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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?

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!

See if these work out for you; let us know any more questions:

Yes, there was a post sometime in the past that noted how to do manual entries; let me see if I can find it for you...

Have you read any user feedback about the quality of the Airitons? Personally, I have never heard of this company

Congratulations!

Hi Mike, What do you mean by “for this area?” What characteristics do you value when you say “best radio?” In other words, define “best”. Range? Nearly all mobile radios have the same range assuming the same antenna. Price? The prices will vary greatly depending on features, brand name, etc. Reliability, ruggedness, waterproof construction? All are characteristics that some people want but which are inconsequential to others. If you can better define your question, we can give you our answer.

Despite the lack-luster manual, I've managed to figure out my way around the menus using the hand-mic, and also how to load in custom repeaters through the OEM CPS / Chirp. BUT, what I haven't manage to figure out is how hand program in a custom repeater into Ch. 31-39 through the menus. Does anyone know, or could point me in the right direction? I'd like to know on the off chance I don't have a computer readily available.

Wondering what is the best radio system for this area?

Me Too!

Congratulations!

I added him to my ignore list so I don’t see his posts anymore. It’s worth it.

Damn, that escalated quickly.