Baofeng So I bought a cheap Baofeng BH-f6 to try GMRS

[AK9R]

I live in a valley surrounded by dense woods higher than me.

In that case, GMRS may be a bad choice. For that matter, 2m or 70cm amateur radio may be a bad choice.

VHF and UHF signals tend to be "line of sight". As such, they will struggle to get out of the valley.

As others have said, if your handheld radio from inside your house is weak/scratchy/noisy into various repeaters, folks probably won't talk to you. It's not that they don't like you or that they don't like newcomers, it's that they don't care for signals that are hard to copy.

Set aside any pre-conceived notions about what radio service to use or what radio to buy. Figure out what you want to do with two-way radio communications and figured out who you want to talk to. That will drive your decisions.

 

[K6GBW]

This whole post is going to cause Critical Radio Theory to be taught in our schools.

 

[KMG54]

Did you ever get it programmed using chirp or chirp next with latest build. saw that it is called Baofeng BF-H6? found this software did you try this Software

It's in chinese but thanks anyway.

 

[KMG54]

I am going to take the little radio on the road and get into TR city and listen with a GMRS antenna on the NMO mount on the car. If I can make some contacts, I will consider the 50 watt mobile as a base here at the house. I have a 3 story house with a chimney and a friend with a bucket truck. A vertical up there with a mobile to base mount with ground radials should over come the tree problem. And of course real LMR400.

 

[KMG54]

Well to my surprise, I just got a gift from UPS. I ordered a 5/8's over 5/8's Laird NMO antenna from the antenna farm yesterday morning ground shipping. It just showed up two days early, great service even though they are only around a hundred miles from me, but you can't get there from here, solid mountains and no direct roads.

 

[sloop]

If you have not already done so, check out myGMRS.com. This site shows GMRS repeaters through out the US, their range, and access information. As far as the radio try turning the volume all the way up, down load from radio to computer, then after corrections to your frequencies upload to the radio. It should work. Good luck.