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Done deal, works great, owner is thrilled. Talked from his place in town, over the mountain where the repeater resides, to my place 20 miles away. 2 open local repeaters programmed in. He can do more regional as he wishes; he now knows how. Tiny little radio the 115 but 15w should do fine. Will compare distance to repeater against my 30w TK8180s. He has the Midland supplied phantom antenna mounted between his spare tire and the tailgate of his JK. Not ideal so he's looking for better options. Not worthless either - he got what he'd hoped for. Thanks folks.

There are switching converters in just about everything electronic - especially anything with batteries. So you are already operating your radios in the presence of switching converters. Your vehicle probably has several switching converters in it already. I would be more worried about radiated interference than conducted interference. If you have issues consider locating the converter in an area that is shielded from the antenna. Switching converters can be very clean but higher power converters will make more noise. I would by a quality brand. Cheaper brands are more likely to cheat. Chances are you will be fine with it but there is some luck involved. Most switching converter noise (especially broad band noise) tends to be well below 400Mhz. So I would be optimistic. It'll probably be just fine. Vince

Not much of a trick and it may seem obvious to others, but I just noticed that this radio can monitor CB freqs. Gonna get it programmed up this weekend. I have a CB in my Jeep, but never use it or even turn it on really. I like the idea of tucking the CB away in the center console and being able to monitor CB freqs just in case. Then I can dig out the CB if I need.

I agree. Having something right in front of you is a lot easier than trying to explain it to someone over the phone, etc. I'm sure you'll get it figured out pretty quickly once it's there in front of you.

I'm hardly an expert. I've learned by doing, and I've just been doing for a long time. I still get twisted up sometimes. I once spent nearly an hour trying to figure out why I wasn't seeing an option that I knew should be there on a Vertex repeater, before I realized I hadn't set my new software to 'expert' mode. Rookie mistake, 20 years in. If you never programmed radios before, Kenwood and Vertex are probably 2 of the easier commercial software programs to learn on. Kenwood keeps a very common software platform among most of their programs, so once you learn their software, you're pretty familiar with where to look for most any settings you might need to adjust. For a first timer, I'd say that getting a basic codeplug set up for you from the start is a good jumping off point, and at least you have a working codeplug to refer to if you want to start modifying stuff on your own. Rule #1 if you start programming - SAVE YOUR ORIGINAL CODEPLUG before you do any modifications. Keep that original archive untouched, and you'll always have something to go back to.

I will leave the Kenwood/Vertex programming questions for RadioGuy as he is the expert on that. Me personally, I want the capability to change the programming of my radios myself, even though the learning curve may be more than I wish. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM