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Still have the RT97. Still works. Small, pre-fabbed portable repeater that I ordered pre-programmed to GMRS. Since there's no ID board (and no trivial way to attach one), it's basically a single-license (eg, family) repeater, and I use it as such. Works fine.

Few if any uhf radios go all the way to the 50 watt level. That's fine though, as there is no discernible difference between 40 watts and 50 watts. I strongly recommend that you avoid those Midland radios. They are nothing but rebranded Chinese radios with a hugely inflated price tag, and their performance is subpar. A real commercial radio in the standard 25 watt power level will outperform it, and the commercial radios are also available in a 40 or 45 watt version. Best of all, you can buy two or three good condition commercial radios plus programming cable and software for the price of one Midland MXT400. Or, skip the programming and buy your commercial radios from a seller who will program them with the frequencies you need.

I think you wanted to say: no drivers are installed If that is the case, you can find the drivers on Maxton's web site.Once you have the drivers installed you should be able to edit the device in the Device Manager and select the appropriate COM port. You would need to set it to 1 or 2, and then make the corollary change in the programming software. OTOH, maybe you do not actually have a Maxton cable. The 2 most common USB chip sets are FTDI and Prolific. FTDI drivers are available from their web site. Prolific drivers are also available, but because that chipset is commonly forged, the Prolific drivers may not actually work if your cable uses forged chips. You can determine the actual chip set in use through the Device Manager. What you want to look for are the Vendor ID and Product ID. They will probably be shown as 2 digit hex numbers. Like a9ac. For more information and specific instructions for Windows, see this web page.

Rugged Radios also misleads people to believe that as their customer, they can legally transmit on business band itinerant frequencies under RR's license. It's not a 100 percent lie*, but it is a gross misrepresentation. * A customer can do that at certain events where Rugged Radios is physically present and gives the customer express permission to transmit on the specific frequencies in use, but only at the event location and while the event is going on.

Welcome! G.

This is certainly the case on their dual band HAM radio. Their DBR2500 is a rebadged AT778 from Anytone. Rugged Radios is infamous for this rebading. Selling UV5Rs with their tag on it for 80 dollars. Their 60 watt vhf radio they sell for 400 dollars is a rebadged 130 dollar TYT TH9000D. Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

I can confirm the Maxton Data cables work well mine has the prolific chipset the link that berkinet provided is what is needed for those cables

Probably to prevent “like-flation”

They're just reflashed and rebadged Chinese stuff. A member who hasn't been around for awhile, Hans, posted exactly what they are awhile back.

You need to take on ECRs next: Expensive Chinese Radios. Still made in China, but repackaged with an American name and a price tag to rival that of a new Icom. I think everybody here knows what radio I'm talking about.

But it's important to realize when it's not practical to pay for more selectivity. Good commercial handhelds have enough selectivity to allow full-duplex operation by one operator, with a few feet of antenna separation. Good mobiles do better than that. If that's not enough desense protection, there's other issues at play. There's no improvement to be made if there isn't an issue, so it's just wasted money and/or lost functionality. CCRs work just fine as transceivers for 99% of the population. Yes, they don't work in the busy RF environments found at an enthusiast's base station, a command post, or when working near other operators on different in-band channels. They're cheap, show people what the hobby can offer, and include a lot of features (like FPP and ridiculous channel capacity) that new operators need to find their niche within the hobby and understand what parameters need to be configured to operate cleanly on someone else's system. And when they break (probably due to a novice operator blowing out the finals or dropping it), it's not a big investment being lost. They exist in the market for a reason: because they do work, unlike what the topic's title implies. They wouldn't sell if they didn't. It's important to understand their limitations, but they're not as severe as you're making it out to be.

Oh, one more point. Be careful what version of a radio model you buy used! For example the Kenwood TK-370's and TK-370G's come in several variations that cover different ranges in the UHF band. You want to pick one that covers 462 MHz to 467 MHz. There are 4 versions of the 370's and 370G's. 450 to 470 470 to 490 490 to 512 403 to 430 If you get a 370 you want the "type 1". The ID tag, on the back of the radio on the aluminum chassis under the battery, should show "TK-370-1" or "TK-370G-1" on it. The type 1 is the 450 to 470 range. The radio will also program down in to the Ham 70 cm band to around 440 MHz. The Kenwood software will complain its out of range but will let you do it anyway. The radio will work there which is convenient for those dual licensed for Ham and GMRS. 8-)

Same goes for the RT76 too. No keyboard, no display. CHIRP may work, as many Retevis radios are already supported.