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I'm not sure what happened to the hundreds of the conventional (non-simulcast) GE Master IIs that were taken out of service several years ago in California and what make stations that replaced them a few years ago. The replacement stations may take a while until they are taken out of service because of migration to 700 MHz system. Also, there are almost a hundred Micors Simulcast and about 50-60 Quintron Simulcast stations that were taken out of service. However, these simulcast stations do not have the local CTCSS encoding modules for these stations because the CTCSS was centrally generated from the control point. Good luck in trying to obtaining the parts. These stations were not repeater stations. The mobile inbound (voted audio) traffic was rebroadcasted from the control point and the receivers used a separate antenna than the transmitter antenna with vertical separation. The stations were either 39, 42, 44, or 45 MHz transmitting stations. A lot of cavities and intermod panels had to be used

right now relatively easy and kind of cheap. I'm sure everyone will be building repeaters but if this approves current off the shelf will be just that. "off the shelf' Gone.. Like Mark says, the duplexers are giants and i remember a time whan they were thrown away as junk.. I can lithely remember Placer County tossing them after trying to give them away.. Those days are gone. Now you can't find them.

MIDLAND said: "When you enable the Talk Around function, it only affects the individual channel you’re on—not all channels at the same time. It uses that channel’s RX/TX frequency and its stored Privacy Tone settings, so you can chat directly if the repeater’s out of reach." And if that is the case, I don't think the problem is with my setup. I am inclined to think it is the repeater then.

You can't.

This is almost all there is in the amateur community. If people want it, they will spend the money and find a way. Also, I doubt any companies will tool a new radio for low-band GMRS, because most HF amateur radios already transmit on all of these frequencies. I guarantee you, if the market opens, damn near every HF amateur radio manufacturer will spend the very few dollars needed to have their engineers write new code to limit existing radios to the low-band GMRS specs. The duplexers are pretty big... about 86" tall. However, the bigger they get, the easier it is for a DIYer to make one.

From a technical and hardware standpoint. Where are the radio's going to come from? While some hams bought up the low band commercial gear for ham use, most of that has flushed through and is gone. Repeaters..... There haven't been low band repeaters built since the days of the MICOR, at least by Motorola. They had tube finals that are now obtainium. Yes, I know 3 guys are gonna pop in here and talk about the 4 they have on the shelf. So that's 12 tubes. Where are the rest of them going to come from? So then it's NEW radios. From a new source. No one on the commercial front is producing radios any more, and unless they ca see selling millions of them, none of the big commercial guys are gonna go back to that. And even if they did, you're talking about radios that will be over a grand to purchase. So then you have the chi-com stuff that will need to be filling the void. They don't currently support the platform. The dual band and single band chi-com radios that are in the pipeline are the same radio they produce as the UV-5R and other common chi-com radios. They are HIGH BAND VHF and UHF. And that appeals to a number of people. Even they aren't producing VHF -LOW transceivers. So new product for how many people? Remember that you can decorate a Christmas tree with Baofengs for less than the purchase of the tree, on sale. Everyone bought a number of them and they toss the guts in a new case, toss some better firmware at it and give it a new model number and they flock. If it's JUST a GMRS radio, and I am betting that the FCC will be watching, it's not gonna be 40 bucks for a portable and 125 for a mobile. And have you ever SEEN a duplexer for low band VHF? Let alone priced one. They are HUGE, and they carry a HUGE price tag. I don't know that the GMRS community is going to take to repeaters costing 10 grand or more with a duplexer and antenna, and 500 dollar mobiles. Oh, and Low Band antenna's.... that's not going on a 1 1/4 inch mast pipe on the end of your house either. And repeater / real base station antenna's are 40 plus feet of vertical real estate. But the bare minimum 1/4 wave is still 8 or so feet. And that's gonna be unity gain. Honestly, I see this as an idea by someone for a radio service that doesn't really know radio.

LOL, thanks for pointing out that I'm an IDIOT. Do you treat EVERYONE who makes an honest mistake like this???? P.S. The Radio actually DOES work on 6M, CB-FM, 2M, 1.25M, 70cm, MURS and GMRS and I'll post another video to PROVE it to you. Love ya' Bro.

IMO - Folks Should Do Some Real Research On A Radio, Before Putting Out A Bogus / Nonsense YouTube Vid. This Type Of Junk Does Noting But Confuse New Potential GMRS Users. Some That Just Recently Purchased A Ham License & Now Seem To Be RF Experts, Are Putting Out Vids & Disputing The Manufactures Specifications On Their Products. Really.........

I noticed this as well on a H8 Gen 3 when I programmed the tone manually on the radio.

I'm very new to radio and just recently picked up a pair of H8 Gen 3s and a pair of H8 Gen 2s (bought their "mystery box" H8 offer). I've done a little bit of programming with ODmaster via bluetooth. Data cable came yesterday, so now I can mess with CHIRP and firmware. I'm tempted to experiment with Nicsure firmware, or any other custom firmware that might be out for these. Its been a fun learning experience so far.

