Unbelievable GMRS distance

[WSEZ]

Hey Guru's I'm currently in Cashiers, NC listening to gmrs channel 17 and am picking up chatter from Atlanta, GA.  I don't understand how as I had received permission from repeaters in my area of Walhalla, SC trying to bridge the gap between the two but am unable to. How are they getting this far?  is it a club?

The only way I've been able to connect from Cashiers to Walhalla is thru Business band repeaters on 461.7250 .

I gotta know how they are making the distance!

[MarkInTampa]

29 minutes ago, WSEZ said:

Hey Guru's I'm currently in Cashiers, NC listening to gmrs channel 17 and am picking up chatter from Atlanta, GA.  I don't understand how as I had received permission from repeaters in my area of Walhalla, SC trying to bridge the gap between the two but am unable to. How are they getting this far?  is it a club?

The only way I've been able to connect from Cashiers to Walhalla is thru Business band repeaters on 461.7250 .

I gotta know how they are making the distance!

Probably a part of the North Georgia GMRS Network

 

[Socalgmrs]

I get about 210miles simplex from a comet 712efc and a 20w radio.   Many of our local repeaters cover a 100mile radius.   I get 60miles from a 5w hand held into repeaters 60miles away.  A 5w ht will and has talked to the space station.   It’s not about power but totally about line of sight and a good  antenna 

[WRYZ926]

Now it's 210 miles instead of 200 miles. The tale grows with each telling. Oh and don't forget to tell us the 796 reasons why every dedicated Part 95 certified radio that is made overseas is total junk. Or are we up above 800 reasons now.

You happen to live in the ideal location in the wide open desert of the southwest.Most people will NEVER see that kind of coverage due to location, local terrain, forested areas, urban areas, etc, etc.

@WSEZ those repeaters are linked even though linking is against the regulations set forth by the FCC overlords.

[WSEZ]

Ok so it's like my companys business radio, linked through the internet. Thanks.

I gotta join this network!  it's the only one available to me!

[TDM827]

Might as well join and take advantage of the nice distances the network offers. But you may actually get sick of the chatter.

Sooner or later someone will drop a dime, rat out, the network operator to the FCC, who at sometime may or may not care. If anyone is left working at the FCC they might send out a strongly worded letter telling the network to stop linking. 

In the mean time enjoy!

[WRTC928]

Why does it have to be a repeater? Rapid Radio says their radios will reach someone 1,416 miles away. 

[TrikeRadio]

4 minutes ago, WRTC928 said:

... Rapid Radio says their radios will reach someone 1,416 miles away. 

LOL! yeah... hey My cell phone can talk to people around the world too!  

[WRTC928]

5 minutes ago, TrikeRadio said:

LOL! yeah... hey My cell phone can talk to people around the world too!  

TBH, I can actually think of a couple of use cases for a radio that works on cell phone towers. For example, dispatching a fleet of vehicles a radio system would be much easier to use than a bunch of cell phones. The preppers who buy them are going to be pretty disappointed if they ever need them, though.

[WRYZ926]

Yeah Hurricane Helena proved how reliable cell towers, and even some amateur and GMRS repeaters are.

[TDM827]

My last big project before retiring a few years ago was implementing a new large scale repeated public safety / public works radio system for a county.

The bean counters pushed hard for cell based communications because they felt it would save a ton of money and was the wave of the future. After lots of research and hiring some really smart consultants we determined Land Mobile Radio (LMR) is still the way to go, for now,

Not to say there are not some awesome systems using cell technology along side LMR, there is lots of cool stuff out there. But the last we learned was LMR will probably remain the primary king of the hill for at least the next 5 years. 

Come the 2030s I am sure cell based comms will start becoming the preferred and primary reality more and more, with LMR being the alternate backup system. Of course this all moves at the speed of money and even more so politics! 

[GreggInFL]

17 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

Yeah Hurricane Helena proved how reliable cell towers, and even some amateur and GMRS repeaters are.

Can you point to some info on that?  I recall that Hurricane Sandy took out ~25% of the cell towers, but I've never seen any data more recent.

[BoxCar]

Helene took out most of the towers in western NC because the power was lost. Very few cell sites have any type of backup power.

[GreggInFL]

Ah, thanks.  Makes sense.

