All Activity

Yes! And if you are a stickler for FCC rules you can restore it to GMRS only. You must reload a codeplug each time And if not, I have previously posted a codeplug for when it is unlocked that comports with FCC GMRS rules.

I held my Technician license for almost 18 years before I upgraded, for the exact same reasons. I was near exclusively conducting local EMCOMM VHF and UHF support. I upgraded to my General just before COVID hit, mostly out of boredom in my personal time and to encourage/support my son and a friend who we're interested in getting their licenses at the time. We put a study group together and all tested at the same time. I guess that was a long-winded way of saying "I get it." LoL

So, let me ask this question... As someone who is preparing to get their Technician license and is a GMRS user, as well, would the DM20G be a good radio to purchase and then unlock as it would give me access to GMRS, as well as UHF and VHF, the two bands I would have access to as a Technician? Essentially, I would be able to talk on both GMRS and HAM from the same unit?

Me, too! This radio has stood the test of time, now especially with Chirp support! It out performs my Yaesu FT-857d on 2 meter and 70 cm FM.

I just recently did the small to bnc adapter trick. Makes it a breeze to change antennas and I can hook up my radio to my 9db Yagi easily too.

31-39 are TX and RX. 31-38 can only be programmed using software. 39 can be programmed from the radio only for simplex or for repeater in software. 40 & up are RX only, and so are 8-14.

I would suspect you have to store that in one of the open channels. I don't remember if those channels are RX only or not. I unlocked mine right away, so I can put whatever I want in any of the channels.

i was through Hayden early summer. Found one reptaer there. Because of the mountains and trees it was very spotty, Not good for traveling and didnt work well into coeur d'Alene. There are a few good high mountain spots around Coeur d'Alene but no one that i know of has planted a GMRS repeater on one yet. Good luck. Very nice area

It's "1 SQL" on the mic.

congradulations. Don't stop..

What about two different repeaters on the same channel, but with different tones?

There's nothing wrong with staying at technician either. I know some that never upgraded from the old Novice license as they never use HF at all. I threw out the options with General incase you are interested. It never hurts to have more communication tools in the tool box.

I get that, but for my immediate needs, the Tech license is fine. And really, one of the main reasons I got my license, is there aren't really any GMRS repeaters in my area. But there are enough HAM ones to cover pretty much everywhere around here. For the most part GMRS would work perfectly fine for me, if it weren't for lack of coverage in my area.

Right now, I'm just using GMRS, and listening to MURS and 70cm mostly. But there are some 2m repeaters in my area. So I will probably will switch to the Comet.

With the GMRS config, you shouldn't have to do offset and direction and all that. You should be able to pick one of the 'stock' 8 repeater channels, set up the tones, that should be it. A not documented very well step is you need to hit the MON button to cycle the tone modes...one of them being "OFF" (OFF / CTC / DTC N / DTC I), so it won't let you scroll through the tone option menu until you hit MON. That one took me a while to figure out.

I have a couple of Comet 2x4SR antennas. They work well for 2m, MURS, 70cm, and GMRS. SWR is below 2.0 on the 1.25m/220 MHz band too. Though I have not tried using the 2x4SR on 1.25m yet. It is also a popular antenna for EMS and public safety volunteers as it works well for them.

If you’re thinking of using anything in the 2m band I would recommend the Comet antenna you are looking at, that’s a good antenna and the MXT-A26 while good for gmrs and some 70cm will have horrible SWR in the 2m bands.

There are other uses for HF than just talking to anonymous men across the country. You can use VHF and HF with Winlink to send emails. And Winlink is commonly used by emergency management agencies during natural disasters. We had a couple of club members here passing messages to people in North Carolina during Hurricane Helena recovery efforts.

Interesting! later tonight, i will put mine back in locked mode and see what I can come up with! Any specific requests? Specific repeaters?

I really don't have any desire to get the higher licenses. Like I said before, I will mostly use this as a tool to assist with SAR, and in emergency situations. I'm not really interested in talking to anonymous men across the country.

Unfortunately those steps are for the Unlocked mode. Menus for setting the offset and direction don't exist in GMRS mode.

I can see one of two things happening when @marcspaz does that. Either he will jam everyone's TV's and radios in a two block radius or his hair will all be standing on end. Or possible both The old spark gap transmitters were known for being very RF noisy.

Either his reply got deleted or maybe he was banned. I don't see his reply. Destro, congratulations on getting your technician license. Now you know it won't be long before you start studying for the general which will open up the HF bands to you.

They look like a clone of the AT-D168UV. Probably made by the same factory and rebranded with a different name at a lower price. I ordered the RT3S because it was closer to my budget. After I get used to programming DMR I'll probably order a second radio, maybe at a higher price point but hopefully the RT3S will be a good starter radio to learn on.

@Destro Congratulations!