How can I turn off the start up music when radio is turned on - or at least lower the volume without lowering receiver volume when the radio is in use. BTECH GMRS-50V2

Update on 33cm/900MHz. I now have 2 of these radios and while they do seem to TX on that Frequency there's no RX on either. Not sure if it's a firmware issue(since there is newer firmware out for them) or what but all the other Frequencies work just fine. No matter what the manufacture states they will do all the other Frequencies that I stated except 33cm/900MHz. Here's the proof.

i've noticed that too.. A year ago you could buy retired used Commercial radio stuff on Ebay cheap cheap.. I was lucky and got a few things including a couple high end Hytera Repeaters, one of them brand new. Now, the used commercial stuff is going for high dollar premiums and the junk left over from then..

I do want to make a correction. 33cm/900MHz does seem to TX but there's no RX as I now have 2 of these radios and can't get them to RX on 33cm even with the proper antenna. I can TX and RX on CB, 6M, 2M, 1.25M and 70cm along with MURS and GMRS without any problems. Despite with the website says they WILL TX/RX on more frequencies than listed if they're set to "Super Mode", I know for a fact because I've done it. The website is probably listing what will TX/RX on "Normal" range. P.S. They also do RX only on Airband, FM Broadcast and NOAA Weather Radio.

According To Radtel's Website - Your Vid Info Is Incorrect. The RT-900 Will Only RX/TX On 136 To 260 MHz & 330 To 520 MHz. All Other Bands Are RX Only. See Site Link Below: https://www.radtels.com/products/radtel-rt-900-10w-full-band-ham-radio-walkie-talkie-256ch-air-band-two-way-radio-station-aviation-noaa-police-marine-river-ptt?variant=44343562469584

For those that welcome this just keep in mind that you're cheap Baofeng won't work for that. I tried searching the ol ebay for any used radios and found a few that are not cheap. And now you would need a separate antenna. Sent from my SM-S938U using Tapatalk

I know the older model can. See attached files for more info on the radios. D878UV Maintenance Mode Password.pdf AT-D868_D878 Info and mods 20240607.pdf

I would say it was a good investment if you need or want inexpensive and reliable short range comms. You can 100% use your radio as you would like, but may need to do things like use Tone squelch to stop hearing unwanted traffic and/or timing use between active conversations or the higher frequencies, which is common/best practice anyway. The congregation will make it a bit more cumbersome to accomplish, but still usable. Adding a repeater that would be usable would be way more complex to accomplish.

Mike already identified many frequencies that are in unused sections of spectrum with zero active licenses nor tech that would use the space. So, there is no one nor any company with valid grounds (standing) to contest the reallocation of the frequencies.

Meanwhile. the price of coffee, at least what i spend, can buy 6 of those big box platform radios. But i prefer to save for 6 months and buy the bigger bigger box platform.. I'll take a Hytera please.

I do know and have experience with lowband VHF with FM emissions skipping from California in an easterly direction, just to name a few states, Wyoming, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina.

Go with real life over calculated.

I already searched the forums and didn't find the answer I was looking for. I recently purchased an Anytone AT-878UVii and I noticed that the box now states the factory frequency range on the UHF side is from 420-450mhz. I know the earlier units with the same model number were listed on the box from 400-490mhz. Is this the same unit as they were before, and still capable of being opened up to transmit and receive "out of band"? I am thinking the packaging has simply been updated for US sales. Has anyone unlocked a recently manufactured unit with the 420-450mhz range listed on the box? Thank you in advance! -Adam

Where will the Lowband VHF freqs come from? I doubt that the FCC will entertain any proposal at this time and I'm pretty sure that APCO will put up a great fight to keep the Public Safety freqs for Public Safety use for several more years, or maybe a decade or two more, until everyone has migrated off the lowband VHF spectrum. Look how long it took to get the TV Broadcasters off of TV Channels 14-20 for public safety use in the T-Band in the large metropolitan cities/regions throughout the country; and then there was refarming of the UHF spectrum; getting public safety to change to narrowband missions; let alone getting Nextel to give up the 800 MHz spectrum for public safety use after getting public safety to give up the 2.1 GHz spectrum. As the Queen stated, nothing will happen relatively soon and I suspect not less than 10 years, at the minimum.

See my video on the RT-900 in the Equipment Review section on the Forum. At 2M and 70cm I'm able to hit a Repeater on the White Tank Mts. at over 20 Miles away with a 3" antenna from a Suburban Area with trees, houses, etc. I'm sure this radio will work well enough for folks to dip their toe into other Bands to see if they want to invest more in a "Higher End" radio but for me on my tight budget this one will be just fine.