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It seems a little quiet, so I figured I would share a walk-thru video of a portable field setup for my radio gear. The video focuses on my Ham gear and two club events I am going to be involved in, but you can easily put something together like this for field use for any radio platform, including GMRS. In fact, the X200 antenna works great for GMRS frequencies. I've posted the SWR readings from the analyzer in another thread, a month or so back. On the low side it was 1.3:1 and the high side was 1.4:1. Not a pro video by any means, but you should get the idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9TkDnRDn4U

I went over to where my base station is set up. Turned on my radios and started scanning as I had a few minutes to burn. Started hearing some unusual traffic on channel 6. The station was giving out what I thought was really personal information. I was hearing: peoples names, dates of birth, health information, number of family members, car make and model with tag numbers. I listened for a little bit. Scanned for the CTCSS or DCS tone. There was no tone found. Contacted my local police department. Took my radio down to the PD and the Officer was also concerned about this type of information being transmitted over an open channel. They began to investigate this. I decided to key up with my call sign and try to contact the operators and get there purpose and company name. It turned out to the the local food bank. They were IDing people to receive food. I advised the PD I was going down to talk to them about this. They said they were sending an officer as well. I just told them that people as far away as 10 miles could here this information and that I was concerned about this type of information being sent over an open channel. They seemed a little confused on how I was listening to them. They stopped using the radios and went to cell phones. Just thought I would share this story. I guess that makes me the radio police or at least concerned enough to reach out. Thanks for reading. WRCW870

Tell your wife, "I say you don't have enough equipment"...Curious why you are running outside of the house? Do you have a long wire running to the trees?

This happens more than people realize.

You make a lot of good points that I don't disagree with, but I can't help but wonder how much of your opinion is biased by an extensive background in amateur radio. In the ham world, we are really spoiled with access to top-notch hardware and many Hams like to tinker and learn. So, getting better hardware and going through the steps to build a great GMRS radio is nbd. I think most people who are new to GMRS don't fall into that category. I could be wrong... but I think that's the case and those people just want a turnkey radio. Me personally, I love my Midland MXT400 radios. I have 3 of them in 3 different vehicles and they work fantastic for what I use them for.... including repeater use. Though, my opinion of GRMS is that it's the UHF version of CB, so maybe my expectations are just much lower. Especially when I "need" high quality comms, I have some nice, high performance ham gear. Just a thought... and again, I agree with you. Just don't know that it's the only answer, is all.

Hey Chris, You have to be sure that TSQL or DCS have been previously enabled/activated as a separate configuration process, first. If the DPL type you want to scan through is not enabled prior to following the guidance on pages 38 and 39 of the owners manual, it will not work.