New to the hobby

[Guest wsfr393]

Hello all! I'm new and just got my got my license recently. I'm in Cleveland TN area and have noticed not a lot of users in my area. I've considered joining the n ga gmrs and believe that would be my best bet. Any other users in the Bradley, Polk, McMinn county area?

[AdmiralCochrane]

GMRS band is primarily for contacting people you already know.

[OffRoaderX]

as the @AdmiralCochrane very eloquently said, GMRS is not for "making contacts" or chatting with anonymous men - for that, you're better off using the Grindr app on your phone.

GMRS is for staying in contact with people in your group whilst off-roading, hiking, road-traveling, etc.

[TrikeRadio]

11 hours ago, Guest wsfr393 said:

Hello all! I'm new and just got my got my license recently. I'm in Cleveland TN area and have noticed not a lot of users in my area. I've considered joining the n ga gmrs and believe that would be my best bet. Any other users in the Bradley, Polk, McMinn county area?

Maybe people you already know in the area would be interested in using radios to stay in touch or use for an activity where radio communications would be useful... you might be able to get them interested enough to get radios themselves to talk to you on your radio. There are repeater clubs out there where you MIGHT meet new friends and find things in common to do things with and use the radios too. But as others have stated, really... GMRS is meant to communicate with people you already know. but yeah.

[Guest CB GMRS or Ham or all 3!]

I went down a rabbit hole last night on YouTube. Awesome fun. Ready for a new hobby. I think I might get a CB just for giggles. But I would like to be able to communicate with my wife and teen across town ( 3- 5 ) miles of CITY in case of a power outage. For that I would think GMRS. Maybe I'll get into Ham later. Besides, they would never get a license.

Common question I'm sure but ever changing at the same time. Knowing wha you know now and if you wanted to talk to family across an urban area in a pinch. A family that is not technical save for your truly...

What would you buy? 

Thanks for any help!

 

[Guest wshd560]

Waiting for my call sign to be recognized so I can register.  Thought I'd say hi in this thread since I'm new too.

[SteveShannon]

25 minutes ago, Guest wshd560 said:

Waiting for my call sign to be recognized so I can register.  Thought I'd say hi in this thread since I'm new too.

Hi and welcome!  Sometimes it takes a few days for your call sign to be recognized by the forum software. It’s not a daily update. Don’t panic!!

[WikiNobo]

3 hours ago, Guest wshd560 said:

Waiting for my call sign to be recognized so I can register.  Thought I'd say hi in this thread since I'm new too.

Welcome! I’m relatively new to GMRS, all things radio, and this forum too. Tons of stuff to learn and already finding this site so helpful. 

[WRTC928]

On 1/20/2025 at 10:01 AM, Guest CB GMRS or Ham or all 3! said:

What would you buy? 

You'll probably get as many answers as there are people on the forum, but here's my advice. Buy two inexpensive GMRS handheld radios and see if you can talk to your wife 5 miles away. It might be possible with no modifications. If that doesn't do it, buy a magnetic-mount GMRS antenna (Nagoya UT-72G, for example) and mount it as high as possible at your house, preferably outside. It will need something metallic for a ground plane. I use a large steel pizza pan. You'll need an adapter to connect the HT to the antenna. Something like this. You'll probably get a little skinny one with the antenna, but it doesn't last very long. Then try again. If that works, you're done. If that doesn't get you what you want, do the same at your place of work, if possible. If you can't do that, put the mag mount antenna on top of your car. If that doesn't work, come back here for more advice.

Remember, radio waves travel in a straight line. If you could see the other radio (assuming you could see 3-5 miles), you'd easily be able to talk HT to HT with a 5 watt GMRS handheld radio. I can easily talk from my house to a repeater 20 miles away with 5 watts, but we're both on elevated positions. If I go to the other side of the hill 1/2 mile west of me, I can't do it with a 20 watt mobile rig. Height is might. Elevation is propagation. However you want to say it, you need to get both antennas as high as possible. I'd be surprised if that didn't get you what you want.

