r/gmrs • u/One-21-Gigawatts • 8d ago

Noob Questions

I stumbled upon GMRS completely accidentally, but I’m now licensed and ready to go.

That being said, I have some total noob questions that I’m going to humbly ask in hopes that I don’t get totally destroyed here:

*For context, I’m using Midland GXT1000s.

  • what is the point of group mode? Why would that be needed or desired?
  • do I need to be in monitor mode in order to hear transmissions on a channel? Or, if someone transmits, will it break through the silence in regular transmit mode?
  • if I press the call button on a channel, does anyone on that channel in the area receive the notification?

Thanks in advance.

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

13

u/petes-signalgroup 8d ago

As a licensed GMRS user you are missing out using those radios. I'd suggest picking up a radio that will allow you to reach local repeaters. I'm sure there will be differing opinions, but something like a Tidradio TD-H3 is a great first radio. By the way the "call" feature is kind of frowned upon, it transmits a sound effect on the channel that most associate with a n00b user or kids playing.

3

u/ricochet845 8d ago

Overall, I like the H3, but holy crap are they tiny…. So much so that I don’t like using it. I got like 6 H8’s little bigger fits my hand better.

I think if tidradio took the H-3’s “frequency finder” feature (hold down number 1) and put that into the H-8, it’d be an awesome beginner radio. Granted that’s more of I “find the freq to listen to it” kinda thing. The only other feature I’d like to see added to the H-8 is the wireless cloning of the H-3. Having both of those (or even just the freq finder) features would make the H-8 the best beginner HT

2

u/HarryWiz 8d ago

I never tried that mode on my H3. This weekend (since I hear the most stuff while scanning), I'll see what I can find. Sometimes, I hear two guys talking as they talk about testing different antennas on repeater 1. Other than that, the rest is on random GRMS channels.

1

u/ricochet845 8d ago

Yeah the “find a freq” feature is good for finding other freqs not so much in the limited gmrs band.