Gmrs repeater New batteries charged, watches won't turn on

Almost always a weak or bad battery. Charging a bad battery does not make it good. Get a new battery.

Transmit takes more power than receive, so you are correct in looking to the battery as the possible issue. Even being new a battery will sometimes be too low to take an initial charge. You might try putting the radio on the charger for 2-3 more charge cycles. Sometimes new batteries need this "jump start". Be certain the radio is turned off while on the charger. Inbetween charge cycles turn the radio on and let it set on standby until the battery is nearly run down. Also, clean your battery contacts with a pencil eraser for better connection. It is possible the contacts have some residue from the manufacturing processes which could block good connection.
You reference you had just gotten this radio. If new, you might consider returning it or calling the manufacturer if you are still having problems. If it is not a new radio, you should consider replacing the battery with a new one.
As for testing the battery, this can be done with a battery analyzer. Check with a local radio dealer to see if they would run a test on it with their analyzer. This would test the battery when put under a load vs. just testing the voltage, which is what your battery indicator is showing you on the radio.
Best regards.

Hi,

usually overnight is the best with the radio turned off.

Always charge your batteries with the radio turned off, else you'll burn out your batteries before their time was due for replacement.
I hope I have answered your query for you.

Best regards,
Peter

If the laptop battery is more than 3 - 4 years old then the battery could be worn out. Rechargeable batteries have a finite number of charge and discharge cycles and will lose their charge capacity over time, i.e. won't charge to 100% and gradually the charge reduces until the battery won't charge up at all. OR The battery shows a 100% charge but when the adapter is disconnected the battery drops off to zero capacity in a very short time. If the battery drops to an unacceptable charge level then the battery needs to be replaced.

These are FRS/GMRS (Family Radio Service/ General Mobile Radio Service) radios. The legal power limit for FRS is 500 milliwatts - or 1/2 watt. GMRS on the other hand is limited to a much higher 50 watt level. The wattage you transmit determines if you need to have a GMRS license. Most GMRS radios are in the .5- 5 watt range however.

The likelihood of your XT20 being a 1/2 watt out on both FRS & GMRS is very good. For Midland (or anyone else for that matter) to produce a radio with a 1 watt output that can run on just 3 "AAA" batteries would be quite the feat! If Midland did do this, the radio's battery life would extremely short. To balance the needs of light weight and battery life, output power needs to be reduced.

Claims of 20 miles is crazy. If you had these radios on mountain tops 20 miles apart - with a clear line of sight between them - MAYBE - you could hear one on the other. This would need to be done under only the most ideal conditions. The actual distance you can expect to get out of a pair of any brand FRS radios in "real world" conditions (line of sight blocked by trees and buildings) is about a mile.

An FRS/GMRS radio limited to 1/2 watt output when used on a GMRS frequency that is close enough to access a GMRS repeater system could easily cover 20+ miles. The key here is having a license and access to the repeater. Repeater owners take a dim view of unlicensed users access their repeater.

Channels 1 thru 7 are FRS and GMRS. That is, if transmitting .5 watts, you can use it as FRS. If transmitting more than .5 watts, you will need a valid GMRS license.

Channels 8 - 14 are expressly for FRS. Only .5 watts transmit power is permitted.

Channels 15 - 22 are expressly for GMRS at any transmit power up to 50 watts. Even if transmitting .5 watts, you MUST have a valid GMRS license on these frequencies.

I know - more infor than you wanted and no vclear cut number for wattage - but there's no info on these radios on Midland's site or anywhere else that I could find. Good luck!

FRS & GMRS frequencies have been preset by the governing bodies where these radios are licensed for use. They consist of Ch 1 - 14 for FRS or Family Radios Service (the new "CB" radio) and Ch 15 - 22 for GMRS or General Mobile radio Service. GMRS frequencies may be repeated 5 Mhz higher - the repeater input of channel 22 (462.750 Mhz) may be heard if close to the transmitter on Ch 22, but if a repeater has been set up to repeat signals in range on Ch 22, they would also be heard on 467.750 Mhz. The repeater will likely have one or more of the following: a high vantage point such as a hill or mountain top, may increased output power of up to 50 watts, or have an antenna with gain properties. Any one or combination of any of these benefits, will result in a significantly increased area of coverage.

FRS Frequencies Channel Frequency in MHz 1 462.5625 2 462.5875 3 462.6125 4 462.6375 5 462.6625 6 462.6875 7 462.7125 8 467.5625 9 467.5875 10 467.6125 11 467.6375 12 467.6625 13 467.6875 14 467.7125 15 462.550 16 462.575 17 462.600 18 462.625 19 462.650 20* 462.675* 21 462.700 22 462.725

It is important to note that only Ch 1 - 14 may be used without a license. Transmitting on any of the GMRS frequencies (Ch 15 - 22) shown in red in the chart above, requires an FCC license if used in the U.S.A. Other countries may or may not have laws for licensing the use of any or all these frequencies, so check before transmitting. Modifying an FRS / GMRS radio is a violation of FCC rules and if caught; can result in fines, prison or both.

If you'd like to be able to tune actual frequencies - and not be limited to specific channels, you ought to look into amateur ("ham") radio. While not in the FRS or GMRS bands, there are literally hundreds of thousands of frequencies to use once licensed. The ARRL (American Radio Relay League) has a great deal of info about ham radio.

I hope this helps & good luck! Please rate my reply - thanks!

Are the batteries fully charged? Are the batteries inserted with the correct polarity? If still no job return them to the store for an exchange

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Are you certain you are near a GMRS repeater in your area? If you have your radios set for the GMRS repeater channels the radios will not talk to one another unless you are in close proximity of a GMRS repeater. To talk radio-to-radio you would need to set your radio to one of the simplex frequencies available in the radio.

If you know you are close to a GMRS repeater, you might double check the Tx and Rx frequencies of the repeater to be certain they match the settings in your radio. Also, you will need to be certain your interference code is set to zero (the off position) to be used with the repeater. I didn't read up on the T7200, but if it has a Qt filter, set it to zero also.

With the issue of 240V if the charger has not a Voltage switch, you will need to find another charger/transformer with the same Voltage/Amps ouput that works with 240V.

For Vox operations, this feature works independly form channel, you should choose the channel# and code # first, to match both radios, and get them communicate, then the Vox feature.
In Some radios the VOX feature works with an external audio accesory, in other radios works with out it.
Basically if this radios works without it, you should see that the radio transmist by itself when you speak direct to the radio, and stops transmiting 1 or2 seconds after you stop talking.

Good Luck.