How Many Repeaters Do You Need

[WRUE951]

I got really curious how many GMRS repeaters are owned or licensed by a single license on the reported repeaters here on MyGMRS.  So i put together a quick little (actually pretty large) report that shows just that.  The parameters are 3 repeaters and above and identified by single call sign as reported.  I really didn't expect to see some of the numbers some folks have in the number of repeaters. Holly Cow!.  Can you imagine the investment some of these folks have made.  So the next question,,  Why??  does a single user need so many repeaters for a service meant for family and friends.   Especially,  after considering how the FCC has clarified its usage.  I can see now why some folks in certain areas complain of no bandwidth. Certainly some areas in the mid west and east just have not room..      Just Trivia stuff and very interesting.  

MultibleRepeaters April2025.pdf

[Socalgmrs]

Totally agree and the answer is NO they don’t neeeed that many repeaters.  It’s turning into a macho thing.  “I have more and bigger repeaters then ….”   It’s causing many problems and upsetting other repeater owners.  Some court cases have even come up about it.   It’s getting crazy for something that should be used for family and friends while doing an activity.  

[Jaay]

54 minutes ago, Socalgmrs said:

Totally agree and the answer is NO they don’t neeeed that many repeaters.  It’s turning into a macho thing.  “I have more and bigger repeaters then ….”   It’s causing many problems and upsetting other repeater owners.  Some court cases have even come up about it.   It’s getting crazy for something that should be used for family and friends while doing an activity.  

WRONG ! It does NOT have to be Only Family and Friends ! It CAN be Anyone licensed to use GMRS, whether it be a company, a bunch of Campers, A Tow truck Driver, A Taxi cab operator, Anyone who happens to be licensed Can talk to ANYONE. Even STRANGE GUYS, like SOCAL ! 

[MarkInTampa]

Take what's reported as repeaters with a grain of salt. One of the multi repeater sites you have on your list in my area is just plain fantasy. Your listing shows 9 repeaters for the call when there is actually only one low power network (maybe why it shows so many repeaters) hotspot that he runs on rare occasion.

There is on the other hand another guy that your list shows has 4 but has 6 repeaters. All of them are stand alone (not linked), on different frequencies (but same tones) and cover most of the west coast of Florida from Bradenton to Naples (around 120 miles spaced around 20-25 miles apart) and a few of them are quite strong. It's kinda nice to be able to drive the I-75 route south of Tampa and have reliable repeaters along the way. 

At least that's what I know of in my area, others I'm sure are different.

[WRUE951]

5 minutes ago, MarkInTampa said:

Take what's reported as repeaters with a grain of salt. One of the multi repeater sites you have on your list in my area is just plain fantasy. Your listing shows 9 repeaters for the call when there is actually only one low power network (maybe why it shows so many repeaters) hotspot that he runs on rare occasion.

There is on the other hand another guy that your list shows has 4 but has 6 repeaters. All of them are stand alone (not linked), on different frequencies (but same tones) and cover most of the west coast of Florida from Bradenton to Naples (around 120 miles spaced around 20-25 miles apart) and a few of them are quite strong. It's kinda nice to be able to drive the I-75 route south of Tampa and have reliable repeaters along the way. 

At least that's what I know of in my area, others I'm sure are different.

listing what is reported on MYGMRS..   As of of this morning    

[MarkInTampa]

2 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

listing what is reported on MYGMRS..   As of of this morning    

It doesn't mean it's real or correct.

[WRUE951]

1 minute ago, MarkInTampa said:

It doesn't mean it's real or right.

Can't help you with that 'Bud'

[MarkInTampa]

7 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

Can't help you with that 'Bud'

Like I said, just don't take the MyGMRS listing as gospel. If you look at the guy that has 9 repeaters in my area they are all at the same location.

[WRUE951]

23 minutes ago, MarkInTampa said:

Like I said, just don't take the MyGMRS listing as gospel. If you look at the guy that has 9 repeaters in my area they are all at the same location.

Like I said..   I can't help you Bud..     Maye you can tell your friends to update their stuff.  If i could read 'minds'   we would all be 'Rich'    

[Hoppyjr]

I got really curious how many GMRS repeaters are owned or licensed by a single license on the reported repeaters here on MyGMRS.  So i put together a quick little (actually pretty large) report that shows just that.  The parameters are 3 repeaters and above and identified by single call sign as reported.  I really didn't expect to see some of the numbers some folks have in the number of repeaters. Holly Cow!.  Can you imagine the investment some of these folks have made.  So the next question,,  Why??  does a single user need so many repeaters for a service meant for family and friends.   Especially,  after considering how the FCC has clarified its usage.  I can see now why some folks in certain areas complain of no bandwidth. Certainly some areas in the mid west and east just have not room..      Just Trivia stuff and very interesting.  
MultibleRepeaters April2025.pdf

The bigger question is “why do you care?”

