What Radio Should I Buy?

May 5, 2024 ~ admin

One of the first questions you will find yourself asking after getting your GMRS license is “What radio should I buy?” Although there is no single answer to this question, this article will aid you in your research.

What types of radios (stations) are there?

There are three types of GMRS stations:

Base Station: a radio used in a stationary place such as your home or office. This radio is usually connected to a larger, outdoor antenna and can be used with or independently of a repeater within its coverage area. This will give you great coverage from your home “base”.
Mobile Station: radios usually installed in vehicles. Radio is usually 10-50 Watts output and uses the battery supply of the vehicle and an antenna mounted to the vehicle by either a magnet, hole drilled, or other bracket. Most of these types of radios can also be used as a base station with the addition of a power supply.
Portable Station; handheld radios designed to be carried on the person. This is the most common radio GMRS licensees start out with. Sometimes called an “HT” (handheld transceiver), “walkie-talkie”, or “portable”. These radios are self-contained and very convenient. They are for short range communications and only operate at a fraction of the performance of a mobile or base station (defined above). They operate poorly inside of vehicles, enclosed buildings, and have inefficient antennas.

GMRS handheld radios suck! Click here to find out why…

What type of station do I need?

Base / Mobile

For communicating with any other station or repeater that is more than a couple of miles away from you.

Portable

For communicating with any other station or repeater that is less than a couple of miles away from you.

Why do we say that your portable GMRS radio, which advertises a 50 mile range on it’s packaging, is only good for a couple of miles or less?

Advertised ranges are based on perfect laboratory conditions, and are not to be expected in the real world. We say that a portable radio is “for communicating with any other station or repeater that is less than a couple of miles away from you”, because you can expect this range reliably. Portable GMRS radios are not actually limited to communications distances of only a couple of miles or less. In reality, radio range depends on several variables. Although rare, it is possible for a portable GMRS radio to make successful communications across distances of 100 miles or more if the atmospheric and terrain conditions are just right.

What are the requirements for a GMRS compatible radio?

These are absolute bare-minimum requirements in order for your radio to support GMRS.

Analog Voice: the radio must be able to transmit and receive analog voice audio communications
462MHz-467MHz: the radio must support frequencies in the 462MHz-467MHz UHF (ultra-high frequency) range. VHF (Very High Frequency) radios will not work for GMRS.
25KHz Bandwidth: the radio must support 25KHz bandwidth, also known as “wideband”. Narrowband only radios should be avoided. Some radios labeled as “GMRS radios” do not actually support wideband (Midland MXT105, MXT115, MXT275) making this difficult.
Repeater Capable: although not technically a requirement to be a GMRS radio, it is important to note that not all GMRS radios are repeater capable. For example, most GMRS handheld radios sold in big-box stores are not repeater capable.

The FRS/GMRS handheld radios commonly sold in stores are not repeater capable and cannot be re-programmed.

What brands should I look for?

While we will try to aid in your search for reliable radios, it is important to note that this information is subjective and is the shared opinion of several experienced repeater owners in the Arkansas GMRS Repeater Group.

Commercial Grade Radios

It is important to note that GMRS was originally a commercial / business radio service before the FCC opened it up to individuals and families. Since the opening of GMRS, most commercial services and businesses have replaced their old GMRS compatible equipment with modern digital radio technology.

Due to these recent changes in GMRS and radio technologies, there is a large surplus of commercial grade GMRS-compatible radios available on the used market (e.g. eBay, FB Marketplace, Mercari) from highly reputable manufacturers such as Kenwood and Motorola. Although typically pre-owned, these radios are extremely high quality and dependable.

The #1 downside to commercial grade radios is programming them. Often, it is required to obtain specialized cables and computer software in order to program and change the settings of commercial radios – whereas consumer grade radios can usually be programmed on-the-fly via the radios built-in buttons.

Another downside to commercial radios is that they are extremely basic in nature. They were designed to be programmed once, and then used by anyone in the fleet whether or not they had any previous knowledge of radio operation – “just pick up the mic and talk!” Commercial radios often lack “extra” features seen in modern consumer radios such as out-of-band scanning, weather alert radio receiver, FM radio receiver, etc.

