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Somewhere, someone's looking at the top 30 ft. of that tower & thinking... yeah, I can re-use that.

So, if I get this right... You purchased a radio without really looking into its capabilities, features and limitations. Even though those are well discussed in many sources, including Amazon and this forum. Then, when the radio does not allow you to use it in a manner it was not designed for, you want to return it. And finally, you threaten to give the radio a bad review if the manufacturer will not support your attempt to modify their product in a way that would cause it to operate in a manner for which it was not intended and is not certified. (BTW, this is technically called extortion.)

Greetings! New to the forum. I've had my GMRS license for about 9 months and I'm also an amateur radio operator. I recently purchased a Wouxun KG-805G HT, which is Part 95 type accepted for GMRS. It comes pre-programmed with the GMRS channels, including the repeater channels. The repeater channels are identified by number and repeater designation ("RPT20", for example). This makes things a bit unwieldy, because you have to remember the channel number and its relationship to the repeater frequencies you wish to use and then you have to manually go in and set the CTCSS or DCS tones every time you use that channel for a different repeater. Mostly out of curiosity, I checked CHIRP to see if I could identify other unprogrammed channels in the radio. My objective was to program specific repeaters and their tones and names in those unprogrammed channels, if they existed. I found that CHIRP does not identify the KG-805G as a radio which it can program; however, I also found that if you use the program for the Wouxun KG-816, it does, in fact, allow the uploading and downloading of data from and to the radio. Doing so revealed that the KG-805G has quite a few unprogrammed channels. I put in my favorite GMRS repeaters into the CHIRP programming matrix and then successfully uploaded them to the KG-805G. I also stopped scanning on the pre-programmed channels in the radio and allowed scanning on the channels I had programmed, so now I can scan my favorite repeaters. This may already be known to other KG-805G users, but I thought I'd put it on here in case someone didn't know. Incidentally, I really like the radio.

When discussing antennas commenters often refer to their antenna as "working great." However, while I am sure the observation is subjectively true, it is a whole different question as to how "great" the antenna is in objective terms. In other words. Unless you test the antennas in a well equipped and controlled environment it is virtually impossible to draw any concrete conclusions. A big part of the difficulty in judging a UHF antenna's performance lies in the nature of how we observe them in use. It is pretty simple, do we get good connections to the stations we are communicating with? Given the nature of UHF, in most cases we are looking to contact stations relatively close to us and would probably succeed with a tuned coat-hanger. A secondary problem, especially for people coming from CB is that FM reception behaves quite differently than AM. AM tends to fade all the way to the point where the noise over-comes the signal. However, FM tends to go from intelligible to non-existent very quickly. Thus, if we receive the signal at all, it tends to be good enough for conversation. There are also a host of other issues, like bandwidth and propagation pattern that may be important in some applications and irrelevant in others. And, finally, there are the mechanical factors ((like corrosion) that are usually only observed after a period of a few months or years. All of which is to say, and this is strictly my own opinion: Unlike the ham low-bands where you can, and in some cased (low-power/QRP) must spend more on the antenna than the radio, for most GMRS uses, that is not the case. The perfect GMRS antenna is probably gong to be the lowest priced antenna that meets your basic communication needs* and is built by someone you trust to make quality products. Unfortunately, in GMRS there is no magic perfect antenna. * terrain (elevation changes), distance, mobil, fixed or portable, power, etc.

Hi all, New here but have read a lot of you all’s posts. Great advice, thank you. I'm an older pseudo-retired guy and with this COVID thing still going I have a lot of free time on hand. I forgot, and my GMRS license expired so I had to get a new one, new call sign and everything. Had the original since the mid '90s. Living in hurricane alley it was the best option then and still is. Whenever you have to leave your house behind, it’s convoy time. So, after doing that, and replacing the HT radios (from the 90's) I decided to get a mobile radio. I went with the midland MTX275 because of what I drive (see below). As most of you know it comes with a 1/4 wave 6-inch antenna, although I was surprised by the how thin the cable was, not like any coax I'd ever seen. As I found out, it's not a bad thing. With lots of time on hand I decided to run some tests of the Midland antenna lineup. The test was limited by my application. I'm driving a leased 2019 Lincoln Nautilus Black Label. Look it up - NO holes allowed anywhere! It has a moon-roof, meaning I had to go magnetic and only have 14 inches of ground plane North/South, with the width of the roof for the sides. Mounted the radio under the driver's seat – remember, NO holes anywhere . I live on an island in Florida. Lots of homes, 5-story condos and such = lost of interference and no high spots except for bridges. So, for the tests I bought the MXTA12 magnetic mount, the MXTA25 Ghost and the MXTA26 "6DB" antennas. The antenna that comes with the MXT275 comes pre-wired, so I needed Midland’s bigger NMO mount for the new antennas. The mount is three times as big, very secure, rubber booted, and with a real coax cable. Off I went to test… I’m a business analyst by profession, which means that when I analyze stuff I always start with worst case. And that’s what I did here. The tests were done by driving away on the mobile and transmitting, starting from the front of the house and then every ¼ mile. The receiver, a lowly HT was set up outside in the worst possible location and just high enough off the ground as to mimic a sitting position. To record the test, I set the HT right in front of my iPad and set the iPad memo app to record. Each test took about 15 minutes. The results? Reception on the HT in these worst of conditions, transmitting with the antenna included with the radio was all static at 3.5 miles and cut off completely at 3.75-miles. Had a lot of static at 2.5 miles when I drove by a 2-story small shopping center adjacent to a 4-story condo in the line of sight. I went over a 25-foot-tall bridge at 3.25 miles where the transmission was perfectly clear. With the MTXA25 Ghost antenna installed, the difference in the results were measured in feet (not good). In the clear it is clearer, but it has a lot of static in the same places as the little 6-inch included antenna. It is possible that in a best-case scenario, the opposite of what I did, it will outshine the ¼ wave antenna. In my opinion it’s not worth the extra money for that cable and antenna combo. The difference is that small. The MXTA26 ran away with the test. I believe it is a 5/8 wave antenna and it’s all of 32-inches tall and so I must stop when I get home and take it off to go in the garage (raining?). Not a reasonable thing for everyday use. I quit that test at 5-miles, it didn’t cut off like the other two, just unintelligible static. It outperformed the two other antennas both in clarity and distance by a mile. That’s a big number when trying to hit a HT in the worst conditions distance percentage wise. I did other tests, 100-mile loops with all three antennas, that was a reception test, not a transmit one. The MXTA26 still won the day. The other two were about the same. After this test, and for every-day use I just ordered a Laird ¼ wave antenna, the QWB450. Only reason I did that is to keep the MXTA12 magnetic mount so I can swap between the ¼ wave and the MXTA26 when needed. I have no use for the MTXA25 Ghost. Well, that’s it for me. Hope this was helpful. All the best, JAS