Did someone prevent you from putting up a repeater of your own?

With multiple channels and tones available, one can certainly own and operate a repeater if they desire.

I can see the Bernie bumper sticker on your Prius from way over here…..

[TrikeRadio]

49 minutes ago, Hoppyjr said:

...With multiple channels and tones available, one can certainly own and operate a repeater if they desire.

THAT... depends on where you are. In the area I live in, there are repeaters on every GMRS frequency, many overlap and even with tones to squelch others out, there is crossover interference at times. It would actually be nice to have a few more GMRS repeater pair frequencies in some places where there is a larger populated area.

[Hoppyjr]

THAT... depends on where you are. In the area I live in, there are repeaters on every GMRS frequency, many overlap and even with tones to squelch others out, there is crossover interference at times. It would actually be nice to have a few more GMRS repeater pair frequencies in some places where there is a larger populated area.

Then maybe it’s time to use simplex and/or move to Ham for random conversations?

[WRUE951]

4 hours ago, Hoppyjr said:

The bigger question is “why do you care?”

Because I can.     

 

[WRUE951]

3 hours ago, TrikeRadio said:

THAT... depends on where you are. In the area I live in, there are repeaters on every GMRS frequency, many overlap and even with tones to squelch others out, there is crossover interference at times. It would actually be nice to have a few more GMRS repeater pair frequencies in some places where there is a larger populated area.

I can see the traffic issue in areas like New York, New Jersey etc.      Some people have complained about it,   It’s very easy to see why

[gortex2]

As others have said many of the repeaters you have listed are bogus but everyone adds stuff to this site thinking its some way to "save" a channel or somthing. So going by the site list is really useless.

As for why someone may have more repeaters, I'll use myself as an example. Also before you ask none of mine are listed anywhere as I dont feel I need to. They are my property and I maintaint them for my use. So back to my repeaters. I have 2 in my area for a north and south coverage footprint. Both can be accessed from me at home or my parents house. I also have 2 repeaters in another state. I use those when I am in that state as does my family and friends. I also have a repeater for my motorhome so it goes where I go. So I can see how some folks may have multiple. 

JMHO..

[tweiss3]

4 isn't really that many if you have difficult terrain to overcome. Yes, it's an investment, but if it's useful to you, who cares. Now, having 4 tower leases, or even have someone willing to lease you tower space, that's the impressive part, considering crown castle won't even return a phone call.

[TDM827]

Despite coming from this site it looks like some of this information is inaccurate. As noted by gortex2 there are people who operate multiple repeaters for their own reasons. If its a public repeater, instead of looking at multiple repeaters as cluttering an area. I remain happy that some owners fund and operate public repeaters and make them available to license holders. 

In the case of public repeaters I think multiple repeater owners actually promote and expand the availability of GMRS.

If traffic and frequency crowding are peoples concern, there is always.... WAIT for IT, WAIT for IT,...... HAM   

[amaff]

14 hours ago, WRUE951 said:

Can you imagine the investment some of these folks have made.

I'm not sure "investment" is the word I'd use

[SteveShannon]

The site went through a stretch where repeaters were inadvertently being duplicated when people clicked on them and chose “My Repeater”.  I suspect that is responsible for at least some of the duplication.  

[WRUE951]

17 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

The site went through a stretch where repeaters were inadvertently being duplicated when people clicked on them and chose “My Repeater”.  I suspect that is responsible for at least some of the duplication.  

Entireley possible, I'll check the master and see if i can weed out duplicates. I did sort these by active.  There were many more reported as inactive that were not included as should be..  I'll check both coordinates and locations, and delete any duplicates..   

[WRUE951]

1 hour ago, gortex2 said:

As others have said many of the repeaters you have listed are bogus but everyone adds stuff to this site thinking its some way to "save" a channel or somthing. So going by the site list is really useless.

As for why someone may have more repeaters, I'll use myself as an example. Also before you ask none of mine are listed anywhere as I dont feel I need to. They are my property and I maintaint them for my use. So back to my repeaters. I have 2 in my area for a north and south coverage footprint. Both can be accessed from me at home or my parents house. I also have 2 repeaters in another state. I use those when I am in that state as does my family and friends. I also have a repeater for my motorhome so it goes where I go. So I can see how some folks may have multiple. 

