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And that right there is the reason I will never suggest using a cigarette lighter/accessory port to power a 50 watt radio.

A friend of mine tried using his KG-1000G plugged into the lighter-hole in his care and the plug melted and caught on fire.. Not sure why a fuse didnt blow first... Melted plastic napalm got on his had and gave him a severe burn when he yanked-it out in a panic, but the radio was fine...

So everyone is aware; the Hampton West GMRS repeater is in service. 462.575, CTCSS tone is 203.5. There are GMRS nets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 1930 hours on this repeater. The Tabb Repeater is also up and running, 462.650, CTCSS tone of 114.8. The Hampton East repeater, 462.7000, CTCSS tone 233.6, is currently offline and will be used for disaster and weather reporting during incidents, and could be relocated to Hampton Fore Station 5 is needed. My Hampton portable repeater is deployable and will also be used in specific, needed areas for hurricane and other disaster work. THE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2025 GMRS NET AT 1930 ON THE HAMPTON WEST, 462.575. PL 203.5, WILL BE A CKECK-IN FOR ALL GMRS USERS IN TIDEWATER WHO WOULD LIKE TO PROVIDE WEATHER REPORTING FOR DISASTERS. THIS INFORMATION WILL BE PASSED ONTO THE HPST. ALL LICENSED USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CHECK INTO THIS NET SO WE CAN GEN AN IDEA OF WHO CAN PARTICIPATE AND WHAT AREAS THEY ARE IN. THANKS.

Some cigarette light adapters work OK with some radios; some cause problems, typically noise like whining. I haven't heard of any radios being damaged. For me they mostly work at low power. One issue I know of is power may drop relatively quickly when the car isn't running, so for a base station multiple batteries are a good idea. p.s. any kin to Samuel F.? my GG-grandfather apprenticed under him

Personally I bought a Radioddity DB20G. It came with a cigarette lighter plug. I inserted Anderson PowerPoles into the power cord because I wanted them but in my pickup I simply use the cigarette lighter socket and plug. It’s a 20 watt radio but it does everything I need. It would make an ideal camp radio.

I wonder if I could get away with this: https://midlandusa.com/products/mxt115-micromobile-2-way-radio and this https://www.amazon.com/CERRXIAN-Cigarette-Lighter-Socket-Adapter/dp/B0BGL8ZRCS

I absolutely agree about double checking the legality. Internet has little to do with this though. The fcc simply included internet because it is an example of “any other network.” Originally the prohibition was against connecting to the phone network. “GMRS stations cannot be interconnected with the public switched telephone network or any other network for the purpose of carrying GMRS communications, but these networks can be used for remote control of repeater stations.”* *The above is the FCC’s interpretation, not the actual regulations @Blaise, arguing it’s a mesh, not a network, probably wouldn’t make a great first impression on the FCC. It’s funny though.

You might get away with it is you do not connect the Meshtastic nodes to the internet. I would double check on the legality of this before proceeding if it was me. This is true. But how many "non radio dorks" are willing to compile source code. If this were to be feasible and legal, then it would have to be made easy for all users to deploy. Not everyone is willing to even learn Linux let alone compile code.

And that will make you his favorite fan.

It is, or at least the backlight timer is! Menu setting 8 (labeled ABR - don't know why) is the Display Backlight Timer. If set to 0 backlight is off. Setting are 0-50 seconds, make sure this setting is not at 0.

If you use the libraries, you can get it to do a whole lot more, I'm told. I'm not afraid of a compiler! Every packet has a 237 byte payload, so you'd have to spend a lot of effort hacking the voice data into chunks, then reassembling them. It might work, it might not, but it sure would be fun trying! Also, GMRS data is likely only about 2 kbps, so there'd be plenty of room for at least that.

Well, as long as we keep in mind that Meshtastic is a mesh technology, not a network technology, I'm sure it will be fine...

Most 50 watt radios state a 10-15 amp draw on high power per manufacturer specifications. Even if the radio only draws 9 or 10 amps on high power, why take the chance with running it on a 10 amp circuit. One of two things can go wrong in that scenario. Either the fuses will blow all of the time or they might now blow in time to save the wires from melting. Why take the chance. Plus cigarette lighter/accessory ports are not the most reliable power source compared to using a more secure wire connection. I won't even run a 20 watt radio on a cigarette lighter/accessory port. I've had the radios temporarily loose power when I hit a bump while driving. Yes we have a lot of poorly paved roads and lots of gravel roads in my area.

Look, connecting your radio to any 12 volt source is unlikely to damage the radio, but connecting a 50 watt radio to a source that can is fused for 10 amps might fry the fuse. Not all 50 watt radios require more than 10 amps. Some are more efficient than others and get by with about 9 amps, others use as much as 11 amps. As far as that “jump pack” I don’t know anything about it.

Appreciate all the responses, looks like it'll only be possible with a battery that you recommended and that might damage the radio. I wonder if cigarette lighter adapters would work as well. I have this for a jump pack for my car, I wonder if this would work with one or would damage the radio https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019IFHLAE

Yes Midland mobile radios do have the capability of charging other devices such as phones and tablets through the USB C port built into the radio. I don't recall if all Midland mobile radios have this or if it is only certain models.

My apologies, I saw the "usb-c charging" and assumed it was for charging the unit itself, but now I think it means you can use it to charge your phone, etc. https://midlandusa.com/products/mxt500-micromobile®two-way-radio

Meshtastic is basically off grid texting and is limited to the size of messages that can be sent.

And in the mind of the developer of the DB20-G driver for Chirp, too! (thank you @WRNC421 for your confirmation testing!) And if the Queen had balls, she'd be KING!

I just tested this to confirm, with the radio in GMRS mode, it doesn't matter what you do in Chirp to channels 8-14. I turned off TX disable. I changed power level, also tried changing the TX frequency to that of Chan 1 (462.5625). The radio refuses to TX on those channel numbers. It's locked in firmware and Chirp doesn't allow you to bypass it. ofc if you change the radio mode out of GMRS then you can do what you want.

isn't the display light intensity programable on that raido?

I'm going to remember that one

It wouldn’t be user replaceable. It’s probably a surface mounted LED next to the edge of the LCD. And it might not have failed anyway. If possible return it for warranty service.

Other than the one negative person whom we all know which as @SteveShannon mentioned is not because of who they are but rather the stuff they say I don’t see down voting based on who someone is. Could it happen? Sure but someone would just up vote them back. It’s just a means to elevate the best technical answer. I do prefer reading things in chronological order though as it’s easier for context and it would be nice if you could make that a default setting.

OK, OK, SUPERSTAR