Pros:
- High quality
- Usually inexpensive
Cons:
- Inconvenient programming
- Less “extra” features

Commercial Grade Radio Brands

Kenwood
Motorola
Maxon
Vertex Standard
Standard Horizon
Icom
Hytera
EF Johnson

If you are a member of a GMRS club or group such as the Arkansas GMRS Repeater Group, then you likely already have access to the programming cable and software for any commercial radio you can find through your fellow members and repeater owners. Just ask!

Consumer Grade Radios

With the sudden rise in popularity of GMRS, the consumer market has recently been flooded with low-quality transceivers making it difficult to find something worthy of your hard-earned money. It is the opinion of the author of this article and several experienced repeater owners that most all of the following brands & radios are significantly overpriced and of much lower quality than the commercial grade options listed above. Most of these brands sell the same radios, just under different labels.

Of the consumer brands available, Midland and Wouxon are highly rated by GMRS licensees and are the only recommended brands.

Pros:
- Easy programming
- Extra features
Cons:
- Lower quality
- More expensive

When looking for mobile radios, it is recommended to consider the commercial grade radios listed previously, which can usually be obtained for less than half the price of a new Midland or Wouxon mobile unit.

Midland

Midland sells radios that are specifically designed for GMRS and are extremely easy to use. They come pre-programmed with GMRS channels and require little to no setup in order to use. They do not need a computer to be programmed.

Beware of these Midland models that are narrowband only and do not support wideband operation. These should not be used for GMRS. MXT105, MXT115, MXT275.

Wouxon

Wouxon also sells pre-programmed GMRS radios. These radios offer more “extra” features which makes them less intuitive to operate than Midland radios. They are not required to be PC programmed, but they do support it. Wouxon handhelds and mobiles have superheterodyne receivers which offer significantly higher reception performance than other consumer brands.

Not Recommended

These radio brands are not recommended as they are known for one or more of the following: high price, low value, poor audio quality, difficult to hear audio, and/or poor performance.

Numerous of these low-quality consumer brands exist with more and more popping up over time:

Baofeng
BTECH
Tidradio
Radioddity
TYT
Retevis
Aliunce
AnyTone
Quansheng
and more…

Examples of GMRS Compatible Radios

These tables contain some examples of Part 95 (GMRS) accepted & repeater compatible radios to aid you in your search. These lists are not exhaustive.

Please be aware that the prices listed in these tables are either estimates or MSRP obtained at the time this article was written, and will likely change drastically over time.

Commercial Radios

Type	Manufacturer	Model	TX Power	Approx. Price
Mobile	Kenwood	NX-800H	45W	$200
Mobile	Kenwood	TK-8180HK	45W	$75
Mobile	Kenwood	TK-860HG	40W	$40
Mobile	Kenwood	TK-880H	40W	$50
Mobile	Kenwood	TK-8180K	30W	$75
Mobile	Kenwood	TK-860G	25W	$60
Mobile	Kenwood	TK-880	25W	$40
Mobile	Motorola	M1225	45W	$75
Mobile	Vertex (Yaesu)	VX-5500	50W	$130
Mobile	Vertex (Yaesu)	VX-4200	45W	$150
Mobile	Vertex (Yaesu)	VX-3200	40W	$60
Mobile	Vertex (Yaesu)	VX-2500	25W	$75
Portable	Icom	F40GT-2	4W	$190
Portable	Kenwood	TK-370	4W	$30
Portable	Kenwood	TK-380	4W	$30
Portable	Kenwood	TK-390	4W	$50
Portable	Ritron	RTX450	6W	$40

Note: Some commercial radio brands/models might require additional work to get programmed – more than just a cable purchase and a software download. One example of this includes the Motorola XPR series, which officially requires a unique code called an “entitlement key” to be purchased from Motorola and entered into the programming software before programming of wideband channels are allowed.

