Leaderboard

Narrowbanding was mandated by the FCC to allow for increasing the number of frequency channels available. The problem for GMRS users is that virtually all of the existing repeaters are using wideband "legacy" equipment.

Small tiny correction: narrowbanding was mandated by FCC for the commercial Part 90 radios. GMRS is still wide band. FRS was always narrow band. Midland took easy way, and decided that their offerings will be narrow band. There is some logic in this decision, if you take in account Midland's FRS offerings and desire to make the whole universe of Midland to be compatible with itself. Sure, they made it less compatible with wide band GMRS equimpment, but maybe it's their intent, to lock users in their universe.

Narrowbanding was mandated for the VHF frequencies below 174 MHz.

Good catch and a great fix! I suggest a light coating of dielectric silicone grease as well. The O-ring will slip into place easier and it’ll prevent corrosion. I put on the threads and center contact, too.

Those are good questions: The least expensive, usually from China, hand-held radios ("HT"), use what is known as SOC technology: System on a Chip - The whole radio is virtually built into one chip. Most of the more expensive radios (usually 3X the cost and more), have additional circuitry known as a superheterodyne circuit. This gives the receiver both more selectivity (the ability to differentiate between two powerful signals on two close frequencies) and sensitivity (the ability to pull in more distant and/or weaker signals). In simplex mode: one HT is transmitting on a frequency and the other HT is receiving on the same frequency. There is no second transmission to overwhelm the receiver of the second HT; only the one signal. In repeater mode, the first HT is transmitting on 467.abcd up to the repeater; and the second HT is receiving the retransmitted reception signal from the repeater on 462.abcd. The second HT must differentiate between two received signals: the signal you want to receive on 462.abcd from the repeater many miles away, and the HTs more powerful signal on 467.abcd. Hence the HTs signal washes out the reception of the repeater's signal on the second HT.* Superhetrodynes have that ability; SOC's do not. How much is far enough away? Differing factors are at play here: The power of the HT transmitter; the distance between the HTs and the distance and power from the repeater. Experimentation will help you determine the answer. *NOTE: this is why when two inexpensive HTs are bundled together with the appropriate cabling and settings to act like an inexpensive semi-portable repeater, they must be on the two separate Ham bands: 2 meters (144 MHz) and 70 cm (440 MHz) to avoid this washout effect.

A box will be heading your way next week Lou..

I was going to try something like that with a cheap Kenwood Protalk radio if I ever found one for sale. These radios have a predefined list of frequencies the user can select from. What can now happen with the code plug hacking is the manufacture can employ some level of encryption in the code plug itself. I've found where Kenwood has done this on several of their older analog and digital radios. It took a bit of work and some lucky guessing but it seems they use a simple method, they have a key byte stored in a fixed location in the code plug's header. This key byte is then "XOR'ed" with the rest of the contents. Once done all of the text strings for channel names etc. can be seen. I also found in at least one case where the radio's serial number seemed to be in it. The license key used to install the software was definitively in there for several models I checked. Just keep that in mind when sharing code plugs.

Lou: A box is going out to UPS today with the following: Baofeng UV-5R5 Baofeng BF-888S Baofeng BF-T1 and specialized programming cable (USB to USB-micro) All have been pre-programmed to your 4 repeater channels, two simplex channels and the remainder filled to the other GMRS/FRS channels as space remains. I did my due diligence and this is a tax deductible 501(c)(3) organization helping out the homeless of Atlantic City and I strongly encourage others here on myGMRS to donate their unused HTs to them (or a local homeless organization that is utilizing GMRS): https://www.havenstreets.org

I received the AT-779UV today. Cute little radio. It will fit nicely where I had my external speaker that I don't use anymore. The Talkabout's are for the grand kids to play with. Trying to get them interested in radio while they are young.