DO NOT go out and immediately buy a 50 watt base station thinking that much power will give you a lot more distance. It won't. Radio waves still travel in a straight line, and if there are obstructions between the two radios, it would take an unrealistic amount of power to get through them. In my experience, if you can make contact but your signal is weak, more power might give you a stronger signal, but it won't make up for bad geography. Before you buy a base station, buy a true base station antenna and get it at least 20 feet high. If you buy the base station radio first, you'll likely end up having to then buy the antenna anyway. If you buy the antenna first, you may not need a different radio.

When you've played with the two handhelds for a while and have an idea what you want, then spend your money on other equipment. Maybe it won't be as useful as you hoped, or maybe you just get bored with it. Start with something inexpensive and move up slowly.

[WRTC928]

Oh, yeah...the one piece of equipment that I'd suggest you buy right away is a pair of good antennas. The stock antennas tend to be mediocre performers, whereas some of the aftermarket antennas can significantly improve your signal. Something like this or this. I've had really good results with Nagoya antennas, but some other people think they suck. YMMV.

[Socalgmrs]

3 hours ago, WRTC928 said:

You'll probably get as many answers as there are people on the forum, but here's my advice. Buy two inexpensive GMRS handheld radios and see if you can talk to your wife 5 miles away. It might be possible with no modifications. If that doesn't do it, buy a magnetic-mount GMRS antenna (Nagoya UT-72G, for example) and mount it as high as possible at your house, preferably outside. It will need something metallic for a ground plane. I use a large steel pizza pan. You'll need an adapter to connect the HT to the antenna. Something like this. You'll probably get a little skinny one with the antenna, but it doesn't last very long. Then try again. If that works, you're done. If that doesn't get you what you want, do the same at your place of work, if possible. If you can't do that, put the mag mount antenna on top of your car. If that doesn't work, come back here for more advice.

Remember, radio waves travel in a straight line. If you could see the other radio (assuming you could see 3-5 miles), you'd easily be able to talk HT to HT with a 5 watt GMRS handheld radio. I can easily talk from my house to a repeater 20 miles away with 5 watts, but we're both on elevated positions. If I go to the other side of the hill 1/2 mile west of me, I can't do it with a 20 watt mobile rig. Height is might. Elevation is propagation. However you want to say it, you need to get both antennas as high as possible. I'd be surprised if that didn't get you what you want.

DO NOT go out and immediately buy a 50 watt base station thinking that much power will give you a lot more distance. It won't. Radio waves still travel in a straight line, and if there are obstructions between the two radios, it would take an unrealistic amount of power to get through them. In my experience, if you can make contact but your signal is weak, more power might give you a stronger signal, but it won't make up for bad geography. Before you buy a base station, buy a true base station antenna and get it at least 20 feet high. If you buy the base station radio first, you'll likely end up having to then buy the antenna anyway. If you buy the antenna first, you may not need a different radio.

When you've played with the two handhelds for a while and have an idea what you want, then spend your money on other equipment. Maybe it won't be as useful as you hoped, or maybe you just get bored with it. Start with something inexpensive and move up slowly.

 Don’t know you but I like you. You say what I always say.    This post sums up gmrs.  I see people all day long that spend big bucks on 50w set ups, cant get more then a few miles, they come on here and get bad advice and spend a bunch more money on differ lent High priced stuff then quit because they couldn’t transmit 500 miles into 10 different repeaters.  Then I see people spending $20bucks on an HT and getting 10-20-30 even 50miles simplex from a cheap 5w ht because they have good height and line of site.  And those people get called a lier    
 

oh and to the original post… gmrs is not a hobby its a radio service one uses while doing a hobby.   Ham is a hobby gmrs is not. 

[WRTC928]

1 hour ago, Socalgmrs said:

 Don’t know you but I like you. You say what I always say.    This post sums up gmrs.  I see people all day long that spend big bucks on 50w set ups, cant get more then a few miles, they come on here and get bad advice and spend a bunch more money on differ lent High priced stuff then quit because they couldn’t transmit 500 miles into 10 different repeaters.  Then I see people spending $20bucks on an HT and getting 10-20-30 even 50miles simplex from a cheap 5w ht because they have good height and line of site.  And those people get called a lier    
 

oh and to the original post… gmrs is not a hobby its a radio service one uses while doing a hobby.   Ham is a hobby gmrs is not. 