Consumer Radios

Type	Manufacturer	Model	TX Power	Approx. Price
Mobile	Baofeng/BTECH	GMRS-50V2	50W	$210
Mobile	Midland	MXT400	40W	$250
Mobile	Midland	MXT500	50W	$400
Mobile	Midland	MXT575	50W	$400
Mobile	Wouxon	KG-1000G	50W	$390
Portable	Baofeng/BTECH	GMRS-PRO	5W	$140
Portable	Baofeng/BTECH	GMRS-V2	5W	$65
Portable	Motorola	MS350R		Discontinued, check used markets
Portable	Olympia	R500		Discontinued, check used markets
Portable	Tera	TR-505	4W	$100
Portable	Wouxon	KG-905G	4W	$120
Portable	Wouxon	KG-935G	5W	$150
Portable	Wouxon	KG-S88G	5W	$140
Portable	Wouxon	KG-Q10G	6W	$220

Antennas for All – An introduction to Antennas

May 5, 2024 ~ admin

You can have the best radio in the world, but it doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t have a useful antenna on it.

Let’s say you are new to GMRS and all you have is a handheld (HT) radio. Immediately what most do is to try to figure out the range of their signal. They may be able to go a couple miles, but soon they realize that they aren’t using the full extent of their license and making the most of their radio system. They might look to improve- and that’s what this article is for.

The antenna summarized in a word would be COMPROMISE. It’s a compromise among a number of considerations, such as budget and spousal approval. Nevertheless the best improvement one can make to their station today – as a HT user – and tomorrow as a proper 50 watt repeater and 200′ tower – is to improve what antenna they use.

The concept is pretty simple. An antenna put out energy (it “radiates”) in almost all directions. In fact the ideal antenna radiates energy in all direction, but as you can imagine such an antenna exists only in text books. Here you can see the source being the red dot in the middle, and the wire mesh is the radiated power. If this is a bit confusing, just hang in there.

The most iconic antenna is the Dipole. It is a fundamental building block to other designs. A Dipole is 1/2 wavelength long, which at GMRS Frequencies is about 12 inches. This is what it’s pattern looks like:

You can see the radiation pattern in the bright red ring. It very much looks like a donut shape. The dipole would run through the hole of the donut. You’ll also see two cross sectional pictures – the Elevation and the Azimuth.

You can see now that we went from a perfect sphere to a donut. This squashing and changing of the antenna radiation pattern is what makes or breaks an antenna. It’s also why there are so many weird and odd designs for antennas. Here’s a comparison of the two if we overlay a cross sectional look:

You can see where the green gets “smushed” down to make it go more out horizontally. For us this is a good thing. Usually the people or repeaters we want to talk to are at the horizon. There are other antenna designs that smash this even flatter, which we will look at shortly.

The dipole is also known as a “1/2 wave antenna” if you look up a mobile version. Many times mobile stations will use 1/4wave antennas. The patterns are similar as electrically with a ground plane of a car, they work much like a dipole.

~Which brings up a good point, without enough ground plane for an antenna to “work” against, you are essentially cutting your antenna in half.~

So with this idea of smashing down the donut, you can even make it flatter into a pancake. So unless I’ve lost you, you can make your power go from a ball to a donut to a pancake. You can even “stack” these antennas, which is to say put more together. For example, the go to common repeater class antenna is the DB420 antenna, made by Decibel (or who ever owns it this week). This antenna has 16 dipoles mounted on a 20 foot long pole with a gain of 11.3dBi (dBi means the number of dB over an isotropic antenna) this means you signal is ~15.2 times as powerful out on the horizon then our simple little perfect ball. It also means that it is ~9.15dBd (dBd means the number of dB over a dipole, the only practical reference antenna). In these terms, that means that the signal is about 8.5 times stronger at the horizon than the dipole.

So let’s step back and think about this for a minute. Let’s say I’m running 5 watts into a DB420 repeater antenna (we’ll just ignore feedline loss, that’s for another article.) In order to get that same radiated power (i.e. coverage, distance, etc.) while using a dipole, you would have to transmit 42.5 Watts.

This isn’t magic or free energy. This is just moving around the part of the radiated signal into a more useful direction.

In the next article of Antennas for All we are going to move away from theory and talk more about choosing which to build or buy.

Handheld Radios (kinda) Suck

May 3, 2024 ~ admin

The General Mobile Radio Service is a radio service that favors mobile radios.

