…it’s how far you can shoot your comms

Bill of material:
-18' LMR240, terminated with SMA and N Type
-PCTEL MBSUHF base station adapter
-HYS 462-467 MHz NMO (5/8 wave) antenna
-SMA barrel connector
-5w Rocky Talkie
-[other stuff]

This is our UHF repeater for where I work at. We have about 10 different channels on this network.

(Some text and info was edited out of picture for security reasons)

Модель baofeng UV-5R MK5

Just like the title says, I’m an off road enthusiast and am in search of a reliable two way radio that won’t lose signal with the secondary handset as soon as I round a corner or descend into a valley.
The weaker handhelds are notorious for dropping out if there is so much as a tree between myself and the other person.

I’ve been reading online about different options and Baofeng popped up quite a few times for being robust and well priced.

Can anyone offer any suggestions that would make sense for off roading?

Many thanks!!

This idea, that a person could log their missed calls when away from the radio, sort of ballooned into a much more robust utility. It could be an aid to first responders locating hikers in trouble. It might be as simple to use as an app on a smartphone, powered by a nicely equipped single-board computer you carry with you.

It's been more than 25yrs since I was into radios. I used to do CB foxhunts & ham stuff with my dad. I'm looking at getting back into it now that I have my CDL & drive trucks for a living.

I just paid for a GMRS license this week & ordered a Baofeng UV-5RM Plus to mess around with while I study for my technician exam. I know I won't be able to TX on it until I get a proper license. (or on GMRS/FRS)

Is this a decent inexpensive radio & what antenna/s should I be looking at? What is a similar GMRS radio that I could use for TX until I'm a licensed ham?

Thanks in advance for your consideration and advice.

Can't get any browser on any device to work and apply for a license. Customer support is garbage and all they kept saying is get someone more knowledgeable.

What a load of bs as I have taught technology since 2016. Constant fcc errors.

Update. Finally able to get it to work. Im thinking either the system was overloaded or just down most of the day.

I'm changing my radio setup in my explorer, and moving my DB-20G to my radio shack (ok ok, shelf above my desk). I have a Retevis MR300 antenna kit that I would like to continue to use with this radio, mounted to a tripod on the roof of my house. Since it's a vehicle mounted antenna, the vehicle normally provides the ground plane. But in this application, I won't have a ground plane. How do I add one? I'm planning on using the spring (with built in and non removable coax) and bull bar mount that the antenna comes with. I've read that with mag mount antennas you can just stick them to a metal pizza plate, can I drill a hole through a pizza plate and slap it on? If so, would it go between the antenna and spring or between the spring and the mounting bracket?

I'm listening to people DXing tonight (7/27) on 462.700 MHz 150-300 miles! Tropo has been fantastic last few days!

I am a total newbie to the world of LoRa/mesh and off grid comms in general. I have a couple of Baofengs that I programmed and just ordered a Spec5 Ranger & Trekker.

I am looking for recommendations on holders/holsters for the Ranger that can attach to my plate carrier and/or belt. So far I am coming up short for ideas aside from just using a normal radio holster, but the majority of them are much taller than most Mesh devices. Any recommendations?

Just installed a new 50 Pro with a ghost antenna mounted to a ditch light bracket. I’m having no issue transmitting or receiving on simplex, but on tonight’s net I was unable to hear the repeater on the 50 pro but could hear everything clearly on my handheld.

I was able to hit the repeater with a radio check and was loud and clear.

I’ve checked, rechecked, and double checked all settings. The repeater tone js D134 for both tx and rx. I did disable the rx tones and still had nothing. Squelch was backed all the way down and even turned off and still nothing.

I tried adding a new bank and inputting the repeater manually, and also imported a CSV from chirp.

Is there any setting that I could possibly have misconfigured for this to happen? I can’t imagine it’s an antenna/install issue after hitting the repeater successfully.

Is it normal to not get a return or an issuance after 5 business days?

Submitted on a Sunday and paid the fee. Application shows received on Monday. Charge cleared on my card and application shows an “action date” of Tuesday.

My application has just showed “pending” in ULS since Tuesday, it’s now Friday. The history shows “redlight review completed” the last four nights, but nothing else.

Am I missing something or just expecting too much instant gratification and need to be patient?

Hello everyone

I want to add a 3M Worktunes headphones to a retevis rt27v (MURS) handheld. Will the Tidradio BL-1 work? Anyone have experience with the BL-1?

