgmrs]

Gmrs is ment as a bring your own friends kinda deal. While doing an activity.   It’s really not ment for meeting strangers on the air waves.  Ham is really more for that.  With that said have you looked for local repeaters near you?  Then asked for permission and set up the tones and reached out? 

[AdmiralCochrane]

There may be a local or regional group on Facebook that can help you.

[WRWE456]

Florida is pretty flat and GMRS is line of sight mostly so if you are using a hand held radio at ground level you will not get very far. Maybe just your local neighborhood.  If you are close enough to a repeater that has a high antenna you may be able to reach that to extend your range.

Best bet is to get a friend with another radio and test your range by driving around to see how far you get and also getting closer to a repeater until you can connect. Getting out of the car at each test location will help also. It really takes experimentation with radio to learn for yourself what works for you with your equipment in your location. Again getting the antennas as high as possible will make the most difference.  A base station setup (even with a hand held) with a rooftop antenna will give you the best range from home.

Good luck!

[SteveShannon]

Have you tried this repeater?

https://mygmrs.com/repeater/9104

 

[WSEZ]

I'm new here myself and am still exploring the website but I've found this https://mygmrs.com/map

A user can zoom into their location and find repeaters near them and request permission to use it as well as just listening in and learning the educate n lingo.

Hope it helps

[WhiskeyHusky]

6 hours ago, Socalgmrs said:

Gmrs is ment as a bring your own friends kinda deal. While doing an activity.   It’s really not ment for meeting strangers on the air waves.  Ham is really more for that.  With that said have you looked for local repeaters near you?  Then asked for permission and set up the tones and reached out? 

Used a bunch of open system local repeaters, just didn't manage to catch anyone on. I know the more localized use, but with repeaters it should be far longer distance than using my CB; plus I definitely need somewhere to start to set up a group or emergency comms before next hurricane season on something simple. The price and learning curve is also keeping me away from ham, though I'm starting to study, I needed something to do in the meantime between dying at work and dying at work #2.

[WhiskeyHusky]

5 hours ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

There may be a local or regional group on Facebook that can help you.

Been trying to look, but as most things (funnily enough) they all go around this place. (Jacksonville, Orlando, West Palm all have groups but very small I think, not able to find much info.)

[WhiskeyHusky]

1 hour ago, WRWE456 said:

Florida is pretty flat and GMRS is line of sight mostly so if you are using a hand held radio at ground level you will not get very far. Maybe just your local neighborhood.  If you are close enough to a repeater that has a high antenna you may be able to reach that to extend your range.

Best bet is to get a friend with another radio and test your range by driving around to see how far you get and also getting closer to a repeater until you can connect. Getting out of the car at each test location will help also. It really takes experimentation with radio to learn for yourself what works for you with your equipment in your location. Again getting the antennas as high as possible will make the most difference.  A base station setup (even with a hand held) with a rooftop antenna will give you the best range from home.

Good luck!

Just bought a few longer hand held antennas which should hopefully help (Abree 42.5 inch) and a truck mag mounted antenna (~16.5in amazon wack) while I'm definitely trying to get my friend groups into the hobby, its hard convincing a bunch of relatively normal people to spend about a hundred on radio stuffs because it's cool XD. What I'd hope for is being able to eventually check in with those friends when I'm driving to and fro work, but the base station and antenna manufacturing will definitely be a few paychecks later.

[WhiskeyHusky]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

Have you tried this repeater?

https://mygmrs.com/repeater/9104

 

I've seen it on the site but since it says offline I haven't tried. It would definitely be the perfect repeater for around this area too. Is it still functioning or was this a complete in-the-dark question? I can most certainly program it and listen for a bit.

[WhiskeyHusky]

1 hour ago, WSEZ418 said:

I'm new here myself and am still exploring the website but I've found this https://mygmrs.com/map

A user can zoom into their location and find repeaters near them and request permission to use it as well as just listening in and learning the educate n lingo.

Hope it helps

Of course! Knowing the repeaters is nice but can't do much when I can't find anyone on them.

[SteveShannon]

13 minutes ago, WhiskeyHusky said:

I've seen it on the site but since it says offline I haven't tried. It would definitely be the perfect repeater for around this area too. Is it still functioning or was this a complete in-the-dark question? I can most certainly program it and listen for a bit.

I have no way of knowing, but if you’re truly interested in finding working repeaters, listening is required.  There are only eight repeater channels.  Just set your radio to scan them all with no tones and if there are any working repeaters in your area you’ll hear them eventually.