Almost every users first GMRS radio is of the handheld or “portable” variety. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this! Handheld radios can be extremely affordable, easy to use, and just make sense for a lot of GMRS licensees – but there are some things you should know about handheld / portable radios in the context of GMRS repeaters.

Why do they suck?

GMRS is an acronym for General Mobile Radio Service. In this context, a “mobile” station typically comprises a high-powered radio (10-50 watts) and an externally mounted antenna (roof, trunk, etc), installed on a moving vehicle like a car, truck, tractor, or ATV. These mobile installations will always drastically outperform handheld stations for a few reasons:

Low-Quality Radios: While not always the case, the GMRS market is flooded with low-quality handheld radios. Merely being labeled as “mobile” doesn’t inherently make a radio superior, but generally, they do tend to have more sensitive receivers, better audio quality, etc.
Power: While transmit power isn’t the sole factor, having more than double the power of a handheld radio can enhance signal transmission through obstacles, atmospheric conditions, and noise.
Antenna Location: Portable GMRS radios will not perform inside of a vehicle without connecting them to an externally mounted antenna. The body of the vehicle acts like a faraday cage blocking most radio signals. Given that you need an external antenna anyways, go ahead and hook a better radio up to it!
Antenna Size: Larger mobile stations allow for physically larger antennas. Handheld radios sacrifice antenna efficiency for portability.
Antenna Height: While your car’s roof may not be significantly taller than you, raising the antenna can increase signal strength, similar to holding your cell phone higher to get better reception.
Antenna Polarization: Antennas must be oriented the same way as the transmitting or receiving antenna for optimal signal exchange. Mounting an antenna on a vehicle ensures it’s positioned straight up and down, whereas handheld radios are prone to being moved around and held at an angle, affecting performance due to improper orientation.
Antenna Ground Plane: Installing a large metal surface beneath the antenna creates a “ground plane”, acting as a reflector that aids RF signal interaction. Handheld radios rely on the person holding the radio as a ground plane, which is less efficient compared to the roof of a vehicle.

Portable GMRS radios are good candidates for short-range communications – only a few miles.

Repeater Coverage Comparison

Here is a visual example using the estimated coverage of one of our flagship wide-area repeaters, NWA700. Drag the slider back & forth to see the difference between coverage when using a portable vs. mobile radio. Simply using a mobile station increases the calculated usable coverage area by 265% (nearly 4x the range).

Northwest Arkansas 700 Repeater – Handheld vs. Mobile Coverage

Why should I care?

Handheld radios are great for short-range group communications in scenarios such as small events, camping, hiking, hunting, and more where a lightweight & convenient transceiver is needed. In the context of the Arkansas GMRS Repeater Group – a lot of users interested in repeaters tend to want to “range test” or see “how far they can talk”. Combined with the popularity of affordable portable GMRS radios, it’s no surprise that significant amounts of repeater traffic come from underpowered portable radios that are too just far away from the repeater for reliable communications.

If you’re looking to use GMRS for distances over a few miles, or reach a repeater from over a few miles away, you need a mobile or base station!

What mobile or base radio should I buy?

Great question! Although the consumer GMRS market is saturated with low-quality radios from overseas (Midland, Rugged Radios, Baofeng, Tidradio, Radioddity, Pofung, etc), some are ok – YMMV. Used commercial radios like Motorola and Kenwood are almost always cheaper and significantly higher quality than any “new” radio on the market.

For more information about radio purchasing, please see What Radio Should I Get?

GMRS Channels / Frequencies

April 20, 2024 ~ admin

GMRS operates in the Ultra-High Frequency Band, otherwise known as UHF. GMRS is allotted 30 channels—16 main channels and 14 interstitial channels.

credit: https://midlandusa.com/why-gmrs-for-two-way-radio-communication/ (a) 462 MHz main channels. Only mobile, hand-held portable, repeater, base and fixed stations may transmit on these 8 channels. The channel center frequencies are:

462.5500
462.5750
462.6000
462.6250
462.6500
462.6750
462.7000
462.7250

(b) 462 MHz interstitial channels. Only mobile, hand-held portable and base stations may transmit on these 7 channels. The channel center frequencies are: 462.5625, 462.5875, 462.6125, 462.6375, 462.6625, 462.6875, and 462.7125 MHz. (c) 467 MHz main channels. Only mobile, hand-held portable, control and fixed stations may transmit on these 8 channels. Mobile, hand-held portable and control stations may transmit on these channels only when communicating through a repeater station or making brief test transmissions in accordance with §95.319(c). Commonly called “Repeater Inputs”, The channel center frequencies are:

467.5500
467.5750
467.6000
467.6250
467.6500
467.6750
467.7000
467.7250

(d) 467 MHz interstitial channels. Only hand-held portable units may transmit on these 7 channels. The channel center frequencies are: 467.5675, 467.5875, 467.6125, 467.6375, 467.6625, 467.6875, and 467.7125 MHz.

Let’s Operate!

April 19, 2024 ~ arkradio

Okay, I Have A Radio! Now What!

Here are a couple of pointers to help you get started, including some FCC and local “rules”…

To use a repeater, your radio needs to be capable of something called semi-duplex. Repeaters requires a separate input frequency, output frequency, and usually a Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System (CTCSS) or DCS (Digital Coded Squelch) tone to operate. For instance, a repeater in the listing might have an input of 467.600MHz, an output of 462.600MHz, and a CTCSS tone of 146.2Hz. Your radio needs to transmit on 467.600MHz, listen on 462.600MHz and transmit (encode) a CTCSS tone of 146.2Hz. We have YouTube videos on how to program common radios with free software, or follow the instructions that may have come with your radio.

When using or “hitting” a repeater, the repeater will usually transmit a silent carrier (silent signal) for a short time immediately after you let off the button, typically a half-second up to 3 seconds. There may also be some sort of audible courtesy tone or beep. This courtesy tone is intended to let you know that the person transmitting has finished, and now it is your turn. You do not need to use your own courtesy tones, “roger beeps” or any other audio transmitting on your radio and can turn any such features off. Make sure to use your call sign when transmitting at all times.
When using a repeater, you must identify your transmission, regardless of how short or long that transmission is. Just clicking the button on your radio to see if you can ‘hit the repeater” is bad form, frowned upon, and really doesn’t tell you much. You want to make sure that not only can you get to the repeater, but that others can actually hear you as well. Use your FCC call sign and your Group ID if you’d like. Your FCC license requires you to identify:
- Following a single transmission, or series of transmissions
- After 15 minutes (if your conversation lasts 15 minutes or more)
- At least once every 15 minutes after the initial 15 minute ID (if your conversation lasts 30 minutes or more)

You do NOT need to say your callsign every time you press the transmit button during a conversation. This means that you can call someone and talk, but you need to use your call sign when you’re done talking as well as every 15 minutes during. If there are 2 people under the same call sign talking, theoretically BOTH parties must identify after the conversation is complete. We hope and require that at least one of you does. It is good practice to START your transmission with your call sign also, including any “tactical” unit numbers you were assigned or your family may have decided to use.