JMHO..

I filtered out  below 3.. There are tons of operators with two.    I have two as well, but i only report one because the second repeater,  like you is portable, it goes where i go. And for the most part, i shut down my main reported repeater when on extended camping trips away from home  

[WRUE951]

4 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

The site went through a stretch where repeaters were inadvertently being duplicated when people clicked on them and chose “My Repeater”.  I suspect that is responsible for at least some of the duplication.  

i did a duplicate filter and it did show some but not a lot.   Check the highlights on the coordinates.  

repdubvalues.pdf

[WRTC928]

I guess if you can afford it, you "need" as many repeaters as you want. I can imagine if someone travels a regular route, it would be nice to have access to repeaters all along the way. I can't afford that myself, but I am soon going to put one up in Purcell to cover the empty air from the one in Pauls Valley to the one in Moore.

[MarkInTampa]

7 hours ago, WRUE951 said:

i did a duplicate filter and it did show some but not a lot.   Check the highlights on the coordinates.  

repdubvalues.pdf 1.92 MB · 2 downloads

Help me in trying to figure out your list. One of the call signs in my area you have listed show nine repeaters and that is a lot! If I look on the MyGMRS map, it only shows two with that callsign/username and both are at the same basic location. If I look in advanced, it shows the same two, even with stale and offline enabled (for the one or two frequencies I checked anyway that aren't on the map, map doesn't show stale/offline repeaters). Six of them by your list coordinates are on the same property. The other three (again by coordinates) show about 1 mile away from the other six in the middle of the ocean. I'm assuming when he placed the pin on the map it was close enough, the guy is a block or so from the ocean. He only runs (or did, haven't heard it for awhile) one small Retivis repeater up around 40ft on 650 but did play around a year or so ago with a simplex repeater on a different frequency at the same location. Although MyGMRS does show two, only one is/was accurate - not nine. Where did the other seven come from?

Six of the locations listed in your pdf...

The two listed on the current MyGMRS map with his callsign/username...
 

 

[TerriKennedy]

On 4/2/2025 at 6:45 PM, WRUE951 said:

I got really curious how many GMRS repeaters are owned or licensed by a single license on the reported repeaters here on MyGMRS.  So i put together a quick little (actually pretty large) report that shows just that.  The parameters are 3 repeaters and above and identified by single call sign as reported.  I really didn't expect to see some of the numbers some folks have in the number of repeaters. Holly Cow!.  Can you imagine the investment some of these folks have made.  So the next question,,  Why??  does a single user need so many repeaters for a service meant for family and friends.   Especially,  after considering how the FCC has clarified its usage.  I can see now why some folks in certain areas complain of no bandwidth. Certainly some areas in the mid west and east just have not room..      Just Trivia stuff and very interesting.  

Some may be operated by clubs. Since you can't get a (new) GMRS license other than as an individual, somebody has to be the "responsible party" for each repeater. If a club has several and has someone with the expertise to maintain them, centrally manage access control, etc. they'll show up as the "owner" of multiple repeaters.

In my case, here in JC we (supposedly) had a community service one on 700, but the user's FCC license expired 5+ years ago, they haven't been active here for 7+ years, and standing outside the building where the repeater supposedly, is there's nothing that responds. Hopefully that owner just lost interest in radio and/or moved away. Given some of our ages (I'm 66+ and realized that Val Kilmer was younger than me), the former repeater owner might be deceased. Hopefully not.

Anyway, since I've had my GMRS license for 6+ years, I've benefited from using other repeaters while traveling, I'm on top of a ridge and have a 3-story house, and a 50W repeater "fell into my lap" (ouch!), I decided to start The New JC 700 as a community service as the only repeaters (other than the defunct 700) here are either open only to emergency responders, require membership in a club whos home page serves up malware and their repeater time announcement is off by 58 minutes (DST + clock drift) so "nobody's minding the store". Right now I'm running on a NMO-HDG at a lower elevation until my DB408-B, 7/8" heliax and climber/installer arrive. I have 8 ground rods, 150' of #4 copper and a ground rod driver and just need to create the ground field. Even with the free repeater, I'll probably be $4000-ish out-of-pocket.

But since anyone with a 5W "repeater in a box" can validly register a repeater, some of the ones you see may be low-power. And some here are defunct - I messaged the management about the old 700 here, pointing out that their license was expired and they hadn't been here in 7+ years, and it was removed some time later.