New guy to GMRS radios. Where to begin? FCC done, Basics on the unit ok but learning acronyms and other like how to memory channels and repeaters ? How’s that work . Hoping I find solutions here. I tend to over complicate things……hello all
Well - memory channels are just preset locations you can switch to quickly, without bashing lots of buttons.
Remember radios like this can be set up to give (a) the best chance of talking to random strangers you don’t know, who also have GMRS radios or (b) little chance of hearing other random people you don;t want to be disturbed by. This is the clever one where you get the impression of privacy because your radios stay silent until your friends speak. They transmit to you on a specific frequency - you both send and receive on this frequency, but craftily your radio sends a tone (you don’t hear it) and only a radio with the same tone set perks up and your voice comes out. Strangers will be able to hear you, but if they reply, unless they too have the tone, your radio stays quiet. Let’s say you are a group of 4 people, each with a radio. You program in identical frequencies and tones and store them in channel 1. All 4 of you hear everybody. Forgive me (I’m a Brit) - can we also suggest that two of you are also Trump supporters, and your chat annoys the two Biden supporters? The two Trump supporters could use the same frequency, but pick a different tone frequency and stick that into channel 2. The remaining Biden supporters could put their tone in channel 3. You have only used one frequency, but created groups. If the two people on channel 2 drive you mad, select ch1 (or3) and you won’t hear them. If you chat on ch3, only your other ch 3 friend hears. It creates an illusion you have three channels. Of course all it really does is stop your radio hearing things you don’t wish to hear. All you need on the radio is to change from channel 1 to 2 or 3 as required.
You mentioned repeaters. The snag with the situation above is that range is not very far. In fairness, it is NOT the cost of the radio, the power, the antenna that sets range. In fairness, all those things have a small impact, but the biggie is geography and topography. radio waves can travel thousands of miles in a straight line. If one of your radios was son the space station, you’d be able to chat thousands of miles away - as in if you could see them, you can hear them. If you live by the side of a river, and your friend lives half a mile away but there’s a small hill between you - the land soaks up the RF energy - what goes over the hill goes in a straight line and goes way over your head. If you walked up the hill and stood on the top, you could talk to your friend, and to somebody in your house. getting to the top of the hill makes it work so much better. In fact, from the top of the hill you might be able to talk to somebody even further away. So - a repeater is two radios in one box. You stick it on the hill, and it can hear everyone in a much bigger radius around it. What it can hear, it then squirts back out on a different frequency. The upshot is anyone in it’s range can talk to anyone else in the area - even when they cannot talk to each other direct.
In the first example, you all used the same frequency, in the second, you set your radio to receive on one frequency and send on a different one. To access a repeater, you need the two frequencies, and any tones they use to give access. In your example, you would then stick this into channel 4, for ease and speed.
As I understand it, US GMRS repeaters tend to be privately funded and owned, so some are very welcoming, others less so. Upset the owner, and you get your access removed. There are a number of available legal frequencies, so if you can program your radio, you can set up your own system to be better suited to what you wish it to do.
The acronym stuff is just hobby jargon. Perhaps best practice, but how rigid you are depends on what you want to do. If you want to talk to strangers, it’s best to listen and learn. if they are ultra rigid, and perhaps have a repeater, then you need to fit in. Most disputes seem to be when party A wants party B to behave differently and they fall out. If you can program your radios, then you can turn all the tones off, enter all the frequencies into memories and you will hear everything in your area. You can then work out what you want and what you don’t. If there is a very busy multi user on one channel that will drive you mad, just don’t use that channel.
I can’t thank you enough for the detail info.
My challenge is now the how-to. I’ve looked at my manual but a) setting a channel in memory the how-to of doing that isn’t clear. b) I get what a repeater is but how do you ask permission and when will I know when to use one? My goal is finding all this out over time. Again thanks for your kind replies as it was very helpful. All the best !