Sometimes you will hear someone say “WABC123 Monitoring”. This means WABC123 is listening to the repeater and is open to short conversations.
If you are testing your radio to see if things are working, you should say “WABC123 Testing”. You may get replies from others but you don’t need to answer. If you’re looking to test without any response, you could say “WABC123 testing, no response needed”. DO NOT JUST CLICK THE RADIO!
Clicking the repeater to see if you can get into is is poor form and doesn’t really tell you anything. You can hear the the repeater, transmit and “open up” the repeater, but you have no idea what your audio quality is. Just because you can transmit to it does not always mean that your signal is good. If you’re curious, transmit something like “WABC123, how well am I being heard?” or something of that nature. Chances are someone will come back to you and tell you what your signal quality is.
We have members that may have or currently use other systems like ham radio, police band, CB radio or others. In GMRS, we use plain English and no codes or slang. Keep slang from other services there. Talk in plain English like you would when you speak to someone in person.
GMRS is in the Ultra-High frequency band, otherwise known as UHF. UHF has a small wavelength and the signal likes to bounce off of things. Due to this, UHF is considered line of sight. We try to place repeaters with antennas in very high places so they can see far across the horizon. However, as a GMRS user, you may find times you’re unable to access a repeater. This is usually due to distance to the repeater, operation of a portable radio in a car (car acts like a cage and holds the radio transmissions inside the vehicle), tree cover absorbing the signal and so on. If something doesn’t work, try to get an antenna higher in the air and try again.
The General Mobile Radio Service, or GMRS, is just that; a service designed for mobile radio use. Over the years, it’s morphed into a lot of people using portable radios for their communications. However, many repeaters are designed and mapped for the use of higher powered mobile radios. Your ability to access a repeater with a portable will always be predicated on your location, height, and obstructions. Repeater maps are designed for mobile coverage and portable coverage will be less than indicated.
We are a family-centric group. Repeater owners do not allow swearing, music, whistling or other prohibited communications on our affiliated systems, linked or stand alone. You should be familiar with prohibited communications, which can be found HERE.
When communicating on a repeater, make sure to leave some space between transmissions just in case someone needs to get in or even has an emergency. We have had instances where emergencies that a member needed help with came over the air. Please be kind and help your fellow users by leaving space here and there between transmissions.
The linked repeaters are a value add to users for wider area coverage. Repeater owners who have linked their systems want and allow their systems to be used. There is no reason to be afraid of it and want it used. In return, be respectful of their repeater and work.
Linked repeaters behave like stand alone repeaters when their link is down for whatever reason since it is just remote control. All repeaters have a “coverage area” and that local coverage area does not change whether its linked or not. If the link is down, many cases the repeater is still on the air and working locally unless there was a failure at the site for some reason that knocked the whole system off the air. It’s electronics, it happens sometimes, albeit rarely.
Once a month, we have something called a “net”. This net, or Network, is hosted on the linked repeaters and is more or less a radio-based meeting. Someone calls a net using a script, and reads out times for members to “check in”. This is your attendance, and is completely optional. It is an EXCELLENT way to test your radios monthly because if the net controller can hear you and acknowledges, your signal is getting through! It is also a time for various members around the system to pass information or announcements to the group and listeners as a whole. Don’t be afraid, check in and say hi!

What is CTCSS/CDCSS?

April 18, 2024 ~ arkradio

CTCSS – Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System
- 141.3Hz – An example of a CTCSS tone
CDCSS – Continuous Digital Coded Squelch System
- D023N – An example of a “normal” CDCSS code
- D023I – An example of an “inverted” CDCSS code
DCS – Digital Coded Squelch (another term for CDCSS)
PL/DPL – Motorola’s terms for CTCSS/CDCSS
QT/DQT – Kenwood’s terms for CTCSS/CDCSS
Privacy Tone – Midland’s terms for CTCSS/CDCSS

Setting up any of these on your radio will NOT keep other people from hearing your transmissions. They ONLY allow you to filter out transmissions that you do not want to hear.

You will these terms used a LOT in the radio world. These are all forms of Coded Squelch. Coded squelch is used to minimize interference to radio systems operating on the same frequency, otherwise called co-channel transmissions or interference. Coded squelch allows a radio receiver to be configured such that it only opens up when it receives transmissions with the correct “code”. This configuration “blocks” transmissions with no code, or the wrong code, from being received. Repeater owners usually set up their repeaters to operate this way so that it is much less likely for someone to accidentally key up the repeater. It also acts sort-of like a “password” to the repeater, since anyone wanting to use the repeater must first program the correct code into their radio. NOTE: nothing about coded squelch is secure or private. Even if the squelch code is not made “public”, most radios have the ability to scan the air for whatever squelch codes are being used in seconds.

A lot of radios have the ability to encode special “bursts” into the end of the CTCSS/DCS data to tell the receiving radio to stop listening a split-second early, before the “squelch crash”. This results in a very smooth, silent, end of transmission instead of a harsh burst of noise. These are called reverse bursts, chicken bursts, turn-off codes, etc. If your radio has the option, turn it on!

NOTE: When programming Motorola radios, ALWAYS use “non-standard” (all radio compatible) reverse burst instead of “standard” (only Motorola compatible).

