If you’re newer to GMRS or radio in general, and you don’t know how to set up custom channels, or how you can transmit on one frequency and still receive on another, then follow this guide to understand what settings you need and how you can use this for other repeaters as well.
How to set the repeater directly on the radio
In your radio, if you have a factory stock configuration, then you should be able to change your channel to RPT-15 through RPT-22 or something similar. These are the repeater channels.
For the Haiku Repeater, you want a frequency of 467.575. To set this, change your channel to RPT-16. You can use the table below for reference of other channels and frequency matches.
| Channel | Frequency (MHz) | Radio Service | Max Permitted Power – FRS | Max Permitted Power – GMRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 462.5625 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 5 watts |
| 2 | 462.5875 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 5 watts |
| 3 | 462.6125 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 5 watts |
| 4 | 462.6375 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 5 watts |
| 5 | 462.6625 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 5 watts |
| 6 | 462.6875 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 5 watts |
| 7 | 462.7125 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 5 watts |
| 8 | 467.5625 | GMRS or FRS | .5 watts | .5 watts |
| 9 | 467.5875 | GMRS or FRS | .5 watts | .5 watts |
| 10 | 467.6125 | GMRS or FRS | .5 watts | .5 watts |
| 11 | 467.6375 | GMRS or FRS | .5 watts | .5 watts |
| 12 | 467.6625 | GMRS or FRS | .5 watts | .5 watts |
| 13 | 467.6875 | GMRS or FRS | .5 watts | .5 watts |
| 14 | 467.7125 | GMRS or FRS | .5 watts | .5 watts |
| 15 | 462.5500 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 50 watts |
| 16 | 462.5750 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 50 watts |
| 17 | 462.6000 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 50 watts |
| 18 | 462.6250 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 50 watts |
| 19 | 462.6500 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 50 watts |
| 20 | 462.6750 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 50 watts |
| 21 | 462.7000 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 50 watts |
| 22 | 462.7250 | GMRS or FRS | 2 watts | 50 watts |
| 15RP | 467.5500 | GMRS | Prohibited | 50 watts |
| 16RP | 467.5750 | GMRS | Prohibited | 50 watts |
| 17RP | 467.6000 | GMRS | Prohibited | 50 watts |
| 18RP | 467.6250 | GMRS | Prohibited | 50 watts |
| 19RP | 467.6500 | GMRS | Prohibited | 50 watts |
| 20RP | 467.6750 | GMRS | Prohibited | 50 watts |
| 21RP | 467.7000 | GMRS | Prohibited | 50 watts |
| 22RP | 467.7250 | GMRS | Prohibited | 50 watts |
Copy the channel
Once you’re on channel RPT16, go to your menu options and select something along the lines of “copy channel” or “MEMCH”. Selecting this brings up the option to type in another channel. This is when you select an empty channel to copy it to. I suggest something along the lines of channel 31 or higher.
Now change your channel to the channel you copied. This would now be Ch 31 if you chose that in the last step.
Set your tones
Enter the menu again, and go to the menu option of “Transmit CTCSS”
Change this to the repeater tone.
Now go to your menu option for receive.
Change this to the repeater tone.
Now, other repeaters might have a DCS tone, which should simply be the next menu option. The same idea applies to those tones as well.
Test your radio
Go ahead and transmit for at least 2 seconds for the repeater to key up and start transmitting. When you release the transmit, if you’re connected to the repeater, you will hear a couple seconds of static immediately after you release. This is normal.
If you’re communicating with another user, please give a couple of seconds after they finish their message to start transmitting again, to give the repeater time to close transmission.
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