Gulfstream Greg Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 I am building a GMRS repeater system. I am having a tuff time convincing my wife that she really should get her ham ticket. The first real disaster if she gets stuck out on the road and the cell phone and landline systems are offline and the roads are blocked she is going to wish she had a radio. So as an alternative a few of us are putting together a GMRS repeater. Hope to have it up and running my mid summer. So that brings up another point. GMRS radios in our toys. We all know about the bubble wrap frs/gmrs combo walki talkies (we hams call them HT's short for handi talkies) They unfortunately are not repeater capable. The frs side of the radio is really low power and the gmrs side can be up to 5 watts. The advertised range is very misleading. It usually means if you can see them with a pair of binoculars you can talk that far. Also you are supposed to acquire a license in order to use the gmrs side of those radios. The GMRS radios I am speaking of using repeaters can be up to 50 watts. With a repeater on a mountain top you can actually have a communications area of several hundred square miles. Even mobile to mobile communications not using a repeater can be several miles. So you ask why won't a bubble wrap radio be able to use a repeater? A repeater uses an input frequency and an output frequency. The mobile transmits on the repeater input and receives on the repeater output. The repeater receives and transmits at the same time, in other words it repeats what it hears simultaneously. All the mobiles get set up that way. The bubble wrap radios transmit and receive on the same frequency. A repeater can not receive and transmit on the same frequency at the same time. The mobile radios can also be set up to transmit and receive on the same frequency, of course with 50 watts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowltondata Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 I am having a tuff time convincing my wife that she really should get her ham ticket. $75 for a five year GMRS license verses $14 for a lifetime ham ticket...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gulfstream Greg Posted March 30, 2007 Author Share Posted March 30, 2007 I think it was $85, help me convince her! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal2269 Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 I travel across the Nevada (Moon) desert often. Radio ignorant. HELP.Cell phone no good. Wife would love to hear from me when im on large fires.Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Hey Greg are you responsable for the repeater just like a ham rig? Same basic rules? I know what you mean with the wife I can hardly get my wife to use a cell phone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gulfstream Greg Posted May 26, 2009 Author Share Posted May 26, 2009 I travel across the Nevada (Moon) desert often. Radio ignorant. HELP.Cell phone no good. Wife would love to hear from me when im on large fires.Thanks. Google GMRS repeaters and you will find some open ones across the country. There are no linked systems so unless your both in the coverage area you will not be able to communicate. Amateur radio on the other hand could achieve cross country back to home communications. Getting it all figured out before you got deployed though could be a challenge. Hey Greg are you responsable for the repeater just like a ham rig? Same basic rules? I know what you mean with the wife I can hardly get my wife to use a cell phone! Yes and no. You would be the owner and can restrict and even charge for usage. There are no rules as far as coordinating. Antenna height is limited to 20 feet above a structure with 50 watts max ERP (I think). I have my wife talked into a radio especially after the big cable cut out here where all the cell phones and landlines went down. But we still have not found a site to locate the repeater. We live in a steep mountainous area so a high level site is a must have for the coverage we need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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