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Yes, I've tried every combination of power on/off, plug in/out, USB port, and nothing. It always shows up as that same error. I have several radios and all of them produce the same error. I've wizzed away hours on with this and am pretty close to chucking the whole thing in the river!

That's lame. You powered on the radio after everything was up and connected? Its the little quirks that seem to be an issue when i try.

Yeah, that's exactly what I attempted, but everything seems to be a massive turd nowadays. I have the programming cable on the way. This is total BS that things just don't work correctly anymore.

Yup, just upgraded to the newest version which was March 9, 2025 and it includes the H3 GMRS

I know the option won't come up for me. Maybe the newer version of the app includes them.

Hmm... I thought I had done it without the login once on my H3... but maybe I don't remember it right.

A lot of people make that common mistake of assuming one can overcome the loss of using that crappy coax by brute force and throwing more watts at the problem. The main issue they overlook, whether intentional or ignorance, is how much the receive is attenuated. You can pump the same amount of water through a 1/2" pipe compared to a 2" pipe by turning up the pressure on the pump. A wasteful exercise in futility.

For a real world comparison, a roof mounted antenna on my F150 vs trunk lip mount on the hood of my Lincoln (Glass Roof) yielded the same performance measured by my trusty Seat-O-Pants meter driving the same long distance route. I reluctantly fought the idea of mounting it on the corner of the hood since it is such a crappy location. Both antennas were Larsen NMO 2/70B. I was surprised by the REAL WORLD performance.

CW = Continous Wave, or morse code. And yes, if the letters can be construed as an expletive, DMV might balk. Althought my buddy's amateur call that ended in FKU was no problem with DVS here in MN.

Don't know what "cw" means (again, I'm new). As for the call sign, the DMV is unlikely to let this particular combination of numbers and letters fly on a vanity plate. I apologize if I'm coming off as a troll. I was genuinely asking. "Tongue twister" is actually a spot-on way to describe it, come to think of it, but this is a family forum so I'll leave it at that.

I complained to them that I had to sign in and they gave me a dummy email account so I could log in. Without the log in some of the radios don't show up and the H3 is one of them that won't show.

You can just skip the log in to use the app. not necessary. But I agree... I much prefer CHIRP to odmaster.

Good advice. Thanks for that!

Thanks for that input! For occasional 2m/70cm I use a very good local linked repeater network without any problems. For GMRS, I use mostly short distance simplex when travelling with a group or at the lake or other destination. The performance from my current mag mount which I usually place on the cab directly in front of the 3rd taillight, (basically where the antenna would be if I use one of these 3rd taillight mounts) works just fine! I like that location (up and centered) because it keeps the antenna up and out of the way of getting things in/out of the truck bed and I don't have to stare at it while driving. All the discussion about the effectiveness of the ground plane, while interesting, and not at all irrelevant, is just not too significant of a factor for my purposes. That's why my OP was a question more about the antenna mount itself (water leaks, strength etc.) and less about the RF propagation characteristics associated with its location which seems to be the direction the thread drifted. I'm not going to drill into my roof and I'm sort of tired of taking the mag mount on and off, so without any specific feedback that indicates that this type of mount is structurally problematic to my vehicle, l will probably give one of these mounts a try and hope for the best.

You would create a user and pass, but its just a formality. Use a throw away email, though i never received any spam. Small phone would be annoying, but the app is simple enough. I actually prefer it, but i don't use chirp though. You can program to Chirp via USB-C. Make sure to use a USB-C data cable. Here is a how to do it via USB-C:

Another easy solution is to use the short cable with a RJ45 coupler and a standard cat6 cable. That’s my setup and it’s working fine.

True, the small ones definitely do have their limitations when used alone. I've standardized my 12VDC items with Anderson PowerPoles and made up a bunch of PowerPole 'Y' pigtail connectors along with several 'extension cords' so that I can parallel several of the smaller capacity batteries if need be. Also handy when topping off multiple batteries

Gotta be careful with Google AI with these technical/administrative questions. I've been trying to help a blind Canadian immigrant get his US ham license. Due to the difficulty in studying, he is having great difficulty with the Tech exam and after unsuccessful several tries, he was looking for an easier way. Google AI told him his existing Canada license can be 'converted' to an equivalent grade US amateur radio license, which, after much legwork and investigation, we determined is NOT true. The actual situation is that one must pass the US exam to get the US license. Period. The corollary is that he CAN operate under a reciprocal agreement using his Canadian ticket while in the US until a) his Canada license expires, or b) until he becomes a US citizen. I think this is the point Google AI misunderstood and misrepresented - reciprocation vs conversion. Bottom line: Google AI rendered incorrect information that gave the guy false hope and took us a couple weeks to clear up.

I’m not certain that surplus ground plane in one direction more than another affects directionality, much if any. I absolutely agree that some antennas require a minimum radius ground plane and I suspect that having that at least the minimum radius ground plane in all directions contributes to more even 360° coverage, but for GMRS that radius is relatively small. I’m old enough to remember how CB signals were pictured as very off center when an antenna was mounted at one edge of a vehicle, but the ground plane minimum radius is much larger for CB than for GMRS.

@Alec Do you mainly use your radio to talk on repeaters or simplex? If you're in an area where there's good repeater coverage, and that's what you mainly use, whatever compromise you make with antenna location should be negligible. Let us know what you end up doing and share some pictures.

Yeah, with the shape of the ground plane of the trunk (dependent on vehicle and frequency), I'd expect some directionality, given most will have more ground plane to the sides than front to back. id also expect the greenhouse to be blocking/shading the signal in some directions too. It just struck me as a little odd that permanent mounting in that location would mean more loss than a mag mount in the same place, where on the roof it's the other way around.

In the description it says it can be used as a base station. Some people take that literally and think it'll do 1-23 plus the 8 repeater channels. It will not. It can't because it has the duplexer built in which would kill the incoming simplex channels. It's designed so you can respond with the repeater on the repeater stations with the microphone instead of needing a separate radio to transmit to the repeater to talk. Some people.... don't understand this. Even Randy was hoping the description of the "base station" was that of a full range GMRS radio as described. But he to, found out it can only transmit on the repeater pairs while only receiving on the 467MHz side.

Piqued my interest after having seen the review. But I'm also allocating funds for a new handgun, so may have to watch for the giveaway video!!!

As Steve Shannon mentioned, yes, but at an additional $35. In what way is your call sign ridiculous to where you'd want a change? I can't see that with the sequential assignment system. Maybe in the Amateur world where you get a tongue twister or very bad on cw maybe...

Isn't this a repeater ? If so there is no need for 800 frequencies. 99% of the time a repeater is on one channel and one channel only.