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Nope. I'm here too.

Then don't upgrade. Most of them aren't necessary.

Make sure to check/enable “off hook scan” otherwise it wont scan unless the mic is grounded to a metal mic hanger.

Slowly have been learning to program my TK880 v1. I've got it mostly ready to go, all my GMRS channels and repeaters are programmed in. I'm running the latest firmware E4B3. I cannot for the life of me, figure out how to get the radio to scan through any channels. I have them all set to scan add. I have the scan key set to scan and the B Switch set to scn add/del. On the radio if I hit the scan button it just beeps and nothing happens. I don't get the little scan icon to pop up.

Actually I figured it out. You have to click the check box in the KPG software under optional features 2 called "Firmware Programming". Then write it to the radio. Then reboot holding the scan button and it will show the program menu to flash the firmware. Still can't seem to get my scan functionality working but I was able to update the firmware.

Yup, this.

For that matter, if Rich would be okay with the idea, why not simply create a repeater on the map, but with the actual information for your simplex Neighborhood Watch Net?

What if the Neighborhood Watch Groups were a type of club and the clubs were added to the map?

WSGI699 Were you ever able to figure out how to get the radio into program mode? Mine is doing the same thing. I can program it with KPG-49G but when I look online I'm missing features and the scan functionality doesnt work on mine. I can't even look up the firmware/baud. When I try using the above hex file LSscott shared FPro doesnt do anything. It "writes" but nothing happens on the radio.

See.... exactly.

I checked into Clubs when you suggested it before. My impression without doing it, just viewing them, is it won't work well. From what I can tell, most people only use the repeater lookup, not the forum or clubs. I know from the forum, very few locals are active here (can't tell who is lurking).

Yeah, but patchouli masks the smell, right?

Maybe you could suggest either tech questions to add to the General and Amateur Extra exams or possibly some hands on stuff that could be tested. Personally I enjoy building, troubleshooting, and fixing things but I know that most people don’t anymore.

Start a club and publish the details in the club information.

@AdmiralCochrane I swear, if you make me pull out the dictionary one more time...

Because it's fun. I haven't soldered in many years. Currently building a Cricket 20 and really enjoying it. Planning on buying a QCX-mini real soon.

Is there any way this site's repeater section (not forum) can allow listing neighborhood watch simplex frequencies? I don't have any repeaters and never expect to. Us non-repeater owners might be better able to build a community of users if there was a way to be listed where people will be looking. The same function that does repeater access requests could be relabelled Contact (or something similar). [I'm sure I'll get attacked for even suggesting it, but y'all haven't run me off yet.]

The scanner is generally my Tidradio H3 or my KG1000+. I just went online and searched the scanner frequencies for my town and it said some frequencies which I programmed in and have been listening to for a few months. No real idea what kind of a system it is.

An 'In the weeds" explanation of a trunked radio system, at least the MSI P25 version. The way this all works, at least at 700/800 Mhz, is every frequency is assigned by the FCC a channel number. These channel numbers are set in steps of a specific channel spacing and start frequency. With VHF it's not that way, VHF requires the channels to be programmed into the radio with TX and RX frequencies and the channel number is assigned by that programming. So as mentioned there is a 'control channel' that is effectively a data channel. All radios use this to connect to the system. When a radio is turned on it finds the control channel of the closest site and then announces it's presence. The system will acknowledge that radio and do one of three things. It will OK the radio to be on the system, it will deny access or it will if told to by the system admin send a stun / kill command to that radio and disable the radio. If the radio is allowed on the system, that system will process the radios request for access to a specific talkgroup. The radio talkgroup is remembered by the system and the site it's connected to. When that talk group becomse active the control channel will tell the radio to go to the specific assigned channel for the traffic and begin listening. It will pick the channel in b ased on a couple things. First is the standard round robin assignment. The next available channel on the site is used. But certain channels can be set to NOT use that talk group, so it can skip certain channels. It can also use lowest channel TX time to equalize the TX loading on each channel based on total time of transmit for each channel at a site. Now, since you didn't mention that you had to reprogram your scanner, your not hearing different conversations on a specific channel that was only for police previously, or any of the other stuff. I am gonna say that you are probably NOT listening to a trunked radio system. Back to the programming and channel assignment. When you setup your scanner, if it's 700/800, you will only need to put in the control channels and the stepping information. The scanner will know what frequencies are assigned to what channel numbers with that information. If they used VHF or UHF frequencies, you may / will need to program all used frequencies manually. Refer to Radio Reference for programming information on your specific system for more information

Not too much, but you don’t see the whole picture until you put all the pieces together. Feel free to ask questions.

Somebody get me a cheeseburger!”

And that source needs decoding!

As I recall, @OffRoaderXdeclared Channel 19 as the GMRS National Calling Channel and the Feds backed down!

The only factual reference for the GMRS rules is the government rules: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95?toc=1