[WRYZ926]

Yes when I say the storm took out the cell towers that includes everything from losing power to actual physical damage to the towers and/or equipment. The same thing with amateur radio repeaters.

I always laugh at the preppers that think they can just pick up their Baofeng radios and use the repeaters during a natural disaster or other major catastrophe. The repeaters can and will go down without backup power or if they are physically damaged. And a good backup power system can get quite expensive depending on your setup and how long you want it to last. 

[gortex2]

At one point the FEMA report showed 85% outage accross Western NC. Most sites were affected by power. I know of multiple sites still down due to damage. Most cell sites have enough power for 5 minutes if that. Alot has changed since the days of ma bell and the reliability that was built in the networks. 

[AdmiralCochrane]

The cell sites in the mid Atlantic area I used to service had fuel for about 26 hours of operation on their diesel backups.  My coworkers kept them fueled up during snowmageddon. (I stayed home, )

[WRTC928]

I was once in a little village in the interior of Alaska when an earthquake took out telephone communication for 4 days. It wasn't local damage -- the stations somewhere south of us that relayed the telephone signals went down. I didn't pay any attention at the time, but I'm guessing they used microwave or something to "squirt" the signals to a series of towers. Anyway, some of them that served that village went out. This was about 15 years ago and cell service didn't exist in Alaska outside the few cities. The village had no road -- all contact with the outside world was by telephone and airplane. Fortunately, quite a few of the villagers had radios with which they could talk to the various aircraft overflying the affected areas. I didn't know much about radios back then, but I think they were mostly marine radios. The Natives in the interior villages are pretty casual about things like getting a license and using approved radios, and by "casual" I mean they don't give it even one thought. Anyway, the guys/gals with radios were able to keep planes coming in. The time schedule was a bit disrupted, but we still got one plane a day in and out. It's surprising how much more isolated I felt when the phones were down, even though I wasn't really calling anyone anyway.

Some of the interior villages have cell phone service now, but it's only available in the immediate area of the village. I assume they still use radios a lot to stay in touch while out hunting or fishing. I think the main reason they mostly use marine radios is simply that they're readily available. When the next village is 300 miles away, nobody is going to hear you breaking the rules. One or two of the larger villages in the interior actually had an amateur radio repeater which everyone in the village used without concern for niceties like call signs. Heck, the repeaters probably weren't even licensed, but again, who's going to check? Come to think of it, I wonder if they could have been marine radio repeaters? A quick internet search tells me such things exist.

[LeoG]

18 hours ago, GreggInFL said:

Can you point to some info on that?  I recall that Hurricane Sandy took out ~25% of the cell towers, but I've never seen any data more recent.

I would consider a 25% loss of towers in a hurricane pretty reliable.  Definitely depends if you are in that cell area that went down or not though.  I have a pole type tower near me and they were adding more antennas during a very windy period.  I've never seen it sway so much.  Felt bad for the guy up there working.  It was probably 20ish winds with bigger gusts.  I was surprised it was moving that much.  I thought that movement would be at about 40mph.

[LeoG]

18 hours ago, BoxCar said:

Helene took out most of the towers in western NC because the power was lost. Very few cell sites have any type of backup power.

2 hours at best for battery.  Some have smaller generators but fuel is the limiting factor.  Maybe get a day.

[GrouserPad]

I get about 4 to 7 miles simplex with 50watts and a Retevis rt87 base antenna ontop of my ranch house. Y’all be thankful you live in the open. I’m shouldered by trees and rolling hills covered in forest. 

[H8SPVMT]

On 2/17/2025 at 5:10 PM, WSEZ said:

Hey Guru's I'm currently in Cashiers, NC listening to gmrs channel 17 and am picking up chatter from Atlanta, GA.  I don't understand how as I had received permission from repeaters in my area of Walhalla, SC trying to bridge the gap between the two but am unable to. How are they getting this far?  is it a club?

The only way I've been able to connect from Cashiers to Walhalla is thru Business band repeaters on 461.7250 .

I gotta know how they are making the distance!

I was just there (Cashiers, NC) this past weekend and I too heard a bunch of GMRS conversations.  I was there to get going on the "GA Treverse" / trail and didn't pay it much mind.  The weather was somewhat clear and cool.