Repeater Listing Example

GMRS Call Sign: WRBK701 (This is the repeater owner registered with the Group)

Repeater Frequency Pair: 462.650 & 467.650 (462.650 would be the “output ” or frequency your repeater listens to the repeater on and 467.650 is the “input” or frequency you transmit to the repeater on. Just like the frequency list above)

CTCSS/PL Tones: 127.3 (TX and RX) (this is the CTCSS tone to access this repeater. You need to have 127.3 Hz programmed into the “TONE” or CTCSS/PL section of your radio programming.)

Each repeater in our group can use one channel each in your radio, especially if you have a radio that “identifies” a repeater by name on its readout. You may hear other repeaters if they have the same pair and tone (CAS700 and NWA700 for instance). You can name them regardless separately but know you may hear one on the other as you travel to those areas.

How to Talk on a Repeater

April 18, 2024 ~ admin

Ok now, hang on – before you roll your eyes – maybe there are some people that really aren’t sure how to use a repeater. I can assure you that at first, I didn’t know how, and it kept me from ever really using my radios. Therefore, I provide this quick and dirty scenario-based “article” of sorts, with examples, to help ease the minds of any nervous or mic shy GMRS licensees.

before doing anything on a repeater

LISTEN FIRST. Listen for a good 60 seconds to make sure you aren’t going to key up on top of someone else.
VERBALLY identify yourself via callsign at the end of your transmission, and every 15 minutes (if you’re using the frequency for longer than 15 minutes).
KEEP IT RESPECTFUL and do not say anything that you wouldn’t want half of the state to hear you say… because they can!
RADIO LINGO or JARGON is not needed on GMRS. Other radio services might have “radio lingo” or “famous sayings”; leave them there. GMRS is plain, non-coded easy to understand for everyone. Keep CB, ham radio, or other services on their respective bands.

if You want to know if your radio can reach the repeater

Just talk to someone! A conversation is the best test. You will hear the repeaters courtesy “beep” informing you that the repeater heard your transmission.
DO NOT simply key up for half a second and wait for the “beep”. This is called “kerchunking” and is technically in violation of FCC regulations as transmission without identification

Ex: “WRKF394, I just finished installing a new radio in my car, can anyone hear me?”

if You want to see if anyone wants to chat

Just say so! Identify yourself. This announces your presence, and if someone is listening and they hear you, they might respond if they also want to chat.

Ex: “WRKF394, I’m driving home from work if anybody wants to chat”

IF YOU WANT TO “CALL” FOR SOMEONE

Say the call sign of the person you are calling, followed by your callsign

“WRBK701, this is WRKF394. Chris, are you listening?”

if more than 1 person regularly uses your callsign

GMRS allows one call sign to cover multiple family members. If you have multiple people that use your call sign (like my family), it can get confusing.
I suggest you use unique identifiers, or “unit numbers”, in addition to your call sign. These numbers can be whatever you want.
Upon applying for membership with the Arkansas GMRS Repeater Group, you will also be given unit numbers that you can use if you want.

Ex: “WRKF394, A100. A103, do you copy?”

if you have an emergency

Alert anyone listening that you have emergency traffic
Continue with your emergency transmission

Ex: “Emergency, emergency, emergency, this is WRKF394 with emergency traffic”

EXAMPLE GMRS REPEATER TRAFFIC

“WRBK701″

“WRKF394, unit 1. How’s it going, Chris?”

“It’s going well! I decided to go on a walk since the weather is so nice today. What are you up to?”

“Okay. Me and my brother are heading out to go camping. He’s following behind me and might have his radio on too. Unit 2, this is unit 1, do you have your radio on?”

“This is unit 2, yes I’m listening”

…………etc………….

“Alright Chris, we just pulled up to the campsite and we’re gonna hop out. Good talking with you today, hope to catch you again sometime soon. WRKF394”

“Sure thing, be safe out there! WRBK701”

This is just some information that I felt like getting out there. Remember… at the end of the day, it’s just a radio. There is no specific code of conduct for speaking that you have to perfectly abide by to keep from getting in trouble. Just be kind and courteous, follow a few simple rules, and have a good time! Be sure to reach out to someone (including us!) if you have any questions.