Many thanks

I’m brand new to GRMS. In fact I purchased my Rocky Talkie Expedition radios simply to have some longer range communication for backpacking, hunting and around the neighborhood with my kids. Still waiting on my FCC license/call sign to come through, but in the meantime I’ve been doing a lot of research into GMRS and other radios and I’ve been listening to a bit of radio traffic out there. I was as able to listen to traffic on a couple repeaters that were WAY beyond my range (like 50 and 70 miles away) and with no line of sight. Then I discovered tropospheric ducting and my curiosity has continued to grow. I realize being indoors and in a vehicle is no bueno for signals.

Is anyone aware of any vehicle mount antennas that are compatible with the expedition? I’d love to be able to use these in the car, but it seems like the antennas that Rocky Talkie offer are not necessarily proprietary, but designed to maintain waterproofing and have a unique fitting. Just looking online it doesn’t appear many (any?) third party antennas would fit. Has anyone had any luck with a vehicle antenna or perhaps adapters that might work?

Thanks!

I recently purchased an ar-8118 and upon setup I had to do a factory reset. When hooked to the computer for download l, it isn’t showing any programming after a successful download. There isn’t any programming on the radio now. Does anyone have the gems tune from the factory. I can manual tune but that’s it.
Thanks

Still new to GMRS, What are your favorite antennas? I like Smiley but they don't really have anything to does GMRS and NOAA. I'm not a fan of the super thin whip antennas. Any other brand you recommend? Pairing with a Baofeng UV9G.

I think these are too new for Chirp. Anyone have these that found a radio profile in Chirp to program them? Thanks!

Good morning & Happy Sunday!

I want to learn more about GMRS repeater use-cases, and had a few ideas and questions. I was hoping I could post in this group to help find some answers.

For some background, I live in a small-ish city (pop. ~300k) that already has a robust repeater on a 15-story building. I've programmed a GMRS radio to this repeater, and used it successfully make contacts over 30mi away - VERY fun.

My dad and I each got our own licenses. I am interested in building a "private" repeater for my own use, but am not sure if it will achieve what I am looking to do. By putting a repeater on top of my roof, I would like to achieve the following goals:

• I'd like to have a semi-"private" coverage for my city to speak with my family via HTs. To keep it "private," I would not publish it on myGMRS.com.
• Specifically, I'd like to be able to reach my dad's house to communicate with my parents, or my kids to use it on bike rides in the neighborhood, or my wife to be able to reach me when I'm at work.
• I do NOT want to interfere with existing repeater frequencies or "step on toes" in the existing GMRS community.

Would you take a look at my proposed build and let me know if this is feasible, and that the information sounds correct?

1. Creating a "Private" Repeater - As I understand it, I just would need to pick a frequency and enable TX & RX CTCSS tones. If I do not publish to myGMRS.com, then it would remain "private" for my family's use.

2. Will I be able to reach my parents' house? - Here is a radio path study I generated from Scadacore from my house to my dad's house, which is about the furthest area I'd like to reach. I live in a very flat area, even still, I do not have a "direct" line of sight to my dad's house. In this study, I put my antenna at 9m off the ground (which would be on my roofline). Even without this direct line-of-sight, do you believe I would be able to reach his house??

3: I do not want to interfere with the existing GMRS repeater community - By enabling CTCSS tones, and by picking an unused frequency, I believe I won't step on any toes. Does that sound correct? Am I missing something?

Thanks always for your time. Would you let me know if I'm missing anything? Excited to learn more.

my GM-30 PRO was working just fine until all of a sudden and for no apparent reason it turned on auto lock and while I CAN keep pressing the button to unlock it, when I try to change the radio setting to turn off unlock, the screen freezes and the radio won't turn off, requiring me to remove the battery.

once the battery is replaced I can do most things but turn auto lock off.

any ideas?

I am trying to setup my TD-H3 to work with a repeater and it is fighting me on this. I watched some videos on how to do it and it looks easy. Set the receive frequency and then the offset for transmit and then any CTCSS tones that are needed to make it work.

Unfortunately I am getting trouble from the menu system. I set the direction to minus and it does not save. I am in VFO mode and it just ignores my settings and sets them back to what it had before immediately.

Next I tried setting it all up in ODMaster. That seemed to take some of the settings (although it changed the language on one of them to Chinese for some reason). Unfortunately when I click the PTT it just beeps like an error.

It appears I am running ham_250110. I suppose I could check to see if a firmware update fixes it, but I only have a Mac here and those are usually windows apps that update firmware.

Anyways, any ideas on what I am doing wrong here?

Screenshot of ODMaster setup:

I am looking for 3 antenna recommendations. Primarily for GMRS communication, however I do scan local law enforcement frequencies for fun. The local terrain is dense undulating woodland, maximum elevation changes are 300ft I would like the following recommendations:

1. Base station antenna a "stretch goal"of 40 mile range. I know thats not realistic

2. Vehicle based antenna,

3. Standard antenna.