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.

Hey everyone!

My partner and I just finished a road trip where we used a pair of Baofeng UV-5Gs to communicate between vehicles.

Battery life was solid! Her radio lasted well past the end of our 8 hour trip. We had bouts of yapping as well as typical roadtrip communication. Mine died in the last half hour but I did some scanning on repeaters and the other channels.

Overall clarity and reception was good! As you can see, we used the the stock antennas and I was pretty impressed. We had several times where we didnt even have line of sight and quality was still loud and clear. I'm sure an upgraded antenna would have bridged the few gaps we did have when we were probably close to 10 miles apart. All in all, for the PA mountains, I was very happy.

The best thing about these is that they're dead simple. My partner could use it no problem with no previous GMRS experience. The settings were very simple to get locked in and it was an enjoyable experience!

I know they arent top of the line but for the price and casual uses like this, I think they're great!

Hello. Not sure if this is allowed or not, but here goes.

I have a repeater programmed into my old Motorola radio. Got a new radio and want to put that repeater into it. Problem is, the computer that held the Motorola software and config file is gone.

There is a repeater in the Enfield, CT area I would like to get back onto. Anyone know the settings for it? I checked repeaterbook and MyGMRS, I couldn't find it.

Was recommended Baoefeng according to lots of FB "prepper" groups. After looking further into them - they definitely seem cheap and potentially not dependable. Budget friendly - sure ... I don't mind spending a few more bucks on something we can rely on. I want something my wife and I can travel with and depend on if we were to ever have to separate - even for a brief period of time! We definitely do not have any type of license or much experience, if any at all. We want decent range and dependability and something we can program - again - simply for just us 2 (at least for now). We are in the USA and discovering it's simple to get licensed for GMRS and then have better options that way VS just a walkie talkie grade route. Thanks in advance!

I was in the middle of testing some of my channels and also trying to scan for repeater ctcss tones when the system failed.   By the way the radio's power is hard wired into my Bronco. I am now stuck on the attached screen shot picture and can't move from this screen.  Also cannot shut the power down.  None of the controls are functioning. no idea how to disconnect from the battery... had a pro install it.

At the very least, I need to shut it down so won't kill my battery. Maybe a hard reset might work... but haven't found one yet. Thanks for the help.

This is my battery hook up

https://fccid.io/MMAMXT295

https://fccid.io/MMAMXMC95

Feel like I'm missing something stupid - the radio itself is on, volume up, and shows CLONE on the screen. Trying to backup my friend's modified profile before I load a good stock DB20-G profile.

Tried multiple USB ports, tried restarting my PC, also selected different ports in the dropdown.

Still just keep getting this error - got the legit cable in the mail today via Amazon. Any ideas? What am I missing?

EDIT - Starting to think it's the cable - tried the entire setup on a different computer, fresh install of both Chirp AND the Radioddity DB20-G Programming app. Still getting the same 0x06/0x50 error on both machines and both Chirp & Radioddity's version.

Saw another thread where someone mentioned trying to give the COM port a different number (didn't work), tried to disconnect/reconnect and power everything up in different orders (also didn't work), etc. Maybe I got a dud cable, going to reorder and hope for something better.

I recently acquired this duplexer for $20, which I assume was a very good deal. I am fairly familiar with the flat pack style mobile duplexers, but am a little lost on what I need for cabling to be even able to test what frequencies this is tuned for. It has two different sets of frequencies labelled on it. I got it with an msf5000 digital capable repeater, but neither frequency sets match what the repeater is programmed for.

I'm still very new to working on this stuff, so any insight would be very appreciated.

Is this a good handheld for GMRS?

The tidradio lifetime free poc radio? Thank you for your input.

Question for the smarticals out there. I was thinking of adding a CB radio to my GMRS setup in my truck. I have a Midland MXT115 installed already & I would be installing the CB right above the GMRS radio. My question is will there be a possibility that they interfere with each other if both radios transmitted at the same time?

Any advice and/or suggestions are appreciated!

Not looking to invest or install a mobile unit. With the right adapters would sticking a mobile magnetic antenna out the window on to the roof and running it off my UV5G Plus be worth the effort. To use while driving or posted up at a camping spot?

Hey I was putting together a purchase list for a small harbor freight case kit for my parents. Besides the obvious of the radio and antenna, do you guys have any other suggestions on add ins/ons for an emergency/hurricane radio kit?
I was possibly thinking of putting a solar panel on the outside to charge the radio in case of power outage.
Just curious if anyone with more experience could shed some knowledge?