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I agree that it is curious to ask for permission to use open repeaters. But it's definitely not required. As the custodian of our GMRS repeater that is open, I always try to approve requests to use our repeater when I receive them. If they are courteous enough to ask then I will be courteous enough to grant permission quickly.

Local ham fest's are another good place to look for used equipment. There are pluses and minuses on buying a shack in the box radio that does everything. One major downside is if something goes wrong then you lose everything at once. Another negative is that shack in the box radios are Jacks of alll trades but masters of none. The big plus is that you only need one radio. I personally prefer separate radios for home use. You also have CW privileges on 15m and 40m as a technician along with 10m AM/SSB, CW, and 10m digital modes. Since you recently got your tech license, now is the time to study for and take your general test as everything is still fresh in your memory. There really isn't much differences between the tech and general tests. Like any hobby, radio can get expensive if you let it. There are so many different things you can do with an amateur license, especially once you step up to general or extra.

Channel Banks are a big reason why I really like the BF-F8HP Pro. I like to scan Public Safety channels but I also like to scan Airbands. With Banks I can set each Bank up to scan and move to that Bank when needed. All in all though the K61 is 99% of what the AR-5RM is at a lower price point which lets people get more radios for their group for the same money. Bottom line, I'm just a Radio Dork with an addiction to radios.

With me, and I'm not sure how guilty I may be, but if I do it's habit. A habit, because it's required on my work radio. It's only natural that some of those habits follow me. In my case, I'm usually checking for warrants. CCSD -Britt

I have two Wouxun KG-1000G Plus GMRS Base/Mobile radios for sale. They have been used on a bench for about 2 hours each. They are in like-new condition. Great radios, but I just didn't use them enough to justify having one, never mind having 2. Asking $300 shipped each. I will include the $15 programming cable with each radio. I am in North County, San Diego. Email address is mare-clave-2k@icloud.com. Reach out via email if you are interested or have any questions.

Kinda same, honestly. Unless I'm testing out a new radio or install, I basically never talk on the radio to talk on the radio. We're at the track or strung out along a hiking trail or in a group of vehicles driving somewhere and we need to talk amongst our group, not really to anyone else. Other people on frequency means we're moving to our secondary channel haha

Okay. I think I'll be Covey Leader and Raven. . From Rambo.

If I hear any kind of chatter, I go to another GMRS channel. I have only set up privacy codes on two channels, One CTCSS and the other DCS. These were for my own education. I haven't really tried repeaters yet and try using FRS first, then GMRS. And all this is deep in the Cherokee National Forest. So I've heard nothing. It's not that I'm unfriendly. I just don't want everyone to know where my stands and game cameras are.

I have a Quansheng UV-K5 (8) running a custom firmware. These are neat radios than can do quite a lot. With the proper firmware, they will even do double side band on the 2m band. I don't know about your radio but there are add on boards for the Quansheng to allow it to transmit on HF. I haven't tore into mine yet to add the board and second antenna.

I know when repeaters can have issues when setup for both analog and DMR if not done correctly. Whoever setup our 70cm repeaters for both analog and DMR didn't get things right and we had nothing but issues with the entire setup.

And if you bought a mobile unit you would have to purchase some sort of antenna anyway. This is a good way to prep yourself for the upcoming upgrade to a mobile unit in the future.

Thanks, everyone for the excellent advice! Much appreciated! I decided to purchase a mag-mount antenna for myself. It will give me the additional flexibility of being able to put it on another vehicle, in case I'm driving the church van with a bunch of boys and dads, instead of my personal vehicle. Plus, it was a lot less expensive than the mobile unit! Maybe I'll eventually be able to convince the other dads to invest in one as well (first have to convince them to get their own handhelds and license!) Thanks again!

