Portable GMRS Repeater

[kirkelli]

i had some spare GMRS radios from a previous Repeater upgrade and shoved them in a large Ammo can for portability.. I basically set up this portable repeater whereever i end up for a period of time.. Setting it up with no PL tones for easy access to the repeater.. I am amazed how busy this thing gets, especially up in Lake Crowley area and Lake Isabella area. And the range this set up as gotten is 75 miles.. Just curious if any of you folks use GMRS and find repeaters handy???

[Prussianblue]

I do a thing in the desert with LOTS of other campers and GMRS is kind of useless due to too many folks trying to use those frequencies. So we rent a commercial UHF repeater that works quite well. But for general camping I am guessing your GMRS repeater would be great.

[stinger608]

I have just started getting into GMRS and recently got my license for them.

I haven't even had a chance to mess with connecting to repeaters yet and really want to see how all of that works.

The portable radios I have, have 8 repeater channels on them.....I think. LOL

I'm not even sure how that works? Does it turn into a repeater? Or does it find a repeater?

[Prussianblue]

There are two modes. Direct Mode is radio to radio simplex on the same frequency. Repeater transmits on one frequency which is the input frequency of the repeater. The repeater re-transmits your signal on a different frequency (repeater output) that every one listens to.

[kirkelli]

Originally Posted by Prussianblue

I do a thing in the desert with LOTS of other campers and GMRS is kind of useless due to too many folks trying to use those frequencies. So we rent a commercial UHF repeater that works quite well. But for general camping I am guessing your GMRS repeater would be great.

as long as you stay away from big cities, i.e. Las Angeles, GMRS is pretty handy.. FRS bands get a little comical at time.. I typically tune my repeater to 462.250..

[kirkelli]

Originally Posted by stinger608

I have just started getting into GMRS and recently got my license for them.

I haven't even had a chance to mess with connecting to repeaters yet and really want to see how all of that works.

The portable radios I have, have 8 repeater channels on them.....I think. LOL

I'm not even sure how that works? Does it turn into a repeater? Or does it find a repeater?

the repeater channels are 15-22, 462.550-462.7250. Finding a repeater is typically found on MYGMRS.com. When i set up my portable i will post the ch and frequency on the camp information board. A few folks will set up temporary repeaters up at Lake Crawley and post info not he Camp Info Board as well. Very usefull when out on the lake... Check out MYGMRS.com lots of useful info there

[kirkelli]

Originally Posted by Prussianblue

There are two modes. Direct Mode is radio to radio simplex on the same frequency. Repeater transmits on one frequency which is the input frequency of the repeater. The repeater re-transmits your signal on a different frequency (repeater output) that every one listens to.

correct, but when you transmit on the repeater frequencies, you are allowed up to 50 Watts vs. 5 watts on the non-GMRS repeater channels and .5w on the FRS Channels.