Probably this has already been discussed over the years. I finally got around to testing a couple of my mag mount 70cm or 440MHz ham band antennas on my Wouxun 805G GMRS. The SWR was below 1.5:1 even with a very undersized ground plane. Probably would have been much better with a larger ground - like on an actual car. Both of these were dual band 2M/70cm antennas. So, for my money, these ham antennas will work just fine. Many are tunable so you can tweak them in even better. If your standards are higher you can make your own decision. Since there are many more Ham band antennas available they offer a better selection and price. In my case I already have these antennas so it's a no-brainer. They're free. Vince

I'm newly licensed to GMRS. I'm reading as much as possible on radios. Eventually, I had questions. So, I reached out to Midland about the split tones along with narrow band issues. Here's their reply; Using PC software and the DBR1 programming cable, the MXT400 can be programmed for split tones and the channel bandwidth can be changed. Neither option is available by front panel selection on the MXT400. By default the MXT400 simplex channels are narrow band and the repeater channels are wideband. MXT400 software: https://we.tl/t-O77dWlEtqQ DBR1 programming cable: https://midlandusa.com/product/dbr1-dual-band-radio-programming-cable/ Thought I'd pass it along.

So...radio to radio, ch 19, you transmit on 462.650, they listen on 462.650 as well. Repeaters listen on a different frequency (input) than they retransmit (output) so it can be done real-time. Realistically, only one person can effectively use a frequency at a time, hence the different frequencies, and the RPT channels take that into account When you're going to use a repeater on 462.650, yes, just leave the radio on rpt 19. Your radio knows to transmit on 467.650, because that's where the repeater is listening, and it retransmits on 462.650, because that's where you're listening. I think the basic key is looking in terms of to hear each other, you have to be transmitting where theyre listening, and vice versa.

CHIRP also comes in Mac OS version: https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Download https://puu.sh/HeZEh.png

Slightly, yeah. Both channel 19, you'll receive on 462.650. on simplex (gmrs19, radio to radio), you also transmit on that frequency. For duplex (rpt19, radio to repeater to radio), the radio is programmed to transmit 5mHz higher (467.650), which is where a repeater would be listening. The repeater transmits back on 462.650 (where you're listening). Surprises me a little to hear, but yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like happened. I hadn't previously heard of any shipping missing the repeater presets. That said, it's fairly easy to program, and allows tx on any of the presets as long as they're inbounds for gmrs. On the Mac issue, wouxun's stock software seems to get along well with wine in Linux, as I've used it with Mint Mate, so it may play well in a virtual machine.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no option for Mac OS users.

1. I doubt you would be able to make that modification as it is controlled in the firmware. BUT 2. DO NOT DO THAT. There is a reason some of the channels are restricted to low power. There have a narrow channel spacing and use of high power would bleed into adjacent channels. Also, those channels are designed for nearby communications with the ability for channel re-use in adjacent locations. Running 50 watts would stomp all over everyone else on the channel. As for modifying a ham radio to run on GMRS. That is possible, many people do it, but operating a non-GMRS certified radio on GMRS is against the FCC regulations. But, if that is what you wanted, perhaps you should have purchased the UV-50X2. Should you decide to do buy a ham radio and use it on GMRS, please continue to respect the power, bandwidth and channel spacing specifications for GMRS.

Heh - my pair of "garbage" Retevis RT76P's are kicking @ss here in New Mexico - and they're on sale for under $30 dollars. You can spend more on a used set of commercial HT's that won't make a dirt spec of difference in the real world - except maybe lull you into thinking you've got some bragging rights. It's your money.

Just, FYI, FCC compliance is binary, You either have it, or you don’t. I.e. there is no partial compliance.

There are 128 memories. All memories are usable for storing transmit-receive capable settings. I currently have 93 programmed and I can affirm you can transmit on all of them. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk