GMRS radio's, anyone else ?
- Thread starter rm2092
- Start date
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70mikenike70
Well-Known Member
Ha that’s funny. Are you into radios? Do you GMRS or HAM? We are trying to get our GMRS footprint to grow in the Louisiana area.
Best bet is to get a VHF/UHF Mesh radio like Lora and setup some repeaters. No license needed, legal encryption via data packets, and scalable for your team when you have a group that needs comms. If you wanted to go plug and play check out GoTenna Pro but they have some good alternatives these days if you can do a bit of config and follow instructions or have someone help you.
I'm clearly a noob at this. Who do you talk to and about what?
Why? How so?
70mikenike70
Well-Known Member
Yes I got my tech license in January. I got my GMRS license last November. I’m in the Lake Charles radio club, W5BII is the club call sign. I do enjoy HAM more because it just works better and goes further. Not too many GMRS repeaters in your area. There really aren’t many HAM repeaters between us either.
Most of the GMRS repeater pairs in the Baton Rouge area at taken. I gave up on them I don't like the linked stuff they do.
Ham sounds better too.
I've talked of some ham repeaters between you and I like the Lafayette, New Iberia and Duson.
I mainly stay on our club repeaters the 146.835 and 442.700 both are in Jackson LA. I also used to talk a lot on the LWARN UHF linked repeaters when we were traveling all over La from Lafayette to Patterson to New Orleans to Slidell and into Miss around McComb.
Our member Drill Sgt on here used to talk to me from his house South of Denham Springs while we were making deliveries
70mikenike70
Well-Known Member
Well our club meets once a month and we discuss radio things and our club does an ARES net every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights at 8pm. We discuss emergency protocols for things that could happen. Now that hurricane season is approaching we will be discussing what we need to do to help people who don’t have phone service. Just basic stuff.
Am a ham here (since Jan 1978) and have no real interest in the GMRS radios because of what I have heard over the air transmissions and the ways that some of the operators conducted themselves thinking they could act and do things like they were on a CB radio... Live in the baton rouge area........ One main complaint that I have is with some of these GMRS operators are getting these cheap asian made radios and getting on legal Ham radio repeaters and trying to talk to each other where they are not legally allowed to be and when informed as such they disappear for a while and the reappear some time later.... Now getting on a local club repeater is one thing but when they get on repeaters that actually belong to government agencies then they are not only asking for personal trouble but endangering the rest of the legal public to be denied use of these repeaters.. Not a good idea because when the SHTF events (natural events or manmade) occur then it will not be there to be used for emergency communications.. GMRS at this time is not for me.... Let me get off this soapbox... .... drill sgt.
Something to chew on
I use to keep a cartoon over my reloading bench, 2 guys in boat fishing, and 3 mushroom clouds in the background, 1 guy turns to the other and says "you know what this means huh?" the other guy says "yeah, no size , or creel limits"
Moral of the story VHF and UHF will be the WILD WILD WEST in a long term grid down situation. Both bands are easy to DF or Jamb and will be monitored by bad actors, along with the ultimate bad actor(s) THE GOVERNMENT and not for FCC rules violations. Never use your radios from your HQ or even in your AO, transmit and move. If you need comms for your HQ - OP/LP get field telephones. There will be no internet or power for repeaters.
Assume simple cypher's will be broken immediately, data burst with PGP will slow them down but will not be secure from the ultimate bad actors. Use Low power and directional antenna to minimize interception.
10m-30m is harder to DF but doesn't always "skip" where you want it. Many years ago (pre-cell or landline in SA) I setup a net with a guy in New Orleans to talk to with the family while on assignment in South America. I ended up relaying through Pittsburgh. I was never much of a CQ guy anyway my interest always laid in data.
It's late in the game to start working out contingencies, the only bright spot will be as the conflict lingers the ultimate bad actors, capabilities will hopefully degrade.
I use to keep a cartoon over my reloading bench, 2 guys in boat fishing, and 3 mushroom clouds in the background, 1 guy turns to the other and says "you know what this means huh?" the other guy says "yeah, no size , or creel limits"
Moral of the story VHF and UHF will be the WILD WILD WEST in a long term grid down situation. Both bands are easy to DF or Jamb and will be monitored by bad actors, along with the ultimate bad actor(s) THE GOVERNMENT and not for FCC rules violations. Never use your radios from your HQ or even in your AO, transmit and move. If you need comms for your HQ - OP/LP get field telephones. There will be no internet or power for repeaters.
Assume simple cypher's will be broken immediately, data burst with PGP will slow them down but will not be secure from the ultimate bad actors. Use Low power and directional antenna to minimize interception.
10m-30m is harder to DF but doesn't always "skip" where you want it. Many years ago (pre-cell or landline in SA) I setup a net with a guy in New Orleans to talk to with the family while on assignment in South America. I ended up relaying through Pittsburgh. I was never much of a CQ guy anyway my interest always laid in data.
It's late in the game to start working out contingencies, the only bright spot will be as the conflict lingers the ultimate bad actors, capabilities will hopefully degrade.
22doberman22
choot'em
I’m in the BR area and have both HAM and GMRS. If I had to prep for testing again I would study for both tech and general since they offer for one to take the general test after passing the tech test at no extra charge in the same sitting, just an FYI for those who are wanting their HAM license.
I built a GMRS radio in a box for mobil applications a few years ago. Fun project.
I built a GMRS radio in a box for mobil applications a few years ago. Fun project.
^^^^^^ It is possible to program these radios by hand with face plate key pad entry..... But it is a ROYAL pain in the programers back side.. Much easier with computer programs that also make it so much easier to make changes as time goes by or for a total program if the current program gets erased............................ drill sgt.
You basically need a PhD and infinite patience to program using the menu buttons on this thing.
Programming cord comes in tomorrow and I'll use that.
Good news is that it sounded like I hit a repeater as there were a bunch of dudes talking while grilling on a Friday night.
The cable and a computer running CHIRP makes it so much easier. Once you get the radio set up, you can save the settings and share them. If you know someone who has settings you want, you can easily import it into your settings.