In medicine, we have a saying, "When you hear hoofbeats on the prairie, think of horses, not zebras." which is a way of saying that common things happen more often than uncommon things. In radio, the most common cause of poor range is obstructions, and the way to defeat that is with elevation and a good antenna. There absolutely are people who work the repeater on the International Space Station with a 5 watt HT. The only real difference between them and the OP is what's between the two radios -- basically nothing in the case of the ISS. I'm a believer in approaching anything except an emergency in a stepwise fashion. That way, when you get it right, you'll know what made the difference.

And, yes, I've been called a liar for saying that I can work a repeater 52 miles from my house with an 8 watt HT, but I have the advantage of highly favorable topography. Both the repeater and my home are the highest things for miles in that direction. 

I wouldn't say GMRS can't be a hobby. There are a couple of guys near me who frequently use Ch 19 to discuss their day and what's going on in their lives. They could easily use a phone, but to some of us, a radio is more fun. But, yes, in general, GMRS is a communication tool whereas amateur radio is much more focused on the equipment and how to get the most out of it.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WRTC928 said:

In medicine, we have a saying, "When you hear hoofbeats on the prairie, think of horses, not zebras." which is a way of saying that common things happen more often than uncommon things.

In engineering we refer to Occam’s Razor. The simplest reason is usually right. I like the way you said it better. 

[TDM827]

On 12/15/2024 at 1:34 PM, Guest wsfr393 said:

Hello all! I'm new and just got my got my license recently. I'm in Cleveland TN area and have noticed not a lot of users in my area. I've considered joining the n ga gmrs and believe that would be my best bet. Any other users in the Bradley, Polk, McMinn county area?

Got to agree GMRS is primarily a communication tool vs. a hobby or method to make contacts. So you might be disappointed if you seek casual conversation. On the other hand. If you plan to build our something for information sharing and updates during emergencies GMRS will work fine, if you put in the work and spend time managing it. 

[kirk5056]

GMRS is not a hobby.  It IS, for me, a tool to assist my actual hobbies.

Having said that:  This, and several other, forums have taken on the attributes of a hobby.  The amount of knowledge and experience shared here is amazing.  My hobby has become spending a hour or so every day reading these posts.

[AdmiralCochrane]

I used to come here for information, now I come here for entertainment.

[Guest BOB1]

hi all.   Waiting on my call sign.   I was under the impression after reading all of the fcc regs that GMRS was a bring your own friends while doing an activity?    I really hope its not some hobby with old guys, or your guys in moms basement chatting all day?    I’m getting into it because we off road a lot in Johnson valley CA and we are way out in the dessert.  

[Socalgmrs]

8 minutes ago, Guest BOB1 said:

hi all.   Waiting on my call sign.   I was under the impression after reading all of the fcc regs that GMRS was a bring your own friends while doing an activity?    I really hope its not some hobby with old guys, or your guys in moms basement chatting all day?    I’m getting into it because we off road a lot in Johnson valley CA and we are way out in the dessert.  

Well that’s what gmrs is supposed to be but the people that can’t or won’t get a ham ticket try to make it ham light and call it a “hobby” and rag chew all day about antennas and such.  Im not far from KOH and been wheelin there for 30years. 

[OffRoaderX]

50 minutes ago, Guest BOB1 said:

I was under the impression after reading all of the fcc regs that GMRS was a bring your own friends while doing an activity?    I really hope its not some hobby with old guys, or your guys in moms basement chatting all day?    I’m getting into it because we off road a lot in Johnson valley CA and we are way out in the dessert.

GMRS is definitely a Bring Your Own Friends service, especially when out in the desert.. We do off-roading/Rock Crawling in JV all the time (will be near there tomorrow).. Keep an eye out for the big orange jeep and say hello - we'll be on channel 16, the official off-road GMRS channel..

[WRTC928]

12 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

 - we'll be on channel 16, the official off-road GMRS channel..

Serious question -- Is 16 the agreed-upon channel by off-roaders across the country, or are you using "official" in an ironic way?

[Bobuff977]

On 2/15/2025 at 5:56 PM, Guest wshd560 said:

Waiting for my call sign to be recognized so I can register.  Thought I'd say hi in this thread since I'm new too.

Welcome