HAM / GMRS Radio

Quote from EjFord

With the CB and the Gold Wing group we weren't looking for long range --- mile or so if we had a real big group. Not a lot of chatter --- more directions and road problems...and the girls would hollar for a 'potty' stop.

I agree for use in the slingshot I would not be concerned with range, just a connection to others in the group. On the other hand I did get into this primarily for communications should other forms go down for some reason and for that I like having all of the range I can get - - if you look at that repeater map I posted up above the San Andres fault runs right across the top and they have been saying that "The Big One" is way overdue - here is a fault map that shows where it runs compared to Palm Springs

another link that might be of interest - my gmrs NET info

all across the counter there are hundreds of repeaters and many of them participate in "NETs" where they link up with other repeaters to extend their range, some of them are very large and have times when you can connect to others across the entire country - unfortunately my repeater down here does not as of yet link up with any of these groups but for others here who live in other areas this might be a fun thing to investigate

WRUT771

Quote from Shadrac

As of this morning - I am official =)

WRVJ580

Radio will be ordered this week!

welcome - WRUT771 here

Quote from Shadrac

As of this morning - I am official =)

WRVJ580

Radio will be ordered this week!

be careful this can get addicting - I got my license 10/4 and I am already on radio #3 - - or at least I will be as soon as its delivered, was supposed to get here yesterday but now tracking is saying today

Okay - my newest radio just arrived a little bit ago, so here are my GMRS toys

Left - Baofeng GM-15 pro. my least expensive at $29

Right - Btech GMRS V2 which was $55

Center my new Wouxun KG-S88G which I got a Black Friday deal for $119

The antennas on the Wouxun & Btech are the Smiley 5/8 wave Slim Duck antenna

Quote from DJohnson

With a 5W handheld on flat land how far can I expect to reach a repeater? It is around 10 miles to the closes one and less it is on a cell tower if can't be much higher then a two story building. Where I hunt the closes would be 25 miles on flat land. I think I might be removing the radio from my Christmas list.

the repeater here in the valley is on a hill that is 17.6 miles down valley from me and I have no problem hitting it - I can even hit it with very good transmit quality on the 1/2 watt setting. I also know of people on 5 watts who have hit repeaters over 50 miles - - just so long as you have a fairly unobstructed line of site and even on flat ground repeaters usually have their antennas mounted up on tall towers - ours is on a 100 foot tower

please follow this link - it will bring up a map that has most of the GMRS repeaters. use the + thing to enlarge and zoom in on your area you can then click on the dot with the number of repeaters on it and then each go the little repeater symbols and this will open up that repeaters information and tell you the range it covers

GMRS Repeater map

I dont know where exactly you are but I did a quick check of a repeater in Gainesville and it has a 40 mile coverage range

looking at the info for the repeaters in the areas you are interested in will give you a much better answer than I can without knowing the repeaters antenna heights

EDIT - you can also register on this same site and then use it to request access to any repeater you might want to use now or in the future - - in fact I just used it to request access to the Delta 700 repeater in the Los Angeles area - damn thing covers a HUGE area that could come in very handy when I am out of the valley

One thing more that I highly recommend is the Nagoya 771g antenna. Most of the stock antennas that come with the handheld radios are 1/4 wavelength antennas that are tuned to cover a larger frequency range than just GMRS - this is great for the radio manufactures because they can use the same antennas on both the GMRS radios and the HAM radios that they sell, but unfortunatly it means the antenna is not perfectly tuned for just GMRS and performance is not as good as it could be

The Nagoya 771g antenna is a longer 1/2 wave antenna specifically designed and tuned for GMRS and can greatly improve transmit distance and receive quality of weaker signals.

word of caution if you do decide to get the 771g be sure to get it from a reputable seller, there are apparently counterfeits being sold that are not good both Btech and buy two way radios are licensed dealers and Btech has a store on Amazon which is where I got mine - amazon link - buy two way link

the antenna can be bought with either a SMA female connector, SMA male, or a BNC - so be sure to get the one that fits your radio - as far as I know the SMA female version seems to be the one that fits most radios - fit all three of mine

Nagoya 771g is on the Wouxun and the other two radios have the Smiley 5/8 wave Slim Duck antenna which is also much better antenna than the stock antenna, not quite as good as the Nagoya in my testing, but much more convenient to carry - Smiley link

I see you decided to get the 905 instead of the 805 - - very good choice

Okay - I'm just going to throw this out there because its something that I am very glad I did.

Shortly after getting my first radio, the Btech, I decided I wanted to be able to test things without having to rely on some other person being available on the airways that could help me. My solution was to order this very inexpensive ratio from Amazon - link here

having more than one radio lets me test things without the help of non family members and with my security cameras I can even leave this radio home in front of a camera and then drive off with my good radios and see if my range gets back to my home

It addition I like that I have a radio that if it gets lost or broken it won't be a big deal at $29 it wont be the end of the world

And the best part is that they offer it in a bunch of different colors and I was able to get red to match my Slingshot

Quote from Shadrac

Makes a ton of sense!

Just ordered

another thing that's nice about this little radio is that it charges off a USB-C which makes it perfect to toss in a car or the slingshot.

YES!

in your settings there are two type of tone codes DCS codes and CTCSS codes - when the tones are given in Hz that means it is a CTCSS tone - the tone you are interested in for using the repeater is the input tone this is the tone needed to "open" the repeater so you can use it - - in the case of the repeater info above you want to set it up on repeater channel 17 and then set the TX-CTCSS to 97.4 Hz - - that's all you have to do

Repeater channels share the receive frequency with the non repeater channels - - if you are on repeater channel 17 your radio actually transmits 5 MHz higher than the channel - so in this example you will be transmitting on 467.600 and you will be receiving on 462.600 - - people who are on regular channel 17 will transmit and receive on 462.600 - - you can set the RX-CTCSS to the output tone 103.5Hz and this will set your radio so that you dont hear the people using the non repeater channel - you will only hear people using the repeater

people I have talked to recommend that you dont set the RX tone - they say that it is better this way so that you can hear the traffic on the channel and wait until it is clear before you start talking

on all of my programed repeater channels I have only set the input tone - TX-CTCSS or TX-DCS

also you can go in on the 905 and find CH-NAME and give the programmed channel a name that tells you which repeater it is so that you dont have to remember what number is which repeater

if that's the area you are in you should also request the other janesville repeater - it looks to have a bit better coverage

Also when you get it programmed you can try to see if its all working be asking for a "radio Check" - - just announce your call sign and ask "can I get a radio check' - - - - of course you probably already know this, but figured it couldn't hurt

hopefully the repeaters in your area are very active - - ours down here can be really slow - but I have found one guy who is always listening and I now ask if out there by name - - one of these days going to have to take the slingshot and go down and actually meat the guy