Hi Marcus, Before I get into more details, since you did not mention which radio you have, the first thing to realize is that not all radios support GMRS repeater use or might do so only after performing extra steps. Your owner's manual will help you determine that. If you don't have a paper copy of the manual, try looking for it online on the web site you bought the radio from or the manufacturer's web site. You can also try online manual archives such as manualslib.com. If you've determined your radio can support GMRS operation, continue reading... In case it might help, here is some fundamental information about repeaters. Repeaters use two frequencies. The frequency that the repeater transmits on is the output frequency. Since that is the repeater's output freq, that is also the freq you'll monitor to hear what comes out of the repeater. A repeater also uses an input frequency. This is the frequency that the repeater monitors to hear your transmissions and rebroadcasts them basically simultaneously on the output freq. This is known as duplex operation and is fundamental to how duplex repeaters work. When you see a repeater frequency listed in mygmrs, that is the output frequency that the repeater transmits on and that you monitor. But what about the input frequency you need to use to transmit to the repeater? That is accomplished via an offset. Normally for amateur radio, a + or - 5 MHz offset is used for UHF operation. GMRS is also UHF, but it uses only a +5 MHz offset for repeater use. The +5 MHz offset means that for whatever output GMRS frequency is being used, the input frequency is 5 MHz higher. In your original posting, you mentioned 462.650 MHz. You can tell this is a GMRS output frequency because it is in the 462 MHz range. (Note that there are also 462.xxx simplex, non-repeater frequencies in FRS and GMRS. The 462.xxx freqs only represent a repeater output when we are discussing GMRS repeaters.) So, for a repeater output freq of 462.650, the input freq you'll need to access that particular repeater is 467.650 (notice the 467 instead of the 462) because we are offsetting by +5 MHz. So how is the +5 MHz offset accomplished? It depends on your radio. There may be dedicated memories which take care of the offset. Otherwise, you may need to take additional programming steps. If so, consult the manual. For my Wouxun KG-905G handheld radio, which has preprogrammed repeater memories, such memories show a "+" sign in the display to represent the +5 MHz offset. If your radio is capable of GMRS repeater operation and it is preprogrammed with the eight possible GMRS channels in memory, select the appropriate memory for use with the repeater you are trying to access. It's possible that your radio might display a repeater's freq info with a alphanumeric label such as "RPT-19." If you're not sure which GMRS output frequency that represents, consult your owner's manual. There is also a possibility that your radio has a menu selectable option that can display a memory's content as a frequency instead of the alphanumeric tag. Let's say you've determined that your radio is 1) GMRS capable, 2) has a memory assigned for the particular GMRS repeater you are interested in, and 3) you have selected that particular memory. What's next? Access tones, aka PL tones. Repeaters typically require analog (CTCSS) or digital (DCS) access tones. This is done for two reasons. First, since there are only eight GMRS pairs (input and output freq combinations), that means several repeaters you might be able to access locally may use the same repeater freq pairs. In that case, so that you access the repeater you're interested in, you may need to transmit the appropriate transmit tone to "open" that particular repeater. As such, if a repeater requires you to send a particular transmit access tone, that is the most important tone. But if a repeater database such as mygmrs also lists a receive tone, what about that tone? That tone only influences what you hear or if you hear anything at all. So what will you hear, if anything? Let's take the case of a repeater that does support your use of a receive tone because it transmits an embedded CTCSS tone of say 156.7 (for example). There are three possibilities: 1) if you set your receive tone to none, you will receive/hear the transmission from the repeater in all cases. By setting your radio's receive tone to none, you are instructing your radios receiver to send the message to the radio's speaker regardless of whether or not the received transmission has a tone embedded in it from the repeater. 2) if you set your radio's receive tone to say 156.7, you will hear a repeater's transmission only if the same 156.7 tone is embedded in the transmission from the repeater. By setting a receive tone, you are instructing the radio to send a message to its speaker only for transmissions that are received which have an embedded tone that matches the receive tone you specified. 3) if you set your radio's receive tone to say 156.7, if a repeater's transmission has a different embedded tone or no tone, you will not hear the transmission on your radio. As you can, in the case of GMRS repeater operation, your use of a transmit tone only matters when a repeater requires you to open it via a transmit tone so you can transmit to it. If you use a receive tone, that has nothing to do with opening a repeater to transmit to it. Your use of a receive tone determines only if you'll hear a message or not. So even if a repeater requires an access tone to open it for your transmission and you use the correct transmit access tone, if you utilize an incorrect receive tone, you will not hear any transmission from the repeater. Another thing to be aware of is that some repeater's require split tones. That is, different tones for transmit and receive. This can be either two different CTCSS tones, two different DCS tones, or a CTCSS tone and a DCS tone. If you're having trouble talking to and hearing from a repeater, split tone operation and whether your radio is capable of that might be the explanation. Earlier I mentioned there are two reasons repeaters typically use access tones. The first reason discussed earlier above was due to necessity. Since there are only eight repeater pair channels, access tones provide a way to distinguish between repeaters which share these eight channels. A second benefit of using access tones, especially transmit tones, is to try to lock out trolls/jammers. Of course, since they might discover the access tones, repeater owners occasionally change which transmit tone you'll need to access the repeater again. As such, if you were able to open a repeater previously but now can't, this is the first explanation to consider. If so, you'll need to find out what the new access tone is and update your radio. Do not share such info publicly in forums - otherwise you will let the trolls/jammers know about the new tone. Another thing to be aware of is how various radios are programmed differently. The most flexible radios allow for total programming via their keypads as well as via PC software and programming cables. The least flexible radios require most if not all of their programming to be done using PC software and a programming cable. Other radios fall somewhere in the middle. For example, to program frequencies in free memory slots in my KG-905G, I must program those freqs via a PC/cable. But once those freqs have been programmed in the memories, I can change the characteristics (e.g. high/low power, receive tone, transmit tone) of the freqs via the radio's keypad. I cannot stress enough how nice/important it is to be able to change such parameters in the field untethered to a PC and cable. Though it's not in the scope of my answer to the original question to go into purchase decisions, for anyone considering buying GMRS radios, do your homework regarding must-have/desirable features. Otherwise, in an attempt to "save money," you might find yourself buying multiple radios instead of the right one from the get go. Especially if all this is new to you, I know I've provided a lot of info. If needed, it might help to digest it in bite size pieces, a paragraph at a time. Hope that helps. Happy radioing.

Yes, it was resolved with a firmware update. It's all good now.

I attached screenshots of errors when installing and using KG-UV9G software 64-bit.

I received my KG-UV9G today. I did the same thing with CHIRP using the KG-UV9D Plus profile and it worked. But I did not write back to the radio, did not want to brick it like I did with 805G. Then I installed KG-UV9G software 64-bit. But it was crashing when I tried to perform any function. Then I uninstalled it and installed KG-UV9G software 32 bit and it works on Windows 10 64 bit. PS Just downloaded from the radio to software. Edited few settings. Wrote back to the radio. It worked.