I agree with you. Its place in my lineup is as an EDC general-purpose radio. IMO, the UV-5r/BF-F8hp is too small to manipulate easily. It's fine if I don't need to change anything, but the tiny screen and buttons make it a pain to work with "on the fly". The AR-5RM/5RH Pro GPS has a larger screen and buttons but is too large to carry easily. It needs a belt case, or at least a clip, but I prefer to be able to carry it in a pocket. The K61 is intermediate in size, making it easy to deal with if I want to change something, but still small enough to carry in a pocket. I like the color screen of the 5RM, but it's really hard to see in bright sunlight. The K61 screen doesn't wash out much in bright light. It stores 999 channels, meaning I don't have to decide what to leave out vs the 5RM channels. I still like the 5RH Pro GPS best because I can store the channels in banks, but if I'm going to carry the radio quite a bit, I go with the K61. Edited to add: I forgot to mention that in addition to 70cm, 2m, GMRS, and MURS, it works on the 1.25 meter band, which I do use.

I have been surfing the net and have not found a download for programing software for these two machines (KPG 66D & KPG 91D). I am not looking for free stuff but would be nice. $100 for membership and etc seems a little more than I need. I have found a site selling but shows a picture of floppy drives. I havent had a machine with those in years. I'm not expecting free but downloadable from a creditable source. Any direction?

I watched your review of the DM32. Digital has always intrigued me but seems a bit complicated. I'm going to stick with analog for now but digital might be in my future.

I ordered my h3 plus as a GMRS version to play with the Bluetooth programming. I did manage to get my h3 plus to program the ham stuff simply by selecting h3 in the program tab at the bottom of the OD Master app. I think I read the radio and made changes in the programming and wrote to the h3 plus. I haven't explored updating the firmware as I don't have a programming cable. Hope this helps. Doug

Excellent, congratulations! In your pursuit of a good rig, you may want to look around the used market for a decent priced Yaesu FT-991 or similar "shack in a box" type rig. Gives you the 10m and 6m bands you're licensed to operate on as well as 2m and 70cm all mode. As a Technician, you are licensed to operate digital modes on 10m as well, and there is activity, especially on FT8 mode quite often when the band is open. And it may, or may not, whet your appetite to upgrading to General and/or Extra if you find HF operating to be a thing you want to pursue down that rabbit hole. AS to where to look, if you're in the market, I would avoid FaceBook Marketplace, too much scamming there. Local buy/sell/trade nets on 2m usually have something to offer as well as local HamFests. Local Clubs are also a good source if you can find a good one. Enjoy your trip down the RF Rabbit Hole that is two-way radio!

True. But if you have young kids involved trying to remember complex instructions, codes phases etc. then encryption is just the simple set and forget solution. Yeah, digital signals are not that present to hear mostly. However low baud rate audio frequency shift radio teletype can have a bit of a "musical" rhythm to it.

First order of business is do some research on-line, see if anyone else has tried it. If so after reading reading the procedures you might change your mind, or go out and buy the required test equipment and give it a try. Also you'll need the service manual(s) for the radio to study before you even start. Just remember the "Golden Screwdriver" has killed many radios when used by unskilled/unknowledgeable hands. The worse that can happen is you get a non-functional radio. Which is basically what you have now anyway since it won't work on the frequencies you need.

And I fully understand that. But there are better ways to go about that without having to worry about federal regulations. And digital signals along with secure encryption causes noise/interference for those using analog on the same channel/frequency.

Just joined, I recently got a pair of Radioddity GM-30 Pro's. Many years ago in the mid 80's I used to have CB radio's. At the time I was an Electronics engineer and self taught CB repair, tuning and upgrades (most of which were illegal). More recently I've been eyeing various Baofeng's but then I saw a great deal on these GM-30 Pro's so decided to finally join in. I also have 3 Motorola T289's that have worked well for me up until now. I am completely new to GMRS, never used a repeater or anything other than simple channel use.

Some people just like their privacy, that's why they want it.

*Researches* Holy shit! Of course the atmosphere has different refractive properties depending on density! With all the "Fields and Waves" bullshit they shoved into my head, I have no idea how I never realized this. The atmosphere is a gradient prism...

Ahh! So it was just luck of the draw... Well, I suppose that still really validates the strength of the technology. A milliwatt transmitter that can be detected 800 miles away under *any* circumstances seems pretty impressive...

From what I was told, even the US military went away from using a hardware key loader for at least the SINCGARS radios. Encryption might be fun to test but remember that the FCC states that encryption is not allowed on amateur radio bands or on GMRS channels. I find no use for AES256 after having to deal with it all of the time while in the Army.