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Coming from the perspective of a radio listener, I think 1 min is a good value as well as a serves as a reminder to keep one’s transmissions short and keep the dialog moving. However, as the talker, I admit I have personally settled on 2 min. One just proved to be to short and restrictive in way to many cases. While the TOT is a great way aid in keeping the duty cycle down, I like the security it provides knowing that if the PTT gets stuck unknowingly and accidentally that the radio will stop transmitting automatically after the TOT time has expired. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

For NMO hole saws the Laird or Ripley is what you want. The Ripley is actually what Motorola sells. For crimpers get a decent set. In the end they will last years. I got mine from Tessco almost 20 years ago and all three sets are still going. I know DX and other places have decent ratchet crimpers for 1 or 2 here and there but if your doing more than 1 a week spend the money. Also double check the dies that come with it and has the right ones for connector you are using.

Got it. From my former co-worker. Had them laying all over the place. Power supply works great to power the mobiles for programming.

You mean a coax-less nmo? If so soldering iron and its accoutrements. Crimper(if crimping), soldering tools if soldering and cutters for the so239 side. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

I would use these for my feed through connections. https://www.wiredco.com/UHF-BULKHEAD-Adapter-connector-through-wall-so239-p/uhfbulkhead1.htm:

Try Ham Radio Outlet. They have quite a few. Vince

On a mobile or portable 1 minute TOT is more than adequate.

The window feedthrough you are thinking about are from MFJ. They are available through many Ham outlets such as hamradio.com and gigaparts.com.

There are some commercial products available that I have seen but have no links for you. I opted not to spend money for one since my current shack location is temporary, instead I made one. Here is what I am using currently. I have a treated 2x4 cut to fit into the same track used by the inner panel of my double hung window. I drilled a hole large enough for cable and connector to pass through. I applied weather seal foam to all edges of the 2x4 so that when I press it into the track and lower the inner window panel down I compress the foam to seal against air leaks. I cut two vertical pieces of 1x wood stock wood (not shown) to wedge the bottom pain down and top panel up so that so that the window cannot be opened from outside. The gap between the coax and wood panel is filled with a piece of foam pipe insulation I pressed into place. I am sealed now as good or better than the window was originally. All of this was non destructively to the window and can easily be removed from the inside. I will also be adding more holes for additional feed-lines to additional antennas soon. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Yesterday, Buy Two Way Radios website froze up for me , so I telephoned a small order in. After placing the order, I asked about the status of the 905G. The answer was: the tracking number showed expected delivery to them of 5/25. Although Customs sometimes takes a day or two to clear shipments.

One of the first things I do when thinking about buying a radio I'm not familuar with is go look for any manufacture's brochures. They are a good source listing the radio's main features. For the TK-8180 look here. http://www.swscomm.com/kenwood/TK-7180_8180.pdf This seems like a very nice radio.

Sean, like most "commercial" radios, the display is either the frequency programmed, or a 12 character Alpha label of your choice. With 512 channels split among 128 zones, you won't have any issue with having FAR more than you'll ever need in flexibility. None of this silly "Channel Number" nonsense unless you choose to use them for your Alpha tag of course. A "Zone" is a way of segregating your frequencies rationally. For example you could have one Zone strictly for GMRS frequencies (which you could label "Channel 1," etc. You could also create another Zone with only frequencies used for another town...

I have a number of commercial Kenwood hand held radios and one mobile. While it did take a bit of searching on the Internet I have managed to find the programming software on line to download. So far I have the OEM software to program the following UHF Kenwood radios. TK-370G TK-3160 TK-3360 TK-3140 TK-3170 TK-3173 TK-3180 TK-D340U NX-340U NX-820HG (mobile) One of the nice things about the commercial radios, at least Kenwood with Motorola not so much, is the ability to program in frequencies outside of the official band split specifications. That allows using the radio for both GMRS and Ham Radio's 70cm band, both TX and RX operation, for those that are dual licensed. The purposed built GMRS specific radios typically don't allow this and could be a factor is which radio you select. Many of my radios have GMRS simplex and repeaters programed along with a bunch of Ham 70cm simplex and repeaters too. Just have to remember which call-sign to use depending on the memory channel in use. 8-) The main problem with using free software like Chirp are some of the radio's features are not supported, or what support there is happens to be buggy. Waiting for Chirp bugs to get fixed, well some never do seem to get fixed. The developer for the module for that particular radio lost interest, doesn't have the time or doesn't have access to a radio to reverse engineer the communications protocol and code plug. Some of the developers are "loaned" radios to use for a period of time then have to return them to the owner(s). If you want to make sure you have full access to a radio's operational features there is no substitute for the manufacture's software, and this is VERY particularly true for commercial radios.

Yeah, we grabbed 16 for off-road and hunting some years ago. I just recently watched the video and learned of my logic in choosing that channel.. used it all day yesterday out on the trails.

We hear the same thing on the roads.. A lot of nothing and people that dont respond (probably using privacy codes).. When offroading, the official GMRS channel is 16.. This a scientific fact because is "offroading" = "4 X 4" and 4 x 4 = 16 .. so this is the scientific answer to the question - it is explained in more detail in this video made by some Youtube clown: