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We have some big news regarding our new online store! myGMRS is now an Authorized Reseller for Midland Radios! This means you can be certain you're purchasing original product properly sourced from the manufacturer and they will stand behind their warranty should there be any issues with the product. With many manufacturers, if you don't buy from official channels they will not honor their warranty, which puts the consumer in a very tough spot when they have a problem. We now carry the MicroMobile series (which are repeater capable) and some of the X-TALKER series handheld radios! These are Part 95 certified so you will be 100% legal on GMRS. To celebrate, we're offering 20% off all Midland products from now until February 1st! Just enter the discount code MIDLANDLAUNCH at checkout to get the discount. No limit on number of items! Midland MicroMobile MXT400 40W Radio Midland MicroMobile MXT400VP3 40W Radio Value Pack Midland MicroMobile MXT275 15W Radio (Remote Head) Midland MicroMobile MXT115 15W Radio Midland X-TALKER T290VP4 Radios (2-Pack) Midland X-TALKER T295VP4 Radios (2-Pack) Midland MXTA12 Antenna Mag Mount Base Thanks for supporting myGMRS.com!

You can use almost any 18 through 14 gauge wire the transmit draw is less than 15 amps. As far as quick disconnect connectors, I use XT60 connectors I can get at any hobby store selling radio control items. They solder to the wires so crimpers are not needed.

Yes, PL (Private Line) is Motorola's name for CTCSS. Kenwood calls it QT (Quiet Talk). PL is the most common generic term for it. The simplest way is to just program the correct tone for transmit and don't use a tone for receive. I don't recommend it, though. Much better to also program the receive tone and use the MON button to toggle the receive tone on and off. Lifting the mic from the hanger also turns off the receive tone so you don't inadvertently double with someone else on the channel. It's nice to not have to listen to any noise that happens to be on the frequency. Having receive tones also makes scanning work much better.

I would NOT recommend using PL-259 and SO-239 connectors at UHF. They are not "constant" 50 ohm impedance. Depending on how many you have and where in the system they do tend to degrade the SWR. Good connectors to use at UHF are "N" type, BNC, mini RG8, SMA are the more common ones. Many mobile and base radios use an SO-239 on the back so you can't do much about it. The better ones use the "N" type. Where you see SO-239's used look at the inside of the connector. If you see what looks like thin a web between the outside of the center pin and the inside of the outer shell, like the spokes on a wheel, cause less of a problem compared to the solid filled ones. This is done to improve the impedance of the connector to bring it closer to the desired 50 ohms. The antenna ground radials, if required, should be around 1/4 wave length long, approximately 6 inches long, and could be bent downward at a 45 degree angle from the horizontal. Some of the antennas that claim not to require a ground plain are a "J-Pole" internally. These antennas should have several turns of the coax located right at the base to decouple it from the outside of the coax shield. If this isn't done then RF current flows on the outside screwing up the antenna TX and RX pattern, RF getting into the radio resulting in TX audio distortion and in addition to causing weird SWR problems. If your SWR is 1.3 to 1.5 there may not be much to gain by improving it to the ideal 1 other than to make one feel better. Most radios are designed to tolerate SWR's up to 2 at full power anyway.

Actually going to a lower loss line could make the SWR worse as seen from the radio end. The reason why is the energy reflected from the antenna back to the radio is attenuated less, more reflected power, that would otherwise be adsorbed by the feed line. The SWR can be calculated using forward and reflected power using the formula below: SWR = (1+sqr(Pref/Pfwd))/(1-sqr(Pref/Pfwd)) Where "sqr()" is the square root of the value inside of the "()". And "Pfwd" is the measured forward power going to the antenna while "Pref" is the power being reflected by the antenna miss-match back to the radio.

Kenwood has it's own quick connect on the radio, however many of us in GMRS, and almost everyone in ham is using the 15/30/45 Powerpole connectors from Anderson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anderson_Powerpole

Yes.

What is the antenna mounted on? Metal pole? Fiberglass? PVC? All of these can affect SWR from my experience. Switching from fiberglass to a 6 foot metal fence post lowered SWR from 1.7 to 1.08. Another thing that affects the SWR reading is the length of feedline. I was told to make sure you measure SWR at one and a half wavelengths, which if I recall is 18 inches from the radio. Many people overlook that and get crazy readings which cause them to panic. Overall a 1.5 is reasonable (anything 1.5 or less is near perfect) I've run radios as high as 1.7 with little issue. I wouldn't run anything over 2.0 though.

141.3 Hz PL for repeater. Is this PL synonymous with CTCSS for repeater access? If a local area repeater on the map shows "Tone In 141.3, Tone Out 141.3. (PL/DPL/CSQ) that 141.3 programmed into my radio will get me onto the repeater by simply transmitting a signal on the repeater channel posted? Another repeater says Tone Out No CSQ/No tone and Tone In 141.3. Just wondering the simplest, elementary method to get onto and use a repeater (after permission). Also, I found both repeaters on the myGMRS app. Neither show up on the Map until I select "Show Outdated" at the top. Is that meaningful?

I've reflashed V2.0 firmware on Windows without an issue. KPG-49D may still work on that radio.

The Kenwood is a great radio. But you’d be dealing with used and no warranty. Sometimes that can be a can of worms. Depending on how the unit was treated and what it was exposed too. I treat my equipment very well, some people throw their radios around. It’s super easy to program via cable. Even programming on the front panel is pretty easy. The only thing I could not do on the front panel was omit channels and add/delete scan channels. The buttons on the Kenwood would be better for sure. If you don’t need front panel programming and prefer everything via software. You could opt for the “basic” version of the 805 to save a few bucks.

You are already in pretty good shape. Dropping below 1.5, even to 1.0 won't make a substantial increase in performance. It's not nearly as noticeable as, say, going from 2.0 down to 1.5. But, if you want to try for some small improvements... In general, I don't think you can have too much ground plane. (And I am sure someone here will correct me if that is wrong.) So, I'd extend the ground radials as much as possible and see if that makes any difference. Also, you don't mention it... but, are there any other vertical metal poles or other antennas anywhere close by? Other objects might affect your transmission and SWR.

Yes, absolutely.

I have one of these units but I haven't had the chance to throw them on the service monitor yet. Danny from BuyTwoWayRadios said they selected this model because it wasn't a radio-on-a-chip design, so the performance should be better than a lot of the CCR's. I haven't been able to independently verify that yet. The radio does work, I programmed it for a repeater a couple miles away and I was able to talk between my Kenwood NX-5300 and this radio side-by-side via the repeater. So even with the obvious desense, they still worked. That's about the extent of my testing aside from scanning around the FRS/GMRS frequencies to see what else I pick up (which isn't much as this area is very quiet now). myGMRS is also selling these on our shop, and we're working on reseller arrangements with several big names that are in the final stages. The goal is to have a GMRS-friendly shop where you can find type-accepted equipment and some non-GMRS equipment as well, like Part 90 and Amateur equipment. But if you're new to GMRS and have no idea what equipment you can buy, we'll have a clearly-marked GMRS section so you can buy something legal without worry.

Thank you both This is one of the great things about this forum - techinical question from simple mind (me) - simple answer from brilliant minds ! (you) Thank you !