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I buy my programming cables for all Kenwood radios from this guy “bluemax49ers” on eBay. He’s a HAM who produces excellent quality cables and after you complete your purchase of the cable just send him a message and he will reply back with a link and download of the programming software you need at no charge. His cables are more expensive than most others you can find (avg of $30) but you get a quality cable and both cables and software for all radio models will work flawlessly on Windows 10. It took me over a year to find this guy and eliminated any concerns from his 100% positive feedback with over 3000 ratings. I’m not a sales person nor do I receive any compensation by providing the information. I just know how hard it is to find truly respectable sources for this stuff and when I come across seller’s like this guy, I can’t wait to pass it on to others if it saves the headache associated with finding what you need and knowing it was money well spent. Just finished programming my TK-8180K last night. I like the 8180 since it offers 512 programmable channels.

I have been an Amateur for 20 years and had a 70 cm repeater up until lightning took it out. I have 3 GMRS repeaters. I only require permission for one reason. I want to verify a valid license for the user. I've never denied anyone permission to use any of them. I do restrict one of them to Emergency use or roadside assistance because it is an older machine, and keeping traffic on it low to make it last longer. I only want to know something about my users, and verify a valid license. With the proliferation of the Chinese dual banders, anyone with $40 can access my machines and make up a call. I've seen this happen on amateur repeaters. Call me cautious.

No special or "right equipment" is needed. If a radio has DPL capability, it already has inverted DPL capability. With one exception (D172N), every code in the table of 104 standard DCS codes has its inverse somewhere in the table. For example, codes 125 and 365 are inverses of each other. D125I is the same as D365N and vice versa. I've been using 411 (normal) (D411N) and its inverse is 226 (normal). D411I corresponds to D226N and vice versa. Normal and Inverted simply refers to the polarity of the DCS waveform. By convention, a logic 1 is represented by a positive carrier shift and a logic 0 is represented by a negative carrier shift. This is considered Normal polarity for a DCS waveform. A DPL word is a 23-bit cyclic Golay pattern with a 12 bit codeword (23,12). The 12 bit codeword is formed from the 12 least significant bits of the 23 bit DPL word. The 12 bit codeword consists of a fixed octal 4 (100 binary) followed by the 3 octal digits that you can program. Notice that the available DPL codes are octal (base 8) numbers. The 11 most significant bits are error correcting code bits generated by the Golay algorithm from the 12 codeword bits. The 23 bit DPL word is transmitted repeatedly over the air at 134.4 bits/second. The least significant bit is transmitted first, resulting in the DPL word being played out backwards over the air. Here is the best technical description of DCS/DPL operation that I've been able to find: http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/dcs.html Also check out: https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/DCS In my case of dealing with a repeater jammer who didn't have DPL capability and didn't have a clue and thought he knew all there is to know about radio, DPL also stands for "Definitely Prevents Losers" LOL.

A loop is generally better for DF because it has a very even radiation pattern, slowly rolling off from peak in a predictable way, and is deaf only end-on - gain is slightly better than a simple dipole. A rhombic has insane gain, but is extremely directional and basically deaf outside of its narrow forward lobe, and the secondary lobes off at 90 degrees to either side. That of course makes it excellent for fixed installations, and its ability to fold up very small for UHF and upper VHF is another large benefit. Rhombics fell out of favor mostly because of how large they need to be when set up - four sides of 1.5-2 wavelengths is pretty beefy even on the 2M band, and ideally half a wavelength above ground. Not a problem for UHF, but big trouble once you start getting towards lower VHF, such as 6m, where each leg is 30 feet long at minimum, and about 10 feet off the ground, and for 160m HF you need 700 foot long sides and it to be about 270 feet in the air ... not ideal. Once the transoceanic cables opened to replace the HF radio links, they've mostly been a forgotten technology - Yagis are slightly less gain, but you can turn them on a rotator, even for HF bands, and height above the ground is much less important. Some amateur operators with enough space and finances still do use them though, since they can get around the world on the 20, 40, and 80 meter bands even when they're closed like they are now.

Don’t worry too much. Any cable that works is just fine. There is no such thing as one cable working better than another. However, there are some cables that just plain don’t work. Though, even with them the problem is usually with the USB chip drivers on the PC and not the cables themselves. In general, the cables with FTDI chips seem to me more reliable. The Prolific chips are fine as well. However, unfortunately there are a lot of counterfeit Prolific chips in the market and they won’t work with the standard Prolific drivers. Note that Bluemax49ers sells cables with both chip sets, though the FTDI are usually more expensive.

*1xxxxx = Disconnect *2xxxxx = Monitor only (you can hear them, they cant hear you) *3xxxxx = Connect *70 = Status *811xxxxx = Permanent Disconnect *812xxxxx = Permanent Monitor *813xxxxx = Permanent Connect 169 Midwest Region 172 Northeastern region 174 Southeastern Region 175 Southern Plains region 176 Southwestern region 177 Mountain region (West Coast) Ensure you have a good internet connection (preferred wire-line internet over wifi. DO NOT USE BOTH, it confuses the program) For more info on regional hubs, please visit https://mygmrs.com/nets Any more questions, feel free to ask

Try *3172

Never hurts to throw in an extra plug, especially for people new to GMRS, or radio in general. And, they have been frequently recommended over the past several years.

I will throw in a "second" for bluemax49ers cables on Ebay. https://www.ebay.com/str/bluemax49ers

have several 8180's. if you can get an 8180H (40W) that would be my choice.

The 8180 uses different programming software, but the same cable as the 880.

Sounds like a reasonable question. I just don't know that everyone that is licensed and has a repeater, knows that is the universal travel tone. Especially since the group who started OPI is long gone, there are no published stands and no knowledge base, beyond some operators keeping the tradition and knowledge alive.

Lo and behold, there is something we can agree on. I’m actually with you 100% on this one. I can’t speak for the people who do that, but I know others who’ve encountered it before. One guy I was chatting with on Zello said he sat about equidistant between two repeaters which used the same frequency and PL tone and that sometimes the owner of the one repeater would chew him out and say it’s a private repeater. I’d explain the situation and tell the owner ultimately, look, it’s another repeater I’m trying to hit, and you’re using travel tone…. maybe you should consider changing your PL tone or setting up your repeater to accept a registered list of PTT-ID numbers if you don’t want others on it, Beyond that, as far as I’m concerned, it’s their problem, not mine.